#i’m also not a legitimate source of information!!

[meliwyn]

standing with us gives us hope in life we ​​ask you to help us and look at us with a humane eye and you have all our love and respect

don’t worry, i support you and all others in a similar situation fully🩷

[ms-demeanor]

How to avoid sharing Social Media Scams in the Wake of a Disaster

The world is full of disasters. It is also full of people who have learned to profit off of disaster. It is an unfortunate fact of life in the modern social media/online environment that in order to avoid spreading scams, you have to make a continuous effort and you have to be cynical.

There are a lot of wonderful, well-meaning people in the world who want to help everyone who asks for it. Unfortunately, those people are easy to scam.

These are some rules to prevent you from either falling victim to scams or from passing scams along to other people.

These are not suggestions, these are not things to take into consideration, the rules listed here are RULES that you need to adopt in order to keep from spreading scams on social media.

Rules:

Never, ever share screenshots of fundraisers or resources that you haven’t verified yourself. If you see a screenshot of, say, the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds Instagram announcing that they will be accepting evacuees with RVs, you go find the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds website, you find the social media linked on their website, and you check that the post you’re seeing actually came from the entity it’s claiming to. Once you have proved that the post actually came from the entity it’s claiming to, double check that entity with a couple of verifiable sources. So, for instance, if I was checking on the Guitar Center Music Foundation I’d check Guitar Center’s website and maybe I’d look for news articles about donations from the foundation. If I was looking up the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, I’d look for a local newspaper calendar of events that linked to the fairgrounds or would check the city websites in the area and search “fairgrounds” on them. I would not share a link to a social media page for an organization until I was 100% certain that it was actually associated with the organization. You shouldn’t either. If you see a post that claims to come from a specific group but all you have is the screenshot of the post, go find the group’s website and if it all checks out you may share it IF AND ONLY IF you add the link to the post. And if a post has a link already, click through it and STILL check that everything looks okay.

Never give money or information to someone with a free email address. This sucks. I know. But if the group you’re looking at only has a gmail address or a protonmail you have no way of knowing if they’re legitimately associated with the organization at a glance. And even if they ARE associated with the organization, the free email account demonstrates a lack of planning/commitment that has troubling implications for the handling of your money or data.

Do not share screenshots of “resources,” headlines, social media posts, or news articles. I’m done with screenshots. Screenshots are easy to fake and almost always remove context from the discussion. A standalone screenshot isn’t information, it’s a trap to get you to share something without thinking. Do not *trust* screenshots of “resources,” headlines, social media posts, or news articles. Always assume a screenshot is faked unless you have found the original post yourself. A screenshot isn’t a “resource” it is an un-source, it is intentionally removing information from the viewer and we are well past the time when people should have understood that sharing screenshots without a link to the original text in context is never, every trustworthy.

Do not give money or information to accounts without a history. This may mean individual social media accounts, or it may mean a shiny new mutual aid project that popped up near your house. It’s unfortunate that people have their accounts deleted, it’s unfortunate that new orgs have trouble finding support, but the likelihood that a new account is a scam is simply too high to trust your money or information with it. If someone is asking for money or offering help on an account that hasn’t posted for years, or that suddenly changed all its content, or that has only existed for a month with no links to other, older sites and socials, you shouldn’t trust that account.

Okay, those are the RULES. Those are the lines you draw in the sand. The TL;DR version is this:

Don’t share posts you haven’t personally verified

Don’t give money or information to accounts with generic email accounts like gmail

Don’t share or trust screenshots that have no links or further context

Don’t give info or money to brand new accounts

I absolve you of any guilt you have surrounding this. You want to share that post to help a stranger but they have only had an account for a week. You want to spread that resource, but unfortunately it is only available as screenshots of an anonymous instagram account. You think that perhaps that mutual aid group really can help people, but the only way contact them is to put your info into a google form and send an email to their gmail account. That post seems really helpful, but actually you can’t find anything that suggests that the Mt. Pacifico Aquatic Center exists outside of this twitter account. No more guilt! Guilt be gone! You do not have to feel bad for not sharing these things, or not reaching out, or not giving money because doing so would be irresponsible and would put other people at risk of being tricked by scammers or wasting what money they can donate on a potential fraud.

Now, some tips:

Always, always, always take at least ten minutes to think about giving someone money or your information online. Read the post that moved you, then re-read it, then go sit away from it for ten minutes and think about it. There’s a good chance you will still want to give, or sign up, but ten minutes away will give you a chance to consider if there are any red flags in the post that inspired you.

Independently search everything you’re going to share. Go outside of social platforms and check on search engines. Check Wikipedia. Look up the website and send a while clicking around. Go on a *different* social media platform and check their account.

Just straight up search “[SUBJECT] Scam” before you do anything. See if this thing you’re looking at is actually an old scam that’s revamped for a new disaster. See if you can find an explanation of how something might be a scam or risk in a way that you didn’t understand before.

Get used to getting away from social media. Go check websites.

Learn domain name syntax. “musicfoundationguit.arcenter.com” is a bullshit scam. “guitarcenterfounditaon.org” is a bullshit scam. “guitarcenter-foundation.org” is a bullshit scam. The actual domain is “guitarcenterfoundation.org” and the link to the correct page isn’t going to be “guitarcenter.foundationfires.org” it’s going to be “guitarcenterfoundation.org/fires”  

Tips for Orgs:

If you do not want your org to look like a scam you are going to have to put some effort into it. Unfortunately this will probably also require at least a little bit of money; I know it’s hard to get money together at the beginning, but it will pay off in the long run.

Invest in a domain and hosted email. You can get relatively inexpensive hosted email through most domain registrars and even if you only get one email address for your domain you can forward it to all the free gmail and protonmail accounts you want. But buy a domain, set up a simple website, and get an  info@[yourdomain].com email set up because you don’t want people emailing “MyOrgInfo@gmail.com” because it’s super fucking easy for a 1337 hax0r like me to set up “YourOrgTeam@gmail.com” and scam the people who want to reach out to you.

Make a blog on your actual website, not on a social media site. A blog means that you can make regular posts and establish a history to prove that you are real and you do real stuff; it will also help with SEO and help to ensure that when people search for your org YOU are what comes up. Keeping up calendars of previous activities with links to those activities is also good.

Set up social handles on all the sites you use, make a “socials” page on your website, and link to your handles so that people can verify if you’re the one posting something. If you don’t make it extremely easy to find your socials, that means it’s extremely easy to set up fake accounts claiming to be you. Then put the link to your website in the bio on your socials.

If you are offering something or holding a fundraiser or doing anything on your social media page, link it back to your website. If you have an IG post offering resources, you should include a url for your site in each image. If you share a photo on twitter with the info for a march, that should link back to your website with more info about the march. If you post a fundraiser on tumblr you need to link the fundraising page of your website on that post.

If you absolutely positively cannot set up a website and a real-ass email address, set up a linktree, choose a primary social media to post on that all the others refer back to, and very explicitly state what your email address is and that you do not have other email addresses somewhere that's difficult to miss. Build a history of posts and link to other orgs that you work with or any writeups or stories about your events or projects. The point of all of this is making yourself easy to verify. "northfullertonfnb@gmail.com" sucks but it sucks a lot less if it's in the bio of "@northfulltertonfnb" and that page has a two year history of posting meal share schedules and menus.

In conclusion, don't share things that you haven't personally checked. When in doubt, it is always safer not to share.

[genericpuff]

Do you have any entry level recommendations for someone looking to learn a bit more about Greek mythology? I’d love to read up on it but I’m not sure how to find reputable sources and avoid Americanisation.

I mean, at the risk of sounding crass, you're likely going to run into Americanization no matter what you do because America itself was built on many cultures, especially that of Greek philosophy and storytelling.

Buuut if you mean you wanna read some actual Greek myth content that AREN'T modern American spins on classic tales, Emily Wilson is a popular choice for many people dipping their toes into translated mythology as her translations are both simplistic and concise in their language choices as well as fun in their structure to read both internally and orally (iirc her translations are done in iambic pentameter which is very familiar to anyone who's ever read Shakespeare). I've been working through her translation of The Odyssey, it's been pretty enjoyable :)

I've also heard great things about both Lattimore and Fitzgerald, the latter of whom I will be reading next after I finish Wilson's translation. That said, I haven't read either of their works yet, so take my recommendation of them with grains of salt! (I hope you enjoy them though if you check 'em out! If you beat me to it, let me know how they went!)

OH also, I know it's sorta the opposite of what you're likely looking for as it's VERY influenced by modern contexts, but thanks to another anon I recently got into Destripando la Historia which is a super fun animated Youtube series that retells the stories of various different gods from different mythologies. If you're into stuff of the goofy anime variety, you might enjoy them, it's a Spanish series but you can turn on captions to read the translations! It's super beginner-friendly, it covers a lot of different stories and myths without getting into so much detail that it's overwhelming (but gives you a good kickoff point to start with!) and the songs and animations slap, Afrodita is one of my favorites haha

Overall the biggest advice I can give you if you're trying to avoid fanfiction-y / "Americanized" retellings is just to cross-reference. If you find a retelling you really like but aren't completely sure of its legitimacy as a functional retelling, keep reading, watching, and learning more. It's a skill like any other, and the more you read, the more you'll be able to pick out what's a legitimate retelling from studied scholars vs. what's fanfiction that you don't need to take too accurately or seriously LMAO

And honestly, nothing wrong with the fanfiction stuff! Mythology, in its very nature, changes over time, it's an inevitability and many of the myths we still draw from today are often derivative in and of themselves from even older versions that pre-existed them (see: Ovid).

it's okay if your introduction to Greek myth is through derivative fanfic, stuff like Disney's Hercules and even Lore Olympus ARE fun to consume for a lot of people and make for a good entry point into learning more about the myths!

What's frustrating - and what I tend to criticize the most here - is when the fanfiction gets advertised / sold as legitimate retellings; when the fanfiction grossly misrepresents the actual mythology and yet tries to claim it as legitimate anyways which results in fanbases that are running around with completely false information claiming it as fact. If you can give the team behind Hercules credit for one thing, their rendition may not be completely accurate, BUT the folks who made it never bragged about how much smarter they were than other people about Greek myth or call themselves "folklorists" when they didn't even have any formal education/training/etc. in it cough like another creator we know cough 💀 If we want to make a comparison between LO and a Disney film in terms of how it grossly misrepresents the themes and cultural contexts of the original stories it was drawing from... Disney's Pocahontas does exactly that 💅

So if you want to avoid any "grossly" Americanized versions of Greek myth that are borderline disrespectful to the stories they're drawing from... yeah, that's usually a pretty indicative red flag LMAO

But outside of those very specific scenarios, just have fun with it, there really is no "right or wrong" way to engage with the mythology if you're simply just wanting to learn more, the beauty of it being mythology is that it's very diverse in its mediums and thus you don't have to be restricted to learning about it exclusively through academic translations or lectures. Of course, there are cultural intersections with these myths that shouldn't be ignored, we always have to treat it with care when engaging with it so that we aren't overwriting another culture's traditions or beliefs - but if you're simply wanting to learn about and entertain yourself with some amazing stories that have quite literally stood the test of time, do so however you see fit :)

[kyra45]

Keys guide to scam spotting (v2)

Hi! I’m Key (Or Jess depending on which blog you know me from) and I’ll be telling you some better information and detail on how to spot a scam account be it a pet scam or a donation scam. All information is based on my own experiences and I’ll try to keep this post accessible so the only big text is the title. This information should help in understanding how these scams work and how to spot them without having to do too much work. As always, if you appreciate what I do and want to show it, sharing these info posts helps other users see it and learn about blogs that might send them asks.

—

What is a donation scam? - A donation scam is when someone is being deceptive to get money by claiming they need mutual aid or support. For example, they are using the story from someone else’s fundraising post in order to get donations and won’t tell anyone their lying. This is called a donation scam. While the story may be legitimate, it is a story stolen off someone else and means the real person isn’t getting the support they asked for because someone else is using it. These stories are often stolen off Facebook/GoFundMe or even Instagram and could come from a private account or group so searching wouldn’t come up with a source. The images may also be stolen from somewhere else too.

How do you spot a donation scam? - Donation scams are usually easily spotted if you take a closer look at the information being given. Stolen stories will often have certain parts removed and replaced with the information the scammer added themselves. Sometimes the post may be composed of two different parts and won’t sound right if you pay close attention. For example, part of the story sounds fine but then the second part of the story seems out of place and doesn’t match up with the beginning. Another thing to check is how old the account is and if you have timestamps on you can see if an older post is backdated. You can also check to see if the account has tagged certain blogs in their post though this isn’t always a sign of a scam.

What is post backdating? - Post backdating is changing the dates of a reblogged post to look older then it really is. While this can be used with good intentions, scammers often use this to trick people into thinking their account is years old or even a few months old. The one way to find this is by turning on timestamps in dashboard settings and checking ‘other notes’ in reblogs. This is the only way to see the true date something was shared. Accounts who backdate posts will often claim someone told them to do it or they’ll say they didn’t know it was bad. However, you can not accidentally backdate a post.

Did the account contact you first? - A common occurrence is that you will get scam asks if you share a popular or trending post. Usually these accounts send asks to anyone they find without care of who it is and might lie as well if you ask them how they found you. In general, a brand new account shouldn’t easily find you unless they were watching the notes of popular posts. Occasionally these new accounts will even send asks to certain accounts they shouldn’t know about unless they have seen the account before. If your DMs are closed, the ask may ask you to message them because it’s urgent but all they will do is ask for money or ask you to loan them some money.

—

What is a pet donation scam? - A pet donation scam is where someone has went and looked around for vet fundraisers online and then took it for themselves by saving the images and story while erasing any links that would lead to the real pet getting support. They will then repost it to tumblr and say it’s actually their pet needing urgent care with the post title being very large and in red text for a sense of urgency. Sometimes they’ll say they can’t use GoFundMe because it has a fee or something else. This is a scam because they are not the owner of the pet and have stolen everything meaning no funds sent will be towards the actual pets care.

How do you spot a pet donation scam? - A common way of a pet donation scam is by how old the pinned post is and how many posts are reblogged on the account. Usually there is only a few posts shared and always shared around the same time and then no more. These posts all come from a trending topic, a fandom, or are popular posts. Another thing is checking the bio in Google search and seeing if it’s been took from someone else as the scammer never makes their own bio. Reverse image search their pfp to see who it really belongs to in case they stole it. Another important thing is to check their link and see if it matches up with the vet bill. Since most pictures are stolen off a private group, reverse image search won’t find them. The name they may have is likely not their real name and is stolen.

Did the account send you an ask? - Regardless of what the ask says, it usually requests you to answer it privately or message them so they can tell you thanks. These asks may have several emojis in them as well but their always just copy/pasted and sent to multiple users all at once on a daily basis. The private answer is so the ask won’t show up if someone is looking it up. If their post is public, there shouldn’t be a reason to need a private response to an ask you have sent to many people unless you are trying to hide it. Messaging these accounts is useless because they’ll lie to you when you ask them questions back or just ignore you.

—

What is a fake check scam? - A fake check scam is when a generally blank account with no pfp will message you after you used certain tags and ask you if you still need help. Even if you have links to send support, these accounts will ignore that in order to ask for your personal information such as phone number or banking details. They will then offer to send you a check. This is a fake check and cashing it won’t be scamming the scammer. You will lose money instead and the scammer will already move on to someone else. Never give them your private information.

Are there any other scam types? - When you tag posts, you’ll often get messages from accounts claiming they can help you get more attention on your campaign but you have to pay them money or go off-site to contact them. These are fake support accounts and they always use stock images while pretending to be officially affiliated and act like their Digital Marketing title means their not trying to scam you. They get defensive when called out and may start insulting you when they figure out you are already aware they aren’t legitimate.

—

What is a funeral donation scam? - A funeral donation scam is when an account posts saying someone has passed away but the images they used are actually took from someone else and may be photoshopped. Bills may be edited to suit their story and names may be changed to someone else’s. This isn’t a real common scam! But it’s happened a lot lately but the basics are the account will steal someone’s pictures and pass them off as theirs and when caught will say they were forced to or know it’s wrong but did it anyway.

—

In closing, this is information regarding common scam types you’ll find on tumblr. It’s always suggested to pay close attention to asks you get it they fit the criteria of being sent from a scammer. Answer the asks publicly and call out the blog. The scammer may block you as a result, but it’ll help your ask be seen it someone has looked it up. I suggest never spamming asks to share your pinned aid post because unfortunately scammers do this and you shouldn’t ignore people saying to please stop spamming. Always check to see if someone is comfortable getting these kinds of asks too because it won’t look too good if you have sent them an ask when they say please don’t.

As always, not everyone asking for support is a scammer! Legitimate people are out there. It’s just unfortunate scammers have made it harder for them to get help. You can always do your own research and compare it to what others have given and come to your own conclusion.

[gingabulous]

TikTok shuts down today as Facebook shows me a full on explicit porn ad featuring a sex worker riding a dick in a looping video in my feed. (Btw I’m not offended at all by what I saw, I’m personally fine with it, but this is about hypocrisy, not sex positivity.)

It was never about ethics, it was about the huge support for Palestine from users and the ability to share information on the genocide Israel is carrying out. It was bypassing the propaganda, and that couldn’t be allowed.

Trump only wants it back because his campaign used it to their benefit and so he suddenly wants to have it in his arsenal.

You can hate TikTok all you want, and even point out legitimate problems with the platform, but don’t pretend it’s being singled out for any reason other than it being far less controllable for shaping narratives to how the major special interests and oligarchs want it.

ALSO REDNOTE IS NOT THE ANSWER PLEASE FUCKING STOP AND LOOK TO BETTER OPEN SOURCE AND DECENTRALIZED SOLUTIONS THAT EXIST!!!!

[puckpocketed]

hi!!!!! im maybe perhaps a little interested in following th la kings...what th vibes are who th characters are etc n was wondering if u knew of any good primers at all ? :3 !

there are no primers here please return to your seat

serious answer: i am currently occupied with another big beaugtiful baby of a primer ! but. i will commit to a short slideshow that’s funnier + with more pictures at some nebulous point in the future!! deepest apologies 😭👍 i am NOT your kings source. idk who the kings source would even be, but it aint me!!! below is a cross section of my posts so u can vibe check us - click the non-news articles for funnies :)

here’s a tiny one i did for one of our prospects . eurotrap weed dj. just a little guy

Our kids have a history of getting injured right as they’re set to make their big step up. UNLUCKIEST GIRLS IN THE WORLD. btw <3

articles + archive links: x / y - x / y - x / y - x / y

Most recently: Arthur Kaliyev - who wanted to be traded somewhere he would have more opportunities - is freshly, guess what.,... INJURED and just as he made his peace with no trade + turning a new leaf with LA !!!!

the vibes are. LA Kings Youth Movement (soon) (SOON) (<- lie!!!) (PLAY THE KIDS. PLEASE... GOD...) (take my hand. let’s slash rob blake’s tires together <3)

Two Staches

Jordan Spence and QB by @korshrimpski

^ Phillip Danault and his two sons

Raccoon Jesus who does not understand rizz + is having a brat summer !

The vibes at practice + HQ Juice unicorn pic (same day)

[ID: The 2023-24 L.A. Kings celebrating their post practice mini-scrimmage. The forwards, having just scored, celebrate in a puppy pile against the glass. To the far right, Adrian Kempe (#9) also known as Juice, skates into the scrum. He holds his stick to his forehead as though it is a unicorn horn. /. End ID]

The Ghost Of Pierre-Luc Dubois (to ME). a lot of prospects were traded away to acquire him and he um. did not do very well here.

many lak fans in other spaces have strong negative feelings towards PLD (as is their right!) but he’s my failgirlhorsewife and he’s our very best friend and he got traded for Darcy Kuemper over the summer, and i WILL be haunting the cap.s lb because of that. no one on kingstwt will shut up about him so i think they're taking the breakup well 👍

on the topic of Kuemper. sorry i keep linking my own posts but Darcy and Dave. big. natural. <3 our gonjeous double d's...!

these posts aren’t super informative and its a lot of Me... i’m so sorry </3 i just shuffled through my lak tag and tried to remember what was funniest. legitimately cannot find old Kings blogs that are still regularly Posting and Participating so theyre all very new things... we are building these train tracks as we ride HELP.... (I genuinely have no idea what happened to nuke the community on here since i just arrived myself. lak secret community if you’re out there please speak to us … god… it’s so dark in here…....)

it’s been a mini goal of mine to breathe a little life into the tag. this isn't my primary team but i am very fond of them!! i can count on my hands every kings blog ive met here, i legitimately think i know them all?? we are so small i don't even know if we can be counted as a community. but i hope to help make the tag a warm and fun place where we can yell about our failteam <3

2024-25 LAK RENAISSANCE RAAHHHHHHH

[freesia-writes]

Ch 10: Storm on the Shore Pt. 2

~ Master List ~ Previous Chapter ~ WC: 2k

WELL THIS IS THE MOST ACCURATE BACKGROUND NOISE YOU COULD HAVE, LOL: 24Hr | Seaside Storm in a Cave / Ocean Waves, Distant Thunder,Fire and Rain Sounds for Sleeping (youtube.com)

And LOOK AT THIS FANART BY @perfectlywingedcrusade!!

As the fire grew into a satisfying source of warmth near the opening of the cave, just far enough inside to let the smoke out but still sheltered from the wind and rain, Hunter and Lyra huddled around it, shadows dancing across their faces as the contented crackling faded into the sound of the storm outside. He had removed his jacket, spreading it out nearby to dry as much as possible, and with quite a bit of protest from her, had also ventured quickly into the rain to fetch her own jacket, which he had to wring out at the mouth of the cave before bringing it in to lay it next to his. His thick flannel shirt stretched across his back as he hunched, rubbing his hands absently near the dancing flames. 

“I’m sorry we’re stuck here,” Lyra said, eyes darting to his for a split second before returning to the fire. 

“Eh,” Hunter shrugged, “It could be worse.”

“The office ladies are going to be heartbroken that you’re not in your shop for their ‘morning sausage run’ before school starts…”

Fixing her with a mockingly stern look that led them both to chuckle quietly, Hunter noticed her heartbeat speeding up again, and subtly watched her body language to see if she were in pain from the ruthless pinching her leg had received from the spiteful crablike creature she’d thought was just a shell. He was unable to discern other signs of distress, leaving him mildly confused as to the random chemical changes he could just barely pick up during many of their times together. 

“I’ll just tell them it was your fault,” he added, smiling as she quickly looked back up at him in horror. Her long brown hair still hung fairly damp, save for a little crown of frizz that danced on the very top of her head, and her dark eyes sent an unexpected jolt of electricity through his body with their simultaneous vulnerability and intensity. It threw him off for a moment, causing his grin to drop into momentary seriousness.

“What?” Lyra asked, anxious at his sudden change in composure. She glanced around the cave and toward the opening as though searching for a threat, giving Hunter time to recover.

“Nothing,” he said, following her gaze. “I… uh… Did you feel that breeze?”

“...No?”

“It felt like it came from the back,” he continued, legitimately (and gratefully) distracted by the slight sense of cool air on the side of his cheek that faced away from the entrance.

“Are you hoping to blow dry your luxurious hair?” she attempted, cringing inwardly as soon as the words were out of her mouth.

“Luxurious, eh?” Hunter echoed, tilting his head back toward her with a look that concealed the slight sense of flattery he didn’t want to admit he felt.

“Oh, I felt a little wind!” she exclaimed instead, and he laughed out loud at her thinly-veiled effort to change the subject. He hadn’t felt anything that time, but he let it slide. They’d had a few moments over the last number of weeks of innocent questions that seemed to touch a nerve or pry too far, resulting in withdrawal and awkward silence, so in response, they had both settled into a comfortable understanding that information was to be taken as it was offered instead of pursued through inquiry. He rose to his feet in one lithe movement, stretching out the stiffness that had formed in his time crouched by the fire. 

“I’m gonna check it out.”

“Why?” Lyra asked, so bluntly that he was momentarily taken aback. But her tone was one of apprehension, not challenge.

“Might be a way out of here.”

“But what if there’s… stuff back there?”

“That’s the point,” he said, smiling faintly. 

“Maybe the crab had friends,” she added, a breezy smile failing to conceal her trepidation. “Bigger ones.”

“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time…”

He could sense her anxiety as she followed suit, rubbing her hands over the fire one last time before getting up and hobbling to his side. She was torn in a way that surprised her – the logical choice would be to continue her enjoyment of the toasty little space he’d created, but she also felt nervous about him going alone. Not that she would be of any help in a crisis situation… obviously. Yet she was inexplicably compelled to join him. 

“Lead the way.”

“I can scout it out and come back to get you if there’s an exit,” he offered, unsure about her participation.

“That’ll take twice as long,” she pointed out, grabbing their clothing from the ground and shaking them out. “Besides, I think I can hear my fireplace calling to me…” Her jacket was still fairly damp, but Hunter had wrung out most of the water and its time by the fire had made it a good amount lighter. She tied it around her waist, passed his own to him, and nodded decisively. The corners of his lips lifted slightly, and he pulled his coat on snugly. 

He offered an arm to her, noting just how taken aback she appeared at the gesture. After a moment of internal struggle, she gingerly took it, laying her fingers across his forearm but carefully keeping a distance between their bodies. Again, his heart warmed slightly at seemingly nothing in particular, and they headed toward the back of the cave. 

It was a cavernous opening initially, with the dancing glow from the dying fire just barely illuminating the rocks that jutted at them from ground and ceiling alike. They walked wordlessly, arm in arm, with only the sounds of their steps, droplets falling from above, and the waves and rain outside. As the cave twisted and turned its way into the cliff, Hunter could feel Lyra growing more tense, her heart rate increasing and a light sweat breaking out across her body. Her eyes darted to and fro, and her hand tightened around his bicep as she slipped on a step. 

“You okay?” he said, the softness of his voice contrasted by a slight husk from not speaking for a while; it quickly captured her attention from all of the “threats” she’d been vigilant to scan for, and she nodded silently. “Are you nervous?” he finally asked, watching her expressions flicker from conviction to sheepishness. 

“Yes,” she whispered, lowering her head. 

“It’s alright. I promise. We’ll be fine,” Hunter said gently, his chest swelling with some feeling as he could see a grateful smile barely peeking out beneath the curtain of hair that concealed her face. He reached into his bag and pulled out the small light again, clicking it on and shocking their eyes with a bright little beam that illuminated the next few steps. As they began moving again, he noticed she had shuffled a hair closer to him.

“You’ve spent a lot of time in caves?” she asked, still tense with apprehension. 

“Some,” he answered, still not having shared many specifics about his past in the GAR. He’d focused mostly on their independent chapter of life, painting the picture of him and his family wandering the galaxy and taking various jobs to support themselves, which resulted in his wide skill set. “I’ve been in a lot of dangerous situations.” It could have come across as prideful or boasting, but he’d said it so factually and humbly that it seemed to drive the point home, and he noticed Lyra’s shoulders relax the tiniest bit. 

“Sounds stressful.”

“Yeah… You get used to it.”

“I don’t know that I could,” she chuckled, looking up as he came to a sudden halt. 

“Hm,” he said, casting the light all around in front of them. It appeared that they’d reached a dead end as all sides of the cave had closed in on them, and yet he could swear he sensed a large hollowness behind it. He felt around the edges, wondering if it was a large rock that had broken off from the rest to block the pathway, but despite his strategically-located pushes and shoves, there was no movement to be had. 

“Time to go back!” Lyra announced, proactively taking his arm again. They could barely hear the storm anymore; they may have been too deep in the cave or it could have stopped. Hunter furrowed his brow, taking a few last one-handed pokes around the wall in front of them, then nodded. 

“I guess that’s our only option.”

Upon their return to the mouth of the cave, they were pleased to find that the storm had indeed blown over, and the dark skies had lightened a bit to a morose gray canvas full of swirling clouds. They ventured out onto the beach, grateful for the slowness of the tide’s changes that meant it was still quite low, which allowed them to skirt around one of the rocky walls that formed the sandy inlet onto the next beach past it. This one had a much more gradual slope up to the cliffs above, and the pain in Lyra’s leg had receded enough for her to walk unassisted. 

It felt like a longer walk than usual back to their homes; Hunter couldn’t quite tell why. Nothing significant had happened and yet he felt a deepening bond between them, whether it was a sense of protectiveness, increased vulnerability, or something else. Lyra’s house was at a lower elevation, perched on a flat chunk of land near the edge of The Forest with a decent view of the seas below, while Hunter’s was farther up and deeper into the woods. He didn’t realize they’d taken the path toward her home, lost in conversation as they’d been, until she drew to a halt at the gate of a rickety fence made of random pieces of driftwood and tree branches. The property beyond the fence was lush, with plants and trees of every shape and size, and Hunter could see a white cottage tucked into it, the sea lying below the cliffs a ways past it. 

“This is me,” she said, nodding toward the cozy home. “I’m gonna comm the school to let them know I’m alive… and I don’t think I’m going in today.” She chuckled, and he could almost hear the plotting in her head of a decadent day of relaxation by the fire and, if he knew anything from their many chats over the last few weeks, probably some baking of delicious savory treats. 

“I might not open the shop today either,” Hunter said. “Perks of being self-employed.”

“Mmm,” she agreed, lifting her eyes to his for a moment. Brown met brown with softness and depth, and he felt that queasiness in his stomach that had made the occasional appearance lately. “Um… Thank you again… For everything. And I’m sorry.”

“It was nothing,” Hunter said. “In fact, I think I owe you one for getting me to take a day off of work.”

“So I’m a clumsy burden and a bad influence? Great,” she deadpanned. 

“Neither,” he reassured.

Lyra hesitated, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, and untied her jacket from her waist to instead fold it over her arm and clutch it tightly. There was a pregnant pause in the air, as though there were some kind of decision to be made. But neither words nor invitations were forthcoming.

“I… uh… I’m sure I’ll see you soon,” she said quietly, dipping her head and opening the creaky gate, slowly and almost hesitantly admitting herself. She left it open, turning back to give him a small wave as he said his own goodbyes, then continued on the pebbled path toward the cottage. 

Hunter remained at the entrance for a minute, watching her disappear inside the small white house, then heaved a great sigh. The air was filled with scent – the flowers, fruits, and vegetables in her garden; the contented clucks of the local ground-dwelling birds; the salty breeze of the sea; and the musky scents of the cows and horse-like creatures that roamed where they pleased. He felt as though he could stand there forever, comforted by the quiet nature symphony and the tranquil surroundings. But, after a few moments, he took one last deep breath and continued on his way.

.

.

Previous Chapter ~ Master List ~ Next Chapter

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[stardustthread]

USE YOUR VOICE GRETA VAN FLEET

If it hasn’t been abundantly clear how much I absolutely love the boys, I’m incredibly disappointed in how silent they have been. I’ve already voiced this before, but they do have impact. For the people saying that Greta not speaking about world issues shouldn’t be a big deal are just as complacent and dismissive of the actual pain going on in the world. We hear time and time again in their songs, messages of anti-war and the destruction that hate can bring and we have a duty to spread love, where is that love? Where is it? I’m a Grestie through and through, and I’m also an Arab Grestie. My grandparents and my extended family are Palestinian.

I was born and lived in the Middle East, more specifically Jordan, for long enough to know and feel the pain that my family and friends in Palestine are facing, seeing my heritage and traditions being wiped out right before my eyes. And I feel so guilty because I’m here now, a US citizen in the safety of my home watching it unfold. Imagine how people in Gaza are feeling? You absolutely can’t. The people in the West Bank are facing that fear of the inevitable if we don’t speak up and act. As for the hostages, captured both by the IOF and H*m*s, they’re not knowing any peace either.

For the people citing that the reason why they won’t speak on it is because of the mistreatment of LGBTQIA+ folks contradicts with Josh, that is not okay. Yes, we absolutely SHOULD and HAVE TO ensure safety of EVERYONE, no matter who they love or what they identify as, but repeating false rhetoric without any proof blatantly shows your Islamophobia and xenophobia. You regurgitate information being fed to you by bigoted sources with a reputation for falsifying experiences like it’s nothing. Not to mention, the US isn’t very safe right now for LGBTQ+ folk either. If we were under attack right now, would you stay silent too because Tennessee, Florida, and Texas are enacting hateful bills? Or are you staying silent now because they’re brown. Why don’t you actually ask a Queer Arab what it’s like over there? Talk to them? They exist, and they’re all over social media. And what about Queer Palestinians? Do they not deserve your advocacy?

I listened to and fell in LOVE with Greta Van Fleet because of their message. “They pass the torch and it still burns” gives me goosebumps everytime I listen to Age of Man, it serves as a reminder that through generations, we have a duty to fight and do better. “We do not fight for war, but to save the lives of those who do so” ARE YOU KIDDING? It is RIGHT THERE IN THEIR SONGS! If you still are dismissing the legitimate callout of the boys to speak on an issue WHO EMPHASIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF SPEAKING ON ISSUES LIKE THIS, or you’re dismissing the pain that people who do have legitimate connection to the land in Palestine, please listen to the songs again. Reflect. And if you still don’t get it, I don’t have any hope for you.

I am so heartbroken, upset, and I will absolutely NOT let someone guilt me into not calling the boys out because “we should leave politics out of it”. This isn’t about politics. This is about HUMAN LIFE. Have empathy and for god’s sake, SHOW IT. SPEAK UP AND CALL OUT.

[candycandy00]

The League of Villains Halloween Horror Anthology Sign Up

This is the sign up post for the first annual League of Villains Halloween Horror Anthology!

The deadline to sign up for this event is September 30th! Please keep that in mind!

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What it is:

The anthology will be various fanfics and fanart of League of Villains members reimagined as horror creatures/icons/characters, to be posted throughout October of this year. I thought it would be a fun way to get us all in the spooky Halloween mood.

This is an adults-only event! Please do not sign up unless you have your age listed in your bio or pinned post! Minors do not interact!

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Rules:

You can make fanfic or fanart, or both! But each piece must feature a League of Villains member (past or present, but only one per piece) as a horror creature/icon/character, such as a vampire or a masked killer. They have to be the source of the horror, so no zombie fics where the character is fighting zombies. If you pick zombie as your horror creature, the character you pick has to be a zombie.

Multiple people can claim each character, so if we get 30 Dabi fics, so be it. However, only one person can claim each horror icon for the medium you chose. So if someone already signed up for one of the characters as a vampire in a fic, you can’t sign up for a character (even a different one) as a vampire in a fic. You can sign up for a vampire in a fanart, provided no one else has. I will do these on a first come, first serve basis. So the first person to claim a given creature will get it. If a lot of people sign up and I feel like we’re legitimately running out of horror tropes, I might bend this rule a bit. Also! You can be specific to differentiate between creatures. Like an undead pirate is different from a regular zombie, and so on.

Fanfics can be X Reader or not. They can be NSFW/smut, or not. That’s up to you! If you choose Toga as your character, only write/draw SFW pieces for her, as she is a minor. It doesn’t matter if you age her up. You don’t have to make your piece horror, but it’s encouraged. This is a Halloween anthology after all. At the very least, a spooky vibe should be present, even if your piece is overall light hearted. Likewise, you don’t have to set the story on or around Halloween, but it would be nice to have some works that do so.

You can post your piece any time in October. From the first day of the month to the last. Ideally, the pieces will be spread out a bit throughout the month, but I’m not assigning anyone specific days. Just post it whenever you want in October.

If you sign up, but decide to drop out, that’s fine! This is a zero pressure event. You don’t even have to explain why. All I ask is that you send me a message or Ask letting me know so that I can remove you from the sign up list. Someone else might have wanted to write about the creature you chose, but couldn’t because you picked it.

When you post your piece, use the tag #lovhalloweenhorror. Feel free to use the tag before then! Use it to talk about the piece you’re working on, use it to post sketches or previews! Heck, use it even if you just plan to enjoy the fan works! Use it to talk about things you’d like to see/read as a viewer. Anything goes! Let’s build up some excitement!

As works begin to be posted in October, I’ll create a Masterlist post to list all of them in one convenient place. If you post your piece and you don’t see it added to the list within a day or so, send me a message to let me know in case I missed it.

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How to Sign up:

If you’d like to sign up to create a piece for this event, send me an Ask or a direct message with the following information:

Fanart or Fanfic?

Character?

Horror Creature?

That’s it! Please send a separate message for each piece you plan to make.

As people sign up, I’ll list them in this post so everyone can know what’s been claimed. Please be patient with me. I might be slow!

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The List:

Fanfiction:

@missrosegold - Dabi - Demon

@candycandy00 - Shigaraki - Scarecrow

@jabberwocky-92 - Shigaraki - God of Decay

@scary-grace - Shigaraki - Ghost/Wraith

@spicymeatball1992 - Shigaraki - Incubus

@jabberwocky-92 - Dabi - Grim Reaper

@gamergirlghost - Toga - Vampire

@doumadono - Dabi - Merman

@doumadono - Toga - Rusalka

@red-as-mars - Dabi - Charro Negro

@candycandy00 - Mr. Compress - Mad Scientist

Fanart:

@sammystep - Twice - Dr. Frankenstein

@fleetwoodmoth - Dabi - Fire Atronach

@selinearts - Toga - Demon

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Ideas/Inspiration:

If you’re having trouble deciding on a horror creature/icon/character, here’s a list of some to give you some ideas! Obviously, what you pick doesn’t have to come from this list, and in fact I’m looking forward to seeing all the different ideas I never thought of. You can even create your own creature! This is just a list of some possibilities.

Vampire | Werewolf | Demon | Witch/Warlock | Zombie | Ghost/Wraith | Banshee | Masked Killer | Mad Scientist | Scarecrow | Executioner | Butcher | Alien | Cyborg/Android | Witchfinder | Deep Sea Creature | Clown | Cannibal | Mummy

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Feel free to reblog this! Let’s get as many people involved as possible!

[ingek73]

‘This is about witnesses speaking their truth’: Prince Harry gets his day in court against Murdoch’s newspapers

The Duke of Sussex and the former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson are the last two claimants still suing

Vanessa Thorpe Arts and Media Correspondent

Sun 19 Jan 2025 13.00 CET

An extraordinary personal legal battle which has been years in preparation is to pit one of the most famous members of the British royal family against the world’s best-known media baron this week. On Tuesday Prince Harry’s lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper group, owners of the Sun and the now defunct News of the World, will officially begin at the High Court in London.

Fifth in line to the throne, King Charles’s younger son lives in self-imposed exile in California, but is due to appear in court in person once the case gets fully under way next month. The Duke of Sussex, 40, is suing News Group Newspapers (NGN), over claims that journalists on his popular titles worked unlawfully with private investigators, delving into his private life, between 1996 and 2011. He sees himself as the last man standing in a struggle to get the newspapers to take legal responsibility for the crimes he and others have alleged. Another surviving case brought by Lord Watson, the former Labour deputy leader, will be heard alongside the Prince’s.

About 40 other claimants, many of them celebrities such as Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller, have already settled claims against Murdoch’s group. Most were deterred from going to trial by the huge legal bills that could be imposed on them, even after a win in court. If they had previously rejected a financial offer from NGN to pursue their grievance, they could have been found liable for millions. After accepting a settlement last year, Hugh Grant said he did so after finding out he could be liable for £10m in costs.

“They have settled because they’ve had to settle,” Prince Harry told the New York Times before Christmas. “One of the main reasons for seeing this through is accountability, because I’m the last person that can actually achieve that.”

However, the civil trial, scheduled to run until mid-March, is likely to draw in other famous witnesses, including Grant, Miller, and Lily Allen, as well as testimony from eminent figures such as former prime minister Gordon Brown and the justice minister, Shabana Mahmood. It will also involve public statements from whistleblowing journalists.

Defending their reputations from allegations that they were aware of unlawful activities and even attempted to conceal them, will be many of the most powerful names in British media, including Murdoch and his son, James, Rebekah Brooks, now CEO of News UK, Victoria Newton, editor of the Sun, and the British journalist Will Lewis, who is today controversially in charge at the Washington Post, as its publisher and CEO. Lawyers for the Prince claim Lewis was implicated in a ruse to conceal evidence of hacking by removing computer files. Lewis told the the Times last summer: “Any allegations of wrongdoing are untrue.”

A spokesperson for NGN said: “Both [Watson and the Duke of Sussex] allege unlawful destruction of emails by News International between 2010-2011. This allegation is wrong, unsustainable, and is strongly denied. NGN will be calling a number of witnesses including technologists, lawyers and senior staff to defeat the claim.”

A source close to the Prince’s legal team told the Observer: “People concentrate on the allegations of phone hacking, but that is actually a small part of it. In fact, the unlawful activities we will provide evidence of were much broader, including phone tapping, blagging – or gaining information through trickery – and going through bins for paperwork.” The extent of payments to private investigators will also be considered.

The newspaper group’s bosses have previously suggested that many of their stories about the private lives of well-known or powerful people were legitimately sourced through anonymous tip-offs or by people ringing the newsroom in return for money.

The Prince launched his legal action against NGN in 2019, the same week that his wife, Meghan Markle, launched her own case against the Mail on Sunday for alleged breach of privacy and copyright infringement, over its publishing of a private letter she had sent to her father.

Harry is believed to want to hold key people accountable for the damage that he alleges was done to himself and his wider family as a result of intrusion and harassment from the press. Murdoch and his organisation have so far avoided public discussion about a document trail that the claimants argue reveals criminal activityand a concerted cover-up.

Early weeks in court will cover what are termed “generic issues”, such as examining how widespread any unlawful practices were and who knew of them. Worryingly for the defendants, broad legal proofs that unlawful information gathering was routine could be established here just by “inference”, rather than with explicit documentation. Signs of concealment, use of coded language, or that the destruction of paperwork was rife would also be damaging to the defence. This first phase will also examine allegations that NGN misled police and provided false statements to the Leveson public inquiry into media ethics between 2011 and 2012.

Those presenting the Prince’s lawsuit, it is understood, do not expect to lose any of more than 30 individual allegations of unlawful activity, but the bigger prize is the final hearing of the evidence in open court. “This will be about witnesses speaking their truth in front of the police and in public,” the source said. Most significant may be any evidence supporting the claims that newspaper staff committed perjury or perverted the course of justice.

Tom Watson’s case, which will allege the hacking of the parliamentary committee he formerly chaired while it sat to consider the hacking allegations themselves, will be heard from 10 February 10th, before the Prince’s case.

The Prince wants to attend the Invictus Games, of which he is founder and patron, and which begins on 8 February, before appearing in court. He is also thought to be planning to call on only a few witnesses, to spare others from being thrust into the spotlight. One witness may be the mother of the late television presenter Caroline Flack.

Harry has testified before in a hacking case brought against Mirror Group Newspapers, in the summer of 2023. The judge in the upcoming case, Timothy Fancourt, also heard that case and ruled the Prince had been a victim of “widespread and habitual hacking”. He was awarded £140,600 and then settled the rest of his privacy claims against the Mirror Group for at least £400,000.

A spokesperson for NGN said: “In 2011 an apology was published by NGN to victims of voicemail interception by the News of the World. The company publicly committed to paying financial compensation and since then has paid settlements to those with claims. In some cases, particularly those relating to The Sun, it has made commercial sense (and in accordance with common litigation practice) for the parties to come to a financial settlement without NGN accepting liability.

“NGN strongly denies that any of its titles hacked Mr Watson or acted unlawfully and will also argue his claim is brought out of time ... [The Duke of Sussex’s] allegations of mobile phone hacking have been struck out by the court so will not be part of the trial. His claim focuses now on allegations of unlawful information gathering … His claim will be fully defended, including on the grounds that it is brought out of time.”

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Go Harry your mum would have been so proud!

[kyra45]

(Regarding your tumblr celebrity post) As someone who works IRL in cybersecurity, it baffles me how some people will just never understand what a scam is no matter how many times you tell them the warning signs T-T

That being said, I love what you do and I hope you keep it up! Some people may never learn, but I’m sure there’s so many more that have because of you!

Thanks!~

There’s also those who will argue that a scam isn’t a scam even when you show them a source that the scam is taking its information from. Legitimately once, someone was very determined that a scammers post about a cat was real even though I showed them a screenshot of the real owners Facebook post that was explaining someone on tumblr was using their art and their cats photos for a scam.

Like, the person was very sure that the real owner had stolen the pics from the scammer even though the scammer had actually stolen the pics the real owner had made of their own cat.

Or alternative, someone had told me my proof of a scam wasn’t good enough because I couldn’t find the source of a specific cat picture even though the scammers name was already shown stealing fundraiser pics for other cats.

Like I had a warning out for the scammers other blog, had proof their images was not their own and was from other scam posts, and yet was told my proof could be a faked screenshot despite the fact it wasn’t. And then told i had no proof of a scam because I couldn’t prove the source of a specific cat pic even with the other evidence showing the same scammer on another account.

My hobby is fun.

[spiritual-entries]

Imposter Syndrome

Noun

the persistent inability to believe that one's success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one's own efforts or skills

Introduction

What is imposter syndrome?

Some tips

Outro

Sources

Imposter syndrome is quite honestly one of the worst things for my spiritual practice. There’s always the question of whether or not something was real or if I’m just being biased or imagining it. Is this deity actually reaching out or interested in working with me or am I forcing my beliefs onto them? I always find myself second guessing moments in my spiritual practice. So if you’re like me and dealing with imposter syndrome, feel free to stick around.

The term “imposter syndrome” was originally introduced in the 1970s by Suzanna Imes and Pauline Rose Clance. Early research suggests that it only affected successful women but has since been proven to affect anyone. Imposter syndrome has many forms. The five types would be the perfectionist, the superhero, the expert, the natural genius and the soloist. These are labels based on how imposter syndrome seems to affect your behavior and actions when responding to a certain type of stress.

Imposter Syndrome itself is essentially a type of self-doubt. “I was just lucky. I’m not *that* good at ___. If I don’t understand something immediately, then I’m just dumb.” These are the types of thoughts you may be experiencing with imposter syndrome. It can be a result of pressure from parents growing up, social anxiety, personality traits even.

This is really baseline information, feel free to check out the sources listed below. Or perhaps search up imposter syndrome on your own.

Imposter syndrome sucks. It’s limiting especially when it comes to spiritual experiences. So these are some things that may help to keep in mind. Things that I try to remind myself of whenever I find myself struggling with my own form of imposter syndrome. Things I will definitely try and understand myself. This is a learning experience for the both of us.

Refuse to let it hold you back

Now this tip I actually snatched from one of the sources I used and I thought it was a good tip to include. This is actually something I try to remind myself of all the time. Often using the idea of “so what if it’s not completely real? I can still learn a valuable lesson from imagination.” This really goes with the fear of whether or not I’m communicating with an actual deity or whether or not I’m making up the entire interaction.

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Find a routine

I would say this is more of a ‘figure out your belief system and stick to it’. If you’re one of those people who say ‘Once is an accident, Twice is coincidence, and three's a pattern” then stick to that ideology. Limit the amount of doubt that can grow in your mind by sticking to a pattern. Shuffle your cards the same way every time if you need to. But if you need to do things a specific way in order to lessen that imposter syndrome, there’s nothing wrong with that!

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SPG is good validation

Personally I wouldn’t say to stick only to SPG when doing things, especially if you do spirit or deity work. UPG is nice, everyone’s practice is their own and everyone’s relationships are different. But if you’re like me and constantly doubting every little thing then try and find things from your experience that count as SPG. BUT don’t limit everything to whether it’s SPG or not. Use it as a building block to gain that confidence.

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Stop comparing

Another good tip snatched from an outside source rather than my own thoughts. Although this is also where things get tricky. See in my last tip I say that SPG is good. Reach out to other members about their experiences with a deity but do not completely compare your experiences with theirs. Their relationship with a deity will be completely different from yours, so while you may be able to have some shared experiences with other members, remember that your relationship is your own and everything will not be the same.

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Check and Re-check

It’s always a good idea to double check things. Sources are one thing that should be double checked. But if you’re unsure on whether or not something is actually a sign or if something is the correct message, there are tools that are there to help. Confirm things with tarot or a pendulum. Ask for a very specific sign to be sent if you need. Even confirm things with other people through readings maybe.

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Trust in your intuition

Yes, this is probably the hardest thing to do with imposter syndrome. I am certainly yelled at by my friend to remember this all the time so this is me ‘yelling’ at you all about this. So let me ask…do things feel right? How are you feeling about the experience? Does it feel right? Comfortable, in a sense? Is this the situation actually wrong or is it just your anxiety speaking? If you’ve done things a certain way…then there’s no reason to doubt the results. Trust in yourself.

As mentioned multiple times before, imposter syndrome really does suck. But these are some tips that could be helpful. Of course, you do not have to take any of these to heart or take them very seriously. And if you have any suggestions of your own, please feel free to drop them in the comments!

https://www.verywellmind.com/imposter-syndrome-and-social-anxiety-disorder-4156469

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/imposter-syndrome#overcoming-it

[whentherewerebicycles]

ugh I am really struggling with a thing with a former student/mentee of mine. in the week or two of the post-hamas attack aftermath I posted something on instagram that was basically like, i feel an obligation to be an informed global citizen and believe me I read/think about/despair over the news every day but I also think it’s ok to really viscerally hate “doing politics” on social media, where complex, centuries-old geopolitical and cultural conflicts get reduced to a sensationalized infographic some teenager designed on canva last night. at the time I was watching people spread rampant misinformation about the hospital explosion when we had zero conclusive information, and had also just heard jon favreau talking about research indicating that something like 80% of the images and videos people were sharing on social media weren’t actually FROM the current conflict or couldn’t be verified as real. and idk I also have some private thoughts about how american leftists in particular really glom onto this issue because we perceive israelis as ‘white people’ and palestinians as people of color and we get to feel like we are exorcising our own country’s racial demons by advocating for the expulsion of the israeli people from land that many of them actually have deep historical ties to and at least a semi-legitimate cultural and religious claim to inhabiting.

to be clear I think the current israeli government is pretty much your trump-inspired shitty/evil right-wing militaristic populist movement and I feel like their response has squandered every single ounce of empathy garnered by the hamas attacks!! but idk I guess what I want to carve out space for is like, the right to say I AM NOT AN EXPERT HERE. I DO NOT HAVE DEEP ENOUGH KNOWLEDGE TO FULLY UNDERSTAND THE ROOTS OF THIS CONFLICT. I WORRY ABOUT SPREADING DANGEROUS MISINFORMATION IN BOTH DIRECTIONS IF I SHARE UNVERIFIED SOURCES OR REDUCTIVE TAKES. ALSO I AM A PRIVATE CITIZEN AND I DO NOT HAVE A “PLATFORM” JUST BECAUSE I HAVE A SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT. I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO BE CONFUSED, TO NOT PASS SNAP JUDGMENTS ON RAPIDLY EVOLVING INTERNATIONAL INCIDENTS, AND TO ENGAGE IN POLITICS BY MEANS OTHER THAN SOCIAL MEDIA POSTING. but idk this former student, who I had a really good relationship with for many years, has just come after me in my DMs and keeps sending me posts implying that anyone who is not furiously posting right now is pro-Palestinian genocide, etc etc, and meanwhile she is posting hundreds of unverified stories a day from Arabic-language sources that aren’t just like, anti-Zionist but are actively pro-Hamas, actively denying that the attacks on Israel happened, and actively calling for the immediate and violent expulsion of all Jews from the area. dude idk she’s not my student anymore so I think I’m just going to disengage/not respond and continue staying off insta because it sucks out there!! but it sucks!

I also just refuse to experience a war via unfiltered social media posts again. I did that for a month or two at the start of the ukraine invasion and I can’t unsee some of the stuff I saw on telegram. I don’t actually think any of us have a moral obligation to watch or share a 24/7 feed of graphic images of maimed corpses and crying children. I can’t make the violence STOP by watching that content and I also don’t believe that ravenously consuming the most terrible moments of people’s lives is a form of meaningful political solidarity. WHATEVER as you can see I still feel super conflicted about how to feel about all of this but I also have to remind myself that IT’S NOT NORMAL to click through my stories or scroll down my feed alternating between liking people’s cat photos and watching people dying half a world away. we were NOT BUILT to process world-historical events this way and it is OKAY to opt out of watching a livestream of human suffering you are personally powerless to do anything about.

[blood-darkened-moon]

(1/2) TEW question: If Ruben hadn’t been burned but was still a serial killer, what is his motive for killing? Since there’s no need for revenge, what would happen? SKs IIRC develop a fractured identity hidden behind a wall of primitive defenses, so it’s a horrible way of coping, like self-medicating (we know there’s trauma and a predisposition).

Ok, anon, I love horror movies and games and also read about some serial killers out of interest, but I’m not an expert on this topic, especially not on the psychological aspects. And I refuse to diagnose fictional characters with mental illnesses. The headcanons I write are just for fun and should be seen as an attempt to write a horror AU rather than an analysis based on the mindset of real people. I don’t think that I can give you a qualified answer to your questions, but I’ll try my best. Here’s a more analytical approach to the topic.

I agree with you that there was a predisposition, but was there trauma involved before the fire? I don’t think so, or at least I think there is absolutely no evidence for this within the game. Even Jimenez wrote in Research Entry #31, “After surviving the incident and subsequent abuse from his parents, it’s a miracle Ruben can function at all.” We know very little about Ruben’s past before the incident. Some information originates from Ruben’s documents or his recordings after the fire. At that time, he is deeply traumatized, hallucinates, and is overall mentally unstable, which becomes even noticeable in his records. His state likely influences his perception in a heavily subjective way. Due to this and the ongoing abuse by his father, he may evaluate his childhood as worse than it actually was. However, since there are no more reliable sources, I have to take his words for granted.

While I don’t see anything that could have traumatized Ruben as a child, I still think that there were conflicts that could have worsened even if the fire never happened. There was tension in his family, specifically with his father. Ruben already seemed to have a somewhat strained relationship with him before the incident. Yet, he still respected him, as Ruben stated in one of the recordings, “Father was a stern man. Proud, and I thought intelligent.” He was calm while he recorded this. Therefore, I think this statement is valid, and their relationship wasn’t that bad at first. On the other hand, Ruben also wrote: “He’s trying to punish me again. He always resented our closeness. Thinks he can use it against me.” He wrote this while he was clearly enraged, likely not fully accountable. It still indicates a conflict between the two.

The latter statement is somewhat strange, though. Why should Ernesto mind if his children get along well with each other? Isn’t this a good thing? Jimenez describes Ruben’s love for Laura as “almost on an incestuous level”, and considering Ruben’s records, that seems to be a legitimate interpretation. But the records are from after the fire when he was already a teenager or young adult. Moreover, he was locked up in the basement for years without any human contact (except for his father and a doctor, maybe). This long-term isolation would excuse Ruben’s affection for his sister reaching an abnormal level. Even in case little Ruben had a crush on Laura at that age (10 or younger), I think this would hardly be a reason to be concerned. He could likely outgrow it easily if he grew up under normal circumstances. So, it is unlikely that this was Ernesto’s issue.

I think it is possible that the statement relates to Ruben’s experiments in some way. We know Ernesto cannot cope well with problems that would damage his family’s reputation. After all, he preferred to lock his traumatized son away after the fire instead of organizing real help for him. Well, dissecting pig heads is not a normal behavior for a child, and yet Ruben had the equipment and a room where he could do his experiments. Why did Ernesto tolerate this behavior, which is significantly more concerning than suffering from physical and mental trauma after barely surviving a fire? (In the sense of the latter is an understandable reaction.) And why did he show it to Jimenez in the first place? This isn’t something that you show proudly around in the neighborhood. I assume that maybe Laura protected her brother, acted as the voice of reason, and convinced Ernesto that instead of punishing Ruben for his experiments, he should deal with it differently. Jimenez was just about 20 at the time he met Ruben. He can’t have been a doctor then. He was likely only a student. (The model in the game is older, probably due to time or budget reasons.) Jimenez wasn’t working at Beacon yet either. In Research Entry #16, he stated that he started working there but also mentioned Ruben, so he already knew him before that. Perhaps at Laura’s request, the Victorianos looked for someone with the necessary expertise to deal with Ruben’s behavior but who would do so in secrecy. Therefore, they went with a student. In the end, it backfired, and instead of talking Ruben out of his experiments, Jimenez confirmed his beliefs. Ernesto could take this amiss and think strict punishment would have worked better. This is highly speculative, though. Ruben also mentioned punishment in the document, but it is unclear what kind of punishment it was and when it happened. It could be something (long) before the fire, or he could relate to his recent confinement in the basement.

Another issue Ruvik mentioned is his hatred for the church and his father always supporting them. He said, “Somehow he always supported the church, no matter what the newspapers said. He waved away the allegations as if they were infallible. The wretched, the vermin, the stern... All were taken in by that church.”, followed by “They were promised salvation and eternal life. But there’s nothing they could promise that I couldn’t take away.” Where his hatred for the church originates from is again not clear. We know the church was a shady place, but had it anything to do with child-Ruben? I think it is also possible that Ruben developed his hatred later during his time in the basement. He thought his father had taken Laura away from him, the one person he loved the most. Perhaps he then decided to take something away from his father that he cherished deeply.

This covers the conflicts at home we know of. None of them seem to be a major issue before the fire, though. I doubt that these alone had the potential to set up Ruben on the path of a serial killer unless drastic changes occur. However, there are still some other aspects.

Jimenez is one of them. He is not a good influence on Ruben at all. He could have tried to channel Ruben’s interests onto a healthier path. Instead, he affirmed that ethical and moral standards in science must be questioned if true greatness is to be achieved. Ruben knew very well that his experiments were unacceptable when they met for the first time. Jimenez probably had a chance of convincing Ruben to give up on them. Later, he continues to be a toxic influence. Despite his sympathy for Ruben, Jimenez often disregards his poor mental state and only tries to gain profit from Ruben’s results. Only after the experiments reached an extreme level of gruesomeness and the death toll went through the roof did Jimenez realize that he made a big mistake. “I had taught him from a young age that the end shall justify the means, but I could not have predicted things to be this extreme.” Not that it would stop Jimenez from leeching further on Ruben’s work.

Now, before I come to the possibility of Ruben still becoming a serial killer without the fire, I want to speculate a bit about his early experiments, because they could hint at a predisposition. We know that Ruben dissected pig heads, but I think this can’t be the only thing he has done. I assume the pig heads are slaughterhouse waste. (He can’t have killed and decapitated a large pig alone at the age of 9, right?) Little Ruben doesn’t seem to have the proper equipment to prevent the decomposition in his room. (How fresh were the heads when he got them?) As far as I know, brain matter decomposes rather quickly, though. How far can he get with a half-decomposed pig brain? He can develop and improve his surgery skills. However, Jimenez mentions Ruben’s studies, and he is really impressed by them (“… but Ruben... Comparatively insignificant, but even at his young age, his studies are remarkable.”). While it is not shown or otherwise described in the game, I think it is likely that Ruben also experimented on other smaller animals that were either still alive or killed shortly before he started. We don’t know what kind of studies he performed, but I think you likely need a fresh or well-preserved brain for most experiments. Ruben was also hesitant to show his experiments to Jimenez. He said they are gross and that Jimenez now thinks he is a monster. Ruben did not try to justify them. Would this be the case if he only used slaughterhouse waste? It would still be gross and off for a child but a little less disturbing than experimenting on animals he had killed first. At least assuming that Jimenez might think he was a monster for doing so seems like an exaggeration to me since the pigs were slaughtered beforehand anyway.

Edit: In the room where Ruben dissects the pig’s head, there is an eviscerated dog carcass (which I’ve apparently always overlooked). So he has definitely killed other animals and experimented on them. The cages in the room also point to this. Judging by the size of the cages, he probably mainly used cats and dogs.

So much to the background, now what could have happened without the fire? Firstly, Laura was 17 when the fire occurred; Ruben was only 10. Laura probably wouldn’t have stayed with her parents forever. Maybe she would have gone to college the following year. Ruben spent his teenage years in the 80s, so no internet, and telephones weren’t constantly available either. He still has to live almost without Laura for several years. As I said before, I assume that Laura protected Ruben in some way from Ernesto. After she leaves, Ruben has to deal with his father mostly on his own. Their relationship was already strained before and would certainly not improve over the years, rather the opposite. I can’t say how far Ernesto would ultimately go with his punishments if Laura isn’t on-site without further information, though. We should also bear in mind that Ruben is getting older and can probably hide his activities better from his father. Jimenez might also be able to help him with this. I think, it is unlikely that the situation would take on similarly traumatizing proportions as after the fire, but there is still a certain conflict potential.

The bigger problem is, in my opinion, Jimenez. Without Laura and with a tense atmosphere at home, Ruben would probably spend more time with him. At least initially, Jimenez seemed to understand and support him. He recognized Ruben’s talent and was his mentor, even if not entirely for selfless reasons. I think it’s possible that even without fire, he could lead Ruben down a similar path as in the game, but probably at a slower pace. Seeing Laura again would no longer be Ruben’s driving force, but she wasn’t his only motivation in the game anyway. Ruben took a lot of pride in his research. He became furious when Jimenez stole and published his results (“That cockroach, that sycophant; living off of me, feeding off of my work.“). Sure, Jimenez is an asshole, but he was somewhat correct when he said Ruvik couldn’t have published it in a reputable journal otherwise. If Laura was really all Ruben wanted, he shouldn’t have been so angry about what Jimenez was doing. So, Ruben’s own ambitions as a scientist may have played a role, albeit a subordinate one.

Jimenez has persuaded Ruben from the beginning that the end justifies the means, plus there is Ruben’s potential predisposition, now adding some overambition, nurtured by his mentor, on top. Ruben would probably not shy away from human experiments, as they would be more reliable than the ones with animals. Jimenez would certainly provide him with test subjects, and he might even urge him to take this step once Ruben’s abilities were sufficient. After all, Jimenez also wants to profit from his work.

I don’t think Ruben would become an ordinary serial killer, but, for instance, I could imagine him evolving in a similar direction to Josef Mengele. In the game, he no longer sees the people he experiments on as people. He describes them as vermin and microbes. Without fire and the years in the basement, he should feel less hatred towards others, but with Jimenez as a mentor, he may have come to the conclusion that the death of some people is justified in order to help others through scientific advancement. His test subjects may no longer be vermin to him but laboratory supplies. He still would use and kill them as he pleased.

Serial killers often have a traumatic past and use the killing as a coping mechanism, but not all of them. It is not impossible that someone could become a serial killer for different reasons. The scenario above is the best I could do with the little information we have. I guess my answer isn’t really what you wanted, but I cannot see a canon reason for Ruben to snap if the fire and the abuse afterward never happened. If we knew more about his past, perhaps this would change. (I left Mobius out for simplicity, by the way.)

[dailycharacteroption]

Geomancer (Occultist Archetype)

Fun fact. Did you know that it’s possible to power a light bulb by sinking a wire connected to a power source into the ground and another connected to the bulb a surprising distance away?

I suppose the point of that little tidbit is that the earth beneath our feet is capable of channeling very real power, so it’s only natural to think that it might also channel mystical power.

The word “geomancy” has taken on something of an altered meaning in this day and age of fantastical and over the top special effects and video game animation. I’m sure many of you think of geomancy and imagine a mage ripping stones from the ground to bury and bludgeon foes.

And there’s nothing wrong with that, but much like necromancy, geomancy originally was about gaining information and wisdom from the earth. Hell, Feng Sui is technically a form of geomancy, albeit one peppered with legitimately good advice for designing homes that don’t suck, as is the concept of ley lines and the like.

Today’s subject seeks to reconcile the two, being a bit of tapping into the wisdom and magic of the terrain, with a bit of drawing actual magical power from it as well, as well as a touch of manipulating it in dramatic ways.

The occultist class, with its focus on reading psychic and occult impressions in physical objects, is perfect for this, reflecting the more esoteric mysteries of geomancy both western and eastern, in addition to using them with the more dramatic geomancy we see in the modern era. Just look up geomantic tools and charts and tell me that you can’t imagine a fantasy geomancer using them to summon power from the terrain.

The result is an occultist whose magic varies a bit depending on what terrain they are in, and can be quite formidable. I imagine they are most common in regions where esoteric and occult lore is given a lot of credence and respect, perhaps alongside strong druidic traditions.

In addition to storing mental focus in their implements, these mystics can store some in the very terrain itself. As long as they maintain contact with the ground, they can draw upon this investment for various powers.

Additionally, they use some of the focus that they would use to learn magic associated with an implement to instead draw magic from their environment, these spells changing as they change what terrain they are in. Cold regions grant icy spells; deserts grant those of heat, dryness, and sand; forests let them manipulate and commune with plant life; jungle taps into the poisonous and verminous life found there; mountain calls upon deadly stone attacks and utility; plains call upon wind, agile quadrupeds, and the multitudes of unnoticed insects; other planes draw upon useful utility and survival spells for extraplanar realms; swamps offer mud, rot, and insect life; underground gifts earth manipulation, enhanced senses, stifled air, and formless allies; urban grants magical understanding, agility, and stealth; and finally, water grants survivability beneath the surface and direct control over water.

The level of investment these mystics put into the terrain enhances their awareness of it, making it easier to survive and thrive therein.

They can, however, expend some to bolster their speed, the terrain shifting to remove obstacles , give them boosts, and otherwise quicken them.

These geomancers can also expend some energy to bolster themselves and nearby landbound allies, the terrain empowering their strikes and defenses alike.

Their most dramatic abilyt allows them to reshape the terrain into a strong barrier with a hefty expenditure of energy.

At the cost of one implement school, these mystics gain what is essentially a different implement school with ever-changing spells useful for whatever environment they are in as well as survival buffs, mobility, buffs, and battlefield control. Of course, all of these abilities require mental focus to be invested beforehand, so you can pick when to use them each day depending on the situation, investing a lot or a little and reallocating as needed. The spells and powers are guaranteed to almost always be moderately useful as long as you and the party don’t do a lot of flying, so you’ll probably enjoy it a lot. I recommend a build centered on buffing and battlefield control, appropriately.

This archetype doesn’t reference real-world geomancy all that much in the end, but you can totally use such tools and symbology as part of your character’s arsenal and aesthetic. It mostly revolves around finding ways to randomly generate symbols and then interpreting them, though other forms exist as well.

For decades, the journal known as the Wanderman’s Cypher has eluded decryption, but new evidence points to the key being tied to mystical signifiers tied to the locations where they were originally written and encoded. Of course, the text is centuries old, so acquiring the answers will need strong retrocognitive magic tied to the memory of the land rather than the memories of mortals.

It is theorized that the gargoyles of Nakkor created the Nakkori Lines, great shapes carved into the badlands earth that are visible from the air, as a way to navigate while high in the air, and while it is true that they do use them for such now, other sources suggest they are much older.

There are plenty of mystics that claim domain of the sea, but the ocean giant tyrant Ogzal claims not only his domain, but the shore beyond as well, backing it up with mystical arts tied to his esoteric magics. Stripping him of that power will help those seeking to dethrone him stand a chance.

[houseofbrat]

As a urologist this sounds like bladder cancer

There are several types of bladder cancer, so without knowing what the pathology is it’s hard to say what his prognosis is. About 70% of tumors can be managed without major surgery or chemotherapy. I am guessing by his “routine treatments” that he has a good prognosis

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Not in the traditional sense. Some bladder cancers can be managed by putting therapy directly into the bladder through a catheter. In the US we use something called BCG, but we can also use other types of chemotherapy. It’s very different than getting normal chemotherapy.

That statement is what makes me think he has bladder cancer and is likely undergoing a BCG regimen.

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My dad had / has bladder cancer. From what I understand, the specific type of bladder cancer determines whether it's aggressive or not. Again, "from what I understand", there are two factors that determine the severity: what tissues are affected (superficial tissue to muscle tissue to actually through the wall and into neighbouring organs / tissue) and the type of cancer. Some types spread more rapidly. Basically: an aggressive type that already penetrated the muscle tissue is extremely bad news, while a non-agressive type in the superficial tissue is very treatable.

u/gu_doc please correct me if I got it all wrong!

gu_doc: You are absolutely correct.

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Every BPH surgical treatment that I can think of will involve direct visualization or imaging of the bladder. It’s not too uncommon for us to look in the bladder when evaluating BPH and find a bladder tumor.

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It’s not uncommon to incidentally find bladder cancer when working up a prostate. Obviously there are many other possibilities, but this is my guess.

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I was wondering (because I legitimately don’t know) if BCG is used over there. Don’t they use BCG as their tuberculosis vaccine? I wonder if intravesical BCG is more or less effective in that case

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They almost might have thought something was like reactive tissue but turned out CIS or something. I don’t know. Maybe they put him up in stirrups and found a wart.

We don’t always scope before BPH procedure in my practice if we have a prostate volume from another source

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BCG reduces the risk of recurrence, so fewer times going to the OR potentially. We treat people in their 70s and 80s all the time for this

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Why do I jump to bladder primary? Because it fits the story to me.

The perception I got is that this other primary was found during a BPH surgery. Not during scans or evaluation, but during a surgery. Areas often overlooked that would be seen better during surgery would be something oral, maybe something of the lungs/airway (maybe he got bronched due to blood on ET tube placement?), penis, testicles, bladder, and anus.

Again, as a urologist, bladder fits the story to me. We are obviously missing a ton of information here as they’re being intentionally vague. I could be way, way wrong. I could just see it. This happens not infrequently in my practice.

And I don’t mean UCC metastatic to the prostate. I’m saying they saw it on cystoscopy and biopsied it separately.