#population notes class 9

[syn4k]

if tumblr existed in empires s1 then the dashboard would look a little bit like this i think

🏜️ cactus-abolitionist

MY CAT JUST RAN OUTSIDE IN THE MIDDLE OF A SANDSTORM IM

🌿 theres-no-place-like-gnome Follow

oh no are they okay?? i don't know how serious sandstorms are but maybe you could go after them?

🏜️ cactus-abolitionist

Sand blowing past you at upwards of 75kmh. It's also really hot sand. It's been known to literally strip the flesh off of bones wait post cancelled my cat just walked back in she's fine guys

9 notes

🏺 clay-the-dirt-man Follow

visiting the Mythlands today and me and my family found a neat lil natural floating island while hiking

🏺 clay-the-dirt-man Follow

to the people in my notes going "what the fuck": have y'all never heard of physics?

🥀 remorse-is-remorse-of-course Follow

OP WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU LIVE WHERE THIS IS NORMAL

🏺 clay-the-dirt-man Follow

western mezalea?? lol

🔧 verylostmechanic Follow

well that explains a lot.

🏺 clay-the-dirt-man Follow

Can I Help You

🔧 verylostmechanic Follow

ain't emperor joel dating a fish

🏺 clay-the-dirt-man Follow

yeah, they're married. Isn't Emperor Joey a demonfucker????

#dude why are the notes arguing over the ethics of being ruled by a demon 😭 what the fuck #op im so sorry

11,798 notes

🌸 prismarined Follow

...i'm in this class thats being taught by the headmaster today and she smells like weed. i'm not gonna say anything but like. what

🦦 i-like-otters

yeah the academy's just like that. as long as she's not like, actively dying or anything she's probably fine??? idk o7

#reblog

2 notes

⌛️ thelittlesandthatcan Follow

I JUST GOT BACK FROM A BUSINESS TRIP WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN THE COPPER KING'S GONE

🐟 kelpieselkie Follow

I DONT KNOW I DONT LIVE THERE BUT apparently nobody expected it either?? like some people are saying it was the Dragon Fight that did it (i know Emperor Joey came out with statements that Emperor Riffs actually helped kill the dragon and unleash the demon but its been two days and we all know that he hates that guy so idk) but nobody actually knows anything. it's crazy bro

⌛️ thelittlesandthatcan Follow

my mom said the royal housekeepers found a note from him alongside like everything he owned but they're not saying what's on the note yet. holy shit

237 notes

🐠 fishfucker997

this will definitely have an impact on the local trout population

🏰 all-the-kings-hen Follow

the Guardian of the Thirteenth Empire just died and you're worried about fish???? be for real omg

🐠 fishfucker997

have you people never heard of references in your life

🏰 all-the-kings-hen Follow

why are you interacting with me i literally have "codlanders dni" in my bio

🐠 fishfucker997

my brother in cod you literally reblogged this from me??

🐠 fishfucker997

they blocked me lmao

#how is this post only 2 days old

197,233 notes

🐪 camel Follow

she dragon fight on my copper king til i disappear

elvfish-deactivated-20210503

who the hell let a camel onto this site lol

🐪 camel Follow

You will die at age 87 with nobody to mourn you and no stars still shining to watch you go.

#911 i just witnessed a murder

87,546 notes

🌻 helantheia

anyone know who made emperor pearl's dress? it's really pretty :0

0 notes

📷 desertphotography

West of the River of Plenty, Pixandria

2,307 notes

[techramonic]

The most ironic thing about Elliot Rodger is that in his attempt to prove that all women are shallow, he proved that not all women are shallow.

My Twisted World: An Analysis on Elliot Rodger's Manifesto

This is a great take. Thank you! I've been meaning to talk about this matter after reading the first few pages of Elliot's Manifesto.

note: Thank you for Antimatter_42 on reddit, since a lot of the information sourced on this analysis was from their reddit post, “Elliot Rodger: A Psycho-Lingustic Profile” on r/TrueCrimeDiscussion. Other information is from my own analysis while reading Elliot Rodger’s Manifesto: “My Twisted World”.

Elliot Rodger was actually a normal guy. People on reddit would often question why this guy was lonely. Why did no one consider him attractive enough to be in a relationship with him? He had the looks, the wealth, practically almost everything a girl would want, right? The reason why no one approached him was because he was shallow.

Here are some of the aspects of his personality and life that could better explain why:

CHILDHOOD

I currently have been reading his manifesto and he had a seemingly good childhood. He was a nice kid who lived a nice life. Up until his parent’s divorce. Even until then, he would still spend time with both sides of his family, who both treated him with wealth. On his first birthday, he had already been to France, then lived in Sussex, went on a vacation to his mother’s home country Malaysia, took a trip to Spain, then Greece, then grew up from ages 5 to 9 in California. He travelled a lot.

First observation, he places so much of his worth on materialistic things that it fully consumes him when he fails to become what he isn’t. He has exhibited this fixation at a very young age. Just when he moved to Topanga Elementary School, by the age of six, he had already developed a view on the world that separates people by their differences: the “cool kids” and the “losers”. He considered the cool kids as the higher-class, the ones who are privileged with garnering attention even if they did the bare-minimum. He even went so far as to dye his hair blonde to appear more white because of the predominantly white population, and even tried to pick up on skating because he thought it would make him cooler. This was the first red flag, because instead of accepting things and bettering himself, he chose to change aspects of his life to better fit people's "standards", when in truth, that was only a standard he set for himself because he was insecure.

RACIAL HIERARCHY

Elliot is an interesting case because he has no sense of self-worth. He is so fixated on hierarchy that he constantly demeans his own kind. He’s very racist, particularly and most fixated on Asians. Elliot is Asian-European himself, his father is English and his mother was of Chinese descent. Yet he was so focused on how this makes him less because he considered whiteness as a prestige. He has made several comments regarding how no woman would find Asian men to be attractive and it seems like he has placed whiteness on a pedestal that somehow is highest in the racial hierarchy.

He was also very fixated on his looks. He was vain, to be short. He has repetitively mentioned how he hated his hair, his looks, and even his height. From things he can control and others of which he can’t, all these aspects of him seem to tie into him being mixed. He thought that this difference further alienated him when in truth, it really didn’t. Sure, he was bullied for being physically weak and short but he shouldn't blame that on his descent, for that wasn't something in his control. He could've went to the gym and worked on himself, it might've helped him feel better, but he then only saw this problem as "being mixed is a form of inferiority", because this made him “undesirable”. He is not as fair-skinned, he is blonde, he didn’t have blue eyes, and he was not as tall as the other kids simply because he was not them. He changes parts of himself to better fit the narrative of being “cool”. To him, it’s all a part of growing up and fitting in but he fails to see that the more he takes parts of himself for people to like him and focus on him, the more it just makes him hollow.

Elliot’s childhood and teen years, best summed up, is a fixation on trying to keep up with those who are higher on the social status ladder and this continued to his later years.

EXPOSURE TO PORNOGRAPHY AND SEXIST / MISOGYNISTIC MEDIA

He was also more lonely during his teen years, 13 years old according to his manifesto, he stopped having contact with his only friends because they started having their own separate lives together, making him spend more time alone by himself (Rodger, 2014, pg. 38). This was when Elliot first recounted his exposure to pornography by catching a teenager watch it on Planet Cyber.  He said he was “traumatized” by how two people could do such a thing and call it love. He didn’t know about sex up until then and this explicit exposure truly “damaged” him, according to his words himself. Though he did feel aroused, he was more guilty and confused.

This was the pinnacle of Elliot’s misery. A kid who searches for validation with his looks, now searches for it with sexual gratification as well. He only found himself as wanted if girls flocked over to him. He had the misogynistic mindset that his worth is only measured by how many girls he could get and how fast he'd lose his virginity. Especially with the stereotypical portrayal of media influencing teen boys with the concept of "cool" guys having lots of girls, treating them like objects and trophies, while nerds and "losers" have none. With this, he did not even make any effort to do his part. It was almost always one-sided, his friends would say, where he would expect women to just swoon over him because he exists, because he is a man. 

ENTITLEMENT

Furthermore, initially, his middle school years at Pinecrest were pleasant according to him. He even talked to girls and even danced with a girl during a school dance (Rodger, 2014, pg. 29). However, things eventually became difficult as he found it harder to socialize and was also bullied in his later years. According to his friends, he barely even talked to women but still complained no woman wanted to talk to him. He just expected them to approach him.

Elliot also had  a record for being entitled or spoiled. Even as a kid, he would complain about things that were small, like when on his first birthday, he cried that his friend got the first slice of his cake, which was understandable but still relatively small; or when he refused to sit crossed-legged for his class picture and was the only boy who didn’t do it after the teachers gave up on persuading him; or when he threw a fit that he didn’t get his hair fully-dyed as blonde because the hairdresser said he was too young. This transcended to his adult years.

More on his latter years in life, he attended Pierce College and found it rather pleasant compared to former schools, but after a while, found it disheartening after seeing a lot of couples on campus, which shifted his fixation from school to getting a girlfriend, so much so that he dropped out and enraged his step-mother. Elliot had this hatred for his step-mother, Soumaya, which was mentioned in the book as well. He considered his dad to be “weak” for following her orders around, when in truth, she was only trying to teach Elliot a lesson about independence.

At his mother’s insistence, Elliot began looking for a job and eventually found work with a family friend on a house construction project. He felt more comfortable with this job, seeing it as helping rather than typical employment. After getting his driver’s license, Elliot enrolled in summer classes at Moorpark College but struggled with attendance, again due to his jealousy of campus couples. He dropped out midway through, briefly worked as a janitor at an airport office, and quit after one day. Knowing his mother would be upset, he reenrolled at Moorpark but eventually dropped out again (Rodger, 2014, pg. 70). Upon learning of Elliot’s decision to drop out again, his parents decided he would move to Santa Barbara, where he would live alone in an apartment paid for by his mother, receive a $500 monthly allowance from his father, and enroll in classes at Santa Barbara Community College (Rodger, 2014, pg. 77). 

CONCLUSION

Elliot is insistent on the idea that “women are shallow.” when in truth, it was him all along. No man is entitled to force a woman to give them their love and attention, even to buy it off of them. No one has absolutely any obligation to love someone because the other sees it as a form of acceptance or validation. Self-worth comes from yourself, not from others. 

Due to Elliot’s constant fixation on trying to be accepted, he lost himself and the identity that made him authentic and less shallow. If only he stuck to being genuine, then surely, he wouldn’t have been so lonely. It’s like seeing a kid who was sheltered all his life finally open his eyes to the cruelty of the world and because he thinks he can get whatever he wants, he feels disgustingly hateful whenever he doesn’t.

Additionally, due to the unfortunate events that have subsequently happened in the later years of his life, he was driven to a point of madness. His best friend ended their fourteen-year friendship due to Elliot's constant complaints about not having a girlfriend, his stepmother cut ties with him,, he got beaten up while he was drunk and desperate to find a girlfriend, the cherished gold necklace given to him by his grandmother was robbed, further drove him to the tragic decision to commit his crime and suicide.

Concluding, Elliot was the epitome of shallowness. He wanted everything even if he did the bare-minimum. It wasn’t the problem of the second party, it was him, and because he never realized that and only further saw gratification of his actions from both the media and guys who sympathize with him because they also could not get women themselves and are too caught up with their misery to work on themselves instead, he was convinced that his crime was the only way for the world to give him the attention he desperately wanted.

[chimaerakitten]

Malaria, Sickle-Cell, and Dragons in the Temeraire Universe

so I've been thinking about sickle cell all day because of the very cool real-life FDA crispr treatment approval news, and also I'm just about done rereading empire of ivory so thusly it is time to write the sickle cell/malaria/dragons/benefits of human-dragon mutualism breakdown I mentioned ages ago.

Standard disclaimer that I am not in fact anywhere near an expert on this, this is mostly recall from ANTH 102/215 classes I took five years ago, the info is very simplified and possibly somewhat out of date. I'm doing some quick checks and I write this but only enough to make this an appropriate fantasy novel fandom post, not enough to make it actually reliably informative. I do have a couple citations, but mostly for the parts I'm lifting straight out of a class assignment I wrote, and they're a short documentary hosted on YouTube and the textbook for the class. also none of my links are live because I want this fandom post to actually show up in the fandom tag lol.

second disclaimer is I'm starting at the basic obvious stuff because I genuinely have no idea how much most people know about this and better safe than confusing.

Intro and Background

So the first thing to know about any of this is that human genetics for the most part to not operate on mendelian inheritance. So the punnet squares in high school biology that did human hair or eye color as basic dominant/recessive one-gene traits were totally lying to you. Like they're a teaching tool for a very simple model that works well enough but they're not accurate. Most human phenotypes are way way more complicated genetically than that.

That said, there are exceptions. Mendelian traits (Characteristics that are influenced by alles at only one genetic locus) do exist in humans, a number of them being related to genetic diseases. The list in the ANTH 102 notes I just dug up was: Wet (dominant) or dry Earwax; Albinism; Brachydactyly (dominant); Blood type (ABO, not the positive/negative part); Hereditary breast-ovarian cancer syndrome (BRCA-1, BRCA-2, unknown genes); Huntington’s disease; Lactase persistence (dominant); and Sickle-cell disease (recessive).

So the sickle cell punnet square looks like this for two parents who both have one copy of the sickle cell gene:

Sickle cell is a very painful and life threatening disease, (That's why the FDA approving a crispr treatment for it allowing patients to be their own bone marrow donors is very exciting.) and from an evolutionary perspective, one that very often prevents people from reproducing. It's also not strictly dominant/recessive, in that people heterozygous for sickle cell can have some symptoms like the possibility a sickle-cell crisis triggered in low-oxygen situations (high altitudes, intense exercise, etc).

So one might think that Sickle cell would be a vanishingly rare disease, since having it can be deadly and even having the trait can in some cases cause problems. Only it's not rare by genetically inherited disease standards, not at all.

And to make a long story very short, the reason is malaria.

Malaria

People who are heterozygous (possessing one sickle cell gene and one normal gene) for sickle cell anemia are resistant to malaria. In areas of the world without a high incidence of malaria historically, there is a strong selection against the sickle cell gene, (Biointeractive Malaria and Sickle Cell Anemia, 9:33) but in areas with malaria, both having sickle cell disease (homozygous HbSS) and not having the trait at all (homozygous HbAA) are selected against. People with sickle cell were historically less likely to reproduce, and people who were not resistant to malaria were more likely to die of malaria and also not reproduce. Because being heterozygous with sickle cell is selected for, the gene persists in the population.

The implications of that are best summed up from this map that I just stole from Britannica.com:

I dunno if the percentages on that second one are accurate tbh, other infographic maps I'm looking at give different ranges. but sill, you get the gist about how common it is in equatorial Africa. In the modern United States Black children are much much more likely to be born with sickle cell than white children—the genes don't just go away when the threat of malaria is removed. (And yeah, that's a historical consequence of the slave trade.)

There's some other stuff wrapped up in here too about bio-cultural evolution: There's indications that malaria was not a “significant problem until humans abandoned food foraging for farming” (Haviland, W. A., Prins, H. E., Walrath, D., & McBride, B.). Humans cleared away the forest, which had kept the soil absorbent. Without the vegetation, more water built up on the surface, forming stagnant puddles which were a perfect environment for malaria-causing mosquitoes to thrive, thus creating the conditions for sickle cell anemia to be advantageous. Farming creates caloric surplus which is great for humans, but it also changes the environment in ways that can be detrimental. Malaria is one way, creating the conditions for other epidemic diseases to thrive is another, etc. etc.

But if you've read this far you're probably going "Chi, you promised this would be a fandom post but so far this has been a serious and kind of sad post about disease. when are you going to get to the dragons?"

The Dragons

So the first time malaria comes up in the Temeraire books is in Throne of Jade, when a bunch of the sailors on the Allegiance come down with "malarial Fevers."

Jane, I must ask you to forgive the long gap in this Letter, and the few hasty Words that are all by which I can amend the same now. I have not had Leisure to take up my pen these three weeks—since we passed out of Banka Strait we have been much afflicted by malarial Fevers. I have escaped sickness myself, and most of my men, for which Keynes opines we must be grateful to Temeraire, believing that the heat of his body in some wise dispels the Miasmas which cause the ague, and our close association thus affords some protection. But we have been spared only to increase of Labor: Captain Riley has been confined to his bed since almost the very first, and Lord Purbeck falling ill, I have stood watch in turn with the ship’s third and fourth lieutenants, Franks and Beckett. Both are willing young men, and Franks does his best, but is by no means yet prepared for the Duty of overseeing so vast a Ship as the Allegiance, nor to maintain discipline among her Crew—stammers, I am sorry to say, which explains his seeming Rudeness at table, which I had earlier remarked upon.

I do not know enough about what people thought about malaria in the 19th century to be 100% sure that this is actually malaria, but I think Novik wouldn't want to confuse her readers by calling something malarial that isn't you know..malaria. So I'm going to assume thats what it is. Google is not giving me figures on malaria survival rates before modern medicines for it which is driving me kind of nuts and means I can't say how lucky Riley and Purbeck were to survive with apparently no complications, but that's not the point here anyway. The point is the comment about the aviators not getting sick.

And not only (mostly) not getting sick, but not getting sick even though they aren't actually always near Temeraire. Laurence for example has been working watch shifts near constantly because he's the only one left on the ship who knows what he's doing. That means probably less read & cuddle time than is normal for him and Temeraire, and yet—no malaria.

We modern readers (and Novik) know that malaria is not caused by "miasmas" but by parasites carried by mosquitos. And lo and behold when we get to Empire of Ivory we get:

Mosquitoes sang happily as dusk drew on, though they did not come very close to Temeraire; the flies were less judicious. The shapes of the trees were growing vague when Temeraire woke with a start and said, “Laurence, there is someone coming, there,” and the grass rustled on the opposite bank.

So yeah, the dragons are keeping the mosquitos away. I know fuck all about why—it's probably not heat since you know, mosquitos like warm blooded organisms, but maybe it's an oil or a chemical or some artifact of the way some of them can breathe fire that's present in all dragons or something, they're described as smelling weird a few times, so who knows. If it's a substance like an oil in their skin that could explain why the aviators don't get sick even when they're not nearby, since they could have some on them from contact, but that's just speculation. The point is not the mechanism, just that it's happening.

The Point

This whole post grew out of a throwaway comment I made about the benefits of mutualistic symbiosis with dragons from the human perspective in that one post about how the series has some interesting stuff obviously going on psychologically/biologically. The point of going in-depth on malaria and sickle cell is to show how this is really impressively solid worldbuilding in relation to the Tswana.

See, Empire of Ivory describes locations that seem like they're in modern day Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, regions which will have had long-term problems with malaria-causing mosquitos. That's not the densest area for sickle cell, but still definitely in the region where malaria would have exerted selective pressure.

Selective pressure which, in a universe where just being around a dragon is going to drastically reduce malaria rates, is going to leave dragon-friendly populations a lot healthier than dragon-unfriendly ones. A community that has a dragon stay every night and work alongside humans during the day is going to have a lot less malaria even without the sickle cell resistance than a community which has no dragon. And considering that malaria is bad enough that sickle cell genes persist despite it also having a high chance to cause a deadly disease, whereas a dragon that's a fully prosocial member of the community is not going to cause more death and instead will probably help with defense and create more caloric surplus (at the cost of consuming most of that surplus) a dragon is just obviously the better option. From there, it's extremely easy to see how the Tswana in the series could develop such a dragon-centric culture and have it be so wildly successful. The dragons provide fertilizer, the dragons allow for fully domesticated elephants, and the dragons render malaria—one of the deadliest diseases in history—nearly a nonissue. Of course they're family.

Citations:

Biointeractive. (2014, August 26). Malaria and Sickle Cell Anemia - HHMI BioInteractive Video. Retrieved October 3, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsbhvl2nVNE

Haviland, W. A., Prins, H. E., Walrath, D., & McBride, B. (2017). Anthropology: The Human Challenge (15th ed.). Boston: Cengage Learning.

[animementrash]

Class 1A as Pro Heroes Headcanons

Characters: All class 1A male students (After time skip)

Tags: characters headcanons, manga spoilers, some may be ooc?, not proofread.

A/N: Heya! It's been a while since I posted, many things happened in my life. I traveled to Japan, got a promotion at work, celebrated my birthday... but I'm back! This is the first post non AOT related hehe, this is a multifandom account but was usually populated with AOT stuff and while I plan on uploading some more AOT stuff today it's turn for MHA. Hope you enjoy, thanks for reading!

Izuku Midoriya

Is part of the team of judges who set the current top hero’s billboard.

Has a weekly column in one of Japan’s most important newspaper where he analyzes heroe’s techniques and moves. Most heroes wait expectantly each week for his column to be released.

Attends many charity events and is the top #1 fundraiser for children causes.

Has been the special guest for at least 30 shows, he’s still a nervous mess in all of them.

Is the only person who has a major fanbase without being an active top hero.

Received permission to write a biography for All Might.

Shoto Todoroki

Is top #3 in the charts.

Became ambassor for UNICEF.

Is also an active member of the “Big brother, Big sister” program.

Took over Endeavor’s agency and turned it into his.

Is one of the most requested heroes for fundraisers or charity events.

Has a lot of modeling requests and has been the face of at least 15 brands since he became a top hero.

Katsuki Bakugo

Is top #2 in the charts but constantly switches place with Shoto. (The top #1 Hero is Mirio)

Was the first one from class 1A to make it to the top 5 heroes.

His merchandise is the best seller among all current heroes, anything that has his face in it sells in less than 1 hour.

Just like Shoto, received many modeling requests but refused almost all of them.

Has the largest fandom in Japan, is forced by his PR team to attend fan meetings.

Has a scrapbook with all of Izuku’s columns from the newspaper, if he’s mentioned in them he highlights that part and makes notes based on it.

Yuga Aoyama

Isn’t part of the top 30 heroes but works diligently in his community.

His flashy style never left but he’s a bit more mature about it now.

Is co-writing a book with Izuku about the challenges of being born without a quirk in a quirk-ruled world.

Attends many events related to kids without quirks and is genuinely happy to be there.

Tenya Iida

Continued his family’s legacy and took over his older brother agency.

Is top #7 in the charts, for some reason his fanbase consists of salary men and housewives.

Attends more international events than his former classmates.

Held the Olympic torch during its tour in Japan.

Mashirao Ojiro

Is top #18 in the charts.

Works part time as a martial arts trainer, his trainees made it to the Olympics and won silver.

His agency specializes in taijutsu related quirks and is very popular.

Has a nationwide gym franchise with his hero name.

Denki Kaminari

Is top #9 in the charts.

He supplies his agency electricity as well as Jiro’s agency (it’s canon their agencies are next to each other)

His fanbase consists mostly of high school students, he’s very popular with the teens.

 Was the first one from class 1A to get official merchandise as a pro hero.

Eijiro Kirishima

Is top #4 in the charts.

Is the face of a very famous protein shake brand.

Was the first from class 1A to appear in a magazine cover as headliner (It was for men’s health magazine).

Usually partners with Ojiro’s and tetsutetsu’s agencies for charity events.

Koji Koda

Isn’t part of the top 30 heroes.

His agency is located in a slightly rural town, this is due to his quirk having way more range when surrounded with wildlife than in the city.

Founded more than 30 animal shelters in his first 5 years as pro hero, he received an award because of this.

Most of his fanbase is elementary school kids and middle school girls.

Rikido Sato

Is top #20 in the charts.

Co-owns a bakery with Momo Yaoyorozu.

Wrote a recipes book and it became best seller in Japan for 4 weeks in a row.

His fanbase consists mostly of housewives.

Has his own line of desserts and chocolates, they’re the best sellers during holidays.

Mezo Shoji

Is top #17 in the charts.

Updated his hero suit and no longer hides his face and scars.

His action figure is one of the best sellers.

Participates with Shoto in a lot of “big brother, big sister” events.

Hanta Sero

Is top #16 in the charts.

His fanbase is the most variated one, has kids, students, professionals and even university students as fans.

Just like Shoji, his action figure is one of the best sellers.

His agency is in the center of Tokyo, has to take advantage of the tall buildings and structures.

His most sold merchandise is a tape dispenser, it’s almost always out of stock.

Fumikage Tokoyami

Is top #12 in the charts.

He and Dark shadow have different fanbases.

Whenever he attends a social event paparazzi turn off their flashes so Dark shadow can be in the picture too.

While Tokoyami’s fanbase consists more of teenagers, Dark shadow’s fanbase is elementary school students and little kids.

Minoru Mineta

Isn’t part of the top 30 heroes.

Changed his creep attitude and apologized with all the girls he knew during that time.

Is the ambassor for an organization dedicated to eradicate harassment.

For some reason most of his collabs with brands have to do something with food.

A well-known tea shop has a bobba tea named after him.

[davekat-sucks]

I have my troll headcanons, and this is gonna be a long one, I’m doing all the Beta trolls. Also note these headcanons assume all characters survive and exist on Earth C.

Aradia Megido is trying to puck back up on the hobbies she abandoned when she became a ghost, and with her luck Earth has a vast archeological expanse of history and paleontology that Alternia destroyed to legitimize the Condesce’s rule, and to erase any mention of organized rebellion against the empire. Of course, history still existed, but is almost exclusively known by highbloods who have the class and age to study writing, own journals to write on, live long enough to document dozens of sweeps of their life history, and have less of a chance to get culled by drones controlling population growth. Reassembling Alternian history on Earth C is like finishing a jigsaw puzzle with the pieces hiding across the empty void of space. Aradia likes to search for fossils, but her interest in the dead and telekinetic connection with ghosts make her a professional paranormal investigator as well, she once snuck into a haunted house being filmed for a ghost hunters TV show, and was caught on camera. Her ripped clothes and ruffled hair from attempting a breaking and entering made her look like an undead troll.

Tavros thinks Pokémon is too simple and amateur for him, when in reality he’s mad he still loses in competitive matches in both card game and online game. He still likes the Pokémon anime! A boy who never grows up going on adventures against an organized crime syndicate trying to steal a powerful ally and nonverbal creature! Not to mention that the Ash character has friends to tag along on their perilous journey! When it comes to fighting with mythical magical monsters and complex bullshit with cards, Tavros has a soft spot for Yu-Gi-Oh, and Seto Kaiba reminds him of a troll that kept on meddling with him… and still does.

Sollux is possibly the best software technician on Earth C. He is an admin for a forum that discusses obscure desktop/master software. He obviously uses Linux and Gnu, and codes .ath viruses as practice for whitehat hackers to disarm. His Earth C hive is entirely themed by bifurcation. His curtains, his furniture, his goddamn toilet are themed by 2 colors. Karkat calls it ugly, Kanaya calls it creative. To cope with his psiionics and his loss of them, Sollux teamed up with Aradia, Karkat, and Feferi to code and design a walkie talkie that can talk to the recently deceased, this was also done so people could stop running specifically to him for predictions of armageddon.

Karkat is trying very hard to accustom himself to human culture, he has watched a lot of human film (mostly American, a few Fench and Soviet films and a bunch of Tokusatsu and Anime slop) to get why humans were like that, and if everyone was like Dave and Rose. He finds human film boring and generic, but continues to watch it anyway, to connect with the human way of life. He also follows John’s Youtube account… to leave hate comments, they don’t even attack John’s appearance or the points John makes about the film, it’s general allusions to how frustrated he gets watching John’s videos.

Nepeta has been banned from New York C’s central park zoo for scaring the bears at their enclosure and intimidating them into smashing the glass. Nepeta was allowed back in 2 years later when she promised she would not harm any animals because “it would be too easy to hunt them.” Nepeta is a professional huntress who is unique in that she doesn’t use firearms, she just catches the animal in her mouth and slices their neck if it’s big game like deer or wild boar. She meets her maximum bag capacity within a day. She is the scourge of human huntsmen and she is known as “the green lioness” to many.

Kanaya was able to pass on the duties of brooding cavern patrol once the first Jadebloods reached maturation after 9 sweeps. On Earth she was introduced to a new series of monsters and beasts after being accustomed to the animated corpses she’d hunt during the Alternian day and rainbow drinkers in her trashy teengrub erotica. Since she was always around Rose, a girlfriend and devout student of zoologically dubious, she became a cryptozoologist and eventually a bigfoot hunter. Her agility, strength, night vision, and rainbow drinker hearing made her perfect for hunting North America C’s most hidden animal. She would mostly stalk the rustling of leaves and moaning from the shadows of the forest to find it’s a human hiker or a bear, until she actually caught Bigfoot in an open Brush 30 miles West of Marquette C, Michigan C. Notably sightings were made days after Kanaya caught the creature, and after a week on news channels, talk shows, radio interviews, getting a nobel prize in biology and ecology, and getting a giant golden trophy called the “first big step” she now is treading westwards for possible other bigfoot sighted from California to Idaho. That is, when she can schedule it, she has a girlfriend she also wants to be there for. Of course, Rose has joined Kanaya on a few bigfoot searches to support her girlfriend.

Terezi IS the law. Professional trollcop and private investigator, she has her own TV show like that of Chris Hansen where she roleplays as different people, ranging from kids that pedophiles prey on to lone wolfs and depressed deadbeats that drug cartels search for to hire as peddlers and soldiers. Terezi’s strongest expertise is hunting down anti-troll hate groups, since she gets to be herself instead of roleplay as a human. She struggles the most catching anti-human troll groups and Neo-Condescites considering she has to fight against her own species, which have an easier time sniffing out if she’s faking her human archetype and some of them are super strong indigobloods.

Vriska haaaaaaaates how boring and fake human roleplaying games are. In FLARP you had real costumes, stat bats, real loot, month long continuous sessions, and dire consequences if you lose. To keep herself not bored she has become a practitioner of the extreme sport of rock climbing, since Vriska hated walking down and up all those stairs just to get to her lusus, and climbing a shear face would be more safe than slipping on those infernal steps! She also wanted one day for her lusus to watch her climb, as spidermom laud down in that pit of webs, too fat and loud to crawl up herself. Spidermom has been dead for sweeps now so Vriska still won. GET F8CKED FUSSYF8NGS!!!!!!!!

Equius was an unfortunate troll who got caught up in strange human subcultures, and that subculture was human hypermasculinity and “alpha” male mentality. He has a Youtube channel, Twitter, and Instagram dedicated to exercising routines, habits, and hobbies that make male trolls, humans, carapacians, and even denizens respected leaders in their community. Equius tried to co-opt My Little Pony as being masculine and sigma despite the protagonists being all colorful horses. Equius believes all of the protagonist ponies (the mane 6 as they’re called in fandom circles) each hold masculine traits that can correlate with the masculine archetypes in alpha men. Think how Twilight Sparkle exemplifies intelligence and planning, AppleJack has strength and stoicism, Rarity appreciates natural beauty and appearence, etc. Also they are horses, and Equius is frustrated that humans took the maned roarbeast (lions) and striped fangbeast (tigers) as the mascot of alpha males. Equius made his own personal gym in his hive because he was banned from all the gyms for excessive sweating and never cleaning up his station. He films fighting tutorials with his combat robots, but they all break in one punch, so Nepeta has to be invited for any successful demonstrations on how to demonstrate Equius’s fighting style and not break in one punch.

Gamzee is in a mental Asylum becaise of the whole murder thing and has only broken off from Lord English’s control for the first time in his life. He expresses himself by rhyming the GREGCLOUROIAN WICKED RHYTHMS for THE FROWNING MASSES to proselytize the NEW COMING OF THE DARKER CARNIVAL. After 5 sweeps in a straitjacket Gamzee was deemed sane and pacified, so he can finally start his real life. He immediately asked Tavros to start dueting some sick bars he wrote in the brig to bring forth the new prophesy of the evanjesters. Tavros agreed without hesitation. “Mike Club” and “Wild T” sell albums as the “UNHINGED PAGLIACCI TROUPE” and have gotten many a negative review as “the worst rappers in all paradox space” but in the end, built up a dedicated fanbase of clownfolk and followers of the true faith.

Eridan doesn’t go out much, if at all. He plays a lot of video games, grand strategy, roleplaying games, a few puzzle games. He feels mixed about First Person Shooters and asks for a good story in an FPS campaign. He sees himself as honorablenand only shoots with a reason, like how he killed lusii to feed G’bolg’lyb and stop the vast glub. He doesn’t want to shoot people because some authority tells him to! Honest! Ask Sollux and he’ll agree Eridan shot in self defense! And Sollux is still alive and happier that he doesn’t hear the boices ofbthe dead doesn’t he?! Maybe Sollux should THANK HIM FOR BEING CONSIDERATE. Sorry what was I talking about? Eridan does not regret a lot of things, but he will still talk about them when you bring them up to insist he does not regret anything, nope, he’s fine. He does hang around with the people, or rather, person he tolerates. Karkat. Everyone else are lowbloods that don’t like him because he’s better than them so they insult him and say he smells bad when that’s the natural smell of the ocean and they don’t understand how important he is, or Feferi who toyed with his emotions and left him for some bipolar mustardblood and avoided him after ALL HE DUD FOR HER AND WAS SO NICE TO HER AND SHE DIDN’T RECIPROCATE THOSE FEELINGS wait what was I talking about? Eridan insists he does not need help. He’s fine. He’s fine fine fine fine fin.

Feferi loves Spongebob Squarepants, it’s a match made in heaven, but she’s not obsessed with it. She still went far enough to paint her recuperacoon blue with the colorful flowers that dotted the oceans of Bikini Bottom. She is an advocate for saving all the coral reefs and has sued many companies with her nonprofit organization and vast personal wealth for spillover of hazardous chemicals into protected waters. Considering how often CrockerCorp gets into these environmentalist lawsuits, Feferi gets under Jane’s nerves. A lot.

Final thoughts. Eridan, Karkat, Nepeta, Vriska, Tavros, and Terezi (sometimes Sollux but he’s busy most of the time) all run a discord for roleplaying and video games. Eridan Karkat and Tavros like to play the Elder Scrolls series, Sollux likes to play the Fallout series, Vriska, Nepeta, and Terezi like both. Sollux tried to get Eridan to play Fallout: New Vegas once, but Eridan got bored after a few hours and thought the morality system was too simple. Between the organized disciplined and stable Caesar’s Legion or the corrupt incompetent bureaucrats of the New California Republic, or the selfish authoritarian Mr. House, or you thrusting the wasteland into chaos as you throw all 3 of the remaining lighthouses of civilization into collapse. Sollux has a let’s play channel but the only uploads on it are Nepeta’s playthrough of Postal 2 she shared on the discord server.

Karkat does a lot of human movie watchparties with his old friends to keep his trollian friends close enough that they don’t kill each other or wander off on this new weird alien world, and to his surprise they like some of the human films even though they are bottom of the barrel compared to peak alternian film. Each of the trolls favorite films are:

Aradia: Carrie (1976)

Tavros: Pokémon the First Movie (2000)

Sollux: The Matrix (1999)

Karkat: Con Air (1996)

Nepeta: The Lion King (1994)

Kanaya Maryam: Harry and the Hendersons (1987)

Terezi: Trolls (2016)

Vriska: Pirates of the Caribbean (2005)

Equius: Spirit (2003) and Fight Club (1999)

Gamzee: Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

Eridan: Waterloo (1970)

Feferi: Atlantis the Lost Empire (2001)

Final fact: since films from the beta kids library still had a chronological year, the release year of films gets confusing, so to make up for it, films on Earth C are released on a separate calendar, the year on the Earth C Planetary Film Board is equal to current year (number of years after the original kids touched down on Earth C) plus 2009. Old Alternian films are hard to chronologically measure since they were made billions of years before April 2009.

This is a long one!

These are all amazing!

[workersolidarity]

🇮🇱🇺🇲 🚨

BIG FAT CRYING ISRAELI BABY BEGS UNCLE SAM FOR MORE BOMBS, LESS RESTRICTIONS

In bizarre series of events on Thursday, when the Israeli entity's psychotic Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accused the Neocon administration of Genocide Joe Biden of imposing unfair restrictions, bottlenecking munitions deliveries, and slow rolling arms sales for the Zionist occupation army.

The accusations seem to have been made out of a desire for speeding up the genocide in the Gaza Strip, because murdering nearly 40'000 Palestinians in 9 months doesn't seem to be resulting in the rapid ethnic cleansing of Gaza the Zionist Prime Minister was hoping for.

Netanyahu began his toddler fit with false praise for the Genocide Joe administration, telling reporters in English that “When Secretary Blinken was recently here in Israel, we had a candid conversation. I said I deeply appreciated the support the US has given Israel from the beginning of the war."

Almost immediately, Netanyahu's praise became a backhanded complement when he added, “But I also said something else, I said it’s inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel..."

"Israel," he said again in faux disbelief, "America’s closest ally, fighting for its life, fighting against Iran and our other common enemies.”

"Secretary Blinken assured me that the administration is working day and night to remove these bottlenecks,” the crying man-baby-in-chief continued, adding that “I certainly hope that’s the case. It should be the case.”

But Netanyahu didn't stop there, the Psychopathic-man-baby-in-Chief reportedly accused the Genocide Joe administration of playing into the hands of Iran and its "proxies in the region", including Hamas and Hezbollah, by slowing munitions deliveries.

Asked about the man-baby's breakdown, US Secretary of Murder at the State Department, Antony Blinken, suggested the Zionist occupation's leader was exaggerating, and insisted only a single delivery has been held up.

The top war-mongering diplomat in the State Department went on, pointing to the one shipment the self-propelled grandpa mentioned in a press conference in Washington over a month ago.

"We are continuing to review one shipment that President [Genocide Joe] Biden has talked about with regard to 2000-pound bombs because of our concerns about their use in a densely populated area like Rafah. That remains under review,” Blinken said of the shipment.

"But everything else is moving as it normally would move… with the perspective of making sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against this multiplicity of challenges [it faces],” the Chief State Department war profiteer added.

When pressed about the issue in a later press conference, the blood-soaked-White-House spokeswoman and terrible-at-her-job-of-being-an-expert-liar, Karine Jean-Pierre, added that "We genuinely do not know what he’s talking about. We just don’t."

Clearly uncomfortable and aware that many of Genocide Joe's voters reject the Zionist genocide in Gaza, but equally conscious of the psychopathic and maniacal flippancy of her counterparts in the Israeli entity, Karine Jean-Pierre added that "There was one particular shipment of munitions that was paused, and you’ve heard us talk about that many times."

"We continue to have constructive conversations with the Israelis for the release of that particular shipment and don’t have any updates on that. There are no other pauses or holds in place… Everything else is moving in due process."

But it's clear from the behavior and words of the crying Israeli man-baby, Zionist Murderer-in-Chief Netanyahu, that his concern lies with wrapping up the genocide as quickly as possible, noting in his earlier statement that increasing the flow of American weapons would "help him finish the war more rapidly."

In his typically over-aggrandizing style, like a 13-year-old girl in a middle school Drama class, the man-baby said “During World War II, [UK leader Winston] Churchill (another historical psychopath) told the United States, ‘Give us the tools, we’ll do the job,'" going to add, "and I say, give us the tools and we’ll finish the job a lot faster.”

According to unsourced reporting in the Hebrew media earlier on Thursday, the Top war-mongerer Antony Blinken promised the man-baby Netanyahu that he would remove any and all restrictions on US weapons transfers to the Zionist entity in the coming days. Information that was likely leaked by the man-baby or his administration themselves.

Despite the crocodile tears, it's become clear Genocide Joe and his administration are not serious about preventing the use of American weapons to kill tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including thousands of women and children, and will continue funding and arming the destruction of innocents despite the ever escalating concerns from International institutions like the ICJ that were built by the United States itself, along with its closest allies.

In just the latest example of the Genocide Joe administration's ever escalating foreign policy, The Times of Israel, citing the Washington Post, says the Biden administration pressured two lawmakers with a hint of a conscience, Rep. Gregory Meeks and Sen. Ben Cardin, who were holding up a single delivery of 50 F15 fighter jets for several months, into accepting the arms transfer.

Times of Israel:

"Rep. Gregory Meeks and Sen. Ben Cardin have signed off on the deal under heavy pressure from the Biden administration after the two lawmakers had for months held up the sale, the [Washington] Post reported."

The pressuring of lawmakers, the odd relationships leading to bizarre comments from their Israeli counterparts, and the holding up of a single symbolic arms delivery all come together to expose the Biden administration's greatest contradiction: its dedication to Neoconservative foreign policy and US Imperialist domination, while at the same time offering up the occasional virtue-signaling public comments to its base of more peace-prefering voters who, at the very least, don't want to watch a live-streamed genocide occur right before their eyes, funded by their tax dollars.

These contradictions continue to play themselves out before the eyes of the entire world as crying babies and manipulative political figures continue to take advantage of this contradiction, seeing it for the weakness it is and using it, and other weaknesses, to manipulate the Genocide Joe administration into endlessly backing the maniacal and psychopathic Israeli occupation as it forever escalates with its adversaries, hoping the drag the United States into another two decades of war in West Asia.

#source1

#source2

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[blouisparadise]

Upon request, today we have a rec list of bottom Louis fics where Louis is an independent omega. If you enjoy our fic rec lists and want them to continue, please be sure to like and reblog this post to help spread the word. Happy reading!

1) Something To Prove | Explicit | 9425 words

Louis is the first and only omega to work at Red Valley Medical Center. Despite being more than qualified, he still faces prejudice for his career choice everyday. From patients refusing his treatment to condescending alpha doctors intervening with his work, practicing medicine in Boston is more challenging than Louis had ever thought it would be.

2) Night Out | Mature | 9741 words | Sequel

Note: This fic has been locked and can only be read by AO3 users.

Symphony hall was the first place Louis had felt at home in this city, and he always had the box to himself. Until tonight.

3) Where Do We Go Now | Explicit | 10617 words

Louis goes off to college ready to start a fresh life away from the oppressive alphas of his pack.  The odds aren't in his favour when his new dorm mate turns out to be an alpha.

Louis hates alphas.

4) Overwhelming | Explicit | 13261 words

Louis is an omega attending university to get his degree and most definitely not waste his time with unimportant things such as finding a mate. Harry is the alpha who manages to unwittingly mess up that plan.

5) Just Let Me | Mature | 14714 words

Note: This fic has been locked and can only be read by AO3 users.

The party was going well. So well, Niall had already sworn undying love to one multi-tiered chocolate cake, two friendly corgi-poodle mixes, Zayn’s hair, and the entire population of Los Angeles. So well, Zayn had only laughed and ruffled Niall’s hair and not even twitched towards a cigarette. So well, nearly everyone had spilled far past the boundaries of the night’s original plans, extracting bottles of vodka from the cabinets and losing a lot of clothes. Harry had proclaimed that he was finally going to throw a small and very grownup dinner party and of course here they were three hours later, fifty people half-naked in the pool. Soon to be full-naked, if Louis had to guess. Everybody in LA loved a heated pool. Everybody loved Harry.

6) I Still Crave It | Explicit | 16143 words

Louis is an independent omega, who doesn't need or want an alpha. When he becomes ill and meets alpha Harry, he agrees to let him take care of him and quickly gets addicted to his scent. Once he feels better though, he keeps making up lies so that the alpha continues scenting him.

7) With Love Comes Strange Currencies | Explicit | 16508 words

One day One Direction will be over and Louis won't be around Harry every waking moment. He'll be able to finally get some space, let their bond dissipate as it's bound to do, if they don't mess up again. He can move to Costa Rica and forget that Harry Styles popped his first knot inside him. Until then, he's going to have to deal with this.

8) Don’t Call Me Angel | Mature | 16648 words

Manhattan is a dangerous playground for the rich and entitled Alphas of New York. Those same wealthy Alphas are robbed after spending one night in the presence of a blue-eyed Omega and Officer Styles is assigned to the case.

9) I Didn’t Fall For You (You Fucking Tripped Me) | Explicit | 20681 words

These days Louis tends to steer clear of dating alphas. He’s dated too many knotheads in his time, and he’s ready to just focus on school and his friends and his pet monitor lizard, of course.

Too bad the alpha next door won’t take a hint and stop using the worst pick up lines of all time on him. He’s really got to stop laughing with him--and talking to him and walking to class with him and letting him bring him coffee and tea and gifts for his lizard and watching Netflix together and...

10) The Voice Of Range And Ruin | Explicit | 25470 words

It seemed as if the freshly formed Omega Uprising had always been a step or two ahead of the Commandant and the rest of the reigning Alphanian officials. The idea had been floated that there must be someone working with them from the inside, reporting back to them on the government’s plans so that they could be prepared. That person had yet to be discovered, and the Commandant and his surrounding forces had finally had enough of this game of cat and mouse. Harry understood. He agreed. It needed to come to an end, one way or another.

“Your job is to navigate their landscape and gain entry into their forces. You will pretend to be one of them and gain reliable intel for us. It’s clear that no one else has been capable of doing it, and you at least have some semblance of experience in this field. This has gone on for too long, Harry. Enough is enough.” He made direct eye contact with his son, holding it. “I’m counting on you.”

11) Yours To Lose | Mature | 25742 words

“I think I know the person that matches your descriptions of your dream alpha.”

“Who? And oh not my dream alpha, god you’re making me sound like a teenage school girl. I’m a mum, H.” They laugh as they watch kids gather in front of the verandah, getting ready to go back to the orphanage.

“Well, you’re gonna have to find out.” Harry winks before standing up to start cleaning their spot.

12) Where The Lights Are Beautiful | Mature | 31170 words | Sequel

Harry wasn’t wrong about that, not in a general sense. Lots of omegas did seek out rich alphas and betas, hoping or planning to go into heat at the right time. Plenty of omegas saw this as their duty, especially if their families weren’t well off.

Worse, Louis couldn’t honestly say he’d never thought about it.

If that had been his life, his goal, Louis would feel pretty good about himself now.

As it is…Louis feels like shit.

13) These Hallowed Woods | Not Rated | 35535 words

Louis becomes Luna of the Tomlinson Pack after the untimely death of his father, the Pack Alpha. Saddled with his newfound responsibility and an unpleasantly demanding pack council, he finds secret respite in the arms of a rogue wolf that camps out just outside his territory. The only problem? The rogue has no idea who Louis actually is, and as Louis falls harder and harder for the man he escapes to every night, the weight of his lies steers him along a path of certain misery.

14) Wild Hearts Run Free | Explicit | 42979 words

Harry is an alpha who is harbouring a dark secret, one that has forced him into self-imposed isolation, far from civilization and far from temptation.

Louis is an omega who has fought the predispositions of his secondary gender his whole life and suddenly finds himself cast aside by his beta partner, leaving him to question his place in the world.

When fate and Mother Nature conspire to trap the two strangers together, will Harry’s worst fears be proven, or will Louis find a way to break down his walls and lead him into the light?

15) Worth Dying For | Explicit | 44906 words

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Louis says, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. In the center of the table, a set of three glossy photos stares up at him, mocking him.

“A security detail is non-negotiable, Louis, you know this,” his mum reminds him, tapping the middle photo with two fingers.

Louis doesn’t look back down at the pictures, gesturing towards them wildly, over-dramatically. “This is not a security detail!” he protests. “This is a lanky college student. In what world do you hire someone like this kid to protect me?”

16) Tastes Like Summer, Smiles Like May | Explicit | 47519 words

A cold prince, an alpha with nothing left to lose and a kingdom with a secret.

17) Hold On To Your Heart | Explicit | 54183 words

The Proposal AU, where Louis is the no-nonsense editor in chief of one of the largest publishing houses in the country, and Harry is the unlucky assistant that gets roped into a fake engagement to prevent his boss from being deported. Things don't go as planned.

18) Let Your Damage, Damage Me | Explicit | 57077 words

A low and dangerous growl was ripped from the future King’s chest.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” the alpha snarled, eyes dark and nostrils flared.

Even as anger rushed through him at the alpha’s brutish display, Louis felt breathless at the intense gaze of the man that was going to be his future mate.

‘Tomorrow I’m going to be under all that. He will be inside me, all muscles and rage.’ Louis felt his cheeks heat again, but refused to be cowed. So he put his best smirk on display, the one alphas despised to see, the one that assured them all he had the upper hand.

“Thought you were expecting me, dear husband. I’m your future mate.”

19) I’ve Got You | Explicit | 62988 words

As a reward for saving the king's life, Harry is offered omega Prince Louis' hand in marriage. Neither of them has any interest in the union going forward, and so they concoct a plan to prove to the king that they are far from a perfect match.

20) Mead Of Poetry | Explicit | 65053 words

Under the pressure of continuing the Styles viscountcy line now that he is getting older, Harry sets himself three rules to finally settle down and marry: firstly, the omega needs to be reasonably attractive, secondly, they must be of great mind, thirdly, they cannot be anyone he would ever fall in love with.

Enters Charlotte Tomlinson, the diamond of the first water of the upcoming season and seemingly the perfect candidate to the viscount’s plan, but her omega brother, Louis, is in Harry’s way. Louis only seeks to protect his sister and he sure is not going to let a rake play with her heart.

21) I Want You So Much (But I Hate Your Guts) | Mature | 83648 words

AU in which Louis gets accepted to play for the Manchester University Alpha-Beta Football Team. The only problem: Louis is actually an Omega. He is determined to make it big in the football world, though, and he can't do that bound to an Omega team. With the help of a faked doctor's certificate and some pretty strong suppressants he is ready to fight for his dream.

That Harry Styles (Alpha, second year and youngest football captain of the A-B team in ages) doesn't seem to like him complicates matters, though.

22) Swim in the Smoke | Explicit | 101778 words

“What about this, Captain?” Liam asks, nudging the boy kneeling between their feet with the toe of his boot. The boy hisses and swipes at him, slurring out something unintelligible around the makeshift gag Niall had to stuff in his mouth. He misses by a mile and tries again, just as ineffectively.

Harry looks down at him, at the way the sun streams over his face and shoulders, at the way the gag stretches his mouth, lips pink and chapped. He’s lithe and pretty, smudged all over with dirt. They had found him tied up below deck, mostly unconscious, next to a barrel full of gold. He’s clearly a prisoner, but there’s something familiar about him, something that niggles at Harry’s brain. Something he can’t quite put his finger on.

“Put him in my cabin,” Harry decides, turning back to deal with the rest of the loot. The boys screams out jumbled curse words at Harry’s back, muffled by the gag, and Harry can’t understand any of it.

23) Billow and Breeze (Islands and Seas) | Explicit | 102506 words

It was bright; that was the first thing Louis could recall. With a groan, he winced at the throbbing behind the sockets of his eyes and rubbed his temples in an effort to soothe the pain. Maybe he really did hit his head when he took his tumble. The omega squinted as he looked at the surrounding rolling hills and fog hanging over the countryside. As strange as it was, the world felt different, though it looked practically the same.

Disoriented and confused, Louis padded through the moss and listened for his husband. “Liam?” he croaked shakily.

Nothing but a symphony of woodland creatures met his ears. His footsteps were muted by mossy green grass beneath his feet and soil fragrant as he neared the crest of the hill. At the top, he froze, lips parted in horror and eyes widening at the expanse of empty farmland—not a soul in sight. It had only been less than ten minutes prior that he could see Inverness from the crest, but now there was nothing.

“Impossible,” he whispered to himself, shaking his head in disbelief—his mind not quite able to make sense of it.

24) A Taste Of Desire | Explicit | 104414 words

A Victorian ABO where Harry is the owner of the most successful cotton mill in Manchester, and Louis is an opinionated social activist about to disrupt Harry’s world.

25) You’ve Got A Higher Power, You’re Once In Any Lifetime | Explicit | 113444 words

Giving up and letting them think they're right were never valid options in Louis Tomlinson's mind.

In a society full of prejudices, finding a family and being accepted, also seemed like an unrealistic utopia.

Louis sets out to do what no other of his kind ever has before and in doing so, he finds love, friendship and more about himself than he thought he would.

Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.

[jasmin-d55]

9/12 Blog Post Week #3

Why and how can the internet be or feel like a safe space for women outside of political organizations? 

For many women not involved in political groups, the internet can feel like a safe space where they can challenge the gender inequality they deal with in their everyday lives. It gives them a place to explore who they are, connect with others, and talk about feminism and gender issues without the restrictions they face offline. Nouraie-Simone (2005) explains that for young Iranian women, the internet becomes "a liberating territory of one’s own—a place to resist a traditionally imposed subordinate identity" (p. 61). It offers them a break from the limitations of public life, allowing them to express themselves freely. In this way, the internet is like the “room of one’s own” that Virginia Woolf described—offering women a personal, empowering space to speak up and take control of their identity.

Reference: Nouraie-Simone, F. (2005). On Shifting Ground: Muslim Women in the Global Era. The Feminist Press at CUNY.

2. Would it be considered right or wrong when people seek out online spaces that affirm and solidify their own social identities? 

Looking for online spaces that support and strengthen one's own social identity is usually seen as a positive thing. People often use the internet to connect with others who share their racial, gender, or sexual identities, which can be empowering. For instance, young people might use social media to express themselves and connect with friends (Boyd, 2004). People of color and LGBTQ+ individuals also use specific websites to affirm their identities and find like-minded people (Bryson, 2004). Nouraie-Simone (2005) notes that for those in restrictive environments, the internet can provide a freeing space to explore and express their identities (p. 61-62). Moreover, research shows that people with health issues use online platforms to talk about their experiences openly, rather than to escape them (Pitts, 2004). So, using the internet to support one’s identity is generally a meaningful and helpful practice.

Boyd, D. (2004). Friendster and Facebook: Social networking site strategies.

Bryson, M. (2004). QueerSisters: Learning to be queer online.

Nouraie-Simone, F. (2005). On Shifting Ground: Muslim Women in the Global Era. The Feminist Press at CUNY.

Pitts, V. (2004). Illness and the body: Online narratives of cancer.

3. How can high tech tools impact and affect poor working class communities negatively when it is supposed to “help those in need?”

Even with the best-laid plans, high-tech instruments can be detrimental to underprivileged populations. Governor LePage of Maine falsely claimed that recipients of TANF were abusing their benefits based on EBT data, despite the fact that only 0.03% of transactions were dubious. Due to the perpetuation of unfavorable perceptions, receiving public aid was seen as "lazy" or "criminal" (Eubanks, 2018, p. 19). Stricter regulations were consequently implemented, burdening families with additional stress (e.g., requiring them to retain receipts for a year). In this instance, technology didn't help—rather, it made things more difficult for individuals who require assistance.Eubanks, V. (2018). Automating inequality: How high-tech tools profile, police, and punish the poor. St. Martin's Press.

4. AI struggles to be able to fully conduct black and asian faces and it is known. Why does law enforcement rely on this to identify these people knowing the risk of putting someone innocent behind bars? 

Facial recognition tech is notoriously bad at identifying Black and Asian faces, but law enforcement still uses it. Research shows that these systems are much more likely to misidentify people of color because they’re often trained on biased data (Buolamwini & Gebru, 2018). For example, Nijeer Parks, a Black man from New Jersey, was wrongfully arrested after being misidentified by facial recognition—he's the third known Black man to face this kind of mistake (Hill, 2020). Even though the risks are clear, police keep using this flawed tech, likely because it seems like an easy solution, but it ends up hurting innocent people. There needs to be more caution and oversight to prevent these errors.

Buolamwini, J., & Gebru, T. (2018). Gender shades: Intersectional accuracy disparities in commercial gender classification. Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, 81, 77-91.

Hill, K. (2020). Another arrest, and jail time, due to a bad facial recognition match. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com

[fancoloredglasses]

Star Trek, part 4: The Next Generation (Making the Federation even more Mary Sue)

[All images are owned by Paramount. Please don’t sue me]

The introduction of the Enterprise-A in Star Trek IV opened up the possibility of new adventures of the USS Enterprise, so when it was announced in 1987 that a new Star Trek television series would be starting, fans were hopeful that the crew of the Enterprise would go from the big screen back to the small screen.

They were very wrong.

(Thanks to Great80sTV)

Star Trek: The Next Generation (or simply TNG) takes place 80 years following the original Enterprise’s five-year missions. Gene Roddenberry is once again at the helm of the show, though he is assisted by Rick Berman, who would become the official showrunner following Roddenberry’s death.

The Federation of the 24th century is, if possible, even more utopian than before, having signed a peace treaty with the Klingon Empire (even if more than a few Klingons aren’t happy about it)

The latest ship to carry the legendary name, the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) is a Galaxy class starship, capable of longer missions into deep space. Warp technology has progressed far enough that the formula for warp speed had to be amended. Now (according to fan publications) the calculation is to a power of 5 (meaning that Warp 5 would be 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5, or 3,125 times the speed of light. Using my Alpha Centauri example from my review of the original series, it would take about 9 1/2 hours at Warp 5 to reach Alpha Centauri from Earth, a much more reasonable time frame.

In addition to better Warp and defensive technologies, the Enterprise had a new technology known as holodecks, that made life-like imagery that the crew could touch and interact with, as a way to keep the crew from going stir-crazy. And the holodecks never, ever, ever had anything go wrong inside. Nope. Never. Not even once. (excuse me as I stifle several giggles)

Two other things that were different than previous Enterprises.

(Thanks to April 5, 2063)

Since the Galaxy class was designed to go farther out than was previously possible, crew quarters are large enough to allow the families of the crew to join them on board. Because of this, the saucer section can be detached from the Engineering hull to allow the civilian population to be evacuated in cases of extreme peril.

One other change was in the uniforms.

(Thanks to The Hollywood Reporter)

Starfleet has replaced the uniform used for over 70 years with an almost “throwback” uniform with the uniform color matching divisions (though red is now operations and gold is now service; but don’t worry, we’ll still call the doomed security personnel “Redshirts”)

You will note that the uniforms are all onesies. This will be changed by Season 2 (along with several minor changes as the series progresses, almost as if whoever designed the uniform didn’t plan for the comfort of the wearer)

Now let’s meet this new crew…

The Enterprise’s commanding officer is Captain Jean-Luc Picard (played by Sir Patrick Stewart, a Shakespearean actor who had never seen Star Trek before auditioning) Stewart takes the gravitas he learned on stage and brings it to the 24th century, setting the tone of the series to something a bit more thought-provoking and less fist-provoking (just one question: why is a French starship captain talking with a British accent?)

Picard’s First Officer is Commander William Riker, who tends to be more Kirk-like in his command style. He’s not the type to get into a brawl or anything, but he’s more the smooth-talking type who leads his team when danger presents itself. He tends to lead missions that are away from the ship, preferring the Captain stay within the relative safety of the Enterprise.

The Second Officer and Chief Navigator is Lt. Commander Data (played by Brent Spiner, who previously was known as recurring character Bob Wheeler on Night Court), an android created by Dr. Noonian Soong capable of independent initiative. Despite rumors to the contrary, Data earned the rank he holds. His journey of learning to be as human as possible often puts him at the center of humorous situations (like when he tried growing a beard) He (and it’s been confirmed that he is male, with all of the plumbing to match) is incapable of showing emotion or using contractions, and often gets so wrapped up in what he’s saying that he has to be cut off by whomever he’s talking to due to not knowing when to stop spouting facts.

Some time during the series (it’s never explained in or out of canon when or how), Data acquired a cat, which he named Spot (despite the fact that the cat had stripes) There were four different “Spots” throughout the series and NONE of them looked alike (plus Spot’s gender changed at least once) Spiner has gone on record saying he hated doing scenes that included Spot, as they always took three times as long to shoot due to the cat not cooperating.

The Ship’s Counselor and advisor to the Captain is Lt. Commander Counselor Deanna Troi (played by Marina Sirtis), a member of a telepathic race known as Betazoids (she mainly uses her abilities as an empath, preferring not to use telepathy) Troi is actually half-Betazoid. She previously had a relationship with Riker that ended amiably, which comes back into play every now and then.

Her mother Lwoxana (played by Majel Barrett) is infatuated with Picard, much to his chagrin.

The Chief Helmsman (and eventually Data’s best friend) is Lt. (later Lt. Commander) Geordi La Forge (played by Reading Rainbow host LaVar Burton) La Forge is blind (due to a blind girl wanting a role model on Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry having an ironic sense of humor by making the pilot blind) The object that looks like a banana clip (because that’s what it is!) is a VISOR (Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement), which is connected to implants on La Forge’s temples that feed his brain sensory data, including infrared and ultraviolet emissions. Starting in Season 2 (following Season 1’s “Chief Engineer of the Week”), La Forge is transferred to Engineering where he remained through the remainder of the series and beyond.

Lt. Worf (played by Michael Dorn) is the first and (thus far) only Klingon to serve on a Starfleet vessel. He was the last survivor when the Romulans attacked a Klingon outpost when he was a boy. A Starfleet crewman found him and raised him. He is still very much a Klingon warrior, though tempered by Federation ideals.

He serves on the Enterprise as…well, I’m not entirely certain what his duties are at the start of the series other than to be the Token Klingon.

[FUN FACT: The prosthetic Dorn wore in season 1 was stolen after the season ended, so a new one had to be crafted but wasn’t an exact replica, which is why he looks different from Season 2 onward]

The Chief Medical Officer is Commander Dr. Beverly Crusher (played by Gates McFadden) Unlike Dr. McCoy, she doesn’t have any memorable catchphrases. Her husband was killed under Picard’s command years prior. She and Picard have unresolved romantic tension throughout the series.

Since families are allowed on the Enterprise, Dr. Crusher is allowed to bring her son Wesley (played by Wil Wheaton, who was previously known for Stand by Me) aboard. Wesley is a child prodigy who…

Look, I’m just gonna say it. I never liked Wesley (though I’ve gotten a lot of respect for Wheaton since he left the series) because he was pretty much a Mary Sue. He knows more about every aspect of the Enterprise than officers who’ve spent years to earn their posts. Despite being a teenager, he refers to the crew as “grown ups” rather than “adults” and (at least in the early parts of the first season) threw tantrums when the people in authority wouldn’t let him get his way.

That being said, he managed to somehow gain the respect of the crew (especially Captain Picard)

(Thanks again to April 5, 2063)

Last, but certainly not first, we have Head of Security and Tactical Officer Lt. Tasha Yar (played by Denise Crosby) Yar comes from a colony that had broken down, now ruled by the strongest. At times it seemed like there could be romantic leanings between Yar and Worf (and there WAS a sexual encounter with Data!) however, this never came to fruition as the season 1 finale will explain.

(Thanks to Frustrated Idealist)

It turns out that Denise Crosby had the same issue that Nichelle Nichols had (her role was essentially window dressing), but unlike Nichols, Crosby didn’t have a famous comedian to urge her to stay so she left the series. With Yar’s death, Worf was moved to her position (which really should’ve been the case from the start, given he’s a Klingon)

In addition to Wesley’s field commission and the transfers of Worf and La Forge (oh, and Riker grew a beard), there were two casting changes for season 2.

Backstage tension between Gates McFadden and the show’s head writer (who had gotten more authority as Gene Roddenberry started stepping back) caused McFadden to be fired. In canon, Dr. Crusher was reassigned to Starfleet Medical (though Wesley stayed aboard for some reason)

Replacing Dr. Crusher is Lt. Commander Dr. Kate Pulaski (played by Diana Maldaur (who had appeared in an episode of the Original Series and was best known for falling down an elevator shaft on LA Law) Dr. Pulaski was far more gruff than Dr. Crusher (more similar to Dr. McCoy, but without the catchphrases), and proved to be unpopular. She was replaced when the writer left and Rick Berman asked McFadden to return for season 3.

Finally, we come to the other Nichelle Nichols story she enjoyed telling.

There was a young black girl who saw Uhura and was amazed there was a black woman on TV who wasn’t a maid (this was the 60s, so that kind of thing was almost unheard of) She would be inspired to become a stand-up comedian, and eventually a popular movie actress. When TNG started, she went to Roddenberry and told him she wanted a role on the show…ANY role!

That little girl’s name?

Whoopie Goldberg, who was given the role of Guinan, the bartender of the Enterprise’s Ten Forward lounge. Guinan is of a race with cosmic-ish abilities (when the Enterprise is involved in a temporal event that changed history, Guinan was the only one who knew something was amiss)

Also over the course of the series we got interactions with Original Series crew members...

Admiral McCoy (retired, now over 130 years old)

Captain Scott (retired, who was suspended in time for over 70 years)

...and Ambassador Spock (well, Vulcans do live over 200 years)

It’s the interactions between the cast members that sets the series apart from the Original Series, and it truly is an ensemble cast; every cast member is given their chance in the spotlight on a number of episodes (particularly Data (in his quest to try to be more human) and Worf (as he tries to find his place between two cultures))

With the Klingons more-or-less friends, Starfleet needed more recurring alien threats to deal with (the Romulans were still around, but were quiet during the early seasons)

The Ferengi are a race that personify the absolute worst a capitalist society can be, prioritizing profit above all else (they even codify it in their code of “ethics” known as the Rules of Acquisition) Unfortunately, rather than being the threat they were intended they turned out to be little more than comic relief.

The Cardassians are a militaristic race bent on conquest (there are certainly a lot of those hanging around in the galaxy, aren’t there?) They tend to be cruel to those they conquer. However, to prevent a war the Federation ceded a number of Federation colony worlds that once belonged to the Cardassians, leaving those who chose to stay to fend for themselves against their new rulers (this may be the first crack in the utopian facade the Federation shows) Many Federation citizens (including a number of Starfleet personnel) formed a resistance group known as the Maquis, who are dedicated to freeing the colonies left to the Cardassians. Both the Federation and the Cardassians treat the group as terrorists.

Q (a member of the Q Continuum, played by John deLancie) is an omnipotent entity who appears occasionally to attempt to teach the Enterprise (and more importantly Captain Picard) about the fallacies of humanity and the dangers of What Lies Beyond. Many times his antics are played for laughs, but unlike the Ferengi there is always a dangerous undercurrent to Q’s games. Unfortunately, his antics have gotten Q in trouble with his fellow Q, and at one point he had been stripped of his powers and made human for a brief period.

Q is directly responsible for introducing the Federation to the gravest threat to the galaxy…

The Borg.

The Borg are humanoid beings that have been enhanced with cybernetics and, due to their hive mind, are able to adapt quickly to dangers (a phaser will down a few Borg, but they will quickly adapt and be able to repel future blasts on that light frequency) Any time they encounter a new species, they assimilate the species and their technology into their Collective.

The series ran for 7 seasons, beginning and ending with Q putting the humanity on trial (with the crew of the Enterprise playing the role of defendant for the entire race) The series laid the groundwork for two spin-off series set in the same era (plus at least one that debuted after 2010, so I won’t be covering it), but those are tales for future reviews.

If you would like to watch the series it’s available on Paramount+, PlutoTV, or behind your favorite paywall. If you would like to see an episode reviewed, please let me know!

One quick note before I go: I would like to show the tale of the first Meeting of the Generations (which occurred during the filming of Star Trek V), as told by Wil Wheaton.

[DISCLAIMER: This is told entirely from Wheaton’s perspective, and I’m sure William Shatner has a different take on it, but given all the stories about Shatner over the years, I’m inclined to think this is closer to the truth]

(Thanks to Eric Webb)

[talesfrommedinastation]

How the Bad Batch got white-washed: a script

(Don't know if this is how it actually happened, but it's my personal theory that came out after some wiiiild discussions on Discord. I don't believe this actually happened, but I do think liberties were taken to secure audience members and ratings. Enjoy, my little crumpets!)

CW: Everything. Just...at this point, in between fics and art filled with violence and Naughty Times and Doug's irrational ramblings about Toaster Strudel and SEC football, you should probably leave if you're under 18.

-----

(Be Star Wars animation studio, probably Florida, who knows)

Studio Executive: Yo, animator, we got a problem here.

Animator: Yes?

Studio Executive: These clones, the new guys in this new show, 'The Bad Batch'…they all look alike. All bronzed, good looking guys with dark hair and thick shoulders. 

Animator: Yes, that’s, um, kind of what clones are, sir? They are genetic duplicates of an indigenous actor from New Zealand. 

Studio Executive: That’s the problem.

Animator: Say what?

Studio Executive: Who is watching this damn show? Who is paying for Disney + subscriptions? Who is our main money-making audience here?

Animator: Um, I guess…families? And, uh, lonely single adults?

Studio Executive: EXACTLY. And you know what is declining, besides civility in an ever-crumbling society? 

Animator: What?

Studio Executive: THE BIRTH RATE.

Animator: Uh, actually--

Studio Executive: YOU KNOW IT, I KNOW IT, THE WORLD KNOWS IT. DAMN GREAT RECESSION AND PANDEMIC AND CRUSHING REALITY GETTING MILLENIALS ALL (legitimately) SCARED OF HAVING BABIES. WE NEED MIDDLE CLASS PEOPLE TO START BREEDING LIKE RABBITS IF WE WANT TO HAVE A STEADY POPULATION OF AUDIENCE CONSUMERS OF DISNEY PRODUCTS.

Animator: Well, that seems aggressively eugenics-oriented, with a tinge of classism.

Studio Executive: WHATEVER I MAKE THE BIG BUCKS SHUT YOUR ART SCHOOL MOUTH. Now, redesign those new clones!

Animator: To…what?

Studio Executive: First of all, the tech guy! What’s his name?

Animator: ….Tech. 

Studio Executive: WELL THAT SHIT’S EASY TO MARKET. Anywho, get rid of the tan and the muscles and the thick dark hair. No nerd looks like that, come on. Make him a skinny white guy with receding hair, slap some hipster glasses on him too. Actually, you know what? Meander your ass over to the accounting department on the second floor and draw a few of the weirdos conducting audits in there. Base the tech guy off of them, not a buff, golden, Maori man.

Animator: But the guys in accounting look NOTHING like Temuera Morrison! This is just wrong!

(pictured above: Not the average CPA in the USA. That rhymed)

Studio Executive: Bro, get real. Are these lonely single ladies and the exhausted moms watching this show with their kids going to run into Mr. Morrison while working their office job? You think Boba Fett’s tanned self sits at the corner cubicle and tries to hit on them when they go to the copier? What are you smoking?! And on that note, make that tech character sassy, smart, and nurturing! Make him the perfect guy!

Animator: Why? I am so confused.

("Wanna come look at some Excel spreadsheets with me, baby?")

Studio Executive: Because we want all the 30-something ladies watching this show to get so hot and bothered over Tech that they decide they need to have this clown’s babies, like, now! And they’ll run over to the accounting office, drunkenly hook up with one of the auditors in a broom closet after Thirsty Thursday, and boom! Another consumer born, 9 months later!

Animator: This is sounding astonishingly like eugenics.

Studio Executive: WHATEVER. Same goes for the other clones! Make that tall bald one look like the aggressively outgoing construction worker that’s laying cement outside of the accounting office! The one that always wolf-whistles and screams ‘Jesteś piękna! Beautiful like model!’ at every woman! The one that all the ladies in the office watch and go ‘Oh, yes, take that shirt off, it’s a hot day today, daddy’. Watching that fun guy on this show means those ladies with THROW THEMSELVES at guys like this! And bam! MORE CONSUMERS FOR DISNEY BORN. 

(Wrecker has raw contractor energy. ::lays pipe::)

Animator: I am not enjoying this conversation’s direction.

Studio Executive: CAN IT AND TAKE IT UP WITH HR. Now the leader, I know we’re going with Rambo, and I’m okay with it, but give him a little extra smolder and snatch that waist a bit. I want to go for a ‘hot waiter at Cooper’s Hawk that slips you his number after you tip him 40%’, vibe. 30-something ladies love Cooper’s Hawk, there’s been market research, do it. 

(He'll judge your love of pinot grigio, but not how you pay him, wink wink)

Animator: No.

Studio Executive: SHUT UP AND DO YOUR JOB. Now, the last two…bald, calm guy that always seems tired but is still constantly there for you? Basically, every exhausted Millennial man right now? Make him extra pale because he hasn’t left his condo since 2020 and his only social outlet is playing STEAM games with his other lonely friends. Perfect. Job well done. 

(He uses his scomp to play 'Dave the Diver'. You know he does)

Animator: Yeah, his name is Echo and he– 

Studio Executive: Good, make him like I said, and trust me, ladies will see men like him and want to fix them, and then promptly ride said men like it’s Derby Day. More consumers born, we will have a bumper crop of tickets purchased at Disneyworld and Galaxy's Edge within the next couple of years. Excellent. 

Animator: Sir, you are a sick, sick man. 

Studio Executive: Speaking of which, the last guy. Just make him Clint Eastwood. 

Animator:…Clint Eastwood. Isn’t he old as hell?

(Oh, Daddy Warcrimes, you and your toothpick are the Internet's Everything)

Studio Executive: Yeah, but, daddy issues abound amongst many of our consumer audience. And this is a show about daddy issues. And hopefully, by watching this, we will turn more people in daddies and KEEP OUR CONSUMER NUMBERS UP ON DISNEY +! 

Wait, where are you going?!

Animator: I’m resigning and joining the Peace Corps, I can’t do this anymore.

[freetheshit-outofyou]

The 1994 FAWB was actually extremely effective (the single exception being Columbine, the worst mass shooting ever at the time, which has been outdone every 3-5 years since the 1994 FAWB expired).

Anon, first, you are a cunt.

Second, are you fucking retarded?

Honestly, comparing your moronic statement to those with mental disabilities is a slam against them that is not fair. You, little buddy, are in an entire class of stupid that is all your own.

The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act of 1994 failed at every point we were told it was going to make a positive difference.  From 1994-2004 violent crime involving firearms went down marginally. But that was not because of the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act. Crime was already trending down starting in 1981. Yes, the numbers speak for themselves. From 1994-2004, 114,968 people were killed with a firearm by a criminal. From 2005 through to the most current year of 2022, 178,782 people were killed by a criminal offender using a firearm. I know, right now you're all like "see SEE, right there, crime is worse now than during the BAN.", you're wrong.

From 1994-2004 about 11,496.8 people were killed per year by a criminal with a firearm. From 2005-2022 that 18 year window number is about 9,932.333333... But I'll go an extra step and keep the window at 10 years. from 2012-2022 that number is about 11,208.6 people killed by a criminal using a firearm. Again, I know you're nutting up on yourself screaming "LOOK the numbers between the Ban window and the numbers from 2012-2022 are almost identical", for once you are right. The problem is the ban had been expired for 7 years to that point having no bearing on the numbers. (Just as a silly little side note, from 2005-2015 the number of people killed on average by a criminal with a firearm was 10,150.2. Once again, lower than all of your BAN window.)

A much more important metric here is from 1994-2004, 2,194 (219.4 per year.) private citizens were forced to use a firearm in their defense or the defense of others against a criminal committing a felony. Where from 2005-2019, (249.4666667 per year.) From 2005-2015 that number is 2,395 or 239.5 per year. That means coming out of the Ban more citizens were forced to protect themselves with a firearm than before the ban. Your ban did that. You gilded ban made people LESS SAFE.

I'd like to add the above numbers are just firearms, all the other methodologies of murders are not included in these numbers.

But, since you asked so kindly here are the numbers based on all methodologies of murders.

1994-2004, 172,447 people killed by criminals, or about 17,244.7 per year.

2005-2022, 257,465 people killed by criminals, or about 14,303.61111111111 per year.

2012-2022, 158,693 people killed by criminals, or about 15,869.3 per year.

2005-2015, 150,030 people killed by criminals, or about 15,003 per year.

Based on facts, more people died by criminals, more private citizens were forced to kill a criminal offenders during the Ban window than during the following 18 fucking year. That little one, is what we call a failure. It saved less people, caused more people to have to fight violent criminals for their lives or the lives of others. How in the world is that a success?

Now, let's go to your back handed exception of the tragedy that was Columbine. From 11:19 A.M. to 12:08 P.M. two psychotic shit stains killed 13 people wounding another 24. Of the 4 firearms used 2 of them, the Intratec TEC-9 mini and the Hi-Point 995 Carbine were both under the ban. I'd like to point out the 99 explosive devices were illegal to possess, the killings were illegal to do, bringing guns and explosives to a school was also a violation of the laws of the time. What exactly did the ban do to help those people in that school?

From 1994-2004 the U.S. population grew from 262,273,589 to 293,947,885 and not one new modern self-defense weapon was available. So roughly 31 million people, could not have access to the most effective means of personal defense in the world and murder by firearms was higher. From 2005 to 2022, just to keep the numbers in the same ranges, in 2005 the population was 296,842,670+/- and in 2022 it ballooned up to 338,289,857+/-, that is a jump of 41 million people. All of those people, who were or are law abiding adults, have had access to all of the most relevant modern self-defense firearms the Nation has to offer and CRIME HAS WENT DOWN.

If the Ban was such a resounding success how can the numbers be telling a different story?

I have a small theory, you king cunt of anon, have no fucking clue what you are talking about. You have chosen the wrong fight and are on the wrong side of history.

With that, all I can say is bless your heart.

Source 1, FBI UCR

Source 2, Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer

[bergeronprocess]

9/25/24

It’s raining really hard today and it just made me think about a rainy day in Paldea and how my original/game protagonist character might deal with that.

Also good god I love Scarvi so much but they REALLY needed to give the areas proper names. 

Well, there go my plans, thought Violetta the moment she opened her eyes. The rain was driving hard against her window, the world outside tinged in gray, creating a morning darker than it should have been. Her plan had been to head out to South Province Area 4 and go on a Pokemon catching spree, but immediately she knew the marshy area would be even worse than usual with all this hard rain and it was just going to be a miserable time.

So instead, it was time to create a plan B.

Violetta sat up, stretched and looked over to see her partner Pokemon Sprigatito (Spriggy for short) still curled up asleep in her bed, which just so happened to be shaped like a pizza. She knew that wouldn’t be the case for much longer, though, so she hopped out of bed and immediately saw to filling Spriggy’s bowl with kibble. The sound of the kibble woke her up and she ambled over to get her breakfast, her Everstone clinking on her collar as she walked. She meowed approvingly and began to eat.

“As for me,” Violetta said aloud, her accent giving away her Wyndonian heritage. “Breakfast here, or at the dining hall?” She took a quick inventory of what was available in her cabinets and found a box of Choco-Pokeball cereal, her absolute favorite. “Right, that’s the way!” And so she poured herself a big bowl of it, added some Moomoo Milk from her fridge, then sat at her desk and opened her laptop to browse the internet while she ate.

A quick check of the weather confirmed that this rain would be falling all day. Violetta had already attended all of her required class sessions for the week, so she didn’t have that as a backup plan. No new messages had popped up in her Uva Academy email account overnight and her direct messages inbox was empty on the Uva Grapes social media site. The weather was too dreadful for her to want to visit her mum’s restaurant in Los Platos. She really and truly had no plans.

What to do?!

She got cleaned up and got dressed in casual clothes (not needing to go to class meant no need for uniforms), recalled Spriggy to her Pokeball, made sure she had her purse and left her room.

Having arrived in Paldea at the start of this school year after moving to the region with her mum, Violetta found herself in a surprising new role at Uva Academy. She was popular. All the other kids seemed to be interested in her. The combination of Galarian accent, battling Team Star on her first day, her unusual Cyclizar-like Pokemon with a color that matched her hair and her willingness to give anything a go had endeared her to the population. It was very much the opposite of her experience back in Galar, where she purposefully distanced herself from everyone because her father kept her up to her eyeballs helping to run the bed and breakfast. It was different - and it was nice.

She said hi to everyone she saw as she made her way, using only internal hallways and corridors so as to stay dry, into the library. Her father hadn’t allowed her to have a Pokemon, so she felt she was lagging behind other students in terms of her Pokemon knowledge. Thankfully the library had tomes upon tomes to help her get up to speed. She spent some time quietly reading up on her type advantages - some of them made sense to her, but she really struggled to master others - and then felt her phone vibrate.

It was her best mate Nemona! 

“What’s up today?” read her text message. 

“Literally nothing. Not going anywhere in this rain!” Violetta answered.

“I hear that,” Nemona answered. “Me neither. Classes?”

“Finished them for the week.”

“Same. Nowhere indoors to battle safely either :( Ugh this sucks.” That was a relatively down note for the eternally chipper Nemona, thought Violetta. “Where you at?”

“Library. Reading up on type advantages. I just can’t make heads or tails of Poison type!”

“Just try to remember that the ground safely absorbs poison and that a psychic can see the poison coming and avoid it!” Oh, that’s actually quite a good mnemonic. No wonder she’s a Champion, thought Violetta. “Let’s get some churros at the dining hall.” Well, go on then!

The two girls sat side-by-side, facing outward, all the better to people-watch as they dunked their freshly-made churros into luscious chocolate sauce. Nemona was chatting away about how she battled a third year after class yesterday and totally schooled him, he had no idea what he was up against, he was so mismatched, he…

Then suddenly Violetta felt like she could barely hear Nemona despite her literally being right there. A certain someone walked into the dining hall and time seemed to slow down entirely, like in a movie. Everything else faded away for a moment. He even has his hair up in a Ponytatail, thought Violetta as she felt herself get warmer and felt her heart start to beat faster and faster. I love when he has his hair in a Ponytatail.

Arven made a Beedrill-line straight for the counter. Violetta couldn’t hear whatever he was ordering over the sound of her own heartbeat in her ears. She absentmindedly continued to dunk the same churro in her chocolate sauce over and over again - it was rapidly becoming a mushy mess - he looked so good saying thank you to the staff members and then receiving his tray of food, she couldn’t stop staring, his arms looked so strong holding that tray, did he work out or something, wait hold on, hold on, is he…

“Little buddy!” he said brightly, smiling from ear to ear as he noticed Violetta sitting there. Overly excited, she waved…the hand that had been dipping that churro so thoroughly, flinging chocolate sauce all over.

“Oye!! Stop that!!” Nemona protested, flailing her arms about, scrambling to grab a napkin.

“Oh no!! Sorry!!” Violetta said with an embarrassed gasp, letting go of the churro so it would plop onto her tray before realizing she’d splattered chocolate sauce all over her shirt. Now she felt mortified, so much so that she just wanted to shrink into her chair. Arven probably thinks I’m mad, or an idiot, or both.

But instead, he just kept smiling, set down his tray containing a mug of Tapu Cocoa topped with pink marshmallows that had Ditto faces on them and put his oversize backpack onto the chair in front of his tray. Unzipping one of its many, many pockets, he retrieved a towel and offered it to Violetta.

“Here,” he said, his voice as warm as that Tapu Cocoa must be. “It’s OK. Happens to us all sometimes.” 

Her hand trembling, Violetta took the towel and somehow managed to thank him before she attempted to tidy up her shirt. She was able to mop up some of the damage, but she still knew she’d have to go back to her room, change shirts and pop over to the laundry room. Guess that’s my plan for the afternoon then, she thought. Wait, this towel’s going to need washing up as well, won’t it…

“Looking better already,” he said, his voice still as warm as the sun. Even though Violetta still felt quite mortified, his voice did seem to comfort her a bit. 

“Ay, I’ll need to wash this shirt,” Nemona mumbled under her breath. 

“Th-thanks again,” Violetta mumbled. She could feel that her ears were warmer than usual, and she suspected she was blushing as well. “Erm, do you want this back?” she asked, gesturing to the dirtied towel. 

Arven chuckled a little bit. “Nah, all good. Keep it, little buddy.”

Little buddy…I kind of hate when he calls me that, but I also kind of love when he calls me that. Is that weird? That’s weird, isn’t it? Does he think I’m weird? Does he think about me at all? Does he have any idea that I fancy him? Violetta’s thoughts were racing.

Nemona, noticing that Violetta was temporarily on another planet, rolled her eyes and then spoke up louder than normal. “Thanks, Arven! That’s so kind of you! You’re so thoughtful!” She was intentionally laying it on thick. “Isn’t he so kind and thoughtful, Vi?”

“What? Huh? Yeah!! Er, yeah! Really…” Violetta turned red from ear to ear. “Really kind and really thoughtful.” She could hardly bear to look directly at him, the feelings were just so intense. “Really…thanks…” 

Arven smiled again. “Of course! Any time.” He then made to pick up his tray again. Oh no, is he leaving?! I’ve driven him off, Violetta lamented. But then he stopped. “Hey, little buddy, do you have any plans for tomorrow?” Her heart leapt in her chest. “I could just use your help with something if you’re not busy.” 

Violetta knew that was his attempt to remain subtle and not broadcast his Herba Mystica quest out loud to everyone in earshot. They’d already been on one outing before, so she was already familiar with this mission.

But Nemona, not knowing any of this backstory, saw it totally differently.

“Oye!!! Arven! Are you asking Violetta out on a DATE?!” she said at full volume. Violetta thought she was going to fall right out of her chair in shock! “Tomorrow is FRIDAY! That’s perfect for a DATE!” Then she grinned as she beheld Violetta and Arven, both as red as Tamato Berries, rendered fully unable to react for what seemed like an eternity.

Until…

“Er,” Violetta said quietly, her mouth dry. “I…would…I would like that.”

Arven looked surprised. “You would?” Violetta just nodded. “Well then…” Now he looked resolute. “Let’s go into town tomorrow night.”

Violetta was thrilled. All of a sudden, this boring rainy day had turned extremely interesting!

[xoxovalerie-c]

Blog Post Week 2: Due 9/6

How can modern social media platforms better amplify diverse voices to foster a more inclusive environment? 

What strategies can be employed to ensure that stories are being given a fair representation?

Social media has a long and evolving history, continuously shaping and impacting society in numerous ways. In the book, News for all the people: The story of race and the American media, by Joseph Torres and Juan Gonzalez. Discussed how racial segregation has been a prominent topic in media coverage. Writers would publish their works with the intent of reaching a targeted audience. For instance, if the general population was white people, stories portraying non-whites as dangerous were often propagated to justify and enforce new government policies. It’s important to note that the spread of such news often led to changes that were designed only to protect one specific racial group. Minority groups were marginalized, so they decided to take action by starting their own small newsletter businesses to speak out about the issues they were facing. This made a significant impact, as people from other groups began reading these newsletters for alternative perspectives. Today, this is one of the reasons so many newsletters exist. In the industry, professionals are taught the importance of telling stories that resonate nationwide, as it helps bring greater attention to important issues. In the hope of creating an inclusive environment on social media.

How does the concept of critique of domination and exploitation described by Fuchs manifest in the business practices?

Critical thinking has been essential for social media because it helps users spot fake information and avoid being misled. It also allows for social users to understand how recycled information works because media ownership is a huge thing. Once users see information in numerous sites they confirm the information as factual. It enables people to have a more meaningful and respectful discussion by questioning and considering different viewpoints. In the article, Social Media a critical introduction, by Christian Fuchs, mentions the different roles that critical thinking sets up for media. One dimension of critical thinking theory is critique of domination and exploitation. Domination means that one group benefits at the expense of others and has the means of violence at hand that they can use for upholding the situation where the one benefits at the expense of others. Exploitation is a specific form of domination, in which one group controls property and has the means to force others to work so that they produce goods or property that they do not own themselves, but they owning class controls (Fuchs, 2014). I think Instagram is a clear example of this theory in action. It offers a variety of features similar to those found on  other platforms—such as stories like Snapchat, videos like YouTube, and short clips called Reels like Tik Tok. However, it can be likely that Instagram can collect users data and sella it for targeted advertising. Users may not even realize their content is being used for marketing purposes and do not receive compensation for it.

How can increasing awareness of domination and exploitation help users today?

Today it affects the world as many of us are users of many different platforms. It can help us be more informed on how our privacy is being invaded or how we are choosing to put it out there. Overall, this awareness helps us navigate the digital landscape more responsibly and advocate for better practices in social media and digital content creation.

Gonzalez, J., & Torres, J. (2021). News for all the people. Power and Inequality, 223–231. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315201511-28

Fuchs, C. (2014). Social Media: A Critical Introduction. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446270066

[triangle-dog]

Rally Novice Classes 4-9 Abridged

I take notes for myself, but posting them forces me to actually review the notes, so uh here have a catch up post that covers like a month & a half in the hopes that I'll participate more in my own hobbies 😅

Class #4 I figured out the lagging problem from last class: I don't know what I'm doing. Normally we're heeling to go somewhere, but the fact that I'm not sure I'll be able to translate a tangle of arrows on a sign into a meaningful action is making me hesitate a bit - which is making her hesitate more. If I set off with intention (fake it) then she's golden. Two take-aways: 1. I need to memorize the signs (spoiler: I still haven't done this) 2. I should add 'confusion' to my proofing list

Class #5 Not being lost worked. I had been skipping walking the course for Nova's comfort (she's a little uncomfortable with strangers holding her leash), but I did it this time and there was such an improvement in both of our performances. Had a different instructor this time and they said we were doing excellent for a novice team.

Class #6 Instructor #2 again, we got for reals compliments, like not just a 'you two did a great job on that course!' but a full 'that would have qualified,' 'she's well trained,' 'you two work well together,' 'she's got a good temperament,' etc. chat that I am sure is going to be one of my most treasured dog training interactions <3 Also, because of F, I got to bond with the other class members (mostly senior women) about heart problems and one of them told me about going to Nationals with her girlfriend

Class #7 Back to instructor #1. The building was so noisy and hectic today, but Nova looked great. Me having a reasonable idea about what I'm doing really makes a huge difference for us. Did a good job with my nemesis, signs #119/#120 (Right/Left Turn - Dog Circles Right - Forward), which I have not practiced at all outside of class because I keep forgetting to review my notes and train. Only error was sitting on the Stop & Down (#27) because I hesitated while trying to figure out if it meant "stop and down" or 'stop [pause] down.'

Class #8 Not to say that my leash handling needs work, but the instructor had me do a course without a leash and we did great with the circles (#119/#120) 😂

Class #9 Her sits were askew and ahead, but honestly I'm pretty sure that's on me being so sick and my cues/gestures being off. This is the class where I wasn't sure if I'd make it through without an inhaler, so obviously it wasn't our best work and I was not expecting it to be either. Raise one criteria, lower the others. (An air purifier fucked me up - I still mask, I'm not out there spreading disease to the senior dog person population). Another item for the proofing list: train more when sick (y'know, as possible).

TL;DR: these classes are obviously for me, my dog already knows what she's doing (and she's doing great)

[hellenic-whore]

Had to draw a thing about organ transplants and trafficking. Took some notes about it too cause why not.

Did this partially because of the meat garden episode from the Magnus archives.

It was mostly about the middle east as it was for my middle eastern literature class, so yeah.

Notes and some interesting quotes are down below. The main source I used was "The Red Market:On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers" by Scott Carney.

If you want to read it yourself it's a pretty good book, you should be able to find a PDF of it pretty easily!

_____________________________________________________________

•Organ donors oftentimes are impoverished and sell their organs commercially to make money to feed themselves, afford rent etc.

•A migrant put the issue this way "If you cannot find work when you get to Egypt, you will not find mercy. This is why people sell their kidneys."

•In Egypt, an organ seller will receive 2000$ while a buyer will pay 2000$.

•Refugees are especially vulnerable to organ trafficking because of a lack of legal protection.

•People in underdeveloped countries often view their organs in the same way one might view social security or unemployment benefits- as a safety net.

•One woman who was, in essence, scammed out of her kidney, alleged a police complaint about the fraud. When the police attempted to arrest the broker for organ trading, the police also tried to arrest the donor for selling her kidney. The broker was let off with a warning.

• "Flesh... Moves up the social hierarchy, not down" (Carney 53)

•"In America, it is taboo to suggest US transplant centers are in the business of buying and selling organs. They're here to save lives." (Carney 56)

Stylized gore warning for all of you that are new to here.

Sources and the picture are under the cut.

Here are my sources in big fancy mla format cause why not

___________________________________________________________

Carney, Scott. The Red Market: On the Trail of the World’s Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers. William Morrow, 2022.

“Human Trafficking and Trauma in the Digital Era.” Google Books, Google, books.google.com/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=2PtWEAAAQBAJ&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PA159&amp;dq=organ%2Btrafficking%2Brefugee&amp;ots=D-PcbX-U0k&amp;sig=2Fv19I115KGwnpgjAHCaq_LAIO4#v=onepage&amp;q=organ%20trafficking%20refugee&amp;f=false. Accessed 13 Dec. 2023.

Lesniewski, Matthew James. “Monitoring Human Trafficking in Displaced Populations.” eTD Explore, 1 Jan. 1970, etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/21347.

“Organ Trafficking in Egypt: ’they Locked Me in and Took My Kidney.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 9 Feb. 2019, www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/feb/09/trafficking-people-smugglers-organs-egypt-mediterranean-refugees-migrants.

Osmandzikovic, Emina. “How Conflicts Turned the Middle East into an Organ-Trafficking Hotspot.” Arab News, 10 July 2020, www.arabnews.com/node/1701871/middle-east#:~:text=The%20protracted%20conflict%20in%20Syria,the%20region’s%20red%20market%20hotspots.

[dzthenerd490]

File: Goosebumps - Let's Get Invisible

SCP#: AFV

Code Name: The Doppelganger Mirror

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-AFV has been placed in one of the storage areas of Site-AA. It is locked within a steel container sealed by a 6-digit pass code, the typical AFA-1 and AFA-2 units that guard the area are entrusted to ensure that SCP-AFV remains in place. They are also to act as a last defense in the case of a containment breach or on the off chance an SCP-AFV-Copy instance shows up. Any testing with SCP-AFV must be approved by at least two Level 3 Foundation staff members or higher, testing must always be done with D Class never with Foundation staff. Any Foundation staff that are either forced or willingly participate with SCP-AFV's anomalous effects, they are to be removed within 9 minutes otherwise considered KIA, there are no exceptions. 

Description: SCP-AFV is a mirror with a lamp shade attached to the top that can be turned on or off with a pull chain. The mirror stands 6 feet tall and 1.5 feet wide allowing any human to stand fully in front and see their entire reflection. SCP-AFV seems to be standard for showmen but has no branding or label of any kind anywhere not even on the lamp or pull chain. 

Alone SCP-AFV is not anomalous but when someone stands in front of mirror and pulls on the chain, a large flash will occur, and they will be turned invisible. Nothing else anomalous will happen they will simply remain invisible on all spectrums of light being only able to be perceived through thermal vision, audio, and movement sensors. To reverse this effect the chain pull must simply be pulled again to allow them to turn back to normal. It should be noted that that its always better if the person themselves is the one to pull the chain. 

Other than invisibility, nothing will happen for the first 9 minutes however after ten minutes their voice will become distorted, and they will begin to feel weaker. At this point if someone pulls the chain to reverse the effect it will take longer for the subject to become visible again. Testing has shown that to be invisible for any longer than this is not hazardous but leads to an even worse effect. 

When someone is invisible by SCP-AFV's effects for 15 minutes or longer they will become imprisoned by the mirror without realizing it. At this point should the person or someone else pull the chain to reverse the effect the person will become visible instantly. However, this person who becomes visible is not the original, they are now an SCP-AFV-Copy. SCP-AFV-Copy are the "reflection" of a person being completely reverse to their self in appearance and personality. 

They will attempt to blend in the best they can while secretly trying to implement their true plan. The sole desire of all SCP-AFV-Copy instances is to increase their population, to do so they must capture people and make them become invisible. If an SCP-AFV-Copy successfully gets someone in front of the mirror and pulls the chain, they will naturally become invisible but if they pull it again a brand-new SCP-AFV-Copy of that person will show up. The only way to stop the SCP-AFV-Copy instances is to kill them which is easy since they are as fragile as humans. However, the best way to get rid of them is to destroy the mirror while they are close which will not only kill them but bring their originals back. 

However, it should be noted this is nearly impossible to destroy SCP-AFV permanently as it will always repair itself after destruction. It is believed that this is because there are other SCP-AFV-Copy instances out there form past victims who couldn't get out.  Unfortunately, the Foundation has no way of finding these victims or identifying the on the loose SCP-AFV-Copy instances. Even more unfortunate, a single SCP-AFV-Copy tried to infiltrate the base once but was killed instantly. When the body was dragged to a testing chamber with SCP-AFV to begin the breaking procedure to free the original, it worked but the original ended up receiving the same wounds and thus died upon returning. As such all past victims of SCP-AFV that have been or will be identified are to be labeled as KIA.

SPC-AFV was discovered in 1993 when reports of a family going insane and attacking one another within the [data expunged] house at [data expunged]. The same area where people report people moving in but later moving out completely different. As such the Foundation sent agents to investigate and found that the entire family was transformed into SCP-AFV-Copy instances, but they didn't know at the time so unfortunately killed the family before they could be rescued. They also only discovered SCP-AFV entirely by accident, yet another embarrassing failure of the Foundation. The cover story was that there was a gas leak in the house that degraded the mind leading to all the alterations. 

Even after extensive testing the origin to SCP-AFV is still unknown, thankfully it has been concluded that despite its "reversed nature." It has no connection to SCP-AVM.

.

SCP: Horror Movie Files Hub