#terras is over party

[terraliensvent]

the events of april 13, 2024

so as some of you already know, i actually got to speak to tycho today and have some really productive conversation on things that terras has been falling short in. i was excited to show you guys our chats since i think it shows a good explanation and forward movement for certain things (but as we all know now its pretty useless now lmao)

he did give me proof it was him by giving me a screenshot of his discord status, showing the edit button below, the following are some snippets of our convo (posted in a sta.sh link because there are a few)

towards the end of our interaction is when the big announcement happened, and afterwards the two of us discussed some of the things mods had planned for the species, including another subtype that would allow members to use limited traits

after this, while watching the server implode and having our lovely terras is over party, i received screenshots from someone on the mod team who wants to stay anonymous (note that in these screenshots, there are various yellow flagged messages indicating the screenshotter was replied to. the person i got the screenshots from is NOT temul. just for clarity and anonymity's sake)

CW for animal abuse

(while some of these may not be entirely relevant, im still posting every screenshot i received for full transparency)

so thats where we are right now!! its been a crazy ride soldiers, truly an honor hating with you all. time to wait and see what comes out in the next few days

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The majority of censorship is self-censorship

I'm on tour with my new novel The Bezzle! Catch me TONIGHT in SAN DIEGO (Feb 22, Mysterious Galaxy). After that, it's LA (Saturday night, with Adam Conover), Seattle (Monday, with Neal Stephenson), then Portland, Phoenix and more!

I know a lot of polymaths, but Ada Palmer takes the cake: brilliant science fiction writer, brilliant historian, brilliant librettist, brilliant singer, and then some:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/10/monopoly-begets-monopoly/#terra-ignota

Palmer is a friend and a colleague. In 2018, she, Adrian Johns and I collaborated on "Censorship, Information Control, & Information Revolutions from Printing Press to Internet," a series of grad seminars at the U Chicago History department (where Ada is a tenured prof, specializing in the Inquisition and Renaissance forbidden knowledge):

https://ifk.uchicago.edu/research/faculty-fellow-projects/censorship-information-control-information-revolutions-from-printing-press/

The project had its origins in a party game that Ada and I used to play at SF conventions: Ada would describe a way that the Inquisitions' censors attacked the printing press, and I'd find an extremely parallel maneuver from governments, the entertainment industry or other entities from the much more recent history of internet censorship battles.

With the seminars, we took it to the next level. Each 3h long session featured a roster of speakers from many disciplines, explaining everything from how encryption works to how white nationalists who were radicalized in Vietnam formed an armored-car robbery gang to finance modems and Apple ][+s to link up neo-Nazis across the USA.

We borrowed the structure of these sessions from science fiction conventions, home to a very specific kind of panel that doesn't always work, but when it does, it's fantastic. It was a natural choice: after all, Ada and I know each other through science fiction.

Even if you're not an sf person, you've probably heard of the Hugo Awards, the most prestigious awards in the field, voted on each year by attendees of the annual World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). And even if you're not an sf fan, you might have heard about a scandal involving the Hugo Awards, which were held last year in China, a first:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/science-fiction-authors-excluded-hugo-awards-china-rcna139134

A little background: each year's Worldcon is run by a committee of volunteers. These volunteers put together bids to host the Worldcon, and canvass Worldcon attendees to vote in favor of their bid. For many years, a group of Chinese fans attempted to field a successful bid to host a Worldcon, and, eventually, they won.

At the time, there were many concerns: about traveling to a country with a poor human rights record and a reputation for censorship, and about the logistics of customary Worldcon attendees getting visas. During this debate, many international fans pointed to the poor human rights record in the USA (which has hosted the vast majority of Worldcons since their inception), and the absolute ghastly rigmarole the US government subjects many foreign visitors to when they seek visas to come to the US for conventions.

Whatever side of this debate you came down on, it couldn't be denied that the Chinese Worldcon rang a lot of alarm-bells. Communications were spotty, and then the con was unceremoniously rescheduled for months after the original scheduled date, without any good explanation. Rumors swirled of Chinese petty officials muscling their way into the con's administration.

But the real alarm bells started clanging after the Hugo Award ceremony. Normally, after the Hugos are given out, attendees are given paper handouts tallying the nominations and votes, and those numbers are also simultaneously published online. Technically, the Hugo committee has a grace period of some weeks before this data must be published, but at every Worldcon I've attended over the past 30+ years, I left the Hugos with a data-sheet in my hand.

Then, in early December, at the very last moment, the Hugo committee released its data – and all hell broke loose. Numerous, acclaimed works had been unilaterally "disqualified" from the ballot. Many of these were written by writers from the Chinese diaspora, but some works – like an episode of Neil Gaiman's Sandman – were seemingly unconnected to any national considerations.

Readers and writers erupted in outrage, demanding to know what had happened. The Hugo administrators – Americans and Canadians who'd volunteered in those roles for many years and were widely viewed as being members in good standing of the community – were either silent or responded with rude and insulting remarks. One thing they didn't do was explain themselves.

The absence of facts left a void that rumors and speculation rushed in to fill. Stories of Chinese official censorship swirled online, and along with them, a kind of I-told-you-so: China should never have been home to a Worldcon, the country's authoritarian national politics are fundamentally incompatible with a literary festival.

As the outrage mounted and the scandal breached from the confines of science fiction fans and writers to the wider world, more details kept emerging. A damning set of internal leaks revealed that it was those long-serving American and Canadian volunteers who decided to censor the ballot. They did so out of a vague sense that the Chinese state would visit some unspecified sanction on the con if politically unpalatable works appeared on the Hugo ballot. Incredibly, they even compiled clumsy dossiers on nominees, disqualifying one nominee out of a mistaken belief that he had once visited Tibet (it was actually Nepal).

There's no evidence that the Chinese state asked these people to do this. Likewise, it wasn't pressure from the Chinese state that caused them to throw out hundreds of ballots cast by Chinese fans, whom they believed were voting for a "slate" of works (it's not clear if this is the case, but slate voting is permitted under Hugo rules).

All this has raised many questions about the future of the Hugo Awards, and the status of the awards that were given in China. There's widespread concern that Chinese fans involved with the con may face state retaliation due to the negative press that these shenanigans stirred up.

But there's also a lot of questions about censorship, and the nature of both state and private censorship, and the relationship between the two. These are questions that Ada is extremely well-poised to answer; indeed, they're the subject of her book-in-progress, entitled Why We Censor: from the Inquisition to the Internet.

In a magisterial essay for Reactor, Palmer stakes out her central thesis: "The majority of censorship is self-censorship, but the majority of self-censorship is intentionally cultivated by an outside power":

https://reactormag.com/tools-for-thinking-about-censorship/

States – even very powerful states – that wish to censor lack the resources to accomplish totalizing censorship of the sort depicted in Nineteen Eighty-Four. They can't go from house to house, searching every nook and cranny for copies of forbidden literature. The only way to kill an idea is to stop people from expressing it in the first place. Convincing people to censor themselves is, "dollar for dollar and man-hour for man-hour, much cheaper and more impactful than anything else a censorious regime can do."

Ada invokes examples modern and ancient, including from her own area of specialty, the Inquisition and its treatment of Gailileo. The Inquistions didn't set out to silence Galileo. If that had been its objective, it could have just assassinated him. This was cheap, easy and reliable! Instead, the Inquisition persecuted Galileo, in a very high-profile manner, making him and his ideas far more famous.

But this isn't some early example of Inquisitorial Streisand Effect. The point of persecuting Galileo was to convince Descartes to self-censor, which he did. He took his manuscript back from the publisher and cut the sections the Inquisition was likely to find offensive. It wasn't just Descartes: "thousands of other major thinkers of the time wrote differently, spoke differently, chose different projects, and passed different ideas on to the next century because they self-censored after the Galileo trial."

This is direct self-censorship, where people are frightened into silencing themselves. But there's another form of censorship, which Ada calls "middlemen censorship." That's when someone other than the government censors a work because they fear what the government would do if they didn't. Think of Scholastic's cowardly decision to pull inclusive, LGBTQ books out of its book fair selections even though no one had ordered them to do so:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/06/books/scholastic-book-racism-maggie-tokuda-hall.html

This is a form of censorship outsourcing, and it "multiplies the manpower of a censorship system by the number of individuals within its power." The censoring body doesn't need to hire people to search everyone's houses for offensive books – it can frighten editors, publishers, distributors, booksellers and librarians into suppressing the books in the first place.

This outsourcing blurs the line between state and private surveillance. Think about comics. After a series of high-profile Congressional hearings about the supposed danger of comics to impressionable young minds, the comics industry undertook a regime of self-censorship, through which the private Comics Code Authority would vet comings for "dangerous" content before allowing its seal of approval to appear on the comics' covers. Distributors and retailers refused to carry books without a CCA stamp, so publishers refused to publish books unless they could get a CCA stamp.

The CCA was unaccountable, capricious – and racist. By the 60s and 70s, it became clear that comic about Black characters were subjected to much tighter scrutiny than comics featuring white heroes. The CCA would reject "a drop of sweat on the forehead of a Black astronaut as 'too graphic' since it 'could be mistaken for blood.'" Every comic that got sent back by the CCA meant long, brutal reworkings by writers and illustrators to get them past the censors.

The US government never censored heroes like Black Panther, but the chain of events that created the CCA "middleman censors" made sure that Black Panther appeared in far fewer comics starring Marvel's most prominent Black character. An analysis of censorship that tries to draw a line between private and public censorship would say that the government played no role in Black Panther's banishment to obscurity – but without Congressional action, Black Panther would never have faced censorship.

This is why attempts to cleanly divide public and private censorship always break down. Many people will tell you that when Twitter or Facebook blocks content they disagree with, that's not censorship, since censorship is government action, and these are private actors. What they mean is that Twitter and Facebook censorship doesn't violate the First Amendment, but it's perfectly possible to infringe on free speech without violating the US Constitution. What's more, if the government fails to prevent monopolization of our speech forums – like social media – and also declines to offer its own public speech forums that are bound to respect the First Amendment, we can end up with government choices that produce an environment in which some ideas are suppressed wherever they might find an audience – all without violating the Constitution:

https://locusmag.com/2020/01/cory-doctorow-inaction-is-a-form-of-action/

The great censorious regimes of the past – the USSR, the Inquisition – left behind vast troves of bureaucratic records, and these records are full of complaints about the censors' lack of resources. They didn't have the manpower, the office space, the money or the power to erase the ideas they were ordered to suppress. As Ada notes, "In the period that Spain’s Inquisition was wildly out of Rome’s control, the Roman Inquisition even printed manuals to guide its Inquisitors on how to bluff their way through pretending they were on top of what Spain was doing!"

Censors have always done – and still do – their work not by wielding power, but by projecting it. Even the most powerful state actors are not powerful enough to truly censor, in the sense of confiscating every work expressing an idea and punishing everyone who creates such a work. Instead, when they rely on self-censorship, both by individuals and by intermediaries. When censors act to block one work and not another, or when they punish one transgressor while another is free to speak, it's tempting to think that they are following some arcane ruleset that defines when enforcement is strict and when it's weak. But the truth is, they censor erratically because they are too weak to censor comprehensively.

Spectacular acts of censorship and punishment are a performance, "to change the way people act and think." Censors "seek out actions that can cause the maximum number of people to notice and feel their presence, with a minimum of expense and manpower."

The censor can only succeed by convincing us to do their work for them. That's why drawing a line between state censorship and private censorship is such a misleading exercise. Censorship is, and always has been, a public-private partnership.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/22/self-censorship/#hugos

[thethronezone]

High Consort Pt.2

Because I could not stop thinking about this mess of a relationship and if I have to suffer, so do everyone else... Here's more.

The Emperor promised to marry his Consort once he had successfully conquered Terra. And credit where credit is due because Big E actually kept that promise. Him in his armor, you in your finest clothes (specifically made for this occasion) and with only the Legio Custodes to witness the ceremony. There wasn't an exchange of vows, no reception or officiator. He simply declared himself Emperor and that you were, from this moment on and till the stars died out, his High Consort. The Custodes didn't sing, did not cheer, but stomped the ground, slammed their weapons agains their shields, all as one, making the air vibrate and the ground shake.

Guess what? You own Luna! Aka the fucking moon. Yeah, it was a wedding gift. I mean, technically the Emperor rules over it but in name? It's yours!

Like I said in the first part, if you want to work, then it's mainly administrative duties. It's actually quite important work, since you oversee some real secret government stuff. Not the worst of it, nah, the Emperor leaves that to Malcador.

Something Big E does leave to you? Organizing banquets, feasts and other festivities. Sounds more fun than it is, considering the fact that this also entails overseeing the guest list. Do you know how many people can fit in the (multiple) imperial ballrooms and gardens? A fuckton. And as the 'host' of the party, you get to greet most of them! Isn't that wonderful?

More things the Emperor calls you instead of your name! "Spouse", "my starlight", "dear one", "treasure". Those last three are only in private. Majority of the Imperium don't know your actual name and calls you High Consort. More accurately "the revered ruler of Luna, First Lord/Lady of the Imperial Palace, Keeper of Terra, the one and only High Consort to the one and only Emperor of Mankind". The title somehow gets longer each time.

You make the Emperor a bit less of a douche. He's still a bastard but you make him just a smidge more bearable. Probably because he does care about you. Will he steamroll you in every conversation? Yes. Does he not take your arguments seriously? Yep. Will he dictate every part of your life from the shadows? Yeah. But he does like seeing you happy so he refrains from doing some stuff that he knows would upset you. At least if you're there to see it happen.

The fights you have are fucking wild. You can be absolutely furious, screaming, throwing things at him, and the Emperor will just stand there and be like "You done yet?" which will make you scream and throw some more thing. Big E might try and placate you a little, "Dear, you are acting irrational, calm down", but most of the time he just waits until you get tired. And when you're all out of air he'll go "Good thing we solved that" and LEAVE. Fucking prick.

When Malcador ain't available, you vent to your personal Custodi bodyguard. Yes, they are ultimately loyal to the Emperor and will never badmouth him but this one Custodi will nod along when you call your husband a "rat-fucking-bastard".

It's not all bad of course. The Emperor can be downright romantic when he wants to. He knows all your favorites and always has this in mind when he gives you stuff or does stuff with you. New garden? Filled with your favorite flowers. Anniversary dinner? Your favorite food. A piece of jewelry he acquired on his resent battle on some distant planet? Your favorite color. When you reunite after a long time apart, he kisses your hands. The Emperor loves your smile, loves seeing you happy. All the art work he commissions of you depicts you smiling, from a subtle smirk to smiles where all your teeth shows.

In canon, the Primarchs were made out of the Emperor's and Erda's DNA (with some major gene manipulation in there) and yeah, that's still the truth in this scenario. Except there's also parts of you in there. Because if the Emperor likes you enough to marry you, then you probably have a bunch of traits that he likes. Wisdom, tenacity, courage etc.. So congrats! You now get to co-parent 20 18 of the strongest humans in the Imperium! At least one of them has your smile.

[johntorrington]

the nimrod expedition was the wild west. it’s like a frat house where everyone ended up becoming a politician. guys there would go on to be part of the AAE, the terra nova, the endurance, the ross sea party AND the karluk. some dudes climbed a volcano that had never been climbed before- without anything close to proper gear and ended up chucking some of their stuff down the mountain to get back faster. george marston was getting really into drag. shackleton was just out of his weird polycule divorce with scott and wilson. they had a little canvas bathtub that multiple people took nudes in. a 50 year old geologist was put in charge of a manhauling party and was so bad at it he had to be threatened with being declared insane by the doctor in order for him to hand command over to mawson. aeneas mackintosh lost an eye. the car. they got a new furthest south but shackleton ended up so badly in debt he tried to get into gold mining. what a time.

[cerastes]

do you think dorothy got into dm-ing before or after Silence made her realize the frenzied flame ending of elden ring is Not Good

Probably after! In Dorothy’s Vision, it’s mentioned that Dorothy practically lived and breathed her research day in and day out. Her laboratory was practically her world for the longest time, Astegnne even chastises her early on because Dorothy takes so little care of herself and subexists on coffee and willpower. She was doing nothing except work towards the Frenzied Flame.

After Silence Umineko’d her by Red Blue and Golden Truthing the shit out of her, and subsequently coming to hang out at Rhodes Island, her schedule frees up a little more, and I think that’s when she got into tabletop. I’d like to think Ifrit was like “hey we can kill dragons and shit in these games, right? You should do this gee emm thing for us, I’ll get the players” and Dororhy was like BET I can make a cool fictitious world! I almost made a REAL cool world anyways!

So they get together and Ifrit makes a Spellblade names Dildo Baggins because she’s not taking this Narrative Thing seriously, she just wants to kill dragons, or firescalebeasts or whatever goofy ass name they got in Terra, and eight sessions later, the whole table is CRYING their eyes out after Dildo Baggins’s heroic sacrifice to divert Vai’veatosh the Primeval Leech Fiend and Exarch of Gluttony’s deathblow, buying enough time for the party to charge the Lotus Eater Cannon super team attack and finish it off, concluding the greatest eight sesh campaign the world never heard off.

“Y-yeah, this nerd stuff is alright, I g-guess,” Ifrit declares as she’s sobbing and getting all sorts of flammable snot and tears on Silence, gently running a finger over Dildo Baggins (deceased)’s character sheet, meanwhile Dorothy is there with a smile choking back tears because she wants to let her revive Dildo, but, when someone is gone… They are gone.

The dress in the alt is an oath to Dildo Baggins, based on her outfit for the last battle. In my heart.

[moodymisty]

May I request a yandere primarch of your choice getting very jealous after seeing you laughing with one of his brothers at a party and then dragging you back to his room after to remind you who you belong to?

[ 𝕸𝖔𝖔𝖉𝖞𝕸𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖞'𝖘 𝕸𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙 | 𝕬𝖔3 ]

Author's Note: the community wanted Yandere Horus, so Yandere Horus you all shall have. I hope you enjoy, anon. I'm ok with this, but there's more I wanted to do. But at the end of the day I had to just bite the bullet and post it so I can take a break without this looming over me.

Summary: It's the first real outing since you've been officially named as Horus' beloved, and he realizes how much he dislikes how curious everyone is of you.

Relationships: Horus Lupercal/Fem!Reader

Warnings: NSFW, Big Dick Lupercal, Takes place well before the Heresy, Yandere, Toxic relationship, That typical sort of yandere dubcon but not really dubcon kinda thing, Breeding kink if you squint, Size kink/Size difference, Getting absolutely obliterated by a ten foot tall man built like a truck, if you squinted hard you could take some dialogue as a bit sexist but it’s a stretch, Aftercare? lmao this is 40k

Word Count: 2714

Perhaps you aren't the foremost expert on parties, but the last you had thought, a party was supposed to be...

Fun.

And lacking in the drawl of military strategy and logistics. This seems more so like an ineffective way for the High lords of Terra and other high value persons of the Militarium to speak to the Primarchs and their captains, but with wine involved.

As the recently crowned Lady Lupercal, many of those high value persons are now eager to make friends with you, attempting to smile as wide as comfortably possible and earn any sort of good will they can. For many of them speaking to a Primarch, let alone making connections of a Legion would be hysterically rare; Though it seems many of them have the idea to do so through you.

Horus had warned you of it, so you suppose you shouldn't be so surprised.

Only just now have you managed to get away from them all, taking solace in a quiet corner of the palace. A Custodes on guard had given you an odd look- and by look you mean just a glance from the corner of his eyes- but he seems content to allow you somewhat near him as long as you remain quiet. Though you suppose you can't remain here for long. You have to be a part of all this, as much as you might dread it.

“Lady Lupercal?”

You turn the moment you hear the distinctive accent of Macragge-born Guilliman, who approaches you as you stand close to one of the palace's myriad of balconies. That title still feels odd to hear. He brushes just past you to stand on it, and waits until you join him. His head is tilted downward at an angle to make eye contact with you.

It's night now, and you can see the lights of hundreds of ships orbiting Terra up high above. It darkens his armor and the lights of the palace cast a harsh shadow on Guilliman's clean face.

"Had your fill of this evening?"

Normally Guilliman is quite forthright, so his small talk is a bit of a surprise. Everything has lead you to believe he was a very politely blunt sort. Though you've only spoken to the Primarch a handful of times, and very briefly.

Only just recently as Horus has made it known to everyone that you are his beloved, have you begun speaking to his legion; And his fellow Primarchs.

"A little bit. I just need a bit of air, and then I'll come back."

Guilliman crosses his arms over the delicate and expensive looking robes he currently wears, having shed his armor for the evening. It must be from his home world, judging by the interesting style and shape.

"I am a bit surprised he's thrown you to the wolves like this. Before, he was quite secretive about you." You doubt Horus would let you leave his sight unless it was extremely important, and it's not as if you can rely on him forever. Or demand him to stay.

"I assumed someone had managed to catch his attention enough for me to get lost." Guilliman shifts his weight slightly, and lets out a very quiet chuckle. It's sincerity makes you smile.

"Don't tell any of the others, but we've all gotten lost our fair share of times in this maze of a palace." He rubs his temple with two fingers. "It just keeps growing, it's like a Labyrinth. I've begun to wonder if Dorn will ever cease."

His genuine exasperation makes you laugh. It's such a human gesture, and such a human problem. It's quite easy to forget they are human, at times.

You hadn't realized you'd been smiling the whole time, but it grows when you see his disgruntled face. It goes away however when he realizes he amused you.

"If I figure it out before you, maybe I'll make us a map." Guilliman smiles.

"I will hold you to that, you know. If cartography isn't yet familiar to you, perhaps you should begin learning."

You were about to respond to him, a smile on your face, but Guilliman turns his head away towards the inside of the palace; Your own gaze follows shortly thereafter.

He must've heard Horus before he could see him, because not moments later you can see Horus walking towards the both of you; His pelt shifts on his shoulders as he does. He makes a straight line towards the balcony the both of you stand on and ignores anyone else along his path.

"Here you are," Horus smiles at you, but it's not his usual one. The one that's warm and casts the room and a pleasant atmosphere. "I see you've been chatting with one of my brothers." You nod with the smile Guilliman gave you still partly on your face, but before you can speak anything more- perhaps what the two of you were talking about- Horus does so for you.

"Perhaps we should take our leave for the evening. It is quite late, and it seems nothing or anyone worthwhile is going to make it's appearance."

He looks towards Guilliman and for a split second it almost seems like an argument is beginning to brew, with the way they're looking at each other; Guilliman is confused and defensive while Horus' jaw tenses. You can't understand how his mood has so suddenly changed, neither can Guilliman clearly, but it seems something has happened in your absence.

Now you stand literally and figuratively in the middle, before retreating your Primarch's side. He will always serve as your anchor, even when he's this turbulent.

Guilliman simply gives a curt hum in response, and seemingly decides to not uncover Horus' sudden change in disposition.

"Very well. I hope the rest of your evening fares you well," He looks down to you, though the pleasant aura he had has now returned to the cold and structured one he is known for. "And I enjoyed our chat."

Horus gives Guilliman no more than placeholder platitudes and farewells, of which the man takes with a short nod, before leaving with you in tow to return to his chambers.

That entire trip to return to them, is intense.

There is no chatter, and Horus doesn't even have the soft upturn of his lips he usually wears. Instead his face his firm, with something clearly boiling beneath the surface. You wonder if it's something from when he was gone that you could ask about, when he isn't in such a sensitive state.

Even as friendly and easygoing as Horus is, his fellow Primarchs are largely not the same apart from a few, and you wouldn't be surprised if one of them managed to- in a phrase not suited to describe a Primarch- pissed him off.

When you enter the deepest most room in Horus' wing of the palace, what serves as his bedroom, you suddenly feel his hand on your shoulder. You would've turned around even if he hadn't done it for you, as he takes a knee to get more on even height with you. But even with it, you still have to almost look slightly up at him.

Suddenly that hand on your shoulder moves to your face, gripping your jaw and forcing you to look at him. That firm, irritated face has been replaced with an angry, irritated expression. His nose slightly wrinkles at the top, brow furrowed.

He holds your jaw tight, but you’re not fooled into thinking it’s anywhere near him putting in effort.

“What is your title.”

You’re confused for a moment, frightened by the look in his eyes, as he adjusts his grip. You try to stay his name, but it just comes out as a confused stutter. He reiterates with more clarity.

“What is the title I gave you.”

You grasp his wrist tight and whimper out:

“L-Lady Lupercal.”

The noise that arises from him is somewhere between a hum and a growl.

“Did you forget it while you were busy being a little coquette in front of my brother?”

You hadn’t; It had been the focus of your short conversation with Guilliman. You’d tried your hardest to be nothing but polite to him, with the formality expected of speaking to a Primarch. But this is all new to you; Whatever Horus saw wasn’t there, and you’re desperate to prove as such.

"N-No, he just came up to me and I was trying to be polite, Guilli-"

He swallows the name of his fellow primarch with his lips, pressing them against your own. It's angry; Forceful. You can feel his hot breath on your skin as he takes in heavy breaths, and how tense he feels. You moan softly into his mouth but even the brief moment of pleasure is overcast by Horus’ fuming anger.

He pulls away from your lips with a soft pop, and still in a kneel begins undoing the broach of his cape. Once it falls to the floor his eyes meet yours and he states:

"Take it off."

His sentence is vague and you stand unsure in the gargantuan room, as he now removes his wristguards. Once they're off, he puts a hand on your waist and pushes upward, disturbing the fabric of your dress. You feel it pull and stretch against his hand, as if it’s little more than parchment. He could ruin it all in one fell tear.

"I am being patient with you."

It's hard to disobey a primarch, especially one staring at you with those eyes. The fabric of your dress falls to the floor moments later, undone and forgotten. You step out from the circle it makes at your feet.

You imagine the only reason he hadn't simply destroyed it was after having it made just for you, in the colors of the Sons of Horus and to his exact specifications- their legion mother needed to be in worthy attire he has said- his patience won out over the potential days of headache.

But it feels like a blink you go from standing to being nearly swallowed by his sea of a bed, blankets tussled around your naked form. You think you might’ve backed up until you fell onto it, but it’s all a blur.

"The Crusade has taken much of my time, and since I have introduced you to my brothers, perhaps you have forgotten your place,” He says as he undoes the fastening of his belt.

Even on pieces of furniture meant to handle a man of such size it still buckles and bows underneath his weight, shifting your body as he cages you underneath him. His hand grips your thigh, and the sheer size forces them apart. Your body tenses and squirms underneath him.

To think such a short conversation would've had him so fuming, as his hand presses against your cunt. It makes your lips purse and and words that you might’ve considered saying don’t even leave your lips. His fingers roughly press through your folds curl inside of you, an aching stretch that has you squirming underneath him.

Though it’s not as if you have any chance of moving, even the slightest bit of his strength has you completely at his mercy.

You can feel his anger in every motion, but your blood is pounding in your ears enough that you can barely hear him. You think you might've said his name, told him to slow down, but even if you had he doesn't listen in the slightest.

Pulling his hand away from between your thighs he’s quick to flip you onto your stomach, and you lay exposed before you suddenly feel him press again the back of your thighs.

In an odd, impossible to explain way, you at times almost forget that your beloved towers over you at near or over double your height. That he possesses neigh untenable strength.

Now is a moment you do, as he presses his hips against your ass and buries you in the plush material of the bed.

Your fingers grip the blanket like a lifeline as he buries himself as deep as he possibly can, staying for a moment for seemingly little other reason than to torture you. Even with only the slightest bit of his weight on you, you feel trapped and barely able to move.

It's taken time for you to get used to taking Horus without hours of preparation- and while it still does take time, you'll always feel like he's overtaken your entire stomach. It’s that teetering on the edge of pain that has you gasping, a body not made for him being forced to. Horus is normally exceedingly gentle, but less so tonight. He is at least gentle enough as to not break you.

Whatever he saw that wasn't there between you and Guilliman, he seems intent on teaching you a lesson on not doing.

“Horus, pl-“

His massive hand grips the blanket beside your head as he grunts overtop of you.

“You are the legion mother of my sons.”

Your back arches and lips purse as his cock brushes against places so deep that it almost has your eyes watering. You swallow the massive knot in your throat and try not let out enough noise that passersby could hear.

“You will be the mother of my blooded sons, one day.”

The implication has your heart race with fear and something else as the primarch holds you down. You barely have the time to think about it, it only sends a jolt of feeling right down your spine into your gut.

Given his size it’s so easy to push you around, that he often times has to press on your shoulder and hold you like some sort of toy. Even the softest thrust can push you forward and nearly off of him; You don't have the strength to hold strong against it.

Worn and tired your nerves spark from so much sensation, cunt tightening around him. Horus continues to thrust into you with little care and your teeth grind, toes curling.

It feels good, so good, but it teeters on the edge of dangerous. Especially knowing his mood. Then again, sometimes even the simplest things are dangerous, with someone like him.

The primarch curses and swears in both high and low gothic as he finally cums inside of you, the inhuman amount leaking from you when he pulls out.

Horus looks over you, and it seems whatever you’d seen in him earlier is gone- for the time being. Even if you can't look directly at him, it's almost as if you can feel the emotion in the room change. More odd Primarch things, you assume. Not that it matters much in the end.

You lay tired, legs limp as your body aches.

Perhaps in the moment it may feel good, very much so, but oftentimes your body then reminds you that it isn’t made for a Primarch. Particularly one who decides not to be gentle with you.

There has time where no one sees even a hint of you for days, after he's done with you. He apologizes it for it, but you can always tell with that smile of his, he isn't actually apologetic.

He gently pushes you with a hand to that you roll on your back, and you look up at him worried, wondering if he's still angry.

“I am sorry, my love.” His words are sweet like wine, like they so often are, as his hand not gently holds your cheek. He isn't anymore, and you don't question it. You don't want to bring it back.

Though this isn't the first time he's become this way, though it is the first time he's done something physical in response.

“Now that my brothers know of you, I can’t help but feel as if they might take you from me, once they realize how perfect you are.”

There’s words you want to say, many of them, but you can’t manage it. Only a requited whisper of love is what you manage to say. Horus takes it well and his saccharine sweet smile always manages to pull you in and ignore the things behind it.

“I only wish for you to be mine. Always and forever.”

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

Lorgar has a 'party trick' where just by kneeling in front of the altar in any Ecclesiarchy church he can cause it to (depending on material) melt, shatter, turn to dust or otherwise straight-up explode. He only mastered it in the M34s.

The Inquisition has issued a decree (signed personally by over one thousand inquisitor lords) that Lorgar is not allowed near Terra or any of the other major shrine worlds after they intercepted a transmission of him blowing up an altar and then off-handedly saying he should head to Segmentum Solar to "test a theory".

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Final Girl

Stephen Graham Jones: Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this the tale of the girl who’s obsessed with slashers Jones: there’s this girl who just constantly talks about slashers Barker: oh that sounds really annoying Jones: Barker: like that sounds SO annoying

Jones: so one day she thinks she might be in the middle of her own slasher movie Jones: and she thinks oh shit this rules Jones: people are just gonna get murdered left and right Jones: this fucking rocks

King: so why’s she think she’s in a slasher movie? is there a killer on the loose? Jones: oh it’s cuz this hot virginal girl moves into town King: King: wait so not because anyone gets murdered? Jones: no just cuz this hot girl moves in Jones: i mean that’s usually the first indication that a slasher is around right? King: to be honest, it’s not usually the first thing I’d think of Poe: yeah that could indicate a lot of different things

Jones: so this hot but very pure girl moves into town King: and somehow that makes the slasher-obsessed girl think that she’s in a slasher movie come to life? King: but why would tha- Joss Whedon: [shrieking] SHE’S THE FINAL GIRL!!! Whedon: LET ME TELL THE STORY! Whedon: I KNOW ALL THE TROPES!

Jones: see, this girl knows the rules of a slasher movie Jones: so she knows how to- Joss Whedon: OH! OH!!! Whedon: OH!!!!!! Whedon: PICK ME!! PICK ME!! I have thoughts on this!! Jones: Jones: no Whedon: b-b-b Whedon: [weakly] b-but the tropes Whedon: [weakly] i-i need the tropes to live Whedon: [weakly] p-please Whedon: [weakly] the tropes Whedon: [pathetic cough]

Jones: also in the midst of this a whole herd of elk mysteriously dies Jones: possibly from overexertion during a pick up basketball game King: Poe: Jones: It could happen

Jones: so this girl sees some classmates going to a party Jones: so she puts on her michael myers mask and kind of stalks around in the background Jones: as you do

Jones: there’s a summer camp that was once the site of a slasher-type massacre. It was on the other side of the lake, up the road with the gas station, you know, the one  old man McGee ran? He used to sell sodas in cans, not with the pop tops. With the pull tabs. They don’t make those anymore, you can’t even get them. King: so about that massacre Jones: this is what we call local color

Jones: so i had to take the ferry over to terra nova. so i tied an onion to my belt, as was the style at the time. we didn’t have white onions on account of the war Koontz: [crying] when are we gonna get to the massacre

[austenpoppy]

Dick and Bette Kane - part 2

Edited to add new panels

Part 1 :

Dick and Bette didn't really run across one another for years after Titans West disbanded. Dick was leader of the New Titans then carried on his solo hero career, while Bette remained at the periphery of the superhero community without truly accomplishing anything, though she put herself in the spotlight. In Guy Gardner : warrior #29, she's seen by other heroes on television as she apparently thanks adoring fans (you'll understand the importance of this later).

Guy Gardner : warrior #29

"He" put them into podes showing them virtual realities that were supposed to be about what they wanted most, according to Dick's files. Dick freed himself, Wally did too, and Dick freed Gar. Then they, along with the soul of Raven, inspected their environment and deduced that all former Titans had been captured.

It's interesting to note, though, that during all that time Bette was still trying to impress Dick, and was still somewhat in contact with the Titans. In "Hawk and Dove - Annual 1", she tried to call Dick to tell her about a tennis match she'd just won. Kory was the one who answered, and though Bette called Kory by her name she had to repeat her name and even spell it for Kory (and she thought of Kory as a bimbo, so I suppose she was jealous).

Dick was apparently "not there" (was he really not there or did he not want to talk to Bette ?), and Bette said it was a shame because she "knew" he liked to follow her matches/career (she was deluding herself).

The call ended when someone knocked at her door. Bette wanted it to be someone "tall, dark and famous", and she couldn't help but fantasize that Dick was there. Later on, after an adventure with former members of Titans West and people like Dove, Dove complimented Bette on her skills, and Bette said "Now if I could only convince a certain Titan !" (meaning Dick).

Months or years after, Dick and Bette were both at a Christmas party thrown by Guy Gardner after Dick left the Titans, but the next time Dick truly saw Bette was in the JLA/Titans crossover. Vic had become this almost thoughtless technological being, and captured anyone who'd ever been a Titan in a misguided quest to find his family again.

Dick saw Bette in her pode, and immediately said : "Bette ? Man...Somedoby was thorough." And the "thorough" isn't just in italics, it's underlined. The level of derision and distaste hidden in that comment is unreal. There are other people who didn't spend much time among the Titans, like Pantha, Leonid (Red Star), or Terra II. But the one whose importance to the Titans Dick decided to undermine was Bette.

"Even her ?... Wow..."

JLA/Titans #2

Dick stayed behind to help free the others from their virtual realities. He was very sympathetic to the people and friends he helped, except for Bette.

It's very funny and a bit creepy that "Vic"'s file for Bette and what was important to her basically had two items : "she's very good at tennis" and "she's obsessed with Dick", so the pode had her playing a tennis match against a rather fawning Dick (in his short pants, since she'd mostly known him as Robin) at her beck and call. I mean, it's truly weird. It could have just shown Dick being interested in her - but no, he had to be at her feet, too.

Even weirder is that Bette was actually engrossed by the virtual fantasy. Like, it'd been years. She could've, should've outgrown her attraction/obsession with him at that point. But nope, instead she was playing along and asking the virtual Dick to "bend over" more so that she could ogle his butt.

Dick came right in the middle of it, and he wasn't impressed. He just deadpanned "Flamebird. Sorry to interrupt your game...". Was Dick chanelling Alfred there ? This is exactly the kind of sarcastic and snide remarks Alfred could've come up with - not that Dick can't do it on his own. Obviously, the point was that there was no true game to interrupt, and that Dick wasn't sorry at all for preventing Bette from enjoying the fawning virtual Dick.

JLA/Titans #2

After the crisis was aborted, Bette was seen talking with Toni and Helena (with whom he'd already slept with and been manipulated by) about what made Dick so physically attractive. Bette was the one who mentioned his butt. Dick passed them by and was uncomfortable again.

JLA/Titans #2

Weeks later, Gar was framed by Madame Rouge's daughter for crimes she'd committed, and was arrested. Bette, arguably at her most likable, wanted to help him (using her "Titans" card to get to him) and tried to bail him out, though to no avail.

Unbeknownst to Bette and Gar, Dick went to L.A. to investigate himself. He deduced who the next victim would be, and went to their address, only to be faced with someone impersonating Gar. A fight erupted, and Dick quickly deduced that it was indeed an impersonator. In the chaos, Bette, who'd just understand with Gar what exactly was going on, had heard that a fight had started at Dick Dickerson's house, and had decided to come over to help (knowing Dick was there mind you), barged in and kicked the impersonator in the face.

I don't know what's funnier. The fact that after all those years Bette couldn't help but still call Dick "handsome" as soon as she saw him, her goofy entrance with the corny line "Flamebird to the rescue!", or Dick's open displeasure at seeing her ("Oh no. Not her..."). The fact that Dick, who values teamwork and is usually the one telling people to let aside their personal conflicts while working with other people would take the time to openly express his distaste for someone in the middle of a fight is hilarious.

Beast Boy #3

When Bette came to land in front of Dick, he begrudgingly acknowledged her (as you can guess from the use of the ellipsis before her name and the discontent look on his face).

Bette started cheerfully explaining the situation to Dick, but he'd already found out all of it on his own, so he tried to tell her that he knew everything already, but she kept going. So he repeated that he did know what was going, only she kept going.

The escalation of Dick's answers is very funny. His first "I know, Bette..." is normal. Then as she kept going his second "I know, Bette..." put an emphasis on the "know". And as she kept talking, he literally put his hand on her mouth to shut her up while loudly exclaiming "I KNOW, Bette" (the letters being written in a bigger size).

Dick remained fairly polite considering the situation, but everything about his behaviour couldn't have been more obvious if he'd screamed at the top of his lungs "BETTE WILL YOU SHUT UP ALREADY ?"

Then he told her to stand aside and protect herself while he finished the fight, showing he didn't trust her abilities as a crimefighter (to be fair, no one did). Of course the impersonator used the distraction provided by Bette's arrival and her conversation with Dick to throw them in the pool and escape.

Beast Boy #3

Dick was not happy about that. He immediately told Bette that he hadn't needed her, implying that if she hadn't been there/hadn't been distracting him, he would've caught the impersonator ("I had him, Bette..."). Honestly it's probably true, but also I'm pretty sure Dick wouldn't have made that comment had it been anyone else - he could've also completely ignored Bette to focus on their enemy, and he generally tends to reassure people about their mistakes... Unless he thinks people aren't truly committed to crimefighting/a team, which is probably what he thought of Bette.

I say that because right after, Dick noticed that the police'd just arrived, and told Bette : "Forget it. We've got company. You're the publicity hound. DEAL WITH IT." And when Bette answered the police officer's question, she tried to turn to Dick for confirmation, only Dick'd already vanished.

So he left her to deal with the police on her own by referring to her appetite for public attention, openly calling her "a publicity hound" (calling her out on her attention-seeking behaviour). Then he told her harshly to "deal with it" (implying that since she wanted publicity so badly and sought it out, she was the one who should have to talk to the police), washing his hands off of her, and disappearing without a word after that.

LMAO

"You keep making publicity stunts. You wanted publicity so badly, Bette ? Well then here comes the police. ALL FOR YOU, Bette, and no goodbye."

Beast Boy #3

After that, Bette and Dick met up to free Gar out of prison. Dick bailed him out while Bette was waiting in a car (she was the driver). She drove Dick, Gar and his cousin to a place they could stay at, Dick and Gar had a conversation while Bette and Gar's cousin waited by the car. Then once Dick and Gar were done, Dick told her he wanted to have a word with her. Below is their conversation.

Not included here is Gar's cousin being interested in Bette, and Gar telling him it was a lost cause because she only had the hots for Nightwing.

Beast Boy #3

As you can see, Bette started the conversation by happily mentioning their previous team-ups, as if they were former partners who'd worked together for a long time but hadn't seen each other for a while. And Dick immediately invalidated that by saying there hadn't been that many "old times", putting a distance between him and Bette.

XD YOU TELL HER DICK

Then Dick said what he'd wanted to tell her : that he didn't think she was made to be a super-heroin, and that she should "hang up" her costume. One could be indignant on Bette's behalf, and say Dick had no right to tell her what she should do.

Personally I think he was right, in that moment at least, that he was doing her a favour. He'd done that job since he was a child, he'd done it over a decade, and much longer than many superheroes. Bette hadn't done anything much as a superheroin, and seemed more preoccupied with her status as a superheroin, what it brought, rather than crimefighting itself. It's a shame, as I said when I presented Bette in part. 1, because Bette was a very competent woman, with a unique talent in tennis (for example).

And Dick was more graceful than I would've been in his place considering the way Bette'd treated him, telling her she had heart and was brave (also "spunk" ? Was that Dick's inner Alfred again ?).

Bette stammered that she did try to do the best she could. Dick went on to say that he was flattered that he'd "inspired" her to do this, but that it'd gone too far.

LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE

It wasn't a sarcastic comment, but Dick wasn't really flattered she'd started crimefighting because of him. That's obvious because of the inverted commas used to frame the word "inspired" (the shade those inverted commas signal). Those inverted commas signal that Dick was doubting Bette's real reasons for becoming a crimefighter, that he had to wonder whether she'd become a hero simply because she had the hots for him and wanted to be closer to him.

He then said "You're a good kid, Bette [NDLA : how much younger than Dick is she supposed to be here ? Is she Gar's age, that is about three years younger ? Seems to me she should be around the same age as Dick; the use of "kid" is strange]. You've got a bright future ahead of you. But it isn't in spandex. Anyway, I've gotta run. Take care of yourself."

Again, it may not seem that way at first glance, but in my opinion Dick's wording couldn't have been much kinder. Being a crimefighter is exceptionally dangerous, and can put others in danger too. Dick recognized Bette's good qualities, told her that she had a "bright" future, but simply not as a hero. And he told her to take care.

Bette's obstinated refusal to quit after Dick left is fascinating for me (interestingly, this mini-series is what made Bette a more compelling character as far as I'm concerned). Did she refuse to quit out of defiance ? Was it a way to prove to Dick she was capable ? Did she simply didn't want to give up on her dream ? Had her ambitions gone past the one who'd inspired her and that she still had a crush on ?

There's still a part three to do, but it's going to be shorter.

Part 3

[fleuryuns]

──── ❝ FLEURYUNS . here are my current works in progress. please understand that i take my time with every project i work on, so do not expect these to come out quickly. do not steal these ideas ❞ circa 2024

( 꽃 ) CURRENTLY WRITING !

you're nothing but a puppet (let me be a part of the game) — (minor) sunghoon x fem!reader ; goal 30k (curr. 1k)

you've been taking care of your younger siblings ever since your parents died, and money is running low. so, when someone offers you a way to make "easy money," you can't risk saying no (squid game au)

y/n's unconventional guide to witchcraft & fire powers — air & terra witch!heeseung x fire witch!femreader ; goal 60k (curr. 5k)

based on the book ­”the ruthless lady's guide to wizardry,” you are a fire witch–more or less. you haven’t exactly mastered your powers, but you have other skills you excel in such as vandalising, cheating, and general fraud. when your mom goes missing again, you know it’s time you find yourself a good paying job, besides … well, stealing. thankfully, as if the opportunity was waiting for you to be ready, a job opening as a guard for a mysterious Person-Of-Some-Importance falls into your lap–it doesn’t take much convincing when you see the pay rate. soon enough, you’re travelling to the northern city to become a royal guard, as if nothing could ever go wrong with that, 'cause nothing ever could, right?

expired milk and other things best before november — jay x exchange student!femreader ; undecided word count

you and jay go through the motions of balancing school, a relationship and the struggles of growing up; some things are bound to topple over

after hours — jay x stripper!femreader ; undecided word count

jay reluctantly joins his coworkers to a strip club after a company party out of pure curiosity—you're determined to give him the time of his life

plagiarism! — fanboy!jay x fanfic writer!femreader ; social media au

you find out that your works have been plagiarized and shared on twitter without your permission and you can’t stop yourself from confronting the perpetrator

the seven husbands of the heiress — maid!yunjin x heiress!femreader x enhypen ; undecided word count

wip summary (the seven husbands of evelyn hugo au)

august eleventh — (side story) bsf!sunghoon x femreader ; undecided word count

wip summary (camping trip goes wrong horror fic feat. amnesia, (lots of) death)

fireflies, s'mores and more — counselor!jungwon x camper!femreader ; undecided word count

wip summary (adult summer camp for the Mentally Ill ..)

a little bit of luck — ladybug!sunoo x cat noir!femreader ; undecided word count

wip summary (miraculous au!!!!)

twenty thousand leagues below the sea — captain!sunghoon x scientist!femreader ; undecided word count

wip summary (20000 leagues below the sea au ... sorta)

a circus ain't a love story — criminal!heeseung x femreader x loner!jay ; undecided word count

wip summary (365 fresh mv au)

sparks — witch!jake x witch!femreader ; undecided word count

wip summary (modern magic au)

( 꽃 ) MY IDEAS !

"there's something wrong with my cat" — loser!jake x vet-tech!femreader ; undecided word count

jake doesn't know how to take care of his cat. solution? visit the vet.. like everyday

untitled — dad!jay x teacher!femreader ; undecided word count

newly single dad!jay .. yeah that's all i got (prob. feature some unrequited love w coworker!heeseung)

untitled — pirate captain!sunghoon x vigilante!femreader ; undecided word count

pirates au (probably smutty)

untitled — hyung line x toxic!femreader ; undecided word count

"when he cheated on me with the same girl my ex cheated on me with" yeah y/n is a bitch in this one

untitled — assistant!heeseung x serial killer!femreader ; undecided word count

based on what little i know about that book assistant to the villain (i've never read it)

untitled — boyfriend!jay x girlfriend!femreader ; undecided word count

jay helps you with your period cramps in the best way he knows (getting freaky)

to the moon and back — astronaut!heeseung x stay-at-home-mom!femreader ; undecided word count

not to spoil it but this is tragic

untitled — august!rei x james!niki x betty!femreader ; undecided word count

the folklore love triangle 🙂‍↕️

you don't have a shot — soccer player!wonyoung x soccer player!femreader ; undecided word count

based on you don't have a shot by racquel marie!!!

[briefobservationdreamer]

The Beach

What I love most about the beach party at the end of KH3 is the fact that not only is everyone finally happy and having fun after so much hardship, but no-one is sticking rigidly to their previously defined friendship groups. Not only can that limit personal growth to define someone by their relationship with one or two people (especially notable for the trios), but it is also something that has hurt many of these characters in the past. Riku and Isa felt cut out and replaced when their friend joined a trio they were excluded from. The wayfinders had a limited perspective on life due to growing up in isolation and being raised and trained to be keyblade wielders under rigid dogmatic beliefs.

Here, there is none of that. Instead, people are branching out from their original friendship groups, expanding their horizons and building other connections on their own terms that they can grow and learn from.

Riku sees Terra again, is on friendlier terms with Roxas, and the three have a race together.

Xion and Naminé get to interact under much better circumstances and collect seashells.

Lea, Isa and Ven have fun together playing with Lea's frisbees after over a decade.

Before, they were a collection of friendship groups who were mostly personally concerned for the other members of their group and for the greater good, united only by the goal to defeat a common enemy.

Now they are a community.

I hope we get to see more unorthodox friendships in this big cast of characters, especially for characters like Aqua, Terra, Naminé, Isa and Ienzo who don't really have many friends and would likely have difficulty making them (especially Naminé, Isa and Ienzo). It would do them in particular a lot of good to expand their social circles. Just like how it was important for Riku to have friends besides Sora and found one with Mickey, or how its important for Roxas and Xion to have friends more their own age like Hayner, Pence and Olette.

[terraliensvent]

On behalf of someone not in the server, /what/ is the whole myo scandal going on rn? Did they hand out fake myos...? Did they revoke paid myos....? Did staff trade illegal myos to people....??? I'm lost.

OK SO im just gonna give a whole summary of the events of the past few days since it seems a lot of people are confused (also i dont have screenshots EVERYTHING what im about to say, but this is just what i remember from personally seeing it. ill link posts as they come along for context):

the other night, when staff made this announcement regarding coy, shit started to hit the fan pretty fast

this announcement came after almost a full 2 days of weird behavior from staff, like how a lot of them put almost all their terras up for trade and how there was basically radio silence with the staff questions and design concept channels going unanswered. a lot of people noticed how suspicious this was, and this anon was pretty on the money with their theory

so suffice to say everyone was pretty much on the edge of their seats waiting for something big, and after the announcement was made the entire server basically exploded. in the chaos of people trading and running around like chickens with their heads cut off, the mods said they would approve anything submitted to the site. they said they were doing this so they could make the species as bad as possible for when coy took it over, and mods were in the server being very apathetic about it and having an attitude like “idgaf what happens now because we have been getting treated like shit so this is finally the consequences.” this attitude can be seen in the screenshots included here too

during this chaos, people could also ask for myos to be uploaded to their acc for free, which mods would do. so tons of people got “illegitimate” myos. people used their illegal myos and real myos that had been purchased before the downfall to upload tons of characters and some joke characters too, like one that was just a PNG of ellen. during this huge chaos, people were also hating on coy and freely talking about things they disliked about how the species was run as opposed to the chokehold toxic positivity attitude that the server usually had. truly the most euphoric the server has ever been. some coy meat rider was also defending them, and got really aggressive about it and telling people to go fuck themselves (for which they got banned). someone else also made a branch-off server so people could stay in contact with their friends from the terra community seeing as the future was totally uncertain

after a while the “we are approving everything” stopped, and things were a bit more quiet. temul and some mods joined the branch-off server and gave some more deets about the shit coy would do. i also made my Big Post; initially this post was just gonna be positive stuff about how i has a discussion with tycho about suggesting things for the species, but after the announcement was made i was given screenshots to post here by a mod so i just threw it all in the same post. the Big Post made public opinion of coy a lot worse since now there were animal abuse allegations being talked about, but later on with further scrutiny the conclusion was reached that the screenshot was mainly coy exaggerating to try and be funny, but miserably failing. either way, public opinion of coy was and still is totally in the shitter.

the next day, mods put out another announcement that can be summed up as “lol sorry guys everyone get back to business” which is total bs to me considering the shit they were saying the very night before. so now they wanna try and reign in this species when they already did irreparable damage, and now people are switching up and acting like nothing ever happened (i assume its because mods are gonna be looking for new staff soon and they want a piece of the pie lmao)

to fix the monumental fucking issue they created for no reason, they put out another announcement (which i forgot to post here oops sorry pookies)

so basically what theyre gonna do is:

- if you uploaded character(s) that night using illegal MYO(s), you can choose ONE to unvoid (with any changes that need to be made in order to be legal if you have illegal traits and stuff, like for example eyes + mouth), the unvoided terra will be account bound and non voucherable

- if you had an illegal myo from that night but DIDNT use it, or if you didnt get any illegal myos at all, there will be a form to fill out where you can get one free MYO that will create any subtype up to modified (meaning no limited subtypes), the MYO will be account bound until designed. theyre also in the process of figuring out whether theyll give people the choice of using x amount of lim traits or having the terra be voucherable. some of it is still up in the air

- if you used a legal myo to upload your terra, there will be a process a little down the line for you to get your myo and any items back

and this is where were at now, people in the terra server are acting like everythings normal and going along with the toxic positivity mob once more, people in the branch-off server are freely expressing their grievances as they did that night, and im pissed off because i think its a little unfair that people will get to unvoid their lim terras meanwhile other people only get up to a modified. hand out lim myos instead of modified, why are we STILL doing the artificial scarcity youre all acting just like coy

[mae-the-gay-nerd]

Some final fantasy similarities

I'm tired so i want to rant about some shit. so every single final fantast has similarities (These include basic magic, a person named Cid, chocobos, and moogles) but final fantasy 6 and 15 seem to have more similarities than some of the final fantasy games I've ever played. These include:

the easiest to spot, the world of ruin. In 15, we have the ten year time skip and also, the world that is taken over by darkness is often referred to as the world of ruin by fans. in 6, there is the obvious world of ruin, since that is what it is referred to as, that leaves the sky a gray green and the ground brown

something that took me a minute, the term "magitek". In 15, the Niffelheim army uses the magitek infantry. In 6, Gestahl's army uses magitek forces, like that Terra was using in the very beginning of the game.

finally, there's mithril. There is mithril in a lot of final fantasy games (there is even the mithril mines in 7) but the thing that is interesting is that both 6 and 15's enemy army use them for battle (if i miss any more of the games w/ armies using mithril, that's because i haven't played them). In 15, we know that the niffelheim army uses mithril because of the temple that you explore for the crystal while Aranea is in the party. The army specificly has the entire place locked down so that can get it for their own use. In 6, Gestahl's army of magitek is powered by mithril.

Do with my information as you please :3

[hubristicassholefight]

Preliminary Round: Final Fantasy

Propaganda Below cut

Alisaie

When she first shows up she's wearing matching outfits and wielding matching grimoires with her twin brother, but when she properly joins the game's main cast it becomes clear that she has swordswoman energy so incredibly strong that as a magical prodigy her chosen fighting style is "manifest sword out of aether and then hit people with it." She later simplifies this to merely wielding a sicknasty crystal rapier; As we know, fury and compassionate outrage are more powerful under when concentrated, which makes this tiny elf sword nerd a volatile pressurecooker of heroism. She's here to care about the little guy, make frustrated noises, and charge off to solve and/or cause problems, and truly what else is swordswoman energy about?

She wanted to use a sword so bad she summoned one made of pure magic, before a friend gave her an actual sword because he was worried about the toll summoning a sword made of pure magic was having on her, I love her and her brother so much. One of them is trans (they did the identical but different-gender twins thing). At one point Alisaie mopes because her and her brother didn't get new outfits when everyone else did. She then jumps off of a balcony because she saw an opportunity for adventure. Canonically doesn't like pickles on burgers (she put them on someone else's plate!! the scandal!!)

Lucia

she fights with a sword and shield— very classic paladin flavor. she’s achieved and maintained high ranking status for her combat prowess!; nobody is immune to hot lady knight especially when she is over six feet tall and in full plate armor tbh . easily the hottest defector from the evil empire in xiv. also she can pilot a big robot so that’s automatically a point in her favor imo

Mylla

She's the leader of the gladiator's guild. Gladiators are the class that use swords and shields. She kind of gets sidelined once it upgrades to the Paladin job for a bit, but then they went 'no Mylla and her guild are cooler than these idiots' and did a tournament arc

Lightning

She uses a Gunblade. A sword thats also a gun. Said to be very rare because it takes so much skill to use. Does lots of slashing and backflips. Later becomes Champion of A God and sword fights a guy for eternity. Later becomes champion of a Different god and uses lots of different swords; She is dramatic and has lots of character growth and is awesome.

Agrias

She has the class Holy Knight which enables her to use Holy Sword techniques as long as she has a sword equipped, which pretty much makes her the most powerful swordfighter your party can recruit (with the exception of Cidolfus Orlandeau, who has her skillset plus extra); You meet Agrias at the start of the game, and it's a few chapters before she joins your party permanently during which she gets quite a bit of screentime. This is significant, since Tactics lets you dismiss any character that's not the protagonist, and consequently the story is written to not assume you have any particular character in your party except for guests, meaning Agrias gets more story time than most characters that join your party.

Paine

starts out as a swordfighter with a big sword with a skull design. #girlboss; ffx-2 is a Wild Ride already but that they gave us a goth lesbian with a sword as our third party member was a great choice. i love her and also ffx-2. it's underappreciated.

Terra

Swords are one kind of weapon she can wield. Her ultimate weapon is known as Apocalypse.

Celes

She was turned into a Magitek knight by the Gestahlian Empire which she betrays. Swords are one kind of weapon she can wield. Her ultimate weapon is a sword known as Save the Queen.

[tealin]

Antarctic Food

Below you will find my account of eating at McMurdo, but PBS did a whole special on it which has more privileged access and, like, moving pictures and stuff. I highly recommend watching that if you're at all interested in the food question.

As other pleasures in life are restricted or eliminated, food gains significance beyond mere nutrition.  When removed from the comforts and diversions of civilisation for months or years at a time, polar explorers had to pay particular attention to the culinary side of their enterprise.  Scott learned this the hard way on the Discovery, when their cook was so bad he was sent home after the first year and others took over his job in shifts.  Shackleton, on his second visit to Antarctica, brought all sorts of tinned delicacies, and left a lot of them behind in his hut at Cape Royds, which the Terra Nova men would raid on day trips from Cape Evans.  Scott was much more careful with his choice of cook on his second expedition, and in his journal he continually praises Clissold's cooking – though Atkinson, writing for a publication he knew no one would read, says that Archer (the ship's cook, who filled in after Clissold was invalided home) was a far superior chef, and made the miserable second winter that much more bearable.

The expeditions of the early 20th Century brought down crates and crates of imperishables – tinned vegetables, powdered milk and eggs, and dry goods like flour, sugar, and tea.  These were necessary, of course, but were ultimately supplemental to the core of their diet, which was the produce of Antarctica itself.  In fact, in a letter laying out contingency plans if the Terra Nova Expedition were stranded in Antarctica, Scott says not to worry for their safety because the continent provides enough food to keep a party happily fed; they would only be wanting the comforts of a civilised menu.  Mostly what the continent provided was seals, whose meat (especially livers) contained enough Vitamin C to stave off scurvy, but penguins and their eggs also regularly passed through the kitchen, and the contents of the marine biologist's net – once properly enumerated and dissected, of course – would often end up in the frying pan.  The Notothenia fish was commonly eaten at breakfast, appreciated for its 'sweet' and 'nutty' flavour. Notothenia’s claim to fame is the sugar in its blood that acts as an antifreeze, so this is hardly a surprise.

Thanks to the Antarctic Treaty forbidding the killing of animals for consumption, modern Antarctic larders are not stocked with local wildlife, and as far as I know, no one down there now has tasted the sweetness of Notothenia.  They do, however, have the advantage of modern transport and food storage, not to mention a century's worth of advances in the study of nutrition, so the diet of the present-day Antarctican is fresher, healthier, and much more diverse.

McMurdo Station's annual food supply arrives in one lump delivery, every January, on a big cargo ship from California.  From the harbour where the Discovery berthed, it goes into climate-controlled storage, either to the dry goods store or to the freezer, which is a whole building off the cafeteria in the main station hub.  A freezer, in Antarctica?  Why, yes, because food safety regulations require frozen food to be kept at a constant temperature, and the only way to ensure that is to build an enormous manmade freezer in the land of ice and snow. In the summer, temperatures at McMurdo will wander around freezing, so this is entirely practical, but for much of the year, it's actually warmer inside the freezer than outside. 

The modern Antarctic commissariat is not entirely divorced from its Edwardian predecessor, though – frozen vegetables taste fresher than tinned, and are more nutritious and palatable, but they are not fresh; powdered milk and powdered eggs are still the status quo.  During the summer, perishable groceries – called 'freshies' – come down on the flights from New Zealand, if there is room after the passengers and equipment are loaded.  After a month of flight cancellations, fresh apples and oranges are greeted with as much delight as they were on the arrival of relief ships in the Heroic Age, and the appearance of a salad bar in the Galley prompts general rejoicing.

The US Antarctic Program has its roots in the Navy, and McMurdo is still provisioned by one of the big firms that supplies the US military.  Having had experience with industrial-scale American catering in California, I had moderate expectations of the quality of food at McMurdo, but it was surprisingly good.  One might argue that the excitement of being there and the daily energy expenditure would be a good sauce for anything, and this may be true, but against this I would argue that dry air impedes one's ability to taste – that fact it was so flavourful at all is significant.  People kept apologising for the food in the Galley and I kept telling them, earnestly, that it was better than the food in the Disney commissary. They didn't believe me, but I firmly attest this; I ate at Disney on my return journey and have confirmed it by direct comparison.  I know they were working with roughly the same quality of ingredients, but the chefs at McMurdo reliably made things delightful to eat, which is more than I can say for the other place.  Why this should be is anyone's guess ... Working as a Galley Rat is one of the few ways enthusiasts can get down to the Ice, so it's full of keen, intelligent, and curious cooks, and maybe that rubs off on the food.  There are people who come back to tackle the unique challenges of Antarctic cuisine year after year, so maybe they're more experienced and invested in the job.  My personal theory is that because they have to eat the food, too, of course they're invested in making it tasty – I suspect the folks behind the counter in LA have much better meals waiting for them when they get home.

Mealtimes follow a strict schedule:

5:30-7:30 Breakfast (many a time I missed the cutoff, woe)

11:00-13:00 Lunch

17:00 to 19:30 Dinner. There was always a portion of the cafeteria serving breakfast food at this time; this was reserved for the night shift workers, who got a reprise of the day shift's dinner for their lunch.  If you really liked whatever was served for dinner, nothing could stop you coming around again for another go at midnight.

The one exception to this was Sunday, when a brunch would be served from 10 to 12.  The service in the chapel started at 10 as well, and was very weak competition.  Brunch was always excellent, and being the single day off, was often where one would meet up with people who were too busy during the week.

If you failed to make a mealtime for any reason, there was always something on offer.  A fridge would be stocked with packaged leftovers, sandwiches, and other food-to-go – when I had a day out, I would eat breakfast and then grab my lunch from this fridge.  On one occasion, dinner included fried okra (one of my faves, rarely had outside the States) and after stuffing myself with it, I nabbed two or three extra portions and cached them in my dorm room mini-fridge to enjoy later. 

In a challenging environment, with a lot of people doing energy-intensive jobs, calories are important.  There was only one rule regulating portions: Take what you want, but eat what you take.  With a finite amount of food on hand, and delivery only once a year, food waste is anathema – if you need it, then eat it, but do not throw any away.

The menu seemed to originate with whatever presented itself in the enormous freezer, though perhaps in November and December it was dictated more by what remained in it, prior to the new shipment.  We didn't suffer for want of variety, though: if anything, we benefited from a surfeit of prawns, including great bowls of them at Sunday brunch.  I found myself wondering if the US military had a contract for most of the catch from the Gulf, and how much of their famously inflated budget went into that; I suspect, in reality, the kitchen just hit a seam of prawn in the recesses of the freezer and had to use it up.  As a devotee of all shapes of sea bug, I was in seventh heaven, and did my level best to help McMurdo clear the surplus. 

Once new food was defrosted and cooked up, it would cascade through various dishes down the week, as leftovers were repurposed to minimise waste.  Usually this was successful, but sometimes they had to try a little harder ... 

A variety of cuisines were offered, some of which were more successful than others. They seemed to reflect the makeup of the US military, for whom the rations would have been designed.  The best dishes were the meat-and-potatoes variety (my minder said that if she were on Death Row, she'd ask for McMurdo Pot Roast for her last meal), Italian, Southern (see above re: okra), and what I assume was Tex Mex – the only misstep on the last count was an almost inedibly hot 'taco soup' which may have been more of a delivery vehicle for leftovers than an intentional dish.  The only disappointments were anything attempting to be Asian, and the fish, which, due to the circumstances, was always overcooked.  Provision was always made for vegetarians and even vegans, but I can't say I noticed many people adhering strictly to those diets.  I suppose if the animals are already dead and in the freezer, there's little difference whether you eat them or not.

There was also, always, pizza.  It was left in one of those tiered heated racks like you get at a buck-a-slice takeaway pizzeria, but this was no buck-a-slice pizza, this was McMurdo pizza, and McMurdo pizza is AMAZING.  My brother-in-law's cousin went to super legit pizza school in Naples, and gets queues down the street wherever he opens a pizzeria.  He makes the best pizza I have ever had anywhere; McMurdo’s wasn't quite as good as his, but it was pretty darn close.  It's a testament to how good the rest of the food was that I didn't just have pizza for every meal.  The pizza kitchen runs 24 hours a day, and takes orders for pickup from all across the base.  If you're flying out to a field camp, it's good manners to take their pizza order and deliver it to them hot and fresh.  For all the advances in food technology since the Heroic Age, surely the greatest has to be the McMurdo Pizza.

We were reminded constantly how important hydration was, and the Galley offered a range of liquids at all hours.  To my surprise, what looked like a soda fountain offered not pop but fruit juice – grapefruit, orange, cranberry, and apple, though one or more often ran out before the end of breakfast.  There were enormous urns of extremely weak coffee – a provision, I supposed, for its diuretic effects – though with 10-hour workdays and very early starts, a little more oomph would have gone a long way.  Experienced hands, and those of discerning tastes, brought their own coffee or sourced it somehow from the stores. The kitchenette in the Crary library was full of people's personal coffee-making supplies as they sought a more effective brew. 

I had been warned that if I liked tea, I should bring my own; this was a sound warning, as the black tea on offer looked and smelled as though it had been on a shelf for about a decade.  What I had not been warned about was that the only 'milk' on hand for one's coffee or tea was, in most places, 'coffee whitener', a ubiquitous Americanism which I'd completely forgotten about (or supressed?) since moving away.  For those who've not had the privilege of its acquaintance, this is a blend of margarine, sugar, synthetic vanilla, and titanium dioxide, rendered into a powder by some unknown chemical process and packaged up to pass for milk.  (I think it might be illegal in Europe.  I've certainly not seen it around.)  The Galley had the base's only dispenser of actual mammalian lactation – reconstituted from powdered, of course.  If I were to go again, I would bring a small bottle to fill there with 'real' milk, which I could take away for tea purposes elsewhere.  There were boxes of UHT milk available for purchase in the shop, and had I been staying longer I might have invested in some, but for just a splash per cuppa, it hardly seemed worthwhile.

The undisputed star of the Galley was the soft serve ice cream dispenser, named Frosty Boy (or Boi), an ancient beast that was such an institution that it was rumoured the USAP had bought another one from a junkyard just for parts.  The Thing to Do was, instead of putting milk or coffee whitener in your coffee, to use a dollop of Frosty Boy instead – I'm not sure which end of the dairy/non-dairy spectrum his product was nearest, but it did go well in the coffee, such as it was.  More often than not while I was there, Frosty Boy exuded only a watery splutter rather than creamy delight – even when he was working, the product was rather gritty – but I was assured he was just going through a phase, and would be right again soon.  I got the impression that if anyone tried replacing the machine with something more reliable, or which produced something more resembling ice cream, there'd be a protest.  We shall see if Frosty Boy survives the station revamp, as the NSF seems keen to scrub out any vestiges of character ...

I have brought two things back from the McMurdo Galley, and they're things that go right back to the beginning: powdered milk and powdered egg.  Even when I'm near a shop with both in fresh form, it's convenient to have the powdered on hand for recipes.  I really only use milk to splash in my tea and coffee, so don't keep a large amount in my fridge, but recipes often call for far more than I have – so instead of making a trip for the extra, I can just mix it up on demand.  I've also taken on the Perpetual Yoghurt: McMurdo makes its own yoghurt from its vast reserves of powdered milk, using a bit of the last batch to inoculate the next, and it turns out this is perfectly doable at home, too.  Eggs eaten as eggs are better fresh, of course, but when providing structure in a recipe, no one's going to notice if they've been reconstituted, and then I can save my 'real' eggs for when they'll be appreciated. It's a good system, and economical, too.  Alas, the pizza isn't as easy to replicate at home ... 

For more information on McMurdo food – The Antarctic Sun newsletter put out this podcast: https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/4329/ I didn't mention how good the desserts were; I was lucky enough to share my time at McMurdo with Rose McAdoo, who was featured in this story on NPR: https://text.npr.org/779463164

[nemonihilominus]

Is This Good Latin? Agatha All Along Editon #6

In the last post from this edition I bring you two spells! And also a confirmation of another spell that wasn't quite apparent the first time. Let's get to it.

Drawing a protection circle

This one happened a couple episodes ago but without subtitles, it was difficult to catch. Thankfully, Agatha repeated a couple of the previous spells and this one was finally very undestandable. Here goes:

Expelle hoc malum. / Expell this evil.

Completely correct. Good job, moving on...

Letting someone into a protection circle

This is a short sentence with one word possibly missing (no subtitles, just like always), but I think I can manage:

Te accipimus in circulum.

This one fits the context perfectly, as it is granting access to someone's space marked by rocks and stuff. accipimus comes from a verb accipere, which has the exact same meaning one would expect. It is in 1st person plural form: we accept. This verb has an object in accusative case – te (you) – and also a prepositional phrase attached to it – in circulum (into the circle). circulus is a circle in a literal sense and also a gathering or a group. In the scene, I would say it is more literal but I like the double meaning all the same. The word is in accusative case to signify direction. So the translation is:

We accept you (let you) into the circle.

This one is a perfectly good Latin as well! Gif break.

Banishing a ghost

Interestingly enough, this spell was in the subtitles when I was watching, but I don't know if it was in the official ones or if my pirate subtitler decided to get creative, either way, it din't help, because it was complete gibberish. But because this spell kept being repeated over and over again, I think I got it!

Vale ad lucem. Relinque terram. Noli esse phantasma.

It's pretty basic stuff one would think of when creating a spell for getting rid of a ghost. The first part has ad lucem (towards the light – light is lux in its basic form and lucem is an accusative after ad), so you probably already know where this is going. The verb is actually kind of fun, though.

valere (infinitive form) can mean many things but originally it meant "to be strong, powerful" or even "to be healthy". Its imperative form vale was a Roman goodbye, literally "be well", but exactly because it was used to mean "goodbye", the verb gained a new meaning in what we call New Latin (Latin used from 15th century onwards): "to leave, to go away". So the first part is literally:

Go towards the light.

But the vibe is:

Get the fuck out, here's the door.

Now for the second part, once again, nothing unusual. relinquere means "to leave behind", relinque is the imperative and it needs an object in accusative, terram is accusative and it means earth (basic form is terra). Therefore:

Leave the earth.

The last part is silly, to be perfectly honest, but I like its structure. So nolle means "to not want" and its imperative noli ("do not want!") is often used when prohibiting something. esse means "to be" and phantasma is a (originally Greek) word for apparition or a spectre. So to conclude, this whole spell means:

Go towards the light. Leave the earth. Don't be a ghost.

Imagine saying the last part in English. Imagine. Silly. As I said.

Anyhow...

That is it, party people! The last few spells are good Latin! And the show as a whole gets like a B, maybe? Good job! Maybe see you with some other show that dares to use Latin, who knows.

Vale!