#its safe to assume they r unless stated otherwise

[matoitech]

new guy alert!! i went in to design a different character who ive been trying to work out in my mind and came out w a guy with a mullet. as one does. character designing similar to what happened when i tried to design cas and came out with lucas instead and was like okay well lucas fucks and i must keep him so theyre just two seperate guys now and i STILL have the original guy to design. but anyway i like him and im glad i liked the first pass of a design enough to work w it so he may go thru some changes since originally this was just gonna be laying down color ideas for the other guy and he morphed in2 his own thing

[sintember]

Welcome to Sintember

This blog is the official home of the Sintember writing challenge, an annual (hopefully!) writing challenge that takes place over the month of September. As you might suspect from the name, this challenge focuses on sin. This challenge is a place to write and share your darkest fantasies.

While the challenge is active, I will endeavor to reblog all properly submitted stories in the #sintember 2024 tag, along with any stories submitted to the blog itself, for each day. I will try to go through them twice a day during September, then once a day for the first week of October, but understand that I am just one person, and sometimes I will have other things I need to do. All of the posts will be placed in a queue in an attempt to keep submissions somewhat chronological, but this does mean that posts may not appear in the same ‘day’ that they are posted. I also live in Aotearoa so be aware of time-zones.

For now, this blog is a sideblog, so be aware that any likes, replies and asks will come from my main @loathsome-sickness.

Important Notes!

I am going to be assuming that submissions are ok to post (either by linking the Ao3 story or reblogging a story on Tumblr, credit will always be given!) to this blog unless clearly stated otherwise, because I have far too much anxiety to go around asking people. If you want a post removed just let me know!

Tumblr likes to randomly hide things from the tag searches, especially when the posts have spicy content. To make sure your submission is spotted please @ this blog when you post it!

This blog is explicitly pro-kink, anti-censorship and anti-harassment. Anyone found to be equivocating fiction or kinks to real world harm, and/or accusing people of real, serious harm over fiction or kinks will be blocked without warning. I really did not think this needed to be stated given the nature of this challenge but alas.

Some (Hopefully) Mobile Friendly Links

Content Warning System

Old Prompts & Collections

Sintember 2024 Prompts

Sintember 2024 Ao3 Collection

Rebloggable Advertisement

Guidelines under the cut.

Submission Guidelines

Because this challenge is very nsfw, it is 18+.

If you want your story posted to the blog, either tag it as  #sintember 2024 or submit it directly to the blog. If you post the story on Archive of Our Own, you can post or submit the link. If you are posting to tumblr, please @ this blog to make sure your submission is seen!

All submissions must follow the content warning system. If you are posting/submitting a link from Ao3, the site’s tagging system can serve as your warning. Content warnings should be on the post itself at the beginning of the story, as tags for this kind of content will likely remove you from search results. Similarly, refrain from embedding any nsfw images in your submission.

You may submit art to this challenge if you like, but if you do please make sure it is underneath a read-more with the proper content warnings above it so that I can reblog them safely for everyone following the challenge.

Due to the current fandom/censorship climate, there is a reasonable chance this challenge (and its participants) could end up receiving negative attention. Please look after yourselves. Anonymous submissions are an option (either through asks or titling the submission as an anonymous one so I can see it and post it directly), and you can always make an anonymous sideblog to post your stories to if needed.

Although this is a 30 day challenge, I’m not expecting people to just belt out 30 stories in 30 days. If you need to skip days, do so. If you need to take your time, you can still submit stories ‘late’ and I will still post them. You can also start writing as soon as the prompts are live! I mean, how would I even know?

The cut-off date for each year's submissions will be July 1st the following year in order to focus and plan for the next year.

The person running this blog lives in a very early time-zone, so most references to time will be from that point of view. Submissions for days do not have to adhere to this time-zone!

Etiquette Guidelines

Be polite when interacting with fics and your fellow participants. We’re all just a bunch of weirdos trying to have fun here.

Read the content warnings if you intend to read other people’s submissions, and understand that you should expect to see some pretty dark/extreme stuff here.

Hate directed at this blog or that I see in reblogs/replies of fic will result in a block and will never be published here. Threats and anything else illegal will also be reported to the appropriate authorities. 

If you receive any harassment from a named blog as a result of participating in this challenge, please send me a screenshot or a link so I can block them here. I can’t do much about anon hate unfortunately. I will not block or take other action against people without proof.

If you are unsure if I noticed your submission and want to know if it’s queued, feel free to send in an ask and I can let you know. I try to like all posts as I queue them to help let people know they’ve been seen (main is @loathsome-sickness).

Want to see more submissions/participants? Reblog stuff about the challenge, tell your friends, practice dark summoning rituals.

I will likely not be personally reading all of the submissions before posting them. I am trusting y'all to follow the guidelines. If you come across something that violates any of these guidelines please let me know.

Content Guidelines

If you could put it on Ao3 (pretty much if it’s legal to write), you can submit it to this challenge.

You can write both fan content and original content. Characters/themes of all identities and various diversities are welcome!

Submissions should have at least a little spice to them, either in tone, topic, or being generally taboo in nature, but they do not all have to be ‘extreme’ or even sexual.

There is no word limit or word requirement (though, one word stories might be pushing it a little). There are also no limits on style of prose, you could write a poem every day if you wanted to!

You are allowed to submit fics you have already written in the past if you want to and they fit the prompt in some way. The only limit to this is that each story should only be submitted once. An exception to this is Throwback Thursdays - where you may repeat a previous response to the post if you like.

The prompts, and the blurbs that go with them, are meant to encourage creativity, not limit it. So long as you can link the story to the prompt in your mind, even if it is the flimsiest connection ever, you’re still following the prompt. That being said, if you don’t like a day’s prompt, feel free to just make up something you like better, or feel free to skip the day entirely.

[paran0rmality]

Northwoods Gothic from my other blog(deleted)

If you hear rain on a long drive through the tree filled slopes, it’s not rain. Turn your radio up louder. Pretend not to hear. 

Not everything with antlers is a deer, and not all of them are patient.

If you see something weird. and the roads are clear, keep driving. You’re not meant to stop and stare.

If it doesn’t look right, stop looking, It wasn’t ready to be seen.

 If  you stop seeing someone around town and no one’s mentioned it, don’t ask about it.

If you see a stray dog, don’t go near it. Ask where it’s owner is. If it looks in a given direction, tell it to go home, it should. If it keeps staring at you or it’s tail stops wagging, leave. Immediately. That’s not a dog, and if it is it knows where home is and will find its way back. It’s probably not safe to get any closer.

The wolves are not your biggest threat in the woods. Remember to wear bright colors, regardless of time of year. If you hear screams, they’re most likely not from a person, get in your car and leave, if you don’t, you have a good chance of being attacked.

The locals may seem nice, but they’re weary behind closed doors. We don’t get outsiders. They don’t trust you, no matter how long you plan on living here.

Don’t try to befriend your neighbor by showing up at their house uninvited. At best, you’ll see the barrel of a rifle. 

Respect the woods and its inhabitants. Those who don’t are more likely to go missing and not return.

When buying an old, cheap house, always check for mold, asbestos and lead paint before buying, or at the least in the beginning of renovations. 

Always keep something you value(not money or traditional valuables) in your car or on your person. Something you hold dear, you never know when you may wind up in the woods. Something is better than nothing when it comes to an offering for whatever lurks in the seemingly never ending forests.

The state is 48% forest land. If you go north, you will end up in them involuntarily at least once. Be careful..

Remember, if you were not born here, those living around you will always be hesitant. The smaller towns are not a good choice, even if the houses are cheaper. Choose something with a population of 3,000 or higher, it’s safer for you there.

The sirens you hear in the middle of the night are most likely not to warn you about tornados. Wait for 30 seconds. Stay quiet, remember, if it dips, you’re fine. It’s probably just a fire.  If it doesn’t, get in the basement and pray it’s just more downbursts. The houses here aren’t made for tornados, and you don’t want to imagine what horrors one would bring.

Don’t ask about the babbling that comes from the loudspeakers scattered on telephone poles throughout town. No one will answer. No one knows, it’s best to ignore what they’re saying.

When your friend asks you if you want to come to their cabin in the summer, go. Have fun. However, if it’s during spring or fall, be weary. If it’s in winter, politely decline. 

If it’s not a handgun, it’s not for self defense. Don’t anger whoever’s behind it, hunters know how to hit their target.

Don’t try to make plans during deer or bear season, you will be roped into helping gut an animal.

Reminder, there are around 400 Elk, and 30 Moose up here and they will kill you should you bother them. They are much, much bigger than deer, and much less tolerant.

Do not go onto a property you don’t own or don’t know the owner of unless it’s necessary for your survival. Curiosity will kill the cat.

If the frost on your window looks like it’s starting to spell something, scrape it away or hide it. Frost can’t write.

Backroads should be plowed, and the snow should mostly be gone, but remain wary of other road hazards.

Be v e r y careful when getting out of your car to see if the ‘animal you hit is dead’. When in doubt, unfortunately the (generally speaking) best option is to call the non-emergency line for the police, or emergency line if it's an emergency. Know the numbers for the area you’re traveling.

Sand on roads can be slidey, don’t drive like a jackass, not everyone will care if you end up in a ditch from your own stupidity.

If you’re not sure how deep the mud is, test it. Don’t just assume.

The lights over the lake are usually just DNR drones, ignore them.

The weird orange lights in town are usually just from the football field parking lot. Ignore them as well.

It may be sunny, and the lakes may be mostly clear of ice, but don’t go swimming just yet. Just, don’t.

Be wary of swimming in lakes May-July. If the signs say don't swim, don’t swim. No one will pity you when you’re itching for weeks because you didn’t listen.

Hitchhiking is legal, yes, but up north it is NOT recommended. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you will live to do it again.

Don’t pick up hitchhikers, animal or otherwise.

There are fates worse than death.

Do not assume people are home.

Do not assume people are not home.

Always lock your doors and windows, armed or not. Chances are, you’re not the only one with a gun.

If you can help it, don’t over share with those you don’t know. Openness is not always a trait people trust.

Remember, human eyes don’t reflect light like animal eyes do. They don’t have the reflective layer that some animals have. If they’re glowing yellow/orange/green/etc, that’s almost guaranteed not a human.

Be careful what you say and who you insult. As with anywhere, there are  bad people with good connections. 

It’s not cleaned as often as they say, stop at a kwik trip or wait until you’re home.

If you’re thinking about touching it, there’s a good chance at least a dozen other people have.

If the air smells bad, stay inside. Excess exposure can and has caused problems.

[wisehq]

Mission Debrief: Chapter 43

...IT’S HAPPENING! IT’S HAPPENING! IT’S HAPPENING-!

Alright, before we get into it- full disclosure; the hivemind is in full swing at the Operation Strix discord server, so pretty much anything I write here is going to be an amalgamation of all the conspiracy theories and reactions we vomited out as soon as the chapter dropped. On that same note, I think writing these the day after will start to be the norm. Just so I have the chance to calm myself before going on a twenty-page tangent about everything Endo may or may not be planning.

Okay [deep breath] let’s get into it.

First, let’s start off with Franky, before we get into the juicy stuff.

When the chapter first started, I thought we were going to get backstory on Franky. Endo seemed to be alluding to this on his twitter page, and I was actually interested in possibly seeing more about his and Twilight’s relationship. Of course that didn’t end up happening; instead we got another side story about Franky trying to get some action by finding a lady’s lost cat, but seeing as how it’s Franky we’re talking about it seemed appropriate. Also, how can I be upset when-

The princess herself arrives! I gotta say, I loved the lightheartedness of most of this chapter. Yor’s always a delight, and pairing her together with Franky was a smart move on Endo’s part. They built off each other’s wackiness and I love this moment with the two of them. Just like with Twilight, we see that Franky genuinely wants to make the world a better place (and also get rich along the way) and Yor’s so impressed with him. I also liked that moment where Franky is surprised to find Yor still playing Loid’s wife even when he isn’t there- much like how he was with Anya while he was babysitting her. Just another little nod to the fact that he sees the Forger girls as being more than players in a game of elaborate house.

Then- just a quick thing before we get into what I know we all want to talk about- it’s interesting to me that Franky isn’t a one-man operation. He has a whole network of informants that he works with, and it makes sense that someone in his line of work has a many ears on the wall as possible. It’s a surefire way to stay plugged into the goings-on of the Ostanian underworld, unless of course...

...They get taken out by Garden.

AGHGHGHGHGH ALRIGHT, OK LET’S GO-

Garden. We finally have a name for Yor’s group now; we thought it was The Shop for the longest time, but apparently that’s only part of it. Yor alluded to this briefly back in ch. 29 when she described The Shop was being in charge of information gathering, and once their job was done it was Yor’s turn to come in and do the actual assassination. In this sense we see The Shop was being more of a support role in the same way that Franky is, though it’s still safe to assume the Shopkeeper is still in charge of both The Shop and Garden. At least for now- until we get more information to say otherwise, anyway.

Of course, the interesting thing is our silhouetted figures standing in this panel- not to mention the fact that Franky states that all the members are capable of taking on a whole troop of soldiers (for reference, a troop ranges between 9 and 100 men, though it usually hovers around 50). We know Yor is capable of doing this, but now that we also know the other assassins of Garden are as well, it begs the question; is Yor’s strength truly a unique thing in this world? And if it isn’t, what could be the source of it?

OSO-R, the drug used during the Tennis arc, was described as being in its trial stages. I originally chalked up it’s fast development time as just being part of manga logic, although I’m now starting to question that theory. It’s possible the roadmap for OSO-R has been around for much longer than first thought, and may find its traces back to when the war had just ended. Loid describes Garden as having been around for some time. We also know that Yor was just a child when she started up her assassination gig, so it’s possible that she and others like her may be have been exposed to a serum similar to OSO-R a decade or so before. Given Ostania’s track record of human experimentation, the scenario is possible.

Also going back to what Franky describes as “the shadow government”; it’s interesting that we’re hearing rumblings of a government operating outside the public’s view literally one chapter after we were just introduced to the concept of a royal class at some point in Ostania’s past. There’s a lot of things that cab be construed from this (such as Garden serving an authority that doesn’t necessarily align with Donovan and the government) but listing everything would just turn this review into one long-winded mess. So instead, we’re gonna entertain a fun theory- one that may or may not be true, but if it *does* end up being confirmed later on down that road, you heard it here first.

*ahem*

Mr. Green is a part of Garden.

Allow me to state my case.

When ch. 39 came out, I found it very unusual that a brand new character we haven’t seen before got a majority of the panel-time alongside Damian and the boys. It wasn’t very suspicious at the time, given that we’d just been introduced to Becky’s maid Martha, so we all just assumed Endo was building up his side characters a bit. For all intents and purposes, that may very well be the case.

However.

I know one person in particular who latched onto this panel right here, and for good reason; why would a security guard stationed at a school nowhere close to the border know about code words being used by people trying to cross over illegally? Yes, he was supposedly in the navy, but the way he phrases it here heavily implies that these code words are a recent affair, or at the very least are still being used currently. Why would he know that? Even if he was in the military, it’s information that has absolutely nothing to do with being in the navy.

Mr. Green is also very strong; strong enough to make the boys think they were going down rapids when in actuality it was just him rowing so fast. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever paddled a boat before, but it’s hard work- and it’s certainly difficult to the get that boat going at cruising speed, let alone fast enough to cause rapids. Yor’s the only one we’ve seen with strength like that and- yes, Green was supposedly in the navy, but at this point in time we don’t know anything else about him. We don’t know what he did after the war, nor do we know how he wound up in Eden Academy in the first place.

This is where we start going deep down the rabbit hole. Hang on.

This gentleman who we’ve never seen before is clearly aware that Garden exists, or at the very least is privy to Yor’s actual job. Much like how WISE has plants within Loid’s hospital, this man likely works to support Yor in some way. If such is the case, we can likely assume that- because the shadow government is supporting Garden- they would have their assassins posted in key areas for various reasons, likely to keep an eye out for traitors or to keep them spread out to cover a wide area should the need ever arise to deploy them.

We’ve only ever see Yor target traitorous politicians and outright terrorists (I realize this one is just a daydream, but you get my point). It would make sense, seeing as how she works at city hall and it would likely put her in an advantageous position when hunting them down. Of course, politicians aren’t the only people who might catch Garden’s attention. Given the amount of political and economic unrest that is currently going on in the country, there likely would be some people who would be fed up with the state of things. Such people may not be like Franklin Perkin- someone who would take direct action against the government- but instead would rather try to steer others towards a mindset that stands in opposition to Ostania. Such a person may try to target more impressionable people- people who are likely to listen and learn from an authority figure in their lives. People like...small children.

Eden students.

Garden. Eden. I see what you’re doing there, Endo.

Traitorous professors? Renegade academics? It would make sense to have a Garden assassin stationed at the most prestigious school in the country; the amount of information and contacts that are positioned around there are second to none, and what better way to suppress insurrection than at the source, at the very foundations of knowledge itself? Also, for kicks and giggles, let’s not forget that the name Mr. Green certainly fits with the plant motif Endo is going for with his assassin group (Garden. Thorn Princess. Briar. You catch my drift?)

Am I grasping at straws? Probably lol. I’d also like to reiterate that this is in no way all my thinking- a lot of crazy people put their brains together for this one, good or bad. But hey, it’s about all we can do until the next chapter! And at the very least, it’s a lot of fun to wonder what-if!

Also, BONUS

...She’s coming.

[chrysalispen]

borealis, #1 (Nero/WoL, prompt response)

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28633701/chapters/70185441

Prompt: One ship, ten kisses shared. -cheek -forehead -crown of the head -nose -eyelids -lips -neck -thigh -hand -foot

Bonuses if: -1 kiss type per scene, ten scenes total -5 initiated by one partner, 5 by the other.

First prompt response below cut.

==

1. cheek

"Seven hells, it's cold-"

Four words she had never thought would possibly escape her lips, in the five years since she'd left Garlemald, and yet here she was. A sharp, brisk gust of chilly air blew through the crack in the front door before Aurelia Laskaris managed to pull it shut.

One of Coerthas' winter storms had blown off its expected course and produced snow- real snow, too, not the cold rain that had normally wrapped up the year's end ever since the Calamity. Heavy flurries of white now fell in placid sheets upon the denizens of the Lavender Beds, blanketing the adventurers' enclave in winter stillness, and Aurelia found herself quite grateful that she'd not yet managed to set aside the time to reseed her gardens after returning to the Source. Already on her way down the road to get the post she'd heard several of her neighbors grousing about their ruined crops.

She slipped her feet into her soft house shoes and padded into the kitchen, snapping on a nearby light and making a beeline for the automated kettle next to the range. After a moment the rich scent of roasted coffee wafted into the air.

Once she had helped herself to a mug full of the brew Aurelia ambled into her sitting room to admire the fruits of her labors. Holly garlands draped the windows and the rafters, adorned with the same red and gold organza ribbons as the large Coerthan spruce in the corner. All were strewn with lights that cast a soft glow over each leaf and translucent curl. She had fashioned a simple wreath to hang in the kitchen where the cookfire burned low to keep the night's meal warm for gradual consumption, and it sat in its place above the mahogany dish rack. Beneath the low lights and the fresh smell of evergreen and apples and cinnamon, her orchestrion trundled quietly through a selected collection of songs.

As she gazed at the tree the tilt of her smile took on a pensive cast. The greenhouse at the Laskaris villa - her de facto domain - had been wholly subject to her uncle and his austere aesthetic sensibilities. Every leaf and branch had had to be bound and trimmed and neatly in place. In the seven years she had lived there, not a single ilm of the family property had been allowed to have Aurelia's touch upon it. Not even the room in which she'd stayed when out of school on term breaks.

The little forest cottage wouldn't be seen as much in the way of wealth, not back in the capitol. To the eyes of her aunt and uncle, or anyone else in her family for that matter, it would be positively rustic if not outright primitive. It didn't have a magitek greenhouse or a central heating system, and precious few technological amenities. But nearly every piece of furniture in it had been fashioned by her own hand. Including the decorations she now admired.

This was her place. That was what mattered.

"You look in a fine mood," a voice drifted upwards from the cushions of the sectional. Aurelia grinned and set the mug down upon the low-slung table.

"I was just thinking about how much I enjoy having my own house."

"Must say I rather enjoy you having a house myself, all things considered." She felt a slight nudge against her side, followed by a faint clatter. Nero was sitting up, the tomestone in his hand having joined her coffee mug on the side table. "...It looks good, by the by."

"What does- oh. The tree? You wouldn't believe the ridiculous lengths I had to go to in order to get that here."

"Having involved myself in your adventures on multiple occasions, I assume shenanigans of some sort must necessarily be involved unless otherwise stated. You've something of a knack for finding trouble."

"Trouble which you have instigated on more than one occasion."

"As I said," that grin was all teeth, "you've a knack for finding trouble. And speaking of finding things, I'll be back in a moment."

Aurelia watched him amble through the stairwell entrance and turn the corner past the orchestrion to make his descent. She noted (with some considerable amount of personal amusement) that for all her grousing about the former tribunus' presence at the combined Ironworks-Scions Starlight party Tataru had also made Nero a natty holiday jumper - and she'd even knitted it using yarn she had dyed in his favorite color. All the more surprising, although he had not said a word about the gathering since, was the fact he was actually wearing it.

Her smile returned as she retrieved her mug.

The coffee was half gone by the time he returned, this time bearing a rather bulky unwrapped box in his hands. He shifted it from his shoulder to his hands with a soft grunt that indicated it was every ilm as heavy as it appeared. "I was going to give this to you later," he explained, setting it down in front of her feet, "but as usual I've no idea when either of us might be off again."

"A gift?" Still smiling, Aurelia set the mug aside. "Since when do you celebrate Eorzean holidays?"

" 'When in Allag', and all that. And Mistress Tataru, despite her threats, did leave the pins out of the undertunic she gave me." A brief smirk tilted his mouth. "I do believe your little secretary likes me more than she lets on."

"Or she's resigned herself to your presence. For Cid's sake, you know."

"You jest, but this is actually a joint gift from myself and Garlond. As you know, he's had to return to Othard. Thus, I am the one tasked with presenting it." At her hesitation, he urged, "Go on, open it."

With some effort she lifted the box into her lap. It was a standard-issue imperial transport container made of reinforced black steel, and the base was cold enough that it radiated a chill even through her breeches; she winced when its weight settled into her thighs. Carefully she unfastened the latches and lifted the lid-

-and her eyes went wide at its contents. "...This is-"

"A portable refrigerated centrifuge."

"Where in the seven hells did you find one of these? I haven't set hand to a personal centrifuge in years. The medical laboratory at Castrum Novum just used those massive consoles that they'd built to set-"

"Into the wall mounts in the old R&D sectors, yes. At any rate, I plucked the original from one of the research bays- not that it was functional when I found it, mind, but there are schematics in the archives for just about anything one can imagine."

"Surely it wasn't necessary to go to all that trouble."

"That is where you would be wrong," he said dryly, lifting the centrifuge from its storage with considerable effort. The angle was somewhat awkward, and it wobbled for a moment before Aurelia was able to brace her hands and take it from him. He fastened the latches and reached over the arm of the sofa to set the container out of the way. "There were several specific components I required for the modified buildout which, one can safely say, cannot be sourced via other means."

"Precisely how much did you modify it?" Aurelia tilted the heavy tool this way and that, watching the lights from the tree shimmer over its smoothly brushed surface. "...I'm not about to find an operable magitek laser turret tucked into the rotor or something equally daft, am I?"

He squinted at her but chose to ignore the remark. "Aside from a minor tweak for improved performance, as it happens there was only one major modification to the original build. For practicality's sake."

"Only one?"

"Only one. Why?"

She pressed a hand to her chest in mock surprise.

"That sort of self-restraint isn't like you at all. Are you certain you're well?"

"Trying to be funny again, I see." He cast his eyes to the heavens. "I shall have you know it was his idea."

"Oh? That's a surprise."

"The auxiliary power source normally would need to be connected to a ceruleum generator for a charge, but this design utilizes aetheric energy harnessed from a corrupted crystal. Some wild hair of Garlond's cobbled together on a previous project with some degree of success, if the sales are any indication." His smile faded, lips pursed as if he'd bitten into some particularly sour piece of fruit. "...Given it sprouted from one of those half-baked experiments of his, I suppose it functions reasonably well."

He sounded rather surly - rankling, perhaps, at his own acknowledgment that he had needed Cid's assistance in order to complete the gift. When she wrenched her focus away from her silent admiration of the customized chassis (which was, of course, a deep wine red), his brows were knit together in a faint scowl that indexed that line nigh to the lower curve of his third eye.

Aurelia leaned over and gently brushed her lips against his cheek. It was warm and smooth, devoid of its customary evening shadow; she realized he must have taken a razor to his jaw earlier in the day. The earthy scent of sandalwood shaving soap lingered in her nose for a moment before she righted herself.

"If you frown like that every time you have to swallow your pride to ask for his help," she warned, poking his broad nose with one gentle fingertip, "you'll give yourself wrinkles."

"You mean more wrinkles," he groused. "In case you've not noticed, I'm not getting any younger."

"Yes, nigh on thirty-seven* winters now," Aurelia said with a perfectly straight face, though the mischievous twinkle that lit her dark blue eyes was impossible to miss. "Well past one's prime, in my professional opinion. Ancient. Antediluvian."

"Utterly decrepit," he sighed. The scowl had smoothed from his brow, and she knew by the lazy and unguarded drawl which now laced his words that he was no longer annoyed. "I'll be naught but dust by the time I'm forty."

"Doubtless. You could practically pass for an Allagan relic now- that is, if you weren't more easily mistaken for a bloody dhalmel."

Nero laughed aloud at last, the fine lines winging out from the corners of his eyes crinkling with his mirth, and wrapped his arms around her smaller frame - centrifuge and all. "Flattery will get you everywhere, hero," he said. "Come here."

She seated herself atop his thighs as if he were one of her reading cushions and relinquished her prize, shaking out the pins and needles in her arms as he set it next to the table, then returned to his full-body lounge. His woolen-clad arms lay draped over her forearms in a loose, casual sort of way, something almost but not quite an embrace.

Aurelia considered extricating herself to get more coffee, but the combined assault of the fireplace's crackle with the cable knit of Tataru's scarlet jumper seemed to beckon her into a warm and happy torpor, and the notion of leaving it aside even for a few moments seemed far too much effort so she pillowed her cheek against his broad chest. He was all angles and lean muscle but comfortable enough regardless. "Seriously though," she said, "I mean it. Please be at least somewhat mindful of your safety in future. That was a great deal of risk just for a blueprint and some parts."

"Come now, it wasn't that much trouble." His light tenor was only barely louder than the strong thump of the heartbeat she could hear with one ear just beneath his collarbone. "I all but strolled through the gates, and Garlond sent the very appropriately named Biggs along with me. Safe as houses."

Aurelia raised a skeptical brow - she had no doubt that more must have happened than he was letting on - but said only: "You're going to have to tell me all about it after I've set this up in my workspace."

"Ah." He cleared his throat. "I had... rather hoped I could be there when you do. So I can show you what changes were made, mind."

Even as the words left his mouth she watched the tips of Nero's ears turn pink, the same shade as the flush along his nose and cheekbones - neither of which could be attributed to the warmth of the room. She found it terribly cute but wasn't about to embarrass him further by saying so. "I'd like that very much," she beamed. "But it's rather late tonight. Tomorrow, perhaps?"

"I-" A hesitation, then a half-tilted smile. "...Tomorrow it is."

She pushed at the heavy chassis beneath the table with one stocking-clad toe and leaned comfortably into his side with a yawn. The last two days had been rather eventful but the sofa cushions were plush and cozy, the room was warm and quiet and dimly lit, and she was in the company of a close friend in a house she'd chosen for herself, drinking coffee and watching the snow fall in silent sheets through the windows.

For the moment at least, she was content. It was a good state of mind.

"Had I known you'd be this pleased I'd have prevailed upon Garlond much sooner," came the low, teasing rumble from the man whose cheek was now resting upon the crown of her head. She poked him gently in the side.

"That's because you're actually a good sort when you want to be, you know. Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. I won't even tell Tataru."

"Excellent. I should hate to have your lot think that perhaps I might enjoy their company. Can you imagine how ghastly that would be?"

"Making friends? The absolute horror of it all. Though I'm afraid you'll not be able to fool Alisaie or Tataru as long as you imagine. Or Y'shtola for that matter- she's rather discerning." Aurelia paused. "Also, she is quite often more than slightly terrifying."

"I shall take that as a friendly warning."

At his quiet scoff, she allowed herself a brief chuckle before her own smile faded somewhat.

"You really didn't have to do this, you know-"

"That's three times you've attempted to apologize. Don't. You're overthinking matters, as per usual," Nero said mildly. "Accept it in the spirit which it was intended- such is the purpose of this exchange, after all, so Garlond says. I did it because I wanted to do it, and that is reason enough."

She was going to ruin the moment if she said anything else, so she didn't. Instead she reached for the other hand that lay free in his lap. He let her lace his fingers through hers without comment, and when she squeezed he squeezed back.

They said nothing else after that for a long time. They sat together in comfortable silence before the hearth fire watching the wind spit snow onto the frosty window by the huge tree, and Aurelia found herself wishing every Starlight could end so well.

[yooniegalaxy]

Okay, so this is going to be fun. So the preface behind this is that V got a few asks about this and then I went and straight up threw in my two cents... and in return got these asks. Instead of fuming about it and just keyboard warrior-ing back at the person ( using person as a very loose term at this point ) I decided to take a step back and deal with this rationally.

Trigger Warnings // Abuse, Assault, R*pe and Predatory Men Mentions. Public Masturbation. I will tag appropriately.

I apologize, in advance, for the length. I also haven’t proofread this because at some point I just didn’t care enough to re-read. Yes, I did cite things. Don’t @ me about it.

Alright, so this is very bold of you to assume that you know anything about my culture as it is. There are more than just that one reason as to why Korean women/girls aren’t dating ( which is also very bold of you to assume ). There is a great divide in everything. South Korea is a very patriarchal society, so of course there are privileges to being a man. But that can literally be said any where in the world. The world is intrinsically male oriented, despite having various matriarchal societies.

If we are talking about Korean women in general, there are a lot of reasons why they don’t date aside from the inherent fear. It is literally the fact that everyone pays attention to their careers first. School is a very large part of Korean Society, as well as a lot of other Asian Countries. Education is the first and foremost for a lot people, which often pushes the bounds of women when do decide to date, if at all.

“It says so in an article“, is not a great defense, especially since the only article I could find about this was a CNN article ( feel free to read it here ). While well researched, it is under the lens of a University study for a “Gender and Culture“ class taught at Sejong University. They do go into statistics about economic strain and what percentage of age groups are single and may not be dating.

I pulled this from the article, “[a] growing number of South Koreans are shunning romantic relationships amid economic hardships and societal problems.“ This, in and of itself, counteracts your broad strokes claim. The fact of the matter is that you clearly don’t understand how expensive it is to date anyone or live in Korean society. Even going out with friends is awful, I find, because we are always drinking and heading to the next bar or the next and you’re no fun unless you go to all of the bars. If you ditch, you are literally called no fun and you can kiss your social life goodbye.

South Korean Culture is very much about group dynamics and it is social suicide not to hang out when asked unless you have a VERY good reason. This brings me to, “[t]he country's overall unemployment rate last year rose to its highest level in 17 years, at 3.8%. The youth unemployment rate was far higher, at 10.8% for those aged 15 to 29.” This is basically the fact of the matter, dating and socializing unless you are getting funded by your parents, is EXPENSIVE. Even when you are out of University and starting your first job, if you are even hired. If you aren’t, you will be working any form of shop job, construction, retail or food and service. 

Side note: minimum wage in South Korea is 7530 won/hr, or like 6-ish USD, but not a lot of places even pay that. They pay under that.

Yes, in the light of a lot of Korean scandals and lot of word of mouth about x boyfriend or y abuse incident, many people are put off by the idea of dating. But I feel like this is the case everywhere and not just South Korea. You could even say that it is taken less lightly elsewhere in the world than it is in South Korea.

You also have to realize that this article is literally just talking about Korean Women dating Korean Men. There are a plenty of other races that live in South Korea that are ex-pats, are studying abroad or are teaching abroad ( as they don’t really like hiring people of Asian Heritage to teach English, especially ). A lot of South Koreans hire a lot of foreign specialists for jobs due to the high specializations in some fields. So Korean Women might not be dating Korean Men, but they are still dating.

This is not a “not all men” statement because I will never make that statement. “Not all men” is such a stupid statement because it is inherently bias. 

Korean dating culture isn’t dead. People still date. People still count their relationships in days and have cute anniversaries. People are allowed not to feel safe. I don’t feel safe and I live in a country where I am allotted freedom and yet I still look over my shoulder because off the gender that I was born as. 

CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE AT THE DOOR. 

Please don’t ignore the fact that you are generalizing a whole population to suit your own arguments and needs. You are literally doing yourself, and everyone you are generalizing, a disservice.

Honestly, no. Claiming you are right is actually a rather sad way to try and win an argument when someone hasn’t responded. My country isn’t “full of predators”. If anything all of my experiences in the United States ( and other countries though I will only give one example ) sort of tells me otherwise. I, personally, have a lot of stories of where I have felt unsafe in countries outside of Asia.

NEW YORK CITY ( tw: male public masturbation, aggression )

I was about nineteen at the time of this incident. I am, by no means, a person who is uneducated or idealistic in anyway. I was raised a realist, someone who wasn’t exactly sheltered from the storm, despite growing up in a traditional family. I made a lot of mistakes as a kid but I learned from.

In New York, I was with one other person. She was around my age and we were exploring the city together and I believe we were going to a conference at the time? I was studying Film at the time and she was a good friend of mine going to New York Film Academy. We hopped on the subway because literally the only way to get around the city unless you want to be stuck in traffic. What I experienced on the train was varying degrees of traumatic but I laugh about it now?

We were chased off the subway four or five stops before we actually wanted to get by a guy literally masturbating directly in view of us. There weren’t that many people on the subway car and he was making DIRECT eye contact with us while were talking about the film we were shooting for class. He was literally dirty talking at us and his advances became more bold until he literally chased us off the subway when we tried to leave.

He couldn’t have been more than I want to say thirty or forty and he was white male privilege. He was wearing a decently fitted suit with shined loafers so, clearly not just a homeless man on the street.

He chased us up to street leave with his dick out, ejaculating at our shoes as we tried to climb the stairs and told us we were ungrateful and deserved it. This happened on three separate occasions in a span of a week, different men.

I was much younger than most people that this happens to on a regular basis in the US. Tell me how “my country” as you call it is full of predators when this is what I was subjected to as a person that, at the time, is older than a solid chunk of the frequenters of this site.

Not only that but I have never felt the need to check my drink as much as I do in a western country as I do in an Asian one. I have been to frat parties and have been witness to college r*pe culture, to where I have been made witness to various friends being roofied because they don’t check their drinks. I was taught as a kid not to leave your drink lying around and if you did, you didn’t drink from it ( I should point out that I grew up both in Seoul and in Canada ).

I don’t feel safe in any country for the fact that I AM A WOMAN and not because of any racial bias that I might have. I don’t have the privilege of walking wherever I like without being cat called fully clothed, not showing any skin or figure. I constantly look over my shoulder when I see a shadow, this is not one country’s problem, it is every country.

Like I said, I was at work and would rather not get fired for interacting with someone that doesn’t take my priority because they wish to remain anonymous and not have educated argument. Rather you would like to anonymously bash a whole nation in which you are NOT apart of. Not that I particularly like my job, it kind of just pays the bills.

[ellrond]

Fave Thomas headcanons, pls.

sorry for the late reply!! this has been in my inbox for like a week but i wanted to give it the attention it deserves!! 

also i dont know if you’re asking for fandom headcanons that ive noticed or my own, but seeing as how i havent seen that many (none actually really spring to mind if im honest) this will just be an incomplete list of my own thomas headcanons unless otherwise stated

(disclaimer: of course it’s very difficult to have an original thought these days, and if you’ve seen these headcanons anywhere else, know i’m not trying to pass someone else’s idea off as my own, it just so happens that i have come to a certain conclusion that another person has, without me even seeing their posts. two people can have the same ideas without ever having any sort of interaction or seeing their posts alright alright glad we got that sorted)

fandom headcanons that r great and i fully endorse 

thomas is gay. he absolutely adores miranda and they share a sex life (whether that be through group sex, mutual masturbation, or straight up one on one sexual activity) but he is a homosexual man

thomas is a top. this one the fandom seems to be agreed on. bottom thomas?? i dont know her

he doesnt like wearing his wig much it is itchy 

my own headcanons

during elections he cast his votes for the Whigs rather than the Tories and should he have ever stood for office in the lower house would have done so as a Whig (the less right-wing of the two political parties during this period of British history) but believed party politics were dangerous and detrimental to the greater good of the country. He saw the dangers of the laizze-faire attitude the Whigs had and their sometimes aggressive anti-Catholicism disturbed him although sometimes the way he has been raised means he lets anti-Catholicism come into his line of thinking (as seen when things get heated with him and pops). That being said, he was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a royalist and had Tory tenancies (I think it’s safe to assume there was little love in Alfred Hamilton for liberalism, and I’m sure Thomas was raised a Tory) in that regard. Thomas was born very close to the time of the Glorious Revolution and with his family being an old aristocratic one, conservatism, in one form or another, would have been in his very bones.

tl;dr ^^ he’s a liberal who dislikes party politics and subscribes to ideologies from both sides of parliament 

he’s a genuine believer in God and in Christ. He knows his scripture (he must be quoting the bible more than hes saying his own original thoughts in the show probably gfgdgfd) and Christ is important to him. He bases his life around Christ’s teachings - that’s why he’s so kind and so concerned with forgiveness and redemption and hope. He rejects the violence and hatred found in other parts of the Bible and has a great love for the gospels instead and finds his strength in Christ’s words about love and kindness and charity and forgiveness. He believes that to be a good Christian one must above all else be kind. He also highly values the lesson of the Good Samaritan (surprise surprise said no one ever) and reminds himself daily to never judge someone else for the life choices and decisions. 

his mother was just as bad as his father. I’ve seen people suggest that thomas’ mother must have been an angel to balance out the devil of alfred for thomas to have turned out so good and im calling bullshit. someone with two mean-spirited and cruel parents can absolutely be wonderful people, and in thomas’ case i believe it was the distance of his parents and their disdain and judgement of the world and unkindness that made thomas quite the opposite. he saw the mistakes they were making and learned from them. 

we know he went to eton. he deffo started kissing boys at the age of 13 or 14. he’s been a heartbreaker since teenagehood. 

he’s around 30-35 when we see him in 1705 (less a headcanon and more a lazy estimation similar to ones hundreds of other people have made) 

he enjoys sex a lot. he’s had a number of sexual partners most of whom were of the same social standing as he and he’s been in love before he meets james. he’s never loved anyone like james though. he believes james is his soulmate

he is caught between thoroughly enjoying high society life with all of its frills - the fashion, the music, the art, the luxurious houses and exuberant interiors - and feeling guilty about being so rich whilst others have so little in comparison. he’s not perfect, and so he lets himself enjoy the glamour of aristocratic europe without trying to give it too much thought. 

it’s canon he’s a Big Thinker and was homies with other Big Thinkers (he probs fucked half of the enlightenment giants but thats for anotehr time) and I Think he’d spend a lot of time Thinking about Big Things you know like ??? would educating the masses be a good thing?? child labour, huh whats that all about is that worth it?? why are some people entitled to more simply because of who they were born as? and what even IS class? and other big questions politics and sociology and criminology and philosophy and economics and history students spend £9k a year thinking about lmao (tag urself im tragic politics student still cryin over the overlooked work engles did for yrs n yrs oh fred you was done so bad i lovE YOU) 

crazy horny boy have james wear a butt plug during dinners with alfred lmao oh tomhas you wild thing

[wasilewskitbfrostzn64insura-blog]

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[trendingnewsb]

5 Real World Problems That Are Straight Out Of Black Mirror

The future! Rocket ships, lasers, robots — it is truly a far-flung, fantastical place. Except, uh … we have all those things right now, and have for some time. The future isn’t some vague, to-be-determined period of existence; it’s literally tomorrow. So today, humanity has to address issues that would have been inconceivable a few paltry years ago. And frankly, some of this stuff still kind of sounds like someone got stoned and then tried to pitch a Black Mirror episode.

5

Fitbits Are Giving Away Military Intelligence

Nowadays it’s routine for people to wear a fitness tracker, but by allowing our data to be shared, we’re also allowing our habits to be shared. That normally shouldn’t be problematic, unless your spouse is learning that your weekly jog takes you straight to the strip club … or you’re exercising on a classified military installation.

Read Next

Britain Just Created An Immigration Crisis Dumber Than DACA

Thanks to a map that shows the jogging habits of the 27 million people who use Fitbits and the like, we can see splotches of activity in otherwise dark areas, like Iraq and Syria. Some of those splotches are known American military sites full of exercising soldiers, and some, by extrapolation, are sites that the military would rather keep unknown. One journalist saw a lot of exercise activity on a Somalian beach that was suspected to be home to a CIA base. Someone else spotted a suspected missile site in Yemen, and a web of bases in Afghanistan were also revealed.

StravaYet another example of why we at Cracked continue to condemn exercise in all its forms.

By analyzing the data, you could theoretically figure out patrol and supply convoy routes, and make educated guesses as to where on these bases soldiers eat, sleep, etc. That’s a lot of useful information for someone planning an attack. You could also track individuals, potentially important ones. One researcher claimed they tracked a French soldier’s entire overseas deployment and subsequent return home.

This wasn’t an evil ploy by a terrorist cell in league with Big Fitness; you can turn that data tracking off. It’s just that no one even thought about it until someone finally pointed out that it was a huge security issue. American rules for fitness trackers in the military are now being “refined,” which we assume is PR speak for “Goddammit, turn that shit off.” But it’s only a matter of time until another seemingly innocuous technology accidentally gives away state secrets.

4

Space Commercialization Might Contaminate Planets

Elon Musk set a new precedent when he launched a car into space, and not only for tacky egotism. The rules about what corporations can and can’t do in space are essentially nonexistent, because the government’s authority ends somewhere around the thermosphere. Governments, however, have legal responsibilities listed in the Outer Space Treaty — one of the few things America and the Soviet Union agreed on. Most of the world has signed as well, and in addition to promising not to put nukes on the Moon or claim all of Jupiter for the proud people of Denmark, adherents agree not to send Earth germs to other planets like the interplanetary version of coughing on the guy next to you at the movie theater.

That sounds a bit silly, but there’s a real point: If Earth microbes accidentally end up on other planets and moons, it becomes impossible for scientists to tell if their “discovery” of life on Io is native, or if it originated from someone sneezing in a Tesla factory. So NASA and other government space agencies follow a strict anti-contamination protocol. American Mars rovers, for example, had all of their parts heated to 230 degrees before launch, and they are routinely sterilized with alcohol. Even if your mission is only to orbit a planet (or swing by one), you have to prove that the odds of an accidental crash landing are equivalent to that of winning a fair-sized lottery.

Kim Shiflett/NASA“Like, Powerball odds. No Pick 3 crap.”

In theory, governments are also responsible for ensuring that any corporations within their borders follow the same rules. But once you move beyond launching satellites into Earth’s orbit, the government’s ability to enforce the law is about equal to your ability to enforce a responsible bedtime on yourself. Maybe that flying Tesla was carefully sterilized, or maybe Musk went out of his way to fart it up before launch. We don’t know. And as more and more corporations talk about going to the Moon and Mars, we may have a germ problem.

There’s also the issue of debris. While we like to think of space as a pristine void, the Solar System is starting to resemble a freshman’s dorm room. Space missions are supposed to be as clean as possible, and a mission to another planet should either purposely burn up in the atmosphere or land when it’s done. Musk’s car was heading toward Mars, where plans for it were sort of a vague shrug. It could have eventually broken up and left debris around the planet, or it could have infected the surface. But instead, it went off-course toward the asteroid belt … where it could also very well hit something and break up. Worst-case scenario, we end up with a bunch of junk floating around that could take out a future mission. Even if his car never hits anything, Musk still broke bold new ground in space litter.

3

Moderators Have To Watch All The Heinous Garbage That Gets Posted On Social Media

Try to imagine the worst job possible. Sewage sampler? Elephant masturbator? How about social media moderator? It sounds like a joke at first: “Facebook has moderators? Then explain all the crap I see every day!” Then you learn that their job is mostly to filter out pornography, and it sounds awesome. Aren’t you supposed to get paid to do what you love?

But then you learn about the truly awful shit that moderators see as they cruise through a thousand flagged posts an hour, and you want to give them all hugs and raises. Child pornography, bestiality, hate speech, extreme violence … if you can imagine something awful, someone has put it online. Specific examples included a man’s testicles getting crushed, a boy getting his legs mangled by a truck, someone getting hit by a train, a man shooting himself in the head, suicide bombings, a man hurting and possibly killing small birds by having sex with them, and a woman whose body had been blown in two. Imagine dealing with images like that for 40 hours a week. It’s like playing roulette, except the closest you get to winning are shots of consenting genitals smashing together.

Imagine being forced to watch Logan Paul videos and considering that a good day.

Over 100,000 people trawl through e-trash to keep Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other major sites (relatively) safe to use. And you can’t click away the moment you can tell a video is getting nasty — you have to verify that the content is real, and learn as much as possible so you can try to destroy it at its source. And while you will become somewhat numb, dealing with the worst of what humanity has to offer day after day can haunt you. Turnover is high, and there are few resources for moderators who need counseling. Which, shit, has to be all of them, right?

2

Facebook’s Fake News Problem Is A Feature, Not A Bug

Despite the fact that you probably took at least one break from reading this to check your Facebook feed, we still think of the site primarily as a vehicle for vacation photos where the worst thing that could happen is getting into a bitter argument with some friends about how to pronounce “GIF.” We’re all too smart to get suckered into politics, right?

But Facebook’s politics come after you. Ten million users saw “Russian-linked” ads placed during the 2016 election, mostly focused on big, controversial issues like immigration and gun control. Facebook also admitted that they placed about $100,000 in ads from “inauthentic accounts.” The issue isn’t ads spamming “Vote for Clinton / Trump / X’algax, Destroyer of Souls!” Everyone already saw those a million times; they’d sway no one. The problem is that they spread stories like “FBI AGENT SUSPECTED IN HILLARY EMAIL LEAKS FOUND DEAD IN APPARENT MURDER-SUICIDE,” which linked to a fake newspaper, quoting a man that doesn’t exist, who lives in a town that doesn’t exist (they spelled the town’s name wrong).

The Denver PostAt this point, we’re starting to doubt the existence of Denver too.

If you see that stuff in your feed, wedged in between a cat video and your friend’s new spaghetti sauce recipe, you don’t click through to verify it. So it weasels into your brain as something you vaguely remember that may or may not be true.

Facebook has also become a playground for trolls, regardless of whether they have a political agenda or just want to watch the e-world burn. If you can think back to the Las Vegas shooting (before all those other shootings removed it from the headlines), a slew of hoaxes spread from the moment the news broke. Some people invented fake dead and missing victims solely to see how many likes they could get. Others claimed that the shooter was still active, invented fake perpetrators, assigned nonexistent motivations to the shooter, or claimed that he was a Democrat, a left-wing activist, or a recent convert to Islam (in reality, if the shooter had any political motives, he took them to his grave).

It’s the cruelest and most devious form of misinformation, because it’s hard to keep your bullshit detector functioning when you’re in shock. Maybe some of those moderators could get a well-deserved break from the animal torture to focus on this crap instead?

1

Someone Could Steal Your Face And Make Porn

We have the technology to swap someone’s face onto someone else’s face in a video. That’s fun if we’re putting Nicholas Cage into Raiders Of The Lost Ark …

… but it’s a problem if someone is making it appear that a person said or did something they didn’t really do. And that problem gains an extra level of creepiness when someone’s face is slapped into a porn video. All it takes is some training, some raw footage of the subject, and a few spare hours. And if you’re the sort of person inclined to make fake porn, you’ve probably got a lot of time on your hand.

Reddit had an entire community dedicated to this “hobby,” until it was shut down, but that only made enthusiasts migrate elsewhere. Called “deepfakes,” after the Reddit user who pioneered the practice, they started editing the faces of celebrities onto preexisting porn. Some of the fakes ended up on porn sites being pitched to viewers as real, because porn is now a genre of fake news.

While it’s unlikely that anyone would believe Taylor Swift was suddenly so hard up for money that she appeared on FuckBrothers.biz, it’s still an ethically off-putting mess. It’s not limited to the living. Someone made a video “starring” a young Carrie Fisher. And it’s not limited to celebrities, either. Anyone armed with a scraper can pull photos from Facebook and Instagram, combine them with any of several search engines that look for porn stars by facial recognition, and make a fairly convincing video of anyone doing pretty much anything. Reddit users were making videos of their friends, co-workers, classmates, and exes. They were “only” for private use, but what happens when someone wants to manufacture revenge porn? So there you go: We’re reaching a point in history where we can’t even trust our pornography. And then what’s left to believe in?

Mark is on Twitter and has a book.

Support Cracked’s journalism with a visit to our Contribution Page. Please and thank you.

For more, check out 5 Ways The Modern World Is Shockingly Ready To Collapse and 22 Everyday Problems Caused By Famous Sci-Fi Technologies.

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New Post has been published on Mortgage News

New Post has been published on http://bit.ly/2nnFuL9

Struggling seniors who want government help should be put to work says one reader

President Trump’s proposed budget would greatly reduce funding for services that help seniors and the poor. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Retirement rants & raves Many of you had a lot to say about President Trump’s first budget. Last week, I wrote about proposed cuts that would adversely affect seniors. Here’s a list of some programs earmarked for drastic cuts: — The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program. — The Energy Department’s weatherization assistance program. — The Senior Community Service Employment Program, which provides job training to low-income job seekers ages 55 and older.

In his first budget, Trump to struggling seniors: You’ll be on your own

Overwhelmingly, readers were not pleased with the proposed cuts. But Jack from Tahoe City, Calif., who admits he will probably do better under a Trump administration, thought some seniors who benefit from government aid should be put to work.

“Assistance shouldn’t be free to anyone who can make a productive contribution in return for government assistance,” he wrote. “Have them pick up litter, sweep the streets, work in subsidized day care centers, prepare mailers, help in government offices, act as park and museum guides, something.”

Jack believes more people could have and should have prepared for their senior years.

“Here’s the thing about seniors, especially those who are at or close to retirement like I am,” he wrote. “They’ve had decades to prepare for their ‘golden years.’ I heard all the warnings about Social Security when I was young and still in college and planned accordingly the moment I got a job. Savings, paying down loans and buying a first home were my priorities. I assumed I wouldn’t collect a cent from Social Security and that prediction four decades ago may still come to pass. Consequently I have somewhat limited sympathy for seniors who are having trouble making ends meet if I’ve done my part and am now being expected to pay for their lack of preparedness twice over. On the other hand, I’m not prepared to let them freeze or starve. As many articles have pointed out, the programs Trump wants to eliminate or pare back represent a small portion of the budget. Before cutting programs for the less well off I’d prefer to see General Mattis get the Pentagon’s house in order. Eliminating $25 billion in waste every year would largely make these other budget cuts unnecessary.”

Many people thought the president’s budget would harm the most vulnerable seniors.

R. of Kansas City, Mo., had a lot to say writing, “I find it distressing that the proposal is to spend so much on the military and cut out so many things that help the poor, elderly, and disadvantaged.”

The Kansas City voter offered these alternative budget cuts: — “From what part of the budget does President Trump’s weekend excursions to Mar-a-Lago come? It needs to be cut by at least 90 percent.”

— “Any congressmen traveling to Mar-a-Lago to meet with president when they all could have stayed at the White House? They can use his greatly decreased Mar-a-Lago budget mentioned above.”

— “Secret Service for the Trump boys: Cut. Their company can provide their protection at its own cost. The saving generated by these few cuts can then be applied to those in need.”

“I am 62 years old and still working,” wrote David Rice from Glasco, Kan. “I have two jobs, one full-time, one part-time. I live in a rural community of about 350. I have several friends and neighbors that use these programs and they would be devastated if these programs were cut or removed. It keeps getting harder for our seniors to get by. Meals on Wheels and the public transportation van are used by many people in these rural towns. I also know several people who have had their homes insulated and use the energy assistance program. Personally I think if Mr. Trump had to use these programs or visited these small communities he would see how important they are to the elderly. “

[Send your questions: Join Michelle Singletary Thursday at noon for a weekly financial chat]

Rick Robison, a retiree in Cape Coral, Fla., wrote: “I am lucky enough that I have saved during my life and we have decent savings. This means we have not had to utilize any of these functions. I do however know many people my age and older that rely on these programs to keep from freezing during the winter. The national debt is, in my estimation, the largest issue that must be addressed. We as a nation cannot continue to borrow uncontrolled.”

“The budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration are cruel to seniors,” wrote Gary Anderson of Las Vegas. “They are disrespectful to seniors. They will hurt the most vulnerable among us.”

Lova McMahon of Hutchinson, Kan., said, “The budget proposal is the most crass, self-serving waste of paper ever conceived. Those involved should be ashamed of themselves.”

“I’m enraged that the Trump administration is trying to cut funding programs for the sick, elderly, disabled, poor and needy,” Donna Canorro of Buffalo, N.Y., said. “I’ve been blessed with good health and a profession where I can be independent. I have no problem being taxed to help the above mentioned people. That’s the way it should be. I don’t want to see my tax dollars spent over inflating the military so we can get involved in yet another needless, useless war. I don’t want to see my tax dollars spent building a wall to keep out hard-working Mexican people seeking a better life in the U.S. I don’t want to see my tax dollars spent paying for Trump’s security so he can flit back and forth to NY city or Mar-A-Largo on a whim. I don’t want to see my tax dollars spent to enrich the coffers of people who can never have enough money and who profit on the middle class and the poor.”

Janet Holsopple of Springfield, Ill., wrote, “The older generation have worked hard for all they have, and they deserve to be able to retire and get a little bit of help, to be able to rely on Social Security. I will have to work till I just fall over dead in my chair.”

I want to hear from you. This newsletter is your opportunity to ask questions or just talk about your retirement. It’s your chance to rant and rave (or both) about any retirement issue. Talk to me. Are you changing anything about your retirement or retirement planning based on recent events, especially the GOP effort to replace Obamacare?

Send your comments to colorofmoney@washpost.com. Please include your name, city and state. In the subject line put “Retirement Rants & Raves.”

Live chat this week

Join me on Thursday, March 30, at noon (ET) for a live discussion about this month’s Color of Money Book club selection, is “The Tao of Charlie Munger: A Compilation of Quotes from Berkshire Hathaway’s Vice Chairman on Life, Business and the Pursuit of Wealth”

Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the book: “Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant.”

Read the review of the book: This is how the rich think

To participate in the discussion click this link.

Newsletter comments policy Please note it is my personal policy to identify readers who respond to questions I ask in my newsletters. I find it encourages thoughtful and civil conversation. I want my newsletters to be a safe place to express your opinion. On sensitive matters or upon request, I’m happy to include a first name and last initial. But I prefer not to post anonymous comments (I do make exceptions when I’m asking questions that might reveal sensitive information or cause conflict.)

Have a question about your finances? Michelle Singletary has a weekly live chat every Thursday at noon where she discusses financial dilemmas with readers. You can also write to Michelle directly by sending an email to michelle.singletary@washpost.com. Personal responses may not be possible, and comments or questions may be used in a future column, with the writer’s name, unless otherwise requested. To read more Color of Money columns, go here.

[trendingnewsb]

5 Real World Problems That Are Straight Out Of Black Mirror

The future! Rocket ships, lasers, robots — it is truly a far-flung, fantastical place. Except, uh … we have all those things right now, and have for some time. The future isn’t some vague, to-be-determined period of existence; it’s literally tomorrow. So today, humanity has to address issues that would have been inconceivable a few paltry years ago. And frankly, some of this stuff still kind of sounds like someone got stoned and then tried to pitch a Black Mirror episode.

5

Fitbits Are Giving Away Military Intelligence

Nowadays it’s routine for people to wear a fitness tracker, but by allowing our data to be shared, we’re also allowing our habits to be shared. That normally shouldn’t be problematic, unless your spouse is learning that your weekly jog takes you straight to the strip club … or you’re exercising on a classified military installation.

Read Next

Britain Just Created An Immigration Crisis Dumber Than DACA

Thanks to a map that shows the jogging habits of the 27 million people who use Fitbits and the like, we can see splotches of activity in otherwise dark areas, like Iraq and Syria. Some of those splotches are known American military sites full of exercising soldiers, and some, by extrapolation, are sites that the military would rather keep unknown. One journalist saw a lot of exercise activity on a Somalian beach that was suspected to be home to a CIA base. Someone else spotted a suspected missile site in Yemen, and a web of bases in Afghanistan were also revealed.

StravaYet another example of why we at Cracked continue to condemn exercise in all its forms.

By analyzing the data, you could theoretically figure out patrol and supply convoy routes, and make educated guesses as to where on these bases soldiers eat, sleep, etc. That’s a lot of useful information for someone planning an attack. You could also track individuals, potentially important ones. One researcher claimed they tracked a French soldier’s entire overseas deployment and subsequent return home.

This wasn’t an evil ploy by a terrorist cell in league with Big Fitness; you can turn that data tracking off. It’s just that no one even thought about it until someone finally pointed out that it was a huge security issue. American rules for fitness trackers in the military are now being “refined,” which we assume is PR speak for “Goddammit, turn that shit off.” But it’s only a matter of time until another seemingly innocuous technology accidentally gives away state secrets.

4

Space Commercialization Might Contaminate Planets

Elon Musk set a new precedent when he launched a car into space, and not only for tacky egotism. The rules about what corporations can and can’t do in space are essentially nonexistent, because the government’s authority ends somewhere around the thermosphere. Governments, however, have legal responsibilities listed in the Outer Space Treaty — one of the few things America and the Soviet Union agreed on. Most of the world has signed as well, and in addition to promising not to put nukes on the Moon or claim all of Jupiter for the proud people of Denmark, adherents agree not to send Earth germs to other planets like the interplanetary version of coughing on the guy next to you at the movie theater.

That sounds a bit silly, but there’s a real point: If Earth microbes accidentally end up on other planets and moons, it becomes impossible for scientists to tell if their “discovery” of life on Io is native, or if it originated from someone sneezing in a Tesla factory. So NASA and other government space agencies follow a strict anti-contamination protocol. American Mars rovers, for example, had all of their parts heated to 230 degrees before launch, and they are routinely sterilized with alcohol. Even if your mission is only to orbit a planet (or swing by one), you have to prove that the odds of an accidental crash landing are equivalent to that of winning a fair-sized lottery.

Kim Shiflett/NASA“Like, Powerball odds. No Pick 3 crap.”

In theory, governments are also responsible for ensuring that any corporations within their borders follow the same rules. But once you move beyond launching satellites into Earth’s orbit, the government’s ability to enforce the law is about equal to your ability to enforce a responsible bedtime on yourself. Maybe that flying Tesla was carefully sterilized, or maybe Musk went out of his way to fart it up before launch. We don’t know. And as more and more corporations talk about going to the Moon and Mars, we may have a germ problem.

There’s also the issue of debris. While we like to think of space as a pristine void, the Solar System is starting to resemble a freshman’s dorm room. Space missions are supposed to be as clean as possible, and a mission to another planet should either purposely burn up in the atmosphere or land when it’s done. Musk’s car was heading toward Mars, where plans for it were sort of a vague shrug. It could have eventually broken up and left debris around the planet, or it could have infected the surface. But instead, it went off-course toward the asteroid belt … where it could also very well hit something and break up. Worst-case scenario, we end up with a bunch of junk floating around that could take out a future mission. Even if his car never hits anything, Musk still broke bold new ground in space litter.

3

Moderators Have To Watch All The Heinous Garbage That Gets Posted On Social Media

Try to imagine the worst job possible. Sewage sampler? Elephant masturbator? How about social media moderator? It sounds like a joke at first: “Facebook has moderators? Then explain all the crap I see every day!” Then you learn that their job is mostly to filter out pornography, and it sounds awesome. Aren’t you supposed to get paid to do what you love?

But then you learn about the truly awful shit that moderators see as they cruise through a thousand flagged posts an hour, and you want to give them all hugs and raises. Child pornography, bestiality, hate speech, extreme violence … if you can imagine something awful, someone has put it online. Specific examples included a man’s testicles getting crushed, a boy getting his legs mangled by a truck, someone getting hit by a train, a man shooting himself in the head, suicide bombings, a man hurting and possibly killing small birds by having sex with them, and a woman whose body had been blown in two. Imagine dealing with images like that for 40 hours a week. It’s like playing roulette, except the closest you get to winning are shots of consenting genitals smashing together.

Imagine being forced to watch Logan Paul videos and considering that a good day.

Over 100,000 people trawl through e-trash to keep Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other major sites (relatively) safe to use. And you can’t click away the moment you can tell a video is getting nasty — you have to verify that the content is real, and learn as much as possible so you can try to destroy it at its source. And while you will become somewhat numb, dealing with the worst of what humanity has to offer day after day can haunt you. Turnover is high, and there are few resources for moderators who need counseling. Which, shit, has to be all of them, right?

2

Facebook’s Fake News Problem Is A Feature, Not A Bug

Despite the fact that you probably took at least one break from reading this to check your Facebook feed, we still think of the site primarily as a vehicle for vacation photos where the worst thing that could happen is getting into a bitter argument with some friends about how to pronounce “GIF.” We’re all too smart to get suckered into politics, right?

But Facebook’s politics come after you. Ten million users saw “Russian-linked” ads placed during the 2016 election, mostly focused on big, controversial issues like immigration and gun control. Facebook also admitted that they placed about $100,000 in ads from “inauthentic accounts.” The issue isn’t ads spamming “Vote for Clinton / Trump / X’algax, Destroyer of Souls!” Everyone already saw those a million times; they’d sway no one. The problem is that they spread stories like “FBI AGENT SUSPECTED IN HILLARY EMAIL LEAKS FOUND DEAD IN APPARENT MURDER-SUICIDE,” which linked to a fake newspaper, quoting a man that doesn’t exist, who lives in a town that doesn’t exist (they spelled the town’s name wrong).

The Denver PostAt this point, we’re starting to doubt the existence of Denver too.

If you see that stuff in your feed, wedged in between a cat video and your friend’s new spaghetti sauce recipe, you don’t click through to verify it. So it weasels into your brain as something you vaguely remember that may or may not be true.

Facebook has also become a playground for trolls, regardless of whether they have a political agenda or just want to watch the e-world burn. If you can think back to the Las Vegas shooting (before all those other shootings removed it from the headlines), a slew of hoaxes spread from the moment the news broke. Some people invented fake dead and missing victims solely to see how many likes they could get. Others claimed that the shooter was still active, invented fake perpetrators, assigned nonexistent motivations to the shooter, or claimed that he was a Democrat, a left-wing activist, or a recent convert to Islam (in reality, if the shooter had any political motives, he took them to his grave).

It’s the cruelest and most devious form of misinformation, because it’s hard to keep your bullshit detector functioning when you’re in shock. Maybe some of those moderators could get a well-deserved break from the animal torture to focus on this crap instead?

1

Someone Could Steal Your Face And Make Porn

We have the technology to swap someone’s face onto someone else’s face in a video. That’s fun if we’re putting Nicholas Cage into Raiders Of The Lost Ark …

… but it’s a problem if someone is making it appear that a person said or did something they didn’t really do. And that problem gains an extra level of creepiness when someone’s face is slapped into a porn video. All it takes is some training, some raw footage of the subject, and a few spare hours. And if you’re the sort of person inclined to make fake porn, you’ve probably got a lot of time on your hand.

Reddit had an entire community dedicated to this “hobby,” until it was shut down, but that only made enthusiasts migrate elsewhere. Called “deepfakes,” after the Reddit user who pioneered the practice, they started editing the faces of celebrities onto preexisting porn. Some of the fakes ended up on porn sites being pitched to viewers as real, because porn is now a genre of fake news.

While it’s unlikely that anyone would believe Taylor Swift was suddenly so hard up for money that she appeared on FuckBrothers.biz, it’s still an ethically off-putting mess. It’s not limited to the living. Someone made a video “starring” a young Carrie Fisher. And it’s not limited to celebrities, either. Anyone armed with a scraper can pull photos from Facebook and Instagram, combine them with any of several search engines that look for porn stars by facial recognition, and make a fairly convincing video of anyone doing pretty much anything. Reddit users were making videos of their friends, co-workers, classmates, and exes. They were “only” for private use, but what happens when someone wants to manufacture revenge porn? So there you go: We’re reaching a point in history where we can’t even trust our pornography. And then what’s left to believe in?

Mark is on Twitter and has a book.

Support Cracked’s journalism with a visit to our Contribution Page. Please and thank you.

For more, check out 5 Ways The Modern World Is Shockingly Ready To Collapse and 22 Everyday Problems Caused By Famous Sci-Fi Technologies.

Follow us on Facebook, and we’ll follow you everywhere.

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_25536_5-real-world-problems-that-are-straight-out-black-mirror.html

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