#namer has the authority

[olderthannetfic]

Per the Ron-bashing thing, and as a funny sort of reverse of it: my favorite thing ever was when I got a comment — on an exchange fic where authors hadn’t yet been revealed — that was for a femslash ship in my fandom where someone (not the recip) was like “god, can [femslash ship] writers stop bashing [male character] all the time challenge?” Not only is [male character] my favorite character and I write significantly more fics focused on him than that femslash ship, but also…. What they were claiming was “bashing” was one of the women in the ship reacting negatively to him initially *in the way that she does in the actual show when she first meets him*.

Like idk sometimes I think that people whining about character bashing need to get some basic reading comprehension. One character having a negative opinion of another character in a fic, especially when it follows from their preexisting characterization, is not the same as the author “bashing” them. Yes, even if the author never “contradicts” it later. Like, the fact wasn’t about that male character, he just happened to be existing in that earlier scene. So no I didn’t go back to him later and show that the character’s opinion has changed. Because that wasn’t the point.

Also I read a lot of fic for that femslash fic and like, sorry you’re seeing so much bashing but I don’t? I see some people in the fandom in *meta* and in private discussions talk about disliking that male character because he can sometimes be creepy to women, or just because his ship is more popular than theirs. But I can’t think of very many fics focused on that ship that are about bashing him. And why would they be? It’s not about him, it’s about the two women. So like maybe just adjust who you’re reading and don’t read from the people who do all the bashing. It’s a popular enough ship that you should be able to do that

--

Hah. Yeah, people tend to be oversensitive.

When I think of Ron bashing (which used to be everywhere back in the day), I'm thinking of that bog standard fic where someone gets turned into The Villain to get in the way of the main ship. They're always The Villain in the same trite ways, not just within fic of that character but across fandoms where this pattern happens. They'll be a cliched homophobic bigot or a cliched evil, jealous harpy, far more doltish than in canon or will switch sides to join the local dark lord even when that makes absolutely no sense, etc.

In fact, fanon Ron is so notorious for this kind of flanderization that he's the trope namer at TV Tropes.

If you're not pulling some Ron the Death Eater nonsense, you probably aren't writing bashing fic. People need to get over themselves.

[bonefall]

so was ashfur just like sitting up in starclan plotting his really good dishonor titles while he watched people live their lives or is he just. lowkey a really excellent namer. actually how taboo would it be for a leader to have a friend of theirs come up with names bc the friend is better at it. that would be so funny

It's actually not taboo at all for someone else to come up with the name, as long as the leader makes it official! In fact, every leader probably has a couple of cats of high status (deputy, patrol head) that they run names by.

If the leader has fully outsourced it may be a bit insulting, like, "oh so you don't want to do your sacred duty??" But kept quiet or done respectfully, that's totally allowed. The leader simply has the holy authority to set the names.

(I like keeping name "rules" loose because I try to stress that names are very personal and dependant on the leader. A Star who knows they are uncreative and has someone they can trust to do this with them? That's a wonderful way to show something meaningful about the character and the way they rule!)

I can see Blackstar doing this with Russetfur.

Anyway... yeah, Ashfur is lowkey just a really creative person. His skill with his absolutely SCATHING Dishonor Titles is that he is FILLED with spite. He looks for something that will HURT his victim and crafts a name around it.

And he doesn't need a ton of "prep time." He came up with Clearface on the spot. She started calling him out on wanting punishments for people who had already paid for their crimes or done nothing wrong, and his gaze was clear and almost considerate, as if he was thinking about her words.

In truth, her little speech was all the time he needed to come up with something that would emotionally obliterate her on the spot.

Not that it was hard to find it for Blossomfall. She oozes insecurity, in his mind. The way she leans on her family. How she does nothing alone. Betrayed her Clan twice, ay? Ha. That isn't the action of someone truly self-assured.

Twigbranch was also easy. She's always apologizing. Eager to please, suggestible. Ashfur has heard she can stand up for herself, yes, so simply plant a seed in her mind. Make her think she's stupid, tell her to pay attention to her claws, and she will make them fumble all on her own.

And that was important for breaking some of the coalition between her and Alderheart. All the cats who are close with the Cleric's den are troublesome. So it's important-- construct a Blasphemy problem. Or, bring attention to it, really.

BB!Ashfur DOES believe in what he's doing. This isn't JUST incel entitlement like canon! Incel entitlement is part of it, but secondary. He really believes that the Clans have strayed from the righteous path.

Openly challenging a leader, defying the will of StarClan, all this inability to prove their honor in battle... he'll fix it. And he means it. These cats are becoming unruly heathens and he will snap them back into line.

Squilf is a bonus, really. The minute it's between her and his wider goals, his goals will win out.

[gingerlee-holds]

Pokerants: Teddiursa

idk i find this fun, i like talking about how animals in pokemon relate to animals in the real world- if you're not interested in this series, thats fine i like what im doing and i hope i can teach you guys some stuff

Teddiursa! this little cutie!! #0216

i browsed the Pokédex and these are the facts i gleamed-

they always lick their paws, which are often soaked with honey, they have a habit of hoarding food in hidden locations before winter, their palms taste sweet due to their constant contact with honey, and each set of paws has their own taste due to its absorption of honey

their crescent mark glows when it finds honey, it concocts its own honey by blending fruits and pollen collected by a beedrill, they follow combees to their hive and steal their honey

they lick their paws when theyre nervous, which makes them smile again

and now, screaming time

firstly, the crescent mark glows. how? how does it glow. does it have little LEDs in its head? does it utilize glowing bacteria in its skull? how does it glow huh? furthermore, bioluminescence is utilized to 1) attract prey like with anglerfish, 2) communicate information like with fireflies, or 3) to camouflage itself from predators, like with marine hatchetfish. notice how all of those uses are advantageous in getting food, finding a mate, and avoiding being eaten. that's like the three main things natural selection and life as we know it cares about. what function, really, does its crescent moon lighting up have? when it finds food, it glows? how is that a useful trait, especially since bioluminescence is such a cool trait to have, why is it wasted on "oo i found food glow time"

secondly, it states that the paws absorb the honey. huh? no, thats what the body avoids like hell. the layers of the skin push outward as more skin grows underneath to replace it, there's nothing in the skin that pulls things in. the honey can carry bacteria and viruses and fungi, why would the body allow the honey to be absorbed into the skin. paws are not supposed to absorb things. also,,, i want to know which scientist was going around tasting Teddirusa paws to be able to say they each taste unique cuz they need to be questioned.

thirdly, it can make its own honey. uh!!! how fascinating!!! how!!!! sincerely, how do the pokedex authors think honey is made??? because last i checked, the recipe for honey isnt just fruit + pollen = honey. if it were that easy, we would be making it ourselves and would have no need for apiaries. the production of honey is extremely convoluted, it requires enzymes that only bees can produce,,, actually yknow what? here, lemme tell you how honey is made. first, bees suck in nectar from flowers through their proboscis, its stored in their "honey stomach," enzymes in the stomach begin to break down the nectar into simple sugars, then the bees pass the nectar mouth-to-mouth through the colony to further break down the nectar into sugars and reduce the water content, then it's stored in the honeycomb, where the fanning of the bees' wings evaporate the rest of the water, and then once its finished, they seal it in wax so it can be stored indefinitely. notice something about that: bears cant do that shit.

fourthly, yeah some animals really do store their food over the winter, like squirrels and birds, its called hoarding! they don't have a lot of body fat, so they need to be able to keep their stores high so that they survive when there's not a lot of food freely available. yeah,,, bears aren't one of those creatures! (sidenote, pokemon namers are literally the laziest motherfuckers- Teddiursa- Teddy as in teddy bear, and Ursa from the Latin word for 'bear' like cmon) yes, some bears have been known to hide carcasses for later, like in rivers and things, but this isn't for the winter, this happens in the other seasons! during hibernation, bears rely on their body fat stores to keep them healthy, and this has worked for millions of years!!! they fatten up in autumn, then hibernate in winter, they don't hoard food!!

and fifthly, yes, some animals do indeed have stress-relieving behaviors, the way the "eating honey to smile again" is described makes it sound extraordinarily anthropomorphic, which is to say, ascribing humanlike qualities to nonhuman things. it sounds far, far more like something a child would do, and not something a bear would do. yes that's very cute and an adorable addition, but it ISNT REALISTIC (i know thats the point im just having fun here leave me alone)

anyways yes im having fun with these, i love pokemon so much and i love screaming whenever the pokedex says some jk rowling ass random shit for no reason

[scoracletrashlives]

The Backstory

Hello all!

I am ScoracleTrash. Have been ScoracleTrash since 2015. You may also call me Pidge. My main blog is neil-panenby. Because I am a pan enby. She/her and they/them both work. Many things about me are very different than they were when I created the original Scoracle Trash blog. One thing that is the same? Scoracle is my OTP.

I am a psychiatric hospital liaison in my early 30s and once upon a time, back in 2015, while playing the then-new video game Arkham Knight, I had a weird fucking idea.

See, I have been a Scarecrow groupie since Batman Begins came out when I was but a teenager, and I had long been trying to figure out a Scarecrow ship that spoke to me. I tried an OC on DeviantArt ages ago and that fizzled out fast. Hattercrow never held my interest. Becky never clicked.

So I’m playing this game as a mid-20something and it hits me.

Scarecrow and Oracle. Jonathan and Barbara. They’re both navigating traumatic backstories, wicked smart, fond of the odd bit of theatrics, and they’ve just been thrown together by this narrative like never before. Why not?

So I threw together an AU fic and slapped it up on ao3 and something super wild happened.

It spoke to people.

Somehow, I made it work. I made it believable enough to click with 107 people in the last 8 years. Which is MINISCULE compared to many ships but HUGE to me. Because I was, as far as I can tell, the namer of this ship and the first person to write about it and put it on ao3. The first person to draw parallels between the experiences of the two characters and put forth that maybe, just maybe, they might understand each other.

Now, do I take a bunch of liberties with my writing to make my vision work? Of course I do. But so does every fanfiction author. And Rocksteady did as well when they made their games. Honestly, every new team that takes the helm of an established comic book title does, for that matter.

Do I think that ANYONE should be in a relationship with a fear-obsessed serial killer in real life? No. Don’t be daft.

Do I owe anyone these disclaimers? No, but I’m stating them anyway.

Scoracle is my fantasy. It is escapism. Like all escapism, it owes no one believability nor is anything about it required to translate into the real world as healthy or admirable. If it squicks you out, that’s valid. If it turns you on, that’s valid. If you don’t care either way, that’s valid. I never meant it for anyone but myself. The fact that posting about it years ago generated any interest at all surprised me.

The fact that upwards of 100 people also see something of merit in this fantasy is wild to me. Even if you never see this, I hope you feel my love and gratitude wherever you are.

Scoracle is healing to me. It’s two people with decades of trauma and brilliant minds seeing each other, really seeing each other, and accepting the differences in each other that would make people less dedicated to one another irreconcilable. It’s two people leading each other out of the shadows of what’s been done to them and the people that did it to them.

And on a more shallow note…It’s dark aesthetics and late nights and sarcasm and intellectual conversation and passion and just enough danger.

Over the last 8 years, my writing has matured and improved VASTLY and I fully intend to go back and create rewritten versions of the first two fics in the series, Pet Bat and Her Long Halloween. The originals will not be deleted.

For now, Heart of Darkness has finally begun.

Not sure who all is on tumblr, but if you manage to make your way here, welcome to the clubhouse. Pour yourself a beverage of choice, sink into the leather sofa, choose your music, and let’s talk Scoracle!

-Pidge DePeche

[jcmarchi]

For the First Time, Israel Deployed Its "Eitan" to Gaza - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/for-the-first-time-israel-deployed-its-eitan-to-gaza-technology-org/

For the First Time, Israel Deployed Its "Eitan" to Gaza - Technology Org

Eitan, the latest armored personnel carrier from IDF is the largest and heaviest armored fighting vehicle in the world. Its weight reaches 35 tons, and its 800-horsepower engine allows it to travel up to 1,000 km without refueling.

Eitan. Image credit: Mupper2 via X (former Twitter)

During a ground operation in the Gaza Strip against Hamas militants, the Israel Defense Forces used their latest Eitan wheeled armored fighting vehicle. In addition, these armored personnel carriers were observed in the north of Israel, where they participated in combat operations against Hezbollah fighters. This was reported by Defense Express.

The authors of the article noted that “Eitan” was first introduced back in 2016, but the series production of this machine began only six years later. At the same time, Israeli military industrialists carefully analyzed the experience of combat operations in Ukraine when choosing weapons for the armored personnel carrier.

2 photos released by the IDF appear to show the first combat use of the new Eitan wheeled APCs.

The new APCs that can carry 12 soldiers were first given to the Nachal Infantry Brigade.

The Eitan was produced to replace the IDF’s M113 APC’s and the Namer IFVs. pic.twitter.com/Rc1Sk1iGLl

— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) November 5, 2023

The machine was put into operation this year. According to Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman Oren Giber, Eitan was sent to the Nahal 933rd Infantry Brigade of the Southern Command’s 162nd Armored Division, also known as the Steel Formation, or Utzbat HaPlada.

It was also reported that the new armored personnel carrier was immediately thrown into battle on the first day of the terrorist attack by Hamas militants on October 7.

“On the first day when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, this vehicle took part in the fighting in Zikim, where the Israeli military training base Bahad 4 is located,” the observers wrote.

Eitan (Eytan) wheeled armored personnel carrier (WAPC) was developed by the Merkava and Armored Vehicles Directorate in the IMOD to replace the aging M113 armored personnel carrier. Image credit: Zachi Evenor via Wikimedia, CC BY 2.0

Some military experts call Eitan the “Israeli giant.” This is probably related to the characteristics of the machine, as its weight reaches 35 tons, its length is 8 meters, its height is about 3 meters, and the diameter of the wheels exceeds 1.5 meters. This is how Israel created the largest and heaviest armored personnel carrier in the world.

The Eitan is equipped with a powerful 800 HP diesel engine, which easily allows the machine to accelerate to 90 km/h and has a range of 1000 km.

In addition to the main armament – a 30 mm cannon, the “Israeli giant” has a 7.62 mm machine gun, as well as an anti-tank system “Spike”.

Written by Vytautas Valinskas

[krinsbez]

Not read 'em myself, but I've heard good things about Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker, supposedly a pretty good bit of Xenofiction, being an attempt to get across the then-recent idea that Dinosaurs are more bird than lizard via showing a year in the life of a dinosaur. Or for less highbrow fare, there's the novel Carnosaur by "Harry Adam Knight", which has a similar premise to Jurassic Park, but British and a few years earlier, is good if you like schlock-y airport thrillers?

I have vague recollections of enjoying Michael Swanwick's novel Bones of the Earth, which is about paleontologists and time travel, and the first book of the Fallen Cloud Saga by Kurt R. A. Giambastiani (the title and author of which I had to look up), which is is set in an alternate world where there was an inland sea or something in the American Southwest which was somehow related to Dinosaurs surviving in North America and being domesticated by Native Americans (was very much in the "Dances With Wolves" vibe, I think?)

I will always talk up the Caspak and Pellucidar books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the former a trilogy (starting with The Land That Time Forgot) about an island Lost World and the latter a seven-book series (starting with At The Earth's Core) about the Lost World that exists in the interior of the Earth. One of the latter is a crossover with the Tarzan series, another installment of which, Tarzan the Terrible, involves another Lost World.

You might also want to give the trope namer, The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a try.

Finally, I have fond memories of Dinosaur Fantastic, an anthology edited by Mike Resnick and Mark H Greenberg

i got bored and i decided to look up books that talk about dinosaurs but in a sci-fi kinda way. Like not in a "This is scientific divulgation" kinda way, like i want stories about dinosaurs

Ok so my list right now is

- Jurassic Park By Michael Crighton, 2 books (Read, good book, could dial back on the computer talk.)

- Dinotopia by James Gurney, 22 books (The dinos are sentient here)

- Footprints of Thunder by James F. Davis, 3 books (Timelines get's mixed up and dinosaurs accidentally end up in our time)

- MEG by Steve Alten, 7 books (Megalodont centric but still prehistoric creatures )

- East of Eden by Harry Harrison, 3 books (History alternative, the dinosaurs evolved here)

- Our Hideous Progeny by C. E. McGill, single book ( Frankestain but with dinosaurs)

not gonna lie, this look like a great summer list

if anyone wants to add on it please do!!

[bldgrelationshipwgod]

The God Who Evaluates | John Black, Jerusalem Assembly [Nov.4/19]

I want to zero in on four characteristics of God in Genesis 1:3-5.

Genesis 1:3-5 | And God said, “Let there be light,” & there was light. And seeing that the light was good, God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” & the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening, & there was morning—the first day.

These 4 characteristics are true of Day 1, but also throughout the creation account. So I’m using Day 1 to show the paradigm of what happens repeatedly with each passing generation.

The 4 characteristics we’re going to unpack are:

God said

God saw

God separated

God called

So we’ll walk through each 4, I’m going to develop each point then we’re going to apply it to our lives.                    _____________________________________________________

1.] So the verb said, it occurs 11 times from Genesis 1:1- Genesis 2:3. The first section of the book of Genesis. Here we have the spoken Word of God.

When we ask the question: How did Elohim create? How did He transform the chaos of v.2 to what we have by the end of Genesis 2:3?

One answer is: His Word

God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. His Word is decisive; it’s powerful. When God speaks, something happens.

There is no effort. There is no opposition. There is no resistance. The product is immediate.

God’s Word irresistible.

Ex. If I were to say, “Let every man in this congregation stand-up.” There is a pause, there is hesitation, there’s opposition. There’s resistance.

My words are powerless. There’s no immediate obedience to the words just spoken.

But eventually you have to stand if you want lunch, you’ll stand.

Have you ever tried this at home? Let this room be clean. Anything happen? or  Let these children sleep. Nothing.

Parents go to great length to get their children to sleep. How many fathers have I seen with their strollers at 10pm-11pm, trying to get that infant to sleep.

Some of us strap them in the car, & go for a long drive, just to get that child to sleep. God’s Word is different. God’s Word is powerful. IRRESISTIBLE!

We see it in the life of Jesus: “Lazarus come out!” [John 11:43] And  Lazarus comes out.

Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (v.40)

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted His eyes upward and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. (v.41) I knew that You always hear Me, but I say this for the benefit of the people standing here, so they may believe that You sent Me.” (v.42) After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

“Be clean!” Jesus said. And the leaper was cleansed.

“Stand up, take your stretcher, & go home,” Jesus said. And the paralytic man stood up & immediately took his stretcher & went.

“Be quiet,” Jesus says, “calm down.” And the great storm on the Galilea was dead quiet.

I use that verse all the time with the kids, completely different result. >> Cause God’s Word is powerful/decisive/irresistible.

The product of Day 1 is light. The product of Day 2 is firmament or expanse [heavens or the sky].

Day 3, the product of God’s Word is dry land & vegetation.

The product of Day 4, the luminaries. The greater & lesser light from the sun, moon, & the stars.

The product of Day 5 are sea creatures. The product of Day 6 the land animals & humanity.

What is the point? God creates life by the means of His powerful/irresistible Word. Unlike Mercedes Benz, God doesn’t need a mold, nor does He need raw materials. He doesn’t need electricity or some external source of power.

God is the power. He is the creator of life.                    _____________________________________________________

2] God separated

The verb separated occurs 5x in this section of Scripture. God makes divisions. He carves out boundaries. He separates what does not belong together. God is separating based on tasks, based on functions.

Light & dark have different functions so God separates them. The water above/below the rekia have different functions, so He separates them.

These boundaries are important. >> The reason is boundaries create order; & order secures/sustains life.

Ex. Fish live in the sea, if they were on land, chaos results—that chaos is death. Humans are bound to land, that’s our boundary.

If we tired living in the sea, we die.

This idea of God creating order bleeds through on the pages of the entire Bible. We see it in the creation account, the Mosaic law, in the Church, & in the family.

In the law, God divides the holy from profane. He separates clean from unclean.

He separates the Israelites from the nations, within Israel He separates priestly class from the non-priestly. We see God’s order in the construction of the tabernacle & the temple. He divides the holy place from the most holy place.

What happens when the wrong person/ppl enters the most holy place? Chaos in the form of death.

God’s order in the church is seen in the offices given to the church. Those offices are 1st century only, the foundation of the church (apostles & prophets); evangelists, pastors/teachers..

Not every believer should fill these offices. When the wrong people are in those offices, chaos results.

When I was a pastor at Maine, there were wrong ppl serving in the office of elders; & the result of their ministries was chaos (ppl were hurt, the church is confused).

In the family we see God’s order play out in the distinct roles given to the husband/wives. We parents create boundaries for our children, don’t we?

We separate cleaning agents from the food, toys from the tools. Our kids aren’t allowed to play with the power tools because we want them to live.

We create boundaries. We are creating order that promotes & sustains life. Here’s the point I’m trying to develop:

God separating light from darkness informs us that not only is He the creator of light, but He’s the sustainer of life.                    _____________________________________________________

3] God called light day & dark night, so God names things.

Why do this?

I can think of 2 reasons,

1st turn to Daniel 1:6-7. After being taken captive to Babylon, king Nebuchadnezzar renamed Daniel & his friends.

Ancient kings renamed those whom they conquered. The significance is that naming things meant that the namer has the authority.

Naming communicates soverignty, I’m soverign over you so I name you. It’s what the Roman Emperor Hadrian did in the 2nd century AD (130 AD). He renamed Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina, in his efforts to paganise the city.

God gives parents authority over their children & one of the first uses of that authority is in granting a name (naming the child).

By naming light & darkness day & night, God has authority over both. He also has authority over the chaos back in verse 2. God exercises His authority to bring order out of the chaos, which promotes & sustains life.

2nd) Naming things promotes order. It orders humanity’s thoughts, & gives us a way to think about things. By giving us common reference points, we can understand one another & communicate & share ideas.

Imagine if God & Adam didn’t name anything. Confusion & chaos would result. So naming creates order that gives way to a richer more meaningful life.                    _____________________________________________________

God said He is the creator of life,

God separated, God is the sustainer of life.

God called, God is the provider of a richer & more meaningful life.

4] God saw it was good (v.10)

From God comes forth goodness. Now God does not only evaluate creation. This characteristic of God begins in Genesis 1 & goes all the way through Scriptures to the last chapter of the Bible.

Like Mercedes Benz, who analyze every step of the process, & every employee in the process; God is evaluating everything about His creation.

He evaluates Israel/church/nation & every single person. God is the ongoing evaluator of life, so let’s take Israel as an example.

God entered into a covenant with Israel, & this covenant had responsiblities for both covenant partners. God regularly evaluated Israel, are they meeting expectations, are they a quality covenant partner.

When they failed, a breakdown in quality, God sent prophets to them. Those prophets were sent to call them back, to call them to repentance.

>> To draw them back into their covenant obligations.

Listen to the words of Jeremiah 25:2-4, are you progressing/regressing? If not how can we help you do better, these are forms of quality control.

How we ensure high quality? By ongoing evaluations. God demands a high quality church w/ high quality believers (no wrinkles/spots)

What does God evaluate? Here are a few sobering passages:

Matthew 12:36 Every careless word

1 Corinthians 4:5 bring to light the motives in people’s hearts..

2 Corinthians 5:10 recompense for the deeds we have done good/bad..

HE will evaluate EVERYTHING about you. Does that get your attention?

Some of you might say, “hey this doesn’t sound too pleasant, but I’m saved.” We’re not talking about salvation, we’re talking about the believer’s growth toward perfection, the Bible teaches it & God expects it. He demands it.

So how is your quality? How does your quality compare with last month/year..?

Are you progressing? or regressing?

How are your spots & dots? Are they getting bigger/smlr? Evaluate your lives, examine yourselves, test yourselves.

We celebrate communion, which celebrates Jesus’ finished work on the cross 2000 years ago; & when we enter into communion, Paul warns us examine yourself!

The warning there is that if you do it in an unworthy manner, you will be disciplined. But communion also celebrates the future coming of the Lord Jesus Christ; & in that future coming there is a final evaluation. Are we ready?

Are you ready for Jesus to lay bare your entire life? So how can we become quality believers? Evaluate your lives.

To help us get started in that effort, I have a few general questions:

These are meant to get you started, & to trigger more detailed questions because each of you are individuals, I can only address very generally..

But I think you will quickly get the idea.

1] can you step back & look at the works of your hands—as God did with His in Genesis 1—& say it’s good?

would those whom you work agree? would your spouse/God agree?

Ephesians 6: role of a dad is to teach kids the fear of the Lord. It’s tough & a challenge because they are filled with sin. How are you as parents investing in your child the values of God’s kingdom?

As a brother/sister in the house of God, how are you handling relationships? And would your brother/sisters agree?

In your role in ministry, are you carrying it out well? Would those affected by your ministry agree? How about those funding your ministry overseas?

Would your hard drive agree? or your smart phone?

If you can’t say it’s good, ask yourself: what’s keeping you from being able to say that? What defect is there? What darkness is there?

Do you get feedback/clues from others who pass comment on your behaviour? >> Remember God is sovereign over the darkness.

If there's something preventing you from being able to declare that all these things in your life is good. You can take that to Him.

God specializes in transforming darkness. And He wants to do that in your life & mine, so we need to confess it to Him.

We need to humble ourselves before God & accept our flaws/inadequacy. I need Your help Lord, please help me to not resist it.

Please help me to partner with You & go along with the process of becoming better for Your holy use.

Quality products require controlled quality inspection, & Mercedes Benz knows it & professional athletic teams know this, successful companies know it.

GOD knows it. GOD does it, & He expects us to do it too.

Not only have we seen that GOD is the creator of life, the sustainer of life, the provider of a richer & more meaningful life. We have seen He is the ongoing evaluator of life. He regularly evaluates all creation, we need to emulate His standard process too.

[veliseraptor]

Okay, but consider: Groundhog Day Yi City, a tragic-comedy of repeated errors with drama sprinkles on top (results vary depending on who’s Bill Murray)

a secret that I have never seen the actual groundhog day movie. I feel like I should admit that, as a big fan of time loop stuff, I have not seen the trope namer. I just feel like that should be out there.

also if you saw me post this before it was finished: no you didn't

but to the substance of your ask: yes, I have considered this, I have considered this a lot and I actually technically have a fic in progress for it from xiao xingchen's pov but I might need to start it over, we'll see. and it is so much fun! because the success states vary wildly for each character, like:

xue yang: xiao xingchen alive, himself alive, nice domestic life preserved

song lan: xiao xingchen alive, himself alive, xue yang not alive, xiao xingchen never knowing about who he was living with

xiao xingchen: song lan alive, a-qing alive, doesn't even know what he wants with xue yang??? ahhhhh

a-qing: xiao xingchen alive, all else optional and only relevant inasmuch as it serves that end

so there are three of them aligned on the "xiao xingchen alive" goal, at least (xiao xingchen's a little more wobbly on that one), and only one person actively invested in xue yang being dead, and nobody actually putting as a definitive condition song lan being dead (though xue yang operates on a low key assumption, most of the time, that the win condition of "himself alive" depends on the condition "song lan dead"; he is not necessarily right about this but he tends to assume it's the case. however, it's not something that's necessary; I think if xue yang knew how badly things could go, he would be fine with letting song lan live if it didn't ruin the other stuff).

however, these points of agreement come into conflict with each other in several key places. I feel like I'm also thinking about these in order of priority (i.e. what's most important to least important) in which case it looks like:

xue yang: xiao xingchen/himself alive (either/or is not acceptable, has to be both), nice domestic life preserved (terms and conditions may apply, he'll make it work), song lan dead (possible condition but not required, particularly the longer he has to go on trying)

song lan: xiao xingchen alive, xue yang dead (at least initially, though I think it might eventually swap places with), xiao xingchen never knowing about who he was living with, himself alive

xiao xingchen: a-qing alive/song lan alive (I don't think he could deal with either not being true), still doesn't know what he wants to do with xue yang (affectionate/derogatory/deeply confused)

a-qing: she's got a very clear single priority and she's sticking to it.

so how this fic looks, and what the resolution is, could go any number of ways depending on who is trying to "fix" it and what the individual author decided a fix-it looked like (someone who is not me might think that just killing xue yang fixes the problem, but they would sadly be incorrect. common misconception! but inaccurate.). which is why my favorite version of this, I realized as I've been writing this post, is a version where all of them are time looping but none of them knows anybody else is, and every time one of anybody's primary win conditions are violated it starts over (i.e. if xue yang dies, even though it's only his win condition that stipulates his survival first and foremost, it still cycles back to the beginning).

just please consider with me the mutual frustration both song lan and xue yang in particular experience on discovering that they cannot, in fact, fix the problem by just murdering the other person in the right way. I feel like that alone makes this entire concept worth it.

also a-qing just getting xiao xingchen the heck out of dodge and being like "GREAT DODGED THAT BULLET" only to end up cycled back because one of the other two died. she didn't sign up for this

[canon-notcanon-warriorcats]

Can I share my bad rp story too? I mean we didn't get the chance since this dude, Badgerfur, just walked up and started telling us we're doing warriors wrong... in a public Roblox room. Like, I was about to start with Badgerfur when "Moonpelt can't be leader you don't have star in your name (they were randomly appointed and likely forgot), and Oliverfur clearly has never read warriors and is just a kid, and you (me) don't even look like a lynx! (I had the prefix lynx-) LMAO do you even know what they look like? Names are based on appearance and personality!" I tried telling Badgerfur (who yes looked just like a badger) that I didn't much care for the fur color (Lynx is cream) and thought that having tufted ears and bobbed tail was enough to warrant Lynx-, but they stood their ground of "if you're named after an animal you need to look just like the animal". They continued to call me a kid then the signature Roblox censorship of "## #### #### ##" and yes that's basically what they said no words were left uncensored when I said I don't care about the fur color of my character, liked him the way he was and wasn't going to change him. What I found most amusing was their claim to like SkyClan names and to not be a traditional namer (both asked while tearing down Oliverfur), and just leaving after walking up to me (they thought I was a kid and called me this multiple times keep in mind) to say "f you b" before leaving which honestly had me laughing. I wish I got to ask them what color Yellowfang is.

someone go yell at the authors that jayfeather can't be named that because he, in fact, looks nothing like any species of jay and also littlecloud isn't white like a cloud and onewhisker doesn't even only have 1 whisker

[good-rwbyaus]

@honorable-asshole​​:  I need you to know this is absolutely amazing. And for a title might I suggest "rising snow," since the mid is both rising to the occasion and trying to prevent the collapse of what probably amounts to the world economy? 

#Rising Snow AU :: Pieces 12-14 :: mod lilac   [ first ] [ previous ]

honorable-asshole asked: Au where Whitley has actually been running the bank accounts since he was young and keeping the group financially viable

// This AU’s name is Rising Snow now. xD. Thank you to honorable-asshole, both the AU namer and the AU inspirer. 8). Runner up for title namer is azdfox for Whit and Wit. - lilac

12. Impression

It didn’t take long to get a response. After Klein and he had their discussion about Acacia, he found his scroll ringing the next day despite it being set to ‘do not disturb’. It was from an unknown caller with a nonsensical 22-digit number, but he didn’t need to be a genius to figure out who it was.

Click.

“I see you’re the big bosss now,” said the woman on the line; he could hear a slight electronic hum resonating with her voice, a blatantly obvious attempt at voice modulation. So blatant that it told him that she wanted him to know - suppose that was one form of sincerity. Despite the voice mask though, it couldn’t hide the drunken slur in her words, one that he couldn’t help but be irritated by. 

“Only until Father comes back," he still spoke back neutrally, leaning back on his chair and away from the piling paperwork, "so you’re Acacia.”

A long pause. How drunk was this lady?

"I am,” Acacia continued, “so when are you plotttting the hostile -hic- takeover?”

He couldn’t help but snort at that. Come to think of it... that’s what he was doing now, wasn’t he? Undermining his father’s authority and trying to find where all the skeletons lie. Because he had to be the one in control in the end. His father never treated the Schnee Dust Company as a business but as his own personal piggy bank, and now that the bank was running out, the Schnees were in danger of being left with nothing. 

And he wouldn’t be surprised if his father left himself an out. What would it be? A private penthouse in Mistral? A couple offshore bank accounts in Vale? Who knows? It ticked him off greatly, but he had more important things to do than indulge in pointless anger.

‘You must not like my Father very much,” he returned.

"I don’t,” the woman said sternly, probably the most sober thing she said. “Your father took everything from me.” 

“Then why help his son?” Whitley asked. 

"You are you. Your father is your father."

“That’s not enough to reassure me,” Whitley said sharply, “You show up drunk to our first meeting, are using a voice modulator, and don’t even show your face. Are you even taking this seriously? The only reason why I’m entertaining you right now is because of Klein’s assurances that I can trust you.”

He heard something like a choke in the background and then a click. He quickly glanced at his scroll - they weren’t disconnected - she must’ve muted herself.

Another click.

“...Klein’s a good man,” the voice hiccupped out, though her voice sounded more strained - hoarse even. 

“He is. But I still don’t trust you. From what I heard, you’re not just a secretary but an expert on technological surveillance,” Whitley replied, “If I let you into the system, I very well may be letting a wolf in.”

“...You can’t keep me out in the firssst placee,” Acacia slurred. 

“Prove it,” Whitley said.

The sound of typing filled his ears before it quickly stopped.

“My show of -hic- sincerity,” she quietly said. 

His scroll suddenly went dark and turned back on. Numerous video feeds popped into view. The kitchen, his sisters’ bedrooms, Klein in the kitchen, the dining room, the lounge, his own bedroom... Alarmed, he turned towards the bookcase to his side before looking down at the scroll in his hands - it was tracking him. 

He hurriedly walked over and quickly pulled out a book that had a pin-sized hole within it. The scroll’s feed followed wherever he pointed. And the Schnee Mansion was covered in these cameras?! It was impossible for it not to be an inside job then. He shook in rage. Was his father seriously that paranoid about maintaining power - that he’d spy on his own family!? 

His attention returned to the scroll. He took a few calming breaths. 

“I’ve received your sincerity well,” he finally let out, “Another thing that my father will have to answer for.”

Another long quiet moment.

“I... yes," the voice stuttered out quietly, “...you trust me now?”

“I can trust you to put your money where your mouth is,” Whitley corrected, “That’s probably as good a foundation we’re going to get for our working relationship, since you’re clearly not going to reveal your identity. Is Acacia even your real name?” 

He then shook his head.

“Actually you know what? It doesn’t matter now. As of right now, you and Klein are the only assets I have,” Whitley said with a long exhale. A loyal butler and a drunk secretary, better than being alone with this mess. 

‘....Regardless of what happens, I’ll be by youur side,” the voice said, “even if you decide to driiive this company into the ground.”

Acacia... sounded oddly sincere about that, though the effect was somewhat diminished by the fact the woman was completely sloshed.

“I thought you loved the company,” Whitley asked.

“I loved the people in it,” she said mournfully, “I admired your granddad...” She paused, “Since you have his blood, as far as I’m concerned, the company is yours to do as you see fit.”

“You know that Winter and Weiss are the true heiresses, right? If you really wanted to get the company back up, shouldn’t you be asking them?” Whitley questioned.

“Do they -hic- look like they want anything to do with it?” 

“Hahaha,” Whitley couldn’t help but laugh at himself. That was true. The prize he always strived for was looked upon as garbage by his older sisters - and what was more ironic was that the company was actually garbage. Was he really the only blind one here? He sighed before he shook his head, banishing the useless self-pity away. 

“It’s their loss. I’m going to save this company,” Whitley declared, “I’m going to make sure we’re so entrenched in Atlas - in Remnant - that no one will dare do anything to the Schnees.”

He closed his eyes and looked down at his scroll.

“Will you help me towards that goal?” he asked.

“Like I said, it’s your company,” the voice replied, “I’ll go as far as you want to go, President Schnee.”

He smiled.

President Schnee. He liked the sound of that. But first things first.

“Then since you’ve clearly shown yourself in, let’s begin. I need the budget reports starting from last year...” 

---

13. Efficiency

Having Acacia on board for the past several days made his job easier. No longer did he have to sift through unimportant garbage such as meeting schedules or planning dinners or cafeteria food requests. She instead triaged his work, sending documents where they actually needed to go - he suspected she had a digital stamp with his signature on it - and made sure things got done in the background. Despite the questionable legality and hole in oversight, he found it a welcome thing. He could finally focus on more important matters such as where all his company’s money went or the increasing unrest down at the Mantle mining sites.

He’d seen signs of his company’s corruption back when he took a glance at the budget. R & D had been a black hole where money goes in and nothing comes out. Transport and Delivery had been ‘losing’ more and more Dust shipments. Customer Support was full of idiots he’d fired on the first few day of his job. Security has been demanding more funds to deal with the so-called Faunus threat without any actual evidence to their claims. 

The only thing that’s made profit at all was Dust Mining and Surveying, which was personally managed by the President. It was literally the only thing that was holding this company together.

He picked up his scroll and sent a voice message.

“Acacia. I’ve gone through the budget. I’ll be requiring your expertise. I’ll need information on the following people before I meet them two days from n-”

Klein walked in, not with a milkshake, but with a bowl of spaghetti. 

“Klein, I said I wanted a milkshake, not this.”

“You’ve been drinking milkshakes for two days now, Master Whitley, ” Klein said, “Acacia has again expressed... concern.”

He sighed as he grumpily stared at the bowl, picking up his fork.

“Is she your boss or am I your boss?” he grumbled at both phone and Klein, though no heat was in his tone. He knew Klein was looking out for him, though he was surprised Acacia did too. 

He smiled faintly as he began eating the pasta. 

His parents might not care for him and his sisters, but at least he still had people willing to stand by his side.  

-------

14. Threat

Several men, dressed in suits and blazers, sat inside a large board room; the last chair at the end of the table had yet to be filled. All of them seemed annoyed at being called at this late hour. “What’s going on?”

“Beats me. I was being attended by a masseuse when I got the emergency order.”

“Stop complaining. I was with my mistress when it happened. You know how uncomfortable it is to take that pill and not-”

“Shut it. Isn’t the president supposed to be on vacation?”

“Then how did this emergency meeting get called?”

“Because I called it,” Whitley spoke as he opened the door to the board room. Wearing a navy blue suit complete with a sky blue tie, he adjusted his silver cufflinks slightly and sat down at the end chair. “Gentlemen.”

“Whitley Schnee,” the man to the left of him said in a fawning expression, “haven’t seen you since the last dinn-”

“Shut it, Samson,” he interrupted.

“What?” Samson, the CEO of R&D, questioned blankly  before he quickly stood up, yelling “What’d you say you little bra-”

“I told you all to shut it,” Whitley growled as he glared back into the now hostile room, “Do you know what all you scum here have in common?”

“You’ve all stolen money from my company. Hundreds of millions of Lien,” he announced and turned on the projector with a push of the remote. Budget statements with padded numbers crossed out and the corrected ones filled in appeared on the screen, complete with department names. Bank transfers to personal accounts could be seen. 

Several members of the company’s board had looks of astonishment while others maintained a perfect poker face.

“You shouldn’t make false accusations.”

“This is all fake!” 

“Do you think you’re actually the president?”

“As far as all of you are concerned, I am,” Whitley countered, slowly standing up and turning his back to them, “Klein, please pass my esteemed associates their information packets.”

The butler quietly yet swiftly delivered a manila folder to every one of the room’s inhabitants. Several of them began looking through the contents and immediately became pale. 

“Some of you... Most of you - by virtue of your thieving - have committed crimes that could be considered treason to the Kingdom of Atlas,” Whitley quietly spoke to the now silent room. 

He turned his head immediately to a balding bespectacled man, “Lexington, the heating coils in Mantle should last for a decade per our agreement with the Kingdom of Atlas, so why did you construct them with material that would only work four or five years at best?” he asked before adding, “That’s pretty shifty, especially in light of your recent purchase of a mansion whose price happens to match the missing portion of the budget. Horrible correlation, right?”

“And Rex, what happened to the protective walls down at Mantle,” he asked in a kind tone, smiling, “They should’ve been finished a year ago, so why are we still two years behind?” 

His smile shifted to a disdainful frown, “Tch.” 

“As for the rest of you, you should find that my money is not easily taken. The folders will easily show that I know where all your skeletons lie.”

Quiet murmurs filled the room. Some of them clandestinely attempted to use their scrolls, only to find they had no signal - Acacia’s work. 

“What do you want us to do?” Samson said, the fastest thinking of the lot. That was why he was the closest ally of his father - ally: his father didn’t have friends. 

“At least you’re smart. Not smart enough to stop yourself from stealing from my company, but still...” Whitley replied, which made the man redden with anger, “You will all sign documents to the effect that you are willingly transferring your stocks to me. After confirmation of the transfer, you will then resign,” Whitley calmly said, “If you do those two things, I will keep what I’ve learned under my belt, and we all walk away happy.”

“What?”

“Don’t go too far, kid.”

“You think you’ll survive if you dare take on all of us,” one of the CEOs replied, “Tch. I’m done with this farce.”

Just as the CEO stood up, Whitley delivered his ulitmatum, “should anyone leave here without doing those two things, I release everyone’s information to Atlas.”

“The company won’t survive if you do tha-”

“What you’re doing is a crime. This is blackmai-”

“No, no, no. This isn’t blackmail,” Whitley interrupted with a laugh, “this is simply a business deal, a mere trading of worthless stock for your valuable lives. Now if you think that what I’m doing is a crime...” He shrugged, “I guess I have no choice but to report these things to the proper authorities.”

The room fell silent at that.

“As for the company, you’re right. Losing a lot of important assets at once will impact the company,” he lightly said before glaring at them, “Luckily, all of you are leeches and don’t fall under that category.”

Lexington bristled.

“If you release that information on us, have you not thought about what will happen to your father?”

Whitley chuckled. 

“Oh I certainly have. My father will likely go to jail after all this, and I’ll probably have to go on TV and talk about how sorry I am about my father’s crimes and that I’ll work hard to atone in his place,” he replied, “Troublesome things, yes. And of little worth, since I do agree that the Schnees will be a very hated name in the Kingdom for quite some time.”

“But we’ll at least have the opportunity to recover. The rest of you on the other hand...” he chuckled darkly, "...will probably have long met the firing squad.”

“And as for those of you who think they can escape, do you really think your connections will mean anything once General Ironwood gets ahold of you?”

The room became quiet once more as they considered the question.

“I thought so,” Whitley finished with a calm smile, a smile that these ruthless businessmen would be seeing in their nightmares - the smile of a son willing to sacrifice his own father for his goals. Everything that he wanted to show, he let them see.

“So no more objections? Shall we start the transfer of assets then?”

[darling-i-read-it]

Oaks

Will Graham x reader

Word Count: 1.3k

Warnings: injured kitten 

Author’s Note: totally extended this request because I couldn’t just leave it without knowing how the cat is so i did a whole ass trip to the vet in the storm I hope that’s okay lol. I hope you enjoy! I love Will Graham!

Requested: by anon, Hi! What would our cute boi Will react if his lover came home with an injured kitten in her arms while it was raining too hard on outside? Cat's got only one eye and one of her leg is broken and it looks so small and thin. She say something like " It was injured so bad and it's freezing outside, i couldn't leave her there. Can we keep it?". 😽thanks😽

Summary: the request 

Genre: fluff

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director 

(not my gif)

    Will was notoriously a dog person. Everyone knew it. If they knew Will they could probably name at least one of his dogs because he really liked to talk about them. It was just a known fact that if you were dating Will you were probably going to inherit a lot of doggos to go along with that which for you was not a big deal at all. In fact, it was preferred.

Which is why it was so funny to him when you brought a cat home.

That night was one of the worst storms Will had ever seen. His anxiety was peaking at the fact that you weren’t home from work yet and you were usually home ten minutes ago. He held his phone tightly in his hand, thinking about whether or not he should call you or wait a few more minutes.

The rain hit the house in sheets so hard that it was worrying some of the dogs. Five minutes passed and Will nodded to himself, pulling his phone up to his face and going to dial your number. It was only seconds after he had started that he saw your headlights outside. He nearly collapsed from relief and stood up, not even bothering to grab his jacket as he walked out onto the porch, keeping the dogs inside. 

He could barely see you get out of the car. It was so dark but he knew by the shape that it was you. You did a little jog up to the porch and gave him a smile when you got close enough.

“I was so worried,” he told you and you moved your hair out of your face. Even though you had only been out in the rain for a few seconds it was soaked. 

“I’m sorry I’m late.” You rushed him inside out of the storm and stood in the living room. Will helped you take off your jacket and then saw you were holding something underneath it.

“What’s that?” he asked and you let out a dry laugh, cradling something in your hands. He walked around you so that he was in front of you. It was then he saw the kitten. It was shaking and soaking wet and was barely bigger than your hand.

“The reason I’m late.”

At further inspection Will noticed that the kitten looked to be injured. It was very thin and had a bleeding eye gash along with what looked like was a broken leg. 

“I know we usually bring home dog strays but she was in the middle of the road and she’s bleeding and we need to take her to the vet when we can and…” you trailed off, meeting Will’s eyes, “...can we keep her?” 

Will looked down at the squirming suffering kitty and nodded quickly.

“Of course. We accept all strays here,” he told you softly, taking the kitten in his hands.

“That must be the reason you let me move in,” you joked. He shook his head.

“The reason I let you move in is so you could take in a whole ground of strays,” he said, nodding his head at the dogs and then gesturing with his free hand to himself before going back to cradling the cat. You smiled gently.

“Best decision I ever made.” He blushed a little and tried to ignore it.

“I’ll call the twenty four hour vet.”

“I can drive out there alone if you want, i don’t want you out in this storm.” He scoffed, grabbing his phone to find the number.

“It’s funny you think I’m going to let you go out there alone,” he muttered which caused you to smile despite knowing full well that he cared about you. 

He called the vet and was able to explain that his wife (you weren’t his wife but you weren’t about to make that comment now) had found an injured kitten and was looking to take it in. They agreed the matter was pretty serious and that you should probably take the kitten in right then which is exactly what you did as the bomb pet parents that you were).  

You drove the half an hour there in the storm and gave the kitten to the vet who told you quickly that it would probably take an hour to get her all fixed up. You told them you would wait and then it was just you and Will in the vet waiting room that smelled like dogs.

Will put an arm around you and put your head on his shoulder. You talked a bit about your jobs and about your lives, admiring the time that you were getting alone that was scarce with his new FBI job.

“You called me your wife when you called the vet,” you told him. He raised an eyebrow.

“Did I?” You nodded.

“You did.” 

“Well should I tell her you’re just my girlfriend or-”

“No no it’s okay. I liked it. One day I’ll be your wife if all goes well right?” He smiled and nodded easily.

“Of course.” 

You were in blissful happiness at that point and the conversation just kept flowing. 

“What should we name her?” you asked him after about forty five minutes had passed. He shrugged. Now your legs were over his and he was practically leaning over you. It was rather late and you weren’t quite picky on how you got comfortable.

“You found her. Traditionally the person who finds them is the namer,” he explained. You mulled it over for a second.

“I got nothing Will.” He laughed, rubbing your knuckles. 

“What road did you find her on?” “The intersection between Oaks and Herb.” He gestured toward you.

“Oaks.” 

“That’s a name?” 

“If you want it to be. Alana has a dog named apple sauce.” You laughed and nodded.

“Oaks it is then.”

It was just then that the vet came back, a kitty carrier in her hands. You and Will stumbled to stand, able to get your legs off of him and attempt to get on your feet. Eventually you both stood, laughing lightly.

“The injuries were minor to her leg but she will be blind in her left eye. You’re lucky you got her here when you did though, most of the injuries could have been fatal had they been left untreated. However, she’s good to go home tonight if you bring her back in a week.” You smiled and WIll placed his arm around your waist.  

“That’s great!” The vet handed you the carrier. 

“What’s her name?” she asked. Will chuckled.

“Oaks. The street she found her.” The vet nodded, smiling.

“Cute name.” 

“Come on, let’s go home. I’ll call for payment tomorrow,” you promised and the vet nodded. You and Will walked back out to the car for your drive back home in chaos with your little new addition to the family, kitty Oaks.

[cescalr]

Why Is Draco Malfoy So Underrated?

A repost of a Quora answer because Quora hates me for some reason

@vivithefolle​ i take little convincing here I go -

SO!

You. Yeah, you. You, nebulous quora questioner, you think Malfoy is underrated, do you? Well I, CescaLR, am here to set the record straight. The following is the answer I posted to Quora, that was flagged with ‘answer may need improvement’, which means some asshole was trawling the answers to the question posted and didn’t like mine so they had the moderators hide it because said person doesn’t like differing opinions. This post is thereby an archive, so if my answer is never again allowed to see the light of day on Quora, at least my maths is visible elsewhere. 

Hopefully, this entertains you, tumblr user reading this post. Also, as fair warning, if you do like Draco Malfoy and somehow stumbled across this post, I recommend skipping it. 

Why is Draco Malfoy so underrated?

Fleur Lee-Ranger

Author of 857406 words of fanfiction and counting.

ANSWER:

HAHAHAHA.

Ha.

Ha.

hah…..

For god’s sake, I hope you’re not serious.

Let’s look at YouTube, first:

Does 2.2 million f*cking views on a woobie Draco edit seem like he’s underrated to you? Any character that gets 2.2 million views on an edit that interprets the character in a sympathetic, caring light…. Jesus Christ. They’re not underrated.

You could make a clear argument for them being overrated, by matter of fact!

The first result is his entire life story, and a redemption of the Malfoy family as a whole, and it’s… super popular!

look at that! 70k likes versus 1.7k dislikes. Let’s use my favourite maths thing once again: Ratios!!

(I hate ratios. The things I do to prove a point, eh?)

This video has 5201431 million views. It has around 70k likes, 1.1k dislikes. We’ll round 5201431, as 70k and 1.1k are both rounded numbers and I can’t be bothered to deal with numbers that are too complicated right now, it’s nearly nine pm. 5201431 -> 5.2 million. It’s the rounded number YouTube itself uses on the search page - check the first image if you don’t believe me, and since YouTube thinks that’s good enough, so will we.

5200000 : 70000 : 1100

52000 : 700 : 11

Divide all by 11 (and round awkward numbers, because we’re already dealing in rounded numbers anyway, which is kind of bad practice, but it’ll do for this context):

4,727 : 64 : 1

As I’ve proven before (not on Quora, you can probably find it in the comments of one of my fanfictions, I’ll end up moving it over here one day when I find the right question), fandom content engagement rates are always pretty bad. But honestly? every four thousand or so views, you get 64 likes, compared to just one dislike. That’s great! That’s incredible! I’d kill for those kinds of ratings!!

(Draco’d probably wimp out, though. hehe. Jokes, jokes.)

As for his woobie video:

2.3m : 152k : 715

2300000 : 153000 : 715

Nice, don’t need to remove any superfluous zeroes. Bad, for… well, your hypothesis, to put it nicely, since that means there are only seven hundred and fifteen goddamn dislikes on this video, what the f*ck, why do so many people like this b*stard child.

Ahem. Sorry, that’s rude to illegitimate children like myself. There is nothing wrong with having unmarried parents.

…Anyway, lets slim down that ratio:

3217 : 214 : 1

Holy sh*t. I would do more than kill for this ratio. Oh my god.

That’s some great engagement there. So many likes! Clearly, Draco dearie is a very popular boy! He’d love that. I hate this on principle. God am I glad 13 year old me didn’t really use YouTube (I watched gaming content and little else, didn’t even find fandom content until 2015) or I’d have contributed one of those likes, probably.

Oh wait, no! Never mind! I can’t have contributed one of those likes, because this f*cking video was posted last year!!!!!

LAST GODDAMN YEAR!!!!

Do you understand that? Do you - do you have any idea how - just how difficult it is to get that many views that quickly and with that good an engagement???? Do you???????? It has been, get this, seven, seven whole f*cking months, Less time than it takes to make a baby, and this f*cking video has 2,265,900!!! million!!!! views!!!! With a ratio of 214 likes to one goddamn dislike.

oh my god.

oh my god

oh my god

I’m having a minor mental breakdown. Jesus f*cking H Christ on a goddamn bike.

Look at these comments! Look at how many likes they have!! Oh my god!!!! Draco Malfoy might just be one of the most beloved characters ever to get this sort of reaction, for hell’s sake!

I don’t know what kind of dunderhead you are to not notice how f*cking popular this jackass little b*stard boy is, but god, the whiny little sh*t has more fans than oh, I don’t know. Someone really popular. Tom Holland? I don’t know celebrities. Sorry.

But my point is, for god’s sake, Malfoy isn’t underrated. I don’t know what rock you’ve been living under, my friend, but that sheer idolisation you so crave of your wimpy f*cking husband is right there in front of you! Just search his name, and you’ll see it front and goddamn centre. Those of us that don’t worship the ground he walks on are generally much more background.

For god’s sake, he’s a trope namer.

Draco In Leather Pants.

How much more evidence do you need than that?

Of course, I could be jumping the gun. You could be a fan of his that is frustrated by the fanon interpretation of his character. ‘Why is he reduced to a bad boy with a heart of gold when actually he’s a more complicated asshole with sh*tty morality and no backbone that gives a whole ass damn about his family but not much else?’ Good question! Blame Cassie Claire, though I suppose that’s my go-to for most things.

Seriously though; Draco Malfoy is not even remotely overrated. He’s a whiny, terrible, useless waste of space in the books; and in fandom, he’s transformed into a cool, collected, redeemable or outright good person who’s smart and talented and like, super hot you guys, doesn’t he look cute with Hermione/Harry/Insert Author’s Projected Character Here?!!!!

Also: Y’all are f*cking creeps for this shit:

THAT’S A SCENE FROM WHEN THE KID IS TWELVE, FOR GOD’S SAKE. I’m not even joking, half of you are nonces and I want nothing to do with you! ‘hot draco malfoy edits’ HE’S TWELVE

HE’S TWELVE

HE’S TWELVE.

Hot take time:

Draco Malfoy is overhyped, overrated, and oversexualised and I want all of this to stop, because you’re doing it to Tom Felton, when he was a child. A child! That’s creepy! Please do not make hot edits of children, thank you!!!!!

Someone call the police. I’m done with this f*cking fandom, oh my god.

(Also, if you think I edited that in like some sick weirdo might do, just go find that video and give it a watch. I wouldn’t if I were you, I’d believe me, because watching that video probably puts you on a watchlist somewhere.

It should.)

Okay. Deep breaths. It’s been a few months, this answer was flagged with the wonderfully opaque ‘this answer may need improvement’, and I’m back to refine this. I’m not taking anything out, but I’m adding some extra investigation. For posterity’s sake; the original answer only contained YouTube analysis. Let’s look through Archive Of Our Own, shall we?

As I showed in my answer re: the well-liked-ness of Lilly and Hermione, this is the number of total fics within the HP tag.

This is the number of tags when ‘Draco Malfoy’ is added to the ‘included characters’ filter.

So, in terms of ‘fandom work presence’ (AO3 is mostly fanfic, but it is not all fanfic, there are a few vids and some art on there, too) Malfoy’s ratio is thus:

254603:65469

3.8889… : 1

4 : 1

So, rounding up, for every four works on AO3, there is one that includes Draco dearie. Good lord, he’s pervasive, isn’t he? Can’t turn a corner in the fandom without seeing his pasty ferret face plastered all over the walls… lovely.

Now, once again - that wasn’t the best ratio. I didn’t remove bashing, for example, so not all those works will be positive (as in, since you think he’s underrated, that means - I assume - you think people don’t like him enough) so let’s go the long mile:

I will find a ratio for Mr Malfoy Jr’s fans, versus his haters, in terms of - how many fics bash Malfoy, and how many greatly enjoy his existence?

Add the bashing tag, and now let’s see how many fics there are with a) Draco in it, and b) Draco Bashing:

hahahhahagag;k;asdkf

Oh no!

Oh my god I dodn’t…. one second… give me just one second….

Right. Laughing fit over, okay. 17.

So, 65469 works with Draco present, 17 of which don’t like him overmuch, and 65452 like him just fine/present him as he appears in canon! Awesome. Of course, people who present him as he is in canon may not like him the way you want him to, so, not awesome? Hmm. I’m not sure how to filter for that. I suppose you wouldn’t want people who write him OOC, though, because that’s not rating him properly, is it? Should we add OOC to the bashing, to get people who don’t appreciate his… many positive character traits… to the extent that you would like?

Yes, I think we should.

Now, there’s no tag for ‘OOC Draco Malfoy’, because that would make my life too easy. And, I’m not going through 151 works to figure out which ones have Draco being the one OOC. If they’ve written one person OOC, and they’re self-aware enough to tag it, then I’m going to meanly assume they’ve written Draco OOC as well. When one person’s out of whack, I’ve found everyone else is, too, so I’m not just doing this to be a dick, I promise, it’s for a real, good, understandable reason, one that is not only because I really don’t want to have to do any maths more complicated than basic ratios.

So. 151 OOC works, 17 bashing works. 168 works of not properly appreciated Draco Malfoy, coming up, which takes our 65469 Draco works down to… 65301.

Well, that’s a lot, still.

So, there’s still some tags to remove, like Evil, and Abusive, and all that lark. I’ll go do that quickly, and come back with the maths.

(okay, but I do have to show this:)

(fourteen works in the ‘Evil’ draco tag?? are you serious???)

(oh and you can’t filter by Abusive Draco Malfoy, like that’s not a tag, so I can’t exclude it, but it really adds to the general atmosphere of ‘Draco Malfoy? Yeah he’s cool I like him’ that this fandom has going on, doesn’t it?)

Alright so! We really only could take away those 14 works. Okay.

By the way, just so you know - I didn’t exclude tags like ‘Death Eater Draco Malfoy’ and ‘Bully Draco Malfoy’ (if the latter even exists), because those are things that happen in canon, and when I think of a character as being ‘underrated’ I include not acknowledging their canon actions, the bad and the good. A character is only as good as their complexities run deep.

So.

For the ratio, I guess;

65469 : 151 : 17 : 14

4,676.3571… : 10.7857… : 1.2142… : 1

4,676 : 11 : 1 : 1

…

Hmm.

For every 4 thousand 6 hundred fics Draco appears in, 11 of them have OOC tagged, 1 of them has Draco Bashing tagged, and 1 of them has Evil Draco tagged. That is…

That is unfathomably good. I’m really, genuinely having a hard time picturing it. I really, honestly, don’t think there’s been a character as unquestionably overrated as Draco Malfoy in all of fandom, because, good lord, look at that ratio! People love the guy!

Let’s see the good draco malfoy tag, shall we?

Now, to be fair, most people don’t bother tagging any of this sort of thing, usually, so that’s a minor flaw in my ratio-ing. We can’t actually know exactly how many works laud Malfoy, or hate him, or feel ambivalent, because people don’t tag their shit properly. But I’m hoping this helps, at least a little. Anyway, 905! That’s a few. Not many, but certainly more than Evil or Bashing or even OOC.

65469 : 905 : 151 : 17 : 14

4,676.3571… : 64.6428 : 10.7857… : 1.2142… : 1

4,676 : 65 : 11 : 1 : 1

Yep. That’s not bad, not bad at all.

So. Most people seem to like him, if we’re honest. As I pointed out above, he’s a trope namer. If you didn’t click on the link for Draco In Leather Pants, here’s a brief summary from the TV Tropes page:

[ Transcription:

Sometimes, a fanwork will portray a villainous character in a more positive light. It can be done out of sympathy for the character, for shipping reasons, as a part of a role-reversal story, several of the aforementioned or for the variety of other reasons.

The common subjects of this treatment are characters who are wicked in a classy or cool way. A physically attractive villain is much more likely to be subject to this trope than a physically ugly one; Beauty = Goodness, after all, and shallow as it may be, it seems that, for some fans, this is the case even when the character's beauty only extends to their appearance. All Girls Want Bad Boys may be a factor with male villains getting a female fandom that views them through this lens. A badass villain will naturally be preferred by many of these over meeker heroic characters at times, as well. Ugly Cute villains also get this pretty easily. ]

So! There’s that. He named a trope all about appreciating a character perhaps (usually definitely) more than they deserve, so I wouldn’t call him ‘underrated’ by most general definitions of the word:

People seem to mostly believe him to be quite good, actually! Certainly enough to write about him a lot, to draw him a lot, to edit him a lot, to theorise about him a lot, to ship him with the main character so much that the 99th filter ever on AO3 was Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter.

Hey, actually, that’s a good idea! Which filter id is Draco Malfoy?

Now, if I’m not mistaken, it’s been a while since I had to do this -

Draco Malfoy was the 1589th tag canonised in the tag system of AO3. Let’s check the Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter tag (which I know for certain was 99) to make sure:

And lo and behold, I was right. That’s mad. That’s mad!!!!

Ooh, I’ve found a fun trick

To change which rss feed you’re looking at, copy the https:// link up to .atom in the speech marks, and change the highlighted number. That shows you what uses that tag_ids: - in this case, 93 is Draco himself. The 93rd tag, dedicated to Draco Malfoy. Good lord, that’s insane! I guess there really weren’t many other things to prioritize at the time, but that’s still silly to me.

Fluff and Angst appears to be the fiftieth tag canonised, for comparison. Sometimes when you replace the rss feed’s ‘tag’ in the address bar it takes you to the tag’s page instead of the feed, because that tag doesn’t have an rss feed. The more you know!

Anyway, back on track: I think all of that, rss feeds, youtube analytics, fandom presence, all kind of proves my point:

Draco Malfoy is not underrated. He is, arguably, overrated as a character, but unarguably very popular within the greater Harry Potter fandom. Unpopular characters don’t tend to get paired with the lead, at the very least - and you can’t turn around in the Harry Potter fandom without seeing Drarry somewhere, can you?

[uraharashouten]

17 questions 17 people

Tagged by: @deivorous, @hirako5hinji [[ thank you, friends! ]]

Nickname: Silk

Zodiac: Scorpio

Height: 5′4″

Hogwarts house: ...Ravenclaw?  I have sometimes been accused of being a Hufflepuff, but no way; I’m not that much of a grind. And way too much of a nerd.

Last thing I googled: when were munkki invented (okay, that’s not entirely true. That was the last thing I’d Googled right before I googled which Hogwarts House am I in)

Song stuck in my head: History Has Its Eyes On You

Number of followers: I’m honestly not sure, because tumblr’s count has been way off since I came back last September...

Amount of sleep:  7 hours

Lucky number: 137

Dream job:  Paint Chip Color Namer*

Wearing: taupe shorts and pink Western-style button-up shirt, except the buttons are snaps for some bizarre reason, which can sometimes lead to amusing moments

Favorite song: how can I choose just one?

Favorite instrument: violin

Aesthetic: foggy, cold morning on a northern California beach. Seagulls. Pelicans!

Favorite author: Douglas Adams

Favorite animal noise: ...meow? followed closely by aaaOOOOooo ooo ooo ooooo  (that’s a mourning dove for anyone who doesn’t speak suburban American perching bird)

Random: The eyes of a mantis shrimp have 12 color receptors. That’s nine more than people, and way more than are necessary to see color in the visible light spectrum. But that doesn’t mean they have infrared or x-ray vision, or even have a superhuman ability to tell apart slightly different shades of yellow; it just means their brains are actually so bad at interpreting colors that they basically take a majority survey of which color receptors have the most stimulation, and figure that color must be the one they’re seeing.

Tagging: 17 people?! OOF. hokay... @adelha-mathilde, @orenonahaichigoda, @the-lightning-underdog, @akanekishimoto, @akon-just-akon, @glacies-tempestatem, @waspandr, @thedemonsnake, @hissuccessor, @senboago, @mistyroselove, @sociopath-scientist, @bccst, @bleachintothemultiverse, @mindinmuken, @jigokumai, @bxtonpxss People tend to tag the same people on these things so I tried to branch out and leave some for the rest of y’all!!

[tinycartridge]

Approaching Infinity ⊟

[Guest writer Caroline Delbert brings us a fully unexpected article that manages to be both philosophical exploration and interview-based journalism, at the same time. I couldn’t be happier to share this piece! Find more from Caroline at her Twitter and Medium. -jc]

We live in a golden age of computing power. Our games are filled with giant procgen worlds and RNGs and thousands of ticking background variables. The math is surpassing human ability far faster than we can grasp, and we’ve, I think correctly, put it to work making the grass in Stardew Valley so fun to swoosh through with a sword. But the idea of infinity horrifies people more than almost anything else and remains as confusing and terrifying as ever. As our games get closer to endlessly detailed, I chose four designers who’ve worked on four of my favorite games of the last few years, all with totally different ways of using space, time, and more to give the feeling of an infinite playspace. I’ve also been spelunking the idea of infinity itself and why it makes us feel so uncomfortable and intrigued.

We Contain Multitudes

What is infinity? We aren’t born with an understanding of the idea of something that never ends. Psychology researcher Ruma Falk put together existing studies about infinity. “[C]hildren of ages 8-9 and on seem to understand that numbers do not end, but it takes quite a few more years to fully conceive, not only the infinity of numbers, but also the infinite difference between the set of numbers and any finite set.” You could spend your entire life counting out loud and get to 2 billion. But in calculus, which is all about approaching infinity, a billion is rounded down to zero. An average 2019 computer could count to a billion in about two seconds, depending on the code you wrote. That’s how tiny a billion still is. Falk calls the distance between our human billions and the idea of infinity an “abyssal gap.”

When I talked with Immortal Rogue developer Kyle Barrett about this project, he mentioned Jorge Luis Borges’s famous short story “The Library of Babel.” Borges imagined an infinite-seeming library of books filled with random combinations of letters and punctuation. He sets out 25 total characters and 410 pages. I averaged a few lines from David Foster Wallace’s primer on infinity, Everything and More, which had 57.5 characters per line. For just two lines of, say, 50 characters each, there are over six googol possible versions: that’s a 6 with 100 zeroes after it, for just two lines of a book of 410 pages. The largest math Excel let me do was for about four lines total, which became 3 with 300 zeroes after it.

Philosopher Daniel Dennett has spent decades writing about how humans think about problems and ideas. His 2013 book Intuition Pumps is filled with helpful analogies, including a spin on the Library of Babel. “Since it is estimated that there are only 10040 particles in the region of the universe we can observe, the Library of Babel is not remotely a physically possible object,” Dennett explained. But despite containing far more books than the possible volume of our entire region of space, that number of books is still a real number, not infinite! The takeaway from all this, and then I swear I’ll stop talking about math, is that nothing we can measure in real life is truly infinite. Infinity is a pure concept reserved for mathematicians and philosophers.

Playing with Time: Immortal Rogue

In Kyle Barrett’s 2019 mobile game Immortal Rogue, you begin in prehistory and fight your way through progressive eras in chunks of 100 years. But time is a flat circle, and eventually your progress is bombed back into preagricultural oblivion. The mechanics of Barrett’s game are fun and satisfying and I can’t recommend Immortal Rogue strongly enough, but the framework of endless time is what got my attention.

“It’s not really infinite,” Barrett explained. “It’s a matrix that loops every time you reach the end of it. There’s an x-axis that’s based on time, basically—it goes from agricultural to pre-industrial to the industrial era to the computational era and space age, so time based on human technological development, and if you get too far into the space era you’re gonna destroy the world and go back to the preagricultural era. Then there’s a y-axis that is based on authoritarian control in the world, so at the bottom you have anarchy, at the top you have fascism, and if you go too far into fascism you’ll get anarchy because people will rebel.”

I said I wouldn’t talk about math again, but Barrett brought it up this time. A matrix is just a grid. The Matrix is something else, but if you’ve ever done a “Sally has a blue hat and wasn’t born in March”-style logic puzzle, you’ve used a matrix. There’s also a proper math definition of a matrix and a whole field of operations we do to those matrices, collectively called abstract algebra.

Barrett’s matrix of time and authority determines the overall feel of the levels, but each one is procedurally generated after that. His day job is in mainstream game development, and he originally shopped the idea for Immortal Rogue as the system to power an AAA game. “You can imagine any AAA game with that kind of variety in environment would cost just too much money to make,” Barrett says. “It was a game concept that I had pitched to studios earlier as a sort of introduction piece—not necessarily to make the game, because I know that doesn’t happen, but as far as getting into the industry.”

The way Barrett combined his basic variables means Immortal Rogue does feel endless. My longest life so far is 800 years, and Barrett says a complete cycle in which you beat the game can take anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 years. I’d love to tell you I believe I’ll beat the game at some point and see that full cycle. I’ll keep trying, at least.

Immortality and Endless Time

Would you want to live forever? This is one of the major philosophical questions that underpins western thought and especially the Christian form of the afterlife. Heaven and hell are each presented as an eternity, but again we run into Dr. Ruma Falk’s findings about how humans conceive of an infinite period of time. “One does not get closer to infinity by advancing the counting sequence because there is no way to approach infinity. Nowhere does the very big merge into the infinite.” If the lifetime of the planet Earth were condensed to one year, humans have lived for less than 30 minutes. We balk at the length of lives of record-setting elders who were born just a few years after the 19th century: imagine living that entire time and then living it again and again for literally forever. Our earthly understanding of time, and how our earthly brains process information, just isn’t compatible with thinking about living forever.

For many people, God or another higher power is the only way that infinity can make sense. In turn, a much longer afterlife helps to also make sense of how tiny and fleeting our earthly lives can feel. In the potentially infinite scale of time, our lives are the meager billions. They round down to zero, and it definitely feels that way sometimes. Falk cites 17th century mathematician Blaise Pascal, himself a late-in-life convert to Christianity and the trope namer of Pascal’s Wager. During Pascal’s lifetime, infinity was still a scandalous idea and a wedge issue for mathematicians and theologians. “When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in an eternity before and after, the little space I fill engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am terrified,” Pascal wrote. “The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.”

In her memoir Living with a Wild God, journalist Barbara Ehrenreich describes grappling with the same problems as an isolated teenager in the 1950s. “I didn’t think much about the future when I was a child—who does?” she writes. “But to the extent that I did imagine a future, it held an ever-widening range for my explorations—more hills and valleys, shorelines and dunes. […] The idea that there might be a limit to my explorations, a natural cutoff in the form of death, was slow to dawn on me.”

Randomizing Infinity: Alphabear & Alphabear 2

Game designer Pat Kemp worked on both 2015’s Alphabear and 2018’s Alphabear 2 at Spry Fox. Both have the same core word game, a fresh take on the classic Bookworm where you have to spell words from rapidly deteriorating letter tiles. Unlike in Scrabble and its knockoffs, rare letters don’t have higher point values. And into the mix you throw dozens of different collectible bears, each with a total score multiplier and a specific boost like a bonus for 5-letter words or preventing all Xs and Zs. Both games are free to play with in-app purchases. In Alphabear 2, Spry Fox took the mechanic of the first game and added a linear story, multiple difficulty levels, and a host of other features. Playing the game feels like getting an upgrade at the rental-car place and realizing you have heated side mirrors. I didn’t ask for them, but I love them and now I need them. But why did the second Alphabear get so much bigger?

“I hope this answer isn’t disappointing to you, but the first Alphabear, although it’s a lovely game we’re very proud of and was critically well received and we got lots of features and good reviews, wasn’t much of a financial success for us,” Kemp told me. So Spry Fox went into development of Alphabear 2 with goals to convert more users into purchasers and more purchasers into multiple-purchasers. “The decision-making around making it into a world, and a linear campaign, and building out all the different features […] was creating this rich, interwoven progression system that players can feel invested in and value. Basically how you monetize a free-to-play game is, people play your game for weeks and months and come to really value things in the game.”

In the first Alphabear, each chapter had a set of collectible bears that quickly eclipsed the power of the previous chapter’s bears. “And you would almost never go back and use bears from earlier chapters, just because of the way it was set up,” Kemp says. “So you had this weird ‘disposable’ feel to bears. It was cool when you unlocked them, but the game was telling you, ‘You’re done with that bear, here’s some new bears.’” Now, the bears accumulate over time as one big group, and you can continue to level them up as high as you want, but your progress is paced by how quickly you regenerate in-game energy in the form of honey.

After a certain chapter in the Normal campaign, players can begin again on Hard mode, and then after a later chapter, they can begin Master mode. I don’t know the full length of the basic campaign, but I’m probably 100 levels in and somewhere in chapter 9 on Normal mode. The scope of the whole thing including all three difficulties is staggering, and the game had been out for just seven months when I talked with Kemp. “Have people finished the amount of content you’ve made so far?” I asked. “We know of at least one person who’s completed the master-level campaign,” he said. When I said I was surprised, Kemp said, “Every game developer I know has this experience where they’re surprised by some small portion of their fanbase that is just so into it that it defies all expectations.”

In this case, the fastest player ended up lapping the development team. “It was so far off that we had planned to build whatever happened when you did that later on,” Kemp said. “They sent us a picture of their screen of the campaign board, and all it was was just a black screen, because it was trying to load the next campaign board, which doesn’t exist. We were like, ‘Oh my god, we didn’t even put anything in there, and it looks kinda like you’re in purgatory or something.’” Spry Fox plans to replace the Sopranos non-ending.

Purgatory or Something

Earlier this year, I talked with my friend Tristan about his existential dread. He’s pretty fresh out of college and still figuring it all out. “I was going to write about games,” he said, “and as I entered my last year or so, I was going to write about movies. I don’t know if I’m still going to do that, so that’s a large part of the dread. Not knowing what I was actually doing.” Humans can’t conceive of infinity using numbers, but we can use our pessimistic imaginations. Our set of plausible options is no match for what we dream or panic about.

Christian existentialist Søren Kierkegaard wrote about dread and fear of the unknown in his 1844 book The Concept of Anxiety, where the Danish word angest could be translated as “anxiety” or “dread”. Using the story of Adam and Eve, Kierkegaard posits that anxiety dates back to a fraction of a second after original sin. “The terror here is simply anxiety,” Kierkegaard writes, “since Adam has not understood what was said.” In other words, like a pet in trouble, Adam didn’t know what was being told to him, but he understood it was bad from the tone of voice.

“Anxiety can be compared with dizziness,” Kierkegaard goes on. “He whose eye happens to look into the yawning abyss becomes dizzy. But what is the reason? It is just as much his own eye as the abyss, for suppose he had not looked down.” Those who think about Dr. Ruma Falk’s “abyssal gap” between the finite and infinity may be dizzy forever with the uncertainty of what they’re pondering. “A persistent pursuit of the infinite may bring the individual to a blind alley, both emotionally and intellectually,” Falk writes. His analogy isn’t an accident. A blind alley is like another famous philosophical idea, Schrodinger’s cat: without shining a light, we can never know if the alley is empty or full, terrible or fine. And we can never shine that light.

Infinite Reality: Telling Lies & Her Story

At 2018’s E3 conference, Sam Barlow appeared on a panel about the future of narrative. “People will write to me and say, ‘I haven’t played a game in twenty years, and I played Her Story,’” Barlow said. “Or ‘My daughter installed it on my iPhone for me.’” It makes sense: Her Story’s core mechanic is as simple as a YouTube search, and the game is set in 1994, with a Windows 3.1 aesthetic to match. The game also fits with Barlow’s career arc. His 1999 XYZZY-winning interactive fiction Aisle gives players just one chance to type any command before reaching one of the game’s dozens of endings, placing players in a finite setting that even feels claustrophobic, but setting before them seemingly limitless possibilities. He was a natural fit to lead two Silent Hill games after that, and he views Her Story as the surprisingly successful “one chance” he had to make a successful indie game.

“This is something I’ve pitched so many times to publishers, with the rationale that in every other medium, crime fiction, police procedurals, murder mysteries, detective stories—if you have a TV channel and a film company, you’re gonna have a few stories in that world because it consistently works,” Barlow told me. “Games publishers were never into the idea. They felt like the things that sold in video games were power fantasies and superhero stories.” Barlow chose to home in on the interrogation room both as a convenient single setting and the place where his interest in crime stories was naturally drawn. “I wasn’t trying to do the police chases and locations and all those elements which would be expensive, but also, I was zooming in on the dialogue and the interactions and the human side of it,” he said, citing the groundbreaking ‘90s show Homicide: Life on the Street and its Emmy-winning bottle episode “Three Men and Adena.”

“I did a ton of research, reading the interrogation manuals for detectives, academic studies and pieces about the psychology of the interview room, a ton of crime books, movies with notable interrogation scenes and police interviews. This was slightly ahead of the true crime wave that we’ve had since, so I was discovering there’s so much footage online of real-life interviews and interrogations that has been released or leaked,” Barlow told me. “One day, as these things do, I woke up and went for a walk, and my subconscious—which is far cleverer than I am—put all the pieces and all the research I’d been doing together. [T]he detective’s sat at a computer, and there’s always the twist where they stay up all night sat at the computer and then they find that one little bit of information or the one piece of evidence that will break the case.”

Her Story is made of hundreds of discrete video clips, divided into main character Hannah Smith’s answers to an unseen detective’s questions. For his upcoming game Telling Lies, Barlow brought the setting forward into the Skype era and is introducing new mechanical twists to match. “To some extent Her Story was about giving you the writer’s perspective into a story, and here it’s giving you some of that editing room insight, where you spend so much time with the footage, choosing whether to cut out on this frame or that frame,” Barlow said. Instead of separate clips, Telling Lies gives you long, uncut videos that show both sides of a Skype call that you can scrub through—meaning drag the progress bar searching for highlights. “Not only are you coming at these stories in a nonlinear way, but also within a given scene you might end up watching it backwards.”

The text side of searching has also evolved. Because the videos aren’t separated into clips, searching for a specific word drops you into a video at that exact place. “Those conversations are split into two parts, so you can only see one side of a conversation at a time. You have the full seven minutes in front of you and you get dropped in to the point where someone says the word [or] phrase you've searched for,” Barlow said. “So early on, if you search for the word ‘love,’ you get dropped into a moment when Kerry [Bishé’s] character says, ‘Love you!’ and hangs up.”

Including Her Story and now Telling Lies in a group of very big-feeling games runs into a funny obstacle, because they’re both made of a very finite number of minutes of video. Her Story even has Steam achievements linked with what percentage of the total clips you’ve discovered and watched. “Something like 20% of people 100%-ed it. For most games you’re lucky if 20% of people finish the game. It had a display that showed you all the clips you hadn’t seen—that was an incentive and somewhat maddening if you could see there were clips you hadn’t seen. My approach with Telling Lies was to make it so big and huge and messy and colorful that it would feel less like something you could 100%, because I really wanted people to lose themselves in just the joy of exploring these characters’ lives.”

Just Out of Reach

Even with the incentive to find all the clips, in Her Story I found myself revisiting clips I’d already seen as I tried to find new keywords or listen for clues, and I maxed out just past the 75% achievement. The rest eluded me. With Telling Lies, this one kind of mystery will be removed, and that’s a blow against infinitude. In the perfect world of pure mathematics, having one more item just out of reach is one of the fundamental ways we can make proofs of infinite ideas. This structured approach also helps us turn the overwhelming idea of infinity into, at least right now, the one step in front of us. It’s infinity in the form of a child asking a parent for just five more minutes of sleep, then asking for five more, for eternity.

In Daniel Dennett’s book Intuition Pumps he uses this idea as an illustration for why infinity just can’t exist in real life. If every animal evolved from another animal, then there are infinity animals stretching back into infinity long ago, always with one preceding. We know that’s just not true. On the other hand, a study of how children process infinity showed that knowing the names of some large numbers made children think those were the largest numbers. Learning named ideas pushed out the very idea of having unnamed ideas, which makes sense given how large and robust our language brains are. Being strong, clear communicators has shaped our brains and the societies we form as humans. If we all became existentially troubled abstraction peddlers, I don’t think that would necessarily be a step forward.

To consider infinity with a finite mind is a paradox, and as Dr. Ruma Falk explains, “Mathematicians and philosophers are often no less addicted to resolving these paradoxes than some adolescents are to experiencing the limits of existence.” Like the Library of Babel, an infinite world is made mostly of incoherent and random nonsense, compared with a human mind that can only remember its own history in cohesive story form. My friend Martin has a rich life and a beautiful family, and he told me, “My personal greatest fear is probably losing my mind. The idea of being unable to make sense of the world is horrifying.” In fact, studies show that we’re more able to tune out conversations we can overhear both sides of than those where we can hear just one side—this is how deep our need for clear narratives runs, and it’s why we’re not made for an infinite world.

Infinite Liminal: Sunless Sea & Cultist Simulator

In February of 2019, Alexis Kennedy addressed something that had grown beyond his reach, and his post was the catalyst for what eventually became this essay. On the Weather Factory blog, where the developer typically shares updates to 2018’s Cultist Simulator, Kennedy described an alternate reality game (ARG) called Enigma that he’s built into his work—not just Cultist Simulator but 2015’s Sunless Sea and even 2009’s Fallen London. In the Enigma post, he sums up the appeal this mystery seems to have to fans: “If you’re working through things and looking for meaning in your life, then all the hidden meanings in this project may look like they add up to something more important than they actually do.”

I love Kennedy’s work—if we’re friends, you’ve probably heard me talk about it—and while I’ve never mistaken him for a guru, his games have affected and stayed with me more than anything else I’ve ever played. He’s gifted with language, stuffing his work with plausible and evocative neologisms or uncommon historical terms. But his more powerful gift lies in what he chooses to reveal and how long you must wait for it. I’ve thought often of something my friend Diana said nearly twenty years ago, about traveling with other people and seeing their luggage: “They wonder what I’m taking, but I wonder what they’re leaving behind.” I constantly wonder what Alexis Kennedy is leaving behind.

“Gamers tend to be—to borrow a phrase of Mike Laidlaw's—more like dogs than cats in the way they consume content. If the core loop is even moderately compelling, they'll gorge on content and rush through it,” Kennedy told me via email. “As soon as players are doing that, they'll skim text, and if they're going to skim text, text had better not be your A feature. I constantly skim quest text in games, and I'm a narrative junkie. So pacing is a way of saying: hold on, appreciate this, take your time with it.” In both Fallen London and Sunless Sea, one variable shuffles what day it is, so you receive different flavor text or events even when you’re repeating actions or storylines. “I don't think I ever quite recovered from the initial terror, back in 2009, of seeing players consume Fallen London content literally ten times as fast as I expected,” Kennedy says.

Like Sam Barlow, Kennedy reached for inspiration outside of what’s traditionally in the purview of a video game. I asked how he chooses end goals in games with such wide-open mechanics—Cultist Simulator is even more open than Sunless Sea in some ways. “I come at those stopping points from two directions. One is 'what sort of emotions and experiences are we aiming for?' The other is 'what sort of activities would a character in a novel, not just in a game, do in this setting?' So in Sunless Sea, we want people to be thinking about loneliness and survival and discovery, and we also want people to be aiming for the kind of things they'd aim for in Moby-Dick or Voyage of the Dawn Treader or HMS Surprise.” The only ending I’ve reached in Sunless Sea is the most basic one, where you amass some money and retire. In Cultist Simulator, I’ve managed to live a normal working life and then retire, which is considered a minor victory. And still, the game wonders what I’m taking, while I wonder what it’s leaving behind.

Pure Abstraction

“The study of infinity stretches human abstract thinking to some of its loftiest possibilities,” Dr. Ruma Falk writes. “By definition, it calls for modes of reasoning that transcend concrete representation.” What I’ve found most interesting as I researched this piece and talked with these gifted game designers is how thoughtfully they’d constructed gameplay loops that continue to feel fresh and challenging. The games themselves couldn’t be more different in terms of genre or lack thereof, revenue models, or mechanics, but all feel large and immersive inside to an extent that I instinctively ignored whatever seams I might end up seeing.

I asked each designer to share a game that felt infinite to them as players. Sam Barlow answered the question before I even asked it, though. He described wanting Telling Lies to feel like a huge place to explore. “My only go-to reference, which is somewhat ambitious, is the way I felt when I was playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the way that Nintendo made me feel, where I could just go off and explore in any direction and I could let my curiosity guide me and I would always enjoy myself. I would always find something interesting.” He called this kind of freedom a form of magic. “To some extent, Her Story was me trying to get some of the magic and—again, this wasn’t a conscious thing—some of the magic of the old text parser games.”

Pat Kemp also chose Breath of the Wild. “The world feels huge and dense in a kind of unusual way even amongst all the other open-world AAA experiences that are out there. There’s this big mountain and you climb up it, and on the way up you encounter two or three little unique-feeling things, and you make your way down and encounter a bunch of other little things, and they’re all handmade little surprises. It feels like the world is just brimming with delightful little nuggets of story or interesting challenges or encounters. It’s really a remarkable achievement and it’s also one of those things where, as a game developer, I can recognize what a monumental task it must have been to create that world,” Kemp said. “Every inch of it feels handcrafted by someone who cares about that itch, which is just incredibly daunting. It must have been so expensive to do.”

Alexis Kennedy chose Elite: Dangerous, and I enjoyed how his answer mirrored how I feel about his games, where some amount of suggestion makes it easy and fun to project the rest with your imagination. “I put a hundred-plus hours into Elite: Dangerous because I so enjoyed the sense of jumping through galactic-size simulated space. I knew perfectly well that the procgen systems were largely identical in all meaningful ways, I knew the space between star systems isn't simulated and you're just jumping between skyboxed instances, but I've spent 47 years learning how space works IRL and I still carry over those assumptions if the sense of resource cost lets me.  I need to feel like I'm working to cross the space and have something that will run out or need balancing.”

Kyle Barrett pointed out that, infamously now, No Man’s Sky sold itself as an infinite game. “The game definitely feels infinite. It also has the effect of what infinity would feel like, which is empty after a while. It teaches people that lesson,” Barrett says. It brought back to mind something he told me before about deciding how much to procedurally generate within Immortal Rogue: “If it’s pure random, I think it normally fails. That’s something designers find pretty quick. So it’s like, what’s the right amount of random and what’s the skeleton that can make the random meaningful?” He mentioned Dwarf Fortress as a game with infinite-feeling possibilities, and Minecraft as something that marries the two. “It feels infinite in scope and the amount of possibility feels infinite, which is why it’s probably one of the best games ever,” he said.

“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom,” Kierkegaard wrote. “Freedom now looks down into its own possibility and then grabs hold of finiteness to support itself.” The games we love might feel infinite, but we only hang around in them long enough to realize this because of the hard work of building structures and feedback loops that make games fun to play. We study infinite math from the security of offices with comfortable temperatures and lighting. As Alexis Kennedy put it, “So it is a design choice, but there's a reason I made that one design choice rather than a million others.”

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[bethevenyc]

'Touch' Author Courtney Maum on Trend Forecasting: 'It Comes Down to Instinct and Confidence'

Courtney Maum, author of “Touch,” out this week. (Photo: Colin Lane)

In Courtney Maum’s new novel Touch — the follow-up to her 2015 I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You — the world’s most powerful trend forecaster, Sloane Jacobsen, decides, to the chagrin of the major tech agency that just hired her, that society is ready to move away from screens and virtual interaction and back towards warm, old-fashioned human contact. It’s a movement that Maum, 38, of Connecticut, believes is happening IRL, too.

“I think we are moving back towards physical contact… Just actually sitting down in person, in-person-ism,” Maum tells Yahoo Beauty, which recently spoke to the writer about the state of modern interaction, along with her own past as a trend forecaster (Orange eye shadow and ear makeup? She called them both). Also discussed: her current life as mom to a 3-year-old and as a part-time color namer for companies including MAC Cosmetics. That’s not quite as romantic as it sounds, she says, noting that the task can involve “hundreds of pages” of “Excel spreadsheets.” Color us intrigued…

How did you become a trend forecaster?

I moved to France after college and got jobs through translation… including for Paris forecasting agency Nellie Rodi. I translated their trends books, these huge guides on everything from housewares and textures to makeup to really technical material like rubber, and because I was bilingual I would go to conferences, where I’d sell the books. [Eventually I worked] as a trend forecaster, specifically in the luxury beauty space, so I realized I had a talent for thinking and writing about beauty.

What is the skill set of a trend forecaster? In Touch, lead character Sloane gets a tingly feeling, almost like a premonition, when she’s forecasting. Is it something innate?

It absolutely comes down to instinct and confidence. I have a friend who does this now in Paris, and if you meet her, you just get that she has this aura of style and confidence but also real sensitivity. She’s a gentle, stylish person, and I think that’s what it comes down do: You have to be very bold to convince companies that such-and-such a thing is going to happen in a couple years, but you also have to have a sensitivity to always have your eyes and heart open to what is going on around you. So it’s a weird combination of being a very hard person but also a soft and porous person, as well.

What are some trend predictions you’ve right about?

I am so pleased to say I worked with a company about five years ago and I told them that “make-out mouth” was going to trend, that tangerine eye shadow was going to be a thing, and that ears were going to become the next hotspot for makeup. I’m delighted to see that it’s [all] finally happened. I keep waiting for the surfer zinc sunblock to join the makeup look — like bold lines, kind of tribal. I’m sort of surprised they haven’t come out with, like, a Chapstick [form of makeup] for the under-eye area.

In “Touch,” Sloan is childless by choice, and the “uber anti-mom.” You have a 3-year-old daughter. Were you a reluctant mom?

I was definitely someone who said I didn’t want kids, that kids weren’t necessary for me, that I was happy pursuing my artistic dreams. I thought that would be enough for me. It was actually my husband who lobbied for a kid. But I’m very happy to have a child! No one ever told me how fun it would be. And it sort of opened up a portal into a whole new variety of voices and characters I could access. Even with my first book, there was a child who was 9 years old. I was pregnant when I was writing it, but I still had to ask people, “Does this scene feel real?” I never babysat, I was never very fond of children. So it was hard for me to write from a parent’s point of view. I had to do outreach, and now I can use my own life! So yes, she’s a tax write-off. [Laughs]

Maum’s new book, out May 30, from G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

At one point in the book, Sloane sees an alternative healer, even though it’s a stretch for her. How did you research this?

I’ve used it. My agent begged me to take that part out of the book! She said, “You’re going to sabotage your whole book with that scene.” But I was adamant about it. I lived in the Berkshires for almost nine years, [which is] pretty much the seat of alternative healing, and I tried reiki, reflexology. I wound up finding basically a shaman, and I have an energy healer, and I’ve done cord-cutting work with her. Reiki is a very powerful thing, and while it can sound ridiculous that you can be healed without actually being touched, don’t knock it till you try it. I’m one of these weirdos who can’t be massaged, so reiki is all I can handle. And I have a lot of friends who are alternative healers and who have energy therapists and things like that.

Reiki aside, though, you do actually see us, as a society, moving back towards touch, right?

Yes, because if there’s a silver lining from the election, it’s that people realize now how they’ve been completely in silos, living in these curated realities that we create with our smartphones — we read what we want, we stick to the opinions that we agree with. And so someone pulls the wool off your eyes and you’re like, “Oh! Actually not everyone agrees with me!” Having lived in Europe for a long time, I can say it really takes an American a lot to get out in the street, and the fact that Americans are now using their bodies and their voices and their free time to take to the streets, make calls, write letters — things like that signal to me that we’re still going to be using our smartphones as tools, but that the real force of change going forward is going to be face to face-ism… I really believe that very strongly, because it’s pretty much the only thing that truly works to bring about positive social change. You have to go back to these analog efforts to putting on shoes, holding up signs, using your actual hand and pen to write letters. So I think physical contact is already trending, actually.

Pen to paper… like thank-you notes maybe? Hopefully?

I think things like etiquette are also going to trend, because people are just so abominable now: They don’t respond to emails — forget it, if someone leaves a voice message — and people come stay a week in your house and don’t even leave you a bottle of wine. It’s astonishing. So I think that’s going to trend. People are going to get into stationery, maybe even sending calling cards? I could totally see that happening in Brooklyn, where people are leaving little calling cards to invite people to tea. Or birthday parties — [city moms will have] their kids mud wrestle or something, get really, really dirty. I can totally see that happening, taking their kids fishing or camping. Nature I think will trend, because of Trump trying to abolish national parks. Whenever something is threatened, it will often become cool.

OK so you’re also a freelance product and shade namer for, including for MAC cosmetics. Do they just send you a bunch of lipsticks and say, “Go”?

They never send me any actual tactile products. I get sent a brief with information about the product, photographs, and the key points they want to communicate through the name. Then I usually deliver hundreds of names, and the selection process is all in-house. It’s different with other companies, where we will sit around the table and talk about what works and what doesn’t. Then there’s the legal screening, where if you have 100, as many as 60 or 70 could drop out. It’s easy to start a company these days, so it’s becoming incredibly hard to name things… and now the L’Oreals and the Toyotas of the world will just buy up names within the category. So [for example] the Nissan Leaf — they’ll go and by up anything having to do with greenery and leaves and renewable technology, all those words. Whether or not they plan to use them, they own the trademarks. The automobile and beauty industries are the hardest to name, because dealing with companies like Proctor & Gamble? You can’t imagine what those Excel spreadsheets look like — hundreds of pages.

How do you brainstorm?

Depends on the industry and the creative brief. So if it’s a pharmaceutical company, I’ll probably be looking in a book of Latin or something, to look at prefixes and strange combos of Xs and Vs, because the sound is very cold. For a new hotel chain, I might just be looking out the window. [But after legal, and] by the third and fourth round I’ve got out the thesaurus, industry newspapers, Google translate — that’s when you really start translating things into languages you don’t even master to come up with original sounds.

What are your thoughts on “millennial pink”?

That’s awful, terrible sounding. Do millennials really want to be called millennials anymore? I just think that’s a terrible term. It just sounds cold, and I don’t want it on my face, I don’t want it. I actually like the shade. But I would not tell a furniture client, “Oh, we should come out with a couch in millennial pink!” We would call it Venice Rose.

Can you recall a color name you came up with that you were particularly fond of?

I can tell you something a client never used that I loved so much and thought was hysterical: It was for a hummus. They said it needs to sound really exotic, so “Dassit,” which I thought looked vaguely Turkish. But the insider joke, of course, was “Das it! That’s all you need!” But they never released the hummus. The space was too competitive.

Read more from Yahoo Beauty + Style:

20 Millennial Pink Products You Can Actually Use

6 Spring Hair Color Trends You’re Going to See Everywhere

Never Call ‘Alien: Covenant’ Star Katherine Waterston a ‘Strong Woman’

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.

[ghoultyrant]

FoZ Notes 9

Another short one, as it’s another volume weighted toward ‘harem shenanigans’ and general “this only matters if you care about Saito, which you shouldn’t.”

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

Tiffania's parents were both killed when the affair was discovered. Improbable.

Halkeginians know the brain is the center of thought. How?

Blah blah the neuralizer spell works by deleting the brain cells involved in the memories entirely. Only Void can do this because obviously memories are immutable quantum bullshit! Derflinger knows all this shit because Citan Izuki says! [Reader note: Citan Izuki of Xenogears is one of the most egregious examples I have ever seen of a character who spits out things they cannot possibly know, that they are only saying because they are acting as the writer’s mouthpiece. He has become an internal memetic reference/representation of this terrible approach to infodumps. The comparison I am making is thus carrying the connotation that Derflinger is blatantly speaking for the author, rather than saying things it makes plausible sense for him to know. It’s also me starting to border into just outright flinging personal insults because I am losing patience with the godawful writing]

Brimir passing our four artifacts made four Void people back in the day. Nonsensical jabber about descendants. Derflinger explaining that he hasn't mentioned shit before because he didn't want to burden Saito and Louise... somehow?... [Future note: I’d forgotten the author had Derflinger genuinely withhold information at any point. Later on, he just keeps leaning on “lol spotty memory” as an honest explanation rather than an evasion on Derflinger’s part]

Tiffania wants to see the world, but won't abandon the orphans.

Chevalier title comes with an annuity able to more than cover four people. You manually collect it once a month.

Undine corps is a venerable Tristain imperial guard that was abolished a few hundred years ago. [Reader note: We hear about it because Henrietta brings it back to shove Saito, Guiche, Malchior or whatever his name is, and a bunch of literal no-namers into it for... some reason]

Demons apparently have -or are believed to have- wings.

Blah blah Sheffield giving Tabitha orders. Holding hostage a supposed cure to her mother's Crazy Poison.

Mirror of Truth gets used during the welcoming Ball of Sleipnir  to make a magical masquerade ball. Why the FUCK is this thing not in Tristain's CIA-equivalent? [Reader note: We’re talking a full-body illusion/transformation that disguises your voice and changes your clothes. This is insane, and there’s no evidence it can only be used to disguise mages or anything either. But no, magic is always to serve whatever the plot of the moment is -in this case so Saito can run into and end up macking on Henrietta because she chose to disguise herself as Louise for some reason. And yes, Henrietta is here for some fucking reason]

Bell of Slumber. I hate this story. [Reader note: It’s a magical artifact that can put people to sleep en mass. Because for some reason the author loves sleep as a spell]

Sheffield can apparently undo the Mirror's effect on everyone by messing with the mirror??

WHERE IS SHEFFIELD GETTING ALL THIS SHIT? [Reader note: She has as many magical artifacts to pull out of her butt as the author feels like her having, no more and no less, without even the slightest attempt to explain or justify this utterly arbitrary system. There’s not even a lazy justification of her hammerspacing magical items because she’s the Mind of God or anything, because this author goes so far past lazy/bad that he makes utterly terrible writers look like goddamn geniuses]

After all that GODDAMN FUCKING STUPID DRAMA... COLBERT ISN'T EVEN ACTUALLY DEAD. FUCK EVERYTHING.

Oh, and his first name is Jean.

More Louise being awesome: if she has to slap sense into Henrietta, she's going to apologize up front.

End Volume 9.

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In which nothing that is interesting or sensical happens. We're also continuing to get 'explanations' of the mechanics of the magic system that don't explain anything. [Reader note: Hence why I didn’t make notes on them]