#stop complicating everything for the sake of profit

[underthemoonglow]

"Nobody wants to work" WRONG you don't want to spend adequate time and resources training new employees - as you fucking should - so instead you have ridiculous requirements for entry-level jobs.

People are trying to work, applying for hundreds of jobs for a chance to get a single interview, but you don't want to do your job and train new employees, you want everyone to know every detail of the job before even being hired, even though every company (even in the same industry) can operate differently.

Fucking do your job and train new employees so they can do their jobs.

[indieyuugure]

I don’t know if you were already asked this somewhere, but will your Shredder have a real, sizable ambition, or will he just be focused on wiping out Splinter for the sake of his bruised ego?

I don’t mind how 2012!Shredder was made so complicated, and I guess it makes sense that he might not have to try world domination himself when’s already a successful crime lord, but I always enjoyed how 2003!Shredder made an evil laugh as he thought about achieving global, galactic, and then multiversal domination.

Secondly, does your Bishop secretly hate his own alien allies and plans to betray them, or is he like that Cemetery Wind guy from Transformers: Age of Extinction who hunts down Cybertronians of all kinds alongside an alien bounty hunter for sick kicks while intending to profit on Human-made Transformers?

I just don’t really know what motivates him at this time. 2003!Bishop at least had an understandable reason for discriminating non-Humans and in Fast Forward, actually turned his life around to make a better future. And the IDW Bishop is like that continuity’s answer to Hordy Jones from One Piece in my opinion, he hates non-Humans because he was raised up in that way of thinking, and by the time his own father realized that viewpoint was dangerous, it was too late for them both.

Lastly, this thought came to me from recently reading the 29th Mirage TMNT issue, but will the EPF oppose supernatural elements just as it does mutants and aliens? In a cosmic sort of way, that organization is like SHIELD and its numerous branches from Marvel comics, so I think there’s plenty of room to explore that.

It has not been asked, actually, you’re the first!

Hm, so my Shredder is motivated primarily by revenge, but he’s extremely power hungry and the prospect of more than just the criminal underworld wouldn’t be something he’d pass up. I think with his limited resources that was never a dream he could achieve, however with assistance from the Kraang, that would be a different story.

Bishop is a nerd with no morals or self restraint. He works with the Kraang because he is absolutely fascinated with non-human life forms, extraterrestrial technology and biology, and everything of the sort. He has a weird relationship with the Kraang because, while he’s paid to communicate with and investigate the Kraang with the intention to stop them, he wants to study them and often finds himself working for them instead of the EPF for bribes.

In my version of TMNT the EPF, “Earth Protection Force” has the soul job of investigating, studying and protecting the people of Earth from extraterrestrial threats. There is no magic at all in my version so the EPF only deals with aliens and mutants. The EPF works very similarly to the CIA but instead of spying on and investigating other countries, they study and investigate Aliens.

Good questions! :]

[horizon-verizon]

Funny to see people bend over backwards to paint Ned as this paragon of virtue. Ned is complicit in the murder of Rhaegar’s children by choosing to help the man that profited from it ascend the throne. He never regretted his decision and even continued to help Robert.

It’s one thing if Ned held Robert accountable for smiling at their corpses and calling them dragonspawn, but he not only made up with Robert, he also saw him crowned, destroyed Pyke for him, and became his hand.

Ned only feels guilt over them when Varys throws their deaths in his face to compare them to Sansa. He thus only begins caring about his complicity in their murders when his collusion with Robert ends up endangering his OWN family. Ned hid Jon’s true parentage from Robert because he knows what Robert would have done to Jon and to Ned’s trueborn children if he found out the truth, yet he did not take issue with Robert benefiting from the murders of Aegon and Rhaenys.

It took Ned fifteen years, years that included the kidnapping and traumatizing of another child for Robert’s sake (Theon Greyjoy) to speak up about Robert wanting to assassinate a pregnant child bride.

Probably a response to this reblogged post abt an article saying Rhaenyra & Cersei are whores opposed to "moral" Ned.

Another anon describes Ned's hypocrisy:

He’s trained himself to be a very passive figure in Roberts life while Robert just destroys everything around him so not think there’s anything he can do to stop that act of violence. [...] He is too loyal to Robert and too society-brained. He copes with the Robert situation by blaming Cersei for Robert’s behavior.

I agree, again, no notes. I didn't like him reading the book as much as I kinda did in the show (which I watched first), and even then when he got to KL I just grew more and more frustrated with him.

[goodhorse413]

This is a good response. It reveals some ways that capital is much more complicated than I describe it in my post. But I think the dilemma remains even after making a more detailed examination.

This seems equivalent to saying that the co-operative isn't incentivized to hire a new worker if hiring a new worker isn't profitable.

Not quite. Hiring a new worker is profitable if doing so increases the value of the firm's capital. It doesn't have to increase the value of the firm's capital by the former value of the firm's capital divided by the number of people in the labor force. In my example, I ignored this, hence why hiring the new worker did not increase the total value of the firm's capital, but this was merely for simplicity's sake. More accurately, the capital that the company owned would become more valuable (in the same way that labor becomes more valuable when mixed with capital; a spatula is worth much less without a chef, and vice versa), but would still become more diluted such that each employee's share still went down in value.

You can understand this more clearly if you imagine the co-op hiring a hundred ants, who are each paid a sugar cube to carry leaves out of the café. Let's assume this rather contrived situation would be profitable, in that it would result in the business taking in an amount of new revenue that exceeded the cost of the sugar cubes. Specifically, the co-op is now making ten more dollars a day. This would be incentivized in a private firm, but in a co-op each employee would lose 50,000 dollars worth of stock options to the ants. What the ants add is smaller than what they receive, so even though a private firm would hire them, which would benefit the consumers, ants, and capitalist, the co-op would not.

This discussion is talking about "capital" as if it's some kind of easily divisible liquid unit, like money, but a very important thing about capital is precisely that most of it isn't that, and if I stop thinking of capital as like money the idea that workers would benefit from keeping capital idle so they can own more of it starts feeling a lot less credible. Like, if the co-op is a cafe and they all own a 20% share in the blender, yeah, you could say in a sense hiring a new worker makes them less rich cause the blender is now shared among six people instead of five, but nobody actually benefits from owning 20% of an idle blender instead of 16% of a working blender (and thus nobody actually loses anything they're likely to care about by trading a 20% share in an idle blender for a 16% share in a working blender), capital sitting unused is basically just a straight-up loss unless your plan is to sell it or use it for speculation or if you're trading off productivity for leisure, and the last thing would create the opposite incentive (maintaining a high worker to capital ratio). The same would apply to industrial machinery and so on.

Capital is easily divisible and liquid in your own example, even though the capital in question is a discrete object.

If five people own an unused blender, they can each increase their income by hiring someone to use the blender for productive purposes. Their income will increase if they reduce their shares in the blender and give a free share of the blender to the newcomer, but it will increase more if they don't do that. It can sometimes be advantageous to hire a new employee even if it reduces one's percentage of the capital stock owned, but it will always be less advantageous than hiring a new employee and NOT reducing one's percentage of the capital stock. Furthermore, if they are only permitted to hire a new worker if they give him 16% of the blender AND 16% of the coffee machine, the tables, the building, and everything else the café owns, they may find it more profitable to just let the blender sit unused, because its value is less than the cost to the worker-owners to put it in use. They may sell it (reducing the marx ratio as you pointed out), or they also may spread the workforce thin across the various appliances held by the café, underutilizing each of them (maintaining a higher marx ratio), but either way, the co-operative fails to engage in pareto efficient behavior, systematically underemploying labor or capital.

In Tale of Two Pegasi, I said:

Socializing capital is much harder. Capital income is not rent. Paying land income does not incentivize the creation of more land, but paying capital income does incentivize the creation of more capital. [...] It’s clear that capital differs from land in an important way. If you tax land income at a rate of 100%, the amount of land in the world will remain the same. If you tax capital income at a rate of 100%, society would soon find itself with much less capital. Land cannot be created, so giving money to its owners does not incentivize the creation of new land. Giving money to owners of capital and labor, however, does incentivize the creation of new capital and labor. So the solution for land does not work as a solution for capital. There must be an incentive to invest money into profitable firms rather than spending it on consumption. The task for the wannabe socialist then, is to find a way to create a more equal distribution of capital ownership while preserving this incentive.”

I mention one of the simplest and oldest solutions to the problem of the distribution of capital ownership: worker co-operatives. After investigating the literature on co-operatives, I don’t think they serve as a sufficient solution. Here’s why:

A co-operative is an enterprise where the workers and the owners are the same people. Each individual contributes their labor-power to the firm, as well as an equal share of the firm’s capital. Capital income is thus distributed evenly across the firm’s members, rather than accruing to distant capitalists. Let’s assume the following co-operative into existence: one with one hundred employees and ten million dollars worth of capital. Each employee provides 50,000 dollars worth of labor a year, and owns a share of the company equal to 100,000 dollars, paying some yearly dividend, which the firm votes on whether to reinvest or to distribute as income.

If the firm is considering hiring a new worker, a dilemma suddenly arises: Where does the new worker’s share come from? If the firm chooses the first horn of the dilemma, it gives the new worker an equal share of the firm’s capital, meaning that now each of the 101 employees has a share worth 99,009.90. Each employee lost a thousand dollars in order to hire this new employee. So the firm is incentivized not to hire new workers, even if it would increase the total revenue of the firm, because it would dilute the capital share of each pre-existing member of the co-operative. This is not a problem of democracy mind you. The issue is that the workers are required to give away something valuable for free. It’s the same issue as taxing capital income at 100%. Capital is not being priced, so it’s not being allocated effectively. Its owner can only ever either give it away for free, or keep it for themselves, so they will always do the latter unless taken by a fit of altruism. Jaroslav Vanek is pretty confident that this “never-employ force” was responsible for the chronic extremely high unemployment rate in Yugoslavia, which had an economy consisting of worker co-operatives. I think he is probably right.

The second horn of the dilemma is if the co-operative tries to price capital, and says, fine, we’re not giving away capital for free. From now on, new members must buy their share of capital. This is how Mondragon, the largest and most successful co-operative in the world, operates. Here is how the system is described in “Making Mondragon”:

 Neither members nor outsiders own stock in any Mondragon cooperative. Rather a cooperative is financed by members’ contributions and entry fees at level specified by the governing council [elected management board] and approved by the members. It is as if members are lending money to the firm. Each member thereby has a capital account with the firm in his or her name. Members’ shares of profits are put into their accounts each year, and interest on their capital accounts is paid to the members semi-annually in cash. […] Members share in the remaining profits in proportion to hours worked and pay level. […] From 1966 to the present, all shares in profits have gone into members’ capital accounts. […] Those unfamiliar with accounting terminology might assume that a member’s capital account consists of money deposited for the member in a savings bank or credit union […]. On the contrary, capital accounts involve paper transactions between the members and the firm. Real money is, of course, involved because management is obligated to manage the cooperative with sufficient skill and prudence so that the firm can meet its financial obligations to members if they leave the firm or retire. In practice, however, the financial contributions of members are not segregated from other funds but are used for general business expenses.

A similar system is in place in most other successful co-operatives. In the worker-owned pickle company Real Pickles, each employee has to buy a whopping 6,000 dollar membership share to join the co-operative. The problems with this horn are obvious. It’s no surprise that this system of corporate governance has not seen much success. Most unemployed people looking for work don’t have 6,000 dollars to spend. And the ones that do would be much wiser to invest that money in a different firm, to reduce risk. Worse still, the member-owner cannot sell their share until after they leave the company. They can’t just sell it on a secondary market and use the money gained for consumption like any other stockholder can. The second horn, if scaled up to a whole economy, would be nothing more than just capitalism again, except people are forbidden from buying shares in any company unless they work for said company, in which case buying a share is now mandatory. There is no benefit to this system whatsoever to anybody.

Except for this: management in worker co-operatives is elected by the workers, rather than by shareholders, meaning that the firm is run in the interest of the workers rather than the capitalists. In the spherical cow textbook economic model, this shouldn’t make any difference at all, because in the spherical cow world labor and capital are on entirely equal footing. In the real world however, the capitalists hold an enormous amount of market power that the workers don’t have. It's very easy to switch investments if you don’t like the returns a firm is giving you. It’s much harder to switch jobs when you don’t like how your boss is treating you. Selling labor has much much higher transaction costs. There is clearly an enormous advantage in providing management rights to those who provide labor to the firm rather than those who provide capital, even as a social-democratic reform in a capitalist society. The capital market could look the same as it does now, except all shares of companies would be non-controlling shares. This would accomplish the same things unions accomplish, but more elegantly. The workers would no longer even need to bargain for better conditions and pay. They could make the decision themselves, democratically, if doing so was in their interest. Also, economic profit and schumpeterian rents exist, and in a labor managed firm those rents would go to the workers, which is Good For Utility. This wouldn’t be socialism, but I think it would be an improvement over the current state of things.

[stackthedeck]

What are your thoughts on Ao3 as a whole? I am having a moral dilemma because it's great for tagging, a lot of my favorite creators use it, and it's better than Wattpad, but it also has some truly immoral shit that the site staff isn't doing anything about (like having to dodge past explicit underage mcu peter/adult tony)

I love this ask, thank you so much for sending it, but my answer is going to upset everyone. Like all my opinions on internet discourse, my answer can't be reduced to a pro and anti binary. The issue is complicated and nuanced. The ao3 is better than everything that came before it but it still has a lot of things I would like to see improved upon in the future.

TL; DR: The ao3 is born out of censorship in fandom and so is a free speech maximalist, it's an archive stop treating it like social media, I don't give a shit about the weird porn once you start censoring that you're going to censor art that is important, the real problem is the hate speech that thrives on that platform and it's weird that the conversation has been reduced to shipping discourse

So I have experience with every major fandom platform: Ao3 (obviously), Wattpad, Fanfiction.net, tumblr, and even live journal briefly although I never wrote or posted anything, just lurked. The thing about ao3 is that it is born out of a history of censorship. FF.net used to have these purges, your work would just be gone one day and it was usually explicit stuff and queer stuff which sucks and is obviously bigoted. But the purges happened to make the website more advisor friendly. I do not believe in censorship and I certainly don't believe in censorship for the sake of profit. Before there was ff.net there were fanfic websites that were fandom-specific, usually password protected and invite-only, and heavily moderated. It used to be very hard for fans to get their work out into the world. So the ao3 was born with a very explicit free-speech maximalist approach, post whatever you want we won't stop you. And I totally get that and I believe in this model. But unlike a lot of these older websites, ao3 has an intensive policy of positivity that seems to be completely accidental. No one comments meaningful constructive criticism much less calls out bigotry. Freedom of speech should protect you from the government and coporations (because I don't give a shit what the supreme court says they are not people) not from other citizens. You say some dumb shit, I'm going to tell you it's dumb shit.

okay so that's why ao3 is like that, but what are some pros of the website:

it's an archive. It doesn't have an algorithm, it has a filtering and tagging system and a really good one!! God do I wish my academic databases were half as good as ao3. This is another reason it doesn't censor content, it's more about preserving fandom than curating it. It's up to you to comb through the archive and decide what you want to read.

it's not a social media site! Like it is so rare for something online to not be controlled by an algorithm. I like that I have real and genuine control over what I read. I hate the way Wattpad has made fanfic into social media. The setup of it is so bad for critical engagement. Like you really really have to try to get any sort of meaningful feedback and what you post gets buried within an hour, god I hate Wattpad, and its stolen art and stories

it's a non-profit. FF.net ran ads. Wattpad runs ads and is selling your stories whether you like it or not. It's gross, it's terrible, and it's legally dangerous for fanworks. AND CREATORS DON'T SEE A PENNY OF THAT AD REVENUE! Yes, the ao3 takes donations but how that money is spent is public information.

it has a legal team. You don't have to worry about being sued anymore (I hope Anne Rice is spinning in her grave) and it's doing amazing work in expanding the power of copyright (seriously I had to study one of their cases for one of my poli-sci classes). the OTW is more than the ao3, it's also a field of scholarship, they have published a lot of great articles about fandom history and culture

okay now the cons

it is a monopoly. I use that term loosely because again it's a non-profit and I think the fact that it is only the half-decent fanfic website is a pure accident and the fact that they're the best at what they do. FF.net has been dying for years, Wattpad is terrible in every way, and every social media site has a word limit except for tumblr which whether we like it or not is dying and hostile to fan creators BECAUSE PEOPLE DON'T REBLOG THINGS. If you don't like the ao3 you basically have to stop writing fanfic

because it's an archive, and it's hard to interact with people. Yeah you have comments and kudos but there's no messaging system, you can't make friends on ao3

there's no blocking system or built-in permanent moderation system. I don't want to see content that's triggering or even mildly upsetting so I have to remind myself of it while I manually filter it out of my searches

there's genuine hate speech on that website and I don't think it deserves to be preserved as fandom history, especially with the same weight as other fanworks.

Like here's the meat of the question. "There's weird porn and bad ships on the ao3!" I don't give a shit. There's always going to be weird shit on the internet, sorry people are freaks and there's nothing you can do to stop them. don't like don't read. one of my favorite works on the ao3 has non-con, like a lot of non-con, and it is genuinely one of my favorite works of literature. But I'm using my critical thinking skills to understand that it is a horror story, brutal chest-bursting horror, not a romance. I read the story, I liked it, and I still believe that rape is bad, in fact, that has been cemented in my brain. I read Jane Eyre and I don't think women should be locked in the attic for being mentally unwell. The Great Gatsby is my favorite novel and I hate America and capitalism. I love Fahrenheit 451 and I don't believe in book burnings. Dark stories deserve to be told no matter what. It is up to you to decide if they have value and meaning. And guess what I despise Peter Parker/Tony Stark as a ship, but it still deserves to exist because it's not hurting anyone. Like it's ship discourse, it doesn't matter. This "think of the children, bad things can't exist" mindset isn't helpful. Like this is the mindset that conservatives bring to the don't say gay bills. From literary studies, education, and political science perspectives this mindset is dangerous. You can not say that art isn't allowed to exist because you personally find it distasteful because that is a flexible line. First, we're purging everything underage off ao3 (sure we've removed Starker, but also all the works that unpacked Peter's trauma around Skip Westcott) then it's everything incestuous, and then it's every kink you don't like, and shit we're back at the ff.net mentality.

but there's a big difference between ships you don't like and hate speech. Fandom has a racism problem and I have seen some genuinely terrible fics that treat characters of color terribly and not in a way that explores and unpacks racism, but in a racist way. There are works on the ao3 of Steve Rogers lynching Sam Wilson. Those works don't exist to add depth to Sam's character, they exist to make fans of color uncomfortable. THIS IS WHAT THE CONVERSATION SHOULD BE ABOUT! the ao3 has said that they don't want to draw a line because it's a slippery slope. And my stance is no, it's not. The line we draw is hate speech, feel like that should be obvious. People aren't writing underage ships to make children in fandom feel uncomfortable, they're doing it because the shipping options are limited, they think it's hot, they want to explore a trauma they lived through, they want to help someone else unpack their trauma, they are a child who feels mature for their age and has a crush on the older character etc. This is a non-issue. if underage stuff bothers you so much, go to your local library and demand they burn their copies of Lolita. The amount of impact a fanwork has is microscopic to culture as a whole. But fans of color routinely speak out about how fandom is not an inclusive space for them and it's bullshit that the ao3 won't stand up for them or even give them tools to make their fandom spaces safer.

[nealcassatiel]

Supernatural and Russia and the mess of Television Legal Contracts

One of the most important aspects of a television series’ life cycle is its distribution. It is in the stage of distribution when the production companies/studio recoup the largest amount of costs.

By looking at who distributes the show, as well as which companies stand to gain the most from distribution profits, we can gain greater understanding of the various complex agreements and finances at play.

Viewing Statistics in the USA, Russia, and other International Territories

Let’s take a look at where Supernatural is distributed, and it’s popularity in the countries in which it airs. 

After the US, in the past 30 days, Supernatural’s next biggest market is in Russia. The next is in Brazil. 

This got long - more under the cut (I’ll be talking about cuts shortly)

In Russia, Supernatural has been in the top 0.2% watched shows in Russia (link) . This is also the case in Brazil. 

In 2019, a modest survey was done on urban and rural Russians asking them what foreign television they watch. Supernatural was the 6th most mentioned foreign television show (link).

In 2017, Supernatural was three times more popular in Russia than it was in the US (link - this article has just a whole other host of information about it being popular amongst urban and rural US residents, as well as popular amongst both Republics and Democrats, however i haven’t looked further into that data so not going to discuss it much here)

So selling Supernatural to Russia and airing it in Russia is going to bring in a lot of revenue for The C*W and the production companies. That is a lucrative distribution territory and of a huge amount of importance to the network. Russia will air both new episodes, and reruns. Of course, if Supernatural made a queer love story a central premise, then execs are going to get scared that not only will the finale may not be aired in one of their biggest, if not their biggest market: Russia, but that the broadcasters who distribute the show in Russia might also pull the rest of the show and stop broadcasting reruns too. That’s a shit tonne fo distribution profits gone for The C*W, and who knows, maybe their relationship with Russian broadcasters who air their other shows will be on the rocks. After all, trying to sell gay tv to Russians right now is, sadly, never going to happen. This is not an indictment on the Russian viewers, but me saying that the show won’t be sellable to Russian broadcasters if it is too queer.

A huge huge majority of US Supernatural fans are progressive and wanted the more queer focused and found family ending. But the C*W and Warner believes that there are still enough US fans who don’t want something that progressive to be shown. They also know that one of their biggest markets is Russia, and Dean being shown to be bi will not go down well there. I’m just speculating, but The C*W may have looked at those chunks of audience who give them money and decide that they only care about those profits. 

The frustrating thing however, is that no matter the power of Russian Supernatural audiences, looking at the other progressive countries and the popularity of Supernatural there - these numbers as a collective outshine those of Russia. So maybe Russia isn’t that important. Or maybe all The C*W needed to think was ‘we don’t want to stop profits from our biggest international viewership’ and so they never even went further and thought about the collective viewership of the audiences from progressive countries. As I said at the start, distribution is where the companies who invested into making a show recoup the most costs. All the money that comes from distribution is incredibly important.

DISTRIBUTION AND CO-PRODUCTION AGREEMENTS

The writers, the crew, the actors, don’t really get the distribution profits. They may get small cuts of things or bonuses here and there, but they’re all essentially employed by the production company. It is the production company and studio who has sunken money into making the show who will get a cut of the distribution profits. So the production companies and co-production companies, the creator (maybe still if they had a good agent when they first sold the pitch), the network are all going to be the ones to care about how much a finale will matter to profits from showing reruns in less progressive countries. Dabb is an employee - he personally will be paid a fixed sum which is given to him by the production company. He does not care if SPN can’t be aired in Russia - that has no personal affect on him. He was paid to showrun the series and he’ll get nothing more even if it becomes the most watched anti-gay homophobic celebrated show in Moscow. He has no financial reason to cater to anyone. He’s just an employee. 

But if information like this, the knowledge that for multiple years TPTB have wanted Supernatural to cater to a non-progressive international and national audience for the sake of distribution profits, then the show should have never have taken the narrative to a place whose ending could not be green-lit.

If for the sake of these pofits and other secondary rights, for the sake of appeasing rural/southern USA viewers, and trying to keep an audience for Walker, The C*W derailed the final two episodes, then I still don’t fully understand why the ending was heading towards destiel when all of this distribution finance information has been known for many many years. 

It makes sense why such a terrible finale would happen, but it doesn’t make sense why up until episode 18, the entire narrative of the show was leading somewhere completely different? Why were the writers of SPN heading straight towards one thing, if they knew they always knew that they’d have to have a completely different ending? 

The Right of Final Cut / Final Cut Privilege

The answer may lie in the fact that The C*W wasn’t really paying that much attention to SPN, they couldn’t really see all the subtext, but suddenly the subtext all was going to become text and they were all twiddling their thumbs and looking for something to do during COVID when the industry shut down, so they suddenly got way more involved. 

Let’s quickly clear up who The C*W is and how they relate to SPN as a company. Supernatural lists The C*W as one of it’s distributers, but lists Warner Bros Television as a production company. When SPN started it was made by The WB (which is now The C*W). It’s all under Warner Media anyway, but we can basically say that Warner Bros Television (listed as a co-producer of SPN) is the sam as The C*W who is listed as a distributer of SPN. They’re essentially the same so The C*W is both producing and distributing SPN, as well as owning the format rights to the show - sorry that’s all complicated anyway The C*W are the big dogs who own Supernatural and have done from the beginning back when they were called The WB)

Essentially, The C*W have a co-production and distribution agreement for SPN. The power they have from that first agreement when they bought the show off Kripke is almost certainly still MASSIVE today. They are not only the ultimate distributers, but the ultimate producers with all the agreements and all the rights. 

Anyway, back to that first agreement: This was Kripke’s first big deal, and he almost certainly gave Warner Bros/The C*W a whole host of creative control in exchange for them sinking a shit tonne of money into making the show. Which makes me wonder if The C*W has something in entertainment law called “the right of final cut/final cut privilege”. If a studio or distributer has sunken a heck tonne of costs into making the series and are the ones who most need to recoup the distribution costs, then in their contract they may try to give themselves the ‘final cut privilege’ - essentially, this is the final edit. There’s the Director’s Cut, but then after that there is the Final Cut. The Final Cut is what is broadcast. Nowadays, most series and films don’t allow the directors to have final cut privilege anyway - it’s fairly rare from my understanding (one of my hats is a television legal contracts assistant, and all of these contracts still confuse me even though it’s an element of my job - I’m not trained in this outside of work so i apologise if this isn’t clear). The studio or distributer doesn’t even need to clear their final cut with the writer/director/producer. They can just do it. Cut it up and broadcast it, because they’re allowed to in their contract.

So with the finale episode being so short, a mess of montages, Carry on My Wayward Son versions back to back, a narrative mess, the pacing completely off, some scenes way too short and others way too long - this really could insinuate that the stupid clause of ‘the right of final cut’ was utilised by The C*W and without the need to get the permission or allowance of Dabb or even the other production companies, they edited everything they didn’t like out of the finale, citing their contract and the fact that they’re the ones who need to recoup distribution costs, and they don’t want to piss off large swathes of their national and international audience.

In Conclusion

So positives? Well, now that SPN is done and dusted, if there is a spin-off then this shouldn't affect distribution deals in Russia or Brazil. If whoever buys the format rights for Supernatural, allows The C*W to still sell the old series distribution rights, then market the new season of SPN not as a new season but a spin-off, then this will give them more freedom to not cater to the conservative international and national audiences SPN was beholden to due to distribution profits. What I’m saying is - a spin-off could free itself from catering to anyone who isn’t progressive. The old audiences can carry on showing reruns of SPN and completely ignore the new ‘fake’ gay spin-off. They can say that it’s a different production company, a different network - and therefore not the legitimate show. Great. Free SPN. 

A new format agreement could also mean that the new producers could ensure that not the distributer, but the director, or the new trusted production company themselves gets the Right of Final Cut. If another agreement is made, please please please take that right away from The C*W/Warner. 

The difficulty in getting the SPN rights would be caused by the mess of a Format Agreement to even get those rights... Supernatural is co-produced by Kripke Enterprises, Warner Bros. Television, Supernatural Films, and Wonderland Sound and Vision. I’m assuming Kripke Enterprises and Supernatural Films may be under Warner Media (as Warner Bros and The C*W itself is). If Jensen wanted to produce the new spin-off then his new production company is under WB/Warner Media too... so. Disentangling meddling and shitty Warner Media execs from a spin-off would be difficult because they own everyone. 

All in all, it’s easy to see now with that mess of a finale that this was caused with whoever has “The Right Of Final Cut/Final Cut Privilege’. And I HIGHLY doubt Singer or Dabb or any mere employee on the show has it. It’s more and more obvious to me that this power lies in the hands of The C*W/Warner and they didn’t even try to loop Dabb or the main cast in when making the final edits. I’m sure the C*W started to get involved at episode 19 and in the development stage of episode 20, but i’m certain they had a hand in the disastrous final cut. 

I hope we’re able to pry our beloved show out of the hands of those who don’t care about its narratives, but have more power than anyone to change the show’s narratives. Thanks for coming with me on this essay/me working out this complicated mess. It’s 00:50 and I'm super tired so I hope all this makes sense. Television contracts confuse me and I work with them so i dunno how clear any of this is. 

Anyway - I hope it was totally boring.  

[ask-hunterxhunter]

Can I have the trouble trio with a pregnant s/o? Hiw do they handle the pregnancy? How do they handle labor and holding their newborn for the first time.

Feitan

Pregnancy will be a huge surprise for Feitan. Oh, it’s not that he didn’t know it could happen, it’s just one of those things that seem to happen only to other people. Cue a mix of emotions, to the point he may not react for a second: Happiness, nervousness, insecurity… It will take a while for Feitan to get used to the idea. Yes, he is happy, he is, but he can’t imagine himself as a father, he isn’t sure he would be a good one… At the same time, he is just so excited and happy about this!

Few people would be able to notice this mess of emotions he’s going through (you being one of the exceptions) because Feitan would keep that cold self-control of his while secretly checking books about pregnancy and babies (something not even the most suicidal person would mock him for).

 Many would regard Feitan as an uninterested father-to-be since he would keep that cold attitude of his, to the point a few people would send him dirty looks while you’re out buying stuff for the baby and he seems almost bored. It’s not exactly the case… First, some of the things you’re checking do seem to be exactly the same, so whichever you pick is fine. Second, there will be times when his “any-of-those-is-fine” is not disinterest, but because he genuinely thinks that any of those options are good. And while it seems he just picked a few things at random and tossed them inside the cart, believe me, it was carefully chosen. Others won’t see it, but you know him enough to feel the warmth beneath his actions.

 This warmth, like always, is something you can only notice when you’re together. That’s when he will touch your stomach, perhaps whisper a few words to the baby (when he believes you’re sleeping)… Feitan will have the natural worries of a father-to-be and want to give you the best care he can.

 When it’s time for the baby to be born, well, nothing will keep him from being there in the room with you. Not that anyone will ask him to, since Feitan will (again) give the impression of a perfectly collected and calm person (perhaps even a little too much for certain people’s opinion), but it’s in the way he holds your hand, how he whispers to you and how he keeps looking from you to the doctor that shows he’s both excited and nervous.

 Once Feitan holds the baby for the first time… Well, it’s a moment to behold. It’s rare to see his features so soft, how his gaze becomes less severe, the way he smiles… It’s actually one of the very few times no one can tell he’s a sadistic murderer. Internally, he will swear to always be there for his child. It’s… Pretty sweet, actually. Perhaps a little weird/disturbing considering who Feitan is, but still.

 Now, while he never, and I mean never, doubts being part of the Spider, this doesn’t mean he isn’t aware of the complications involved in raising a baby when you’re a wanted criminal. No, I don’t mean “Oh, I want my child to be a good person, I should change my life around” style (please, have you met this guy?), but in the realistic sense: Moving around, staying away from you and the baby for long periods of time while he “works”, having to deal with those who hunt the Spider (he wouldn’t show it, but he would be terrified at the idea of Hisoka killing you or the baby), it’s simply not exactly the best.

 Feitan would not renounce the Spider, but he would try to balance things in the best way possible, such as not joining in any jobs during the baby’s first months, being there as you recover from giving birth, so on. And because the Troupe is so united, some of the members would offer help whenever they can.

 Phinks

He is kind of a “freaked-out-soon-to-be-dad” sort of guy (though he tries to hide it as best as he can). He may have thought about having children, but when it finally happens, it just catches him off guard. It’s not that he isn’t happy, far from it! So much that his first reaction is just to hug you! But the questions of pregnancy/fatherhood keep hitting him: There are so many things to buy. Oh, he needs to keep you safe, he can’t let those who hate the Spider find out about the baby. Will he be a good dad? He doesn’t know a thing about pregnancies, how can he help you? Oh, you need to find a good doctor. Wait, what if the baby doesn’t like him?  

 Those are normal questions, though, and you go through them together (just as with the same questions that may hit you). Whenever you’re in doubt or nervous, Phinks will be there to give you support, just like you do when he’s the one unsure about the future. Hey, being a thief and a murderer is one thing, being a father is… Is quite different.

 Those doubts don’t stop Phinks from being simply thrilled at the idea of being a dad at the end of the day. Oh, you don’t have to worry about him being the “embarrassingly-loud-and-excited” sort of person in public (c’mon, he has manners), but it’s pretty clear that he loves buying stuff for the baby with you, preparing the room, thinking about names… In those moments, he is not a murderer or a member of the Spider, he is simply a man in love who is expecting his first child. And while he also keeps his usual posture with the other members of the Spider, they can see he is over the moon with joy (a few members may even joke a little about it). Now, when he’s alone with you, there is often this goofy smile on his face when he touches your stomach and whispers to the bay. And when the baby starts kicking, Phinks is drunk with happiness.

 Speaking of which, while the last month approaches, Phinks becomes… A little (more) too excited/nervous. As the “predicted” day approaches, any moan or whimper from you will have him rushing to your side asking if it’s the time.

 So you can imagine how he gets when the actual day arrives. He’s there with the camera, all happy and while he won’t pester the doctors with every little detail, trying to tell them how to do their job, he is so nervous that you’d think he is the one giving birth (he tries to hide it and be calm for your sake, yes. Let’s just be honest: He fails). However, if it becomes too much and the doctors call his attention, Phinks will regain his self-control.

 When the baby is born, Phinks may hesitate to hold it… He is so used to hurt people and the baby looks so small and fragile that he fears he will hurt it by accident. It takes a gentle coaxing, perhaps you showing him to do it, but when he does it, it’s like something changes in him… You can see his eyes brightening, the way he smiles and gently talks to his child… He may not know how to be a father. His own childhood may not have been perfect (hey, he’s from Meteor City, does that seem like a place full of happy childhoods?), but damn if he won’t do his best for his child. It’s like, for that moment, he isn’t a murderer or a member of the Spider or anything, except for a man holding his baby for the first time.

 Like with Feitan, don’t expect the birth of a child to change his views, okay? The “change” mentioned is just how something (often) changes when a woman becomes a mother. It doesn’t strictly mean Phinks will become a good person and repent. Like with Feitan, he will try to balance his lifestyle and raising a child the best he can, but that’s it. Well, when you got together with him, you knew who he was, so you shouldn’t expect anything different.

 Shalnark

Shalnark will go from the “wait, what did you say” to “this is the best news ever” in a matter of seconds. Despite who he is, it’s kinda of cute (that innocent face of his do help). Maybe he wasn’t planning on having children, maybe he never thought about it, but he is thrilled when it happens (which may surprise him a little if he never considered it before, since Shalnark is not exactly a “family man” type). Once he processes the news, he isn’t sure he can wait nine whole months for the baby to arrive!

 Shalnark is at once completely on board about being a father, though he has no idea of how to do it (cue him buying lots of books and checking many sites). It gets to the point no one would ever suspect of him being part of the Spider when you’re out together buying things for the baby or visiting the doctor, especially when he offers that “good boy” smile of his.

 Of course he has the same worries that everyone else has (especially if/since this is his first child), but almost no one can notice it, except for you due to how well you know Shal. Yes, he is excited and confident most of the time, but there are always those moments when he can’t help but consider possible issues… It just happens. Now, when you two go out, he is that happy future dad that wants to buy just everything for the baby (and if he’s in doubt between two pieces of clothing? He buys both of them!), who can’t wait for the baby to start kicking… Again, many people watching from afar wouldn’t believe this guy is a member of the Phantom Troupe.

 Shalnark is not as reserved as Feitan and Phinks when he is with the other members of the Spider. During a job, he will be as focused and deadly as ever… As soon as it is over, while they check the profit and results, Shaknark will end up commenting about how you’ve been feeling, how he can’t wait for the baby to be born, how he can’t believe he will be a dad… Some members will find it kinda of cute (Shalnark knows how to make such a cute face that you just can’t be mad at him) and be happy for him, while others might hope the baby will be born soon just to see if he’ll shut up then. It’s not that he’s obnoxious or annoying about it, but some of them just aren’t interested in the whole “family” subject, you know?

 It might be surprising, but Shalnark can be sweet when he’s with you, so during those months he will love to have extra cuddle time, touching your stomach, thinking about the baby (hoping he will feel it move soon), imagining the future… And also already imagining training the little one to join the Spiders one day as well.

 When you start to give birth, Shalnark is actually rather good with it. He’s excited and a little nervous, yes, but as soon as you lay on the table, he stays at your side, holding your hand, talking calmly with you.

 When he sees the baby, he is already feeling that warmth of being a father… When you suggest that he holds it, however, he hesitates for a second before doing it. It’s a strange sensation for Shalnark: He is so used to see people as objects, to only care about the Spiders and you, that he is surprised at how his feelings suddenly hit him. It’s a bit like when he realized he was in love with you, but different. He slowly grows more comfortable with the baby in his arms, gently touches its face and tiny hands… So small, so delicate… For a while, Shalnark will just sit at your side, holding the baby. For once, he won’t be thinking about the future, about the Spider, or anything else that is not you and the baby.

 It's just for a moment and it won’t last (he will never stop being who and what he is, after all, no more than any of the others would), but it’s a sweet moment all the same.

[citadelspires]

Ducktales AU Concept Because My Brain Runs On Concepts I Can’t Finish:

Dewey actually waits for the signal to start the boat and they actually leave for Cape Suzette without Donald finding out. He believes they’re ready to be left alone for small periods at a time and while he is still hired on with Glomgold the obvious complications there happen and he simply just goes back to whatever he was doing, because Scrooge wasn’t reinvigorated by the kids and never ended up going to Atlantis in the first place. Cut to the ambiguously set point of over a year later, and we get the return of Della from the moon, but to a drastically different world than the one she comes back to in the show. (For the sake of the au I’m just gonna say the moon invasion doesn’t happen cause the point of this is to focus on the characters and the imminent and impossible to stop moon threat would actually be impossible to stop in this au). I’m just gonna go through the characters and where they’d be at in this setting.

The first, and arguably one of the most affected is  Scrooge: He never got back into adventuring due to the absence of the kids pushing him back into the business. He continues to be profitable and avoid Glomgold’s attempts on his life but he’s generally less cheery and interested in the world than he is in the show. He cares about money and he only cares about money. Everything and everyone else are a second thought to him. Like she does in canon Della makes for McDuck Manor immediately upon return to earth only to find that the only one waiting for her is Scrooge. He opens the door to find her and his initial reaction is joy at seeing her but a secondary reaction he feels poking at the back of his mind is one of shame that this is the state he’s in for her to return to, particularly when she asks him where her kids are and he just tells her he doesn’t know. There’s a look of betrayal in her eyes when she realizes that he just abandoned everyone and cut off every aspect of the life he used to have and she doesn’t even try to hide it. Scrooge wants to offer to come with her to find them but something holds him back and he doesn’t. She runs off to find them herself and despite everything he wants to the contrary Scrooge just goes to his office like he would any other day, knowing that the person he’s been missing for over ten years now is finally returned after he thought she was dead and here he is acting like nothing is different.

Launchpad is fun because he never has any reason for Scrooge to find out he’s a pilot. He tries to mention it to Scrooge occasionally, like we see in the first episode, but just like in that episode he’s always ignored. Not that Scrooge would have any adventures for Launchpad to take him to anyway. So Launchpad continues being nothing but Scrooge’s driver. And that’s enough for him because he’s Launchpad you know? And he still looks up to Scrooge a lot, but he’s never given the opportunity to grow close to him, or anyone really. Fittingly enough for Launchpad, he’s just been living life on autopilot for a couple years, not really expecting anything to ever change.

Webby has two distinct directions you can go and I chose to go for the sadder one. She continues to be shut in the mansion. I choose to take her speech in the first episode about how she hasn’t ever left literally and say that Beakley kept her there her entire life. The possible other direction I mentioned is one where she only grows more anxious and hopeful to see the outside world and she’s basically just even Webbier than she already is. But that’s less angsty and enjoyable for me to mess with so instead I’m gonna go with she hit this wall at some point in the year or so between when she would have met HDL and when Della comes back from the moon. The weight of being alone starts to get to her and she starts to wonder if all her optimism and hopes are just a poor defense system put up to let her pretend she’s gonna have a better future than the life she’s got. She also makes continuous attempts to interact with Scrooge but the more he lets age settle in and distance himself from adventures the less she feels engaged with his existence. He starts to feel to her not like an idol or a model to live her life by but like a living, breathing symbol of how her hopes and positivity are shallow and baseless. Cause Scrooge McDuck was the only thing that kept her going for years and this is nothing like the hero she read about. But that’s the thing. She’s only really read about him. As far as anything heroic goes. So she reaches the final breaking point of all of this and decides that Scrooge is a fake and leaves behind her signature bright, bubbly attitude on life. This is the state she’s in when the story starts, to the point where a scene happens at some point after she gets drawn into the plot where she’s been outside of the manor now and Dewey offers her a hamburger and she says it looks disgusting.

Lena never got the chance to become friends with Webby and get her route into McDuck Manor. But that also means she never got the chance to learn about being good from the literal goodest person in the universe. She isn’t interested in doing the right thing and not hurting Scrooge or anything she’s just following Magica’s orders cause that’s what she’s being forced to do. But as part of the whole thing where she hasn’t got an in route into the manor she also hasn’t gotten any means of being successful in really any capacity in this endeavor. As a result Magica has... not. been kind to her. So while she isn’t evil she’s been living as magica’s meat puppet with the witch constantly in her head tormenting her for her failures for months on end and she was already morally ambiguous to begin with. So she’d take out Magica in a heartbeat if she could but there’s nothing that says she wouldn’t just explode afterwards.

Mark Beaks never had his B.U.D.D.Y. contested because Launchpad was never told about the self driving car and even if he had been he didn’t have the standing with Scrooge to make a difference and he didn’t have Dewey to help him make the declaration. As a result the product went up without any hitches. It was a massive success until BulbTech kicked in, turned evil, and suddenly it wasn’t. Anyone who could afford a B.U.D.D.Y. was using one, and the results were catastrophic. Not even Beaks had enough good press and money to pay for all that. He narrowly avoided prison but he was never taken seriously or given any chances to build up a company again. He still lives his life stealing technology and messing with inventions as he always did but now he does it a lot more illegally, a lot more dangerously, and a lot less sanely. Most devastatingly though, he gets like, no good press. People won’t even be caught dead following his twitter. He’s living his worst nightmare and he’s going to do whatever it takes to change that.

Gyro fires Fenton for leaking BulbTech on the internet and never looks back. He continues the work that Scrooge wants him to do and Fenton never drives him to push the envelope or do anything even close to what Gizmoduck becomes. He continues with his own dangerous projects and ideas but he does play it safe for some time. He’s content to just be making stuff, and Scrooge is content to just have stuff made for him. But he also never really gets to unleash that, well, part of Gearloose where he’s got a gear loose and it seems like he might just snap and make something really wild any day now.

Fenton never had to become Gizmoduck that iconic first time, so he just. Didn’t. The armor was left in its development phase as it was, and Fenton was never even considered to be the man in the suit when it reached testing. And it was only used for the menial tasks Gyro originally designed it for, as Fenton was the only one who had come up with the idea to use it for Gizmoduck at all, and he’s not there anymore, not that Gyro would listen to him anyway. Though it wasn’t as if Scrooge was in any state of mind to be hiring any superheroes in the first place. So Fenton continues trying to find some way to make a difference in the world with his intelligence but it... never really pans out.

Drake gets the role in the Darkwing movie, as in canon, as Scrooge is still interested enough in money to listen to the proposition for the film and try it out. The visit Launchpad has with Jim goes as his visits always do, and the fact that Dewey isn’t there to assist with Launchpad and attract Jim’s attention means Jim just gives up and leaves as soon as Launchpad faints, not even listening to what Drake is trying to tell him. So Jim never finds out about the movie until it’s already released, and Drake experiences no opposition in the filming, barely even remembering his one interaction with Launchpad at all. Scrooge cuts the budget for the finale but lets the movie go through anyway, despite his better judgement, mostly because he already spent the money. It’s a commercial and critical disaster and Drake’s acting career never gets off the ground, and he never has the inspiration to become Darkwing for real.

Donald continues to live just as we see him in the first episode, doing his best to support his kids while bouncing from job to job because he just can’t hold one down for any length of time. Life is hard for him but it’s the same as he’s always known it for the past ten years so he’s used to it, and having the kids with him is always enough for him.

Huey continues to make a name for himself in the Junior Woodchucks (i.e. robotics champion four years running) but he never really gets the chance to light the fire under his curiosity and love of knowledge. He learns as much as he can but it’s only as much as he’s ever been told he can. He learns within the boundaries of school and the Junior Woodchucks and that’s kind of enough for him because he never considers how much he could learn beyond the boundaries of how things have always worked. 

Dewey is as desperate to be famous and appreciated as he always is, and Dewey DewNight is most certainly still a thing, but it’s even less viewed and interesting than it is in canon. He’s not letting himself get disheartened but he looks at the way Donald lives on a boat and can’t hold a job and wonders if that’s what he’s gonna be someday. If despite all of his efforts and aspirations he’s going to end up falling at every turn and there’ll just be nothing he can dew about it. He doesn’t let it weigh him down too much but he’d be lying if he said it didn’t keep him up at night sometimes.

Louie is actually doing amazing. He’s living his best life. He’s lazy and scheme-y, still doing things like plotting that venture to Cape Suzette we see in that first episode, but he never has to wonder about his usefulness or place in the family, cause it’s just him, Dewey, and Huey, along with Donald. Donald is unemployed half the time, Huey is gonna be some big genius scientist guy sure, and maybe Dewey’s gonna get big someday but right now they’re just kids, and there’s absolutely nothing that makes Louie feel like that’s not enough. He doesn’t do as much here, there’s not any schemes that will make him rich or any Louie Inc, but the seeds of those ideas are still in his soul somewhere, he’ll find them when he needs them he’s pretty sure.

And that’s all the characters that I can think of to get into off the top of my head. I really just did this for fun so I don’t know if I’ll ever be doing anything else with it but these are all the ideas I got. Feel free to ask me about them or anything I’m just havin fun with it.

[sokayisaidiot]

Dream SMP Assumption #8

Today’s topic: Heart or Mind way?

Please DO NOT read if you’re uncomfortable with the themes of death, depression and suicide. It’s a very complicated theme. I did NOT study it and do NOT know some aspects of it. I just go off the things I saw in the smp and made my own theories about it. If you’re even slightly triggered by this, please stop and do NOT try to read it. Please do NOT put yourself in some kind of uncomfortable zone.

Please do not. Thank you

(This is all assumptioning from the fictional world of dream smp)

(Heavy spoilers on the resent events)

(Also just assumptions, when you know something, you can always drop it :))

(This Series is created by another person, that’s just too fuckin lazy to move her butt)

Trigger warning today:

Death

Hints of the betrayals

Okay- what I’ve wanted to say-

is when you like a character, it mostly is because they are relatable. And that’s sad, because when other people are just straight out say this character sucks. Then you just think, “Hey! I feel relatable to them! You just say I suck too!”

Have my Analys why you maybe like your character so much and why you shouldn't shit on others! Because thats just hella rude!

For me, it’s tommy. I find myself in the situation often he is in. Hell, he has two older brother figures and one sarcastic dad figure (for me it’s my mum). As tommy has his deep and undestructable love with the disks, I have my connection to my teddy bears. I mean I’m nearly sixteen now, but when I think going without my teddy somewhere, i will protest and I will beat up people if they try to destroy them. Or for nihachu, being a woman in a world full of men who think they need to guide her, when she is completely able to guide herself! But that doesn’t mean I agree with his/her actions.

It’s important too understand how you act and why you don’t agree with some things!

Other people feel relatable with their favorite character because they make the same decisions. One of My brothers have the same mindset as technoblade. They act the same and make the same desicions. My other brother is the same way with Wilbur.

--------

I will not say here that they all think just in this ONE direction, but how they act in general ways. And this is not any hate against any character, since its actually a analysis and I really feel connected to most of them in some way!

Tommy is a heart person. He thinks with his emotions and that’s why his plan are more improvised and thinks of people first and then the product. Seeing him acting for tubbo and then for the discs. Or him going rescuing Niki and then fighting when he knows he can act out with her being safe. With his emotional way he also makes the brashest decisions. His emotions bring him often into danger and make him a perfect weapon.

Heart people also are

Puffy, with thinking first of the children and even going against a friend and power. Her goal is to destroy something which is planned to be destroyed later, but doing it beforehand since it hurts others. But with her age, she has more knowledge than tommy and CAN act with a plan and not just improvising.

Sapnap is also a heart person. He acts out of emotions and like Tommy, makes many times rash decisions. He likes doing improvised things and jumping into action from a simple order. Not like Dream, who scouts everything out or does one plan after thinking of millions of ways of outcomes.

Phil also thinks with his heart. He just sees children and adopts them. He also carries pain like from when he killed Wilbur. He does make many mind decisions, but most of them come from experience. And with the way he didn’t outright went after the axe of peace, which would have been a logical decision, he didn’t attack Tommy.

Niki is part of the heart people. It’s obvious like we all know. She sees the peoples feelings first and then plans out. When she saw her fox getting killed by sapnap, she let her emotions handle out first. She is also a very forgiving person and a big hearted person. When she is hurt, it will take a long time for her to figure it out. Like she stated, her character has a hard time coping with everything and instead of letting her mind sort it out, she goes against another person. Tommy in this case.

Eret at the start was a mind person, with their decision of seeing something like power first and then the people and also making full fletched and thought plans. But with them deciding to go against Dream (Manberg vs Pogtopia War and losing his crown and later fighting against Dream and protecting Tommy and Tubbo) because of their decision to listen to their heart first. They changed to listen to their hearts, instead of really thinking of their own valuable

Wilbur is through and through a heart person. His emotions made him go insane in the end and the deep emotional bond to Tommy was his unfinished business. He thinks for the country that he makes home for the others and will take his friends dear too him, when they are in danger. He will not hesitate to take a bullet for them or put their safety over his. Looking at, when he stood up to Schlatt, protecting Niki in the process of the crossfire.

Jack Manifold is a very emotional person. He takes things to heart and can't really think with the most logical way. He will remember things you do or did. Like when Tommy killed him and he lost all of his stuff, he was very and is still very angry. He thinks of revenge and the way people forget that he is also pretty young.

For Technoblade, its really seeable that he is a mind person. He barely handles out of emotions. It can be, because he thinks it’s like a weakness, showing his open emotions. He sees his ideals before the heart way. Like how L’Manberg was in the end a big part corrupted. When his emotions gets too much, he will act them out in fletched out plans.

Other mind people are

Dream is PRETTY much the biggest mind person out there with Techno. He thinks through seeing his plans. Like said with how he plans everything through and being always ten steps ahead. His cockiness about his own mind thinking bring his plans to fall. He has a quick thinking pace and also a learn Strats in the moment he fights against his opponent. Which hello? This just screams of a mind, that manipulators take on.

GeorgeNotFound has a clear mindset. He doesn't care about others when its not close people to him, or just doesn't care at all. Hense for all that housebuilding to himself while Pogtopia fought against Manberg. He takes things he feels, makes him more powerful.

Purpled. He thinks through his money. He didn’t question the quest he got and cares about the profit. He has the job of assassin, which just screams of profit and not any heart emotions involved. As a Assassin, you aren't allowed to handle out of emotions. It gives you disadvantage when you show pity against your target.

Badboyhalo sees power now. With the eggplot, he changed from a heart person too a mind person. He sees from the egg a win and got that way manipulated. The egg, which I think possesses him (but thats just me and my crazy thinking mind) Let him make Mind decisions. With who would be good for the Eggpire and who would be dangerous.

Punz has the same way as Purpled. Thinking through the winning situation. He does things when it profits him. He sees a right payment and he will act out on that. Seeing that it is always payment to have him on your side. Or also, when the battle of the lake/tower happened, he choose the winning side, which was obviously Techno and Dream.

Jschlatt is a mind person, Mind you! He saw a way of getting power and he knows how to play it out (not thinking about the drinking part). He saw the threats of Wilbur and Tommy and made the mind decision of exiling them. He thinks of his own profit, without letting his emotions work out.

Tubbo is one of the cases where he has both ways! Surprise! He AINT a “UwU boy”, because he can make brash decisions but thinking in high situations quickly or logically. He makes nukes for gods sake! And with the logical way, he knows when its impossible to win, like when Tommy and him where in Dreams “Hall of Fame”. In Moments he WILL think positively or bring someones else happiness over himself. The discs and Dream Situation! He thinks about his friends and new home, but makes plans on how they can be safe through logic ways.

The people who think both ways

HBomb94 is in there too, because he is really cool. Okay? Good. And the funny thing is, he is kinda both. We saw him, before Doomsday, thinking about the logical way of the situation. In other, when he decided to go away, because he doesn't feel he belongs somewhere, he thinks with his heart, even though, other members respect him AND care about him

Awesamdude is here too because its seeable in the ways where he cares about others and still thinks with a plan. Seeing Tommy’s and Tubbo’s protection and his hotel with a heartfelt decision, as well as trying to help Tommy’s mental state, while still getting his own profit out of it logically, is pretty smart. Props to c!Awesamdude!

Ranboo. He makes decisions like following people first or not choosing sides which is big logically, but his emotions, like being loyal to those who have saved or helped him are heart felt. He doesn't choose sides because he knows that all the sides bring bad conflicts with them and still stays with others for them.

Fundy has both! The Fox can be very hurt or make rash decisions from his heart. But his mind also goes with it, like deciding that he actually liked a big part of Jschlatt’s Plan. He needs a bit of time to calm down of the emotional side, but when he is, he is one of the most clever people on the server, like a fox, you know. Okay, please end me-

Quackity has a more wavering state to heart, but making decisions like taking Jschlatt’s side by the elections and seeing his own profit out of it. After seeing Jschlatts wrong doings how so ever, he did what his heart told him to do and he joined the rebellion.

Ponk has both ways. If he sees profit, he will take the situation. A logical mind set. But also when both Tommy and Tubbo fighting Dream he came with the group to help them, giving Tommy a HUGE FUCKIN AMOUNT of DIAMOND BLOCKS, he makes them a grave out of hearts decision for the soon or already dead people and visits Awesamdude, since they are good friends.

Antfrost who actually has a way of thinking with both heart and mind. When he sees a win situation for him only, he will make it. The whole getting more land to themselves and also the eggplot. But he also makes decisions like letting Niki go when she was their hostage, because he feels it’s wrong.

-----------

I want to hear who you feel relatable too- which character which way? Is it because you act the same, make the same decisions or just are often in the same place? Just comment here!

That’s where I think people will protect their favorite character. Yeah, there are many people who act like Tommy’s character or think like techno’s. Nobody is the same, that’s impossible.

So please don't attack other characters ways of thinking or handling, only if it is something so morally incorrect or wrong (MANIPULATING, KILLING, Hostage situation, total destruction)

[kjack89]

‘tis the damn season

Listen I’ve just been straight up vibing with the newest TSwift album over the past couple days and this more or less wrote itself. May inspire a part two at some point, but for now, E/R, modern AU, former relationship-ish. And not exactly a happy ending.

Enjolras’s shoulders were hunched as he sat on a barstool, surrounded by holiday revelers who all seemed to greet each other with the merriment expected of the season. He felt anything by merry, sitting in the shitty bar in his shitty hometown while his parents attended one of their upper class holiday parties.

“You really have to go?” Enjolras had asked, moodily, as he flopped down on his parents’ couch earlier that evening, sounding like he was still a teenager stuck at home while his parents went out.

His father had just grunted, and his mother had absently patted his head as she brushed past, pulling her coat on. “We always go to the Weinbergs’ Christmas party.”

Enjolras had scowled. “The Weinbergs are Jewish.”

“Their holiday party, then,” his mother had said, sighing. “And it would do you some good to get out of the house as well. Unless you really do intend for this Christmas to be a repeat of your high school years.”

She’d had a point, and so Enjolras had put on a cashmere sweater and his nice jeans and the pair of boots he’d spent a small fortune on before pulling on his red woolen coat and heading to the bar downtown, half-hoping and half-fearing he’d run into some old high school classmates.

Thus far, the evening had been a bust, and Enjolras sighed again, picking at the label of his beer. “You good or you want another?” the bartender asked, and Enjolras snorted lightly.

Truthfully, the answer to both questions was no, but he didn’t tell the bartender that. “I’m gonna close out, actually,” he said, pulling his wallet out from his inside coat pocket and slipping a twenty across the bar. “Keep the change, and happy holidays.”

He didn’t bother draining the last bit of beer from his bottle, instead heading outside and shivering as he stepped into the cold. It had dropped a few degrees since he’d arrived at the bar, and he tugged the collar of his coat up in a vain attempt to stop the winter chill. 

He rubbed his hands together and started off in the direction of his parents, stopping in his tracks when he heard a voice like something from a dream calling after him, “Hey Enjolras!”

Turning, Enjolras stared at the hauntingly familiar sight of a dark-haired man smiling crookedly at him. “Grantaire?” he asked, barely trusting himself to speak. “Is that really you?”

“It’s really me,” Grantaire confirmed, taking a step towards him, and Enjolras shook his head slowly, trying to believe it. “It’s been awhile.”

“Ten years, give or take,” Enjolras confirmed, looking Grantaire up and down. “You look—”

“Pretty much exactly the same?” Grantaire supplied with a wry chuckle. “Right back at you, Apollo.”

Enjolras barked a laugh at the old nickname. “And I see that hasn’t changed either, though I can’t say I feel like I embody the god of youth anymore.”

“Well, you always were an old soul.” Grantaire hesitated, as if he wasn’t sure what to say next. “I was just heading out when I saw you, but if you wanted to grab a drink—”

“Oh, uh, no thanks,” Enjolras said. “I’ve had my fill of the Musain at this time of year.”

Grantaire half-smiled. “Some things never change,” he said, backing away slowly. “Anyway, I wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas, so – Merry Christmas, Enj.”

Enjolras forced a smile. “Happy Holidays, R.”

Grantaire laughed lightly. “Like I said, some things never change.”

He turned to go but stopped when Enjolras said, without knowing what possessed him to do so, “Some things do. I know I’ve changed.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Grantaire said lightly as he turned back, a small smile curving the corners of his mouth. “Still turning down alcohol and looking like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

“In my defense, the last time I turned down alcohol when you offered it, I was 17.”

Grantaire cocked his head. “Not true. I saw you when you came back for Thanksgiving your senior year of college, and you were legal then.”

Enjolras rolled his eyes. “You saw me when I was in the grocery store with my mother. Not exactly the right time to ask if I wanted to get a drink.”

“You underestimate just what I consider the right time to grab a drink,” Grantaire said easily, and Enjolras felt the breath catch in his throat at how familiar this was, their banter, their gentle – and not-so-gentle – teasing, even after all these years.

He may have arrived at his parents’ place two days prior, but for the first time since arriving in the town where he grew up, Enjolras felt like he was home.

He realized that Grantaire was looking at him expectantly and shook his head to clear it. “Sorry?” he said.

“I said, your teetotaling ways aside, you do still have that familiar look like someone who’s got a lot on his mind,” Grantaire said patiently.

Enjolras sighed and scrubbed a gloved hand across his face. “You could say that,” he muttered.

Grantaire nodded. “Saving the world’s gotta be exhausting,” he offered, and Enjolras let out a dry, humorless laugh.

“I don’t know if I’d call overseeing a merger between two multibillion dollar corporations saving the world…” He trailed off, flushing slightly at hearing it out loud. “Well, let’s just say that I’m not here entirely voluntarily. The deal I was brokering fell through, and my firm’s making me take some time off until the new year.”

Grantaire’s expression was unreadable. “Multibillion dollar corporations?” he asked, his tone flat. “Brokering deals? I thought you were going into civil rights law.”

There was no hostility in his tone but Enjolras still felt immediately defensive. “I was,” he said. “I mean, I am. But law school, as it turns out, is expensive, and civil rights attorneys don’t exactly make a lot of money, so I decided to get my start in corporate law until I could pay off my loans and build up some cash reserves before I made the jump into the non-profit side of things.”

Grantaire cocked his head. “Weird,” he remarked, and Enjolras frowned.

“What?”

“Your mouth is moving but it’s your father’s voice that I’m hearing.”

Enjolras’s flush deepened. “Hilarious,” he snapped, tugging his coat closer around him as if it were a defense mechanism. “Sorry that the real world is a little more complicated than I apparently realized when we were in high school.”

“And now you sound like me. At least your ventriloquy skills have vastly improved over the last decade.”

Enjolras’s jaw clenched and he looked away, staring at a mound of snow on the sidewalk as if he could melt it with the force of his glare alone. “Well, sorry to disappoint you,” he said, his tone brittle.

Grantaire sighed. “Did I say I was disappointed?” he asked, and Enjolras glanced back up at him.

“You just said I sounded like my father and a cynic,” he spat. “I assumed both those things would be disappointing to you.”

Grantaire just shrugged, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “You were always the one with unreasonably high expectations, Enj,” he said, sounding tired. “So if anyone’s disappointed here, it’s not me.”

This was familiar, too, but not the same warm familiarity as before. This was an ugly familiar, dredging up memories that Enjolras had spent the past decade trying to forget, fights that had long since passed but had never quite been resolved. His reasons for leaving; Grantaire’s reasons for staying. A confession from Grantaire that Enjolras had never let himself reciprocate, at least not out loud.

Old wounds that had never quite healed, old roads that Enjolras had never quite let himself take.

And standing where he stood now with the benefit of hindsight, Enjolras wasn’t sure he fully remembered why not.

“Anyway,” Grantaire said, backing away again, “like I said, I just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas, for old times’ sake, and—”

“We should meet up,” Enjolras said abruptly, and Grantaire looked at him, startled. “Hang out, I mean. While I’m in town.”

“Why?”

Grantaire sounded more curious than accusatory, and Enjolras shrugged. “Do I have to have a reason?” he asked, with a half-smile.

A smile that Grantaire did not return. “Since we’re not in high school anymore and I no longer ask ‘how high’ when you say ‘jump’...yes.”

Enjolras’s smile disappeared. “Fine,” he said coolly. “For old times’ sake.”

“Fine,” Grantaire said, matching Enjolras’s tone with something of his old defiance. “Let’s meet up. Your parents’ place or mine?”

Enjolras blinked, taken aback. “You still...live with your parents?” he asked hesitantly.

“No.”

“Then why…?”

“Because I no longer live here,” Grantaire said. “I’m just home for the holidays to see my folks.” 

“Oh.”

The single syllable said more than Enjolras could possibly have put into actual words, and Grantaire nodded. “Yeah,” he said, clearing his throat. “Turns out there wasn’t anything keeping me here either.”

Enjolras flushed, recognizing his own words from a decade past, hating that he remembered them, and hating that Grantaire remembered them even more. “Right,” he said, a little hoarsely. “So, uh, where are you at these days, then? What are you up to?”

“Do you care?” Grantaire didn’t ask it unkindly but Enjolras still flinched, and looked away. “Well. If you’re serious about wanting to meet up, you know where to find me. For the next few days, at least.”

He turned to walk away, and before Enjolras could stop himself, he blurted, “Grantaire?” Grantaire stopped, and, almost as if he didn’t mean to, glanced over his shoulder. “Are you happy?”

Grantaire’s breath fogged the air in front of him, hiding his face from view for a moment. “Yeah,” he said finally. “I’m happy.”

 It took everything in Enjolras’s power not to ask the questions he so desperately wanted to – happier than when you lived here? Happier than when we were in high school? Happier than when you and I—

Happier than you and I could have been?

But in the end, he knew he didn’t want to know the answer.

So he stuck his hands in his pockets and ducked his head, tracing the toe of one of his too-expensive and not-nearly-warm-enough boots through the snow. “I’m glad,” he said, glancing back up at Grantaire. “You deserve to be happy.”

For a moment, Grantaire’s expression softened, and it almost looked like he was going to ask Enjolras the same question. But whether it was the cold getting to him, or the years that stretched between them, he ended up just nodding. “Yeah,” he said. “Anyway. Like I said, Merry Christmas. I’ll see you around.”

“See you around,” Enjolras echoed, watching as Grantaire turned and walked away from the bar, from him, and from what could have been.

Then he turned as well, and trudged in the opposite direction, alone.

[treatian]

The Chronicles of the Dark One: Magical Loopholes

Chapter 39:  Villain Hunting

Dove was working for him again. Not happily, but he'd take what he could get. The man had appeared in his shop the morning after he left the message with a grimace on his face that said he'd rather be anywhere else in the world but a stance that suggested he was ready to work. That was convenient for him because he had a job for him. He'd kept Smee overnight, but now he'd overstayed his welcome. He had a plan for letting him go back out into Storybrooke, one that would ensure that if Hook was here and he knew where he was, then he'd find him. But that plan had hinged on the dove before him standing there. How lucky for him that his accomplice knew how to use his brain.

"It's good to have you back in my services, Mr. Dove."

"It's not like I have a choice, as you so kindly reminded me."

That was true. During the Curse this had been Dove's only job, and he, and his family, had profited greatly from it. He could have found another job now that the Curse was broken, but one that would pay as handsomely as he did and come with a rent-free lifestyle for himself and his parents? Doubtful. Very doubtful. So here he was, taking instructions once more. In five minutes, he informed his employee, a man in a red hat would come around the corner of his shop. Dove's job was to follow him for a couple of days. He wanted to know where he was going, who he was seen with, and he especially wanted to know if he was ever seen in the company of a man with a hook for a hand.

Dove agreed for his usual reimbursement and when the man stepped outside he saw him take a step, then fall into the air as a white dove soared away where the man had once been. He'd smirked. Dove wasn't pleased to be back with him, but he imagined that being able to do that again, to fly off in a different body and perch on a roof, certainly worked in his favor.

He released Smee a few moments later. The man was alert but obviously exhausted from a night in his basement. He smelled of sweat and piss and fear as he untied his bonds. "Now you listen to me," he growled menacingly as he worked. "I'm gonna let you go now, and you are going to go tell any of your old friends and crew mates that the girl you tried to take is off-limits. She's under protection of the Dark One. She's not to be touched, harmed, or even gawked at from across the street. Stay clear of her, stay clear of her library. Do we understand each other, Mr. Smee?"

The man had nodded vigorously and the second he motioned toward the open door he was up and out. He ran for his freedom like it might disappear if he wasn't fast enough, but he had no idea that he wasn't free. Not truly. Dove was watching. He was certain of this because twenty minutes after he'd freed him, he received a call from him.

"You want me to follow Barrie Kensington?"

Barrie Kensington…was that who he was here? The name didn't ring a bell, no property leases came to mind, no history. But Dove had said the name so easily…

"You know him?"

"Who doesn't?"

"How do you know him?" he questioned. "What does he do?"

"He gets things," Dove answered as if it was obvious and he should have known, like he was surprised he needed to tell him. "Guy's a mouse, but he's resourceful. Half the time you've wanted me to find you something, it's because I've gotten it from him."

William Smee, procurer of hard to find objects, was Barrie Kensington, also a procurer of hard to find objects. Sometimes he thought the Curse outdid itself.

"Have you ever seen him in the company of a man, tall, one hand?"

"Can't say I have, but he works with damn near everyone, and I've never followed him before."

"Your friend Scarlet, he's known for some of the same things, can you see if he has knowledge of him and a friend he might have with a hook?"

"No can do," he answered. "Scarlet has been missing since the Curse broke, no one has seen him and he's not answering his phone."

Shit. He'd never particularly cared for Scarlet. He had kept him on his payroll during the Mary Margaret situation and he knew that the boy was good for giving information to Dove when he needed him to. He hadn't a clue where he'd disappeared to and he didn't really care. But he did lament not having the information he needed.

"Where is Smee now?"

"Home," the Dove answered. "He went right to his apartment." No surprise there, after a night in his basement he'd probably need to shower, sleep, and eat before he went about his way. He could allow him that concession.

"Stay on him, Mr. Dove. If he meets a man with one hand call me immediately and if he goes anywhere near the library…don't let him get in the front door."

"Fine," he agreed in an unfriendly tone.

"Hm…no 'got it, boss'? Even for old times?"

There was nothing but silence on the other end. It only made him smirk.

"I see you've learned to fly again," he mentioned idly, as if he was trying to initiate chit chat, a habit he never engaged in without reason.

Dove promptly hung up the phone without answering. He chuckled as he put his phone back in his pocket and returned to his own work. He had to admit, he enjoyed people who knew their place in their relationship but refused to accept it, refused to be frightened or scared of him. Those who were weaker standing up to him left him amused and intrigued. Belle had been one of those people; Jefferson and Ruby were like that too. Now it seemed that Dove would be joining their ranks. He was rather looking forward to the entertainment that would bring. He needed entertainment, considering the dull hole not having Belle at home had left in his life.

He hadn't been back there, not to stay, not really. That first night he couldn't bring himself to go when she was in the library, alone and vulnerable. So, he'd stayed in the shop that night and over the course of the next few days he'd begun to make a habit it out of it. During the day he worked in the shop like he normally would, taking calls and text messages from Dove who reported that Smee seemed to be following instructions. The docks, the bowling alley, The Rabbit Hole Bar, Granny's, even the Middle School…Smee paid visits to all of them after he was released, it was the same story each place.

"I don't know what to tell you," Dove informed him on one call. "He goes in, he talks to someone, he leaves, he goes to the next place and does it all over again. So far, no one has had a hook for a hand."

Dove was confused; he saw it with clarity. Smee was simply doing what he'd asked him to do, going to his old crew mates and friends, delivering the warning he'd told them to. He was aware that doing that could potentially put Belle at risk, but he also knew that no one without a substantial amount of power would dare to attack a woman under his protection. With the protection spell he'd placed on the library, he'd know if anyone like that tried anything. Fortunately, few people came and went at the library, and he could feel that no one with power greater than Ruby dared to enter. Belle was safe, but that didn't stop him from spending every night in his pawnshop. Just in case.

It wasn't entirely bad. During the day he could do his usual work and during the nighttime, that was when his real work began. At night his work room transformed into his own little workshop, just like he had in the basement, only he found himself forcing himself to take a break from his spell for the town line. There were other things he needed to do.

Smee's attempt, futile as it had been, had scared him. There were so many, many dangers in this world, so many enemies, he never wanted to be caught off guard again. For the first night, he tried to find as many as he could. He didn't have a crystal ball, but he could pour water into a cauldron, add the proper ingredients, and ask it for images. The first he pulled up, his test image, was of Belle. She was in the library, sitting in a chair with a book in her lap, clearly asleep. She was safe. But only if he could keep her that way.

He tried searching for Hook next, but nothing came into the cauldron. He tried to summon an image of Zelena only to experience the same results…nothing. Smee had said that Hook wasn't here, that he wasn't in this world. That would make sense. The cauldron could only summon images of this world. To test that theory, he requested an image of August Booth. This time the cauldron gave him an image. There he was. A man made of wood, sleeping in a bed located in some kind of cramped and messy room. But where that messy room was…he couldn't tell. That was the problem with the cauldron, it could summon images, but it couldn't tell him the location of individuals, he would only know where they were if he recognized the place and unfortunately, he hadn't a clue where that room August was in was, and his magic kept taking him into the forest.

But there was another way, an old-fashioned method used for location…scrying. It was old and it involved maps. For that reason alone, it was complicated. The magic could work, but if it didn't have the right map, then it would be useless. And scrying could be done with crystals and head magic…but it was stronger with blood and heart magic. Still, he had to try. For Belle's sake.

He retrieved a map of Storybrooke, it was small, and not nearly as detailed as he wanted it to be, but he tried. With a crystal and by concentrating on August Booth he sat down and watched the crystal hover and sway and swing…and then circled a section of Storybrooke forest. The place he'd already checked. That was convincing but also devastating at the same time. Everything he'd seen, every sign, every piece of magic indicated that Booth was there! But when he'd gone, he couldn't find him. It was magic. No doubts, no assumptions, he was certain. He was using magic to hide. So, until he figured out a way around that…

He didn't stop searching at Booth. He continued his work, knowing that while Booth was important, he also needed to know the location of his enemies. Via scrying he found Smee sleeping in his apartment and Belle in the library and Regina in her home. There was nothing when he focused on Cora. That made sense. Regina wouldn't have wanted her here and claimed to have killed her in the Enchanted Forest. He still doubted that, but for now, he'd accept it, given she was no threat. Zelena and Hook also yielded no results, but now that he was thinking things through, he was curious about something else. Well…two someones was probably a more accurate description.

Cruella and Ursula. He'd watched as the Apprentice had opened a portal for Maleficent's child that they'd fallen through. He suspected it was to this world. He hauled out his globe and made an attempt but had no results when searching for the child. He expected that. There was no bond between them, nothing but a single image of a hand poking through an egg for him to recall and use. Scrying was already very weak magic; it needed a strong memory to work. Besides, he suspected the child was outside of Storybrooke, there was no telling what the magic would do with those outside. So, he tested it on someone he did have a better connection to first. He closed his eyes, focused on Ursula, the sea witch, the woman who had once taken Belle, and let the crystal roam over the globe. He spun it gently when he felt the need to, let it move over, up and down, until he felt a tug on the string of gold holding it. It had landed.

New York City.

He scrambled to the place he kept his maps and guidebooks, the places that he'd imagined going to search for Bae. One was for New York City. He opened the map, spread it wide on his table, and let the crystal do the work that it couldn't do on a globe. This time he felt the tug quickly. He looked down at the tourist map, and suddenly there wasn't a doubt in his mind the magic was working. It tracked the sea witch to an aquarium in New York City. Like always did call out to like. The former sea dweller would have gone somewhere she felt comfortable, working side by side with her fishy friends made sense. But then…where was her other friend.

He couldn't locate Cruella in the city, a surprise since he could easily see her fitting in there running a gallery or jewelry store. But no, he used the globe again and instead found her in upstate New York, of all places. Unfortunately, he couldn't pinpoint her. He didn't have any large maps of upstate New York to point him in any specific direction. However, he was satisfied that they both lived far enough away from Belle that he didn't care.

But doing all this…it did give him another idea.

He took a deep breath, moved the globe closer to him, closed his eyes and focused one more time…on Baelfire. For a brief moment, when he felt the crystal pull, he dared to hope, dared to dream that he didn't need August or Emma, that he might find his boy here and now all on his own. But then he opened his eyes. The crystal hadn't settled. It was hovering, swinging in a circle just as it had with Booth out in the woods only this time it circled parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and even a little bit of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

He took a deep breath and clenched the crystal in his hand until it hurt. He hunched himself over his table and swallowed hard, anything to keep himself from overturning the table in anger. He held on to what was good. He had been right. Baelfire was close. Somewhere in the Northeast, south of here. It was still half a dozen cities to explore, but now he'd learned roughly where he was. It was better than searching the entire United States. And he'd learned something else too. The crystal had circled for Bae just as it had with Booth. It had circled out there for Bae when it hadn't for Cruella or Ursula. Not just one other thing. Two other things.

First, if it had the same reaction as it had for August and he'd concluded that it was because August had magical protection then logically, he had to make the same conclusion for Bae. He, too, was using magical protection.

Second, if he was using magical protection out there, then that meant August had been right. There was magic of some sort, beyond Storybrooke, unstudied magic…

The implications of that were terrifying.

It meant there was a possibility that he was going to need more than just one spell to get him over the barrier.

[plantwalkingamongstmeremortals]

Hi :) for the ask challenge : 1, 4, 7, 11, 15, 21

Obviously you don't have to answer all of them unless you want to :)

1. How long do you hc the travel time between Divinity’s Reach and Lion’s Arch?

I am VERY BAD at time and distances to be honest, something like a couple weeks by foot sounds like a decent distance between two major cities (esp considering how much of kryta is western europe and that doesnt seem completely incompatible with real life western europe) but i have a lot of trouble picturing how much that is, and tbh i'd need to add hundreds of villages and quite a few minor towns in between anyway to get something that feels like RealityTM.

Funny answer is the game is 100% of the reality of tyria. You CAN do the one-hour walk between LA and DR. the whole world is smaller than france. Not what i believe but really funny to think about.

4. How much smarter than everyone else are Asura actually? Is it all just hubris and in the end they just have a better education system?

YES IT'S JUST HUBRIS. The "some species just are Better at x" fantasy trope definitely is rooted in real life racism and i hate it so i really believe that all differences are cultural (because the implications otherwise feel kinda gross). And considering how high and mighty they are about it, them not sharing the education and science cuz "nah you humans/sylvari/charr/norn definitely are too stupid to understand" makes sense, but hopefully with everything that's been happening, asura seeing others make super cool tech and stuff, they'll realize that everyone will profit if they share their knowledge on a deeper level >:3

7. How does an average Sylvari’s average day look like?

im bad at average help. more seriously they don't feel like they have a structured work day like we do (and i assume most other races do too bc that's the vibe they give. gotta work in the fields or make tech or idk what). Maybe the Socialist Utopia where they come give a hand at the Necessary Jobs for a bit (just thinking about how the dream might mean everyone Knows how most of those work?) and then just chill out doing the hobby they feel called to. Overall i think they have a lot of ~empathy~ and respect of other individuals' liberties so theres not much being forced on others and people can just vibe however they want without having to stress about paying rent or shit like that.

11. Are magic abilities learned or are people born with them? A combination of both?

Mostly learned i think! There might be some biological stuff that might help somehow, like how some people learn how to draw way faster than others, and some others struggle A LOT but if the world has magic, i'd let anyone learn to channel it! And I think the way gw1 works might support it, with all the profession trainers who teach us skills..... The captured elites might be some form of "i saw magic used this way, so i am learning from seeing my magic used against me"? I really feel like i'm making shit up on the spot im sorry but also what did u expect from this idiot /lh

15. A headcanon about a minor race, like Quaggan or Dredge.

theyre all perfect. thats it. (more seriously i don't have that many thoughts about any of them i just think we should Learn More). Oh and considering the prev question: yes a necromancer quaggan is a posibility. Baby quaggan walk, followed by corpses, i love ♥

21. Mallyck. Other Trees. Mordremoth’s blighting trees… Are the Sylvari not unique?

hhhh so i was a bit no when i saw the question at first but ive been Thinking so. LETS RECAP THE DATA WE HAVE.

Apparently a dev confirmed malyck did Not Come from a blighting tree during a live or on reddit or whatever i can't check ever gw2wiki source okay, which confirms that whatever the most complicated answer to the question i come up with is most likely true.

The wiki says the seed for the pale tree was a blighting tree seed stolen by Ronan but the source seems to be an artbook i don't have so idk if it's the wiki people extrapolating because i can't check. so first let's assume it's the case: NOTHING is stopping anyone else from having stolen a seed too and planted a tree and theyre all kind of cousins (sylvari/mordrem/other tree ppl) which is very cute and that feels like the most canon-compliant explanation of malyck bUT it's not fucked up enough to my taste so i'm gonna say (for the sake of argument at least idk which option is alex-canon yet) the pale tree came from just something else. Ronan and Ventari planted a lil gay tree and some sleeping mordremoth magic made it Alive (because we need plant dragon connection anyway (we couuld fuck that up but that sounds like too much work for now)) but there were too many good gay vibes so the tree ended up making overall nice and very gay plants. WHICH MEANS. there's nothing preventing sleeping mordremoth power to just vibe with trees that are supposed to be significant in other ways and awaken them to make lil plant beings.

Downside to all this is why haven't we seen them in HoT, BUT maybe they were too far away. Maybe a chaotic neutral quaggan planted a cactus in elona and mordremoth made choya because of that. Idk man.

[capsironunderoos]

Little One - Part Three: “This is the way.”

Din Djarin (The Mandalorian) X Reader

Summary: Din Djarin is sent to collect a bounty that he has limited information on. What he finds on the journey is unexpected, complicated, and even a little green.

Warnings: Flashbacks to the first chapter. This is based off of The Sin, so it gets real tense. Real sad boy hours out here.

Word Count: 4.6k

Author’s Note: This was actually a lot of fun to write, and I’m in a Mando mood now. I hope to have the next chapter out soon because the fourth episode of the show was my absolute favorite. Anyways, we’re learning a bit more about our characters, but we’re still following the plot of the show for the most part. If you want to be added to the tag list let me know! Thank you to everyone who reads, you guys mean the world! (Also, a little bit more hints at a possible romance with Luke Skywalker, if you know how to look closely...)

Oh and I haven’t said this before, but if he’s referenced as Mando, then it’s the readers POV, and if he’s referenced as Din, then it’s his POV.

This is a link for the last chapter:

Little One - Part Two: “I have spoken.”

And this is a link for my master list, where all the chapters are located:

capsironunderoos masterlist

When the Razor Crest leaves hyperspace, your heart plunges to your stomach. 

Actually, you think that if you looked down, you’d see it laying in your lap.

Nevarro has come into view, and as beautiful as the planet looks from the cockpit of Mando’s ship, you know the scum living on its surface is as thick as the smog that clouds its skies. 

Little One coos from his spot in the Mandalorian’s lap, mouth wrapped around the small metal ball from one of Mando’s many dashboard controls. 

You wonder if this was the planet Kuill had referenced. Maybe this was where your story was to take place. 

When Mando lands his ship just beyond the entrance into the city, you know he doesn’t plan to be on world long. He’s close enough for a quick departure. 

He stands from the pilot seat and turns, stopping when you look to Little One held carefully in his arms. 

Both you and the small green being look up to him, and you can almost sense his conflict. 

Time seems to freeze as the three of you simply observe the other. 

Mando breaks first, moving Little One into the crook of his left arm so he can wrangle the pod from off of the floor and into the seat beside you. Little One lets out a screech of protest, because he knows going in the pod could mean the doors being closed again. 

“Let me carry him so he isn’t scared.” 

You command, and the Mandalorian responds by placing Little One in the pod and turning to you. Even though you can’t see it, you hold his gaze, and neither of you flinches when he presses the button on his wrist that slams the pod doors shut. 

“I don’t know who else has a fob for him. He’ll stay hidden until we arrive in the presence of the buyer.” 

He then reaches into a cubby above your head and drops a piece of cloth in your lap. 

“That goes for you too. Cover up those tattoos and wrap this around your face.” 

You don’t argue, knowing that any number of groups could have placed a bounty on your head as well. 

The Empire, the Resistance, the Guild. 

You were not stranger to bounty hunters, or bounties for that matter. 

When the Mandalorian is satisfied with your cover, he activates the pod and you exit the ship. 

The short walk into the dingy town leaves you anxious, and you wonder what the plan is. Surely Mando doesn’t intend to actually trade you off for a lousy stack of credits. But, if those weren’t his intentions, then Nevarro would have never been your next stop. 

He comes to a halt in front of a random door and you notice something move out of the corner of you eye. 

Are you being watched? 

Your eyes flicker to the pod that holds Little One. 

A camera droid sticks itself out of the wall and Mando doesn’t say anything, just stands in view of it, holding up a card. It slams into the wall at the same time the door slides open, revealing two stormtroopers. 

Your mind instantly takes you back to Alderaan and you are ten years old again, panic rising in your chest and choking any breath you held out of your lungs. 

Mando must sense something is off, because he turns to you and grabs your wrist. You shake your head and his grip tightens as he pulls you into the dark hallway with him.

It takes everything in you not to reach for the blaster resting against your hip. 

Not like you could anyway, with two sets of stormtrooper eyes watching and the death grip Mando has on your right wrist. 

A thought suddenly pops into your mind and you glance over at him. 

He’s scared, or nervous maybe, you can feel it, somehow, rolling off of him in waves. 

His fingers wrapped around your wrist isn’t just to keep you in line, it’s for his sake as well. It’s working to ground both of you to your current situation, to keep you present, alert. 

When you reach the end of the hallway, a trooper moves to activate the sliding door and you step into a room that resembles a bar, but now holds a desk where a man in Imperial robes sits behind it. 

The trooper beside you moves and grabs the pod, pushing it forward and closer to the man behind the desk, who is holding a tracking fob similar to the Mandalorian’s that is beeping wildly. He stands and glances between you two before looking at the pod. 

“Yes,” he starts, moving around the desk and holding the fob closer to the still closed pod, “yes yes yes.” 

Mando inches forward, finally releasing your wrist and pressing the button on his that activates the doors of the pod to slide open. 

Little One remains quiet, simply looking at the man standing in front of him. 

Another man joins him, dark lensed glasses now trained on Little One as well. They seem excited and on edge, as if they can’t believe they are staring at this small green creature. 

You don’t share their emotions. 

The man wearing the glasses moves a tool that emits a red light over Little One’s face, and you step closer to Mando to see what they’re doing. 

Little One flinches away from the lights that seem to scan his facial features, but they don’t stop, a smile working its way onto the man’s face. The man in imperial dress looks up at him as if he’s demanding answers.

“Very healthy,” he states, and cuts the light off. 

You hadn’t realized it, but you had latched onto Mando’s arm, standing on your toes to see. Tears had begun to prick your eyes as you witnessed Little One’s discomfort. 

They both rise to look at you and Mando and you slowly release him, once again standing flat on your feet. 

“Your reputation was not unwarranted,” the man in imperial robes states, still refusing to acknowledge your presence. 

“How many fobs did you give out?” Mando asks and it seems to irritate the man. 

“This asset was of extreme importance to me. I needed to insure it’s delivery. But, to the winner, go the spoils.” 

He moves back behind his desk, reaching for a container and placing it on top of the table. It’s heavy, you can tell by the way it’s impact echos. He presses a button and the container opens, revealing a large stack of Beskar. 

Tears prick your eyes once more as you glance between the reward and Mando. 

How could you have ever thought he wouldn’t turn you in? 

He would be a fool to turn down such a profit. 

He leaves you and Little One then, stepping to the desk and picking up a piece of Beskar. He seems to weigh it, and you wonder if he’s deciding if it’s real, or if he’s deciding whether to accept it for two innocent lives. 

“Such a large bounty, for such a small package.” 

The man remarks, and you can feel your blood beginning to boil. The blaster on your hip comes to mind again. 

Movement beside you pulls you from your thoughts of an escape attempt and you realize that Little One is being escorted from the room by the man wearing glasses. He cries as he looks over the edge of the pod as you and Mando disappear from sight. 

The sound breaks your heart and you jump forward, arms extended in his direction. A trooper behind you grabs you around your waist and you yelp in alarm. 

“Wait!” You yell and the room freezes. 

Mando looks over his shoulder at you as the scarf wrapped around your head has fallen down to rest on your shoulders. 

“You can’t have him! He’s mine!” You cry, tears flowing freely now as Little One begins to wail too. 

The man standing near Mando looks to him, anger etched into every wrinkle of his face. 

“What does she speak of?” He asks through gritted teeth and Mando moves to look back to him instead of you. 

“She is his caretaker.” He responds, and the man glances from you to Little One. 

“Please!” You yell again and the stormtroopers grip tightens on your waist. 

“We can take her off your hands, Mandalorian.” The man states, and your heart drops. 

A beat of silence, and you swear you could hear a pin drop, when Mando nods. 

The man glances over to the stormtrooper and he lifts you off the ground, beginning to pull you into the room behind Little One. 

You thrash against him, spitting curses at the Mandalorian who doesn’t seem phased in the least. 

A last minute effort cues you to take the blaster from it’s holster on your hip and you expertly aim it at the trooper holding you, who drops to the ground as soon as your finger finds the trigger. You aim again at the trooper across the room and he drops too, the blaster shot echoing against the walls of the room. 

The Mandalorian still hasn’t moved, and you train your blaster on him this time, hands slightly shaking. 

You could kill him, right here. 

Grab the Beskar and Little One and escape and start a new life. 

It wasn’t like he didn’t deserve it, and it wasn’t as if you hadn’t done worse things in your life. 

Before your fingers squeeze the trigger, you feel a pinch in your neck and the room grows blurry. 

When your knees hit the floor, the last thing you hear are Little One’s wails.

—

Din watches as you fall to the floor, knees coming into impact with the dirt below you before you’re caught by a stormtrooper. 

The trooper sweeps you into his arms, handing the blaster to the man across from him. 

Din doesn’t say anything, just watches as you disappear into the hallway with the child. 

“What are your plans for it?” He asks. 

“How uncharacteristic of one of your reputation. You have taken both commission and payment. Is it not the code of the guild that these events are now forgotten?” 

Din watches the man as he speaks, and notices the stormtroopers that enter the room. 

“That Beskar is enough to make a handsome replacement for your armor.” 

Din nods, closing the container and leaving the room. 

As he makes his way back down the hallway and into the alley he entered through, he pauses for a moment. 

Had he really just condemned you and that child to certain death? 

He had witnessed the creature lift an entire mudhorn as if it weighed nothing, surely that could be a threat to someone of Imperial status. 

He had no hand in the fall of the Empire, but he had not fallen deaf to the stories of the Jedi and the Sith. He had simply chose not to believe in them, until now. 

His foot mindlessly taps into the dirt beneath it, stirring up dust around him. He shakes his head and begins moving again. 

He had completed his job, and what happened past him collecting the bounty for it wasn’t any of his concern. 

As he steps into the tunnels below the city, he swears he can still hear your screams and the Childs cries echoing against the temple of his helmet.

—

You watch beside a stormtrooper as the man with glasses, who you assume to be some sort of medical official, straps Little One to a table. 

Your emotions are all over the place. 

You’re seething with anger at the Mandalorian for thrusting you and Little One into what may be your final prison, if the blaster pointed in your side is any indication. But you’re also fighting tears as Little One screams uncontrollably. You’ve never heard him in such distress and it’s tearing you apart. 

The doctor seems irritated as the screams drag on. 

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he barks through gritted teeth. 

You watch as he sticks a needle into Little One’s neck and you wonder if it’s the same as whatever they injected you with, your hand subconsciously moving to rub at the still tender spot on your neck. 

A moment later and he has grown silent, his big brown eyes lost behind his eyelids. 

The silence bothers you more than his screams. At least when he was screaming you knew he was alive. 

You’re surprised when you feel a slight breeze move across the room. 

The hair on the back of your neck bristles and your eyebrows scrunch together. It’s stronger this time, but as you look around the room you can tell no one else feels it. 

But you’ve felt it before, on the planet where you and Little One were held captive for so long, when you contemplated abandoning him.

It seems as if it wraps around you once more, and you sway slightly, which cues the trooper beside you to grab your arm as his blaster burrows further into your side. 

You snarl in his direction, and turn to face him. 

When you do, the wind shifts, and he is thrown against the wall on the opposite side of the room. 

Your eyes widen but the wind seems to grow stronger around you. 

The doctor has stopped, his back against the table where Little One still sleeps. 

You slowly raise your hand, channeling whatever this strange wind is in his direction. He begins to rise off the ground, struggling but never falling. 

“Please! Don’t do this!” He yelps, and your grip only tightens. 

“If something happens to me you’ll both be killed!” He bargains and your eyebrows furrow once more. 

“What do you mean?” You spit, and he breathes heavily. 

“While you were sleeping, I was instructed to dispose of the both of you, but I talked them into letting me run tests. You’d be dead if it weren’t for me.” 

“Then let us go,” you ask. He nods furiously. 

“If you let me down, I’ll release both of you.” 

You somehow release the feeling of the rampant energy wrapping around you and this doctor, and it seems as if all of the air is sucked out of the room with it. 

As the doctor falls to his knees, you bend and grab onto yours, trying to catch your breath. 

In the moment you have your back turned, the butt of a blaster is rammed into your temple and you fall into darkness once more.

—-

Din makes his way through the dark room, blaster ready for fire and eyes trained to search for any more troopers. 

He’s already taken out too many to count, and when he rounds the corner he stumbles into a room with Imperial medical supplies and machines. 

A trooper shoots him but the blaster fire bounces off of the new Beskar resting against his shoulder. 

He fires expertly and the trooper falls. 

He sees a medical droid hovering over the child pinned onto the table under some sort of binder and he is infuriated, both at himself and at the ones who’ve done this. 

He shoots the droid and turns. 

The doctor is standing near the table, and Din aims his blaster at him. 

“Please! Don’t hurt him! He’s just a child!” 

Din is taken aback by his words, but doesn’t falter. He marches over to him and grabs him, throwing him out of his way and onto the floor. 

“What did you do to it?” Din demands and the doctor squirms on the floor when he sees the blaster once again aimed in his direction. 

“What did you do to it!” Din demands once more, voice more aggressive this time. 

“I- I protected him! I protected him! If it wasn’t for me he would be dead! Please!” 

The doctor has turned away from Din now, burying his face into the metal bucket he has grabbed onto. 

While his head is turned, Din takes the chance to grab the child and leave the room, entering the hallway once more. 

The creature rests in the crook of his left arm, still sleeping. 

He has to find you now, because he knows if he leaves you, he won’t have any clue of how to care for the baby. He also thinks, deep down, that maybe he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night either. 

He quickly hides from two troopers who are discussing plans for transport of a prisoner, and he automatically assumes it’s you. He fights his way through a cargo room, surprised that the creature still sleeps. 

When he enters yet another hallway, he blasts a trooper behind him and turns to one in front of him, who shoots in his direction but misses. He ignites the flame thrower on his wrist and burns the trooper until he lays lifeless on the floor. 

He hears a coo and looks down to see big brown eyes staring up at him. 

At least he knows the child is still alive. 

He sighs and is on the move again, blaster raised as he enters the room where the earlier negotiations took place. His eyes sweep the area but he realizes it’s empty now. 

Din moves across the room quickly and quietly, jolting to a halt when the door opposite the room opens to reveal two stormtroopers, with two more entering from the doorway he just left. 

The two behind him have you in tow, possibly to be used as either a bargaining chip or a shield, whatever the situation warrants first. 

“Drop the blaster!” One instructs and Din moves his empty hand to signal surrender. 

“Wait,” he starts, “what I’m holding is very valuable. Here.” 

He crouches then, placing both his blaster and the young one on the floor below him. 

He hears a scuffle behind him and glances over his shoulder to see you restrained by a trooper, shoulders still shaking from the escape attempt. 

“Stand up,” another commands and he triggers the whistling birds on his wrist, their blue lights flicking on. 

“Duck,” he states and you drop to the floor as he shoots them off, each one perfectly hitting their mark. 

The troopers drop to the floor and you stand, watching as he grabs his blaster and Little One. You grab a blaster discarded by the trooper beside you. 

You follow Mando into the alleyway, relief and anger flooding through you. 

“You couldn’t have done that sooner?” You whisper harshly, but he doesn’t respond, just continues in the direction of the Razor Crest. 

Something keeps you on edge, and you sense that you’re being followed, but Mando doesn’t slow down. 

You notice his hand resting just above his blaster at the same time you notice the group of people beginning to gather behind you. 

You hesitantly pull the scarf back over your head. 

When you leave the alley and enter the open area just before leaving the town, you hear it. 

The faint beeping of a bounty puck. 

The Mandalorian still doesn’t slow his pace, although you can tell he sees the bounty hunters gathering around the three of you. 

When he notices their raised blasters he finally stops and you pause just behind him, your finger resting on the trigger and your other hand grasping the barrel of the blaster. Your gaze shifts past the Mandalorian as a man steps out from behind a group of bounty hunters. 

“Welcome back Mando. Now put the package down.” 

Mando’s hand still hovers over his blaster, which is holstered against his thigh. 

“Step aside,” he says, “I’m going to my ship.” 

The man smirks, chuckling lowly at the demand. 

“You put the bounty down and perhaps I’ll let you pass.” 

“The kids coming with us.” He states, his voice still unfaltering. 

You try to ignore the way your heart picks up when he says “us.” 

“If you truly care about the kid then you’ll put it on the speeder and we’ll discuss terms.” The man demands again. 

You both glance over to see the speeder and it’s droid. Mando looks back to the man. 

“How do I know I can trust you?” 

“Because I’m your only hope.” 

The man responds, and his choice of words almost knocks you off of your feet. 

The last time you had heard talk of hope had been in that Imperial droid repair shop all those rotations ago. 

This day had been full of too many reminders of the past and you were ready for it to be over. The anxiety of the moment rests itself in your fingers, as they tap against the barrel of the blaster you hold. 

Mando slowly begins to move towards the speeder and you follow his lead, staying close and in step with him. 

When he reaches the speeder, you watch him and follow his gaze as he looks to Little One, who has fallen into sleep again. 

In one swift movement, he aims his blaster and fires on a bounty hunter before jumping into the back of the speeder. You follow suit, jumping in after him and landing roughly beside him. 

You both continue to try and shoot as the crowd around you begins firing on the speeder. The Mandalorian places Little One down in-between the two of you and rolls over onto his forearms, aiming his blaster at the droid. 

“Drive!” He barks and the droid whirs out a noise of defiance. 

“Drive!” Mando yells this time and the droid beeps loudly as he turns and begins driving the speeder out of the open courtyard. 

As he picks up speed you and Mando take turns jumping up and shooting anything in sight. 

Mando takes out a man on the roof above you and you can see the Crest growing closer and closer. 

You’ve almost made it to the entrance of the city when a blaster bolt shoots out from the left and hits the droid piloting the speeder. The speeder crashes onto the ground and you and Mando glance at each other before he grabs his rifle and slowly muscles it into position. The whir of it powering up is almost equal to music at this point, and you watch him now as you did in the desert. 

One by one the crowd around you disintegrates into nothing at the hands of the Mandalorian. 

When the remaining hunters have hidden out of reach, the man from earlier begins to speak again. 

“That’s one impressive weapon.” He calls and Mando turns in the direction of his voice. 

“Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to walk to my ship with the kid, and you’re gonna let it happen.” 

You watch him as he makes his command, and you can feel it again, the fear from earlier. Not as strong now, though, as it’s mixed with a pang of hope that this plan somehow works, and that you three make it off of this lousy planet alive. 

“How about this,” the man starts again, and you cue Mando to the creature moving behind the speeder, “we take the kid, and if you, either of you, tries to stop us, we kill you. And then we strip your body for parts.” 

Before he can finish his sentence, Mando kicks one of the supply containers into the creature who is now completely visible to the both of you. He falters and Mando shifts quickly onto his knees to shock him with his rifle. Another creature takes his place but you shoot him, as Mando falls back onto the speeder beside you. 

The shooting starts up again and your thoughts of any escape are completely eradicated. 

Mando shifts beside you and you don’t want to give up, but you’re beginning to run out of viable options. 

Before you register it, he is on his knees again and igniting the flamethrower you weren’t aware was strapped to his wrist. You watch in silent awe as he lights up the hunters closest to the speeder. Some of them fall, but most of them simply move out of range. 

When the flame sputters Mando shakes the machine to try and jolt any more flame into action. But it doesn’t work, and he hangs his head as a sigh of defeat escapes through his helmet. 

The blaster fire begins again, and you watch as he pulls Little One just under him, making connection with those big brown eyes. 

As you watch them, you know he is accepting defeat. 

You can tell by the way he rubs the cloth of the brown blanket Little One is wrapped up in between his fingers that he is silently begging for forgiveness. 

The war raging on around the three of you seems to fade away as Little One coos up at Mando. 

You drop onto the speeder now, back coming into hard contact with the wood and eyes cast up at the sky as you begin to accept defeat as well. 

When a streak of light blasts across the sky above, you sit up, propping yourself up on your elbows. Mando lifts his head. You both watch as the streak of light hits a hunter on top of the roof and he falls. 

Suddenly, Mandalorians begin appearing from behind the buildings, wearing jetpacks and wielding blasters. They begin firing and the hunters aims are moved from the speeder onto them. 

You watch as they effortlessly blast away anyone with ill intent, and Mando has begun firing again too. 

A large Mandalorian lands beside the speeder, rapidly firing as he looks over to you three. 

“Get out of here.” He states, and his voice is altered in the same way Mando’s is, but it’s gruff and hard. 

“We’ll hold them off.” 

“You’re going to have to relocate the covert.” Mando says, and the large Mandalorian looks at you again. 

“This is the way.” He offers in response, and Mando nods. 

“This is the way.” 

Mando doesn’t even look in your direction as he scoops Little One into his arms and jumps off of the speeder. You follow his actions, stepping in his footsteps as you make your way to the Crest. 

You’re both running now, and the carnage behind you is slowly fading away. 

When Mando reaches the bottom of the ramp, he holsters his blaster and you lower yours. 

You quickly run up the ramp and a sense of relief floods you so quickly that your knees almost buckle. 

A shuffle behind you alerts you, but a voice cues you both to stop. 

“Hold it, Mando.” 

You turn to see the man from earlier stepping off of a ladder, blaster raised in your direction. 

“I didn’t want it to come to this,” he says, and you think of all the ways that he caused it to come to this. 

“But then you broke the code,” he says, and Mando glances to the left of where you stand. 

A quick flick of his wrist and a small hook attached to a wire shoots out, pressing one of the buttons on the control panel in the wall next to you, and smoke instantly fills the cabin. 

The man becomes scattered, shooting wildly in your direction. You cover your face with your hands, and glance to see Little One looking up at the Mandalorian.

Mando slowly raises his blaster and shoots the man, perfectly hitting his mark and sending him flying out of the Crest and onto the dirt below it. 

You both make your way to the cockpit, Mando moving to sit behind the control panel while you return to your earlier seat. He sets Little One on the floor, cueing him to sigh at the loss of contact with Mando.

You never thought you’d be so happy as to see the inside of this filthy ship again. 

As you leave the planet behind you, you both glance to your right to see a Mandalorian flying along side the ship. He salutes Mando and falls away. 

“I gotta get one of those,” Mando mumbles and you find yourself smiling. 

Neither of you has realized it, but Little One has found his way onto Mando’s lap as he reaches for the same silver ball from earlier, reattached to Mando’s control panel. 

Mando unscrews it and drops it into his hand, eliciting a squeal of happiness from Little One as he begins the jump into hyperspace. 

[robert-c]

Forty Years In The (Un)Making

The de-evolution of the Republican Party into principally a bunch of blindly loyal sycophants didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t happen just under Donald Trump’s watch. It actually began with Ronald Reagan in 1980 and has been on a steady trend in this direction ever since.

The political landscape of 1980 was complicated. President Jimmy Carter was widely regarded as having mishandled the Iran Hostage crisis, and Democrats were heavily split between him and other challengers like Ted Kennedy. It was one of those rare elections in which there was significant third party challenge. Pat Robertson, making noises on the religious right (which would ultimately result in his run for office in 1988), also threatened to weaken the Republican base at a time when the Democrats were vulnerable.

Reagan’s response was to invite the religious right into the upper ranks of the party. How much of this was his personal belief, and how much calculated strategy we’ll probably never know. Nevertheless, this gave a significant role to people who believe regardless of facts, and for whom personal steadfastness of belief is more important than anything else. Reagan also introduced the major fostering of falsehoods that satisfied the personal myths of his supporters. Most notable was the “welfare queen” story. He alleged that there was a woman in Chicago living the high life, driving a late model Cadillac, and doing it all on welfare. Good investigative reporting and persistent demands for facts ultimately exposed this as a fabrication. And yet even today, some right wing people believe this story as true because it matches all of their fears and prejudices about public assistance. [As someone who has known people on public assistance I can assure you it is difficult enough to get a minimum of what you need, let alone become ‘well off’.]

Since then it has been a fairly steady trend of presumptions, assumptions, myths and outright lies. All with the intent of fostering the following ideas:

people getting public assistance are liars and cheats,

regulation of businesses kills jobs or drives them out of the country,

businesses are ‘good guys’ and don’t need to be regulated because they never do anything wrong, and “profit above all else” is the American ideal

immigrants are criminals (if they are people of color),

a medical system that supports the profits of drug and insurance companies is the best way to ensure health care coverage choices,

despite the first amendment of the Constitution, this is a “Christian country”,

the second amendment of the Constitution guarantees unregulated access to any weapon a citizen may want, and somehow intends that citizens take up arms against the government when they think their rights are being violated, and

many more on a smaller scale, but all with the idea that anyone not stuck in the 1950’s is somehow an enemy.

 LIES! All lies!

The truth is that people on public assistance don’t get what they need because rules supposedly to prevent fraud end up preventing them from finding and keeping most gainful employment by requiring visits during normal work hours, and other reviews of their situation. All of this while the largest potential for fraud exists in government defense contracts, just based on the amount of money that flows through the programs.

Businesses move jobs overseas because of low wages and lack of regulation. But let’s keep in mind what those regulations do. Most of them were initiated and designed to stop unsafe practices in the business; practices that endangered employees, consumers and/or the public at large. Evading such restrictions shouldn’t be praised as a great avoidance of “socialist” control, but should be seen as the callous disregard of the safety and security of others for the sake of a few dollars more profit.

Profit above all else could hardly be called a moral philosophy but that is exactly what this myth would have us believe.  It rests on a couple of myths we all want to believe; that success in this country is because of “building a better mousetrap” and that  gaining  wealth is somehow proof of superior intellect or work ethic, while neither could be farther from the truth about how real wealth is acquired and kept.

Casting immigrants as criminals (if they are people of color) is right in line with centuries old racial prejudices. Little more should need to be said to explain their sick justification for these ideas. Anyone even tempted to believe it should be suspect. Any sweeping generalization based on something someone can’t control (like their ethnicity) is automatically racist.

Portraying “socialized medicine” as a situation where patient choices are limited and/or unavailable is, at best, a recollection of old, failed implementations OR the fears that the rich cannot use their wealth and influence to jump to the head of the line, past real life or death cases just to be sure that their headaches aren’t brain tumors. Oddly enough, the insurance companies, who are somehow cast as the “heroes” in these tales, would if they could limit choices even more. In their best profit interests people with pre-existing conditions (which is all of us, eventually) get no coverage at all, or if they do it is at a premium designed to cover all of their likely expenses in the year, which amounts to no insurance at all and just paying everything out of pocket. Ultimately, they would like to sell their coverage to people who will never use it, or use it sparingly if at all, while at the same time, if they must, charging others with a premium that will at least cover what they expect to payout in claims. This is a perfect example of where capitalistic, free market enterprise does NOT result in the best product or service at the best price. Attempts by competitive insurance companies who want to balance the premium and risk over the largest possible group, will have higher rates for the young who are less likely to use or need insurance and so will be uncompetitive in that group. The so called “free market” system is biased in favor of this ridiculous, anti-competitive arrangement.

Likewise, drug companies make more money selling treatments, than cures. There doesn’t have to be a cover up or secret directive; budget allocations for research and development will naturally favor the most likely profitable drug or approach and that will always be treatment. Cures are more likely the accidental byproduct of researching treatments. The scientists at work in the labs won’t even suspect, they will think they are working toward cures by learning how to develop treatments. Again, think about the idea that the “sacred” profit motive produces only good, and think it out for yourself as to which is the most profitable approach.

At the founding of this country, the mother country, England, had just been through several centuries of warfare and persecutions based on people’s religion. The new country of the United States of America wished to avoid such a situation, and so the first amendment to the Constitution establishes a separation of church and state. It doesn’t matter that most of the Founders could never have imagined how far this separation would have to go; great ideas usually far exceed their originators’ imaginations. Whether it is not lending support to one Christian sect over another, or Christianity versus Islam, or even total disbelief in religion, the concept of separation is the only way to ensure that everyone has the broadest freedom to believe as their conscience dictates. While things like the motto “In God We Trust” on the money are small issues, generally not worthy of a major effort to remove them at this time, they are part of the disinformation that portrays the USA as some sort of religious government or society.

By creating the impression that there has to be (or ought to be) some “general” religion of the US, they have already won half the battle, because the various Christian sects still make up a majority of the populace. BUT the principle of freedom and liberty of belief means that a person should have equal rights to believe as they wish even if they are the only one in the world who believes as they do. This is not abstract, but relates directly to people’s ability to choose abortion, end of life choices, how their remains are to be disposed of (did you know that cremation used to be illegal if anyone of your relatives objected? This was due to the religious notion that at the “end of days” people would be raised up from the cemeteries), and a host of other restrictions including what could be sold at stores on Sundays.

As for the second amendment, it begins with the phrase “well regulated” so any idea that it meant unrestricted access to weapons is stupidly at odds with the actual language of the amendment. There is also absolutely nothing in the Constitution, or its development, that suggests the point of this amendment was to provide a mechanism for people to overthrow the government. In addition to laws against taking up arms against the government (and the definition of treason in the Constitution itself), the Founders thought that the representational nature of the republic would prevent the need for such an uprising. To the extent that the second amendment had anything to do with the preservation of a free government it was that armed forces would be recruited from the citizenry. It NEVER was intended to ensure that criminals, and those with the intent to overthrow the government of the United States (if and when they think it has strayed from its proper role) had access to any and all weapons available.

The other issues are everything from abortion to Sunday closing laws, from consensual prostitution to adult book and movie stores. Once again, it doesn’t matter that you or I wouldn’t want to participate, it’s that as long as there is no coercion involved it is none of our business and if you think it is a sin against God, then God can take care of it – He/She/It doesn’t need our help.

BTW, this is where I should share an experience I had with one of these religious fanatics. Her belief was that the USA had never had a famine because of the “In God We Trust” motto on the money. I will spend no time dismantling the obvious idiocy of this idea. What was significant about her unhinged belief, was that she used the principles of “externalities” to justify her position. To refresh, the principle of externalities is why you cannot drive drunk or without insurance. Your actions that can affect others are rightly regulated under this principle. Her idea, clearly given to her by someone else as she was nowhere near smart enough to have thought this on her own, was that to avoid the retribution of God (as she understood Him) we all had to adhere to at least a minimum of His instructions (again conveniently interpreted for us by self-appointed ‘experts’ in these matters).

It is past time to reject these superficial and self-serving myths.

[mila-nott]

**about mila nott.

I want money and all your power, all your glory. Hallelujah, I wanna take you for all that you’ve got.

basic information

Full name: Mila Louise Nott

Nickname: Mimi - only by Nikolai

Gender: Cisgender Female

Sexuality: Bisexual (not out to her parents)

Species: Witch

Date of Birth: January 6th

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn sun, Sagittarius moon, Leo rising

Languages Spoken: English and Spanish

Nationality: Cuban and Mexican

Blood status: Pureblood

appearance

Hair Color: Black

Hair Style: It depends on the outfit but she’ll usually have her hair up whether that’s in a ponytail, a bun, or a braid. When she’s not working that’s usually when she’ll have her hair down. 

Eye Color: Brown

Tattoos: The Dark Mark on her left forearm

Piercings: She has two holes in each ear and her nipples pierced. She wears a stud and hoop in both ears then just regular silver bar jewelry for her nipple rings.

Skin tone: Tan

Height: 5′6

Clothing Style: Mila loves clothes and anything that has to do with fashion, she doesn’t have a distinct clothing style but she never wears the same clothes twice in the same week. She’ll never be seen wearing sweatpants, pajamas, or flat shoes out in public.

Other Distinguishing Features: The small gap in between her front teeth and she has multiple scars on her hands and forearms.

personality

Positive Traits: Confident, efficient, independent, and observant

Negative Traits: Aloof, calculating, decadent, and malicious

Character Alignment: Neutral Evil - A neutral evil villain does whatever she can get away with. She is out for himself, pure and simple. She sheds no tears for those he kills, whether for profit, sport, or convenience. She has no love of order and holds no illusion that following laws, traditions, or codes would make him any better or more noble. On the other hand, she doesn't have the restless nature or love of conflict that a chaotic evil villain has. Some neutral evil villains hold up evil as an ideal, committing evil for its own sake. Most often, such villains are devoted to evil deities or secret societies. Neutral evil is the best alignment you can be because you can advance yourself without regard for others. However, neutral evil can be a dangerous alignment because it represents pure evil without honor and without variation.

Likes: Fashion, successfully learning a complicated spell, money, when her parents tell her they’re proud of her, massages, skincare

Dislikes: Being talked down to, being treated like she’s less than, watching quidditch or anything quidditch related, horizontal stripes on clothing, and dogs

Hobbies: Reading, practicing spells, shopping, doing facemasks, playing chess

Fears: Being poor, marrying a muggle, being a housewife

Ambition: To restore the Nott’s reputation and be an extremely wealthy woman

family

Father: Theodore Nott Mother: Mariana Nott ( neé Pérez ) Sibling: Nikolai Nott, older brother by 2 years Paternal grandparents: Aldrich and Imogen Nott Maternal grandparents: Alvaro and Benita Pérez Uncles: Mauricio Pérez, None on his Father’s side. Aunts: Amada Diaz ( neé Pérez ), None on his Father’s side. Cousins: Fernán Pérez, Estefania Pérez, and Santanna Diaz Pet: A siamese cat named Alfred, he’s three years old Other noteworthy relatives: N/A Family home:

The Nott family estate is located in the country side of Englad. Their estate is cloaked from muggles, airplanes that pass by only see an illusion of a house in ruins. It’s a two story estate with a basement and 8 bedrooms and 7 and a half bathrooms. It has been in the Nott family for generations when they settled to England during the Renaissance.

After the war, Theodore’s parents went to Azkaban and he was forced to travel around Europe to escape the Aurors who were rounding up Death Eaters after the war. Theo found himself in Havana, Cuba where he met his wife. After being pardoned by the Ministry, with his wife and new child, the new Nott family returned to London. However, because the Nott’s assets were seized. They were forced to move to a suburban house. The new Nott family home is a two story house in the suburbs of England. It has 4 bedrooms and 3 and a half bathrooms. It’s also cloaked to keep muggles away.

Blood Status: Pureblood Social standing: Part of the Sacred 28, had a good standing as a powerful family the generation that his father was born, their standing went down after the war and their penchant for the dark arts came to light. They’re in an okay standing now, they’re not in the public eye as much. Family background: The Nott’s date back generations. They settled down in England around the Renaissance period, claiming land in the country side. They were a big family but swindled as they lived through generations due to only having 2 or 3 children to continue the family line. Each generation inherited their estate until the end of the Second Wizarding war.

individual magic

Wand Reaction When First Held: Her wand glowed at the tip when she first held it in her hand and made her hand and forearm feel warm, she automatically knew it was the one.

Wand: 9 inch Walnut with Dragon Heartstring, unyielding

Boggart: Being a beggar on the street and having nothing to her name

Patronus: A siamese cat

Animagus: N/A

Polyjuice: Has never used it

Amortentia: The crisp smell of money, tobacco, jasmine, and cedarwood

prologue

What happened before Hogwarts…

Mila, unlike her older brother, was never one to shy away from people or try to blend. She wanted all eyes on her and everybody’s attention, she was also very loud. At any gatherings Theodore held, Mila wanted to be right in the center of it all which usually lead to her being sent to bed not too long after. Mila didn’t seem to know what an “inside voice” was especially when she was very young, yelling was just her normal volume. It was as if she was a direct contrast to Nikolai which wasn’t a bad thing but it was different than what Theodore and Mariana were used to. 

When Mila was around seven, that was when she’d begin to sneak into Theodore’s study and attempt to read all of the big books he had sitting on his shelves. She barely understood a word of it, of course. The words were too big and confusing but Theodore always promised her that one day he’d let her read everything he had once she was old enough. Around this time Mila really started to bond with her father, she loved her mother and brother too - of course. But she really was glued to her father’s side until she went to Hogwarts. She was practically under his feet where ever he went. Mila and Nikolai were never particularly close but there wasn’t any sense of a rivalry. They were just into different things at the time. It was pretty rare to actually see them hanging out when they were younger. However, that doesn’t mean that she completely left him alone she would often try to stick her nose into whatever he was doing just so she knew what he was up to.

years at hogwarts

first year

Sorted into: Ravenclaw Best subject: Transfiguration Favorite subject: History of Magic Worst subject: Herbology Least favorite subject: Flying Quidditch: She went to all of the games that Ravenclaw played in because she felt like she had to but was dreadfully bored during all of the games.  Christmas holiday: Went home, she missed her parents like crazy. Other: Mila was heartbroken that she wasn’t sorted into the same house as her brother but she did make it her mission to stalk him out at any time she could. She knew he preferred to be “alone” but obviously, sisters don’t count.

second year

Best subject: Transfiguration and Charms Favorite subject: Potions Worst subject: Herbology Least favorite subject: Herbology  Quidditch: She didn’t try out and had no interest in the sport at the time, she’d show up for some games to show her support for Ravenclaw but would’ve rather been in her dorm. Christmas holiday: Went home. Other: Began bonding with her fellow Ravenclaw students more and had a few friends but she didn’t consider them to be “close”. She more or less just spoke to them so she wouldn’t have to sit alone at lunch, she was still upset she wasn’t in Slytherin.

third year

Elective subjects: Arithmancy and Study of Ancient Runes Best subject: Transfiguration, Charms, and Arithmancy Favorite subject: Study of Ancient Runes Worst subject: Astronomy Least favorite subject: Herbology  Quidditch: She went to about three games, max. Around this time, Mila stopped pretending that she was interested in quidditch and would only go if she was absolutely begged. Hogsmeade: She went with a few of her Ravenclaw buddies and had her first butterbeer, she did end up ditching her Ravenclaw friends for her new Slytherin ones. Christmas holiday: Went home. Other: This was the first year her brother didn’t come home with her and she was livid, she of course didn’t know what her older brother was going through so she took it a little too personally. She didn’t talk to him until her birthday the next month which was the longest she had gone without talking to him. 

fourth year

Best subject: Study of Ancient Runes and Charms Favorite subject: Transfiguration Worst subject: Herbology and Astronomy Least favorite subject: Herbology Quidditch: She completely stopped showing up for quidditch games by this point, unless it was an important game even then she’d ditch early. She wasn’t concerned with pretending to like the stupid game anymore. Hogsmeade: Mila went with her Slytherin friends and a few Ravenclaw ones, she spent most of her time and money at Honeydukes then the group of them went to the Three Broomsticks before they left and had a butterbeer. Christmas holiday: Went home. Other: Mila and Nikolai began getting closer around this time, they weren’t exactly joined at the hip or anything but they hung out if they both had free time. There weren’t any deep conversations, usually them just sitting in silence and enjoying each other’s company. She was also absolutely terrified about what she had been hearing about the Death Eater attacks. Theodore didn’t tell her he was involved with the Death Eaters at this time.

fifth year

Best subject: Study of Ancient Runes, Charms, and Transfiguration Favorite subject: Charms and Arithmancy Worst subject: Herbology Least favorite subject: Herbology and Astronomy Quidditch: Didn’t go to any games at all her fifth year, she usually took this time to catch up on her school work or go sneaking around with her boyfriend at the time. Hogsmead: She went with a mixed group of friends from Ravenclaw and Slytherin, also with her boyfriend at the time. She had her first date at Madam Puddifoot’s teashop which was absolutely dreamy to her at the time. She went to Honeydukes after and then finished the day at the Three Broomsticks. Christmas holiday: Went home. Other: During her fifth year was when her relationship with Nik really blossomed but she couldn’t help but be disappointed since this was his last year at Hogwarts. But she really tried to see him every chance she got when she had free time. Mila still wasn’t told about her father’s involvement with the Death Eaters at this time.

O.W.L. Scores

Potions: Exceeds Expectations Charms: Outstanding Transfiguration: Outstanding Astronomy: Poor Herbology: Dreadful Arithmancy: Exceeds Expectations Study of Ancient Runes: Outstanding History of Magic: Exceeds Expectations Defense Against the Dark Arts: Exceeds Expectations

sixth year

Dropped subjects: Astronomy, Herbology, and Arithmancy Electives: Alchemy and The Study of Ancient Runes Best subject: Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts Favorite subject: Transfiguration and Charms Worst subject: Potions Least favorite subject: Potions Quidditch: Didn’t attend any games her sixth year, usually used this time to try and keep up with her Potions work since it was really difficult her sixth year. Hogsmeade: She went with a group of her friends and definitely ignored Madam Puddifoot’s since she was broken up with by her boyfriend at the time. However, she did go to the Shrieking Shack with her friends and ended up hexing him when she saw him with another girl. She got detention for two weeks for that but she thought it was worth it. Christmas holiday: Went home. Other: When she came home for Christmas this year, Theodore told her about his involvement with the Death Eaters. He told her that when she was seventeen she’d have to make a choice on whether or not she’d be joining them.

seventh year

Best subject: Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Transfiguration Favorite subject: Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration Worst subject: None Least favorite subject: None Quidditch: She only attended two games for her seventh year, she figured she might as well since it would be the last time she’d be seeing her house play - she only left early once. Hogsmeade: This year Mila went to Hogsmeade alone and spent most of this time reflecting on where her life after Hogwarts would take her. But she made her annual trip to Honeydukes, of course. Christmas holiday: Went home. Other: Mila got the Dark Mark this year.

N.E.W.T Scores

Potions: Acceptable Charms: Outstanding Transfiguration: Outstanding Defense Against the Dark Arts: Outstanding Study of Ancient Runes: Exceeds Expectations Alchemy: Exceeds Expectations

epilogue

What happened after Hogwarts…

Once Mila left Hogwarts she got the Dark Mark like her brother. She knew that if the Nott’s were going to rise back up, all of them needed to be on the same page. While she was living at home, she was definitely struggling to find a job. She didn’t really know what she was qualified to do but she also didn’t want to be stuck in a job she hated or worse, behind a desk doing paperwork. Boring. Which was how she ended up as a Curse Breaker which definitely wasn’t a job that Mila had ever considered before. But she discovered that she really liked it and it also got her to work on her spells, especially her non-verbal ones. Mila lived at home until only last year since she was saving up her money to get a place of her own.

Her home is very ...modest but it’s her own and that’s what mattered to her. Even though she was always close with her parents (her dad more than her mom), she didn’t really make the time to visit them as much as she thought. On the rare occasion she would visit home, she always felt this need to do more and be better. She had to do more to try and get the Nott’s reputation restored, she had to be a better Death Eater but also better in her career. Since her father couldn’t remind her of this everyday since they were no longer under the same roof, it felt as if he had to drill it into her head as soon as she walked in through the door. Although Mila wasn’t really sure what else she could do, she was pushing herself as hard as she could.

Since she threw herself pretty much head first into her career and her life with the Death Eaters, she never really had much time for friends. She’d usually end up bailing on gatherings with her old friends from school or just flat out ignoring them. But Mila always had time for a little romance, even though the last serious relationship she had was when she was a fifth year. Having a nice man or woman (only men if you’re her parents) take her out and treat her to an expensive meal always lifted her spirits after working hard, especially the after dinner entertainment. Mila has little to no social life outside of that and she swears up and down that it doesn’t bother her but - of course it does. After seeing how her father treated her brother for being “weak”, she would rather die with the weight of the world on her shoulders than tell anyone she needs help.

[argyrocratie]

The novelist, Nigel Balchin, was once invited to address a conference on “incentives” in industry. He remarked that “Industrial psychologists must stop messing about with tricky and ingenious bonus schemes and find out why a man, after a hard day’s work, went home and enjoyed digging in his garden.”

But don’t we already know why? He enjoys going home and digging in his garden because there he is free from foremen, managers and bosses. He is free from the monotony and slavery of doing the same thing day in day out, and is in control of the whole job from start to finish. He is free to decide for himself how and when to set about it. He is responsible to himself and not to somebody else. He is working because he wants to and not because he has to. He is doing his own thing. He is his own man.

The desire to “be your own boss” is very common indeed. Think of all the people whose secret dream or cherished ambition is to run a small-holding or a little shop or to set up in trade on their own account, even though it may mean working night and day with little prospect of solvency. Few of them are such optimists as to think they will make a fortune that way. What they want above all is the sense of independence and of controlling their own destinies.

The fact that in the twentieth century the production and distribution of goods and services is far too complicated to be run by millions of one-man businesses doesn’t lessen this urge for self-determination, and the politicians, managers and giant international corporations know it. This is why they present every kind of scheme for “workers’ participation,” “joint management,” “profit sharing,” “industrial co-partnership,” everything in fact from suggestion boxes to works councils, to give the worker the feeling that he is more than a cog in the industrial machine while making sure that effective control of industry is kept out of the hands of the man on the factory floor.

They are in fact like the rich man in Tolstoy’s fable – they will do anything for the worker except get off his back.

(...)

Industry is not dominated by technical expertise, but by the sales manager, the accountant and the financial tycoon who never made anything in their lives except money.For a lucky few work is enjoyable for its own sake, but the proportion of such people in the total working population grows smaller as work becomes either more mechanised or more fragmented Automation, which was expected to reduce the sheer drudgery of manual labour and the sheer mental drudgery of clerical work, is feared because in practice it simply reduces the number of income gaining opportunities. It is a saving of labour, not by the worker, but by the owners or controllers of capital. The lucky few are destined for the jobs which are either created by or are unaffected by automation. The unlucky majority, condemned from childhood to the dreary jobs, find them either diminished or extinguished by the “rationalisation” of work.

Can we imagine that in a situation where the control of an industry, a factory, any kind of workplace, was in the hands of the people who work there, they would just carry on production, distribution and bottle-washing in the ways we are familiar with today? Even within capitalist society (though not within the “public sector” which belongs to “the people”) some employers find that what they call job enlargement or job enrichment, the replacement of conveyor belt tasks by complete assembly jobs, or deliberate rotation from job to job in the production process, can increase production simply by reducing boredom. When everyone in an industry has a voice in it, would they stop at this point?In his brilliant essay Work and Surplus, Keith Paton imagines what would happen in a car factory taken over permanently by its workers. “After the carnival of revolution come the appeals to return to work” but “to get into the habit of responding to orders or exhortations to raise the GNP would be to sell the pass straight away. On the other hand production must eventually be got going on some basis or other. What basis? Return to what sort of work?”

So instead of restarting the assembly track (if the young workers haven’t already smashed it) they spend two months discussing the point of their work, and how to rearrange it. Private cars ? Why do people always want to go somewhere else? Is it because where they are is so intolerable? And what part did the automobile play in making the need to escape? What about day to day convenience? Is being stuck in a traffic jam convenient? What about the cost to the country? Bugger the “cost to the country”, that’s just the same crap as the national interest. Have you seen the faces of old people as they try to cross a busy main road? What about the inconvenience to pedestrians? What’s the reason for buying a car? Is it just wanting to HAVE it? Do we think the value of a car rubs off on us ? But that’s the wrong way round. Does having a car really save time ? What’s the average hours worked in manufacturing industry Let’s look it up in the library: 45-7 hours work a week. What’s the amount of the family’s spending money in a week that goes on cars? 10 3 per cent of all family income. Which means more like 20 per cent if you’ve got a car because half of us don’t have one. What’s 25 per cent of 45 hours ? Christ, 9 hours ! That’s a hell of a long time spent “saving time”! There must be a better way of getting from A to B. By bus? OK, let’s make buses. But what about the pollution and that? What about those electric cars they showed on the telly once? Etc., etc.

(...)