#they only care so much as the value they can extract from you

[heyitsnyixie]

First of all, yes, you can. All you need to be rich is a severe lack of empathy, old money, and slave labor.

All things Musk has. He's not a smart person. He's a petulant man child who used his daddy's blood money to get more money. Space X is only successful because Elon DOESN'T run it. He DOES NOT have a degree in engineering or rocket science he doesn't know shit about spacecraft.

Having money doesn't mean you're intelligent, it just means you're good at making money. Stop assuming people are rich because they "deserve it." There is no ethical way to make a billion dollars. Let alone four hundred.

popular YouTube channels are great and informative until they make a video about a topic you're informed on and then the house of cards comes crashing down as you realize how utterly wrong they are about most things

[infinitatis-ink]

Service Value

Mei Mei x Reader

Summary: It’s you that Mei Mei ultimately comes back to over and over again. Her favourite asset. Her first choice. So she has to value you a little more than all others…right?

CW: Emotional manipulation, toxic relationships and behaviour, edging, face-sitting, dubcon, overstimulation, light bondage, uneven power dynamics, financially abusive behaviour, mentioned sexual harassment, female Reader, Reader is an adult

A/N: This was just supposed to be a concept, but my hand slipped.

MDNI. AGELESS BLOGS AND MINORS WILL BE BLOCKED.

Mei Mei, who treats you as just another asset. It’s something you pick up on quickly, the way she only calls you whenever she needs your help on another job or someone to spend the night with. 

You don’t mind it too much. After all, you’re not the type to bite the hand that feeds you. Mei Mei’s the one who rescued you and introduced you to the world of Jujutsu sorcerers, showed you where you belonged. You’d be dead in a ditch without her help, devoured by creatures you’d never understand why you were seeing as a hopelessly unlovable woman abandoned by even her own parents.

You’ve got potential, Mei Mei tells you as her brother drags your bruised body out of the wreckage. Yes, you’ll do well.  

It’s more praise than you’ve heard in years, even from your family. Her words fill you with such warmth that you smile for the first time in years. She takes you under her wing then, spending her precious time helping you hone your abilities until it becomes like second nature. 

It’s enough to make up for the missions Mei Mei takes you on that are above your grade, the large cuts she takes of your pay. You never mind; giving your life for hers and paying her back is the least you could do after all the time and money she invested into mentoring a nobody like you. You would make her time worth it all. You have to.

It's that determination that run through your mind the nights Mei Mei strikes your skin hard enough to bruise and abuses your pussy with her fingers, her index curling against your g-spot over and over while her thumb harshly rubs your swollen clit. Every time, she brings you tauntingly close to completion before pulling away with a smirk, until you're a sobbing, dizzy mess, writhing against your restraints. 

But Mei Mei is generous with her rewards, too. Sometimes she’ll shower you with designer clothes and jewels, the chance to accompany her to luxurious dinners and destinations, and her undivided attention for the night. But most of all, you live for the quiet praises whispered in the aftermath of a mission, between the covers as she holds you in her arms late at night. 

Earn it, she orders, climbing over you until her pussy just centimeters above your face. You obey, eating her out desperately as she grips your hair until you’re in tears and she’s cumming on your tongue. But you never learn to be careful what you wish for until she's drawing orgasm after orgasm with no rest as spots dance in your eyes. You're screaming for her to stop because it hurts too much until your world goes black.

(She's always gone when you wake up.)

My good, obedient girl, she calls you. My precious doll. 

(Never mind they’re all on her terms: 

Clothes and jewelry in her favourite colours and cuts, highlighting the features that she loves on you the most. They always show more skin than you’d like, but Mei Mei is spending so much of her hard-earned money on you, so you keep your mouth shut and gratefully accept the gift. 

Dinners and parties where hoary old men with far too much power and money—the best ones, because of all the favours Mei Mei can extract—leer at you like a piece of meat, and all you can do is smile because Mei Mei’s gripping you too tightly when she whispers, helping me hook them in is the least you can do, after all I’ve done for you. 

Attention that ends with you on your hands and knees, bleeding and sobbing from pain as you choke out, I don't want this anymore. Rope digging into your bruised arms and sore cunt, and Mei Mei’s smiling as she says, Are you sure? Think carefully, sweet girl. I have no use for disobedient pets. 

Nothing in this world is free.)

And yet, you’re not naive enough to think this can last forever. Mei Mei’s never been one to hide her true nature from others, and she’ll leave the moment you’re of no value. You will not—cannot—let that happen, not when she cherishes you more than anyone else ever has. Even if you’ll have to push your body past its breaking point with training and make half a dozen binding vows like her brother’s done, it’ll be well worth it when Mei Mei comes to you again with yet another task at hand.  

Hello again, my dear, she’ll say and smile at you, all teeth. Are you ready?

(In the end, you remember this:

It’s you that Mei Mei ultimately comes back to over and over again. Her favourite asset. Her first choice. 

So she has to value you a little more than all others…right?)

[lizbethborden]

Hey, to all folkskxkxkx recommending his work, please be aware that Norman Finkelstein is a highly controversial scholar, who argues that antisemitism does not affect Jews in the west and especially in the US and that Jewish people invented the cultural image of the Holocaust in order to pretend to be victims so that we can exploit and parasitize gentile industries and resources. 👍 Which is pretty much straight out of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Not going to suggest there's nothing of interest or value in his work, just to say to please be mindful of how you approach it. Here's some quotes from his book, The Holocaust Industry, with some emphasis added.

For organized American Jewry, this contrived hysteria over a new anti-Semitism served multiple purposes. It boosted Israel's stock as the refuge of last resort if and when American Jews needed one. Moreover, the fund-raising appeals of Jewish organizations purportedly combating anti-Semitism fell on more receptive ears.

And:

Beyond this, however, the Holocaust framework apprehended anti-Semitism as a strictly irrational Gentile loathing of Jews. It precluded the possibility that animus toward Jews might be grounded in a real conflict of interests (more on this later). Invoking The Holocaust was therefore a ploy to delegitimize all criticism of Jews: such criticism could only spring from pathological hatred.

Referring to fear of antisemitism as "contrived hysteria," arguing that fears of antisemitism were cynically contrived to appropriate money, that antisemitism has "real" basis, etc... So, yeah. Be mindful that these are his philosophical underpinnings and be careful about what you extract from his work.

[alpaca-clouds]

Explaining Solarpunk With The Help Of Princess Mononoke

Recently I was asked to write an essay about Solarpunk - and especially the "punk" of Solarpunk and how it is used to tell stories - for a German publication that will be released later this year. Originally someone else had been asked to write an essay, but the publishers were not happy with that essay, becuase that essay very much focused just on the history, and worse, on the history in "the west". So, I did what I already do in this blog over and over: Ramble about Solarpunk. Though for that essay I tried to get it a bit scientific sounding. ;)

I did talk about the history of the genre, too, and about how the punk genre came to be. But with Solarpunk I especially talked about the influence of Hayao Miyazaki and Ursula K. LeGuin. And while discussing how those stories influenced Solarpunk as a genre, I realized one thing: The most Solarpunk Ghibli movie is Princess Mononoke. In fact, that movie is so Solarpunk, that I think it can be used to explain the genre more than anything. And that is despite the fact that this movie is not science fiction, but set in the Japan of the 14th century.

Because, well... I will repeat: No, Solarpunk does not necessarily need to be a SciFi setting. You can write a story that is fundamentally Solarpunk in almost any setting.

Now, let me talk a moment about Princess Mononoke, for everyone who has not watched the movie (at least in a while):

Princess Mononoke is the story of Ashitaka, the prince of the Emishi (one of the technically erased indigenous cultures of Japan). After his village gets attacked by a corrupted god, he travels west to find one of the last mountain gods in the hope that this god can heal him. Before he finds the god, however, he gets drawn into the conflict between a settleman calling itself Irontown and the minor gods of nature living around it. The gods try to bring down Irontown, which is lead by Lady Eboshi, as the iron extraction is destroying nature and with it the gods themselves, too. On the side of the gods, there is also San, a girl who had been abandoned in the forest by her parents and was taken in by the wolf gods. Ashitaka finds, that he will have to help both sides to find a peaceful solution.

Now, the movie is very interesting from so many Solarpunk aspects.

The central conflict is very much a conflict between men and nature, but one where both sides are shown with a lot of nuance. As well as having some aspects that a lot of people tend to overlook - like the importance of Ashitaka's perspective as an indigenous man.

Now, the movie could have been quite simple, but Miyazaki chose to not make it that way. Because the quite interesting point is, that Irontown is filled with people from the Untouchable Caste of Japanese society. (Because yes, Japan has a Caste system - untouchables exist to this day.) Untouchables were prostitutes, people who worked certain other jobs like mortician, sick people and such. And Eboshi is a former prostitute, who knew of this and decided to fill her town with only other untouchables, often rescuing them from abject poverty. And she does care about them. She wants to help those people. She just does not see the value in the nature she is destroying compared to the value she can create for herself and her people by selling weapons.

The mythology shown in the movie, rather than depicting classic Shinto mythology, actually is build more around what we know about pre-Shinto Japanese mythology, which has a lot more animalistic gods than what it evolved to with Shinto.

And again, the very interesting aspect that a lot of people ignore is that Ashitaka is indigenous. He is not Japanese, he is Emishi - he is from a culture that the Japanese culture (that came from Chinese and Korean colonialism of the Japanese islands) eradicated. But within the world of the movie some Emishi have survived and have hidden in the mountains.

Which brings me to the point that actually makes me say, that this is the most Solarpunk movie: The ending. Because the ending of the movie is, that both sides decide that they will need to find a way for both of them to live. And they will learn that with Ashitaka staying with the people of Irontown and helping them live together with nature.

Because the movie quite clearly says: Yes, the methods that Eboshi choses are wrong. But her goals - helping those people outcast by normal society - are still good ones. And there has to be a way that these people can live a good life at this place surrounded by this ancient nature without being antagonistic towards it.

Now, of course the movie leaves in a very open end. It does not say whether they manage and how they manage. But they at least try.

And I think that is what makes this movie so inherently Solarpunk: The mixture of those themes. The indigenous culture. The nature and its protection. And the survival of those outcasts. That is a lot of themes - and it is the themes that I think are at the very core of what Solarpunk should be.

Again... I keep harping on this in this blog, but I will say it again: No, Solarpunk is not an aesthetic. It is about themes and content. Which is exactly why so many of the stories people will tell you about when you ask them about it, are not very SciFi in fact - and not at all fitting with the tumblr aesthetic. They are a lot more like Princess Mononoke and Nausicaä. And... Well, I think that this is something people really should take more to heart. Allow for it to be more thematic - rather than necessarily fitting with the aesthetic.

[hoursofreading]

We don’t actually live in a world with scarce resources. There’s so much stuff. There’s so many clothes being thrown away. There’s dumpsters of food being thrown away at the end of the night. There’s houses left empty because it’s not profitable to rent them out. And beyond that, our planet is so beautiful and lush and sticky and dry and breezy. We have enough to all be happy and well here. It’s just being controlled by people who don’t want us to know that. They’re scared of true abundance.

I hope that you can feel some measure of connection to a world beyond the one we live in, the one where this true abundance of care and love exists. That’s honestly the only place I feel truly safe. Even just hypothetically. I know it is possible to create a place where life is precious, and that helps me keep going, even when I feel powerless and stuck and like I have no options. I remember abolition and I remember change and I remember that the land I live on and the earth I come from is so much more than extracted economic value. We are all so much more than extracted economic value.

I know that’s so lofty and broad. It’s okay to focus on what you need to do now and not think about politics or history. I just wanted to let you know that I’m stuck too, and you’re not alone in this. It’s not your fault, nor is it even your responsibility to overcome these circumstances. But living in this world is all the more reason to be exceedingly gentle with yourself, and to extend as much compassion as you can to your struggles and your sore heart, including the odd little treat here and there. Sending you love x

[twinsunstars]

Thoughts on The Bad Batch Episode 7 - Extraction - A Discussion Post

This episode was full of even more action and a lot more thoughts and theories than the episode before it. Let's dive into the second part!

(SPOILERS IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE EPISODES YET! all screencaps from www.cap-that.com! https://www.cap-that.com/starwars/the-bad-batch/307/)

Before Episode 6 ended, the clones' base on Teth was attacked, and the CX trooper emerges from the rubble that fell on him, clearly alive and well. He looks around, as there is no one to be found.

Everyone is doing okay, but the rubble blocks their way out. Batcher finds a different way out as they decide to take that way, sticking together to reach a ship they can use to contact Echo.

Wolffe arrives at the base, realizing that there were clones who were attacked. He meets CX-2, asking him what his orders were, who refuses to tell him that. Wolffe makes him follow his orders only, while the CX trooper keeps following his own orders. I've seen posts on the parallels between Tech's limping in Season 2 to how CX-2 was limping here, and I'm living for those parallels to keep the theories going. The CX trooper can't reach his ship after his device was damaged, so he sticks with the others.

Also, I love Clone Commander Hilo already.

The boys and Omega manage to find the ship and get it working to make their escape. Batcher starts licking Nemec, and Omega says, "Don't worry. She only bites half of the time," which was funny. Batcher loves all of the clones around her.

While trying to escape, CX-2 shoots their ship down, making their escape fail. They crash into the jungle.

Wolffe argues with CX-2 after he shot their ship down, and tracks down the crashed ship. CX-2 goes with while they try to continue their efforts to retrieve Omega.

Everyone makes it out of the crash safely, continuing to run. Crosshair checks in on Omega, who gets annoyed by his continuous questions. I love how overprotective he started becoming here. Omega said, "You're as bad as Hunter", and Crosshair said, "Oh, I'm much worse." MY HEART-

Howzer starts to talk to Crosshair calmly after seeing how he interacts with Omega and takes care of her, realizing that he's not the same clone he met on Ryloth anymore. Crosshair opens up about how he feels about loyalty, as that is something he values highly. With the Empire betraying him, there was no way he was going to stay loyal to them.

The Empire locates them, as they fight and protect each other. I loved the way that Wrecker had protected Batcher and Hunter was protecting Omega in this scene. CX-2 attacks them as well, and Crosshair decides to go after him. Omega didn't like that idea, to which he responded, "Too bad."

RIP to Nemec 😭

Crosshair faces off against CX-2 in an aggressive fight, and anyone else getting the Winter Soldier vibes here? CX-2 starts talking to Crosshair, saying, "You had your chance to become one of us. You chose the wrong side." If this is Tech, that's going to hurt so much afterwards. If it's someone else, it's still going to hurt. CX-2 manages to take down Crosshair, but is attacked by the others who saves Crosshair. He falls down the waterfall, left behind.

The Empire catches up to the squad, as Rex finally meets Wolffe face-to-face. Wolffe thought Rex was dead after reading the reports, and he believes in the Empire's cause. Rex tries to tell him that he's making the wrong choice and that clones are being hurt because of them, but Wolffe isn't able to believe anything right now.

Echo arrives with Gregor, as Rex waits for Wolffe to make a choice; either leave the Empire and come with them, or stay. Wolffe decides to stay, and allows the squad to leave safely. Rex looks back on Wolffe, and Gregor looks at the whole scene. They have no idea they're going to be roommates in the near future.

I swear, Wolffe looks so good in today's animation. He watches the clones leave, returning to his own squad. I can't wait until he joins them and realizes his mistakes.

CX-2 emerges from the water after going down the waterfall. Another parallel to Tech, though, who knows. My head kept expecting him to take off his helmet so he could get some air, though I guess it's too early for that still.

Rex looks so tired in the back, and Hunter goes to talk to him. Rex immediately straightens up, acting like everything's fine. (Sir, you need to take a break and let your feelings run through.) Hunter tells him he can't keep running forever, but Rex doesn't want to stop fighting yet. We know he will eventually leading up to Rebels, and I fear what will happen to make him stop.

They both talk about Omega, and Hunter vows that they will keep her safe. Rex tells Hunter they have to find out why the people on Tantiss want her so badly, and the two look at a peacefully sleeping Omega, exhausted from the fighting. She is so precious, we all need to protect her.

We lost good soldiers in both of these episodes, and there's still a whole lot to figure out. Every episode so far in this season is hitting a really good mark, as every single one is so exciting. I can't wait for whatever comes in store in the future, so let's keep the theories going!

[cosmicjoke]

AoT Short Stories Vol. 4: The Dusty Library- Hange & Levi:

And once again, another story highlighting Levi's exceptional kindness.

This one's well known among the community, obviously. But basically, it revolves around Levi searching Hange out to ask them about being able to let Eren out of his cell, from the previous story, and having to rescue Hange from being crushed by a pile of books that begin to fall from a shelf after they try extracting a single tome.

"Levi just barely managed to grab the collar of Hange's jacket and pull the away from the pile of books that fell in the ensuing avalanche.

'Man, you really saved me there, Levi. I might've gotten brain damage if that many books hit me.'

'Don't worry, you can't get any worse than you already are. You really need to be more aware of your surroundings, you know.'

'How rude,' Hange said as they put their goggles back on, 'I am aware.' Hange then brushed the dust off the book they removed.

'Take the books here. This castle is inside the walls, but it's full of books and stockpiled goods that use letters we can't read. The area inside the Walls is dotted with ruins like these, almost as if civilization itself went extinct once-'

'I'm not talking about your intellectual horizons. Even I know how sharp your mind is. I'm saying that exactly why you need to value your own life more. If I wasn't around just now, you could've broken your neck if a book landed wrong.'

'Oh, you're so kind.'

Levi huffed, his expression souring even further. He hated being described with words like those.

'... You said that on purpose, didn't you?'

'Hah, so you knew?'

This entire exchange is so sweet, and really exemplifies Levi's kindness. The fact he gets embarrassed at Hange pointing that kindness out really speaks to the fact that Levi isn't at all used to it. Some people are keenly aware of who Levi really is, but he's used to being treated like the opposite, like he's some sort of bad or unkind person, again, because he doesn't know how to properly express his actual feelings. So he gets flustered at Hange basically teasing him here, pointing out that he can't fool them, that they know he saved them from the falling books because he cares deeply about their life, and everyone's lives in general. Levi points out before that Hange needs to value their own life more, and he sells it to them on the basis that humanity needs them for their intellectual prowess, but Hange sees through that and knows what Levi actually means. He's trying to get Hange to be more careful because he doesn't want them to die or be hurt, whether they're valuable to the cause of humanity or not, but he thinks it'll be easier to convince them to take more caution if he frames it as them being indispensable to humanity. I think this really goes back to Levi's final, few exchanges with Hange, before their great sacrifice in the final arc, with him telling Hange that they "sound like him", meaning Erwin, and Levi's obvious dismay at that realization, knowing what Hange is planning, to give themselves up to the duty of their role as Commander. I don't think anything hurts Levi more than losing his comrades to something as abstract as an ideology. To their having a sense of obligation or duty to their position, or their chosen path. I think Levi wishes he could convince all of them to forego that duty and to keep living, but he knows he can't, because it's what they've chosen for themselves and he has too much respect for people's agencies to ever impose himself and his desires on them. And so he can only support it, even as it destroys him inside. He's basically begging Hange in this story to stay alive, the way he orders his comrades multiple times in the story to do the same. To Levi, it's their individual lives that matter most of all, that are more important than any dream.

Later in the story, Hange asks Levi what he came to see them about:

"'Right. About Eren... I want to give him permission to walk freely around here. I know the Corps must want to stick him underground, but...'

Hange tells him it's fine, that the walls of the castle are sturdy enough to withstand a transformation, and that there are plenty of high towers for them to use their ODM gear on.

"'Okay. I'm glad to hear that... Also...'

'Hm?'

'At least dry yourself off before scouring this place. I can see through your shirt. It's indecent.'

Levi glared at Hange like he would a pile of garbage as he pointed at the fireplace that Moblit must have lit out of consideration for his drenched superior."

Again, we see Levi's kindness, in his relief at being able to help Eren by letting him out of his cell, and also in the way he tries to help Hange again, by pointing out that he can see through their wet shirt. As always with Levi, it comes out harshly, like he's disgusted, but the truth is, Levi just doesn't want Hange being exposed to prying eyes, and also, he assuredly wants them to get dry so they don't end up getting sick. It's his way of trying to protect them from embarrassment or humiliation, and also his way of trying to get them to take better care of themselves. That's just how Levi expresses himself. But once you realize that about him, that he has difficulty saying what he really means, you can see he's truly, endlessly kind and caring. It's not hyperbole to say Levi is the most compassionate and kind character in SnK. It's so incredibly obvious when you actually understand how he operates. If one isn't able to pick up on it from Levi's actions alone, the fact it gets pointed out by multiple characters should clue them in, too.

[lairofdragonagelore]

Dragon Age: Vows and Vengeance

Episodes: 1, 2, 3, and 4

Episodet: 5, 6, 7, and 8

Personal Conclusions

What lore do we extract from them? What seems to be questionable or a recall of a concept from a previous game? I basically collect the interesting ideas and make small speculations or comments on them, testing their reliability or lore consistency as far as I can.

*These Podcasts, like Absolution, are not considered reliable sources of lore [read the end of the post]

Episode 5: The Scales of Justice

This story happens in Par Vollen, Qunari lands.

Thaash seems to have a natural sense to perceive where to go, to the point maps are useless for her. She is called “Qunari”, but when she interacts with other Qunari, we can perceive a certain disdain by the Qun but not a total rejection from her part. We still need to learn where she stands at with the Qun. She speaks Qunlat [or I think that was the chant about]

There is a treasure presented: Ruins of Bloodfire Stones, sacred rubies that are forged from the scales of a dragon. This treasure is in the “Temple of the Lost Dragon”, sacred ground for the Qunari.

Drayden and Nadia are jailed in a building described as a pyramid. This may be direct callback to the codex   The Pyramids of Par Vollen, but weirdly incorporated, because in the podcast they are mere prisons when the codex explains they were closer to [Ghilan'nain] laboratories [more details in the Par Vollen section of Dragon Age Iconic Patterns: The Sun].

This podcast presents very questionable Qunari lore: I won’t rant here, but certainly the whole episode shows how little the writers know about the lore of the Qunari, their moral values, their language, their strict rules that they follow, the importance of the “role” in Qunari society. I highly recommend not to use this content for anything Qunari-lore related. In general, this applies to all the series of podcasts, as we are seeing progressively.

Painful, very painful use of Kadan word. That a Qunari child steps in front of a Kithshok to stop his role… it’s painful. What is this? And the implications that Qunari could not care much about kids or their enemies, when we know their culture is all about not wasting resources, not even your enemy when it’s capable of becoming a useful weapon for you, it’s also painful. These writers had no idea what the Qunari were, and Epler, who had to check this, either.

The writers also don’t know about dragon lore in DA. Female dragons are always winged dragons. It doesn’t matter their spine colour.

The conclusion of how the ring works and how it will guide Elio throughout the Fade to Nadia…. All this is confusing and just so out of the blue in my opinion.

Drayden has seasicknes.

Language is immersion breaker: “yep”, “ain’t”, “piss off”, “you guys”, “jinx”, “nah”. They are a step from start using “lol”. It was a bit annoying that many characters have been using "yep" in the previous podcasts, but in here the language fell on the modern English. I can see this as a careless work.

Our future companion Taash is introduced in this episode.

Personal opinion: As we check the writers we discover the following: Will Melton has a long career very focused in Marvel-like scripts, which shows it in the podcasts, unfortunately. On the other hand, we have Jeremy Novick whose portfolio seems a lot more serious but a shorter career. The director Matt Sav is a person who has more experience with musicals, music, and musicians than… well, narrative story in fantasy genre. I think we can assume these podcasts are a bad product, as it was Absolution: made by people who had no experience in the genre, no real knowledge of the franchise, and they were more doing a freelance job badly paid by Bioware/EA [most likely] since the big majority of their seniors were laid-off in the last decade or simply quit. The only exception is Trick Weekes [who "inherited" Gaider's role in the company], but certainly they can't do everything. They are the only person with the “Bioware” style of narrative that was always so valued in the games of this genre. What i felt with this podcast is that the company is just relaying on Dragon Age's fame to convince new players that this is a good product [the podcast], or use the despair of old fans that have been waiting a decade for a new story in this world. As usual, companies keep killing good art concepts. Update: And as it was expected, Epler explained later that the authors of these podcasts knew no Lore [details at the end of this post].

Episode 6:

This story starts at the shores of Rivain and continues in Antiva. Antiva has been suffering earthquakes that have swallowed entire villages, sudden teleportations (????? Because the Veil is thin I guess? These podcasts are a pain for lore fans), the forests have been wasted, terrible storms hit the land, and the crops have become rotten overnight. Clearly, the story informs us that a series of unnatural disasters have been hitting this country. This context has increased the social frictions and can bring political consequences.

Marethari Talas apparently wrote books or shared her stories about dreamers before becoming an abomination [??]

Elio, as heir of a family of Dreamers, is suspected to be able to find Nadia just… because they have a connection[??] product of the Eye that exploded in episode 1 [???]. What's lore?

Drayden's old name is Aristide of House Amato, which seems to be a noble antivan family. She has a mabari called Ophelia too [there are no other dog breeds in Thedas, it seems, lol].

Our future companion Lucanis Dellamorte is introduced in this episode. Which considering the situation he is in the game [no spoilers] it would mean these podcasts are happening, at least, a year before The Veilguard. This podcast also puts Lucanis in a situation that shows him as not so specialized on killing Venatori Mages, since Drayden’s father hired him to be his bodyguard [more reasons to see that these podcasts are not truly well inserted in the lore]. Apparently, Lucanis and Drayden’s father were good friends since the latter found in Lucanis a kind of confident, speaking a lot about his child Drayden. Maybe honouring that friendship is the reason why Lucanis does not mind to work for free for Drayden in this case.

Episode 7:

This Episode starts in Antiva, and continues in Nevarra. We see Nevarra being hit by earthquakes and storms, similar to Antiva, but no sudden teleportations happen here because the “writing” doesn’t need it, apparently.

Introducing a finger inside a deep stabbing wound is a way to asses if inner organs were hurt. You can also feel “spams and arterial ejections” [?????]

“If there's one thing a Crow can do besides killing, it's treating a wound” Potentially possible? I don’t know if I trust this sentence after listening that said Crow fingered an open wound.

Blood of the Black Rot: concoction that gets into the humors, slowly turning the blood into something like oil. Ironically, black rot has some references in DAO when it comes to the Taint. There are no lore-about a poison described as such. Strangely enough, the poison produces black veins in the white of the eye, finding some resemblance to the Blight. Is this intentional or the writers just kept messing the little lore? I don’t think it even matters. We are informed that there is no antidote.

A weird “blood magic” called “Exsanguination” is shown: blood magic can be used to take out all the blood of a person [so the body has no blood for some time], “cleanse” it of any poison in the air with the help of spirits [????], and put it back into the body. It’s not what the blood magic in DA lore is about: Blood fuels magic when you don’t have mana or lyrium to drink, it is used to summoning demons, and to control the mind of mortals. Can we assume this is a new use? I don’t know.

The antivans claim that there is no strong necromancer in Antiva, when we know Yavanna has been around in its Swamps for a long time. It’s true that in the comic The Silent Grove she is killed, but nobody but Alistair, Varric, and Isabela know about it. That Lucanis proposes to cross half country with a poisoned person instead of approaching the Witch of the Wild closer to them is unexpected. Yavanna has brought back people from death to ask them questions, so her necromancy arts are unquestionable. Crossing an entire country is a lot more reasonable.

Being “touched by the fade” makes you “resistant to death” [as Emmrich literally says, which is an absurd]. Let’s assume that was a mistake that nobody corrected and we learn that they are resistant to poison: It is also absurd in DA lore; since mages [who have a deeper connection to the Fade, if anything] are not poison-resistant. These writers keep showing that they have no idea what they are writing about [which is reasonable, they never worked in fantasy genre or DA context] but also it shows how little care Bioware had to keep these podcasts consistent.

Manfred doesn’t speak, he just makes sounds. He apparently has a connection with Emmrich that allows him to fully understand him. Apparently he doesn’t like nicknames.

Emmrich can send a message “beyond the Veil” to Drayden, who is unconscious. So, in terms of lore, are they telling us that Drayden is walking in the Fade? So they are more like a mage than anything else. And What’s this weird “message beyond the Veil”? It sounds a bit of a nonsense. Imagine that if the Mages could communicate through the Fade in this fashion, Thedas would already have a system of interconnected Circles with Mages bringing and sending messages all across the continent.

Emmrich informs us that the ritual that Solas and Elio performed in the Silent Plains caused some general consequences on the Veil in all the region.

The authors managed to create an original character [Nadia] and write her absolutely out of character in this episode, showing her with a blind, naive trust to the owners of the Castle [Pascal and Spinella] who are maniacally giggling, sighing menacingly, and emphasizing in a cheap acting words like “crypts”, “divine”, and behaving in the most suspicious ever. Plain, obvious, cartoon evil characters. And yet, Nadia doesn’t even question them, when she has been mistrusting every person who was not Elio in all the previous episodes. She even drinks what they offer to her without batting her eyes, despite all the obvious, villainous tone that the whole conversation has. This brings the question: how much do we can trust the companion’s characterization in these podcasts when they can’t keep consistent their own original character?

Demons are characterized as in the Christian mythology instead of the DA lore. Demons sing chants to… do magic. [??????]

Emmrich speaks with the demon as if this were a demonic possession in a Christian context, even starting to perform an exorcism [??????!!!]. It has no way to be perceived like this by mages in DA lore context: once a person has been possessed, they barely can be fixed. The few cases where possessions were removed implied a journey to the Fade with a lot of lyrium involved if the saviours were not mages, to kill the demon in the Fade [Connor’s case in DAO, Pharamond in Asunder, and Feynriel in DA2]. Even when the possession has been done by a Spirit who is willingly to leave the body, it also requires a good amount of Lyrium [Frostback Basin [DLC]: Stone-Bear Hold Avvars - Part 1]. By the way Emmrich speaks, looks like he is about to perform an exorcism in the most christian way possible, giving us yet another evidence that these podcasts have no DA lore. “You are not welcome to that body. You shall leave now” is not what a mage in DA world will say, since they know that any posessed person is already very compromised. By the sounds we listen, we can guess the excorcism is starteing, so the demon, instead of abandoning the body, kills it [???].

Somehow the ring that was in Bellara’s flicker, that was taken by the Corrupted/possessed Templar, now is in the hands of Possessed Elio. Again, the object seems to work like a GPS, when nothing in DA lore behaves like that, only phylacteries.

By the end of the episode, Emmrich can see that Elio is not a human, but he never saw it in Pascal. Consistency issues. Once more, we have more proofs that we can’t trust these podcasts: not for their lore, nor for their companion’s skills/characterizations. They barely are consistent within the same episode. The writing is so bad that the character ability appears out of the blue and disappears right afterwards to fulfill the story’s requirement.

Our future companion  Emmrich is introduced in this episode.

Episode 8:

This Episode starts in Nevarra and continues in Miranthous, making a stroll through the Fade.

The main demon of this story is called Maeror [????], not a human emotion in common, as always happened in every single demon shown in DA games and books . Instead they picked a Latin word for "grief, lamentation". Apparently this demon has been following Nadia since a child and he “marked” her , explainign why she was always a cold-heart and aggressive person [Christian demon-like, not DA lore demon]. It’s also implied that she may have accepted him as a child, since she “embraced darkness” [so, in this mess, the authors are telling us that Nadia was always marked but not possessed, but later she was XD how anyone can take these things seriously?]. This demon tortured her all her childhood, somehow “lost her”, and then he re-found her when the Eye exploded. He “killed” but also “possessed” Elio [the inconsistency with its own story is stunning], then corrupted a Templar who he possessed too [remember the Templar immediately changed targets: from chasing Bellara, he started to chase Nadia], and somehow, he again retook Elio’s body [???]. All this process had as a goal to reach her and “possess” her and claims that when he possessess her body, he will not alter his ability of being an Altus Mage [?? what?] even though he would be in another body [a non-magical one with non-Altus abilities]. To half-justify this, the demon claims that Elio’s body is dying [?] because “all the energy and lyrium of the Fade” [??? WTF?]. Since the authors don’t understand that DA demons feed upon human emotions, it’s impossible to understand this demon, since it doesn’t behave like a DA demon but a Christian demon. An entire episode proving that nobody from Bioware truly cared about this.

Again, the lack of lore knowledge of the authors and the disdain of Bioware in taking a careful look of these episodes put us in a complicated position to understand how to fit this in DA lore.

Neve claims that the anomalies are getting worse. This detail makes us suspect these podcasts are closer to the point where we start the game DA:tV, which makes Lucanis’ episode completely inconsistent. But who cares? The Authors and Bioware clearly not, lol.

Once more, the demon sings chants before possessing, because the authors have a Christian concept of a demon. “(distorted) (chanting) Energies of darkness, unburden the lost from their prisons of misery. Invoke our sacred Veil as we cross the barrier from one mind to the next.” [please, Sacred Veil!?]

Neve tells us about the terrible past of Tevinter and how hard it had it: in the Steel Age Qunari invaded Minrathous. Invasion is a big word: During the Steel Age Tevinter lost Par Vollen to the Qunari, and the Qunari invaded Rivain and Antiva, taking control of Treviso. They were even reaching the Free Marches. Miranthous never was invaded even though Tevinter minor cities around it were compromised and some attacks to the main city were made [similar situation in which Veilguard is]. This is an event called the Qunari Wars [Book of World of Thedas]. Again, the writing is so bad that it explicitly says that one of the big scars that these attacks left on Tevinter was the “collapse of a catacomb” [???] and the leaders of the moment never considered them worthy to fix them. Only Liberati go there to commit suicide [??] when in the beginning of the episode we were told that they used these catacombs as households. Inconsistencies within the same story.

Suddenly we have a found family trope with a lot of characters that were barely met hours ago, or in the case of Drayden or Harding, had some few weeks of knowing each other very shallowly. The level of Marvel movie-like bad dialogues and situations here is incredibly immersion-disruptive.

“NEVE: With that portal he opened, I'm going to tap directly into the Fade and fill this entire chamber with a disruption field”. Neve became a Rift mage out of the blue [??].

Our future companion  Neve is introduced in this episode.

Personal Conclusions:

These episodes are highly unreliable as source of lore and characterization of the companions, since it has shown that even their original characters are written out of character when they need the story to go in some direction.

Everything is so interconnected that makes feel Thedas as a small world. There was no need for Nadia or Elio to exist, and to make every companion connected through them. An episode of each companions showing us a bit of their daily life would have been enough.

The writing is bad, and considering the portfolio of the authors, it’s focused on marvel product series, with bad, unbelievable, and very convenient stories and characters, where facts are told instead of being shown. All this, so alien to Bioware narrative style, is immensely disruptive for the narration.

The level of sound quality was marvellous, as well as the VA of the companions.

I certainly will bury this and pretend it never existed, as I did with Absolution. These are product that show a need to sell a product instead of keep adding and expanding a rich world as it is Dragon Age.

These Podcasts, like Absolution, are not considered reliable sources of lore:

[tumblingdownthefoxden]

TAATS Magic System 🪄

General foundation

Magic, like energy, is neither created or destroyed. It can be stored, transformed, strengthened, weakened, lost, and most importantly absorbed.

For humans, there is a small amount of magic that builds the soul. Based on the line from I’m a Star. “So your dust is my dust?” Humans have a little bit of stardust that supports and drives the soul. It is why stars form attachments with humans and why humans enjoy creating things. The stardust also gives human potential magic. Magic that needs to be awakened and honed.

Potential magic is awakened with belief in oneself and drive to become better. This allows any ordinary person to learn and master spells.

For magic users, magic works like muscles. The more you use and train it, the stronger it gets. The less you use it, the weaker it gets. Spells require care and intent to be properly executed.

Emotions also play a big part in the use of magic. They can amplify a cast, sabotage it, or cause it emerge without intention (think of Magnifico attempting to bottle his rage and it gives him a deadly aura). Strong emotions such as excitement or fury can cause magic to reach its peak but also become harder to control. Fear and anxiety can often sabotage a spell if it overrides the intention, such as the woman from chapter 10 who tried to stop the fire. Her fear of the fire catching on was so strong that it made the fire catch on.

How Dark Magic works

Dark magic is not evil by intention or performance but it demands a sacrifice for its service.

Dark Magic will take anything with value. Pay with your energy, a beloved plant, an animal, a body part, a whole body, or even metallic money. How big and much depends on the scale of the spell being done.

Let's say you want to heal a bird's wing in little time so you give up a few strands of hair. That would be enough, so the bird's wing recovers faster than normal. Let's also say that you are planting pumpkins and want a plentiful harvest. So you sacrifice several fresh, high quality salmon. The magic likes the offer and now you have the best and biggest pumpkins of the season.

It's preferred to sacrifice something prior to a spell, and despite what some snarky sorcerers will try, you can't get away from not paying dark magic. If you can't give, don't worry, it will take something anyway.

This is why dark magic users have a higher mortality rate than light magic users.

*Think of Dr. Facieler and his debt to his friends from the other side. Every transformation and conjugation they've done for him was with anticipation for adequate payment. Many souls were a good deal but when things switched up and he couldn't pay them back?

Well ...

How do our magic users use magic

• Magnifico

Magnifico's magic is based on his star ancestry and has been honed for service and performance purposes. It is amplified with feelings of joy and excitement. Through his studies, he discovered his magic could be concentrated to perform powerful spells with less bodily energy. Which is why he uses a staff.

With years of practice and study, Magnifico learned how to extract a wish from a person and contain it in an orb. Forgetting what your wish is a side effect of the matter. However, extracting the wish takes a person’s stardust with it.

The yellow on their chests and hands? That is stardust summoned forth. It doesn’t take all but the new lack of stardust destabilizes the heart and soul. Even when it's outside of the body and contained, the stardust is still connected to the person and is pining to return to them. It’s why there is so much excitement for Wish Ceremonies, people are getting their stardust back.

Magnifico is aware that wish extraction is upending for a person but he hasn’t found a way to take a wish without the stardust. It’s a few cracks in the “utopia” but it’s a flaw he can accept. What happens if the wish is destroyed? If the wish is only shattered, the wish inside will find its way back to the person it belonged to.

Amaya has more experience with dark magic than most know. In her youth, before Rosas, she ruled another kingdom where she used dark magic to maintain herself and her people. Sacrificing whole animals for fertile land and lard to look young. As a ruler of Rosas, she switched to mainly magic study. Having read nearly every book in the Grand library and is well versed with magical properties of herbal and metal materials.

•Amaya

The magic she does use is potion magic. She can create potions for healing illnesses, sleep, containment or binding.

•Altan

Altan is a talented star and is a noble apprentice but is known for having a temper. Evangeline had to stop them from killing a person several times during a mission. It was the hardest for them to control and still is when he was a hair away from bashing Sabino's head.

Altan is a good shape shifter but like most stars, he needs to understand the anatomy of whatever he turns into. First time he turned into an animal was messy and barely resembled what he wanted to be. After a few years practice, he got animals down and grew more fascinated with animals all over the Earth. Humans are a different case. Altan has been gently criticized for having sharp ears on his human form when facing humans but they would swallow a whale before he reworked on their human form for the umpteenth time.

Altan's abilities rely on intention and mood. When he wants to fly, he needs to think about flying and their mood affects how they fly. Calm or elated - Gently float. Sad or frustrated - Hover. Estatic or happy - Zip. Angry or hate - Zoom. Fear/panic - Gone in a flash. Worry or edginess - barely off the ground. He can also give abilities and transform things. He can give animals the ability to speak by sprinkling stardust on them. They can eat it or not.

There are a few abilities he still wants to master such as summoning storms, entrapment, and astral visions. Astral visions are when you pull someone and yourself into a dream-like realm for a meet-up. This is Evangeline did in chapter 8.

•Madok

Far back in this AU, Madok was a large and vicious force before they were trapped inside the book. Thanks to their lack of activity from their imprisonment, Madok shrunk down to the size and power of the average python. They are far from pleased with that.

Dark magic applies to dark spirits similar to light magic and Stars as it also a part of them but unlike Stars, they experience hunger and need to eat. They will eat energy or magic to strengthen themselves and their magic.

When a spirit lacks energy, dark magic takes from them similar to how the body takes from itself when it lacks intake of something. The body will use its fat when it lacks food; it will take from the bones when it lacks calcium. If a dark spirit is employed by someone to do spells for them, that person is responsible for feeding them and the spirit names the price.

Madok is well versed in forms of dark magic and how it can be weaponized against someone of great power. The only things that can counter Star magic is Dark magic and Star magic itself. Madok is also bent on catching a star but not for the sake of Magnifico or Rosas.

@rascalentertainments @annymation @signed-sapphire @chillwildwave @uva124 @your-ne1ghbor

[yandere-paramour]

Y'know, I think Atalanta just has that type of personality I would not be compatible with in general, like, we would be business rivals maybe because I'd always feel like I have to one-up her😭 that being said, she is kinda growing on me in the span of these few days because I can see a gentle and caring side in her from some of the things you've written and that's really cute. She loves in the way she knows best and that is an admirable trait, so she has my respect.

Ahhh, but Vivien brings light to my life, reading about him is so fun!! Really, just wanna walk in when he's at work, buy flowers right from the shop and then give them to him as a present. If it were up to me, he would be all pampered. I know Noelle is still sort of new but she also gives me the same vibe, I would totally treat her sweetly and I also think she would just be nice to talk to. I can imagine she'd be understanding, but then again, I guess all the yans would try to be for their darling anyway.

I'm glad that whatever I had to say was inspiring to you!! I'm also sorry because it wasn't a very eloquent message at all, but I'm happy you could extract what was of value from it. And I wanna say thank you for writing and sharing it with us here, because honestly you've built such a beautiful reprieve in your blog and I know it's a place I can always come to for a needed escape whenever.

Anyway, I think I'm rambling now, I actually just wanted to wish you happy birthday now that it's July 3rd (at my time of sending). Happy 22nd and I hope today and every other day coming is great for you. Take care of yourself and rest when you can. All the best to you always!!

Atalanta is always such a fun character for me to write because she is always trying to put on this front of being calm and cool and collected and for the most, she truly is like that, but she has these moments of vulnerability with her Darling that I like best because it shows her as being just Ata and not Atalanta Montclair. She truly is the product of her upbringing; she is somehow both her mother's daughter and her father's daughter at the same time. She loves her Darling in the only way she knows how. Even if it isn't perfect, I like to think I manage to convey the high esteem she holds you in. She holds her Darling in such regard, she just doesn't know how to properly protect and care for you.

Oh Vivien is my little guy, I love him so much. I'm glad you enjoy him. He is probably the least dangerous of my yanderes, at least towards Darling (remember, he is technically a serial killer). He has had such a hard life, I can't bring myself to write him in any angst because I just want him to be happy.

Noelle is new and I'm still fleshing her out as a person. She strikes me as someone who stays silent a lot, not because she's shy but just because she has nothing to say to you. But when she's with her sisters or with Ata, she's funny and charming. I think the thing that endears me most to her is her fear of losing what she has. She has clawed her way up from the depths of the hell that was her childhood and now that she has reached the top, she would sooner die than give up her lifestyle, and that includes her Darling. I think she's the most controlling yan (more on this later, random fan I got your ask and I'm working on it, I swear, I'm just balls deep in the neuromuscular junction rn) because of this fear of hers. I should write something to try and shake her to her very core and see what comes out.

Ah, your messages are so kind. I really do find comfort and happiness in kind messages like this. I always want to know what you guys think about the characters and kindness about my writing and my birthday is just the sugar on the cream. It is so easy with blogs like this to turn from a writer to just a content creator churning out as much work as possible to keep the followers happy, but it's messages like this that make me feel human again. Thank you. It means a lot to me to know that I have created a space where people can come to lose themselves in my stories.

And yes, haha, it was my silly lil birthday today. I spent most of it in school or driving but I watched King of the Hill and I studied so it was okay :)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Someday, we’ll all take comfort in the internet’s “dark corners”

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me on SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and beyond!

Platforms decay. Tech bosses, unconstrained by competition; regulation; ad blockers and other adversarial interoperability; and their own workers, will inevitably hollow out their platforms, using ultraflexible digital technology to siphon value away from end users and business customers, leaving behind the bare minimum of value to keep all those users locked in:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/23/evacuate-the-platforms/#let-the-platforms-burn

Enshittification is the inevitable result of high switching costs. Tech bosses are keenly attuned to opportunities to lock in their customers and users, because the harder is to leave a platform, the worse the platform can treat you – the more value it can rob you of – without risking your departure.

But platform users are a heterogeneous, lumpy mass. Different groups of users have different switching costs. An adult Facebook user of long tenure has more reasons to stay than a younger user: they have more complex social lives, with nonoverlapping social circles from high school, college, various jobs, affinity groups, and family. They are more likely to have a chronic illness, or to be caring for someone with chronic illness, and to be a member of a social media support group they value highly. They are more likely to be connected to practical communities, like little league carpool rotas.

That's the terrible irony of platform decay: the more value you get from a platform, the more cost that platform can extract, a cost denominated in your wellbeing, enjoyment and dignity.

(At this point, someone will pipe up and say, "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product." It's nonsense. Dignity, respect and fairness aren't frequent flier program perks that tech companies dribble out to their best customers. Companies will happily treat their paying customers as "products" if they think those customers can't avoid other forms of rent-extraction, such as "attention rents")

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

Now, consider the converse proposition: for younger users, platforms deliver less value. Younger users have less complex social lives on average relative to their parents and grandparents, which means that platforms have fewer ways to sink their hooks into those young users. Further: young users tend to want things that the platforms don't want them to have, right from the first day they sign up. In particular, young users often want to conduct their socializing out of eyesight and earshot of adults, especially parents, teachers, and other authority figures. This means that a typical younger user has both more reasons to leave a platform as well as fewer reasons to stay there.

Younger people have an additional reason to bail on platforms early and often: if your online and offline social circles strongly overlap – if you see the same people at school as you do in your feed, it's much easier to reassemble your (smaller, less complex) social circle on a new platform.

And so: on average, young people like platforms less, hate them more, and have both less to lose and more to gain by leaving one platform for another. Sure, some young people are also burning with youth's neophilia. But even without that neophilia, young people are among the first to go when tech bosses start to ratchet up the enshittification.

Beyond young people, there are others who tend to jump ship early, like sex-workers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/21/early-adopters/#sex-tech

Sex-workers' technology changes are only incidentally the result of some novelty-seeking impulse. The real reason to change platforms if you're a sex-worker is that the platforms are either absolutely hostile to sex-workers, or profoundly indifferent to the suffering their policy changes rain down upon them.

The same is broadly true of other disfavored groups, including those with out-of-mainstream political ideologies. Some of these groups hold progressive views, others are out-and-out Nazis, but all of them chafe at the platforms' policies at the best of times, and are far more ready to jump ship when the platforms tighten the noose on all their users.

This is where "dark corners" come in. The worst people on the internet have relocated to its so-called dark corners – privately hosted servers, groupchats, message-boards, etc. Some of these are notorious: Kiwi Farms, 4chan, 8kun, sprawling Telegram groupchats. Others only breach when they are implicated in waves of unthinkably cruel and grotesque crimes:

https://www.wired.com/story/764-com-child-predator-network/

The answer to crimes committed in the internet's dark corners is the same as for crimes committed anywhere: catch the criminals, prosecute the crimes. But a distressing number of well-meaning people observe the nexus between dark corners and the crimes that fester there, and conclude that the problem is with the dark corners, themselves.

These people observe that social media platforms like Facebook, and intermediaries like Cloudflare, DNS providers, and domain registrars constitute a "nexus of control" – chokepoints that trap the online lives of billions of people – and conclude that these gigantic corporations can and should be made "responsible" for their users:

https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act/

From there, it's a short leap to conclude that anyone who isn't in a position to be controlled by these too big to jail, too big to fail, relentlessly enshittifying corporations must be pushed into their demesne.

This is a deal with the devil. In the name of preventing small groups of terrible people from gathering in private, beyond the control of the world's insufferable and cruel tech barons, we risk dooming everyone else to being permanently within those unworthy billionaires' thumbs.

This is why people like Mark Zuckerberg are so eager to see an increase in "intermediary liability" rules like Section 230. Zuckerberg's greatest fear isn't having to spend more on moderators or algorithms that suppress controversial subjects:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/instagram-users-outraged-by-app-limiting-political-content-ahead-of-elections/

The thing he fears the most is losing control over his users. That's why he bought Instagram: to recapture the young users who were fleeing his mismanaged, enshittified platform in droves:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

A legal mandate for Zuckerberg to police his users is a legal requirement that he surveil and control those users. It's fundamentally incompatible with the new drive in competition circles to force Zuckerberg and his fellow tech barons to offer gateways that make it easier to escape their grasp, by allowing users to depart Facebook and continue to socialize with the users who stay behind:

https://www.eff.org/interoperablefacebook

Remember: the more locked-in a platform user is, the harder that platform will squeeze that user, safe in the knowledge that the cost of leaving is higher than the cost of staying and tolerating the platform's abuse.

This is the problem with "feudal security" – the warlord who lures you into his castle fortress with the promise of protection from external threats is, in reality, operating a prison where no one can protect you from him:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/08/leona-helmsley-was-a-pioneer/#manorialism

Rather than fighting to abolish dark corners because only the worst people on the internet use them today, we should be normalizing dark corners, making it easier for every kind of user to find a cozy nook that is shaded from the baleful glare of Zuck and his fellow, eminently guillotineable tech warlords:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/15/normalize-dark-corners/

Enshittification is relentless. The collapse of the restraints that penalized tech companies who abused their users – competition, regulation, interoperability and their own workers' consciences – has inculcated every tech boss with an incurable enshittification imperative.

Efforts to make the platforms safer for their users can only take us so far. Fundamentally, these vast, centralized systems that vest authority with flawed and mediocre and frail human dictators (who fancy themselves noble, brilliant and infallible) will never be safe for human habitation. Rather than focusing on improving the platforms, we should be evacuating them:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/09/let-the-platforms-burn/

Online communities that control their own moderation policies won't always get it right. But there is a whole host of difficult moderation calls that can never be adequately handled by outsiders overseeing vast, sprawling platforms. Distinguishing friendly banter from harassment requires the context that only an insider can hope to possess.

We all deserve dark corners where we stand a chance of finding well-managed communities that can deliver the value that keeps us stuck to our decaying giant platforms. Eventually, the enshittification will chase every user off these platforms – not just kids or sex-workers or political radicals. When that happens, it sure would be nice if everyone could set up in a dark corner of their own.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

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/2024/03/23/evacuate-the-platforms/#let-the-platforms-burn

[eatmangoesnekkid]

I generally do not care 5 cents about celebrity culture but I find the conversations around Ashanti and Nelly’s rekindled relationship interesting. Many say he should have proposed to her as soon as they got back together. Others think she did too much by buying him his dream car. The fact that Ashanti has that kind of wealth is remarkably outstanding and powerful. Archetypal energy! I don't think it occurs to anyone that maybe Ashanti does not want to be a wife and is content with living life on her terms. Even if she does desire to be a wife and they get married and have children, the social programming is so thick and deep and wide that women never allow themselves to consider the possibility that maybe a woman doesn’t want to be married and/or birth children. Ultimately this channeling is not so much about their relationship. It is, however, celebrating the awareness in how the ability to merely consider other options in how we perceive womanhood, this story, or anything else.... installs a level of freedom and expansion into our magnetic field that we can transfer into other areas of our personal lives. Transmutation. How we perceive -even something as distant to us as celebrity culture—is everything true and holy for what we create in our own lives in the future. There is nothing wrong with having the authentic desire to be married and have children. I find that when it's truthful, it is beautiful. And what's also true is that so many women in marriages are bored to death and miserable AF. Not all women enjoy being mothers or being married. Many will never admit that while they love and adore their children, they don't love motherhood and unconsciously numb out and dissociate. But I can feel it. I have always felt it. I started noticing these patterns in women when I was in my teens, but didn't have the language or maturity to name them. A pattern master is who I was by the age of 15. If you want to begin to master any part of life, you must be willing to look at the patterns and re-pattern your subconscious accordingly. That's why I truly believe one of the greatest uplevels happen when a woman stops believing that being a wife or having children is the ultimate prize and value metric. Having a lover (or lovers) who loves you, adores you, honors you, respects you, adventures the globe with you, invests in you and is not trying to control you or place you in a box as you do the same thing is the pinnacle of love and winning, whether dating, in a committed partnership, or married. The more you unlearn programming and conditioning, shift how you think and perceive reality, the more you realize that this world was built to extract from women, to shrink her spiritual capacity by tying down her life force energy, making her more subservient and exhausted than truly alive and free to pleasurably overflow in her body and life as ordained by Source to live. Less miserable exhausted women and more fully awakened pleasured women in touch with nature and ritual are essential for tapping into real healing solutions that open up the collective mind and heart in a violent chaotic world. Whether taking dance lessons, traveling the world, bathing in sweetwaters, making love, or getting married and having babies, accessing real pleasure has to be an important part of her life. Think about it: She is the only mammal on earth whose body contains an organ for which the only purpose is pleasure. This divine-given anatomical design has to begin to mean something to you. -India Ame'ye, A Plump Clitoris Venusian Channeling

[uriekukistan]

mutsurie…… and my boy aura……..

for mutsurie :3

when i started shipping it: literally on my first watch during the auction…it makes so much sense idk

my thoughts: when the two emotionally damaged characters who dont trust anyone enough to get close to them trust each other enough to get close 😖 also the fact that urie recognized that mutsuki was afab during the auction and he literally never said anything about it he was just kinda “oh okay” and never treated mutsuki any differently…it’s interesting because mutsuki really idolized sasaki for that same thing but never realized urie did the same thing for him…idk much to think about with that one

what makes me happy about them: see past comment, also they both care for each other unconditionally and i think they both need that because they both kinda care for themselves conditionally if that makes sense.

what makes me sad about them: okay maybe im too angsty rn but i dont think they have a happy ending together, or at least not for a while. like i said, they care for each other unconditionally but care for themselves conditionally, and i think before they can truly be happy together they need time apart to care for themselves…

things done in fanfic that annoys me: when they make mutsuki super emotionally and physically weak so he relies on big strong man in control of his emotions urie to put him back together…like it sometimes feels like its putting mutsuki in this traditionally feminine damsel in distress position and thats kinda ehhhh…also bold of you to assume urie is in control of his emotions or that mutsuki isnt strong or capable.

things i look for in a fanfic: im starving for content so the bar is pretty low….good spelling and grammar is nice :D

who i’d be comfortable with them ending up with, if not each other: i think they’d be better alone if not together…i’ve seem mutsaura floating around recently and while im intrigued i do think it has toxic potential which is interesting to read and think about, but i just want them to be happy 😞 healthy relationships only for my pookies

my happily ever after: they take some time apart like at the end of re where mutsuki is not even in tokyo and they learn their own value as individuals (ideally separate from their jobs) and then they reconnect after that…not that i’m saying you “have to love yourself to love someone else” and i dont think in their time apart they wouldnt still love each other, i just want them to have a happy healthy relationship 😞

who is the big spoon/little spoon: at the beginning urie is definitely big spoon and mutsuki is little spoon, but when they get more comfortable, they switch around sometimes. i think urie really likes being the little spoon…not that he would admit it

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: parallel play, like just comfortable silence and mutsuki’s reading while urie’s painting or something

tbh i dont think that much abt aura so i’ll try my best 😭🙏

how i feel about this character: i like how much i…don’t like him if that makes sense? his decisions irritate me but also they are indicative of how complex he is. interesting guy.

all the people i ship romantically with this character: as aforementioned i have seen mutsaura floating around and i have definitely found it intriguing…may i also propose him with higemaru? they kinda give that opposites black cat golden retriever couple vibe idk maybe im crazy

my non-romantic otp for this character: from the scene where he and mutsuki are trying to intercept touka and miza from extracting kaneki from the dragon, i really liked his interactions with higemaru and hsiao so i like the idea of them as like a besties group idk

my unpopular opinion about this character: im not sure i have one? idk

one thing i wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon: for him to get closure from his aunt that she was okay with working with the ghouls for peace. i know he was told about it by…hsiao i think maybe it was higemaru, but it would have been nice to see him hear it from his aunt. i think he kinda needed it.

my otp: i dont think i really have one 😞

my crossover ship: again i dont really have one, but i can definitely draw parallels between him and geto from jjk…in that they both were so bothered by some tragedy that they both started to walk a very dark path. the difference being that aura’s friends were there to turn him around and (idk if you have or are planning to watch/read jjk but spoiler warning for s2 ep1-6 and jjk0) geto’s friends trusted him so much that when he said he was okay, they believed him and yeah…cutting myself off before i get too far

^could also be the long dark hair and emo vibes that makes me associate aura with geto

a headcanon fact: aura the type of guy to give scary vibes but talk to stray cats in a baby voice on the street…you see a scary man in the alley and you’re about to run away but then you hear “who’s a good kitty? you are! yes you are aweee what a cute baby” that’s him

[reine-du-sourire]

The Heights of Follicular Perfection

Greetings, peasants! It has come to my attention that some of you are utterly clueless when it comes to the delicate art of hair care, and it seems that I, Lord Morgarath of the Mountains of Rain and Night, have been called upon to grace you with my unparalleled wisdom on the subject. You see, not everyone can possess the resplendent beauty of my own exquisite tresses, but I shall generously enlighten you on the art of maintaining such magnificence.

Begin your pitiable journey to acceptable hair with a shampoo befitting someone of my own exalted station. It should be concocted from the rarest botanical extracts, harvested beneath the pale moonlight by elven maidens. Mass-produced swill is unworthy of consideration. Your hair deserves nothing but the best.

As you approach your precious locks, remember to handle them as though they were spun from the very threads of the heavens. Do not scrub your hair like a kitchen slave washing the supper dishes; instead, caress it delicately, as you would a rare and fragile treasure. Imagine yourself to be weaving a symphony with your fingertips.

A plebian's mistake is rushing through the rinsing process. Not so for me, the illustrious Lord Morgarath. I stand beneath the cascading waters of my private waterfall for no less than an hour, letting each strand bask in the liquid purity of Rain and Night. If you do not have access to such means, tears of sorrow will do in a pinch.

A true connoisseur of hair care knows the value of an opulent conditioner. Apply the very best of its kind in a manner akin to worship, using only the softest, most pristine fingertips, ensuring that every strand of your hair is coated. Leave it on for precisely the amount of time it takes for your servant to fetch your evening tea.

Now, rinse your hair once again, with the same delicacy and finesse. Water from the well? Unthinkable! Your hair should only come into contact with the finest and purest. One must, with the grace and precision of a dancer, ensure that every drop of conditioner is removed. Failure to do so will result in a residue that is utterly beneath all dignity.

A rough, uncouth approach to drying is an affront to your hair's sensibilities. Gently wrap your head in the softest silken cloths- common towels are reserved for the commoners- and allow it to absorb the moisture with the reverence your tresses deserve. Pat, do not rub, and certainly do not subject your hair to the indignity of what you mortals call a 'blow dryer'. Alternatively, you may have your servants use feathered fans to waft a gentle breeze over your head.

Next, behold the selection of a hairbrush. Only a tool crafted by the most skilled artisans will suffice. Allow me to emphasize that vigorous brushing is completely unacceptable. Your hair must be coaxed and caressed into submission, not yanked into place like the mangy fur of a stray dog.

To achieve the mesmerizing luster that my own hair effortlessly exudes, apply a few drops of the rarest oils, preferably sourced from some remote mountain peak or a mystical forest. Your hair shall gleam like moonlight on a crystal lake, leaving all who gaze upon it in awe.

After following these instructions with the diligence they deserve, you may gaze upon your much-improved crowning glory. While it will never rival the splendor of my own, it may yet reach a level of mediocrity acceptable in polite society.

In conclusion, my dear simpletons, hair care is a craft reserved for the select few who possess the taste and refinement to appreciate its true significance. It is an art form, a science, and a sacred duty. And while you haven't a hope of reaching the heights of follicular perfection that I have achieved, you can at least aspire to one day serve as a worthy audience to my magnificence.

Until then, strive for perfection, and remember, your hair is a reflection of your worth.

[ericvilas]

Arguments about AI need to be actually separated. It's many different things, and I'm gonna try to separate them out as best I can. I came up with 5 different arguments, and responses to them:

Copyright: you have no right to use my art in any way

Consent to use data you put out there in ways you didn't intend

The "humanness" and "emotion" of art

Automation makes people lose their jobs

"People giving an AI instructions aren't actual artists"

#1 is. Not really an argument unless you wanna side with Disney. Nobody wants to side with Disney. Just don't. Derivative work is fair use.

#2 makes a bit more sense, but here's an example to see why it kinda falls apart: If I wanted to make a scientific paper to analyze what color pallettes are more or less commonly used, should I not be allowed to search through all of DeviantArt and go "this is the distribution of how common each color is, and what colors tend to be correlated with what other colors, and how often each pallette is used"? I feel like that's not something you should be able to object to. You might say "okay, but pallettes are basically averages, you lose a ton of data" and... sure, but if you can make one study about color pallettes you can make a different study about, say. Subject matter. Or style. Or a histogram of the RGB values of the top-left-most pixel. It's not like the program actually extracts that much data from the different pieces of art, anyway. The vast, vast majority is redundant information. (Also there's the argument of "why could I use your art to make similar art inspired by it but not to help program a bot to do it?")

#3 I just feel like it's just the same story over again: sure maybe a machine doesn't have feelings when it produces art, but there's so many things in the world that people were like "oh only a human can produce it" when actually kinda turned out to not be the case? Why is art any different? Are there no artists who just draw shit they're told to draw just cause it's their job? Do they not count as artists? Why is it any different from any other job getting automated? (Also, it's not like people will stop enjoying art-made-with-love, it will simply become a niche much like hand-knit clothes or other artisanship.)

#4 is very true. It's a real problem, but not one that's gonna be solved by stopping automation. Automation is good, and the workers should be compensated for the machines that take their jobs. However, I feel like these are two separate statements. In my opinion, which is not shared by most people I know, automation is good even if it does take people's jobs away. This is a highly controversial statement and I definitely do not speak for anyone but myself. But I do believe that automation of all jobs is important and good. I also think that we should allow people to not have to work for a living. These are two separate, complementary statements and ideally we would have both but personally, I don't care which one we get first.

#5 makes sense. I definitely agree that I shouldn't be credited with "creating" art that the AI created with my prompts, and would even go so far as to agree with the position of "AI art should be distinctly labelled as such". However, I don't know to what extent this is enforceable. (There is nuance to be had wrt the usage of AI to assist in art creation but I think that's not really under discussion, nonetheless I do think that AI-assisted art should still be labelled as such)

....whoops I accidentally spent over 40 minutes on this lol. I just. Feel very strongly about this and I wanna put it out there.

[uboat53]

Recently I wrote up a thing about how the right's elevation of property rights prevents them from ever being able to adjust issues of human rights. I think it's pretty good, you can find it here if you're interested.

One thought that came out of a discussion about it, though, was an interesting one and I need to do another LONG RANT (TM) to work through it.

INTRODUCTION

So a friend of mine took the concept of rent seeking and brought it up in the context of economies based on resource extraction. These are, in many ways, the ultimate example of rent seeking economies and the situation in which they dominate an economy is known as the "resource curse".

Here's the Wikipedia article on this concept if you're interested.

And that's when the thought hit me, are we living in a resource cursed economy? Is that resource capital and did we create this resource curse ourselves?

THE RESOURCE CURSE

Basically the resource curse goes like this:

You live in a place that has a resource. This resource is very easy to gather in proportion to its value, making it hugely profitable, much more profitable than just about anything else you can do. Every dollar you invest in that resource returns more money than a dollar invested in anything else.

Even worse, the export of that resource drives up the value of your currency, making all of your other exports less competitive in the international market. This further makes that resource a better investment by driving down the value of any other investment.

What this does to your economy is simple. Why would you invest in education when you can simply put more money into the resource and it'll give you higher profits? Why would you invest in health-care when you can simply put more money into the resource and it'll give you higher profits? Why would you invest in manufacturing or agriculture when you can simply put more money into the resource and it'll give you higher profits?

Meanwhile, your society stratifies. Those who own the resource get rich (for example, a Saudi who owns land with oil or a southern plantation owner who owns the rich land good for cotton) while everyone else gets poor. Eventually all you have left is a population in poverty and an otherwise stagnant economy that is entirely dependent on that one resource.

WHAT ABOUT US?

Well, we have a resource called capital. Effectively, this is stuff like land, buildings, machinery, and intellectual property like patents and trademarks. Even something like stock in a corporation basically boils down to the value of the things the corporation owns. Capital is property, whether physical or intellectual.

Because of the way our tax code is structured, there will literally never be a case where a dollar earned in labor will be worth more than a dollar earned from capital. Additionally, over the last two decades, wages have generally increased between 2% and 4% per year. Data on capital is a bit harder to find, but California real estate prices have increased an average of 4% per year and the DOW Jones Industrial Average (a measure of stock prices) has increased an average of more than 6% per year over that same time.

In other words, not only is a dollar earned from capital more advantageous in tax terms than a dollar earned from labor, a dollar invested in capital is likely to make a greater return than a dollar invested in labor.

THE RESOURCE CURSE

That's where I think we have a version of the resource curse. When ownership of resources like land, buildings, machinery, and intellectual property consistently returns a greater reward than any form of labor, then most of the resources of an economy will flow toward those resources. In the case of limited capital, such as land in a desirable area or stock in a hot company, this will push up the price of that asset, leading to an even greater return and pushing the cycle even further.

This type of capital in particular largely delivers rent seeking as opposed to productive returns. Owning a building in downtown Manhattan, provides a return whether or not you invest in something that increases the productivity of that building. In fact, there may be nothing you can do to improve its productivity and it will increase in value regardless.

The more this happens, the more it siphons resources that could otherwise increase the productivity of the economy, exactly like a resource curse.

UNCERTAINTY

This is something that just occurred to me, so I definitely haven't thought through the ramifications and possible issues with it. This is also something that occurred to me incidentally, so I haven't read anyone else's ideas on the topic for another perspective.

I'm curious how my conception of capital as a resource in the sense of a resource curse holds up. I also don't know that it maps to the failure of investment in productivity and labor in the way that natural resources do in a resource curse.

If anyone has any thoughts, even simple ones, I'd be very interested for another set of eyes on my little idea here.

CONCLUSION

I think there's a reasonable case to be made that we've artificially created a situation where our economy has become resource cursed with capital. It's still a fairly rough idea, but it seems to fit with what I know so far.

If this is true, the solution would be to somehow make capital investments less advantageous in relation to labor. This won't be easy because, of course, it sounds a bit perverse toward the goal of growing the economy, but also because it would require us to lower the level of respect we have given to property rights over the last several decades; a particular ideological point of the right-wing of American politics.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this or at least found it interesting. If you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.