#this is definitely capitalism's fault somehow

[bisquid]

I hate the fact that water bottle manufactures are seemingly incapable of understanding that making something out of glass does not magically render the laws of physics no longer applicable

I have a plastic water bottle which I have had for years

It's started leaking, and I decided to see if I could get one like it but made of glass, which would be both more eco friendly and less likely to flavour the water

Unfortunately, I have found approximately zero glass water bottles with all of a) a locking, flip lid, b) an absent or removable straw, and c) an air hole to allow the water to be consumed without being sabotaged by vacuum

Apparently being glass, they don't seem to need this! I am furious

Why have manufacturers decided it's fine to produce a gazillion near-identical glass bottles with tiny smooth lids, in my opinion the least practical of all water bottle designs, but not one of them has gone 'you know our widely sold plastic water bottles with the flip lids? Let's make some out of glass and sell them as the eco friendly option!'

It's madness, and I am furious

[jamil-s-wifey]

If you're taking any scenario request. Maybe could I request funny/silly one where Leona and his S/O are married and live in the Royal Palace. Leona's S/O has gotten lost somehow in their own home and when found their response is "This place is too damn big I'm sorry!"

You have NO idea how much I love these types of fics! Wholesome crackheadedness at its finest✨ We love a spouse with 0 orientation skills. (I'd know, I get lost in supermarkets) This was ONE OF THE FUNNIEST THINGS I've EVER written. I hope you enjoy!

"What the actual fuck."

A turn here. A turn there.

Oh, would you look at that - the exact same vase you passed 5 minutes ago. But was that really the same vase? Or was it its evil twin, trying to further confuse you, only for you to get lost even more and die of starvation, eventually BECOMING ONE WITH THE PALACE...

God, whoever built this palace should have their head on a stake. Haha, that sounded a lot like the Red Queen of Hearts. Perhaps Riddle was rubbing off on you. You two did text occasionally since graduating from NRC.

Speaking of graduation, you married Leona. (yay!) And it's not like you weren't happy. Life was relatively peaceful. You two moved back to the palace. Arrangements had begun for you two to take over a certain part of Sunset Savannah, as something akin to a *Peerage. (They had their own name for it, you are currently far too annoyed to remember.) A lot of (semi-forced) communication set the road to reconciliation between the two brothers. (Admittedly a very long road. A road that puts Gulliver's travels to shame.) The Royal Family™️ accepted you with open hearts. (albeit a tad wary at first)

Really there was only one major problem.

The ROYAL PALACE IS LIKE A GODDAMN LABYRINTH. And that's rich, given your history of painting the white roses with Ace and Deuce in Heartsabyul's maze. So here you are, lost.

Scratch that.

Lost: again.

And all you wanted to do was find Cheka's room. You had a gift for the little cub.

"An architectural masterpiece, my ass. This is an architectural disaster. A disaster with a capital D. D for Vitamin D - what I won't be getting, because I'm trapped within these walls, where the SUN CAN'T REACH ME-"

Okay. Calm down. It's not that bad, sure there isn't a soul in sight, but you're bound to stumble upon somebody at some point, right? There had to be servants, or guards, or somebody! UNLESS! This is all an elaborate plan to get rid of you.

Aha! That must be it. The Royal Family wants you dead and they intend to make it seem like an accident! But Leona wouldn't allow that, right? He loves you! Dearly! You're his spouse, his one and only! Ah, cruel fate.

Is it just you...or are these walls moving in on each other. So this IS an assassination attempt! And you presented yourself on a silver platter. Good job, s/o. Splendid work. A royal for a few months and you're already about to be assassinated. Your name shall remain the book of "Dumbest ways to die." Goodbye cruel world-

"S/o."

Leona's voice rang through the empty hallway, "What are you doing out here."

Ah! And so tragedy was avoided once more!

"Leona, my LOVE! Thank God."

"Did you just- get lost in the palace... again?", his eyes read annoyance but his tone was teasing.

"It's not MY fault this place is so damn big, what do you need all this space for anyways? Indoor badminton? Hide and Seek or Die?"

"Definitely that last one. That's how we get rid of our enemies."

"AHA! I knew it! So this IS an assassination attempt!"

He simply rolled his eyes, pulling you towards him to wrap an arm around your waist and kiss you on the forehead.

"This isn't an assassination attempt. You did this yourself. It's called idiocy."

"You should build a better palace."

"What I should do is put a collar on you. With a tracking device on it. Like a pet."

"Oh, Leona~ Who knew you were into that~"

"Next time I'm leaving you here to rot."

"Then I'll haunt you to Hell and back."

He smirked, pinching your cheek as you were both making your way far from the cursed looping corridor.

"At least you won't be able to get lost."

"I told you, it's not my fault."

"Nah, of course not. The Palace is just cursed."

"EVIDENTLY."

You both knew this isn't the last time you'll be getting lost. And Leona was seriously considering the tracking device.

Perhaps he'd already ordered it too.

You were about to find out.

*Peerage - collective noun for titles like Duke, Duchess, Count, Earl etc. Comes from "Peers of the Realm" where one could hold one or more of these titles. It differs from monarchy to monarchy. THAT'S YOUR WORD FOR THE DAY FOLKS!

[izvmimi]

pls tell me more about scientist mimi in the kn8 universe!

mmm okay, i haven't had that much time thinking about it but!!!

things are set about 3-4 years after the current timing of the manga

about two years older than reno

i'm a transfer from the us that speaks slightly imperfect japanese, and after graduate studies at the california neutralization university (where kikoru also went) i was hired to run the bioweapons division, which causes a lot of administrative drama in the upper echelon cuz i'm a foreigner and i'm young so i have to prove myself and they're also like if she's so good why did she get sent to japan instead of staying in america (but it's kaiju capital so ofc i would go overseas)

anyway because of that imposter syndrome and also the hiring drama, i'm a bit difficult to approach since i'm so anxious and want to do a good job but also want to be respected

mainly most of the stuff i do is human ability augmentation research which deals with suits, prosthetics and weapons, particularly numbers weapons maintenance but also adjusting if there are compatibility issues

i initially was supposed to go to the first division but instead got sent to the fourth division to sort of 'prove myself'

reno and i meet because he has a numbers weapon that i help maintain and manage as well as augment if needed

at first it's definitely a strictly professional relationship even if i can tell he's sort of developed a crush which only upsets me more initially because these people already don't take me seriously, mr. googoo eyes over there is not helping my credibility (i am also ms. googoo eyes so i really have no space to be talking)

in fact, at some point i get upset that he's so kind to me when he's really just being a nice person cuz i'm so stressed out but we have a heart to heart once he sees me having a Moment after there's an incident with weapons malfunctioning (not really my fault but somehow i get roped into it)

anyway the vibes are girlboss x malewife ish but he's very sweet and protective of me

sorry for rambling but thank you for asking!

[itsbansheebitch]

Gen Zer's (2005) Predictions for Gen Alpha (They aren't Doomed)

I have some cousins that are Gen Alpha and they're turning out well. I really think all the "they're so doomed" messaging is from a loud minority, mostly on tiktok. I disagree, so I plan to make predictions for the vague & soupy (time) generation of Gen Alpha.

This list will focus on American Gen Alpha since there WILL be a stark contrast, especially regarding school shootings.

Average to EXTREME skill with tech depending on the kids (hope STEM is ready to welcome a new wave of newcomers)

Difficulties with history knowledge due to rewritten history books, (Please be kind while they learn, they don't know the full scope of what's going on yet)

Desensitized to violence (Due to usual kid stuff, school shootings being treated as normal, and an increase in hate crimes)

A new passion for social justice (I don't mean to be a "but I have black friends" kind of person, but believe it or not, having friends in minority groups and realizing they're in danger makes you want to fist fight whoever is at fault)

TONS of memes about the "Alpha" phrasing, which trust me, will get old QUICKLY. (A bigger stretch is saying the term for a shitty Gen Alpha kid will be Omega/Beta instead of Boomer)

Unusually violent jokes & memes

Extremely dark humor

A long list of child neglect lawsuits

An increase in accents homogeneity due to watching YouTubers at a young age (I'm not joking, this has happened to me and I only started watching YT in 2nd Grade. I have the weirdest Irish, British, and midwestern, but not the state I currently live in, accents on only CERTAIN words and phrases. There definitely will be studies on this.)

A new wave of kids fighting gerymandering

Brand New Shiny Raw LinesTM from the KiddosTM that they'll probably use to roast lawmakers until they start decomosing on the spot

Kids who are NOT afraid to fight you

New unseen levels of compassion

This is a stretch, but somehow they'll manage to bring back the avocado toast jokes, either as a banter thing or as a new "Boomer" type thing.

KiddosTM will probably joke about how Millennials ruined every industry from fabric softener to identity theft to robberies. This will be (hopefully) fully joking manner and used in a [Post kiddosTM disagree with] [Reply: Well, you ruined the fabric softener industry, so you don't have a leg to stand on] type format.

Will either share you their Social Security Number or will be a brick wall online. No in between.

A increase in reading (specifically fanfiction & audio books, but will NOT be void of physical copies) but a decrease in literacy & media literacy. We are already seeing this happening.

A "you didn't fix this/you fucked it up" attitude towards older people. This isn't necessarily negative since it means they won't take ANY shit from lawmakers and will probably not have as many hangups regarding rioting.

An absolute HATRED for family channels. I waiting for these kids to break the van life kids out in a bizarre scheme of epic proportions lmao

The most indecipherable controversies you've ever seen in your life. I'm thinking at least 5 levels of knowledge and joining a subreddit will be needed to even have an idea of what's happening.

(Hopefully) a new level of understanding when it comes to accountability, people changing, and knowing what you should expect from a person when they get cancelled.

Brand new political cartoons (now made for the internet)

A new passion for the environment and recognizing one's place in it.

A new level of hatred for colonialism and mass killings

Probably at least one assassination lmao (they'll be the barista from the tiktok about the barista killing CEOs with metal straws as darts)

A polarizing divide between anti-capitalism and ancap ideas that we haven't seen since 2008 (and not as publicly in 2008, so get ready for your shit to get rocked).

Some of the best and worst takes that humanity has ever bore witness to.

New acceptance (even better than now) regarding hair (dyes and styles), tattoos, piercings, etc.

A major crackdown on systematic issues (criticism when they're young, major law & education changes when they're older)

That's all for now. REMEMBER! Do NOT treat these kids like you were treated (LOOKING AT YOU, Ms. AVOCADO TOAST and Ms. DOWNFALL OF HUMANITY GAY-MER).

Side Note: People are always surprised when I tell them I was born in 2005 and have already graduated high school (no, I did not skip grades, I was actually very young for my grade) so I'm going to apologize ahead of time for turning all the Millennials reading this into dust. Sorry, ya'll.

[inkher0]

Cooked too hard

Performers are in a state of pseudo-eliteness at all times. Yes, they make a lot of money, but what truly elevates them to the world of the bourgeoisie is when they themselves begin exploiting others to maintain and grow their wealth. They can have a lot of shiny things, live in really nice houses, but you cannot become as rich as Jeff Bezos by JUST singing songs or dancing.

The issue that comes with that pseudo-eliteness is why they're considered elite. Jeff Bezos is elite because he has a billion dollar company. Chappell Roan is elite because she's a beautiful performer. For Bezos, the money comes from an asset, and he sits on his ass and does nothing to make it. For Roan, that money comes from her, because she is the asset. She is the product being sold. It's her labor that's making millions of dollars. If she stops performing, that money vanishes.

The social agreement is that, in return for objectifying herself- turning herself into a product to be sold to the public- she's able to enjoy a comfortable, anonymous life with an elite status. That's how it used to be- a celebrity could put on a hat and sunglasses and just walk around in public, and people would be respectful and give them special treatment at businesses. At most, they were only expected to be polite to people, and they were left alone. There used to be an understood period where a celebrity could turn that objectification off and be a person.

And then the internet happened. And then social media happened. And Then Late-Stage Capitalism happened. And now, there is no off button. You have access to Chappell Roan 24/7, 365 days a year, and there's a little voice in your head that tells you that you know her- and, in a twisted way, you're actually kind of entitled to her. See, you love her in a special way no one else does. Sure everyone loves her too, but you? You actually love her the most. Everything she says resonates with you, and you truly get her. You're not real friends, but you definitely would be if you two ever sat and talked. So you deserve to have her attention if you find her in public. You deserve to have her attention when you look for her in public. You deserve to have her attention whenever you want, whether she wants to or not.

Parasocial relationships make you forget about a person's depth. she's not a real person to you in the same way you're a real person. Your mind flattens a person to what you know and love about them, and whatever you don't know or don't like doesn't matter. You have been convinced you're somehow friends, but from the start, your relationship has been purely transactional.

My main point is that it's actually Capitalism's fault. It benefits from squeezing every drop of profit out of something, and if what's being squeezed for profits is a real, human being, you get exactly what's happening right now. The new social contract is that we follow a celebrity online, and they'll give us anything we want, whenever we want it. They're expected to be your best friend at all times, and they no longer belong just to themselves. Their livelihood depends on the attention you give them, and that is used to violate their personhood and boundaries.

[flustersluts]

hhh i’m supposed to cleaning and instead i’m capital h Horny. somehow this is definitely your fault methinks. yes i AM still thinking about getting dolled up for you!! what of it!!!send troops

- 🌅

it's always my fault 🙄🙄 never YOUR fault for not being able to keep your dumbass mind from fantasising about looking all cute and dressed up and fuckable for me:// or whatever:////

[convexicalcrow]

The Ancient Capital bore new scars, ones Pix didn’t remember causing. But he knew enough to know he’d done them. He'd covered the land with skulk and didn’t care what it did to the buildings all around him. Things he had once denounced Cub for causing he had done himself and on a much grander scale.

He knew he'd done it because he'd written it all down in excruciating detail, which made the horrors both very real, and also very dissonant. Somehow, in spite of the possession and the lack of memories, he'd written it all down. And the way he described so much of the skulk infestation made his skin crawl.

It left him feeling conflicted in so many ways. His instincts, his whole drive, was preservation. He'd come here to discover the history of this place, and preserve it for the future. He trod carefully on the earth, and did his best to make sure the past was remembered and preserved accurately. In all things, he strove to keep himself out of history, out of the story. Just be an impartial recorder, rebuilding the past as it had once been, rather than building it the way he might if it was his own base. But he was part of the story now, in spite of himself. And here he was, looking over at the vandalism his actions had caused, and feeling like he couldn't just erase the damage he'd done, even though he didn't want to be reminded of it.

What do you even do in a situation like this? How much do you preserve? What don't you preserve? Clearly the journals he'd made of this event needed to be kept, even when he looked at them, he simply wanted to burn them. He may even make a display for them in the museum once he's decided what to do with the clean-up. He definitely didn't want to keep all the skulk, but he would attempt to record the damage as accurately as possible. That only seemed fair.

Sure, he could blame Cub for getting possessed in the first place, and in his darker moments, he did. But that wasn't fair, because Cub was possessed, and so was he, and while that didn't excuse their actions, it did mean they were both responsible for cleaning up the mess.

It was still strange to think that that last - and very first - meeting with Cub was the thing he remembered most clearly about the whole debacle. He remembered Cub's voice, the acrid smell of the skulk filling his nostrils until he could smell nothing else, the way Cub's bright blue-green eyes filled his vision, and a skulk-covered hand held his head in place, and there was no pain, none at all, but fear gripped him so completely he could not move.

Was it his fault for being infested? Should he have known there was a risk involved in meeting Cub like that? Maybe. Maybe not. But then it was easy to ask these questions now, once it was all done and over with, when he knew the skulk was actually infectious, and not just Cub being weird. In the moment, when he was mostly just concerned about a few (hundred) skulk catalysts, he hadn't even thought that he would get possessed too. And yet, he can't absolve himself of the guilt.

Perhaps it's the journals. Perhaps it's being able to read his own words, in his own hand, as he did the bidding of the skulk and wrote down everything he did for posterity, as he stated many times within the entries. His own strengths were working against him here. His incessant need to document everything was his undoing. Not because no one doubted his possession but because he no longer could. Those journals held him responsible for it all. Sure, Cub did some of the initial work, but what Pix had done was so much more. He'd desecrated his own work, let the skulk spread far further than even Cub dared to go.

But of course it wasn't just the skulk spreading that he had to deal with either. It was the other things he'd written about, like attacking False, plus all the things he'd said to others, people he considered friends, as they'd tried to talk him out of his possession. And he infested False too, even though he didn't remember that. She did, though; not completely, but enough for her to have avoided him ever since Cub and Scar had cured them and taken them back to a mansion to recover. Which he didn't blame him for. He believed her, even if he didn't remember.

He admired Cub's ability to simply move on and make amends. Like being possessed was something he was used to, which perhaps it was. Pix didn't really ask too many questions about the Vex thing, if he was honest. He was mostly just glad they had cured him and False and taken them to safety. He'd attempted to talk to Cub about it, just to see if he had any advice, but he'd lost a big chunk of memory, and Pix didn't want to pry too much, not when Scar was hovering around like a protective partner.

So he was on his own, facing the repercussions of what he'd let happen, with absolutely no idea what to do next. Clean it all up? Erase what he'd done from history? Burn the notebooks so they wouldn't continue to haunt him? No, not even that would erase the callous words he'd written out of his mind. He would remember, even if no one else did.

[katyspersonal]

How did you let Shabiri gaslight you?

Oh, to be honest, gaslight is not a right term here! It specifically means manipulation that makes another doubt their own memories and perception, but I have a bad habit of also using it when the person got a (generally) right idea about something and someone makes them doubt this idea in favor of a way more detrimental one. The idea, not one's own ability to analyze and perceive! With that being said, what I mean is that Shabriri pushed me more to the 'bad' side of permanent existential dilemma. His words, and "philosophy" of Frenzied Flame in general, appeals both to the brand of despair contained within Soulsborne games and to my own despair.

We spend a lot of Elden Ring seeing suffering and oppression, consequences of "all that divides and distinguishes". The world is broken fundamentally. Greater Will doesn't know what it wants to do, but sought mortal plane to allow them to give it purpose and order. But no matter who takes up so much power, it will all just eventually lead to more misery and need to be destroyed and replaced with the new thing.. and that thing will also eventually collapse. And so on, and so on.

Yeah, Shabriri is the bad guy, sure. It is said that the FF sickness started with him, and now the world is cursed with the condition where if you get reasonably depressed you get linked with the mindless power that wants to undo the existence itself. But why Shabriri had the power to slander the Nomads to begin with? Who set the oppressive system that punished the "heretics" with being buried alive in motion? Certainly not Shabriri. His crime is a symptom of "all that divides and distinguishes", not the cause of it. And the world would've still be broken even if FF was never unleashed. Other endings are still questionable. Age of Fracture is just keeping the world broken as it is. Age of Duskborn and Age of Despair are effectively "swinging the pendulum the other side" and we all know it is pretty bad resolution, no matter how justified or expected. Age of Stars and Age of Perfecf Order remove the 'authority' over cosmic horrors that took the form of gold-colored magic in this world: Ranni removes it from anyone's reach and Goldmask makes it accessible to everyone equally. The problem is-

Yes, exactly lol Thank you, Brador! Who is to tell that now in this sort of anarchy, people won't again battle each other until new leader, new oppressive system arises and new kind of suffering and injustice is created? In the end, it didn't solve anything. People suffer under a leader, people suffer without a leader.

As for my personal experience? I am just thinking about this stuff a lot. ALL the time. As a neurodivergent person I've been experiencing the sense of any society I enter trying to remove me like a tumor on an otherwise healthy body early. Children and teens are naturally cruel to the 'odd ones', that's true, but did things really improve in adulthood, or just became more elusive, buried under layers of pretenses and lies? However, is not it reasonable?

Are social animals, ALL of them and not just humans, at fault for trying to preserve definition and customs of their community by excluding those that don't fit in it? We often claim that animals are innocent, but social ones do the same thing: they are not kind to those who are weaker, "useless" or just break the "rules". Nature itself is very ruthless: you are born with something off or lose it for reasons you could not control and you will not survive. Humans developed the ways to help disabled to adapt and survive, but somehow trapped themselves in the system where helping everyone is "not efficient". The opposite way to build the society, on the other hand, leads to stagnation and a different sort of oppression. Both capitalism and communism are built to get rid of those that don't fit into it, just different criteria of not fitting, and yet you can't trust humanity with anarchy.

But are those born different at fault for being this way? But hey, why do we live in the world where if someone could choose what way to be born as, they'd be inclined to fit the norm just to avoid more misery? But how community is preserved if there is no bar for who can belong in it? No matter how you are born - different or normal - both options are bad because you either suffer or cause suffering with your very existence. But don't normies also suffer when we "ruin" their experiences, systems and traditions by existing, but don't we cause suffering with our own existence? Trying to accommodate to everyone leaves world in stagnation and suffering and eventually some people get fed up and off to declare and exterminate the "enemy", NOT trying to do that causes misery, loneliness and deaths. Again, with people trying to overthrow it but all it does is makes pendulum swing. Happiness can only exist atop of neglecting and oppressing others, and if you ARE oppressed, your own way to happiness only lays through committing atrocities and learning TO oppress so is it worth it?

The problem is in how mind and feelings of everyone that lives work. There is some fundamental error in them, because they seek to harm each other and self, because freedom is dangerous but all control becomes too rotten and brings too many victims in the end. No matter who you are, being born into this world is on itself a curse. You'd think that civilisation and education would improve things, but have they? So far most of what I've seen humans do with knowledge about justice, decency, 'red flags' and abuse, bigotry and morality is to distort and misuse it to no end. They just invent new enemies and eat their own, there is never enough victims. Bigotry and evil is not rooted in ignorance, but in nature of life. Idiots do not become smarter when given knowledge, they just become dangerous idiots. So, is not evolving and not seeking knowledge and meaning better? But we already figured that animalistic drives are pretty evil and brutal too.

I respect Soulsborne for having all this, and much more, seen. I don't feel satisfied with the answers to this problem I tend to get from people, and I definitely don't believe that God who cursed humans for slipping under 100% control and threatens people with even more pain if they don't offer him their love is anything good to fall back on. But hey, the guy who rebelled against him doesn't have humanity's best interests in mind either! He is just waiting to pry on us, and humanity got no one. Being oppressed with fear or being a food for demons or wandering aimlessly without purpose? Choose your poison, there is no mercy except for death, and death is the one and only thing that makes everyone equal! Neither side cares for us, and not even we ourselves care for us. I am talking about both the games and real thing here, because Soulsborne is basically a big real world reference x)

I can only laugh it all off as "edgy teenager angst" for so long, but I am thinking about things like this every day. This post is just a tip of the iceberg because I can't spill my whole heart even if I want to, there is just.. too much stuff. More than all words in all languages could encapsulate. "Destroy all that divides and distinguishes, may Chaos take the world" however, is a good way to express the sentiment. It feels cathartic to say. Why not just end it all, if it's fundamentally broken? If the world is just a farm of suffering but deceptive with many beautiful things to hide its true ugly meaning? Although there were other characters delivering meaning of FF, Shabriri felt like the real manifestation of it, and fed that despair I already struggled it into winning.

Like I said, the whole 'picking FF ending to save Melina xD' flew completely over my head. For me it was about being convinced that just returning everything into primordial state of Chaos and singularity was better. And, again, conversation with Melina was so meaningful for this reason. Because there are enough of people that still agree to live in this world, even if wretched, and experience whatever they can. I'd argue that maybe wish to live itself is just something programmed in us to not let us avoid our given purpose to suffer and struggle, or cause suffering and struggle.. Still, I don't know that. Whatever I am looking for is not something logic or heart can help me with, because both comprehension and nature are insidious, fundamentally broken to turn on other humans and yourself. It is something that can't be identified and thus reproduced and shared, but whatever Melina said must have been connected with it if it made me stop believing in FF as the good thing. It could be about finding your own way, that can't be shared with others, but this means everyone else has the capacity to find their own way. In the end, no one has the right to take that chance away from them; not to spite God, not to end endless suffering, not for anything.

[tanoraqui]

Ask meme can I get a uhhhh Necromancy Thing 3 please.

this is one of those things where a short story idea blooms into a novel idea, and then you gently drop it because you're not really interested in writing that novel, but also, it haunts you as a Cool Premise, and maybe you thought about the magic system so much that you made a chart to explain it when you should've been taking notes in a staff meeting.

Worldbuilding premise is: magic is the manipulation of spirits living or dead, so it's basically just necromancy or what amounts to mind control...or some help with emergency healing, if you need to keep someone alive long enough to sew them up. (Or, rarely, manipulation of non-sentient living things or even inanimate objects, which teeechnically have spirits as well, but that takes so much power that it's basically impossible.)

Plot premise is: a new "witch" (wise woman/healer) has moved into the hut in the woods near Teen Main Character's rural town. TMC either figures out that she's secretly a necromancer or just that she's more interesting than anyone else here and begs an apprenticeship...but before she can start, royal soldiers come to arrest the witch, or at least to take her back to the capital city, because she is a) definitely a necromancer, in fact, supposed to be the Royal Necromancer ie royal healer and emergency military resource but we don't admit that, and also she's a princess, younger sister of the crown prince.

And! Tensions are high in this country for some reason, and the soldiers are dicks, and there's the start of a fight between the locals and the soldiers and TMC is killed!...very briefly. Because Princess-Witch/Necromancer brings her back before anyone can notice! And then is like, "Fine, I'll go, but I'm bringing my apprentice" (and to TMC: "You have to stay close to me or I can't keep you bound to your body.") (Her body is dead, this magic system doesn't do full resurrection. But it won't rot or anything while her spirit is tied to it.)

Partly the princess did this out of "this was my fault" guilt, and mostly she did it out of ruthless practical "I ran away for good reason (notably: my brother is a dick) but if this Nice Young Woman dies it could spark serious civil unrest and I don't want that."

So now TMC gets to have all the adventure she dreamed of (except maybe not this much of it), learning magic and dealing with deadly politics (except she's already dead and nobody must know) in the royal palace! By the way, "Royal Necromancer" is an old title but as of a few generations ago when this family defeated the previous ruler, a classic Evil Lich King, the Royal Necromancer in conjunction somehow with hte bearer of the crown is responsible for keeping subdued the giant army of skeletons which their great-great-grandparents didn't destroy so much as...weaken and bury. Possibly the crown prince wants to raise them and get conquesting? Which is why the princess ran away? Except, note, that didn't actually solve the problem even if she hadn't been found. Their mother the Queen is old and ill/dying, ofc.

By the end of the book, TMC can necromance well enough to keep her own spirit bound to her undying body, which technically speaking makes her a potentially-immortal lich. It's fine. Also, her less adventurous best friend from home showed up at some point with plans to rescue her from whatever she'd gotten herself into and they would've kissed but TMC is ace (with aceness exacerbated by being dead), so instead they just cuddled and defeated a giant skeleton army together. Idk what happened to the throne.

I wrote about 5 pages of a first chapter and then stopped. But man, now I'm looking at my erratically maintained list of original plot bunnies and feeling some itch... There are short stories here that I could probably write...

Shoutout to the multiple fantasy worlds, classic and modern, for which I have thorough magic system worldbuilding and the barest concept of a plot. I could do an ask meme about just those.

[tsuchinokoroyale]

I mean. If a guy only tells you he's married afterward, there's nothing you can do about that, I get it. But knowingly having sex with married men is 100 percent on you. You go into a whole philosophical breakdown of how he justified it to himself; how are YOU justifying helping these men break their wives hearts?

There’s a lot of interesting differences in our perspectives that I get from this response, but let’s start with the answer. How do I justify helping these men break their wives heart? I don’t, because I don’t have anything to justify. I think of it the same way I don’t have a mental breakdown every time I buy candy from the grocery store, even though I’m excessively contributing to capitalism. Did I need candy? No, but I wanted it. If I didn’t buy the candy, would I have crashed the economy hard enough to cause the government to shift gears? Absolutely not. I’d just have gone without candy. Translated: Did I need sex? No, but I wanted it. If I didn’t, would they have given up their philandering ways and changed their lives? Probably not. They’d just find someone else (( emphasis on the fact that these men were stunning ))

I am FAR from having to bear the cross of these men cheating on their wives, especially the 100% you claim. I’ll admit I’m a dime and a half and boys do be lining down the block just to watch what I got, but that’s not really my business if I did somehow tempt them into cheating. It’s like the difference between someone actually apologizing and someone saying “I’m sorry you felt that way.” Actually apologizing in this case is synonymous to, uh, not cheating on your wife. That’s not a foregone conclusion, you can just Not Cheat. Your response is closer to the second one, akin to saying I’m enabling their cheating by having sex with them. And this is where our perspective divide is: I see no reason to take ownership of their business even the slightest. I don’t know their names. I couldn’t give less of a shit what these guys are up to now.

Let’s rewind. You are engaged/married to a wonderful woman. You don’t want to have a gay sex liaison that might jeopardize the sanctity of your relationship. Do you:

A) Download grindr and set up a profile

Or

B) Don’t

If you’ve chose A, it is no longer my business what your deal is. It’s called grindr. The old logo used to have gears because it was meant to be a meat grinder. You use it to grind meat. If we met on GoodBoysUnlimited I’d give pause but if I’m on a sex app it is for the purpose of having sex. I’m not breaking these women’s hearts, I’m engaging in my half of the agreed upon transaction. Instead of moralizing the sex, maybe moralize the 50 steps it took these men to get there?

I will say I still agree with you that it wasn’t the most morally correct choice. That would’ve been to slap these men on their wrists and say “beat it, bozo!” But I’m no angel, saint, priest, or even a wholly good person 🤭 it was hot! Here were these men who were so firmly heterosexual that they built a life around it, but saw me and wanted me badly enough to risk it all to get a piece of this? That’s an amazing ego boost! I prefer ethical non-monogamy by a wide, deep margin, where a lot of discussion happens before hand. But in this case, I was informed while they were already there. Like I’m not going to play marriage counselor to a man sitting on his knees slonking on my knob sloppy style.

I think it’s incredibly important to understand things you should and shouldn’t take ownership of. You are a person, you will make mistakes, people will feel raw about it, and you’ll end up feeling bad too. But there are also situations where people will try to make you feel a certain way about things even if it isn’t your fault. It’s a classic emotional manipulation tactic: it’s your fault I feel this way. How are you gonna take ownership for how I feel? And my answer is always: I don’t. You are going to have to definitively demonstrate my ownership over a situation in order to get a response out of me. Say guy #1’s girl came home and found her man playing mechanical bull with my dick. She says to me “This is all your fault!” I’d just say “baby girl, what’s my name?” I’d ask her man, “what’s my name?” There’d be no answer because I wasn’t in this situation as a person, I was just here to pound ass and go. I’m not even a named actor and you think I’m the main antagonist? It’s not healthy to get personally involved in everything you experience, and sex is no different. As long is everything is consensual between the parties present, go off. That’s why I think it’s funny you wrote off the second one so quickly as the morally better one. Because, ironically, the story you discounted is the one in which the answer lies. I consider it the worse of the two because I didn’t consent to being a part of that narrative. Don’t get me wrong, as I’ve highlighted above I probably would’ve shrugged and gone through with it anyways. But it highlights that the cheater is always the one that holds all the cards, even if he’s also the one that has all the chips to lose too. They can share with me whatever they want, but at the end of the day they’re the ones in charge of their own situation. I’m just a pole/hole sir 😮‍💨

[inoppositionflorien]

My main disagreement with Leninists is that they've taken a failed disaster state that couldn't get its shit together from the very start, was approximately as anti-imperialist as every other country ever to exist (not really that much at all, and in fact arguably they were more so than most), and actively engaged in genocides within its own borders throughout its entire existence and fell apart due to internal and external pressures within 70 years, and hold it up as a Paragon of What The World Should Be and An Icon of Stability. Congratulations you've just invented politics as religion except no you didn't, you didn't even invent that you just did the thing everyone else did during most monarchies ever. Also Lenin got really whiny the moment elections didn't elect his people and a lot of his behavior afterwards was informed by making sure that wasn't able to happen again. So you know, not optimal there either.

My main disagreement with anarchists is that the state is a powerful force that can be used for good things or bad things, but having no state in a way that doesn't lead to mass starvation always, always, always ends up leading to a few small extremely wealthy or well-connected groups emerging and subjugating everyone else, and this doesn't appear to be a solvable problem without reintroducing the state. Anarchists pretend they've solved this problem with "oh we'll just have a big meeting and talk about things and stop that" but the thing is that requires a lot of political engagement which can't be kept up forever. People will eventually lose interest or only come because it's mandatory, and then you get a homeowners association. You know, the thing with a reputation for attracting petty tyrants and empowering them to the point they control every aspect of people's lives because they're the only people with the time and interest to engage? Except now the homeowners association has the power to have you shot in addition to all the other things they can do, so I'm sure that'll go well. We know how non-state societies work! They're excellent at concentrating power to an extent not seen in most state societies! Also if anyone gets the notion to attack, anarchists consistently lose against even basic state capacity, so even if it worked internally eternally (which it doesn't), it's not going to last very long due to external forces, because sooner or later a belligerent state will come by and start causing problems.

My disagreement with both is that both actually look pretty much exactly like what highly oligarchic (as opposed to autocratic) aristocrats' ideas of what the world should be like from the time period, but with the aristocrats removed and an idea that somehow, the aristocrats existed because of magic, and not because of specific forces related to societies with very little state capacity, and that if they don't get called aristocrats they'll definitely never reemerge given even a generation or two if we get them all today.

It comes off as seeing the factories go up in the 18th and 19th century and aristocrats saying "this sucks. If agricultural land isn't the main productive thing anymore and the royal army is centralized and more than capable of crushing me if I do anything that the king doesn't like, where does that leave me?" followed by non-aristocrats saying "this sucks, I have to work in a factory for meager pay while a different guy gets rich for doing less than me? This is clearly the fault of the state and capitalism specifically, and not what's been going on for thousands of years before the state just with marginally more ability for people to enter the new aristocracy. I think we should overthrow the government." and "this sucks, it's harder to be a subsistence farmer today than before, because the aristocrats are either financially struggling because the capitalists are challenging them and unable to help me in times of famine or are too rich from foreign trade and have resultantly gained substantial ability to enforce laws that previously were unenforceable, while trading away grain they could give me in times of famine. I hate state capacity, I liked it better when it was before this awkward transitional period when things got worse for a couple decades just before everything suddenly got a lot cheaper" and all of them coming to the same conclusion, "these new-money people are destructive parasites, what's their deal anyway, fuck them, let's go back to how it was before, (but maybe keep some factories)" and then people in the far future missing nearly all the context and saying "yeah this revolutionary government is different from the past and is in fact anti-reactionary" when in fact anarchism, pretty much all communism, and oligarchic aristocracy revivalism all agree on nearly everything and ultimately seem to achieve very similar ends in an industrialized environment. All three come from a place of "the past was better and we should do that again" except anarchists and most communists also say "but hereditary nobility is stupid so let's do something else. Famously, these other organizational methods tried in the farther past worked great. I mean I assume. They definitely didn't alternately lead to communities killing people who were kind of weird while power centralized informally in the hands of a few people, or to 'you know what? I don't think people are fit to rule themselves... Yet. They're stupid, maybe I and my close friends should rule forever just to start off. Oh, wait we're old now. Well, my family seems pretty smart, let's put them in charge in the event I die or retire. No this isn't an aristocracy this is just uhh they just happen to be related to me and my friends' kind of things." Or you could do what the Soviet Union did I guess and collapse pretty much immediately after the original two generations died, that too is an option.

Anyway that's why revolutionary leftist ideologies don't have a great track record. It's not entirely as bad as it's made out to be sometimes, but it's still a terrible track record. It's also why I'm pretty sure unionization and democratic socialism working together are more effective ways to improve Standard of Living for most people, because they both take advantage of existing systems that have proven stable and state capacity, and can feed off each other in a way that's useful. (Democratic Socialists and various other groups (which include some capitalist groups) make it easier to form unions and reduce state intervention against them, and unions improve Standard of Living, allowing more people to participate in politics because they're not too busy starving or working to not starve, which leads to more pro-union people in politics, eventually leading to making it easier to legally alter corporate structures to expand profit sharing massively while also levying high taxes to provide UBI and other programs, like healthcare and wide-ranging research grants without flooding the market with money causing massive inflation.

The main issue with this is high taxes are somewhat unpopular, and the rich only have so much money to tax and will be less rich individually thus reducing the tax base while people object to raises in non-consumption taxes, so that's going to be a problem if my policy plans are implemented. But I think it's a less severe problem than reestablishing an aristocracy accidentally so probably that's a win.

[cavefilllingcorporation]

The heart of a Hero Murderer

As Jack walked the alleys of the empty city, Jack tried in vain to ignore the pit in his stomach, the feeling that he was guilty of the worst sins imaginable. Jack tried to brush it off, but he couldn’t. After all, this city was empty because of him. Not just him, there were others who were a part of this military operation as well, but it still felt like it was all his fault somehow. He had no control over anything, and yet he could not stop feeling the blood on his hand, the heaviness of his weapon, how guilty he felt. An abandoned city, and it was all his fault.

It began that morning during drilling when the news came in. Jack at the time was testing his sniping skills on the range. Of course, he wasn’t using an actual sniper rifle. As part of their operation, he and the soldiers with him had to pretend to be resurrected Sun warriors instead of mercenaries, as per the request of the real Sun Guardian who did not want to fulfil her duties. That meant they had to wear armor instead of tactical gear, they had to carry their supplies and spoils instead of having a direct link to an orbiting crate pack, and they had to use the weapons of the time instead of firearms. The latter wasn’t so bad however, as this world had unique mechanical crossbows that were basically firearms. There were four types: Shotguns, automatics, snipers, and incendiaries. He preferred the first three, as did most of the garrison. The incendiary crossbow’s ammunition was too awkward to load, and it didn’t give as useful as a yield as command would have liked. Jack preferred the automatic, but he was using the sniper rifle that day to complete a challenge set by the soldiers: to hit the farthest target on the first try. He had managed to complete the challenge that day, and while it wasn’t the most difficult achievement, he was very proud. If only he had stayed in the range that day, instead of coming over to hear the news…

The news was more than just information, as it turns out a team of blacksmiths sent from command were sent here to forge armor from the materials the gang had conquered from the Heart of Chaos. The armor was the best craftsmanship the realm had ever seen, and hidden modern tech inside the armor made it all the better with their additions, such as cooling systems, hidden shoulder mounted firearms, and indestructible padding. The only way the armor could have been improved was if it was made of stronger materials… except for the chest plates, as an armory of cursed items was already in use. He was still uncomfortable with how unnaturally tight his chest plate was. Still, the armor was a good addition, as the last areas to liberate were the Moon cult’s direct territory, and command expected the fighting to be fierce.

So, they marched towards the base, past the mountain range from before, and onto the floating islands that looked like they had come straight from hell itself. There they did encounter stiff resistance, as the Moon cult was definitely protecting something, but what? They sent out their most fearsome war beasts, they blew up their bridges, all in vain to stop them from getting to what they were protecting. It wasn’t the relics they were hired to liberate, however. It was the capital, full of the citizens of the Moon nation turned cult. That was when the slaughter began.

It wasn’t even a fair fight. Command had overprepared for the attack, so the Moonites stood no chance. From what he understood over comms, not a single soldier was lost, compared to the hundreds that were felled in the battles before. But worst of all for Jack, was who they were fighting against. Before they usually fought against the monsters that the Moon cult had conjured up, but now they were fighting against hundreds of the men themselves, full humans. But it wasn’t just the humanity that hurt Jack. It was the civilians. They had never come across enemy civilians before, this was the first time. As protocol stated, the civilians were allowed to flee as the battle approached them. Some did, but many didn’t… and they were gunned down mercilessly.

He could still hear the screams of terror, the horror as he saw the bodies of women and sometimes children on the streets. He knew that command never let them go after juveniles, but considering what his squad’s stock was made of, many ignored those orders. He didn’t even know if the slaughter was the worst that happened during this battle. The thought made his stomach sick. Now the city was quiet, the constant clash of steel and the whistling of arrows brought to a quiet murmur. He stopped at an intersection to allow couriers to carry loot from a building back to the teleporter shrine. That was another thing that sickened him, the looting. He couldn’t believe how much treasure this city contained, and it was all being taken away without regard for their owners back to base. Maybe it was just him, but if any of those fleeing citizens returned, what would they return too? That’s what the Corporation cared about, the loot. They didn’t even care about the plight of the world, only the spoils it contained. That’s what made this slaughter even worse. It wasn’t by the people rising up, it was for the selfish interests of the company! A company that might deem this world so valuable that they would just take the entire thing for themselves!

He tried to bring himself to reason, to rationalize his way out of his guilt. The majority of the people in the city were hostile, immediately bringing out weapons and fighting to the death, eager to kill the interlopers in the name of their ideals. Less than 10% of the population were non-combatants, and the majority of them were allowed to escape. Besides, these were the Moon cultists, the people who literally took away this world’s Sun, plunging the world into darkness and unleashing monsters from other dimensions the people of this world were not equipped to face. And yet, were the people really at fault? Or was it just their leaders and whatever dark lord they served? He knew that they lived in a tyrannical rule, with non-conformance punishable by death. Did they truly deserve this?

As he was thinking about this, he heard the familiar click of crossbows nocking, taking their aim. On instinct he spun around, firing his own crossbow into the hearts of his would-be assassins. As he came back to his senses, he then realized who was bleeding out as his hands. A young couple, stretching their hands towards each other as they lay in the grass dying. This was the final straw for Jack the 2nd Ripper, as he dropped his weapon and kneeled down in the grass in front of them. Jack the 2nd Ripper, a name he came up with himself back in the day. He was nowhere near as infamous as the real deal. His only kills before his capture were his abusive ex-girlfriend and two bullies she called friends. And here he was, crying over more blood on his hands. He had thought that he had known was being a killer was, he had thought he had acquired a purely hardened heart. But those killings were justified. This was murder.

Suddenly, he was attacked from behind with an axe. He fell to the ground, spinning to face his opponent. He tried reaching for his automatic, just out of his reach. He could have grabbed his shotgun crossbow, which was still on his person, but he didn’t. He didn’t want to grab it, he didn’t want to defend himself, he didn’t want to escape justice, not again. That decision wasn’t his to make though, as a dagger flew above him and right into the man’s throat. As the man fell backwards, the dagger disappeared, as it was made of magic. He then noticed Crok tucking his spell scrolls back into his satchel as he raced towards Jack, pulling out bandages to treat his wounds. When he reached Jack’s position, he immediately and wordlessly bent down, pulling Jack’s breastplate off to reach the wound. As he struggled to remove the piece of armor, Jack tried to call out to him, weak from the lost blood and emotional toil.

“D..Don’t”

Crok then paused for a minute, looked at Jack’s face, seemingly absorbing Jack’s emotional state before responding.

“If you are trying to die on me, I will not allow it.”

“But… I…’m a. murder..ur”

“And so am I. But we were given a second chance to do good. Yours is not finished yet, so mine is to save your life so that you may get your chance at redemption.”

As he said this, he finally managed to pry off the breastplate off of Jack. Clearly the curse had vanished, as the armor piece was too damaged from the constant scars and scratches from the battle before to be able to really be useful at protecting anything. As Crok pulled him up from the ground to start wrapping bandages around his torso, he gave Jack a healing potion. Jack was never a big fan of these things, and he had heard rumors that healing potions in other worlds could give people cancer. Still, he decided to drink the bottle. The potion did the trick, though the taste was awful, like the aftertaste of drinking blood. Yet despite the vampiric taste, it did the work, and he managed to get the strength to stand on his feet. Crok then helped him walk towards the teleporter shrine, as he was eager to get back to base. He knew that there was still a stronghold to storm, but the rest of the squad could do it without him. Maybe he was a murderer. But if he was deserving of death, he would at least choose a sacrificial death, one that would be saving a life, rather than taking them. He just wondered how long it would be before he got the chance…

[stateofsport211]

[Late Post] Lima Ch SF: Alvaro Guillen Meza def. Renzo Olivo [2] 7-5, 7-5 Match Stats

📸 ATP Challenger Livestream (via website)

Guillen Meza dug deep from being a break down to take both sets and eventually win the match. Thanks to his point construction, he was able to score important winners (either passing shots, volleys, or other winners) to account for his 16 opportunities to break, which was an important step to bring Olivo's balance off. That way, he converted 68% of his break points compared to Olivo's 40%, where the latter was not able to capitalize on his moments by strengthening another hold, hence Guillen Meza found his depth.

Service game-wise, there were several interesting notes. Despite scoring no aces (to Olivo's 1), Guillen Meza won 9% more points from his first serves, while leaving his second serves vulnerable with a 7% difference, having just 40% second serves winning percentage. Somehow, it happened at the expense of Guillen Meza's 5 double faults compared to Olivo's 1, which denoted Guillen Meza's risky second serves, especially with a nervy start in the first set trying to find some grip.

Interestingly, Guillen Meza will face Blaise Bicknell, who also will contest his maiden Challenger final by defeating fourth seed Murkel Dellien 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-3 in a classic. Knowing the dynamicity of both players' games, a combination of a solid service game and a working rally tolerance would be one of the most important keys to get their maiden Challenger title. However, to what extent they will execute them, it should be seen right from the setup. Definitely adding this match to the week of milestones.

[ahb-writes]

Book Review: ‘I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire’ #3

I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! (Light Novel) Vol. 3 by Yomu Mishima My rating: 5 of 5 stars Compelling in its thoroughness and entertaining in its simplicity, this novel series' cavalier invocation of randomness and gullibility for the sake of Liam's evil lordship fits together quite nicely. I'M THE EVIL LORD OF AN INTERGALACTIC EMPIRE v3 wields another academic sprint as its general backdrop, but during the next span of three or four years, Liam accidentally creates another mortal enemy, stumbles into romance with an ice queen, and sort of sets the stage for rerouting the power balance within the empire itself. EVIL LORD v3 routinely triggers these and other narrative events by way of happenstance. Liam is an overachiever. He's bored. He wants to hunt stronger pirates, he wants to engage a woman who adamantly refuses his advances (on moral grounds), and he wants to amass a fortune and military worthy of crushing all other nobles. Does he get what he wants? Maybe. But definitely not in the way he thinks. This book's charm rests in how superbly the author weaves the story's secondary and tertiary characters into motion to nudge and support Liam's fantastical view of the universe. House Claudia, for example, has been in ruin for close to 2,000 years (due in part to the empire's negligence and due in part to other noble's malfeasance). But Liam doesn't see a house in disrepair, he spies a dukedom without a leading man. Similarly, Liam's tendency to attract women of an exceedingly violent and overconfident caliber should be a problem. Except, these women are military specialists, infamous mercenaries, or noble adjutants. Every single one of them is willing to die for him, if for all of the wrong reasons. Not the he'd know the difference. It's all a matter of perception. And as readers of EVIL LORD v3 will come to find, the puzzle pieces clarifying which nobles support pirates and which puzzle pieces show corruption in the higher ranks of the capital all require a bit of sorting to make out the final picture. And as readers already know, Liam always finds his way to the final picture. Characterization is one of this novel series' highest qualities. In EVIL LORD v3, readers encounter a lazy imperial prince, a mage assassin with a grudge, a female knight with a mean streak, and a duchess-to-be. The lattermost, Rosetta Sereh Claudia, is an incredibly sympathetic character who loses almost everything, yet keeps pushing through. She's icy, sure, but only so as to better focus on what matters to her (and her declining house authority). Rosetta is reserved, tactful, and chooses her allies carefully. Liam falls for her because he wants an ice queen for a wife, but as everyone knows, for better or for worse, all ice queens thaw. Her character is less lovable at the end than she is closer to when she is introduced, but Rosetta's internal struggle is genuine. Another notable character is Marie Sera Marian, a female knight who awakens when Liam's scientists pull her and others out of stone. Marie is a bloodthirsty fighter. She's also loyal to a fault. Better to have her on the side of an evil lord than to leave her running about without a leash. Marie's demure façade hides a bevvy of hilarious curses and spit-takes that typically pour from her frothing mouth the second someone gets the better of her. One would think it's a tired trope, but somehow it works perfectly here. The fact that she wields dual chainsaw-lightsabers might also have something to do with it. In EVIL LORD v3, the cast is impressive, both in size and scope of integration. And its this cast of awkward, bitter, slyly vengeful, and outright humbling personalities that nudge everything into its proper direction. Liam isn't the only one making weird assumptions. For example, Serena, the spy maid for the prime minister, scrutinizes the young man everyday but sees nothing untoward in his actions. And so, when Liam skulks the battlefield piloting an upgraded Avid mobile suit and wipes out hundreds of pirates, readers may correctly assume the guy may is a bit ridiculous, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know what he's doing.

Light-Novel Reviews || ahb writes on Good Reads

Browse insta for more comics and book reviews.

[starsbegantofall]

upon plagiarizing, piracy (of media), or bootlegs or design replicas, etcetera...

As I always preface, I am not your God, I am not even your mother, I am not who you answer to ethically or morally, so what I say means little to an internet stranger. But I like writing it down in text to organize my thoughts and sharing is caring.

Personally, I feel like if I had the means, I will always buy direct from the creator and support them as much as possible and never encourage stealing, copying, piracy, bootlegs, plagiarizing, or any devaluing of the original creation.  This is obviously because I’m a creator myself who values art and originality in this world ruled by profit machines. Because even if you declare “I will only download mp3s or videos or books created by the most heinous creatures who walk in human skin, never by good human beings,” I will constantly wonder if that applies to me because I don’t know what your definition is of heinous creature who walks in human skin is because I’m not telepathic.

Even if the creator was somehow so definitively evil or corrupt to never deserve money ever again, I think it’s a very demeaning precedence to start assuming you are qualified to be the sole judge/jury/executioner regarding creators, because come on, think about it, every creator is a human being, and all humans make mistakes, that’s literally what humans are born to do, you can start a moral crusade against each of the 8 billion human beings on earth if you dig back into their childhood far enough for that time they yelled at their mom. It’s also ridiculous and egotistical to think that your personal boycotting or piracy has any effect against supposedly evil human beings who then are so evil they don’t care about what you do, while the same kind of shaming and bullying does effectively harm (relatively) innocent and already oppressed human beings.

Also... ask yourself, why do you want to pirate stuff created by evil people in the first place? Is evil stuff better to you? In that case, own up to it, you’re evil, too! You’re dancing at the devil’s sabbath too!  Accept you’re going to hell with all the cool creative people and buy their stuff legally! What do you have to lose now?

On the other hand, the fact that all humans make mistakes that we apparently can’t learn from after hundreds of years is actually proof that some things do need to be copied, as a lesson to future generations in the form of archiving against eventual destruction or negligence by the powers that be, or just as a “i done fucked up and copied something I shouldn’t and now there’s a lawsuit, don’t do this kids” cautionary tale. Or, to other creators, as a way to grow and learn your own skills if you’re copying for study and practice. Or to sell impressionist oil painting forgeries to millionaires, in which case you are evil but I’d be impressed that you got away with it. In the end, copying someone else to recreate their stuff on your own still requires money and skill and time and wear and tear on the body, and that human act of creation is still meaningful compared to that which is compiled by a computer using stolen art and writing.

So in the end, you should do what your personal moral compass or religion or mother tells you to do, but in our ongoing fight to support creativity and originality of the human soul in this world that devalues them, I say you should avoid piracy if you have the means. Is this classist against the majority of the world who lives in abject poverty but deserves to watch the latest isekai anime for whatever little comfort they can obtain in this hellscape? Yes, but that’s not the fault of the creator who has to struggle in a capitalist world, that’s the fault of the people who keep the capitalism torture machine running.

[twopoppies]

1D Media Ltd: Contingent Liability

So, @towlersnow shared this update about 1D media’s financial statements which included information about the clearing of a contingent liability of £24,7M that has been on the financial statements since 2015.

One of my mutuals who’s an insurance defense attorney messaged me with some detailed explanation of what this means. This is long, but really interesting (IMO) in how it pertains to the band. I’ve bolded the section that’s specifically about 1D, the rest is essentially explanation about what a contingent liability is, and what the clearing means.

————-

Contingent liabilities are defined as "existing conditions, situations, or circumstances involving uncertainty about possible future liabilities. These uncertainties will be resolved in the future when one or more event occurs or fails to occur." Essentially, a contingent liability is a potential future loss that a company is facing. The contingent liability will not become a present, payable loss until some triggering event happens (or fails to happen).

A really common example of this is a car accident. Driver A and Driver B get into a car accident. Driver A is at fault. Driver B is injured. Driver B's injuries represent a contingent liability to Driver A's insurance company, as under the insurance policy they issued to Driver A, if Driver B makes a claim or brings a lawsuit, the insurance company will be responsible for paying the damages owed to Driver B, and for paying the legal fees Driver A incurs resolving the issue.

Contingent liabilities are categorized as probable, reasonably possible, or remote. A remote contingent liability is one with no more than a slight likelihood of becoming a loss payable. A probable remote contingency is one that is likely to become a loss payable. Reasonably possible contingent possibilities have a likelihood somewhere in between. If a company has a contingent liability that is probable and that the amount of which can be reasonably estimated, the company has to disclose that contingent liability in their financial statements.

The idea is that probable contingent liabilities pose a threat to the company's assets, and without them reflected in the financial statement, the asserted financial stability of the company will be misleading. So in the context of our car accident, at the point Driver A calls their insurance company and says "hey, I got into an accident, the other driver was hurt, we exchanged insurance information but I don't know anything else," that contingent liability is remote and the value of it is not able to be estimated. But if Driver B makes a formal claim, or files a lawsuit, the contingent liability is probable, and the insurance company has to figure out a way to estimate the potential amount and, in most cases, set that money aside so that it is available for payment when the time comes.

Construction contracts are another area where this is common. A general contractor will hire a subcontractor with an agreement to pay the sub a certain amount of money at the end of the job, but with the understanding that construction is unpredictable and prone to problems, so it is likely that the subcontractor will end up incurring costs over and above their contract amount. The general contractor will set aside an additional amount they think is reasonably likely to cover the subcontractor's additional costs. Big companies usually have reserve accounts where they just keep money set aside to cover any and all contingent liabilities that may arise, as opposed to setting aside money for each contingent liability as it comes up.

So in the context of 1D, their financial statement reads "a contingent liability which has been provided and reported for since 2015 continues to exist in relation to a matter in dispute which is the subject of litigation by the company. If the company is unsuccessful in the proposed litigation, the maximum obligation is estimated to be approximately 24.7m including interest. However, the company has indemnity against third parties in relation to such an event and the amount which should be reimbursed to the company is estimated to be approximately 18.4m."

There are a few things that I think are important to note here. (1) the contingent liability definitely involves a lawsuit, but we don't know if someone sued 1D media, or if they sued someone else, their disclosure only vaguely references a matter in dispute which is in litigation. (2) this is a long term contingent liability - 2015 was the first financial statement it appeared on, and it wasn't gone until 2020. That plus the amount (24.7m or $29,174,405 according to the converters I use) tells me this was a big deal, it likely wasn't an issue where a songwriter felt they didn't get their due or something similar.

It's likely this was an ugly, knock down drag out fight (and the timing coinciding with the hiatus raises a few questions for me but that's all speculation so I won't go into it). And (3) the fact that indemnity in the amount of 18.4m exists implicates a third party. It may be an insurance company, but I doubt it. My gut instinct is that there was another industry party involved who has liability to 1D media. God only knows what this third party is, or why they're being dragged into this. But they exist. And that's a pretty significant amount of liability for the third party - it ends up being about 75% of the estimated total. That's a deeply, deeply involved third party.

(my instinct is that this isn't insurance because of the amounts. 18.4m is a pretty specific number, if it was an insurance issue it (a) wouldn't have taken so long to resolve, as an insurance defense attorney I can tell you we never let cases drag that long, because the insurance companies hate it, and (b) the company would likely cover it all, or they'd cover up to a more round number (i.e. a 20m limit of liability). 18.4m is a number that suggests another party exists, has been implicated via potential bad acts, and is under a contract that monetizes their actions in some way with a formula that spit out 18.4m as their share of the liability. All of that, taken together, makes me think that whatever happened was personal and ugly.

On a practical level, the clearance of that liability from the financial statement likely doesn't indicate any real life losses or gains for shareholders of 1D media. The 24.7m has been "provided and reported for since 2015," meaning that money is sitting in reserves somewhere, and if it has to get paid out, the eventual 18.4m they recoup will go back into the reserves account or, if they didn't end up having to pay, the money stays in the account for the next liability that arises. There's no way to know for sure what happened, but I hope you enjoyed this (ridiculously long, god I'm SO SORRY I really wrote you an entire novel) lesson on contingent liabilities.

The end result is that it was resolved somehow. Whether that resolution was 1DM paying some or all of the 24.7m we don’t have any way of knowing. But it kind of doesn’t matter (except that I really want to know) because it doesn’t have THAT big of an impact on the overall financial well-being of the company or the likely payouts or stock values to holders.

The fact that the liability is noted as having been provided for since 2015 means somewhere 1DM had an account that held at least 24.7m, so that money wasn’t really anything they were missing or trying to figure out how to cover. If 1DM ended up paying out some or all of it, they’d turn around and get the 18.4m from the indemnity party and just toss that back into the reserves account, and if the 18.4m wasn’t enough to cover all that they paid they’d just write off the excess and be done. And if the situation resolved in a manner that means 1DM didn’t pay a cent, the money stays in reserves. It still doesn’t become part of their operating capital or anything. When the company is liquidated someday that money will come into play, but for now the fact that this resolved and the fact that we don’t know how it resolved doesn’t actually change the financial landscape of the company much.