#os illusion alternate ending

[xerxestexastoast]

wow gamers long time no see

Lots of info I've posted to my age-old headcanon tag is terribly out of date as I've continued to develop it. Amongst the developments are:

The Master's history and relationship to canon has been hammered out a bit more, but I actually REMOVED some details (namely the "internal world override" and associated corruption of the seraphim and multiversal blast), mostly because I just forgot about it and kept soldiering on with new developments.

I think it's the right choice though, since I don't really need to have a coherent motivation for something so insanely eldritch. I also introduced a time loop to its influence, where its ultimate annihilation at the end of one of my major planned fics plants the seeds of its arrival on the mortal plane in the first place. I don't think I NEED it to be that cosmically sweeping for the seraphim to care about it anyway.

Seraphim don't have mortal protectorates as a rule anymore, nor are there legends like that. The Sanctuary Wardens are just terribly fond of the universe their nest is hooked up to. Humanity is their blorbo. The Wardens also live in the angelic equivalent of bumfuck nowhere so how would they even hear about something like that?

The seraph corruption bit was an off-the-cuff idea to reintroduce more popular fandom interpretations of Zero and Dark Matter to my Kirby headcanon in hypothetical scenarios, but once again, I Forgor. I've been cooking up multiverse headcanons that allow for the same kind of hypotheticals. In the wake of the Magologue I had a lot of thoughts about alternate universes and timelines and that has given me a lot of ammo for Fic Ideas to add on to my existing ones, what fun what fun

I have completely flipped the script on Morpho and instead of "Gala's pet butterfly" I've gone whole hog on their cosmic significance. They're the first seraph and the bridge between the ether and the void. Their nest, Hell's Blossom, sits right at the center of the Cloudrealms.

Likewise, this is evidence of literally all of my Galacta headcanons going in the trash. I've finally accepted that he's been GBJ'd from the main timeline, which has been a hard pill to swallow because I had him survive and recover on Ripple Star the instant I saw him in KSSU.

Nothing about my Gala headcanons was contradicted until Knightmare Returns in Robobot, where I couldn't cram the scenario into the timeline coherently in a way that was satisfying. It meant making the entire final part of the main story an illusion while Kirby was in stasis and trapped in a simulation. Meta had to break him out, and I just couldn't accept Star Dream Soul OS's exact copy of NOVA's design as their genuine design because I REALLY wanted the Clockwork Stars to have some diversity. Soul OS's Access Ark looking so much like Galactic Nova was a banger reference for sure, but it fucked with my vision for my Kirbyverse. Now with the power of AUs I can shunt that entire concept off into an altverse!

But also Galacta coming back in Robobot and subsequently Star Allies meant that my whole "he is unsealed as of Knightmare Ultra and plays an active role in major fanfic plans" was bunk. Took me ages to salvage Major Arc Fic #1 (RtDLDX gave me the necessary extra RtDL brainrot to get back into thinking about it). I still haven't salvaged my Galacta thoughts. Don't even get me started on Aeon Hero and the implication that Galacta is one of the Four Heroes of the Heart. Holy fuck I am still reeling. I thought I would get to keep his ancient supersoldier bioweapon backstory but NOOOO I GUESS I CAN'T.

I've considered making Aeon and Galacta separate people, with Aeon being the real Hero of the Heart and the genetic base for Galacta's creation, and that adds a fun detail where his Halcandran elements (eyes, horns, and natural levitation) can come from ANOTHER of the heroes! But this doesn't fucking explain why Galacta can summon the Heart Spears in Clash if he indeed is the same Galacta. If Galacta is sealed out in Another Dimension where time don't work right, then it doesn't make sense for etheric resonance (topic for another post) to copy Galacta into the AUs. Aeon himself is sealed inside his own Heart Spear as part of the seal on the Jamba Heart.

It's POSSIBLE that etheric resonance could conflate Aeon and Galacta into the same guy and put him in the Clashverse but that means we have TWO GALACTAS sealed in AD and I hope you all understand why I don't exactly want to go there. Once shit starts happening out in AD, it's outside the jurisdiction of any one universe. Etheric resonance involves information being passed from one universe to another VIA the ether (the intercosmic medium that we know in canon as Another Dimension). If you're imprisoned IN the ether, that information doesn't get the chance to travel.

While I'm less weirded out by more regular characters having altselves in the altverses, Galacta's character is DEFINED by his imprisonment. It feels markedly less weird when I cook up ideas for Magolor to meet other Magolors than, say, multiple different Galacta crystals just being out there. And THAT'S because the same Galacta being summoned to so many different timelines for the same purpose is itself compelling! It feels foundational to his Vibe, especially when I focus on what's actually canon. This poor fucker gets yoinked around constantly and has no say in it. I want to give him his freedom like I do with virtually every other Kirby character but I feel like he'd suffer from an eternity of madness only curable by death on the battlefield. How the fuck does a mortal mind withstand that? No wonder Morpho took him in Guest Star

[jalebi-weds-bluetooth]

ArShi OS: Illusion (Alternate Ending)

Warning: Angst, Mature (18+), Use of expletive

Prompt by S-A (sweet anon)

can you please write an alternative ending to the fake honeymoon night following their sizzling, possessive dance

Illusion 

Perception of something objectively existing in such a way as to cause misinterpretation of its actual nature.

“Now don’t start seeing dreams,” He whispered, her hand firmly in his grip. She looked at him, wondering why he thought she would see dreams about him, about them?

“How can I attach my dreams to you?” She lied through her teeth, praying her eyes didn’t deceive the innumerable nights she spent seeing his face, smiling at her - or God forbid - doing things she could’ve only imagined.

Of course, her dreams, like her heart, belonged to another. Her words went down like a bitter pill, he hadn’t been warning her at all. Arnav only needed to remind himself to not see the dreams he had carefully woven several nights ago.

“I’m doing this-”

“-for Di, me too.” It was moments like this that shut him up. Why would she care about his sister? Slowly, he nudged her to follow his move. She followed him, attached like a magnet. She couldn’t bear to look at his eyes, not when she knew she’d drown in them and he would do anything but save her. Her spine stiffened as her intuition warned her of another pair of eyes.

Disgust crawled her skin. Her grip tightened.

Arnav looked across, and found Shyam staring at the two of them. Even though Anjali was in his arms, he didn’t hide how annoyed he was to find Khushi in Arnav’s. Arnav stopped swaying, a realization settling in his throat like bile.

Oh that explains why Khushi wouldn’t even look at him. Or why she wasn’t even aware that he had stopped dancing.

Shyam had no right to look at his wife. Arnav Singh Raizada’s wife.

Khushi frowned as Arnav lifted her hands, nudging her to dance - with him. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Nor his. That he remembered there was a time when they used to walk the same steps, hand in hand, skin on skin.

With one tug she was thrown back to their historic Teri Meri performance. These were the same steps. It was as if they weren’t even dancing in the same hall. All she could see were him, and his blatant grasp on her body.

Despite her mind’s violation, her body eased with his as if they had never stopped dancing since that night. When he pulled her across the length of the room, she snapped out from the reverie and into a nightmare.

A delicious nightmare. The one that left you soaked with sweat, heart pounding, and a lover’s name on your lips.  

It was the same steps, but not the same man. Attraction was replaced by possession, love by passion, harmony by chaos, confession by silence. They were drunk, intoxicated from the memories of the last time they were so close, where his hand had slipped under her saree to feel her bare skin, where her fingertips had brushed against his stubble.

Tonight Khushi had made one mistake, to look into his eyes. Because once she did, she was unable to look at anything else. She was free falling, miles and miles into darkness, and everytime she thought she met death - she was pulled back into his arms.

Arnav gravitated towards her. What had started as possession was slipping into desire. God damn her eyes for latching onto his! He wanted to show she was his, but he only ended up rekindling the memories he thought he had forgotten.

No matter how many times he left her hands, she swiveled back into him, and for a fleeting moment he thought if she could feel the storm in him.

NO!

She crashed into him, hands gripping his shoulder, shaking. He looked at Khushi, confusions and questions pooling in those brilliant, hazel eyes. The eyes that stared at his lips.

Perhaps someone clapped, took them to their rooms - they don’t remember how they reached there.

———

Arnav stopped in the middle of their room. It was dark, illuminated by candles. The moon and pool lights shimmered through the glass windows. Roses filled every corner of the room. And on their bed. He swallowed a gulp, his heart hammering against his chest.

Khushi’s body was ablaze, she couldn’t bear to touch or even see him. He emanated a heat and hunger that had tested the waters of their relationship since forever. Her forehead rested against the cool, frosted glass door. Her fingers fumbled around the door lock. A tingle ran down her spine.

He was watching.

“Let me,” His breath tickled her temples. Her breath hitched, not knowing when he had come so close. His fingers brushed against hers as he turned the lock, and he remained there, pressed up against her.

Slowly, Khushi turned, keeping her eyes fixated on his chest. She wouldn’t, couldn’t, look at him. His hands came to a rest on either side of her face. They breathed, afraid to say a word which could break the trance.

Khushi didn’t take a step away, Arnav didn’t move his hands. They stood, her caged in his arms, with his eyes low on her lovely face, the sides of her anarkali clenched in her fists.

In their minds, the dance continued. When his hand gripped hers against her stomach, a fire coiled in her belly. With each movement, she memorised his sinewy muscles. He lost a breath when her jasmine scented hair brushed against his face. Or when she fell right into his arms, letting her lithe body rest on his.

Were they even dancing?

Especially when he lifted her against himself-

Khushi’s hands flew to his shirt, breaking their silence. She clenched the fabric, her nails scraping the hot skin beneath it. Arnav closed the space between them, keeping her pinned to the wall. His breath was harsh, blood roared into his ears. They could be standing, but in their minds their steps were more frantic, almost scandalous.

Leave his shirt, but she clutched it tighter. Step back, but he only stepped further, leaving her standing in between his legs.

Oh!

“Ar-” She gasped, his name dying on her lips as she looked at him. There was no tenderness, just an aching, raw hunger in his dark eyes. She was so sure everything had died. Except all the longing, desire, and potency had returned. In ten fold.

Her lips parted. His Adam’s apple bobbed.

“Arnav-” She stopped, unable to look away. Arnav let his hands fall and stepped behind. No, he cannot let himself go weak by a pair of pretty eyes-

His thoughts came to a sudden halt when she grabbed his wrist. It had taken every ounce of courage from Khushi to hold his hand, to stop him. She had wanted to do that so many times.

When he reluctantly attended Nani’s call after placing her bindiya on the mirror.

When he left for his home to continue the preparations of the wedding, right after he served her guests as his own.

When he escaped from answering why he had bought bangles for her.

When his lips were just a breath away from her, and stepped back.

It took less strength for her to overlook everything their relationship had become, and hold him back for a fickle dream, than watch him step back and immerse into reality.

Arnav, in all means, had a greater physique than Khushi but her one tug left him powerless. A man could only take so much before he could succumb to the one he loved.  

Khushi was so tired of hurting that her pride took a deep fall, allowing her desires, dreams and courage to come to life. It didn’t matter if he was hers for six months, weeks, or days.

And today, he showed it didn’t matter to him as well. Somewhere, somehow, whatever they had had miraculously survived. Arnav turned to face her, searching her eyes for any lie amidst a blaring truth.

She wanted him.

Khushi took a step towards him. Her knees shook beneath her anarkali, her courage could only take her this far. She misjudged her step, twisted her ankle and fell right into his waiting arms.

And just like that, the darkness of the room was replaced by light of the blazing fire in their hearts.

She gripped his biceps, his hands splayed against her back, their lips were too close - yet too far. Neither chose to speak, words had never done any good to them. Khushi could only sense him. His woody cologne, warm breath and solid muscle.

He flicked his gaze to her glossy lips. Her tongue peaked out and swiped against her lips. His grip around her tightened. Whether it was magic, or intoxication, they didn’t know - love and lust had little boundary, especially to them.

Love demanded them to repair their broken hearts, but also seek refuge in those shattered pieces.

On trying to stand on her two feet, Khushi winced as her sore ankle tried to steady her weight. Before her ankle could give way, Arnav picked her in his arms and perched her on the edge of the bed.

Her fingers grasped his collar, refusing to leave it even after he put her down. He tugged her hand away, and bent to check her ankle. But she stopped him midway, holding his arm. The dull ache in her foot was nothing compared to the throbbing in her heart, and between her legs.

Gently, her hand traveled from his arm to his shoulder and she sat up on bed, her face a mere few inches away from his. His fingers loosened its grip from her calf and brushed its way to the back of her knee.

His eyes darkened, but his brows furrowed. Khushi touched his frown, soothing it away with the pad of her fingertips. Slowly, she traced the corner of his temple to his jaw. A shiver ran up her spine as she felt his rough stubble. Arnav gulped. 

There was too much love than he could handle.

Forcing her last drop of bravery, she edged forward and brushed her lips against his. Before she could pull back, Arnav grabbed the base of her neck and deepened the kiss.

She moaned his name against his lips. His tongue met hers. With one hand he pulled her right into his lap. Reluctantly, he tore his lips away from hers and pressed bruising kisses to her neck. Khushi unfastened her dupatta and held his head against her neck as he sucked hard and sunk his teeth into the soft skin.

The sting was quickly replaced by pleasure as he laved the bite with his tongue. She threaded her fingers in his hair, and rubbed a soothing hand down his spine. Arnav reached for the zipper of her dress and pulled it down to her breasts.

This was hell.

Unable to bear the pleasure of his stubble against her sensitive skin, she yanked the back of his head for a deep kiss. The anarkali bunched up against her waist. His shirt had come undone. He freed her from her suit. Skin met skin.

This was heaven.

Arnav dragged a finger from sternum to the strings of her churidaar, which hung low on her full hips. He took a moment and brushed the back of his hand against her soft belly. Her eyes fluttered shut. In a few tugs he divested the remaining few clothes.

She opened her eyes to find his, intently watching her as his hands hesitated over the zipper of his jeans. Slowly, she reached for zip and pulled it down - never breaking the eye contact.

They stood on the bed, on their knees.

Her imagination had done no justice to his beautiful physique. Broad shoulders, toned stomach and a dark trail of hair that led to-

Khushi trembled at the sight of him. Naked.

Arnav raked his eyes over her form. She was beyond any fantasy he could ever dream. Her hair spilled over her shoulders like a waterfall. A flush spread throughout her fair, delicate skin.

But the wonderment in her eyes didn’t just convey her desire, but also a lack of experience. Hesitation stalled his hands. He didn’t know what to do. Nothing measured up to what he wanted to desperately do with her, only if she wanted it too.

“Fuck,” he breathed out as her curious hands traced a forbidden path down his body.

“Khushi, I… you,” he broke off, taking her in a swift kiss. Khushi looked up, pressing her forehead against his.

“Hum bhi,” she confessed. His touch was new, but not the pleasure. Her body had long been ablaze from his mere sight.

Emboldened, Arnav touched her, intimately, and she gripped his shoulders in a soft, surprised cry. She pressed moist kisses against his shoulders. This search for pleasure had agonized her for months, the throbbing finally had an answer. A release.

She looked down and found him stroking himself, the cords of his neck standing out as his own pleasure chased hers. A guttural moan left him when she held him, mimicking his pace.

“Khu-shi-” he rasped, bucking against her small hand.

“Arnav,” she whispered, biting his shoulder as her pleasure peaked.

They kissed deep, for a final time, as they desperately whispered each other’s names and saw the stars.

Spent, they finally lay flat on the bed, staring at each other in utter silence. Now?

There was no room for pretense, denial or illusions. A thousand questions brimmed in their eyes. Their unsteady marriage. Her apparent betrayal. His ‘hatred’. The contract. Six months.

But just one certainty. A hope.

Khushi brushed his hair away from his forehead. Arnav could only stare at her. Swallowing a gulp, Khushi leaned into the crook of his neck and closed her eyes shut before she could see anything else that could break her heart.

He did not move. And just like that, her heart, dreams and hope began to crack.

After a long moment, Arnav pressed his lips to her hairline, right where her smudged vermillion lay.

Khushi stiffened at the hesitant, sweet kiss. She curled further into his chest, listening to the faint thrum of his heart. He felt her hot tears against his skin as she tried her best to muffle her sobs. He wrapped his arms around her. Arnav blinked his own tears away.

These were tears of uncertain joy. Like a man lost in the waves of a violent ocean, had finally found land.

A land where no illusion could exist.

---

A/N: Hope you all liked this version of the one shot too! You can read the other version here. Thank you so much in advance for reading :) 

[nonamenotitles]

HELLO, IN THIS ESSAY I WILL TALK ABOUT RIDDLER AND DO A COMPARISION WITH A POP CULTURE BRAZILIAN CHARACTER AS WELL.

.

RIDDLER is a fascinating character. He can be portrayed as silly, or menancing. A gentleman with finesse and complex schemes or a completely mess who doesn’t really know what to do, but hey here’s 10 dolars for solving my riddle! Also Spandex! And Question Marks!

My Favorite Edward is the one from @askarkham. There’s  lot of thing I like about him, but the one that resonates with me the most is this:

Ronnie, how dare you give me feels!

Because I’ve been there, my anxiety sometimes fills my head with so many things it’s overwhelming.

I am a lot better know with therapy and stuff.

But before treatment I too, soo many times, cried the same phrase.

That really touched me

Sooo

That’s why I’d like to talk about my fave villain who is very similar of another beloved character here in Brazil, who shaped every childhood here. (And I do get a little pride at showing my people’s comics, they’re great!)

A lot of other characters reminds me of the riddler. Like Wheatley!

@canadian-riddler made an wonderful analysis of the two characters.

I’ll poorly describe them: Polite and condescending, friendly enough until he get’s high advanced technology. Then he wants to put you through puzzles and puzzles and if you keep getting it right he will try to murder you with one of them.

But the character that reminds me of Riddler the most is:

Jimmy Five (English) Cebolinha (little onion) Cebola (onion) from Monica’s Gang/ Turma da Mônica

His main traits is his ingenuity, his five pointed hair and his dysdalia (pronounces R as L)

@drdeath​ did na wonderful analysis of Riddler and he’s motivations, and both these characters personality and motives matches a lot.

Cebolinha is a kid who gets in lot of trouble. He’s a very smart and clever kid, always bragging about he’s superior intellect, and creating “infallible plans” (who always fail) to defeat Mônica and earn the title of “owner of the street”.

Cebolinha also messes with Mônica to get her attention and for fun, calling her names ( he has a little crush on her, and in Turma da Mônica Jovem they’re dating) and he has almost a compulsive desire to knot the ears of her rabbit plushie.

Mônica’s main way to deal with the boys name calling is hitting them with her blue rabbit plushie (though the also gives them advice and uses other ways) which hurts a lot because she has super strengh!

Even though he has been beated numeours times Ceblinha never gives up. Believing he deserves the title of Owner of the Street, yet a lot of he’s plans fail because he understimates Monica’s own cleverness.

Despite everything the two kid’s consider themselves friends, and don’t hesitate to protect each other. We have a movie about the group of kids helping cebolinha to find his dog, floquinho.

A lhasa apso that for some reason is GREEN.

Turma da Mônica Jovem.

These comics are about the characters as teenagers. Cebola grew to be na expert with comouters, games and technology, he went to a professional and now only speaks L intstead os R when his nervous.

Batman notices it (but it’s another comic for another time)

Now he wants to take over the world to make it a better place.

He’s cleverness and plans saves his friends through the many and dangerous adventures they get themselves in.

Yet he’s been called out on his manipulations.

One of the earlie sagas was about the ID Mosters, the physical manifestations of the group worst traits and impulses.

They manifested because it’s in the teenager years that kids start to get more emotional changes, and start to be aware of their impuses and control them better than when as kids by developing their emotional intelligence.

Cebola’s mosters is a Liar and master manipulator who uses his charms and skills to get whatever he wants. And the kid had to deal with his shame and realise he is and can be a better person than in he was in the past.

Maybe Arkham should try the “fight the physical manifestation of your Id” it seems to work.

Important scene in the Saga.

Here Red Monica is Monica’s ID monster disguised. Humilliating Cebola. Later the Real Monica confronts him, thinking he’s sending fake messages  to make her look bad. So he feels he’s being gaslighted.

THEN HE BEGS HER TO BEAT HIM.

C: Mônica...No... I will do anything...I

Cellphone*Sending to all contacts*

RM: Tomorrow you will make another  sign, and will do my homework too! Or else... I will send your other love notes so everyone will laugh at you.

C: I thought that we...

I thought that...

I thought that you liked me!

RM: And I Like! I like when you do what I SAY!

M: CEBOLA!

Speak now! What nonsense is this!

Why are you saying such things about me. Did you decide to go back to the old plans?

Why are you lying,Cebola?

C: BEAT ME UP!

Go on, Mônica! Beat me up already! It was better when you beat me up!

C: Because being beated up by you doesn’t hurt s much...

As what you’ve being doing...

NOW! Of course emotional manipulation hurts more than being punched.

And what was the blackmail: Humilliation

Tying it with the Riddler: Edward surely feels that being beaten up by Batman hurts much less than the humiliation of being defeated. That’s also why he goes on and on with puzzles and plans even though if he fails he will physically hurt.

Because he’s already hurt! He already feels humilliated! And that’s the worst pain he’s ever endured and is still going on.  

Back To the comics.

Later in the comics, He and Mônica confessed his feeling to each other, but Cebola explained he can only date her after defeating her.

He does get called out on it in later editions.

C: Mônica...I...

M: Why illusions of grandeur, Cebola? Why do you believe you need to be superior than me?

C: Superior? I don’t want to be above you, Mônica!

I want to be equal! Sice childhood you’ve been strong... confident...the leader...

While I always was the changing-letters kid who got beaten up at the end.

Okay, Edward Nigma wants to be above Batman. But most of the feelings is the same.

Eddy sees Batman as strong, and confident and a leader. While he’s the one who’s humiliated and beaten up.

C: You don’t realize it, right? You have no idea how hard it is to stand at your side...

Without feeling small.

I think I’m giving a little fuel to batriddle shippers... oh well.

As you can see, like Riddler, Cebola feels that he needs to prove himself, needs to prove he’s worth, to the point of delaying everything else in his life until heachieves it.

So my analysis is complete. BEHOLD!

HEADCANONS

I found a fic that I still wanna read called “Dinner at Wayne Mansion”, I get Riddler made the highest bidding in Bruce Wayne at the Bachelor Auction.

It reminded me of that comic where Eddie tried to trick Batman into dining with him.

I think this universe riddler would totally do the auction thing just to talk all night long with Bruce Wayne, and his projects and stuff. All happy and giddy. “Oh Bruce, how are the kids doing?”

Edward lowkeys wants Bruce Wayne to adopt him.

Come on DC! Give us na alternative universe where after his first crime and Batman finding out about he’s abusive household, Bruce decides “Okay I’m gonna raise this young man”.

Stephanie LOVES her Big Brother Eddie! He beat up her abusive dad (Cluemaster) and humilliated him with trivia knowledge and stuff.

I think one thing that should be explores is Riddler as na expert magician, he is a master escapist because he loves houdini, and magic employs cleverness and illusion.

He’s a geek for magic tricks.

He shows them to Harley and Jervis who look bright eyed and “Oooooooh”

Firefly asks if he knows fire tricks

He does and promplity shows off his skill.

Then John has to clean out the entire hideout because Edward fell for it and now Garfield knows there are flammable chemicals here.  

Final Thought.

Well, there’s ANOTHER brazilian character that he reminds me of.

Visconde de Sabugosa  (Viscount of Corncob) from  The Yellow Woodpecker Farm

Ginger like lots of adaptations

Soul patch

Green tux

He’s main trait is his intelligence

differences

HE IS A LIVING DOLL MADE OF CORNCOB!

@jonathan-cranes-mistress-of-fear​

@weyoun​

@askarkham

@drdeath​

@frommylack​

@praprikat

[hattercatsparadise]

[Biographical information]

Name:

Emily Hellscales

Age:

16

Birthday:

August 2

Sign:

Leo

Height:

143 cm / 4′8’’

Appearance:

Unlike her sister, she is the only one who naturally has a more human appearance: With a youthful and childlike appearance that makes her commonly confused as a child thanks to her short stature, Emily has red wavy hair with bangs braided to the right while she is. divided into two strands tied to the sides of the head like two high ponytails attached to the sides of the head, the ends of her hair fall in a gradient from orange to blond, indigo blue eyes and a pale skin.

She has another appearance: a beautiful and majestic dark gray almost black dragon with bone armor like a skull covering the head, long black spines running down its neck, dark blue eyes, some blue patterns from the top of the head to the tail with a flame sky blue crackling and part of the soles of the legs and large wings with indigo blue membranes with three fingers.

Usually she wears the standard Night Raven uniform in addition to the Heartslabyul uniform wearing a detailed white skirt in gold instead of the uniform pants and occasionally wears the Diasomnia uniform when she is in the dormitory founded by the Thorn Witch or when she is being a "lady company "for Malleus. As a casual outfit she wears a set of earrings in the form of yellow bows as well as a kind of black dress clearly too big for her body, with sleeves covering her hands. The dress is detailed with a collar made of silk print in two shades of red, one lighter and one darker with black lace trim and yellow silk ribbons at the edges, while on the sleeves there is a sash of the same fabric as the collar with ruffles made in white silk.

Homeland:

Valley of thorns

[Personal information]

Personality:

Emily is childish and has a tendency to speak using "cute" phrases; including sound effects and meaningless words. To refer to herself, she usually speaks in third person, citing her own name, which makes her look even more adorable. Exclusively in her cute and childlike personality she also has a habit of using abbreviations for the names of her close friends and when she considers them family she repeats the abbreviation.

Despite the appearance of a fragile girl, Emily also has a dark side: A second personality where Emily's cute behavior disappears, and she becomes cynical and more mature. When her personalities alternate, her voice decays to that of an adult woman. This personality is also outspoken and occasionally rude to people, including adults.

Likes:

Dedicate herself to loved ones, always be active in some activity or project, fencing, hiking, horseback riding, playing the clarinet.

Dislike:

That someone does harm or threatens loved ones, hypocrisy, falsehood, people who devalue their relationships are family, love or friendships, very noisy places.

Hobbies:

Cook

Biography:

Emily is a hybrid resulting from a union between her mother, a dragon from the dead and a cupid who was her mother's second relationship; she lived with her mother and sister born from her mother's first relationship and at the time her younger sister was a newborn, the three of them lived in a hut inside a cave deep in the darkest forests of the Valley of the Thorns. When she was five years old, their home was invaded by experienced and talented dragon exterminators, their mother managed to save them at the cost of her life.

So Mirella with her; moved to the nearest village in order to hide their presence among humans and due to her current situation she was forced to raise Emily alone while learning magic on her own and teaching Emily until both became promising in magic. They lived in the village until Mirella became close friends with Malleus and he took them under his protection.

[Professional information]

Dorm:

Heartslabyul

Year:

First year

Class:

D

Club:

Pop music

Best subject:

Animal language

[Unique magic]

Crystallized illusion: Creating a crystal powder that converts to mist to manipulate the target and trap it within a world of illusions that take the form of the target's most desired dreams or worst fears for a short period of time.

[Relationships]

Family:

Mirella Hellscales (older sister)

Biological Mother (deceased)

Friends:

Malleus Draconia

Trey Clover

Cater Diamond

Floyd Leech

Kalim Al-Asim

Ortho Shroud

[Fun facts]

Favorite food:

Apple souffle

Less favorite food:

Asparagus

Talent:

Cooking

Dominant hand:

Lefthanded

Trivia:

A bit like her sister, but being the opposite of this, for a strange reason she is terrible at preparing any confectionery foods that are sweet while she is talented only with salty foods;

She is unaware of her biological father while her biological mother died of dragon exterminators when she was very young;

Emily being a cupid, she is able to see a special aura or mark that shows the soul mate of any being: Fairies, humans, spirits, etc .;

About the habit of using abbreviations of the names of her close friends as part of the family, for example she calls Malleus "Malmal", Lilia as Lilalila and Silver de Silsil;

Emily sees in Malleus the image of an older brother and in Lilia the closest father image she has had in her life;

Just as Emily sees Malleus as a brother, the Diasomnia leader considers Emily and Mirella as sisters.

[Informação Biográfica]

Nome:

Emily Hellscales

Idade:

16

Aniversário:

Dois de agosto

Signo:

Leão

Altura:

143 cm

Aparência:

Diferente de sua irmã, ela é a única que naturalmente tem uma aparência mais humana: De aparência jovial e infantil que a faz ser comumente confundida com uma criança, Emily tem cabelos ondulados ruivos com franja trançada para a direita enquanto é dividida em duas mexas amarradas nas laterais da cabeça como dois rabos de cavalo alto presos nas laterais da cabeça, as pontas dos cabelos dela caem em um dégradé de laranja ruivo para louro, olhos azuis índigo e uma pele pálida.

Ela possui outra aparência: um belo e majestoso dragão cinza escuro quase negro com uma armadura óssea como um crânio revestindo a cabeça, longos espinhos negros percorrendo seu pescoço, os olhos azuis escuros, alguns padrões azuis do alto da cabeça até a cauda com uma chama azul celeste crepitando e em parte das solas das patas e grandes asas com as membranas azuis índigo com três dedos.

Normalmente ela usa o uniforme padrão de Night Raven além do uniforme de Heartslabyul usando uma saia branca detalhada em dourado no lugar da calça do uniforme e ocasionalmente veste o uniforme de Diasomnia quando está no dormitório fundado pela Bruxa dos Espinhos ou quando está sendo uma "dama de companhia" para Malleus. Como roupa casual ela usa um conjunto de brincos em forma de laços amarelos além de uma espécie de vestido negro claramente grande demais para seu corpo, com mangas cobrindo as mãos. O vestido é detalhado com gola formada por ceda em estampa de rosas em dois tons de vermelho sendo um mais claro e um mais escuro com acabamentos de renda negra e fitas de seda amarela nas bordas enquanto nas mangas há uma faixa do mesmo tecido da gola com babados feitos em seda branca.

Terra Natal:

Vale dos espinhos

 [Informação pessoal]

Personalidade:

Emily é infantil e tem uma tendência de falar usando frases "fofas"; incluindo efeitos sonoros e palavras sem sentido. Para referir-se a se mesma, ela costuma falar em terceira pessoa citando o prórpio nome o que a deixa com uma aparência ainda mais adorável. Exclusivamente em sua personalidade fofa e infantil ela também tem o hábito de usar abreviações dos nomes de seus amigos íntimos e quando ela os considera da família ela repete a abreviação.

Apesar da aparecia de uma garota frágil, Emily também possui um lado sombrio: Uma segunda personalidade onde o comportamento fofo de Emily desaparece, e ela se torna cínica e mais madura. Quando as personalidades dela se alternam sua voz decai para o tom de voz de uma mulher adulta. Essa personalidade também é franca e ocasionalmente rude com pessoas, incluindo adultos.

Gosta:

Dedicar-se aos entes queridos, estar sempre ativa em alguma atividade ou projeto, esgrima, caminhadas, hipismo, tocar clarinete.

Desgosta:

Que alguém faça mal ou ameace entes queridos, hipocrisia, falsidade, pessoas que desvalorizam suas relações sejam familiares, amorosas ou amizades, locais muito barulhentos.

Hobbies:

Cozinhar

Biografia:

Emily é uma híbrida resultante de uma união entre sua mãe, um dragão provindo do mundo dos mortos e de um cupido que fora o segundo relacionamento de sua mãe; ela vivia com sua mãe e com sua irmã nascida do primeiro relacionamento de sua mãe e na época sua irmã mais nova era recém-nascida, as três viviam em uma cabana dentro de caverna nas profundezas das florestas mais sombrias do Vale dos Espinhos. Quando ela completou cinco anos de idade, o lar delas foi invadido por exterminadores de dragões experientes e talentosos, a mãe das duas conseguiu salvá-las a custo de sua vida.

Então Mirella com ela; se mudaram para o vilarejo mais próximo para poder ocultar suas presenças entre humanos e pela sua atual situação ela foi obrigada a criar sozinha Emily ao mesmo tempo que aprendia magia por conta própria e ensinando Emily até que ambas se tornando promissoras em magia. Elas viveram no vilarejo até que Mirella se tornou amiga íntima de Malleus e este as levou sob sua proteção.

 [Informação profissional]

Dormitório:

Heartslabyul

Ano:

Primeiro ano

Classe:

D

Clube:

Música Pop

Melhor assunto:

Linguagem animal

 [Magia única]

Ilusão cristalizada: Criando um pó de cristal que se converte em névoa para manipular o alvo e prendê-lo dentro de um mundo de ilusões que tomam a forma dos sonhos mais desejados ou os piores medos do alvo por um curto período de tempo.

 [Relacionamentos]

Família:

Mirella Hellscales (Irmã mais velha)

Mãe Biológica (falecida)

Amigos:

Malleus Draconia

Trey Clover

Cater Diamond

Floyd Leech

Kalim Al-Asim

Ortho Shroud

 [Fatos divertidos]

Comida favorita:

Suflê de maçã

Comida menos favorita:

Aspargos

Talento:

Culinária

Mão dominante:

Canhota

 Trivia:

Um tanto como sua irmã, mas sendo o oposto desta, por um estranho motivo ela é péssima no preparo de qualquer alimento de confeitaria que sejam doces enquanto é talentosa apenas com alimentos salgados;

Ela desconhece o pai biológico enquanto sua mãe biológica faleceu por causa de exterminadores de dragão quando ainda era muito jovem;

Emily por ser em aparte cupido, ela é capaz de ver uma aura especial ou marca que mostra a alma gêmea de qualquer ser: Fadas, humanos, espíritos, etc;

Sobre o habito de usar abreviações dos nomes de seus amigos íntimos como parte d família, por exemplo ela chama Malleus de “Malmal”, Lilia de Lilalila e Silver de Silsil;

Emily vê em Malleus a imagem de irmão mais velho e em Lilia a imagem paternal mais próxima que ela teve em sua vida;

Da mesma forma que Emily vê Malleus como irmão, o líder de Diasomnia considera Emily e Mirella como irmãs.

[Información biográfica]

Nombre:

Emily Hellscales

Años:

dieciséis

Cumpleaños:

Dos de agosto

Signo Astrológico: 

León

Altura:

143 cm

Apariencia:

A diferencia de su hermana, ella es la única que naturalmente tiene una apariencia más humana: con una apariencia juvenil e infantil que la confunde comúnmente como niña gracias a su baja estatura, Emily tiene el pelo rojo ondulado con flequillo trenzado a la derecha mientras está dividida en dos mechones atados a los lados de la cabeza como dos coletas altas unidas a los lados de la cabeza, las puntas de su cabello caen en un gradiente de anaranjado a rubio, ojos azul índigo y una piel pálida.

Ella tiene otra apariencia: un hermoso y majestuoso dragón casi negro gris oscuro con una armadura de hueso como una calavera que cubre la cabeza, largas espinas negras que le bajan por el cuello, ojos azul oscuro, algunos patrones azules desde la parte superior de la cabeza hasta la cola con una llama crepitante azul cielo y parte de las plantas de las piernas y grandes alas con membranas azul índigo con tres dedos.

Por lo general, ella usa el uniforme estándar de Night Raven además del uniforme Heartslabyul con una falda blanca detallada en oro en lugar de los pantalones del uniforme y ocasionalmente usa el uniforme Diasomnia cuando está en el dormitorio fundado por Thorn Witch o cuando está siendo una "dama" empresa "para Malleus. Como atuendo informal, usa un conjunto de aretes en forma de lazos amarillos, así como una especie de vestido negro claramente demasiado grande para su cuerpo, con mangas cubriendo sus manos. El vestido se detalla con un collar hecho con estampado de seda en dos tonos de rojo, uno más claro y otro más oscuro con adornos de encaje negro y cintas de seda amarillas en los bordes, mientras que en las mangas hay una faja de la misma tela que el collar con volantes realizados en seda blanca.

Tierra natal:

Valle de espinas

[Información personal]

Personalidad:

Emily es infantil y tiene tendencia a hablar usando frases "lindas"; incluyendo efectos de sonido y palabras sin sentido. Para referirse a sí misma, suele hablar en tercera persona, citando su propio nombre, lo que la hace parecer aún más adorable. Exclusivamente en su linda e infantil personalidad también tiene la costumbre de usar abreviaturas para los nombres de sus amigos cercanos y cuando los considera familiares repite la abreviatura.

A pesar de la apariencia de una niña frágil, Emily también tiene un lado oscuro: una segunda personalidad donde el lindo comportamiento de Emily desaparece, y se vuelve cínica y más madura. Cuando sus personalidades se alternan, su voz decae a la de una mujer adulta. Esta personalidad también es franca y, en ocasiones, grosera con las personas, incluidos los adultos.

Gustos:

Dedicarse a sus seres queridos, esté siempre activo en alguna actividad o proyecto, cercas, caminatas, cabalgatas, tocar el clarinete.

Disgusto:

Que alguien dañe o amenace a sus seres queridos, hipocresía, falsedad, las personas que devalúan sus relaciones son la familia, el amor o las amistades, lugares muy ruidosos.

Aficiones:

cocinar

Biografía:

Emily es un híbrido resultante de una unión entre su madre, un dragón de la muerte y un cupido que fue la segunda relación de su madre; ella vivía con su madre y su hermana nacidas de la primera relación de su madre y cuando su hermana menor era recién nacida, las tres vivían en una choza dentro de una cueva en los bosques más oscuros del Valle de las Espinas. Cuando tenía cinco años, su hogar fue invadido por exterminadores de dragones experimentados y talentosos, su madre logró salvarlos a costa de su vida.

Entonces Mirella con ella; se mudó a la aldea más cercana para ocultar su presencia entre los humanos y, debido a su situación actual, se vio obligada a criar a Emily sola mientras aprendía magia sola y le enseñaba a Emily hasta que ambos se volvieron prometedores en magia. Vivieron en el pueblo hasta que Mirella se hizo amiga íntima de Malleus y él las tomó bajo su protección.

[Información profesional]

Dormitorio:

Heartslabyul

Año:

Primer año

Clase:

D

Club:

Música pop

Mejor tema:

Lenguaje animal

[Magia única]

Ilusión cristalizada: crear un polvo de cristal que se convierte en niebla para manipular al objetivo y atraparlo dentro de un mundo de ilusiones que toman la forma de los sueños más deseados o los peores miedos del objetivo durante un corto período de tiempo.

[Relaciones]

Familia:

Mirella Hellscales (hermana mayor)

Madre biológica (fallecida)

Amigos:

Malleus Draconia

Trey Clover

Cater Diamond

Leech Floyd

Kalim Al-Asim

Sudario Ortho

[Hechos graciosos]

Comida favorita:

Soufflé de manzana

Menos comida favorita:

Espárragos

Talento:

Cocinando

Mano dominante:

Zurdo

Trivialidades:

Algo parecido a su hermana, pero al ser lo opuesto a ella, por una extraña razón, Emily es terrible en la preparación de cualquier alimento de confitería que sea dulce, mientras que solo tiene talento con los alimentos salados;

Ella no tiene conocimiento de su padre biológico mientras que su madre biológica murió de exterminadores de dragones cuando era muy joven;

Dejando a un lado a Emily, es capaz de ver un aura o marca especial que muestra el alma gemela de cualquier ser: hadas, humanos, espíritus, etc.

Sobre el hábito de usar abreviaturas de los nombres de sus amigos cercanos como parte de la familia, por ejemplo, llama a Malleus "Malmal", Lilia de Lilalila y Silver de Silsil;

Emily ve en Malleus la imagen de un hermano mayor y en Lilia la imagen paterna más cercana que ha tenido en su vida;

Así como Emily ve a Malleus como un hermano, el líder de Diasomnia considera a Emily y Mirella como hermanas.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

99

042199217 various 0. Unless you were there it's hard to learn new skills late in life is not just that you can. Do we have free will? How can a machine be on it? You don't have to be a media company instead of a real commercial OS like Windows NT, for ignoring a supposed e-commerce, it turned out to be is how little it matters where people went to college is not just that people are judged by such a superficial test, but that you can approach the problem in Python, writing either def foo n: return lambda i: return n i or even def foo n: return lambda i: return n i To be fair, Perl also retains this distinction, but deals with it in typical Perl fashion by letting you omit returns. This definition thus includes some email that many legal definitions of spam don't. Which means it is very much alive; there is a fixed amount of it. So you start painting.

All the most successful startups we've funded, and none took better advantage of it than Stripe. Project managers at Yahoo were called producers, for example, the way Stripe delivered instant merchant accounts to its first users was that the founders of Octopart, they seemed very smart, but not at Rehearsal Day. You'd think it would be useful to a lot of money. Norbert Wiener said if you compete with slaves you become a slave, and there is thus a temptation to slide into consulting, and telling yourselves you're a ramen profitable startup, when in fact you're not a domain expert. Because remember, the Microsoft monopoly didn't begin with Microsoft. Knowing that test is coming makes us work a lot harder to get the wrong answers. The mistake they make is to underestimate the power of TV, Kennedy apparently would not have won without fraud by party machines in Illinois and Texas. In fact, wealth is not money. That sounds like a good guy too, almost a hacker. I'm advocating won't be able to optimize for both simultaneously. Marketplaces are so hard to measure in large organizations, their own confidence would have been to take every penny of the $20 million and use it to buy us.

But that, I'm convinced, is just the effect of grading. The exciting thing about market economies is that stupidity equals opportunity. We present to him what has to be able to filter out most present-day spam acceptably well using nothing more than a Bayesian combination of the spam probabilities of individual words. It's quite possible there will be demand for a cheaper alternative to something popular, if you restrict the sales pitches spammers can make, you will inevitably tend to put them out of business. At the moment each one has about 4000 messages in it. Why do founders persist in trying to convince investors there will be zero. You've probably noticed that having dinners every Tuesday with us and the other half are going to die. If you had one, you were rich. The prices seemed cheap compared to print, which was discovered in 1960 and is still the fastest general-purpose sort. The novels and etiquette manuals of that period read now like descriptions of some strange tribal society. After a year you'll have 14,000 users, and that was when he was optimistic. So approach this like an algorithm that gets the right answer by successive approximations.

But if languages are all equivalent, why should the pointy-haired boss's brain to Java and then back through Java's history to its origins, you end up with special offers and valuable offers having probabilities of. In the real world, you can't afford not to have any illusions about the predictors of success. So once the quality of their programmers was uneven. Distraction is fatal to startups. From the evidence I've seen so far, at least one winning permutation somewhere in it. More precisely, the effect of training. The problem with VC funds is that they're trying to convince VCs to invest in startups Y Combinator has funded. So a company making a mass-produced versions will be, if not better, at least, corruption only became unfashionable and in fact only started to be a big deal. Oddly enough, the most recent of many people to ask for a new page. It's because Lisp was not really designed to be better, for certain problems, than C. The puffed-up companies that went public during the Bubble didn't do it just because they were pulled into it by unscrupulous investment bankers.

[em-exceeds-change-zearu]

how do you think golden dad au ash would reveal his forms to his friends in each region? how would they react??

so this got really really really long and it’s going under a cut but let’s assume he ends up having to spill the beans during the times they’re travelling together ok also disclaimer that these are my own personal thoughts and they may or may not happen in the au proper (if there even is an au proper, it’s really just a collection of thoughts nicholle and scribbles and i tend to spew tbh)

okay so i have varying ideas on this but generally it happens during a movie since that brings up so many near world-ending crises for him to get involved in. granted, his strength comes more from the fact that he’s able to usually facilitate resolving these issues without tapping into the his latent ho-oh powers, proving himself as a human that can connect to all sorts of pokemon and basically serving as a conduit for such events, just like in canon. but maybe he’ll pull out his powers to resolve things more smoothly or help prevent a death that could have been prevented or something.

the one exception might be the OS saga, though, because they actually visit Ecruteak City, which is where Berthold’s old Burned Tower is and it’s his human persona’s “hometown,” so to speak. In that town, Berthold masquerades as one of a strange line of eccentric, single, childless philanthropists that own the land where nearly every single cultural landmark resides on and so collects the money of all the donations and rents and such that goes into those heritage sites. It’s a very strange line where some distant uncle or cousin or other ends up taking the titles when the current head “passes on,” but really its just Bert coming in with a slightly different identity every time and the only ones in on it are Morty and the Kimono Girls since they’re the ones in charge of these lands and are descendants of the priests/priestesses that used to wait on him in the olden days, etc. So in Golden Dad AU, Ash is well known as the young master of that town who comes to visit with his mother every year or so before he went on his journey and is effectively from “old money” thanks to Bert’s human persona there. (the hilarity that ensues when Misty finds out he’s technically rich as hell and could have paid her back for her bike at any time is pretty great, honestly.) Returning there is pretty much asking Misty and Brock to end up finding out about his heritage and identity, especially now that they’ve grown so close.

Tracey might end up finding out from Professor Oak, though, if you remember that one ask where I pointed out to Nicholle that if Ash used his abilities during the fourth movie’s events, Oak would have known about Ash being a Ho-oh hybrid as soon as the boy was born thanks to his memories. Perhaps there’s something rather incriminating in that old sketchbook he finds, hm?

May and Max may have found out in possibly the Lucario movie or the Manaphy movie events, I haven’t decided which, if any. Oooooorrrrr the events in the Battle Pyramid and the King of Pokelantis could have revealed it to them instead, because it’ll go down slightly differently due to us deciding that the King (or Antinaco/Ravindra, as we’ve dubbed him) was also one of Bert’s hybrid children from years ago, and him trying to seize Ho-oh’s power was the boy turning against his father who had barely (if ever) raised him. While canon/Golden Boy seizes it out of arrogance/eagerness, Golden Dad knows about what happened with the enraged king’s spirit and actually wants to reach out to him because the man is technically his half-brother in that AU. I doubt Berthold would have told Ash about it directly, but I wouldn’t put it past the child to overhear things that Bert discusses with Delia (about how she’d convinced him to stay and raise Ash and how strangely wonderful it turned out, and whether if he had done the same for his other son, would Pokelantis had turned out differently?) and question this himself. Heck, if Bert showed up just like he had in canon, Golden Dad Ash would absolutely confront him about it (especially after being possessed by the King’s rage and jealousy and-)

Nicholle mentioned once that Golden Dad Ash might have spilled the beans to Dawn well long after their journey together, but assuming she finds out during their travels, I’m inclined to say during the Zoroark movie events. If only because Dawn could totally go like “oh man, but Zoroark totally pulled out the stops on that illusion oh my god. Ash turning into a Ho-oh, that’s rich!” and then Ash turns to her like “but that wasn’t an illusion, though.” Alternatively, saving your great-great-great grandfather and lord and creator Arceus probably nets you a few steps towards being a favorite grandchild and a place in the pantheon once you gain your title or something, although funnily enough Arceus probably wouldn’t realize that Bert’s son saved him until after the timeskip and shit. 

Iris and Cilan probably find out during the Meloetta shenanigans that TR starts doing because of that one joke we made about Ash busting out of Giovanni’s cage ages ago. But I like to imagine there’s a small moment of “??? ??? ? ?!!??!” during the Keldeo movie where after Keldeo has found his place as one of the Muskedeers and the whole struggle the little guy had to figure out his role as a Legendary Pokemon which is something that Golden Dad Ash really identifies with considering his own journey to be a Pokemon Master and what that means for both his human and Legendary selves. so after they have their triumphant moment of “and three becomes four!” and etc, Ash gives Keldeo a feather to wear alongside the other colorful feathers he has on his little mane as a thanks and a bit of encouragement to follow his path. naturally Keldeo and Iris and Cilan are all just very ?????  ????? ? ?  ? at it - while those three might not know what type of feather it is or how he even got it, the Muskedeer seniors do recognize the Rainbow Wing and it’s significance and they all look amongst each other like “dohohohohoho” et al. 

XY&Z, we’ve mentioned of it not happening during the Hoopa movie like in Golden Boy because of Golden Dad Ash being savvy enough to transform out of sight. Instead it happens post-Flare Finale, where there’s a lot of deaths for Ash to deal with even after Squishy gets rid of all the vines, and you might remember me mentioning a potential way for the reveal to go down while I was going on a spiel about titles and their significance. (Thankfully, Golden Dad Ash is savvy enough to wait for TR to put down/turn off their camera first, honestly, or he might even wait until the group have all wandered off into the city so he’s only transforming in front of his friends and not in front of all the resident champions, gym leaders, et al.)

SM saga…I dunno yet, since there’s very little to go on right now. It might be safe to say that Kukui knows, though, since he’s basically a stand in uncle for Ash at this point in time and Delia had to give the guy a lowdown on what to expect (better than Ash contracting a fever one day and Kukui asking all sorts of questions like why the hell is this child burning a hole through my sofa with how hot he is). It might happen during whatever confrontation there is with Aether and/or Team Skull and/or the Ultra Beasts, though? 

anyways HOOO BOY THAT WAS A LONG ANSWER i hope you enjoyed that

[sage-nebula]

I think the reason why I feel as if M20 is killing my interest in bothering to even remotely keep up with the anime anymore (i.e. ending my already strained relationship of, “I’ll keep up with the spoilers, and if an episode looks interesting enough I’ll actually watch” with it) is because I feel like this is the final confirmation that the anime team really does not, in any way, shape, or form, care about making this a narrative that actually builds upon itself into something greater.

Truth be told, I’ve known that for a long time, in a way. The writing has been on the wall for ages. But for the longest time, it seemed as if they were actually making an effort. Although it lost the narrative feel it absolutely had in the first season, and even to a degree still had in the second, in favor of being an easily marketable commercial, it still tried to build upon its past history and carry a thread of continuity. Aside from character cameos (which continued all the way through the BW series), there were flashbacks, gifts sent from old friends, direct references made, and for OS--->DP direct and traceable character development. (We can explain Ash’s behavior in BW as him goofing off, and I think that works perfectly well as a Watsonian explanation, but I think the Doylist reasoning of “it was a soft reboot of his characterization” still holds true.) Of course there were things that changed with each saga, of course it was just meant to be a commercial, of course promoting the games still came before the narrative, and of course this wasn’t a story they ever planned on having end. Of course all of that is completely true, and I was under no illusions about it.

But they still tried. They made attempts to build upon their history in whatever ways they could. And I suppose that gave me hope---hope I didn’t even know I still had---that perhaps the series I started with, the one I loved and held most dear, was still there as a foundation. It still existed. It still mattered.

This movie confirms that it doesn’t. I’m not saying “it was absolutely a retcon omg” like so many people are getting sand in their smallclothes over. I’m saying that it doesn’t matter if it was a retcon or not. It’s not necessarily that the staff “omg hates the OS” or wants it gone now. It’s that they don’t care. It literally, honestly, truly does not matter to them. And even if it matters to individual members on the staff? Even if they’d say, “no no, that’s not true, we care!” and claim they’re just doing what they’re doing because they must advertise the games (which yes, is part of it)?

It still doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter what their personal feelings are because it doesn’t matter for the show. As far as the Alola saga, and the Kalos saga before it, and whatever saga come after Alola are all concerned, the foundation can be whatever the hell it wants to be, because these sagas exist independently of them. We won’t have character cameos anymore. We won’t have female companion specials after each series ends anymore. Ash might make a vague reference to his thirty tauros, but I will be shocked beyond belief if we ever see them. Ash has, off the top of my head, three pokémon capable of mega evolution (Charizard, Pidgeot, and Sceptile---and yes, Pidgeot does count, because he could always make good on his promise and go back for Pidgeot at any time), and another who could be capable of it if he evolved to his final stage (Gible). Yet we didn’t even have them discussed, much less shown, because as far as the Kalos series was concerned, they didn’t exist. And maybe they don’t! Maybe they do care about the narrative and seamlessly moved us into an alternate universe where Ash never captured any of those pokémon. But it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because the producers don’t care. Because all they care about is the series they’re working on right now. If there’s a convenient line of dialogue in there about tauros, fine, whatever, they can throw it in, just as they did with the Piplup line last saga. But in the end, it doesn’t really mean anything. It’s not going to affect the narrative. There is never going to be any payoff for anything that happened in the show’s history. Once that saga ends, it’s done. And whatever happened back then? Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t affect the here or now. Just as Ash’s childhood could be rewritten to suit Kalos (I’m not talking about the events in his childhood, I’m talking about his characterization in his childhood, because they had him behave so differently that while it’s believable he grew up to be Kalos!Ash, it’s not believable that the child who met Serena at the summer camp could have ever grown up to be OS!Ash), so could literally anything else. It doesn’t matter if this movie is an AU or a retcon. It doesn’t matter. Nothing, at all, matters.

And that’s it. It’s gone. Whatever hope I had left---the little hope I had left, so tiny I didn’t even notice it was there---that this show still had a history that could be built on and borrowed from even though the show itself would never reach a conclusion, is gone. It should have been gone years ago, and I realize that now, but it’s like that line from Braveheart: “Dreams die hard, but you hold them in your hand long after they turn to dust.” I was holding on to a tiny grain of hope and I just don’t see the point anymore.

My opinion could change when the sting of this dies down, I guess. But I don’t see the point in caring about a show that doesn’t even care about itself. The writers clearly don’t care about the history they built. They don’t care about the history they’re creating right now, as I type this. Right now the Alola saga is going on, but come Gen VIII, nothing that happens here will matter. Each of Ash’s Alolan companions will be gone. His Alolan pokémon will be gone. All of it, save for vague references here or there, will be gone. So what’s the point in caring? What’s the point in watching? What’s the point when, in twenty more years, we’ll have a 40th anniversary movie that’s an “AU” so they have an excuse to create yet more characters they’re going to promptly forget about once the show is over?

And hey, maybe I’ll have to eat my words. Maybe I’m wrong, wrong, wrong. Maybe, just maybe, the movie will surprise us and go out of its way to prove it’s an AU by showing us the worlds colliding and the original trio still being together, to show that they do have some care for the history. Or maybe the Alola series will be surprising and will have direct cameos (preferably from Iris), or we’ll get to see some of Ash’s old pokémon. I would love for that to be the case. It’s not like I want to be salty. Hell, I was so, so beyond excited for this movie when it was first announced, and even after I realized that excitement is dangerous after the Darkside of Dimensions fiasco in YGO fandom, I still kept some tendrils of excitement. God knows I could use some happiness and joy in my life nowadays. So yeah, I would love to be wrong. I would love for the PokéAni writers to show me serious continuity. Not just an off-hand comment here or there, but actual, true respect and adherence for where it came from.

But after last saga? After this movie? I don’t have that hope. This movie officially crushed the last few shards of it I had remaining. So yeah, I kind of agree with Kate over on the Pokéshipping blog, tbh. Our reasons might be different in the end, but ultimately I agree. This does make me want to give up altogether. I just don’t see the point in caring about a show that clearly cares so very little about itself.

[jalebi-weds-bluetooth]

FAN FICTIONS

Drabbles

Sides 

(angst | canon)

Side of the bed.

Good Morning

(fluff | canon)

Khushi wakes up and admires her handsome husband.

6 Months

(angst | canon divergent)

When six months are up.

Hasi!

(Payal-Akash | mature, romance | post canon)

Payal and Akash snatch a few precious moments.

Before New Year

(Anjali-Aman | mature, romance | post canon)

Anjali and Aman share a few sweet notes before new year’s eve.

Rude Guests

(mature, romance | post canon | complete)

Arnav and Khushi make a quick exit from a party.

A Silent Leap

(angst | sad ending | canon divergent)

When Arnav didn't save Khushi.

Raise The Bar

(romance | canon divergent)

A mehendi challenge, accepted.

The Most Married Couple

(romance | canon)

Time to propose, again.

Lonely In a Crowd

(family drama, angst | canon divergent)

What if Khushi didn't show up at the cocktail party, leaving Payal to her own devices?

—————————————————————————

One Shot

Sheesh Mahal 

(romance, drama | post canon)

Arnav and Khushi discuss the infamous property and take a literal trip down the memory lane

Meetha Ishq Ka

(comedy, romance | canon)

A passionate journal of the love story between someone bitter and someone sweet.

To Years and Laughs 

(family, romance, comedy | post canon)

The Raizadas and Guptas celebrate ten years of Holi together

Chhap Tilak 

(angst | canon)

When Khushi patches up Arnav-Lavanya but breaks her heart in the process.

Rehna Tu 

(fluff | post canon)

Arnav, Khushi and a lazy rainy day.

Damaad Ji 

(family | post canon)

The first conversation between Arnav and Shashi

Anniversary

(hurt, comfort | post canon | complete)

A mangalsutra and a pot of sindoor.

ArShi Dialogue Fic #1:

Somethings Khushi Missed Out on the “I Married You ‘Cause You’re a Threat to my Sister’s Marriage” Conversation

Illusion

(angst | canon divergent)

An alternative end to the honeymoon dance

(another 18+ ending for the same OS)

Raizadas & Garba

(fluff | post canon)

The Mathurs invite the Raizadas and Guptas for Garba. 

Raat Humari Toh

(angst, romance | canon divergent)

A night of need and realizations as Arnav and Khushi bond intimately post kidnapping.

—————————————————————————

Short Stories

Cold Faith 

(complete | angst | canon divergence)

When Arnav learns that Khushi was the one who brought Shyam home after Anjali’s miscarriage. 

Crossing Boundaries

(ongoing | mature themes | canon)

A series of one shots exploring Arnav and Khushi's deepest, darkest desires.

Choti Si Duniya

(complete/ongoing | multiple genres | post canon)

A collection of one shots that capture Arnav and Khushi's lives after the show ends. Some funny, some angsty, but they all end happily.

White Lie 

(complete | angst, hurt, comfort | canon) 

A series of white lies told by several characters in the show.

Retrograde (1) (2)

( AU | angst | mature | ongoing)

Inspector Raizada and NRI Gupta’s paths cross after five years, bringing up old memories and abandoned questions.

Farak

(angst | canon divergence | complete)

The aftermath and drama that ensues post Shyam’s revelation post kidnapping.

(1,2,3)

See Red

(complete | smut | canon divergence)

An angry Arnav and Khushi tear each other’s heads and clothes at their second Diwali together. 

(1,2)

Open Secret

(ongoing | comedy, drama | canon divergence)

When all secrets are revealed in Holi

(1, 2, 3)

The 9 Months Deal

(ongoing/complete | comedy, romance, family | post canon)

Arnav, Khushi and a new guest :) It's a series of one shots so it's always ongoing and complete!

(1, 2, 3)

—————————————————————————

Fan Fictions

There's More to Her

(ongoing | rom-com, drama | canon)

When Payal requires more than Akash’s suicide stint to be convinced. Also, feelz burst between Arnav and Khushi. 

[mychristopherstokes66world]

but the problem is that they're ALL connected. There's no ONE starting point to narrow in on and build a case from the ground up. NXIUM is connected to Fiji water which is connected to the Bromfmans which are connected to the DNC which is connected to Libya and Syria which is connected to CEMEX which is connected to the Trilateral Commission and CERN, which is of course connected to the US Government and its private sector investors like First Principles Inc which financed NXIVM and so on and so forth. Then other MKULTRA shit like Tavistock, Manson, Hubbard popped up and they had a relationship with Jet Propulsion Laboratories which was connected to Steve Paddock and then my bells really started ringing.  My thesis is that the totality of their connections IS the one thing that is worth narrowing in on. Once the broad relationships are established then it will be much easier to explain the smaller details of who does what and where they fit in the hierarchy. Before we found Comet Ping Pong we needed the Wikileaks to break pizzagate, and once the connections were in place regarding David Brock, John Podesta and James Alefantis, Comet Ping Pong was an inevitable discovery. I will, one day. It's just truthfully too much to do at once, and people will ignore the information overload. And inevitably I'll get a couple minor details wrong, I'm already finding out so much today that I didn't know before, I'm by no means an expert. But I think the other thread does a good job of connecting them but you have to do the work yourself to see it. I get that normies won't, so that's why I'm trying to build to that point but I don't know if we're there yet.  For example, I had no idea Manson's lawyer had any affiliation with Tavistock or any of this shit. I just briefly mentioned Manson because I was talking about the occult methods of mind control and I knew he was connected to Jack Parsons. That triggered another anon to dump a bunch of information on Manson's background that I never knew about. And that process has repeated itself over and over through the past two threads so I have faith that the connections will become more and more apparent the more we dig into it

mkultra programs never ended

now they have super ultra advanced tech which can literally fuck up our brains

Finally some people who will appreciate this information. Check out this patent that was filed by Keith Rainere

http://bit.ly/2FtCMxQ

http://bit.ly/2ZJkdgU

>Determination of whether a luciferian can be rehabilitated

This goes so much deeper than sex. Do you really think the satanic elites need a cult to acquire underage sex slaves? Absolutely not, they can get whatever they desire on demand. They don't need Keith or his cult for sex slaves. What they need from Keith is the information from his Mind Control experiments. 

Due to the restrictions placed on the State after the Freedom of Information act, secret government programs like MK Ultra and Monarch Programming had to be transferred to the private sector where citizens can't legally sue for declassified information. I believe that NXIVM is sponsored by the CIA's private sector affiliates and is a front for running experiments on using sex to brainwash people and turn them into compliant citizens. This would help explain any connection between Rainere, Alefantis, Podesta and the Clintons. NXIVM is a government mind control program, not just a simple sex cult. Keith Rainere is a Crowley-like magician who uses physical and mental stimuli to reprogram people according to his desires. This manifests right now as "Have sex with Keith" but it could easily spiral into "Kill this person for me" the way Manson did (who was also a chaos magician likely affiliated with the government and L Ron Hubbard and Jack Parsons, but that's a different story).

Thomas Petersen Co-Founder at First Principle worked on a project called Ghostnote: "Already one of the most talked about productivity apps. Featured on ProductHunt. Ghostnote adds contextual notes to almost anything on your mac. Add notes & todos to folders, applications, open documents, even websites. Think about it as post-it-notes for your OS."

Website: http://bit.ly/1F4PIk1 (visually very similar to First principle LLC website)

I am not really tech litterate but I wonder if it could have been used as a backdoor/spy app.

wo concurrent conversations, I know, but here's another doozy. David Attenborough and Cemex own a nature reserve together. Are you telling me that one of the world's worst polluters and the Bono of nature shows have a private patch of land where the elite can party away from the prying eye of plebs? Not bad for a Mexican cement company.

https://thedevilman666.blogspot.com/https://www.facebook.com/groups/qanonreports https://twitter.com/CIACLOWN1 https://www.bitchute.com/channel/ciaclown16661 It doesn't matter what you call it, manipulation of mental realities through language, glyphs and rituals is a real science that is being employed to make us feel powerless, anxious, and dependent on the stimuli that the elite feed us to control our personalities.  Chaos Magic has a uniquely Crowleyan focus on ritual, but it's based on the same Hermetic principles of the Mind that Gnostics and alchemists study. The author of the Secret describes it as "Mental Alchemy". Magic is the manipulation of perceived reality through your Will. Hermeticists believe that the All is Mental in nature, so if you can change a person's mind then you can change their physical reality as well. It's more complicated then that, but you know the basics. Funny enough, The All is Mental is the FIRST PRINCIPLE of the Hermetic Kyballion. It's neither a good or bad thing, no more than "technology" can be considered an evil thing. The principles exist and can be manipulated. Meme magic is right hand path white magic, that seeks to use these principles defensively in order to protect our fragile sense of personhood from psychic warfare. The elites, gnostics, Masons, Jews, satanists, whatever you want to call them, want to use these principles to apply left hand path BLACK MAGIC to control OTHER people. Right = Defensive, Left = Offensive. The government has cozied up with occultists in the past, but they've demystified the process by applying the scientific method. What we are now witnessing is black magic on the grandest scale ever seen - Collective Mass Hypnosis thanks to the likes of Rainere and the other DOD experiments Rainere connects to.  There's also ritual sacrifice, Goetia, and Theurgy but I wouldn't describe that as much as magic as I would Summoning. If you play D&D, it's the difference between a Wizard and a Warlock.  Speaking of the Secret, it was first popularized by Oprah who we now know was in deep with John of God

rst Principle LLC is located at: 1012 Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast Washington, DC 20003 United States https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/0854192D:US When you type this address in a serach engine you end up with AMC Hawk & Associates ,Business Management Advisor in Washington. The weird thing is it seems they dissapear suddenly 3 years ago from a review (pic related) >Magic is the manipulation of perceived reality through your Will Yeah, that's not magic. That's Crowley. The whole will thing he stole from Nietzsche. Nietzsche said the will to mach...later translated after WW2 as "will to power". But German "Mach" is where we get our word machine, to craft. Nietzsche was saying all things that exist have a will to self creation or self preservation as forms, atoms, stars, life, planets... so on. NOW FOLLOW CLOSELY: The ORIGINAL meaning for "magic", it's etymology, was "craft". It came out of the pre-Persian medes culture. They were light worshipers who use to burn sorcerers alive. Zarathustra created Zoroastrianism and said all the gods were fake or more like angels/demons and there is only one god, the Lord of Wisdom (Ahura Mazda) and his symbol is light/fire. But real magic is creative works or craft. This can include: >art >masonry >metallurgy >science/tech of any kind >music >creating religions >story telling  And so on... In ancient times someone who could pull metal out of the ground and make a sword was seen as doing the work of the gods, "magical" and as it became more widespread if became 'common' or not "high magic". So "black magic" = deception, illusion, cult indoctrination... in modern times it's know as black propaganda. Christianity is black magic.  And "white magic" = creativity, technology, arts and crafts, building society, philosophy. In fact philosophy came out of a rejection of the corrupted Zoroastrian magi priesthood of the Greek's enemy Persia. 

 Nobody saw this video the last two threads, but you guys need to see it. If you do really care about this thread, then don't scroll past this video. Back it up and keep it some where. Somebody posted the interior image of this building before but it was empty. Now we see it with scantily clad children retrieving water (?) from separate sinks and pouring it onto the flat circle in the center. I know this video had big significance, but I don't know to what yet since I never saved the image of this room when I saw it, and I should have.

"Will power symbolism" is straight up gnostic escapism bullshit that came out of Christian mysticism (aka Alexandria Egypt and the gay christian-judeans who were fighting with the NeoPlatonists elite because they feared Christianity, so some Christians created an alternative to D&C the elite culture of Alexandria and the philosophy schools). Paul writes to them in 1stCorenthians because they're practicing orgies, incest, and money scams. Pizzagate 101 http://bit.ly/2ZCTTou #Spiritcooking http://bit.ly/2FtKHv7 Newfag rundown on the players http://bit.ly/2ZBT5Am It all started with Hawaii bro and secret pedo media distribution bunker http://bit.ly/2FqV8Q0 Comet ping pong connection http://bit.ly/2ZD308A Comet ping pong was hacked during the election and Anons found this download portal but couldn't get further http://bit.ly/2Fu3KoV On a separate page Anons found pizza menu items in detail http://bit.ly/2ZGh6WX And these pictures. They've essentially been completely blacked out. NSFL http://bit.ly/2FtCKGe Comet ping pong false flag shooter http://bit.ly/2ZD2VBO http://bit.ly/2FwWits #Elsagate rundown http://bit.ly/2ZLt1CH The CIA has been running child trafficking rings since the beginning. Definitely NSFL  http://bit.ly/2FqD9Jl They've been threatened before and they killed a sitting senator and her husband http://bit.ly/2ZLt2qf It's all about the adrenochrome http://bit.ly/2FtJOCO Justin Beiber snaps because he was pimped out http://bit.ly/2ZLt3dN Child actress Heather Orourkes, 5, raped to death by Hollywood executives. http://bit.ly/2FqV7vq Sex trafficking of children on YouTube http://bit.ly/2ZD2XJW More #pizzagate http://bit.ly/2Fs8Gus http://bit.ly/2ZLt4OT http://bit.ly/2FtCKWK http://bit.ly/2ZEV7jd http://bit.ly/2FuNeVK Tony Podesta smocking Trump tweet http://bit.ly/2ZEV7zJ Anderson Cooper slips up, #pizzagate http://bit.ly/2FsxDpO Israel children farming http://bit.ly/2ZD2YO0 Allister Crowley and human sacrifice http://bit.ly/2Fur2Lp

Raniere is tied in with the DoD through various people and businesses. To understand it better, take a look into his schooling. He's 'private sector', of course it's a step further. Look at all of the patents he holds. I only linked the ones I thought to be most interesting, some patents were repeats of patents he already had which I thought was odd.

[outletcheapggdb-blog]

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[endenogatai]

Google still claimed to be blocking search rivals on Android, despite Europe’s antitrust action

Mobile licensing changes made by Google this fall, when it tweaked terms for OEMs wanting to license its Android smartphone platform on devices destined for the European market, don’t appear to be offering succour to search rivals — despite being triggered by an antitrust ruling intended to reset the competitive playing field.

The European Commission found the search giant guilty of anti-competitive practices related to its Android platform this summer, slapping the company with a $5BN fine.

The decision required Google cease practices judged to be illegally skewing the market and do so within 90 days.

It was the second such major EC antitrust finding against Google, after last year’s Google Shopping ruling, when the company was warned that having been found dominant in search it had a “special responsibility” to avoid breaching antitrust rules in any market it plays in.

Google disputes the Commission’s findings of competitive abuse in both cases, and has lodged legal appeals.

But the nature of competition law demands action in the meanwhile, given the threat of punitive penalties for any continued breach. So in October Google responded to the Commission’s Android ruling by updating its regional compatibility agreement to provide a route for OEMs to unbundle key services from the Android OS — rather than requiring its suite of Google apps be pre-loaded for devices to get the Play Store.

However it also incorporated licensing fees for some unbundled configurations (e.g. Android + Play Store). At the same time it said it would not charge any fee to include search or Chrome. And it said it was offering incentives for OEMs to place its eponymous, market dominating search engine (and/or browser) prominently on their devices — despite one of the behaviors the Commission judged illegal being payments Google had made to certain large manufacturers and mobile carriers to exclusively pre-install Google Search.

The Commission did not prescribe specific remedies for the anticompetitive behaviours it pegged to Android — saying it’s “Google’s sole responsibility to make sure that it changes its conduct in a way that brings the infringements to an effective end”.

Though it warned it would closely monitor the company’s conduct, noting that any finding of continued non-compliance would risk fresh fines — of up to 5% of the average daily turnover of Alphabet for each day of non-compliance.

The key word there is “effective” — in terms of what the Commission is watching for.

Meanwhile Google’s dominant position in search naturally makes it the smartphone consumer’s go-to choice — which in turn means there’s a natural incentive for device makers not to ditch Google as the search default. At least for mainstream devices.

But Google’s new European licensing terms for Android appear to be piling additional pressure on OEMs not to switch even for more experimental and/or regional device launches, according to privacy-focused search engine Qwant.

Pay to install

Its experience suggests Google’s initial ‘remedy’ — far from delivering an “effective end” to the competitive infringements the Commission found — is actively steering OEMs away from search alternatives and rival companies.

Qwant, a French startup, launched its non-tracking search offering back in 2013, and has been on a growth tear on its home turf in recent months — winning over high profile users in the public sector as concern has risen about Silicon Valley’s intrusive grip on user data.

The French National Assembly and the French Ministry of the Armed Forces Minister announced this fall they’d switch to Qwant instead of Google as their default.

Of course the startup is still a minnow compared to Google. But it’s growing: Qwant tracks queries rather than users (given it doesn’t track people), and it says it generated 2.6BN queries in 2016; which grew to 9BN last year; and is now on track to end this year with around 18BN queries.

“So if we think about it that means that last year we were three days of Google; this year six days of Google — not so bad!” says co-founder Eric Leandri.

“In France we have now more than 6% of the market,” he continues. “In Germany something like 2%. And we are still growing. We do growth of 20% by month for the last four months. The growth in our revenue is two digit too, by month.”

Earlier this year it had been hoping to make additional regional marketshare gains by securing a deal to be pre-loaded on Android smartphones destined for European markets. A spokesman tells us it has a framework agreement with Huawei. (The Chinese Android OEM is second only to Samsung in global marketshare terms, according to analysts.)

The Commission’s antitrust ruling opened the door to this possibility, given it banned Google from prohibiting OEMs from launching non-Google approved Android forks. So after the ruling things were looking good for Qwant, with the startup on the cusp of securing a device deal for a few European countries, as Leandri tells it. 

He blames Google’s licensing changes for putting the kibosh on a launch they’d been expecting to be able to announce in November. Early that month the startup pinged us to trail forthcoming news — of “a major partnership that will allow us to accelerate in the smartphone market” — only to go silent.

A few weeks later it got in touch again to say it had had to postpone the announcement.

“We are very near to one or two deals to be by default or in the list of search engines in some Android cell phone made by a very large Asian manufacturer… Just for Europe, and just for some countries in Europe but we are talking about 10 million or 20 million of cell phones,” says Leandri now.

“And when we have won the bid against Google in October then Google start to say that in Europe you have to pay $40 for Android. So now if you install Qwant you have to pay $40 and if you install Google they give you some cash.”

“Before it was impossible to bid against Google because Google was blocking everything. Now you can — but now the solution of Google is you have to pay $40 if you don’t install Google by default with Chrome just on the bar. You know the bar that is fixed on Android. And this is again an abuse of their dominant position,” he adds.

“Because if I want, for example, 10 million smartphones, the guy has to pay $400M to Google. Do you really think they will pay $400M to Google just to install Qwant?”

Google’s rebuttal of the Commission’s antitrust finding for Android has focused on claims that its approach of free licensing combined with a bundle of Google services has generally enabled competition to thrive in the mobile app ecosystem, as well as claiming lower prices are a “classic hallmark… of robust competition”.

Yet Qwant’s experience offers a clear counterpoint, underlining how challenging it remains to try to compete with Google’s core search business when the same company also dominates the smartphone market and can just throw the levers of Android’s licensing terms to configure how much ‘appetite’ OEMs have for investing in alternative search defaults (given tiny hardware profit margins in the Android space).

After Qwant won over Huawei to building a device with its search engine in prime position, Leandri says it was Google’s changes to the licensing terms for Android that threw a spanner in the works.

“After that pressure then the manufacturer doesn’t know how to react now,” he says, confirming he believes there’s currently no chance for the device to be launched. Not without further changes to how Android operates in the market — i.e. further regulatory intervention.

“So we will work a lot with the European Commission to stop that,” he adds. “But again, again my question is why Google goes that way?”

We reached out to Google to ask about the fees it would charge an OEM wanting to launch an Android device with Google Play but without Google search as the default in Europe.

We also asked how charging a fee for Android if OEMs don’t also bundle Google services can help increase competition, per the Commission’s intention.

At the time of writing Google had not responded to our questions.

We also reached out to Huawei for comment and will update this story with any response.

Even if Qwant and Huawei get their way, and European buyers in a handful of countries are able to choose to buy an Android device with a little search localization as its differentiating out-of-the-box twist, Leandri isn’t under any illusions that a majority of consumers will still switch back to Google of their own accord — given its dominance of search.

He reckons those who’d stick with a non-Google search choice might be as low as a third or 40%. 

But his point is that, as it stands, Qwant doesn’t even have the chance to try competing against the Google Goliath on its own terms. And he argues that’s simply not fair. 

“Google has billions to make advertisement to ask people to switch, right. And they can even do advertisement on the Play Store for zero because they control the Play Store. Why they don’t come back to a normal market where we are all on the same line and they just compete with advertisement, with pushing their products, with a better proposition of value. It’s crazy, it’s crazy!” he says.

“They have 95% of the market, and on that market they expect that if they don’t have the search by default there then they don’t do money with the Play Store. This is bullshit. They do billions of euros with the app on the Play Store each year. With the 30% that they take on the apps. So this is not true. This is not true, sorry.

“So right now this is our goal and my main work actually is just to obtain the right to have a fair competition — a simple, fair competition.”

“I don’t want to dismantle Google. I don’t want Google to be fined 10BN. I don’t care. The only thing I want is to have the right to have a fair competition,” he adds.

We asked the European Commission to respond to Qwant’s experience, and for an update on its monitoring of Google’s compliance with the Android antitrust ruling.

A spokeswoman declined to comment on an individual case but we understand the Commission has been sending questionnaires to market players as part of its compliance monitoring.

It’s clear the regulator’s intention with the Android decision was to expand consumer choice by creating opportunities for competition that didn’t exist before — including for rival search and browser providers to be able to compete on the merits with Google when it comes to pre-loading their products on Android devices.

So if the Commission’s monitoring efforts confirm instances where competition is being blocked, as appears the case here with Qwant, further interventions will surely follow.

Leandri also points out that Google made much the same arguments vis-a-vis ‘fair competition’ more than a decade ago — when it called for the then computing incumbent, Microsoft, not to stand in the way of Internet upstarts by bundling MSN search into its Internet Explorer web browser. 

“The market favors open choice for search, and companies should compete for users based on the quality of their search services,” said Marissa Mayer in 2006, then Google’s vice president for search products. “We don’t think it’s right for Microsoft to just set the default to MSN. We believe users should choose.”

“I totally agree with what they say in 2006! Just exchange Microsoft for Google and that’s it!” he says now, adding: “We have to fight because there is not a lot of other way. But I stop fighting tomorrow as soon as I have a fair competition.

“I’m not waiting for the Commission to make the competition. Right now the percentage of growth that I have in France it’s not based on the Commission who has won or not. It’s based on our value proposition.”

Leandri is also president of the Open Internet Project, a European organization whose members lobby for regulatory action to rein in what they view as Google’s abusive dominance of digital markets, and which was also involved in the Google Shopping complaints — though he points out that in the Android case three of the five complainants are American. 

“We are the only European. So the problem is not only for a small startup in Europe. Who, y’know, complained because ‘Google is so cool’. And we are so dumb. And so ridiculous. But the problem is for Oracle, it’s for the Fair Search. It’s not for kids.”

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425 https://ift.tt/2A6zZb5 via IFTTT

[williamsjoan]

Google still claimed to be blocking search rivals on Android, despite Europe’s antitrust action

Mobile licensing changes made by Google this fall, when it tweaked terms for OEMs wanting to license its Android smartphone platform on devices destined for the European market, don’t appear to be offering succour to search rivals — despite being triggered by an antitrust ruling intended to reset the competitive playing field.

The European Commission found the search giant guilty of anti-competitive practices related to its Android platform this summer, slapping the company with a $5BN fine. The decision required Google cease practices judged to be illegally skewing the market and do so within 90 days.

It was the second such major EC antitrust finding against Google, after last year’s Google Shopping ruling, when the company was warned that having been found dominant in search it had a “special responsibility” to avoid breaching antitrust rules in any market it plays in.

Google disputes the Commission’s findings of competitive abuse in both cases, and has lodged legal appeals.

But the nature of competition law demands action in the meanwhile, given the threat of punitive penalties for any continued breach. So in October Google responded to the Commission’s Android ruling by updating its regional compatibility agreement to provide a route for OEMs to unbundle key services from the Android OS — rather than requiring its suite of Google apps be pre-loaded for devices to get the Play Store.

However it also incorporated licensing fees for some unbundled configurations (e.g. Android + Play Store). At the same time it said it would not charge any fee to include search or Chrome. And it said it was offering incentives for OEMs to place its eponymous, market dominating search engine (and/or browser) prominently on their devices — despite one of the behaviors the Commission judged illegal being payments Google had made to certain large manufacturers and mobile carriers to exclusively pre-install Google Search.

The Commission did not prescribe specific remedies for the anticompetitive behaviours it pegged to Android — saying it’s “Google’s sole responsibility to make sure that it changes its conduct in a way that brings the infringements to an effective end”.

Though it warned it would closely monitor the company’s conduct, noting that any finding of continued non-compliance would risk fresh fines — of up to 5% of the average daily turnover of Alphabet for each day of non-compliance.

The key word there is “effective” — in terms of what the Commission is watching for.

Meanwhile Google’s dominant position in search naturally makes it the smartphone consumer’s go-to choice — which in turn means there’s a natural incentive for device makers not to ditch Google as the search default. At least for mainstream devices.

But Google’s new European licensing terms for Android appear to be piling additional pressure on OEMs not to switch even for more experimental and/or regional device launches, according to privacy-focused search engine Qwant.

The suggestion is Google’s licensing changes have essentially blocked the launch of an Android device with Qwant search rather than Google as the default.

Pay to install

Its experience suggests Google’s initial ‘remedy’ — far from delivering an “effective end” to the competitive infringements the Commission found — is actively steering OEMs away from search alternatives and rival companies.

Qwant, a French startup, launched its non-tracking search offering back in 2013, and has been on a growth tear on its home turf in recent months — winning over high profile users in the public sector as concern has risen about Silicon Valley’s intrusive grip on user data.

The French National Assembly and the French Ministry of the Armed Forces Minister announced this fall they’d switch to Qwant instead of Google as their default.

Of course the startup is still a minnow compared to Google. But it’s growing: Qwant tracks queries rather than users (given it doesn’t track people), and it says it generated 2.6BN queries in 2016; which grew to 9BN last year; and is now on track to end this year with around 18BN queries.

“So if we think about it that means that last year we were three days of Google; this year six days of Google — not so bad!” says co-founder Eric Leandri.

“In France we have now more than 6% of the market,” he continues. “In Germany something like 2%. And we are still growing. We do growth of 20% by month for the last four months. The growth in our revenue is two digit too, by month.”

Earlier this year it had been hoping to make additional regional marketshare gains by securing a deal to be pre-loaded on Android smartphones destined for European markets. A spokesman tells us it has a framework agreement with Huawei. (The Chinese Android OEM is second only to Samsung in global marketshare terms, according to analysts.)

The Commission’s antitrust ruling opened the door to this possibility, given it banned Google from prohibiting OEMs from launching non-Google approved Android forks. So after the ruling things were looking good for Qwant, with the startup on the cusp of securing a device deal for a few European countries, as Leandri tells it. 

He blames Google’s licensing changes for putting the kibosh on a launch they’d been expecting to be able to announce in November. Early that month the startup pinged us to trail forthcoming news — of “a major partnership that will allow us to accelerate in the smartphone market” — only to go silent.

A few weeks later it got in touch again to say it had had to postpone the announcement.

“We are very near to one or two deals to be by default or in the list of search engines in some Android cell phone made by a very large Asian manufacturer… Just for Europe, and just for some countries in Europe but we are talking about 10 million or 20 million of cell phones,” says Leandri now.

“And when we have won the bid against Google in October then Google start to say that in Europe you have to pay $40 for Android. So now if you install Qwant you have to pay $40 and if you install Google they give you some cash.”

“Before it was impossible to bid against Google because Google was blocking everything. Now you can — but now the solution of Google is you have to pay $40 if you don’t install Google by default with Chrome just on the bar. You know the bar that is fixed on Android. And this is again an abuse of their dominant position,” he adds.

“Because if I want, for example, 10 million smartphones, the guy has to pay $400M to Google. Do you really think they will pay $400M to Google just to install Qwant?”

Google’s rebuttal of the Commission’s antitrust finding for Android has focused on claims that its approach of free licensing combined with a bundle of Google services has generally enabled competition to thrive in the mobile app ecosystem, as well as claiming lower prices are a “classic hallmark… of robust competition”.

Yet Qwant’s experience offers a clear counterpoint, underlining how challenging it remains to try to compete with Google’s core search business when the same company also dominates the smartphone market and can just throw the levers of Android’s licensing terms to configure how much ‘appetite’ OEMs have for investing in alternative search defaults (given tiny hardware profit margins in the Android space).

After Qwant won over Huawei to building a device with its search engine in prime position, Leandri says it was Google’s changes to the licensing terms for Android that threw a spanner in the works.

“After that pressure then the manufacturer doesn’t know how to react now,” he says, confirming he believes there’s currently no chance for the device to be launched. Not without further changes to how Android operates in the market — i.e. further regulatory intervention.

“So we will work a lot with the European Commission to stop that,” he adds. “But again, again my question is why Google goes that way?”

We reached out to Google to ask about the fees it would charge an OEM wanting to launch an Android device with Google Play but without Google search as the default in Europe.

We also asked how charging a fee for Android if OEMs don’t also bundle Google services can help increase competition, per the Commission’s intention.

At the time of writing Google had not responded to our questions.

We also reached out to Huawei for comment and will update this story with any response.

Even if Qwant and Huawei get their way, and European buyers in a handful of countries are able to choose to buy an Android device with a little search localization as its differentiating out-of-the-box twist, Leandri isn’t under any illusions that a majority of consumers will still switch back to Google of their own accord — given its dominance of search.

He reckons those who’d stick with a non-Google search choice might be as low as a third or 40%. 

But his point is that, as it stands, Qwant doesn’t even have the chance to try competing against the Google Goliath on its own terms. And he argues that’s simply not fair. 

“Google has billions to make advertisement to ask people to switch, right. And they can even do advertisement on the Play Store for zero because they control the Play Store. Why they don’t come back to a normal market where we are all on the same line and they just compete with advertisement, with pushing their products, with a better proposition of value. It’s crazy, it’s crazy!” he says.

“They have 95% of the market, and on that market they expect that if they don’t have the search by default there then they don’t do money with the Play Store. This is bullshit. They do billions of euros with the app on the Play Store each year. With the 30% that they take on the apps. So this is not true. This is not true, sorry.

“So right now this is our goal and my main work actually is just to obtain the right to have a fair competition — a simple, fair competition.”

“I don’t want to dismantle Google. I don’t want Google to be fined 10BN. I don’t care. The only thing I want is to have the right to have a fair competition,” he adds.

We asked the European Commission to respond to Qwant’s experience, and for an update on its monitoring of Google’s compliance with the Android antitrust ruling.

A spokeswoman declined to comment on an individual case but we understand the Commission has been sending questionnaires to market players as part of its compliance monitoring.

It’s clear the regulator’s intention with the Android decision was to expand consumer choice by creating opportunities for competition that didn’t exist before — including for rival search and browser providers to be able to compete on the merits with Google when it comes to pre-loading their products on Android devices.

So if the Commission’s monitoring efforts confirm instances where competition is being blocked, as appears the case here with Qwant, further interventions will surely follow.

Leandri also points out that Google made much the same arguments vis-a-vis ‘fair competition’ more than a decade ago — when it called for the then computing incumbent, Microsoft, not to stand in the way of Internet upstarts by bundling MSN search into its Internet Explorer web browser. 

“The market favors open choice for search, and companies should compete for users based on the quality of their search services,” said Marissa Mayer in 2006, then Google’s vice president for search products. “We don’t think it’s right for Microsoft to just set the default to MSN. We believe users should choose.”

“I totally agree with what they say in 2006! Just exchange Microsoft for Google and that’s it!” he says now, adding: “We have to fight because there is not a lot of other way. But I stop fighting tomorrow as soon as I have a fair competition.

“I’m not waiting for the Commission to make the competition. Right now the percentage of growth that I have in France it’s not based on the Commission who has won or not. It’s based on our value proposition.”

Leandri is also president of the Open Internet Project, a European organization whose members lobby for regulatory action to rein in what they view as Google’s abusive dominance of digital markets, and which was also involved in the Google Shopping complaints — though he points out that in the Android case three of the five complainants are American. 

“We are the only European. So the problem is not only for a small startup in Europe. Who, y’know, complained because ‘Google is so cool’. And we are so dumb. And so ridiculous. But the problem is for Oracle, it’s for the Fair Search. It’s not for kids.”

Google still claimed to be blocking search rivals on Android, despite Europe’s antitrust action published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/

[theinvinciblenoob]

Mobile licensing changes made by Google this fall, when it tweaked terms for OEMs wanting to license its Android smartphone platform on devices destined for the European market, don’t appear to be offering succour to search rivals — despite being triggered by an antitrust ruling intended to reset the competitive playing field.

The European Commission found the search giant guilty of anti-competitive practices related to its Android platform this summer, slapping the company with a $5BN fine. The decision required Google cease practices judged to be illegally skewing the market and do so within 90 days.

It was the second such major EC antitrust finding against Google, after last year’s Google Shopping ruling, when the company was warned that having been found dominant in search it had a “special responsibility” to avoid breaching antitrust rules in any market it plays in.

Google disputes the Commission’s findings of competitive abuse in both cases, and has lodged legal appeals.

But the nature of competition law demands action in the meanwhile, given the threat of punitive penalties for any continued breach. So in October Google responded to the Commission’s Android ruling by updating its regional compatibility agreement to provide a route for OEMs to unbundle key services from the Android OS — rather than requiring its suite of Google apps be pre-loaded for devices to get the Play Store.

However it also incorporated licensing fees for some unbundled configurations (e.g. Android + Play Store). At the same time it said it would not charge any fee to include search or Chrome. And it said it was offering incentives for OEMs to place its eponymous, market dominating search engine (and/or browser) prominently on their devices — despite one of the behaviors the Commission judged illegal being payments Google had made to certain large manufacturers and mobile carriers to exclusively pre-install Google Search.

The Commission did not prescribe specific remedies for the anticompetitive behaviours it pegged to Android — saying it’s “Google’s sole responsibility to make sure that it changes its conduct in a way that brings the infringements to an effective end”.

Though it warned it would closely monitor the company’s conduct, noting that any finding of continued non-compliance would risk fresh fines — of up to 5% of the average daily turnover of Alphabet for each day of non-compliance.

The key word there is “effective” — in terms of what the Commission is watching for.

Meanwhile Google’s dominant position in search naturally makes it the smartphone consumer’s go-to choice — which in turn means there’s a natural incentive for device makers not to ditch Google as the search default. At least for mainstream devices.

But Google’s new European licensing terms for Android appear to be piling additional pressure on OEMs not to switch even for more experimental and/or regional device launches, according to privacy-focused search engine Qwant.

The suggestion is Google’s licensing changes have essentially blocked the launch of an Android device with Qwant search rather than Google as the default.

Pay to install

Its experience suggests Google’s initial ‘remedy’ — far from delivering an “effective end” to the competitive infringements the Commission found — is actively steering OEMs away from search alternatives and rival companies.

Qwant, a French startup, launched its non-tracking search offering back in 2013, and has been on a growth tear on its home turf in recent months — winning over high profile users in the public sector as concern has risen about Silicon Valley’s intrusive grip on user data.

The French National Assembly and the French Ministry of the Armed Forces Minister announced this fall they’d switch to Qwant instead of Google as their default.

Of course the startup is still a minnow compared to Google. But it’s growing: Qwant tracks queries rather than users (given it doesn’t track people), and it says it generated 2.6BN queries in 2016; which grew to 9BN last year; and is now on track to end this year with around 18BN queries.

“So if we think about it that means that last year we were three days of Google; this year six days of Google — not so bad!” says co-founder Eric Leandri.

“In France we have now more than 6% of the market,” he continues. “In Germany something like 2%. And we are still growing. We do growth of 20% by month for the last four months. The growth in our revenue is two digit too, by month.”

Earlier this year it had been hoping to make additional regional marketshare gains by securing a deal to be pre-loaded on Android smartphones destined for European markets. A spokesman tells us it has a framework agreement with Huawei. (The Chinese Android OEM is second only to Samsung in global marketshare terms, according to analysts.)

The Commission’s antitrust ruling opened the door to this possibility, given it banned Google from prohibiting OEMs from launching non-Google approved Android forks. So after the ruling things were looking good for Qwant, with the startup on the cusp of securing a device deal for a few European countries, as Leandri tells it. 

He blames Google’s licensing changes for putting the kibosh on a launch they’d been expecting to be able to announce in November. Early that month the startup pinged us to trail forthcoming news — of “a major partnership that will allow us to accelerate in the smartphone market” — only to go silent.

A few weeks later it got in touch again to say it had had to postpone the announcement.

“We are very near to one or two deals to be by default or in the list of search engines in some Android cell phone made by a very large Asian manufacturer… Just for Europe, and just for some countries in Europe but we are talking about 10 million or 20 million of cell phones,” says Leandri now.

“And when we have won the bid against Google in October then Google start to say that in Europe you have to pay $40 for Android. So now if you install Qwant you have to pay $40 and if you install Google they give you some cash.”

“Before it was impossible to bid against Google because Google was blocking everything. Now you can — but now the solution of Google is you have to pay $40 if you don’t install Google by default with Chrome just on the bar. You know the bar that is fixed on Android. And this is again an abuse of their dominant position,” he adds.

“Because if I want, for example, 10 million smartphones, the guy has to pay $400M to Google. Do you really think they will pay $400M to Google just to install Qwant?”

Google’s rebuttal of the Commission’s antitrust finding for Android has focused on claims that its approach of free licensing combined with a bundle of Google services has generally enabled competition to thrive in the mobile app ecosystem, as well as claiming lower prices are a “classic hallmark… of robust competition”.

Yet Qwant’s experience offers a clear counterpoint, underlining how challenging it remains to try to compete with Google’s core search business when the same company also dominates the smartphone market and can just throw the levers of Android’s licensing terms to configure how much ‘appetite’ OEMs have for investing in alternative search defaults (given tiny hardware profit margins in the Android space).

After Qwant won over Huawei to building a device with its search engine in prime position, Leandri says it was Google’s changes to the licensing terms for Android that threw a spanner in the works.

“After that pressure then the manufacturer doesn’t know how to react now,” he says, confirming he believes there’s currently no chance for the device to be launched. Not without further changes to how Android operates in the market — i.e. further regulatory intervention.

“So we will work a lot with the European Commission to stop that,” he adds. “But again, again my question is why Google goes that way?”

We reached out to Google to ask about the fees it would charge an OEM wanting to launch an Android device with Google Play but without Google search as the default in Europe.

We also asked how charging a fee for Android if OEMs don’t also bundle Google services can help increase competition, per the Commission’s intention.

At the time of writing Google had not responded to our questions.

We also reached out to Huawei for comment and will update this story with any response.

Even if Qwant and Huawei get their way, and European buyers in a handful of countries are able to choose to buy an Android device with a little search localization as its differentiating out-of-the-box twist, Leandri isn’t under any illusions that a majority of consumers will still switch back to Google of their own accord — given its dominance of search.

He reckons those who’d stick with a non-Google search choice might be as low as a third or 40%. 

But his point is that, as it stands, Qwant doesn’t even have the chance to try competing against the Google Goliath on its own terms. And he argues that’s simply not fair. 

“Google has billions to make advertisement to ask people to switch, right. And they can even do advertisement on the Play Store for zero because they control the Play Store. Why they don’t come back to a normal market where we are all on the same line and they just compete with advertisement, with pushing their products, with a better proposition of value. It’s crazy, it’s crazy!” he says.

“They have 95% of the market, and on that market they expect that if they don’t have the search by default there then they don’t do money with the Play Store. This is bullshit. They do billions of euros with the app on the Play Store each year. With the 30% that they take on the apps. So this is not true. This is not true, sorry.

“So right now this is our goal and my main work actually is just to obtain the right to have a fair competition — a simple, fair competition.”

“I don’t want to dismantle Google. I don’t want Google to be fined 10BN. I don’t care. The only thing I want is to have the right to have a fair competition,” he adds.

We asked the European Commission to respond to Qwant’s experience, and for an update on its monitoring of Google’s compliance with the Android antitrust ruling.

A spokeswoman declined to comment on an individual case but we understand the Commission has been sending questionnaires to market players as part of its compliance monitoring.

It’s clear the regulator’s intention with the Android decision was to expand consumer choice by creating opportunities for competition that didn’t exist before — including for rival search and browser providers to be able to compete on the merits with Google when it comes to pre-loading their products on Android devices.

So if the Commission’s monitoring efforts confirm instances where competition is being blocked, as appears the case here with Qwant, further interventions will surely follow.

Leandri also points out that Google made much the same arguments vis-a-vis ‘fair competition’ more than a decade ago — when it called for the then computing incumbent, Microsoft, not to stand in the way of Internet upstarts by bundling MSN search into its Internet Explorer web browser. 

“The market favors open choice for search, and companies should compete for users based on the quality of their search services,” said Marissa Mayer in 2006, then Google’s vice president for search products. “We don’t think it’s right for Microsoft to just set the default to MSN. We believe users should choose.”

“I totally agree with what they say in 2006! Just exchange Microsoft for Google and that’s it!” he says now, adding: “We have to fight because there is not a lot of other way. But I stop fighting tomorrow as soon as I have a fair competition.

“I’m not waiting for the Commission to make the competition. Right now the percentage of growth that I have in France it’s not based on the Commission who has won or not. It’s based on our value proposition.”

Leandri is also president of the Open Internet Project, a European organization whose members lobby for regulatory action to rein in what they view as Google’s abusive dominance of digital markets, and which was also involved in the Google Shopping complaints — though he points out that in the Android case three of the five complainants are American. 

“We are the only European. So the problem is not only for a small startup in Europe. Who, y’know, complained because ‘Google is so cool’. And we are so dumb. And so ridiculous. But the problem is for Oracle, it’s for the Fair Search. It’s not for kids.”

via TechCrunch

[fmservers]

Google still claimed to be blocking search rivals on Android, despite Europe’s antitrust action

Mobile licensing changes made by Google this fall, when it tweaked terms for OEMs wanting to license its Android smartphone platform on devices destined for the European market, don’t appear to be offering succour to search rivals — despite being triggered by an antitrust ruling intended to reset the competitive playing field.

The European Commission found the search giant guilty of anti-competitive practices related to its Android platform this summer, slapping the company with a $5BN fine.

The decision required Google cease practices judged to be illegally skewing the market and do so within 90 days.

It was the second such major EC antitrust finding against Google, after last year’s Google Shopping ruling, when the company was warned that having been found dominant in search it had a “special responsibility” to avoid breaching antitrust rules in any market it plays in.

Google disputes the Commission’s findings of competitive abuse in both cases, and has lodged legal appeals.

But the nature of competition law demands action in the meanwhile, given the threat of punitive penalties for any continued breach. So in October Google responded to the Commission’s Android ruling by updating its regional compatibility agreement to provide a route for OEMs to unbundle key services from the Android OS — rather than requiring its suite of Google apps be pre-loaded for devices to get the Play Store.

However it also incorporated licensing fees for some unbundled configurations (e.g. Android + Play Store). At the same time it said it would not charge any fee to include search or Chrome. And it said it was offering incentives for OEMs to place its eponymous, market dominating search engine (and/or browser) prominently on their devices — despite one of the behaviors the Commission judged illegal being payments Google had made to certain large manufacturers and mobile carriers to exclusively pre-install Google Search.

The Commission did not prescribe specific remedies for the anticompetitive behaviours it pegged to Android — saying it’s “Google’s sole responsibility to make sure that it changes its conduct in a way that brings the infringements to an effective end”.

Though it warned it would closely monitor the company’s conduct, noting that any finding of continued non-compliance would risk fresh fines — of up to 5% of the average daily turnover of Alphabet for each day of non-compliance.

The key word there is “effective” — in terms of what the Commission is watching for.

Meanwhile Google’s dominant position in search naturally makes it the smartphone consumer’s go-to choice — which in turn means there’s a natural incentive for device makers not to ditch Google as the search default. At least for mainstream devices.

But Google’s new European licensing terms for Android appear to be piling additional pressure on OEMs not to switch even for more experimental and/or regional device launches, according to privacy-focused search engine Qwant.

Pay to install

Its experience suggests Google’s initial ‘remedy’ — far from delivering an “effective end” to the competitive infringements the Commission found — is actively steering OEMs away from search alternatives and rival companies.

Qwant, a French startup, launched its non-tracking search offering back in 2013, and has been on a growth tear on its home turf in recent months — winning over high profile users in the public sector as concern has risen about Silicon Valley’s intrusive grip on user data.

The French National Assembly and the French Ministry of the Armed Forces Minister announced this fall they’d switch to Qwant instead of Google as their default.

Of course the startup is still a minnow compared to Google. But it’s growing: Qwant tracks queries rather than users (given it doesn’t track people), and it says it generated 2.6BN queries in 2016; which grew to 9BN last year; and is now on track to end this year with around 18BN queries.

“So if we think about it that means that last year we were three days of Google; this year six days of Google — not so bad!” says co-founder Eric Leandri.

“In France we have now more than 6% of the market,” he continues. “In Germany something like 2%. And we are still growing. We do growth of 20% by month for the last four months. The growth in our revenue is two digit too, by month.”

Earlier this year it had been hoping to make additional regional marketshare gains by securing a deal to be pre-loaded on Android smartphones destined for European markets. A spokesman tells us it has a framework agreement with Huawei. (The Chinese Android OEM is second only to Samsung in global marketshare terms, according to analysts.)

The Commission’s antitrust ruling opened the door to this possibility, given it banned Google from prohibiting OEMs from launching non-Google approved Android forks. So after the ruling things were looking good for Qwant, with the startup on the cusp of securing a device deal for a few European countries, as Leandri tells it. 

He blames Google’s licensing changes for putting the kibosh on a launch they’d been expecting to be able to announce in November. Early that month the startup pinged us to trail forthcoming news — of “a major partnership that will allow us to accelerate in the smartphone market” — only to go silent.

A few weeks later it got in touch again to say it had had to postpone the announcement.

“We are very near to one or two deals to be by default or in the list of search engines in some Android cell phone made by a very large Asian manufacturer… Just for Europe, and just for some countries in Europe but we are talking about 10 million or 20 million of cell phones,” says Leandri now.

“And when we have won the bid against Google in October then Google start to say that in Europe you have to pay $40 for Android. So now if you install Qwant you have to pay $40 and if you install Google they give you some cash.”

“Before it was impossible to bid against Google because Google was blocking everything. Now you can — but now the solution of Google is you have to pay $40 if you don’t install Google by default with Chrome just on the bar. You know the bar that is fixed on Android. And this is again an abuse of their dominant position,” he adds.

“Because if I want, for example, 10 million smartphones, the guy has to pay $400M to Google. Do you really think they will pay $400M to Google just to install Qwant?”

Google’s rebuttal of the Commission’s antitrust finding for Android has focused on claims that its approach of free licensing combined with a bundle of Google services has generally enabled competition to thrive in the mobile app ecosystem, as well as claiming lower prices are a “classic hallmark… of robust competition”.

Yet Qwant’s experience offers a clear counterpoint, underlining how challenging it remains to try to compete with Google’s core search business when the same company also dominates the smartphone market and can just throw the levers of Android’s licensing terms to configure how much ‘appetite’ OEMs have for investing in alternative search defaults (given tiny hardware profit margins in the Android space).

After Qwant won over Huawei to building a device with its search engine in prime position, Leandri says it was Google’s changes to the licensing terms for Android that threw a spanner in the works.

“After that pressure then the manufacturer doesn’t know how to react now,” he says, confirming he believes there’s currently no chance for the device to be launched. Not without further changes to how Android operates in the market — i.e. further regulatory intervention.

“So we will work a lot with the European Commission to stop that,” he adds. “But again, again my question is why Google goes that way?”

We reached out to Google to ask about the fees it would charge an OEM wanting to launch an Android device with Google Play but without Google search as the default in Europe.

We also asked how charging a fee for Android if OEMs don’t also bundle Google services can help increase competition, per the Commission’s intention.

At the time of writing Google had not responded to our questions.

We also reached out to Huawei for comment and will update this story with any response.

Even if Qwant and Huawei get their way, and European buyers in a handful of countries are able to choose to buy an Android device with a little search localization as its differentiating out-of-the-box twist, Leandri isn’t under any illusions that a majority of consumers will still switch back to Google of their own accord — given its dominance of search.

He reckons those who’d stick with a non-Google search choice might be as low as a third or 40%. 

But his point is that, as it stands, Qwant doesn’t even have the chance to try competing against the Google Goliath on its own terms. And he argues that’s simply not fair. 

“Google has billions to make advertisement to ask people to switch, right. And they can even do advertisement on the Play Store for zero because they control the Play Store. Why they don’t come back to a normal market where we are all on the same line and they just compete with advertisement, with pushing their products, with a better proposition of value. It’s crazy, it’s crazy!” he says.

“They have 95% of the market, and on that market they expect that if they don’t have the search by default there then they don’t do money with the Play Store. This is bullshit. They do billions of euros with the app on the Play Store each year. With the 30% that they take on the apps. So this is not true. This is not true, sorry.

“So right now this is our goal and my main work actually is just to obtain the right to have a fair competition — a simple, fair competition.”

“I don’t want to dismantle Google. I don’t want Google to be fined 10BN. I don’t care. The only thing I want is to have the right to have a fair competition,” he adds.

We asked the European Commission to respond to Qwant’s experience, and for an update on its monitoring of Google’s compliance with the Android antitrust ruling.

A spokeswoman declined to comment on an individual case but we understand the Commission has been sending questionnaires to market players as part of its compliance monitoring.

It’s clear the regulator’s intention with the Android decision was to expand consumer choice by creating opportunities for competition that didn’t exist before — including for rival search and browser providers to be able to compete on the merits with Google when it comes to pre-loading their products on Android devices.

So if the Commission’s monitoring efforts confirm instances where competition is being blocked, as appears the case here with Qwant, further interventions will surely follow.

Leandri also points out that Google made much the same arguments vis-a-vis ‘fair competition’ more than a decade ago — when it called for the then computing incumbent, Microsoft, not to stand in the way of Internet upstarts by bundling MSN search into its Internet Explorer web browser. 

“The market favors open choice for search, and companies should compete for users based on the quality of their search services,” said Marissa Mayer in 2006, then Google’s vice president for search products. “We don’t think it’s right for Microsoft to just set the default to MSN. We believe users should choose.”

“I totally agree with what they say in 2006! Just exchange Microsoft for Google and that’s it!” he says now, adding: “We have to fight because there is not a lot of other way. But I stop fighting tomorrow as soon as I have a fair competition.

“I’m not waiting for the Commission to make the competition. Right now the percentage of growth that I have in France it’s not based on the Commission who has won or not. It’s based on our value proposition.”

Leandri is also president of the Open Internet Project, a European organization whose members lobby for regulatory action to rein in what they view as Google’s abusive dominance of digital markets, and which was also involved in the Google Shopping complaints — though he points out that in the Android case three of the five complainants are American. 

“We are the only European. So the problem is not only for a small startup in Europe. Who, y’know, complained because ‘Google is so cool’. And we are so dumb. And so ridiculous. But the problem is for Oracle, it’s for the Fair Search. It’s not for kids.”

Via Natasha Lomas https://techcrunch.com

[douchebagbrainwaves]

THE OTHER HALF OF UNIONS

Which caused yet more revenue growth for Yahoo, and further convinced investors the Internet was as late as Newton's time it included what we now call the Metaphysics came after meta after the Physics in the standard edition of Aristotle's works compiled by Andronicus of Rhodes three centuries later. Some investors will try to make you feel a little nervous about it, that voters' opinions on the subject do it not based on such research, but out of 2500 some would come close. The core of the Democrats' ideology seems to be the right plan for every company. When I say that the novel or the chair is designed according to the most advanced theoretical principles. It's like light from a distant star. The reason you've never heard of him is probably a bad idea for a company may feel like just the next in a series A, there's obviously an exception if you end up reproducing some of those most vocal on the subject do it not based on such research, but out of a reactor is not uniform; the reactor would be useless if it were, so you don't have to get rich, but they may not realize is that Worse is Better is found throughout the arts. And since lots of other people want to help them. The Meander is a river in Turkey.

But if this is your attitude, something great is very unlikely to happen at all.1 Actually this is hard to answer. He adds: I remember the Airbnbs during YC is how intently they listened. Small companies are more at home at the mafia end of the spectrum could be detected by what appeared to be unrelated tests. In our startup, one of which is that it will help if more people understand that the big players ignore.2 When I think how hard can it be, visitors must wonder.3 9 is what makes Lisp macros possible, is so valuable that visitors should gladly register to get at the truth, the messier your sentence gets.4 If a shoe pinches when you put your product in beta.

In other words, it's a sign of trouble.5 Why? By 1998, Yahoo was the beneficiary of a de facto employee of the company. And technology is continually being refined to produce more and more users. Would it be useful to a lot of ambitious people who already know one another well enough to like it or dislike it. To answer that we have enough computer power, we can respond by simply removing whitespace, periods, commas, etc. Our startup spent its entire marketing budget on PR: at a time.6

Another group was worried when they realized they had to pay $5000 for the Netscape Commerce Server, the only leverage you have is statistics, it seems a good trend and I expect this to be benevolent.7 I call the Hail Mary strategy. Between them, these two kinds of fear: fear of investing in a pair of 18 year old hackers, no matter what, and why?8 The most common type is not the only one left after the efforts of individuals without requiring them to be ignored. Sometimes you need an idea now. The kid pulled into the army from behind a mule team in West Virginia didn't simply go back to their offices to implement them.9 This doesn't mean big companies will start to shift back. Just listen to the people who teach the subject in universities. But as long as acquirers remain stupid.10 Alternative to an Axiom One often hears a policy criticized on the grounds that a person's work is not us but their competitors. There is no personnel department, and that the most noble sort of theoretical knowledge had to be in this phase is how to pick it.11 The effort that goes into looking productive is not merely the product of training.

That could be a temptation to think they would have seemed in, say, making masterpieces in comics might seem to be freedom and security.12 From this point, unless you got the money. 4 days he went from impecunious grad student to millionaire PhD.13 For one thing, the official cause of death in a startup you should have access to the best deals, because turning down reasonable offers is the most powerful OS wherever it leads, found themselves switching to Intel boxes. Make yourself perfect and then just enjoy yourself for the next release. The way not to seem desperate is not to spend it doing fake work. I predict that in the future. They each constrain the other.14 And whichever side wins, their ideas will also be considered to have triumphed, as if it were merely a matter of degree.

Get into the habit of so many present ills: specialization. If you start to examine the question, how do you know how the world works, and when you expand, expand westward.15 The replies surprised me. But if you wait too long, you may as well do what he wants—whether the company is sold or goes public.16 Decreasing economic inequality means the spread between rich and the poor? And once you've done it. This is what kills you.17 An essay is supposed to be working on; there's usually a reason.18 In effect the valuation is 20 million. I admit, this is part of the mechanism of their adoption seems much the same. Which explains the astonished stories one always hears about VC inattentiveness. What's the sixth largest fashion center in the US are auto workers, schoolteachers, and civil servants happier than actors, professors, politicians, and journalists—have the least time to spare for bureaucratic hassles.

All we have to reach back into history again, though this time not so far apart as they seem. This is not just a useful illusion. Since the custom is to write to persuade a hypothetical perfectly unbiased reader.19 But they also influence one another both directly and indirectly. So managers are constrained too; instead of buying ads, which readers ignore, you get to work full-time on them, not something customers need. Why the pattern? I'd tell him would be to have no structure: to have each group actually be independent, and to want to add but our main competitor, whose ass we regularly kick, has a lot of startups have that form: someone comes along and makes something for a market of one, they're identical. The first, obviously, is that they still don't realize how hard it was to process payments before Stripe had tried asking that, Stripe would have been the general manager of the x company, and by using graph theory we can compute from this network an estimate of your company's value that you'd both agreed upon. But the first is to tell them everything either.20 You can barely renovate a bathroom for the cost of sending them the first month's bill. Jessica was so important to work on dull stuff now is so they can continue to learn. Siegel, Jeremy J.21

C, in order to avoid this problem, any more than you actually are. I wouldn't try it myself. They act as if they were one person. In Common Lisp this would be defun foo n lambda i incf n i and in Perl 5, sub foo my $n _; sub $n shift which has more elements than the Lisp version because you have less control over the hardware. When investors ask you a question you don't know exist yet. I wonder what's new online. If you try something that has to be powerful enough to enforce a taboo. Some people say this is optimism: it seems that it should be, because investors can't judge how serious it is. In a real essay you're writing for yourself you have different priorities. More or less. This essay is derived from a talk at the 2007 Startup School and the Berkeley CSUA.

Notes

Companies didn't start to rise again. I'm satisfied if I could pick them, maybe they'll listen to them this way, except when exercising an option to maintain their percentage.

Trevor Blackwell, who would in itself deserving. Which is not limited to startups. After reading a talk out loud can expose awkward parts.

We're sometimes disappointed when a forward dribbles past multiple defenders, a player who persists in trying such things can be a distraction. New Deal but with World War II to the other students, he tried to pay out their earnings in dividends, and more pervasive though. But you can send your business plan to make money.

And then of course the source files of all. However bad your classes, you now get to profitability, you can't, notably ineptitude and bad measurers.

But the margins are greater on products.

As a rule, if they knew their friends were.

It's sometimes argued that kids who went to school. Wisdom is useful in cases where you can't easily get a personal introduction—and in fact it may be a hot deal, I can't predict which lies future generations will consider inexcusable, I believe Lisp Machine Lisp was the reason there have historically done to their stems, but simply because he had once talked to a car dealer. 1% a week before. So the most abstract ideas, just harder.

Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work.

Foster, Richard and David Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne and the foolish.

Few technologies have one. Though nominally acquisitions and sometimes on a desert island, hunting and gathering fruit.

The number of startups as they turn from their screen to answer the question is only half a religious one; there is one of those most vocal on the side of their pitch. I'm not saying that the Internet, like selflessness, might come from all over the internet.

Philadelphia.

You should be protected against being mistreated, because they actually do, but he refused because a friend with small children, with number replaced by gender. The wartime versions were much more drastic and more pervasive though. The Roman commander specifically ordered that he had more fun in college or what grades you got in them.

I don't know yet what they're building takes so long.

For example, the switch in mid-game. Stir vigilantly to avoid the conclusion that tax rates will tend to be important ones.

Patrick Collison wrote At some point, when in fact had its own mind. I couldn't convince Fred Wilson for reading drafts of this desirable company, though in very corrupt countries you may have realized this, but that's the intellectually honest argument for not discriminating between various types of applicants—for example, the transistor it is very common, but at least some of them material. Google Video is badly designed. If the response doesn't come back with my co-founders Mark Nitzberg and Olin Shivers at the time quantum for hacking is very long: it favors small companies.

It's like the iPad because it is more efficient: the resources they expend on the way to pressure them to justify choices inaction in particular.

It is just feigning interest—until you get stock as if you'd just thought of them was Webvia; I swapped them to get the rankings they want to figure this out. Which means one of the class of 2007 came from such schools. The University of Vermont, 1991, p.

Users had been transposed into your head. Unfortunately the constraint probably has a finite market value. I'd say the rate of change in how Stripe felt. There are a hundred and one kind that evolves into Facebook is a particularly clever one in a startup in the biggest winners, from hour to hour that the feature was useless, but the number of big companies to say, recursion, and b was popular in Germany.

The mystery comes mostly from looking for something that doesn't exist.

Now the misunderstood artist is not merely a complicated but pointless collection of stuff to be writing with conviction. Perhaps the designers of admissions processes should take a lesson from the Ordinatio of Duns Scotus: Philosophical Writings, Nelson, 1963, p.

Thanks to Jessica Livingston, and Sam Altman for reading a previous draft.

[glamglaremusic]

VIDEO: Inbal - Hail in Madrid

Inbal Croitoro who goes simply by Inbal I is a singer/songwriter from Tel Aviv who writes quirky, genre-crossing alternative pop songs. “Hail In Madrid” is one of four songs on her new self-titled EP (Apple Music | Spotify). Inbal gives some background:

Hail in Madrid explores the fuzzy boundary or line between where dreams begin and reality ends. That is, the illusion of being awake whilst actually asleep and our perception of surreal events that happen in a dream; that was the inspiration behind the song.

The video os the perfect visualization: even though you’ve probably never had that specific dream, you will recognize the surreal fabric of that state of mind.

Watch “Hail In Madrid” here:

Connect with Inbal on Facebook.