#sometimes people stick to access rules! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kokii-omii · 7 days ago

Text

im gonna yap about my twst ocs being not so great people cuz none of these boys are angels

(except for krohn)

I'm gonna start in order of the books so that means Maddex is first

(its gonna be long)

aside from his normal silliness and overall crazy guy persona, Maddie is a selfish guy who does things for the sake of his own entertainment

He refused to help Adeuce go against Riddle when he himself has as much involvement with Riddle as Trey because he's also one of Riddle's childhood friends

but he doesn't help not because he's trying to excuse riddle for his actions, but because Riddle's actions don't involve him

Maddex turns a blind eye to Riddle's tyranny BECAUSE it doesn't affect him directly, he knows all the heartslabyul rules, he bends them but never breaks, so he considers himself an exception

He never gets involved in situations where he's not a part of , because why would he do that when it would risk him getting his head chopped off,

It's not his problem so he's not inclined to help even when it's literally the whole dorm's issue + his own childhood friend going mad

he only actually helped when Che'nya and Trey pointed out that it actually IS his problem , and he actually has to get involved

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

We're skipping Krohn cuz the boy literally has no evil or mean or malicious bone in his body

he's literally a ball of sunshine and rainbows and his only flaw is that he's really stupid 😭

and maybe the fact that he's blindly loyal

but i love him so he's fine

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

now Viridis has a LOT of issues and flaws and is over all not the greatest guy

he'd hate to be compared to Azul but he's just like him, he's Snide, Conniving, and overall Insecure

he pretends to be your friend just so you could do his dirty work for him, he tries to gain your trust but when he finally gets what he wants he would drop you the second you're no longer needed

he schemed against Azul and aided Leona into getting his brother's contract just for the sake of getting to see the helpless look on Azul's face

and in the process tried to overtake Mostro Lounge for his own personal gain

he failed but it still doesn't change the fact that he tried to do so

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

Theres not much to say on Leo because honestly there's nothing to hide

He's pretty Rude, Brash and overall Violent

He sticks around Viri cuz at first he thought being friends with the rich boy up top would do him some good

and later on when Viri got his UM he found that'd be extremely useful for him too

he's not one to shy away from saying something incredibly insensitive doesn't even think twice to say it

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

The Manta Twins are equally terrible honestly

they're both actually planning Viri's downfall while being his butlers

they laugh at the misery of others and are sometimes the reason for it

They don't actually even respect Viri despite him being their "young master"

Reese doesn't talk much so he's more of a man of action, so that means he's the one that's usually doing the dirty work and he absolutely loves making people miserable

Alfred is always buttering up Viri in order to gain his trust which means he gets access to his UM and get whatever he desires if he just asks his young master

and Viri himself knows this and is fully aware of what the Twins goals are but keeps them anyway just so he can get some use out of them

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

Now for Ezmond where do i even start??

while Krohn literally has no issues and is overall sunny and nice

Ezmond is the opposite

He's demanding, he's temperamental, he's constantly plotting the downfall of anyone who opposes himhe always asks so much of Krohn and yells when he doesn't get what he wants

he makes those around him try to fit into his high standards and think they're beneath him when they dont meet the cut

his attitude is that of a brat, constantly whining and complaining about things because he didn't get a specific thing he wanted

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

While i make Pan out to be the sweet boy that he is

The lad is literally Two Faced, like thats his whole thing

he's constantly changing faces to fit what others need and rarely ever shows how he really acts around others

he loves his brother he really does but deep down inside he's jealous that he never got into RSA, so much so that he just gave up something he was passionate about cuz he hated losing to argos

despite being literally the heir to his father's company, he still hated that he lost to his brother and didn't even come home for winter break for two years cuz he was just that petty

Pan hates being in second place because he thinks it doesn't seem fit for the first son of the Nikos family

Which is ironic because he's ignihyde's VICE housewarden

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

Peyn is the same as Leo honestly

there's not much to say because he displays his terrible and mean self fully without ever hiding anything

he doesn't really care about people's feelings or opinions

he's constantly yelling and angry for seemingly no reason and is overall just rude

and he doesn't even have any issues at home 😭 he's got a loving family so he's really just an asshole for no reason at all

the only people he respects are Pan and Idia (tho the respect for idia is debatable cuz he sometimes roasts him but then again they are friends)

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

and then there's Lucien

while he's probably the most well put together compared to the rest of them, cuz he has a thing called manners

he sometimes secretly sabotages Sebek and Silver in their duties to serve Malleus because as Malleus' retainer he wants to be the one Malleus relies on

and also because he has a bit of disdain towards humans, and while sebek is half fae, he's also half human

so he's kind of a bit passive aggressive and more cold towards the two, he listens to Lilia and Malleus tho

he's petty and competitive and was there to also fan the flames with Lilia during Leona's overblot in the savanaclaw dorm

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

and what did we learn? they're all terrible and petty

#a lot of yap #but they do learn from their respective books and get slightly nicer #twst oc #twisted wonderland oc #twst #twisted wonderland #oc #twst wonderland

183 notes · View notes

suibiansubs · 1 year ago

Text

Announcing: The Closure of Suibian Subs

It's never truly easy to make these type of announcements... but what would I know, I've never had to make one like this before:

I am announcing the permanent closure of Suibian Subs. The public discord server and translation work will cease.

As for our downloads, we are still deciding whether to offer them on our tumblr - which will stay open - or if there is a better solution going forward.

Please note that this doesn't mean everyone should race to upload MDZS audio drama to Youtube!! We still do not appreciate our wishes being broken.

However, if you have a friend who's downloaded the audio drama, you can have them share with you privately either online or in person. Do not upload it for the public anywhere.

Treasure Chest subs is currently working on MDZS audio drama subs. Please find their information to get access to their downloads, and respect their rules.

Thank you everyone for your kind words and support these 6-7 years.

If you're truly wondering, this closing is not about the server hack. It's 10% server hack and 90% member interest. The server being hacked is what really brought things into perspective for us. That is:

It's just time.

A little note from kittykat2010 down below:

From kittykat2010:

It's kind of hard to believe this all happened because I was impatient. LOL

I was impatient and decided to try MTL translating the MDZS audio drama, myself. We all know how well that would've worked. Luckily, the first person to contact me was iarrod before I released anything

"Since 2018, Suibian Subs has been providing quality subtitles, especially known for subtitling the MDZS audio drama, for fans to enjoy worldwide."

I never really thought it would be of such significance to hundreds of people. It was simply a passion project between iarrod and I. Then we added a bunch of other members: Gwyn, askcj1, Yen, and several more that have left over the years... and the rest is history.

Yes, people come and go, life changes, they need to take a break, then a "break" turns into leaving. Sometimes personalities clash and drama ensues. And the group either recovers from these types of changes or struggles to come back to its full glory.

I will certainly miss the camaraderie among us, the random chats, the streams, etc. It was all a fun time in my life that I will look back on and cherish.

Thank you especially to all of the team members, translators and subbing team, for sticking around, enjoying the good times and not-so-good times. Thank you iarrod for helping me out when I was so damn impatient - ha!.

Thank you to those members who have left for your work and dedication to the server.

Thank you fans!!!

Those who have donated (when we had donations for the MDZS audio drama team), those who have thanked us for our work, and those who haven't. Those who have told everyone that the MDZS audio drama is the best adaption of the novel and the best/only place to watch is through Suibian Subs.

Again, thank you everyone. Suibian Subs and its fans will truly be missed.

#suibiansubs #suibian subs #suibian subs closing

660 notes · View notes

in-sufficientdata · 10 months ago

Text

ID: Bluesky post by Ro Salarian (@RoSalarian.bsky.social):

I often wonder if abusive people are drawn to the arts, or if a certain amount of notoriety just makes people turn to shit. I am involved in a lot of different art scenes, and every single one has a whisper network about some big names who nobody feels they can address directly.

Kelly Barnhill (@KellyBarnhill.bsky.social) quotes this on July 10, 2024 at 6:47pm EST and responds:

Sexual predation is clearly not limited to the arts, and so-called "whisper networks" exist in every profession. And ultimately these networks always, always fail. They don't reach the most vulnerable and they don't ever remove the offender or prevent future harm. end ID.

At the source, the thread continues:

When I was growing up, I had a friend whose house had a bad stair - a nail sticking up on one side, and on the other side if you stepped wrong, the whole tread could flip up and send you flying backwards. We had to be told to avoid that stair. It was dangerous. We couldn't forget.

The trouble was, it looked like every other stair. Sometimes we did get hurt. This went on for years. Finally, one of the other parents in the neighborhood was like THE CHILDREN ARE GETTING INJURED and the whole "rule" of avoidance, of letting people know, was thrown out. They fixed the stair.

Now, this was dumb, of course. Who just has a stair that looks like every other stair but is boobytrapped in this bonkers way? Well, lots of people, as it turned out. And this wasn't so bad, as injuries go - a skinned knee or the occasional puncture wound.

Imagine if they had a stair that was, say, secretly filled with bees. Or poisoned. Or a one-way portal to one of the various realms of Hell. And it was there, like any other stair, looking benign. Maybe it was even fancied up - attracted the eye and tickled the fancy. A rock star stair. Well.

It's problematic, is my point. Leaving a danger in plain view is problematic. Simply relying on a network of people warning people and washing our hands of the whole affair is problematic. And worse, it abdicates responsibility. This is not how grown-ups should behave.

Part of the problem stems from the Myth of Male Genius - organizations twist themselves in knots to protect their access to whatever Male Genius they've tied their careers to, be they philosophers or physicists, conductors or or inventors, teachers or hotshot attorneys. We've all experienced this.

And while it's [notallmen] or [notonlymen] or whatever tagline you want to throw at me - yes, I know, and yes, I agree, and yes I'm certain that toxic and predatory women exist and have also harmed but I honestly can't think of any at the moment - it all stems from a central problematic fallacy:

Here's a toxic fallacy that I'd like to see dismantled: that genius is rare. That it must be protected at all costs. That it must be allowed to misbehave because the misbehavior is tied to genius in some fundamental way that none of us can understand because we are not geniuses. WRONG.

For every "rockstar author" or "rockstar artist" or "rockstar scientist" or "rockstar academic" there are a thousand others who are just as talented, just as transformative, just as consequential. And by ascribing godlike abilities to those who are more ordinary than we'd like to admit, we allow the person on that pedestal to become unglued from consequence and unhooked from the ties that are supposed to bind us to one another. This is a moral injury and an injury of empathy as well. So it's bad for the "rockstar". And holy hell is it bad for every person they injure. And worse, what about the "genius" of the victims? What about the dreams deferred and the paths upended because the world they've entered has decided to make itself unacceptably dangerous, unacceptably callous. A busted stair in the middle of the ascent in some young woman's career, left for no reason.

Here's what I know: genius isn't godlike or magical or even that rare. Genius is cultivated, nurtured, supported, delighted in. It happens in the context of a myriad of tiny boosts, too numerous to count and too subtle to name. It is as common as breath, and just as precious.

The reason why predatory men are lauded, protected, demurred to, is because we've told a story to ourselves that their genius is special, and have allowed ourselves to believe that the only way to become special ourselves is to bathe in its light, regardless of consequence.

Let's be done with that story. Cultivate more lights. Be the light.

And also? Let's fix that fucking stair, shall we?

#I love this thread #be the light #neil gaiman

358 notes · View notes

shegatsby · 1 year ago

Text

Love Thy Enemy

Summary; Y/N Atreides had always been a stranger to the entire galaxy, her bed wasn’t her bed, her home wasn’t her home due to the fact that she was sent to accompany and be sisters with Irulan. She had limited access to her actual family and over the years they grew distant. She thought she would be like Reverend Mother, alone, yet powerful, and soon she would realize that there was no need of being alone when a wild creature had his eyes on her for a long time.

A/n; How i missed yu guys! Finally im free from family issues and i can continue this series. I hope you enjoy it. SMUT in the future chapters, i promise, don't forget to share your thoughts with me. xxx

TAG LIST IS OPEN! (let me know if i forgot to tag you)

Warnings; Baron being a weirdo.

Words; 3.584K

Chapter Five ''A Delicious Meal''

Feyd-Rautha Harkonenn didn’t know what to do, she was in his arms.. at least one of his long time wishes came true but he would’ve preferred a better scenario, he carried her to his king sized bed, covered in black silk, as soon as he laid her gently he called for his most trusted doctor. The man was tiny and bald, his eyes were jet black and had no whites, he had been serving Harkonnens for years. Feyd was standing a step away, watching carefully, he watched the doctor examine Y/N, Feyd’s eyes never leaving her body and to see if the doctor ever dared to touch her inappropriately. ‘’Due to change of climate and stress Lady Y/N’s body lost significant amount of vitamins, it is most likely she has been skipping meals. I’m going to give her some pills to boost her energy, she must also finish her meals.’’ He placed a container of pills on the side table and bowed to leave, when the family doctor left Feyd found himself pulling a chair to observe Y/N sleep. Their fight in his twisted mind, the thought he had was he was right till she fainted into his arms. Maybe she was… No.

He dismissed these strange thoughts. She was in his domain an she had to follow his rules and obey. ‘’Little dove..’’ he caressed her long Y/H/C hair, he had always been enamored by her lush hair, so beautiful and vivid. Whenever he got a chance of seeing her he would observe her hair and how it bounced and rippled like the waves of Caladan, her home.. not anymore. As children, Feyd, Y/N, Irulan and sometimes Paul were left alone when adults were talking business, their nannies would be present of course but they were free to play together. Feyd-Rautha would chase her, pull her hair to annoy her. He loved to get reactions out of her whilst they grew up their interactions got limited. They had to be present at certain meetings such as balls, ceremonies etc.

His mind wandered to a distant memory…

At his 16th birthday it was Feyd’s first time at the arena, it was a Harkonnen tradition, so the important houses were invited. He had been training for years and it was his time to shine, bring fame and glory to his family and also prove a ‘’certain someone’’ that he had become a man, someone she could notice finally. When he entered the arena his animalistic lust for blood made his body electric, the black sun was at the top, making the arena look like a glowing white desert. He had his black uniform and combat boots which made him look much taller, he could hear the crowd’s cheer, they were ordered to cheer for him but still, he bathed in it.

He greeted the houses who were seated at the private chambers, he could see her

Time to impress.

He didn’t forget to activate his shield and the games began, prisoners were released from the doors to the arena, they were injected sedatives to make sure Feyd would be safe. He was there to butcher.

With every kill the white sand got covered in blood and stick to his boots, with every kill he was cheered, celebrated. At the end of the duel he was dipped in his enemies’ blood head to toe. He bowed and let the fame wash him away in ecstasy. He gained the popularity of his people and the houses that came to watch him. He was sure he was going to get marriage deals one after the other. When he lifted his head, he noticed that her seat was empty, she was gone. Why? Before the feast he was determined to find her and confront her.

He bathed very quickly, got dressed and left his chambers. He asked guards of her guest chambers and got no answers, he tried her maids and again, no answer. He was irritated, where could she be?

‘’My Lord, you’re asked by Reverend Mother.’’ A servant came to inform him, he had to put this pursuit aside for a while.

Reverend Mother was in her chambers, she travelled here with Emperor’s politicians. She was standing, her long black dress sweeping the clean floor. Her face was covered in laced veil, she waited for servants to leave them alone. ‘’Activate silence.’’ She ordered and a shield surrounded them, no one could hear them, ‘’You have fought well.’’ She began, ‘’Our order puts faith in you, young Harkonnen.’’ He didn’t interrupt her, unlike Rabban, he had wits about him. ‘’You would be a worthy match for one of our sisters We are watching you and her closely. You may be dismissed.’’ He left.

He had a feeling that sister is someone he had his eyes on her since they were children. With a smirk he roamed the halls of his fortress of black and white. He had an idea, his legs moved towards the chapel, almost no one prayed or believed in something other than violence on this planet.

The room was silent, there she was on her knees praying. Her long violet dress bunched up on her knees, he watched her pray. It made him curios, what was she praying for? He wanted to give her a reason to be on her knees but he kept his eccentric ideas to himself and keep his wide awake manhood in check. Ever since venom of being a teenager entered his body he had fun having these thoughts of her, of course he had his concubines to warm his bed and yet they weren’t enough, he had a thirst only she could quench.

Y/N rose to her feet as she finished praying, he cleared his throat to get her reaction, she turned to face him. He was standing tall, hands clasped behind his back, ‘’I have noticed your absence at my coming of age celebration Lady Y/N.’’ he began, his snake like eyes trapped her in, ‘’Is something to matter?’’ he was genuinely wondering. Her gaze was distant, he could see the work of Bene Gesserit on her, ‘’Maybe I didn’t want to see prisoners getting killed.’’ She replied coldly, ‘’But you promised to-‘’ she cut him short, ‘’I have seen eough. Good day, Na-Baron.’’ And she left the chapel, leaving him in shock… no one dared to stood up to him before and there she was with her lioness fire.

Y/N was gaining consciousness, opening her eyes slowly, the room was too quiet, her eyes travelled in the room to see him sitting on a chair, in reverse position and watching her, his hands resting on the back of the chair loosely, she was in his bed chambers. ‘’What happened?’’ she moved to rest her back on the headboard, pulling her legs towards her, ‘’Change of climate, stress and skipping meals.. you will be under surveillance. I’ve ordered your maids to bring your belongings here, you’re going to stay with me from now on.” She could feel the heat on her face, ‘’But Harkonnen traditions say that-‘’ Feyd bolted to his feet, ‘’To hell with the traditions, your health comes first,’’ when he noticed the questioning look from her, he added ‘’you are to birth my heirs. End of discussion.’’ With the mention of heirs her blood ran cold in her veins, she had been specifically avoiding the concept ever since her fate was decided for her, it seemed Feyd was the opposite. She wondered if she could leave after birthing his heirs… her heart told her that she was humane enough to stay and care for her offspring, she couldn’t abandon them, unlike Feyd she wasn’t a monster.

Y/N Atreides watched him take his leave, after the door closed she took advantage of being alone in his chambers, his bedroom consisted of a balcony, metal wardrobe, a skin of a bear on the floor, it made her sick. The fire place was empty since it was a warm day, her maids and servants started o carry her belongings one by one, she didn’t mind them and moved to the living room side, the room was more colorful than the bedroom, by color; black, white, dark blue and grey here and there. A long table which was made of Giedi Prime’s famous tree, Pilingitam, placed close to the large window overlooking the city, the tree’s color was lime-green and it gave a strange pop of color to the room. A basket of fresh fruit just placed by a servant girl, she looked shy, her head bowed, not making eye contact ‘’Our Na-Baron has ordered to keep fresh fruit for everyday my Lady Atreides.’’ Y/N could see the blush on the girls pale cheeks, ‘’I understand.’’ She also noticed how other servants’ behavior changed with this knowledge, Y/N deduced that they weren’t used to see their Na-Baron being ‘’thoughtful’’.

She was suspicious of the fruit basket, she picked a green grape and smelled it, it had no unusual smell, she bit the grape and it’s sweet juice immediately filled her mouth, Y/N was stunned, it was delicious, she assumed the fruit is exported from somewhere else hence Giedi Prime wasn’t known for its luscious fruit trees. She sat on the chair, turned to watch the scenery before her on the large window and ate.

‘’My Na-Baron!’’ Feyd-Rautha’s servant ran, out of breath, he was in the training grounds, sharpening his favorite blade, ‘’Lady Y/N settled perfectly and ate the fruit you sent you had sent.’’ He smiled wickedly, sowing teeth, he saw his reflection on the shiny blade which was about to be dipped in blood, he nodded to the servant and dismissed him. He focused on his training all day until his uncle Baron Vladimir Harkonnen marched in through the heavy doors, the doors smacked against the stone walls and made him turn to his uncle. ‘’What is the meaning of this?!’’ his uncle yelled, floating in the air thanks to his high tech machine, ‘’What do you mean uncle?’’ Feyd pretended like he had no idea, they were under the Giedi Prime’s black sun, the heat didn’t compare to the heat of Arrakis yet it was enough to finish his training and together they moved to a private room. ‘’I’ve heard that Atreides girl will be staying with you. Tell me,’’ he pressed to lean in, Feyd had to look up, he hated looking up at him all his life. ‘’Dear nephew, do you care for this girl?’’ he had to be careful, Feyd bought time by cleaning his sweat covered chest, his muscles attracted the Baron’s attention for a second, he had to be careful, if his uncle suspected anything she would be in danger, he loved to torment her and she was his to torment, not someone else’s. His uncle had no tolerance for ‘’caring’’ his only passion was to keep his house’s powerful stance and leave a might legacy behind.

‘’All my life I’ve fulfilled your orders uncle.’’ Feyd began, he throw the towel away, his blue eyes focused on his uncle with distaste and fire, ‘’You and witches of Bene Gesserit told me to marry the Atreides girl and that’s what I intend to do, you ask for heirs to leave our house one day and that is what I shall do.’’ He explained his voice cold and uninterested. ‘’She is only an object to use and cultivate and I, as her husband-to-be, have to keep her physical health at best, her mental health is not my interest.’’ He didn’t break his composure, looking up at his uncle and he bowed to him, to show loyalty. ‘’That’s my boy. You may rise.’’ Baron left him there, pleased.

Feyd sat on the stone bench, his sweat cooling down, he had to be extra careful when it came to his uncle, Baron Vladimir was known for his cunning mind and sinister plans. Feyd had to be able to protect his wife and children in the future and it seemed near… he thought he could manage his uncle’s plans…

Y/N Atreides didn’t do much that day, she was still tired and in shock. She didn’t want to remember his gruesome ‘’gift’’ or their fight, her main problem at the moment was Feyd’s decision of staying together… in his chambers… she found herself pacing in his bedroom, the sun was setting, leaving the landscape of industry in darkness, she could see the lamps in the city were being lit one by one, at a distance ships were landing or taking off, those were the spice ships, all over the galaxy every living being’s destiny was bound to spice… including her. The door was knocked and opened, she turned to face the servant, she assumed it was a servant because Na-Baron had no manners such as knocking on the door. The servant bowed, ‘’Dinner shall be served soon, our Lord Na-Baron is expecting her ladyship to join him.’’ She had no choice but to obey his request. ‘’Tell my maids to come and dress me.’’ Her plan was to be silent, eat and go to sleep… somewhere except his bed.

Her personal maids dressed her in black, they said she had to represent her husband-to-be’s house, she despised the color and yet when she looked at herself on the tall mirror, she looked powerful. The dress was long with long sleeves, had a nice cut on her chest, her hair was braided Atreides style, loose and fluffy, her maids left and she approached to the door of the living room.

The fire place was lit, he was standing by the window, his back turned to her, his hands clasped at his back, Y/N literally saw his ears prick up like a hellhound. He turned confidently, his posture straight and he is covered in black clothing just like her, ‘’Finally.’’ He greeted her with a victorious smile, eyes roaming over her body, she felt his blue orbits shooting at her, table was set, candles lit. Did he really made the servants light candles instead of glowglobes? She couldn’t ignore how the candles changed the mood in the room, more serene yet with a touch of expectation of something new.

He moved to the other side of the tale to move her chair for her to sit, without a word she walked and sat, as he was pushing the chair back to its place she could feel his breath on her neck, burning her, ‘’I have to admit, you look ravishing in that dress.’’ His breath lingered for few more seconds which felt eternity, she kept her silence, eyes forward, he chuckled to himself and moved to the other side of the table and sat. ‘’How is your health?’’ he casually asked, getting ready to eat the meat before him, her eyes moved to the table, she also had rare cooked meat on her plate, when she moved the meat eith her fork she could see the blood under it, it made her sick so she looked up to him, Feyd was waiting for an answer, he noticed her expression change, ‘’I feel much better.’’ She replied, Feyd began to eat like a man starved, ‘’I had my training all day,’’ she didn’t ask but he was explaining anyways, ‘’fighting makes me starve like wolves.’’ It seemed so, she was in utter shock how he can eat that rare meat… Feyd remembered his conversation earlier with his uncle and went silent.

‘’Start eating,’’ he noticed that she still didn’t touch her food, ‘’or,’’ he continued but Y/N cut him off, ‘’Or you will kill another servant to teach me a lesson?’’ she sarcastically said, still traumatized by that incident. His presence made her feel uneasy, he was the reason why she had to leave everything behind and it made her blood boil in despise. Y/N heard Feyd’s chuckle, ‘’Or I will feed you myself.’’ He finished.

A mental image flashed in her mind’s eye, thanks to Bene Gesserit mind work she could imagine more vividly than normal people, in the image Feyd was sitting next to her, very close, abnormally close and feeding her slowly, wiping her lips with his thumb and sucking it, there was a sexual undertone to this image, she pinched her skin to wake up.

‘’No, thank you.’’ Couldn’t help but wonder his idea, she began eating fruit, totally avoiding the bloody meat, her senses were high so she could smell the blood unfortunately, ‘’Is settling in over?’’ Feyd asked, he was leaning on his chair, holding a goblet of red wine, his eyes shining like diamonds under the candle lights, ‘’We are disobeying the traditions. We should unite when we get married. I do not wish to attract unwanted attention than it is.’’ Y/N was being honest, ‘’Unite,’’ he said with a wicked smile, ‘’We can unite right now on this very tableif you please, little dove.’’ He drank his wine watching her startled expression, her slightly opened pretty mouth but she recovered quickly, ‘’I am settling in just fine.’’ She ignored his comment. ‘’I wish to learn the fortress better, so that I won’t have to rely on my maids to take me to places.’’

‘’I can show you around, I am sure you will get used to your new home.’’ He finished his drink and poured another, ‘’This isn’t home.’’ Y/N said under her breath, a sudden sadness washed her body up and down like the waves of Caladan. ‘’Hm?’’ he pretended like he didn’t hear, he wanted her to say it but she surprised him, ‘’Nothing.’’

‘’You don’t like rare cooked meat I take it?’’ he was taking notes of her likes and dislikes, ‘’I like it well cooked.’’ Feyd pressed a button on the table and in seconds a servant man rushed in immediately, ‘’My wife prefers her meat well cooked. If a mistake like this ever happenes again I shall serve her the kitchen staffs’ heads instead.’’ He wasn’t even looking at the servant, he was focused on the dessert he was eating, Y/N apologized quietly to the servant man who was shaking, carrying her plate back to the kitchens to bring what Na-Baron requested.

‘’I am not your wife.’’ Y/N protested in annoyance,

‘’Not yet.’’ He replied and looked to see her intransigent eyes, so fiery it confused Feyd, did he want her to rebel against him and be dominant or did he just wanted to crush her soul to his feet?

The servant brought back her table, ‘’It looks delicious, thank you.’’ She noticed how the servant’s expression change into confusion, Y/N Atreides was slightly impacting them in a good way. The servant them alone.

‘’Do we have to have dinner together every night?’’

‘’Why?’’ he placed his fork on the metal plate, wiping his mouth with a black piece of cloth, ‘’You don’t find me pleasant to look at?’’ he teased, trying to get a reaction out of her, ‘’The table looks more pleasant.’’ She replied coldly, her hands on her lap, sitting tall and immobile, ‘’I have to make sure you finish your plate.’’ He got up from his seat coming to her, ‘’I want strong sons.’’ He added and pulled the chair next to hers. ‘’You forget, I am a Bene Gesserit witch, I choose the gender of the baby.’’ She was watching his movements, what was he doing? He got the fork and knife and cut her meat into cubes, ‘’What are you doing?’’ she looked puzzled, was her mental image becoming true?

‘’Like I have said, I want strong children and a strong mother to take care of them. Now,’’ he got a cube of meat to the fork, ‘’open wide.’’

Y/N could feel the heat rising to her face, ‘’I can eat-‘’

‘’I don’t trust you.’’ He was so forward it caught her off guard, his face held the truth, her Bene Gesserit training was yelling her in her mind, ‘’He doesn’t trust you that you can take care of yourself on your own here..’’

She was trying to find a correct path to manipulate him,

‘’Give in.’’ a voice in her head said,

And she opened wide. ‘’Little dove, see, some things are so easy when you let your guard down.’’ He was close to her, feeding her, the meat was delicious.

‘’Giedi Prime isn’t welcoming to outsiders. His voice was low and she can see he was telling the truth, he got another cube of meat when she swallowed, ‘’Good?’’ he asked as he fed her again, Y/N nodded, she realized how hungry she was, the juice of the meat running down at the corner of her mouth, Feyd wiped it with his thumb and licked it clean. Their eyes never leaving as if it is a contest, in silence she let him feed her.

‘’Good girl.’’ He praised, and watched the effect it had on her. Their eyes refused to part, she didn’t want him to think that she was afraid of him, she wanted to insert her presence to him but his aura was too strong to bare. ‘’What did you mean by Giedi Prime not being welcoming?’’ she noticed he was trying to say something without being obvious, he placed the fork on the plate, leaned back on the chair. ‘’It is easy to make enemies here, one wrong move and you lose. You’re a smart girl, you can figure it out.’’ And he stood up,

‘’Shall we sleep?’’

Tag List; @superchatnoir07 @mamawiggers1980 @landlockedmermaid77 @moonsoulk @crystalskiesandcherrywine @palomavz @beebeechaos @jeong-uwu @tian-monique @avidreader73 @aleemendoza2425-blog @taleah @oneandonlybbygrl @flower-frog @or-was-it-just-a-dream @howibecameabadassbitch @monstresshorn @keanuispunk @lunerose0 @purplepeach333 @torossosebs @austinbutlerslovers @darlingisntit @aoi-targaryen

289 notes · View notes

toxictigertonic · 9 months ago

Text

Glad to see that my mad ramblings are entertaining this corner of the outlast community, I will continue to talk until I've juiced the smooth ball of gum I call a brain of all its flavor. Pspsps Franco fans hiiii tell me what I should draw him doing/wearing pleaaaase.

Today's headcanons are: How are the prime assets when it comes to board/card games?

COYLE

- Do not play games with this man unless you want to have the least fun of your life.

- He has the rule book out on the table as you're playing so he can read them off at any point.

- In fact I know that fucker memorizes game rules and starts fighting people if they don't play by them.

- "WE GOT LAWS AROUND HERE! WE GOT FUCKING LAWS!" "Leland calm down we're playing uno..."

- If he catches someone cheating he's hopping the table, there's a crime in progress and he's about to be SUCH a good cop.

- Play monopoly with him to experience The Thrill of being tased over fake money.

- If you use a +4 on this man in Uno he will scream until you show him your hand to make SURE you're not lying about not having any other cards to use. He'll also pout about you using it in general.

- The sorest loser ever, genuinely. Somehow worse than Franco. And Franco is a baby man with a gun.

- It should be a rule that he's not allowed to play cards with Franco but Phyllis is stubborn and wants them to get along. It never ends well.

- Gets far too giddy playing Mousetrap.

MOTHER GOOSEBERRY

- Forces Leland and Franco into game nights. They can't say no or they'll upset her, thereby upsetting Futterman, thereby risking their lives to The Goose.

- Has a massive collection of card games and board games, take your pick.

- And she knows how to play all of them, mind you. She has the rules memorized as well but doesn't have an electric stick up her ass like somebody we know.

- LOVES Candyland and Parcheesi. The brighter and more colorful the board the more she finds it adorable.

- Futterman eats pieces when Phyllis is losing. Don't turn around he's a hungry little guy.

- He got caught eating pieces once and had to wear the Bag of Shame for multiple game nights afterwards.

- Futterman also is allowed to play the games, somehow always wins in the end. Leland is suspicious of him cheating (but isn't willing to face drill wrath to investigate)

- Have I mentioned that Futterman will call both Franco and Leland awful names when he's losing? Because he does. Has made both of them cry before. Game night had to end early and Phyllis felt very bad.

- Not a sore loser per se, but will ask to play again until she wins. Futterman will stare whoever down until they agree to another round.

- If you don't help her put away the board or cards she's holding a grudge. And if pieces are missing you BETTER help find them, even if it means shaking them out of Futterman's mouth.

FRANCO

- Play silly games, win silly prizes. I'm saying if you try to beat him at cards (and you're not a fellow prime asset or someone whose lap he wants access to) you're getting shot in the foot.

- He's required to turn in Lupara at the beginning of game nights now after he tried to take Coyle's shin off. He only gives Lupara up bc Phyllis asks so nicely (and because he's a simp lol).

- Really good at cards, but still cheats. Mainly to fuck with Coyle. He'll take any opportunity to piss that man off.

- Sometimes wants to play solitaire like an adult, other times he's playing candyland with Phyllis having the time of his life.

- If it's a game with unique pieces you BETTER let him pick his piece first or he's throwing a tantrum.

- If Leland's winning he'll kick him under the table then say he was imagining things. Leland is THIS 👌 close to starting a fight.

- He lets Phyllis win to get on her good side. Doesn't matter the game, he'll let her win. Gets pissy when she wins naturally though.

- He always tries to gamble when they play anything. Coyle does not approve of gambling. Have I mentioned these two want each other dead?

- Phyllis complimented him on being really good at shuffling a deck of cards and he rode that high for weeks.

- Very good at convincing the others that it's his turn if they've lost track of who goes next. Doesn't matter if he just went, he will get to go again.

- Likes to play card matching games by himself when he doesn't wanna think about the game too hard. Phyllis sometimes sits with him and plays too. Futterman calls them both stupid if they fuck up.

I love how much Franco and Leland hate each other I want them to fist fight ❤️. Lock them in a room together and whoever crawls out at the end wins. No weapons just two bald bastards.

#leland coyle #mother gooseberry #dr futterman #phyllis futterman #franco barbi #il bambino #outlast trials #outlast #outlast headcanons #i have too many thoughts in my brain about these guys #shaking my brain and paperclips and dust bunnies fall out #then a photo of Franco in a dress falls out and i snatch it up before anyone sees

100 notes · View notes

mostlysignssomeportents · 11 months ago

Text

How to design a tech regulation

TONIGHT (June 20) I'm live onstage in LOS ANGELES for a recording of the GO FACT YOURSELF podcast. TOMORROW (June 21) I'm doing an ONLINE READING for the LOCUS AWARDS at 16hPT. On SATURDAY (June 22) I'll be in OAKLAND, CA for a panel (13hPT) and a keynote (18hPT) at the LOCUS AWARDS.

It's not your imagination: tech really is underregulated. There are plenty of avoidable harms that tech visits upon the world, and while some of these harms are mere negligence, others are self-serving, creating shareholder value and widespread public destruction.

Making good tech policy is hard, but not because "tech moves too fast for regulation to keep up with," nor because "lawmakers are clueless about tech." There are plenty of fast-moving areas that lawmakers manage to stay abreast of (think of the rapid, global adoption of masking and social distancing rules in mid-2020). Likewise we generally manage to make good policy in areas that require highly specific technical knowledge (that's why it's noteworthy and awful when, say, people sicken from badly treated tapwater, even though water safety, toxicology and microbiology are highly technical areas outside the background of most elected officials).

That doesn't mean that technical rigor is irrelevant to making good policy. Well-run "expert agencies" include skilled practitioners on their payrolls – think here of large technical staff at the FTC, or the UK Competition and Markets Authority's best-in-the-world Digital Markets Unit:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/13/kitbashed/#app-store-tax

The job of government experts isn't just to research the correct answers. Even more important is experts' role in evaluating conflicting claims from interested parties. When administrative agencies make new rules, they have to collect public comments and counter-comments. The best agencies also hold hearings, and the very best go on "listening tours" where they invite the broad public to weigh in (the FTC has done an awful lot of these during Lina Khan's tenure, to its benefit, and it shows):

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events/2022/04/ftc-justice-department-listening-forum-firsthand-effects-mergers-acquisitions-health-care

But when an industry dwindles to a handful of companies, the resulting cartel finds it easy to converge on a single talking point and to maintain strict message discipline. This means that the evidentiary record is starved for disconfirming evidence that would give the agencies contrasting perspectives and context for making good policy.

Tech industry shills have a favorite tactic: whenever there's any proposal that would erode the industry's profits, self-serving experts shout that the rule is technically impossible and deride the proposer as "clueless."

This tactic works so well because the proposers sometimes are clueless. Take Europe's on-again/off-again "chat control" proposal to mandate spyware on every digital device that will screen everything you upload for child sex abuse material (CSAM, better known as "child pornography"). This proposal is profoundly dangerous, as it will weaken end-to-end encryption, the key to all secure and private digital communication:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/18/encryption-is-deeply-threatening-to-power-meredith-whittaker-of-messaging-app-signal

It's also an impossible-to-administer mess that incorrectly assumes that killing working encryption in the two mobile app stores run by the mobile duopoly will actually prevent bad actors from accessing private tools:

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/09/04/oh-for-fucks-sake-not-this-fucking-bullshit-again-cryptography-edition/

When technologists correctly point out the lack of rigor and catastrophic spillover effects from this kind of crackpot proposal, lawmakers stick their fingers in their ears and shout "NERD HARDER!"

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/01/12/nerd-harder-fbi-director-reiterates-faith-based-belief-in-working-crypto-that-he-can-break/

But this is only half the story. The other half is what happens when tech industry shills want to kill good policy proposals, which is the exact same thing that advocates say about bad ones. When lawmakers demand that tech companies respect our privacy rights – for example, by splitting social media or search off from commercial surveillance, the same people shout that this, too, is technologically impossible.

That's a lie, though. Facebook started out as the anti-surveillance alternative to Myspace. We know it's possible to operate Facebook without surveillance, because Facebook used to operate without surveillance:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3247362

Likewise, Brin and Page's original Pagerank paper, which described Google's architecture, insisted that search was incompatible with surveillance advertising, and Google established itself as a non-spying search tool:

http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf

Even weirder is what happens when there's a proposal to limit a tech company's power to invoke the government's powers to shut down competitors. Take Ethan Zuckerman's lawsuit to strip Facebook of the legal power to sue people who automate their browsers to uncheck the millions of boxes that Facebook requires you to click by hand in order to unfollow everyone:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/02/kaiju-v-kaiju/#cda-230-c-2-b

Facebook's apologists have lost their minds over this, insisting that no one can possibly understand the potential harms of taking away Facebook's legal right to decide how your browser works. They take the position that only Facebook can understand when it's safe and proportional to use Facebook in ways the company didn't explicitly design for, and that they should be able to ask the government to fine or even imprison people who fail to defer to Facebook's decisions about how its users configure their computers.

This is an incredibly convenient position, since it arrogates to Facebook the right to order the rest of us to use our computers in the ways that are most beneficial to its shareholders. But Facebook's apologists insist that they are not motivated by parochial concerns over the value of their stock portfolios; rather, they have objective, technical concerns, that no one except them is qualified to understand or comment on.

There's a great name for this: "scalesplaining." As in "well, actually the platforms are doing an amazing job, but you can't possibly understand that because you don't work for them." It's weird enough when scalesplaining is used to condemn sensible regulation of the platforms; it's even weirder when it's weaponized to defend a system of regulatory protection for the platforms against would-be competitors.

Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there are no libertarians in government-protected monopolies. Somehow, scalesplaining can be used to condemn governments as incapable of making any tech regulations and to insist that regulations that protect tech monopolies are just perfect and shouldn't ever be weakened. Truly, it's impossible to get someone to understand something when the value of their employee stock options depends on them not understanding it.

None of this is to say that every tech regulation is a good one. Governments often propose bad tech regulations (like chat control), or ones that are technologically impossible (like Article 17 of the EU's 2019 Digital Single Markets Directive, which requires tech companies to detect and block copyright infringements in their users' uploads).

But the fact that scalesplainers use the same argument to criticize both good and bad regulations makes the waters very muddy indeed. Policymakers are rightfully suspicious when they hear "that's not technically possible" because they hear that both for technically impossible proposals and for proposals that scalesplainers just don't like.

After decades of regulations aimed at making platforms behave better, we're finally moving into a new era, where we just make the platforms less important. That is, rather than simply ordering Facebook to block harassment and other bad conduct by its users, laws like the EU's Digital Markets Act will order Facebook and other VLOPs (Very Large Online Platforms, my favorite EU-ism ever) to operate gateways so that users can move to rival services and still communicate with the people who stay behind.

Think of this like number portability, but for digital platforms. Just as you can switch phone companies and keep your number and hear from all the people you spoke to on your old plan, the DMA will make it possible for you to change online services but still exchange messages and data with all the people you're already in touch with.

I love this idea, because it finally grapples with the question we should have been asking all along: why do people stay on platforms where they face harassment and bullying? The answer is simple: because the people – customers, family members, communities – we connect with on the platform are so important to us that we'll tolerate almost anything to avoid losing contact with them:

https://locusmag.com/2023/01/commentary-cory-doctorow-social-quitting/

Platforms deliberately rig the game so that we take each other hostage, locking each other into their badly moderated cesspits by using the love we have for one another as a weapon against us. Interoperability – making platforms connect to each other – shatters those locks and frees the hostages:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

But there's another reason to love interoperability (making moderation less important) over rules that require platforms to stamp out bad behavior (making moderation better). Interop rules are much easier to administer than content moderation rules, and when it comes to regulation, administratability is everything.

The DMA isn't the EU's only new rule. They've also passed the Digital Services Act, which is a decidedly mixed bag. Among its provisions are a suite of rules requiring companies to monitor their users for harmful behavior and to intervene to block it. Whether or not you think platforms should do this, there's a much more important question: how can we enforce this rule?

Enforcing a rule requiring platforms to prevent harassment is very "fact intensive." First, we have to agree on a definition of "harassment." Then we have to figure out whether something one user did to another satisfies that definition. Finally, we have to determine whether the platform took reasonable steps to detect and prevent the harassment.

Each step of this is a huge lift, especially that last one, since to a first approximation, everyone who understands a given VLOP's server infrastructure is a partisan, scalesplaining engineer on the VLOP's payroll. By the time we find out whether the company broke the rule, years will have gone by, and millions more users will be in line to get justice for themselves.

So allowing users to leave is a much more practical step than making it so that they've got no reason to want to leave. Figuring out whether a platform will continue to forward your messages to and from the people you left there is a much simpler technical matter than agreeing on what harassment is, whether something is harassment by that definition, and whether the company was negligent in permitting harassment.

But as much as I like the DMA's interop rule, I think it is badly incomplete. Given that the tech industry is so concentrated, it's going to be very hard for us to define standard interop interfaces that don't end up advantaging the tech companies. Standards bodies are extremely easy for big industry players to capture:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/30/weak-institutions/

If tech giants refuse to offer access to their gateways to certain rivals because they seem "suspicious," it will be hard to tell whether the companies are just engaged in self-serving smears against a credible rival, or legitimately trying to protect their users from a predator trying to plug into their infrastructure. These fact-intensive questions are the enemy of speedy, responsive, effective policy administration.

But there's more than one way to attain interoperability. Interop doesn't have to come from mandates, interfaces designed and overseen by government agencies. There's a whole other form of interop that's far nimbler than mandates: adversarial interoperability:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

"Adversarial interoperability" is a catch-all term for all the guerrilla warfare tactics deployed in service to unilaterally changing a technology: reverse engineering, bots, scraping and so on. These tactics have a long and honorable history, but they have been slowly choked out of existence with a thicket of IP rights, like the IP rights that allow Facebook to shut down browser automation tools, which Ethan Zuckerman is suing to nullify:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

Adversarial interop is very flexible. No matter what technological moves a company makes to interfere with interop, there's always a countermove the guerrilla fighter can make – tweak the scraper, decompile the new binary, change the bot's behavior. That's why tech companies use IP rights and courts, not firewall rules, to block adversarial interoperators.

At the same time, adversarial interop is unreliable. The solution that works today can break tomorrow if the company changes its back-end, and it will stay broken until the adversarial interoperator can respond.

But when companies are faced with the prospect of extended asymmetrical war against adversarial interop in the technological trenches, they often surrender. If companies can't sue adversarial interoperators out of existence, they often sue for peace instead. That's because high-tech guerrilla warfare presents unquantifiable risks and resource demands, and, as the scalesplainers never tire of telling us, this can create real operational problems for tech giants.

In other words, if Facebook can't shut down Ethan Zuckerman's browser automation tool in the courts, and if they're sincerely worried that a browser automation tool will uncheck its user interface buttons so quickly that it crashes the server, all it has to do is offer an official "unsubscribe all" button and no one will use Zuckerman's browser automation tool.

We don't have to choose between adversarial interop and interop mandates. The two are better together than they are apart. If companies building and operating DMA-compliant, mandatory gateways know that a failure to make them useful to rivals seeking to help users escape their authority is getting mired in endless hand-to-hand combat with trench-fighting adversarial interoperators, they'll have good reason to cooperate.

And if lawmakers charged with administering the DMA notice that companies are engaging in adversarial interop rather than using the official, reliable gateway they're overseeing, that's a good indicator that the official gateways aren't suitable.

It would be very on-brand for the EU to create the DMA and tell tech companies how they must operate, and for the USA to simply withdraw the state's protection from the Big Tech companies and let smaller companies try their luck at hacking new features into the big companies' servers without the government getting involved.

Indeed, we're seeing some of that today. Oregon just passed the first ever Right to Repair law banning "parts pairing" – basically a way of using IP law to make it illegal to reverse-engineer a device so you can fix it.

https://www.opb.org/article/2024/03/28/oregon-governor-kotek-signs-strong-tech-right-to-repair-bill/

Taken together, the two approaches – mandates and reverse engineering – are stronger than either on their own. Mandates are sturdy and reliable, but slow-moving. Adversarial interop is flexible and nimble, but unreliable. Put 'em together and you get a two-part epoxy, strong and flexible.

Governments can regulate well, with well-funded expert agencies and smart, adminstratable remedies. It's for that reason that the administrative state is under such sustained attack from the GOP and right-wing Dems. The illegitimate Supreme Court is on the verge of gutting expert agencies' power:

https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2024/05/us-supreme-court-may-soon-discard-or-modify-chevron-deference

It's never been more important to craft regulations that go beyond mere good intentions and take account of adminsitratability. The easier we can make our rules to enforce, the less our beleaguered agencies will need to do to protect us from corporate predators.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/20/scalesplaining/#administratability

Image: Noah Wulf (modified) https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thunderbirds_at_Attention_Next_to_Thunderbird_1_-_Aviation_Nation_2019.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #cda #ethan zuckerman #platforms #platform decay #enshittification #eu #dma #right to repair #transatlantic #administrability #regulation #big tech #scalesplaining #equilibria #interoperability #adversarial interoperability #comcom

99 notes · View notes

madschiavelique · 5 months ago

Note

thoughts on viktor's early academy days:

he doesn’t like the people, or the spaceous buildings. the tall windows feel like waste of space and all that sunlight is annoying. the only place his eyes adjust is the library. sometimes the sky feels too big and it bothers him more than he cares to think about. everyone seems to take this for granted.

people stare. he knows this. he has no plans to hide the fact that he's disabled and from zaun. he no longer flinches at the insults, but he takes great care in making sure his clothes are clean, even if the detergent smells weird. there is a constant undercurrent of worry in his head about being perceived. he doesn’t feel like he belongs there but he doesn’t want to give the others any more reason to think that than they already have.

he feels weird when the other students talk about their parents and family lines and legacies. he tries not to feel any type of way about it, but there's a heavy ball of something tangling into his insides. he feels like an animal that wandered too far out of its habitat.

the food is weird. he doesn’t know what most of it is. doesn’t have high expectations of any of it, but tries new things, experimentally. finds out he really enjoys useless extravgance when it comes to pastries and warm drinks.

he's not super social. he's not anti-social ether, just mostly...quiet. observing from the sidelines. there to learn. a bunch of the other students just seem plain stupid, and some just mean or boring, none of which are qualities that appeal to him. so he sticks to himself and engages in the classes as much as seems sensible, answers questions, volunteers for projects. some people see him as intimidating or rude, but really, he just doesn't really care enough to try to fit in.

he, at least sometimes, and at least somewhat, puts on a show. pressed clothes and less swearing, trying not to wipe his hands on his pants. being polite. some of this crumbles away when he's in pain.

some of his pain medication is...frowned upon in piltover, so he hides it. it takes him a long time to trust jayce with the knowledge. when he does, he has no idea how to handle it, but he pretends it's a totally normal thing and if-you-judge-me-you're-wrong. jayce tries to act cool about it. fails. it feels more normal after that.

when he gets access to the lab, he feels more at home. it's a culture shock at first (the equipment is more advanced. there's more space. the lab seems to be designes with the worker's comfort - and safety - in mind, which shouldn't be as shocking as it was). he doesn’t recognize what everything in the lab is for, but he'll figure it out. he does not ask anyone to explain.

he hates the tie in the uniform, and sort of hates all the structure, the rules, but they give him good guidelines for how to act like he belongs there. he'd feel more lost without them.

it feels weird to be not-just-surviving. he doesn’t know what to do with free time in the evenings and guaranteed meals and a safe back yard. sometimes when students complain about the food or the dorms a part of him wants to shake them and yell but you get warm food every day! you have your own room and a spring mattress! but he stays quiet. minds his own business. pockets another apple just out of habit because he can.

sometimes he wakes up at night and forgets where he is. this happens (most nights) less frequently as the time passes. more when he's stressed. it's too quiet in the room. too warm. he's still cold.

when he starts making friends he doesn’t know how to feel about it. his 8-year-old version something inside him wants to yell is this what life could have been like? if we hadn't been busy surviving? is this all that life-stuff we were missing?

he feels a little bit guilty for indulging in it, when there was still so much work to do. he feels greedy when he joins in on a late night trip out, or an after-hours coffee run, or a let's-just-stay-here moment on a couch when he really should have been smoothing out the wrinkles in his pants and getting up. he stays a bit longer.

sometimes when he can't sleep wakes up at night he likes to think he's sending out a thought to his kid-self. about how they made it. and how it'd be okay.

he still hates the tie though. and the tall windows. and most of the people. but some of them turn out to be okay.

- doctorho 💫

as always bestie cooked, served and ate everything

i am OBSESSED with the entirety of this and will now contemplate my life, in bed, staring at the ceiling while two waterfall flow from both my eyes

i don’t even want to add anything because how can i add anything to perfection ??

#mads' asks ⟢ ݁ ˖‧˚₊ ☁︎#viktor #viktor arcane #arcane viktor #arcane #arcane headcanons

33 notes · View notes

lemonhemlock · 9 months ago

Note

i just think it's ironic how critical stark fans are of the targaryens like robb and dany are veryyy similar and the first men are colonizers too lol

i think robb should be criticised more for his lack of policies and political foresight and planning when it comes to his independence project, but robb did not resort to sacrificing people to acquire fire-breathing monsters or to torturing people to get his way. he didn't set out to conquer lands. he became king in the north and king of the trident not because he conquered the north or the riverlands, but because they pledged themselves to him. there IS a difference between them

you can agree with northern independence or not but the reason robb called his banners and rose up in the first place was because the de-facto monarch was unjustly imprisoning his father, then executed him without a fair trial, thus breaking the feudal contract (coincidentally, the same reason the targaryens were rightfully deposed). then ofc came stannis' letter casting doubt on joffrey's paternity

honestly a fair line of questioning that might even betray authorial bias is, in a series that puts so much emphasis on the dangers of magic and the HIGH price associated with it, why does robb (and the rest of the starks) get the luxury of being soul-bonded to a magical fierce beast (that comes to them without making any nefarious trade), but dany can only access dragons via committing horrifying acts? imo this could very well be a weak point in the thematic consistency of the series

as for the first men, yes, they were colonizers. so were the andals. they are also dead. the process of ethnogenesis (an often violent process, yes) resulted in the westerosi people. what are they to do about it now? they're just regular people living their lives, not wanting to be brutalized, too, by other foreign invaders like dany will bring, not wanting to fight in any more pointless wars.

is that not a valid request or desire they might have for themselves or do they have to pay indefinitely for the crimes of their ancestors by having the same thing done to them?* does it just go from invasion to invasion until the end of time? is colonization or conquest ok to do indefinitely because they have historical precedent? when does it stop?

from the westerosi point of view, the children of the forest don't even exist anymore, so even paying reparations is out of the question. though, who knows, maybe the series finale will address the issue of reconciliation, since WE know the children of the forest are still out and about

*and, before targstans come out of the woodwork, no, i do not hold dany accountable for things her ancestors did, i hold her accountable for the things SHE did. is it her fault her father became a tyrant? no. but her dynasty got rightfully deposed and that's that (see this post for a more in-depth answer: yes, even ~medieval political theorists believed there are conditions in which a population can rightfully rid themselves of tyrannical rule).

is that fair for dany on an individual level? well, how do you define 'fair'? is it fair that feudal lords own all the land and hoard the resources? or, better yet, why do you define "fair" only in relation to nobles, their wants and desires, the real or perceived injustices visited upon them. i understand that the series is high-born-focused escapism, ultimately, and that it won't end in this radical re-ordering of society or in a leveling of privileges across social spheres, but, for real, sometimes what's "good" for your favourite high-born character isn't good for the smallfolk! that's a basic enough idea we can stick to

#ask #anon #anti daenerys targaryen #robb stark #westeros #also i want to bring attention to the fact that robb is ALSO a teenager like dany is #and maybe just maybe grrm is trying to make a point here about how entrusting very young people with so much power is Not A Good Idea #not bc or ageism or bc adolescents are inherently stupid but bc they simply have had no TIME to accumulate knowledge and experience

51 notes · View notes

zodiactalks · 1 year ago

Text

Top 5 MEANEST Signs of the Zodiac

It’s a fact that not everyone is a nice person. Some people are straight-up mean. Often for no apparent reason.

It’s easy to brush people off as having a bad day. It can be easy to ignore if they are strangers in public. Less so when it’s a family member or that friend who can never say anything positive.

Were they traumatized into being cruel? Or are they just nasty people at their core?

It can be hard to tell.

Let’s take a look at the five meanest signs of the zodiac.

#1. Scorpio

Scorpio runs hot and cold. They are about intensity and extremes.

Scorpio has a reputation for not being a well-liked zodiac sign. The reason for that lies in their intense natures. The extremes that Scorpio embodies can’t be handled by everyone. And they don’t want to be accessible to others, anyway.

Scorpio enjoys solitude and is highly likely to be an introvert in some capacity. Interacting with others a lot tends to get them into hot water.

Dark humor and biting sarcasm is the main way Scorpio communicates with others. Unfortunately, not many people appreciate that and end up offended.

Scorpio doesn’t care, they need to get thicker skin.

Even when unintended, Scorpio can appear harsh and standoffish.

Like Scorpios ruling planet Pluto, they prefer to be apart and distant from the rest of the world. It can make others uncomfortable and misunderstand Scorpio.

#2. Cancer

In order to protect themselves, Cancer can be incredibly mean.

Cancer has a lot of emotions swirling inside them at any given time. It can be confusing and hard to separate one from another. Especially when it comes to their feelings about other people.

When Cancer is feeling exposed, they can lash out. If they truly intend to hurt others, they won’t hold back.

Cancer is a zodiac sign who attracts spontaneous life storytelling. They will have perfect strangers telling them personal details. So, when Cancer gears up to give someone a harsh scolding, they have an arsenal at their fingertips.

When Cancer purposely attacks others, they are vicious. The person will have their deepest insecurities exposed and emotional wounds broke wide open.

Once Cancer has finished, they may feel guilty. Not that they’d ever let the other person know. They have to stick to their decision now.

#3. Capricorn

Capricorn is naturally intimidating. Others can take their own feelings of inadequacy around Capricorn as them being mean.

Capricorn can be a challenging personality. They are equal parts capable of whatever their chosen paths are. And very socially awkward.

Which can lead Capricorn to not express themselves as they wish they could. Blunt and uninterested in putting on a fake show, Capricorn can struggle with socializing.

When Capricorn does want to be mean, boy can they be cruel. Capricorn isn’t like Cancer in having others spill their life story. But they are keen observers.

Capricorn can profile others with scary accuracy. Which can give them the ability to land hard blows when they want to.

Sometimes even when they don’t mean to, Capricorn doesn’t have a filter.

#4. Taurus

Taurus is extremely patient with others until they are pushed over the edge. Once that happens, they can shock others with the mean streak they have.

Taurus is a person no one expects to use others' insecurities against them. And Taurus doesn’t like to. But, for example, if someone tries to lord over them for an extended period while not being a productive teammate, Taurus will snap.

It will be the wrong thing said at the wrong time, and Taurus will stun those around them. A blast of, usually, righteous anger will knock others back. Taurus doesn’t explode without good reason.

Once they are unleashed, though, Taurus will drag a person through the mud and expose them in relentless detail.

Taurus never says anything untrue. They have likely been thinking about all those things for a long time.

#5. Aquarius

Aquarius is too honest for a lot of people.

Adept at mediating conflict between others, Aquarius has trouble doing the same for themselves. According to them, that is because others aren’t able to handle their straightforwardness.

Aquarius is very set in their ways when it comes to their core beliefs. They can adapt and apply new ideas, but their central beliefs are unyielding without dramatic events.

Due to those core beliefs, Aquarius can come off as mean if those principles are questioned. It depends on the day whether they will consider and contemplate the opposing view or if they will counterattack.

If they choose to fight, Aquarius eventually looks back and regrets doing so. They are a free-thinking zodiac sign. So, looking back at when they didn’t embrace that, that can have them feeling untrue to themselves.

#Zodiac Signs #ZodiacFact #Zodiac #astrology #Aries #Aquarius #Cancer #Capricorn #leo #libra #scorpio #taurus #Pisces #Sagittarius #Gemini #virgo

39 notes · View notes

goodluckclove · 6 months ago

Text

A Meandering Exploration on the Disability-Based Magic System of my Ongoing Fantasy Series (Because I Am Bad at Explaining it to People in my Actual, Physical Life)

I've been priming myself for critique on the world building for Songbird Elegies, with it's magic system being partially based around my "sorcerer" equivalent (i.e. born, innate magic users/birthrights) having some sort of disability.

So far most of the critiques have come from myself. because, as any disabled person likely knows (myself included yayay), what is considered a disability is frustratingly varied. And that's been complicated to explore.

This isn't what I'd usually use my taglist for but I ended up pretty proud of this so here we go hop on hop off per usual.

@kuebiko-writing @cartoonghosts

@atlasthecactus @aroaceghosties

@booksntea6982 @xarrixii

@mushroommanchanterelle @whoevenknowswhatimwriting

@fukurouonthesea

I establish in book one that the supposed "Birthright Gene" (which isn't - uh - anything. It's a medical term given to a phenomena that has no actual genetic proof backing it) has been seen in a variety of conditions - mental, physical, developmental, even if they happen later on in life (an immediately pretty scary concept for most). It's not every person who has a certain disability, and sometimes a birthright will be classified as the wrong variant of magic because they have comorbidities and the "gene" only affects a certain one. My character Ollie in book two, for instance, was born with cerebral palsy, but actually has her magic based in the ARFID she manages as a result of that.

Which makes sense, in my mind at least. In my experience, and from what I hear from other people, if you have some sort of disability it's a lot easier to fall into a few other conditions. Human bodies are fleshy Jenga towers.

Uh and I've spoken to a few people about how I'm really particular about the magic, or "variants" that make up birthrights. One variant can apply to multiple diagnoses if they slightly overlap. The main idea is that there isn't a Birthright variant that's SUPER useful. The most powerful variant (Ollie's, coincidentally) is the one that allows a user to alter the chemical component of many forms of living matter (Could be all, people don't really know and are hesitant to test), but it's so difficult to even get GOOD at that it's not likely to be weaponized.

But yeah there isn't a variant that overrides a disability. Birthrights are still absolutely disabled and they require varying degrees of treatment and management. The very specific rule I have to stick to is that a Birthright variant is something that could be perceived as an additional accommodation for a corresponding disability, from the perspective of someone who has never actually existed as a human being with a disability. Something that makes sense to an entity seeing humanity through a fragment of magnifying glass, but to a human being would just sort of cause them to be like huh. i guess i can do this now.

Birthrights are magic users who, for the most part, care far more about the culture, beliefs, and ethics of their longstanding communities that are coincidentally formed from their magic, but mainly continue to provide the services they'd done for generations. Mainly social services, legal representation, medical and environmental work, depending on the town they associate with.

Not everyone who is born with the Birthright Gene (which once again, isn't an actual gene, but people call it that to make things sound less scary to people who aren't willing to immediately accept that birthright magic is essentially random) lives in one of these towns. They're definitely not forced to. So far it seems a lot will spend at least a stint there, if only to get work experience in an environment that can provide further connections in certain industries while also being aggressively accessible.

There are registered birthrights, who are salaried, year-round employees of certain towns. Witch towns, as they call them, will sometimes compare themselves to a non-industrial company town. This is mainly an on-paper deal that allows for some minor bureaucratic benefits, as well as a degree of community that still provides a mild optional anonymity that being a sovereign city state would immediately destroy. It allows gives registered birthrights the opportunity to open their own businesses within witch towns, with the initial financial support of the witch town if they're willing to take a few classes.

Official witch towns are, at least so far, either Refuge Hubs or Outreach Centers. Migration Patterns (Book Two) takes place in Bluerose, Oregon, which I believe is the only witch town left on the West Coast. It's a Refuge Hub, which means it specializes in providing social services, housing, and treatment - mainly, in Blueroses case, for families, victims of domestic violence, and people just leaving the foster care system. Refuge hubs are pretty insular, being gated and guarded communities a bit of a drive from the nearest major town. Clients stay for a period of at least six months (but no more than a year), and depending on the case they might be asked to not leave the confines of town within that time (at least, not without a guard).

Refuge hubs are very difficult to keep as secure as they feel like they need to be, so out of the handful of remaining witch towns in the United States, most of them are outreach centers. Outreach centers are weird because they're "towns" that sort of just take over a few neighborhoods in existing cities. Like you're driving through Nebraska and you're right in the middle of Cheney, and all of a sudden your GPS says you're in Stillrush, but then you're back in Cheney.

Outreach centers were more connected with their surrounding communities from the get-go. You never had to be a registered birthright with the not-real "birthright gene" to get a job at an outreach center. But as time went on refuge hubs also more open about allowing non-birthrights in their ranks.

They're still super intensive in the interview process (welcoming, flexible, but thorough), but most of the naturalistic, inexplicably-humanist, pretty hippy-dippy beliefs of early birthrights are now considered outdated. More than that, in later generations there were less and less birthrights born with an "active" gene. Witch towns fell apart for one reason or another, leaving their inhabitants to scatter to adjacent towns to either retire, start new, or continue work in separate organizations.

The towns that kept going wanted to keep their communities alive, because by then a majority of the people essentially - or literally - living in witch towns were doing so for the community and the work done in that community. Even though with the balance way off between refuge hubs and outreach centers, resources are spread thin and demand is high and hard to manage. So now almost every town has a mixture of birthrights and non-birthrights, with even the occasional able-bodied and neurotypical employee.

It's getting stressful, though. The leadership in town feel it more, but everyone can tell. And no one knows why. One of the only lingering traits of old birthright culture is the insistence that they don't need to know - that the things they do and the relationships they make are what matter more than some biological party trick.

But it's hard to know how many people actually believe that. Because it's weird. It's weird that so many people had certain abilities for so, so long, and now it's looking like soon they just...won't anymore.

It's not grief that often provokes, but a vague unease. Like the thought of more and more people suddenly being born without a gallbladder. Like it's probably fine - it might even be a net positive.

But it's weird, right? Why now? What happened?

It doesn't matter though. No one really needs an answer.

Right?

#writeblr #writing community #on writing #lore time bby #songbird elegies #magic system #world building #i am nervous to share this #this is the most worldbuilding i've ever done for a series #the people are definitely the central focus #but uh yeah #this is a fragment of the world #i can talk about academies too #which is the other branch of magic #but that's a separate post #potentially less interesting since birthright is older

12 notes · View notes

asinglemagpie · 2 months ago

Text

The Golden Raven: Here Be Spoilers 10 (Once More With Feeling)(Chapter 22)

Oof those were some heavy chapters... Now I'm well rested, let's dive into more!

Why didn't they flop on anyone's couches? Rhemann would have taken them in, surely!

Can we start a fund to order some takeout from a very specific restaurant? Neil knows the one.

When your therapist helps get access to money... you gotta admit sometime that you're in so shitty a situation that they would risk their career to help you even the smallest bit.

Okay look. Thea is a touchy subject from what I've seen, especially regarding Kevin, so I'll be brief. She and Kevin should not have happened - she was far too old and he far too young. But. We have to remember that the Nest ran on its own twisted set of rules and morality, and nothing they did was outside of the lines that they had been bullied and tortured into. I do not think they are good for each other. Kevin needs someone to be more than exy with. Someone who can knock him down a few pegs and then hold his hand as they rebuild him into something better. Thea is what he needed, but now she holds him rigidly in place when he should be blossoming.

That said, she sounds hot AF and I'd stick around too so...

The fact that Kevin is letting himself be annoyed with a camera in his face? The interview either broke him from being "I must have a perfect public persona", or shit going on that we're not privvy to yet has gnawed through him and this is what he's got left.

AARON DRIVING THE MAS MEANS MORE TO ME THAN I CAN EXPRESS OKAY?! 😭

It never gets old calling Kevin "Queen" (always capitalised).

Andrew showing signs of taking to heart what Jean said is also INSANE. Like... He's forgoing one of the significantly few things he finds comfort and calm in because he won't risk being too slow to save Neil? I... I just... 😭

How does their relationship even work anyway? They never see each other, I doubt they call each other because they don't seem the type. Just... ???

Thea's harsh AF but totally correct statement. Honestly she has to be scary as fuck and again I'm not entirely against that...

Kevin and the moment of "well I can't fix that".

Spader also being incredibly correct. Sadly the Ravens do NOT have access to adequate mental healthcare.

The fact that the FBI know who started the fire, but Laila's family doesn't sits weirdly with me. I can't decide if I'm misunderstanding, or if Nora is frantically waving a red flag.

William is still one of my favourites.

Warren however can choke on a whole bag of thorny dicks.

In a just universe, a recording of that conversation would have fucking ruined the Wilshires. Alas there is no just universe and skinbags of anal leakage like this cunt get away with this shit.

Jean getting to truly own something of his own choosing 😍

Honestly I'm 50/50 on the "are they suicides or murders?" purely because Ichirou wouldn't draw eyes onto the Ravens, and by extension the Moriyama name, by just bumping them off. There would have been a couple of tragic accidents, people got rattled and performed badly, pushing some to that point, but it would be so much... Less. Than how it's going down. BUT those three going in such quick succession - when there's been days for what Thea said to sink in - just seems... Too coincidental. Hella fucking sloppy though. Like suspiciously sloppy. Are we sure it's Ichirou we should be looking at? Or any Moriyama at all?

Laila taking her life in her hands riding pillion 😂

Jean quietly absorbing everything he can about a Jeremy he doesn't know.

Jean openly choosing a path where there are no Ravens is just... Everything.

Kevin isn't a Raven. He's fine on a technicality.

Jeremy thinking he's taking it out of context when he's very much in the right context lol.

#All For The Game #The Sunshine Court #The Golden Raven #The Golden Raven Spoilers #TGR Spoilers #Spoilers

18 notes · View notes

butchybats · 2 years ago

Text

Disabled!Daniel Molloy hcs (because I’m disabled and can do what I want to my blorbos)

• Isn’t officially diagnosed with anything but has chronic fatigue and pain, as well as muscle weakness and balance issues

• As a result he uses a rigid manual wheelchair that has teal framing and rims!! He picked out the color in high school but will probably stick with it when he gets his next wheelchair

• When Louis bit him he picked him up by the shoulders (for the drama but also because Louis would not bend down or get on his knees for his food) and then carefully helped him back into his wheelchair followed by the whole “will I die” convo because Louis might have a disregard for human life but he’s not ableist <3

• When he arrives at Lestat’s house he stays on the first floor because he does not have the energy to climb stairs after his journey. He still ends up locked in the cellar though

• The chase years are much shorter than in canon because pre ADA being passed it was difficult to travel with mobility aids, and that’s if they even gave him the opportunity to travel

• One time during this Armand buys a five star hotel room for Daniel because the cheaper one he was trying to get refused to give him a ground level room

• Discussions of disability and ableism are of course had when they start having their philosophical talks, and Armand probably wouldn’t mention it but he’d definitely be thinking of the children of darkness’ rule to not turn anyone deemed imperfect

• As they continue to get closer Daniel will do wheelies to impress Armand and will sometimes let him ride on his lap when he’s not having a bad pain day

• Daniel takes full advantage of the swoon and will beg Armand to bite him when he’s having a bad pain day and wants the blood even more than in canon because of how much it helps

• Daniel is convinced to get a standard wheelchair for when he’s especially tired and Armand takes great joy in pushing him around

• When night island is built it is one hundred percent accessible and as a result a lot of disabled people flock to it

#i can not even begin to say how self indulgent this is btw #woe disabled!daniel be upon ye #the vampire chronicles #vc #disability tag

68 notes · View notes

molsno · 7 months ago

Text

I just finished reading the manga "my brain is different: stories of adhd and other developmental disorders" by monzusu. it's a collection of 9 true stories about living with adhd and other developmental disorders submitted by readers and illustrated into short manga stories. overall, I enjoyed it! I was diagnosed with adhd and started taking medication for it as a young child, and although I haven't been diagnosed with autism (nor do I want to be), I'm certain I have it as well. that being said, I don't feel that I personally learned anything from this manga. however, I think it has the potential to be very useful to a certain audience: mostly, people who might have developmental disorders who haven't been diagnosed and haven't gotten the help they need.

let me be clear. I think that for its target audience, it will do a great job at making them feel understood, and I wouldn't be surprised if people have finally been able to find a word for the conditions they've been struggling with all their lives and seek help as a result because of this manga. there are nine stories, and they present a wide range of experiences with things like adhd, autism, and learning disorders like dyslexia. it demonstrates the ways that people suffer from these conditions and shows how through a diagnosis, a supportive environment, accommodations, and sometimes medication, many of these people are able to take control of their lives.

however, I have some issues with it. most notably, there's an emphasis on the benefits of diagnosis. I don't deny that for some people, a clinical diagnosis can genuinely significantly improve their lives. it's important to keep in mind, though, that the field of psychiatry is designed to gatekeep resources from people. I understand that this manga was written for a japanese audience, and I have no doubt that the process of getting prescribed adhd medication in japan is different from where I live, the usa. however, I can personally say that even as someone who has been diagnosed with adhd and prescribed medication for almost 20 years, it is still extremely difficult to receive medication for it not just due to my government's draconian restrictions on it, but also the psychiatric industry itself.

on top of that, it doesn't really delve into the downsides of getting a clinical diagnosis for many psychiatric disorders. for example, the reason I don't want to get an autism diagnosis, despite it potentially allowing me to receive accommodations for it, is because it would make it significantly easier to discriminate against me. many countries explicitly will not allow you to immigrate if you have an autism diagnosis on your record; not to mention, you can have legal rights taken away from you if you're determined to not be mentally sound. I think that it's irresponsible to recommend diagnosis without warning of the ways that it can actually be detrimental.

that brings me to another point. while a diagnosis can be helpful to some people in allowing them access to accommodations they need to participate in society, this manga doesn't really question why those accommodations are denied to people without them. nor does it really interrogate the causes that make living with these disorders so difficult to begin with. certainly, it shows the ways that the people in these stories are discriminated against, but the elephant in the room remains unaddressed: capitalism.

I'm not going to claim that capitalism is the only reason why people with developmental disorders struggle in life, because I don't believe that's true. even without capitalism, I would still have a hard time with remembering things, sticking with projects, regulating my attention, and connecting with others. however, capitalism exacerbates all of these problems and more because it demands everyone be a productive employee who focuses on their work, adheres to strict deadlines, completes tasks at a frantic pace, and obeys all rules without asking questions. it is debilitating to live under capitalism with developmental disorders, and it's no surprise that many of us can't do it. objectively, without capitalism, many of us would have a significantly easier time living, and our conditions would be a lot more manageable. unfortunately, "my brain is different" doesn't really acknowledge this fact.

this is problematic, because it also doesn't acknowledge class at all. while monzusu expresses optimism over the fact that developmental disorders are being discussed more publicly in recent times and more and more tools are being created to help those with adhd and other developmental disorders, she doesn't speak about how these accommodations don't actually matter for those who can't access them because they can't afford to. for example, it would be great if I never had to vacuum the floor again, but I don't have enough money to buy a roomba.

one of the commonalities I noticed between some of the stories is that the people within them never seriously faced even the threat of homelessness, despite many of them struggling to get or keep jobs, usually because they had financial support from their parents. I would have liked some acknowledgement that for many of us, this isn't an option, and that if we don't work, we'll become homeless and possibly starve to death. this is not an uncommon problem faced by people with developmental disorders, and it feels negligent not to portray it in this compilation of stories.

I also find it lacking in its depictions of developmental disorders after people receive treatment. it does go into this a little bit, but generally, it portrays treatment and especially medication as almost universally positive, and as the end of the story. personally, I can say that being medicated for my adhd has made a huge impact on my life, and it's the only reason I have a college degree, but it is not a silver bullet that solves all of my problems. I still struggle with executive dysfunction, procrastination, attention regulation, rejection sensitivity, and more; my medication just makes these symptoms significantly more manageable. I also still face discrimination for having adhd and being autistic, because... my brain is different! and no medication is going to change that. people don't like that I'm neurodivergent, and it makes it hard to make friends and secure employment. I would have liked monzusu to emphasize that treatment, while sometimes helpful, can't solve every problem we face.

I know I'm criticizing this manga a lot for its faults, and they are quite significant, but overall, I did still enjoy it. I think that some people would benefit tremendously from reading it, and not just people with undiagnosed developmental disorders. I actually think parents and teachers would do well to read it, as there were a few stand-out moments of good role modeling in it.

for example, in the fourth story, hanako-san demonstrates a level of open communication with her autistic son, tarou, unlike most parents, such as when she sets up an agreed-upon time with him for him to stop watching tv so he can brush his teeth and take a bath. she recognizes that he'll learn better if he understands the rules he has to follow and agrees with them, so she does her best to communicate these things with him directly, and stands up to other family members when they criticize the way she raises him. similarly, the ninth story did an excellent job showing how yoshiko-san became a teacher for students with special needs while having multiple developmental disorders of her own, and how the elder teacher she worked with demonstrated how she can meet these kids where they're at with patience and understanding so she can best learn how to help them with their individual problems. I don't believe that the problems we face can truly be solved by individuals, but having supportive, understanding people in our lives can have a huge impact.

overall, while I do generally recommend "my brain is different", I have to do so cautiously. while I think it's good to give people a beginner's guide to understanding adhd and other developmental disorders, it cannot be anything more than a jumping-off point. if anyone sees themselves in this manga and wants to seek a diagnosis, I HEAVILY suggest doing more research to decide if that would genuinely be something worth pursuing, as this manga portrays it entirely as a good thing without mentioning any of the potential risks of doing so.

#txt #monzusu #my brain is different #my brain is different: stories of adhd and other developmental disorders

14 notes · View notes