#unless they've over-exerted

[not-poignant]

👀 may we sneak a peek at that scent masterlist...?

Sure! I don't have every character worked out yet but here we go (no betas mentioned because betas don't have scents in the same way):

Peak Alphas

Augus Each Uisge - Torn leaves and fresh water.

Crielle ferch Fnwy - Gardenias and blood.

Gary Konowalous - While drinking heavily each night, he has a strong overlay of red wine tannins, with a base scent of wood or wood shavings. When he scales back on the red wine, the woodsy scent rises up.

Gwyn ap Nudd - Brittle, bright, like melting metal.

Temsen Ohlo Ohlo - Green and astringent. It's more grassy.

Alphas

Anton Valenosk - 'Warming,' or like warming spices, like spice cake.

Caleb Crawford - Caleb's scent is earthy and clove-like with occasional glittery spikes, almost like the sensation of poprocks.

Christian Smythe - Woodsy and soft, and gently appealing.

Eran Iliakambar - Faint charcoal, earthy, occasional flashes of neroli.

James Visser - A richly green forest floor, with faint top notes of citrus.

Janusz Bodanowicz - A little metallic, with overtones of sharp fruits, like berries or currants.

Kadek Setiawan - Tea tree

Michael Henton - Apple and pear. It's not an overbearing scent.

Omegas

Alois Flitmouse - Faint and astringent, a little like black tea. Once he starts having healthy heats again, it turns sweeter and warmer, and Anton compares it to mead.

Efnisien ap Wledig - Extremely non-distinct (usually just 'chemicals') while dosed on all the drugs Crielle gave him. As he becomes healthier at Hillview, a distinctive scent appears which is oceanic, and makes people think of the sea. Many people don't realise it's him.

Lucien Beaumont - Lush and creamy, hints of tonka.

Mosk Manytrees - Astringent and tangy.

Nate Prince - Mild and fresh, like rain. It's very subtle, but can feel smell like a storm when he's stressed.

[dustykneed]

everyone knows that if you bring your best friend along on a date with your bf, either your best friend of your bf will end up being third wheeled-- unless you're jim t kirk and you manage to third wheel for your first officer (who is in fact your boyfriend) and your cmo best friend.

no i have not watched bread and circuses yet but i feel in my heart that this applies. and also objectively the bread and circuses outfits are so insanely mind-blowingly attractive?? i needed an excuse to draw them in tight-fitting shirts and i regret nothing 😎

you just know that whenever the pre-mcspirk triumvirate hangs out whoever did the inviting will inevitably end up being the third wheel. like jim invites spock over to play chess and brings bones along to spectate and commentate and IMMEDIATELY spones joins forces to beat his ass (bickering and sassing each other all the while. and by the end bones is basically halfway on spock's lap smug as hell with spock leaning back a little just to accommodate him, a hand ghosting his waist to keep him from losing his balance.) And they beat jim's ass so soundly it would almost be embarrassing if he hadn't been preoccupied with committing the way spock and bones fit so well together to memory.

or spock will ask jim and bones over for dinner, and somehow while he's turned his back for a minute replicating their meals mckirk will have gotten into a playful argument about the worst terran movie and spock watches this eventually escalate into a mock tussle on the couch (and then onto the floor, where jim solidly pins bones (who is voicing his complaints very loudly) to the carpet and sort of pets at him until he goes pliant and giggly. and spock keeps watching because he can't bring himself to look away from how jim's biceps and triceps flex with the exertion of keeping a flailing bones still, and the way bones' shirt has rucked up with his wriggling and is now exposing his midriff in a decidedly... agreeable manner. And now their dinner is getting cold but spock is very much not. the opposite, in fact.

for bones though, generally he has the opposite problem-- whenever he tries to corner jim for a physical, it's guaranteed that spock will show up with him and stand next to his bed and all but hold jim's hand in front of the entire medbay and (with infuriating accuracy and highly amusing, transparent urgency) hand bones the instruments he needs before he even reaches for them, hovering by jim's side all the while. and jim is also TERRIBLE about not physically attaching himself to spock and actually letting bones do his goddamn job when spock gets hurt. if he wasn't so fond of them both, he swears he would've kicked them out of his medbay ages ago. Too bad they've both wormed their way solidly into his heart.

...

prompt fill for @mcspirkevents' mcspirk month day 26 "expectations vs reality" (i know this isn't spicy but by god spirk's mouths are actually touching and given my track record of not being able to draw people kissing properly it might as well be, lol) 🩵💙💛

[evi-anxiety]

Compare/Contrast of Keith & Shiro's Relationship and Allura & Coran's Relationship

Keith & Shiro and Allura & Coran seem to share a lot of the same energy with one another, in being that they consist of a character that was raised by the other and therefore looks greatly for their opinion and approval. I've wanted to do this compare/contrast thing for a while, so I apologize if it's kinda disorganized + really long.

Comparisons:

Keith and Allura share a lot of similarities as individual characters themselves. They are both very stubborn, unwilling to change their opinion unless directly proven wrong, and put the safety of their friends over their own safety. This is what makes them the "leaders" of Voltron (even if Allura was never the Black Paladin, she was still the Princess of Altea).

They also share similar backgrounds. While there is a lot of importance put onto their fathers, there's even more importance put on to the characters that helped raise them: Shiro and Coran.

Coran was most likely assigned to be Allura's caretaker, seeing as how close he is with the royal family. He was probably there for her when her father couldn't be, being the leader of an entire planet and all. He knew his task from the start and gave Allura a person she could trust.

Shiro is the same in this way, except that he wasn't expecting to raise a kid. He meets Keith unexpectedly at whatever school Keith was attending. He gets Keith into the Garrison, and becomes an older brother figure from there on. Sure, he's a teacher, but he probably didn't expect to get this close with one single kid, but Keith mattered to Shiro in a way that none of his other students did.

In this way, all four characters also share the same destruction. Their homes are destroyed, they've experienced loss. Allura had lost her father and her home; the only person she has now from her original life being Coran. He's not her father, but he's the closest thing she has to one (she even says it in the episode where Coran was aging backwards: "You were like a second father to me!").

Keith and Shiro had lost each other. Keith had lost his family earlier on in life, and didn't get the childhood most people deserve. But then Shiro came, and Shiro became that family to him. And then Shiro left, twice. We can see it weighs a lot on Keith, that he becomes quite erratic whenever his anchor is not around; Shiro was one of the only people who expressed care for him, and although he left involuntarily, it still impacts Keith in a way that shows a close relationship.

They save each other, quite a lot. When one is in danger, the other of the duo is usually there to be their saving grace. They express direct connection with each other. Allura gets worried about Coran's wellbeing, making sure he's not in the way of battle, while Coran is immediately by Allura's side whenever she exerts her power. Keith and Shiro are constantly thrown into life-or-death situations, and it's almost always the other who brings them out of it.

Contrasts:

As I've mentioned before, Keith and Allura both lost their families. But here's the thing: Keith still has family, he just didn't know it at first. He has Krolia, likely his only surviving relative left, while Allura has no one. The introduction of Krolia also creates an inferred divide between her and Shiro (one of the first things she says to Shiro is thanking him for raising Keith). She is his mother, but she wasn't the one who raised him, Shiro is. Her and Keith aren't close at first either, Keith being hesitant to get to know more about her. Meanwhile, we never really get to know a lot regarding Allura's mother, her father places much more emphasis in her life. She probably wasn't that close either, but unlike Keith, she'll never get to chance to reconnect.

As I've also mentioned before, Shiro had left Keith twice. Coran has never left Allura. He's always been by her side, and whenever they have been separated for long stretches of time, it's done by Allura's decisions. She might not have her biological family, but she had always had her figure to rely on. For a good portion of the show, Keith didn't have either. Shiro disappeared, forcing a leadership role Keith didn't want, and even when Shiro returned, it wasn't the same person. This Shiro tended to get angry and lash out at people, most noticeably Keith and Lance. This Shiro failed to be the figure Keith needed.

We can infer that Allura and Coran are closer to each other than Keith and Shiro are. I'm basing this inference mostly on the fact that a lot of screentime is spent with Allura and Coran with each other or near each other. Keith and Shiro do have a lot of screentime together, sure, but they also have a lot of screentime apart. In fact, they don't even spend a lot of time outside of missions with each other. Shiro spends his time either alone or with Allura, while Keith spends his, again, either alone or with the other teen paladins.

The most obvious contrast is probably that Allura and Coran have a father-daughter type of relationship while Keith and Shiro have a brotherly relationship. With Allura and Coran, there is a sort of atmosphere in which Allura doesn't necessarily rely on Coran's opinion, but still looks to Coran for a lot of advice. Coran also treats Allura in much the same way a father would to his daughter (there are a few moments throughout the show in which Coran mentions stories of Allura in her childhood). Coran is also much older, considering how he has known Allura since she's been born.

On the other hand, Keith and Shiro are more like brothers than father-son. They are closer in age than Allura and Coran are, and Shiro had only known Keith for a portion of the other's life. Keith also puts a lot of importance on Shiro's opinion, much like a younger sibling would do with their older sibling. They also have a tendency to joke with each other (one of my fav moments is when Shiro just straight up shoves Keith for no reason).

Anyway that's all I have for now, thx for coming to my ted talk.

[tabbytums]

☠️🖍️

☠️ - Your opinion on... Fatal vore.

I looooooove fatal vore. I mentioned this in the post about reformation, but it's really the finality and lasting consequences of it that I like a lot. There's usually no coming back from eating/being eaten, no do-overs, no nothing. The only thing the prey will ever be now is nutrient mush and fat on the pred's gut and body.

There's a lot of different scenarios that I just love, love because fatal vore is so versatile. If you want some cruelty, you can have an uncaring pred who churns away and ends their prey without a care. If you want some angst, you can have a pred who accidentally digests their prey and is devastated by this (although a pred who is like "oh well" to accidentally churning their prey is definitely super hot as well).

There's also a huge potential for intimacy, even unwilling intimacy, because the pred is basically making the prey part of themself now. The pred and their prey will never be apart again, albeit the prey is now just jiggly fat.

🖍 - Do you prefer… Realistic or unrealistic/cartoony vore?

Vore is definitely very unrealistic from the get-go unless you're a snake/pelican/etc. or are swallowing something VERY small, but I generally prefer more realistic vore, or at least, as realistic as you can get with same-size vore, with a few exceptions here and there. I do also like mass/multi-prey vore a lot which pushes the boundaries into the more "cartoonish" area of vore.

Anyway, I usually like preds who take a long time to swallow their prey because it probably would be extremely difficult to swallow someone/something that large, especially if they're struggling the entire time! And then after they've finished swallowing their prey and can breathe again, they're panting and moaning from the exertion (and fullness). Tight and defined bulges are super hot as the stomach struggles to fit the entire prey inside. Even on fatter preds, there would still be a lot of definition in the figure of the prey. I'm not the biggest fan of smooth, globe-like bellies in vore, unless it's showing that the prey has been digested.

Now, I usually like digestion that takes half a day to a day in length which miiiiiight make sense if you've eaten a really big, but still manageable, meal, but I feel like a whole person might take way longer. At least a week, maybe even two or three, for most of the prey to be mush.

I could probably go on and on about this topic in vore, but I'll stop here before I end up writing a whole 14-page essay about it LMAO.

Vore Ask Meme

[eventinelysplayground]

Enveloped In Darkness

This fic was inspired by a part near the end that's like 100 words long the rest of it is just what I needed to get there. Again not much about Victor is out on English so time will tell just how in character this story is but I tried to use what little they've given us especially his wrapped in wickedness story which I kind of reference but as always don't need to have read it to enjoy the fic. This fic is NSFW so minors do not interact. After a ball Victor poses a question to you that leads you down a blissful path. WC approx 2290, spacer done by @natimiles.

The night had been magical. Your navy blue dress mimicked the night sky, its skirts unfurling like petals as you twirled across the dance floor. The citrine jewels encased in silver sparkled like stars while seeming to cast a magic spell to enchant. As the night was coming to an end you found yourself thinking how it had all been like a fairy tale and could help but smile at how appropriate that was given what had happened over the last few weeks. However instead of dancing with a prince like in most fairy tales you found yourself dancing with a villain.

“What are you thinking about that would make you smile so beautifully?”

You look up into Victor's curious gaze and familiar smile, his long black hair tied back with a ribbon.

“I was just thinking how this night has been like something out of a fairy tale, that's all.”

Victor's smile widened and he let out a short laugh.

“Haha how fitting! Though in fairy tales the fair lady always dances with the dashing prince not the villain. The ball's not quite over so there's still time to find your prince.”

“No I'm fine, plus I don't think any prince would be as fun or dashing as you are.”

Your tongue had moved before your brain caught up to it and your eyes widen in shock and horror at the realization of what you just said as you look away. Sure over the weeks you had been with Crown you'd grown close to all of them, especially Victor. You found him mysterious and alluring as well as kind and devoted and it wasn't long before he had stolen your heart and your thoughts began to go where they shouldn't.

“Umm what I mean is…”

Your words trailed off as your brain desperately searched for anything that would make what you let slip anything other than what it truly was. Just then you felt Victor's hand tighten around your waist as he pulled you closer.

“I warned you before little robin, when you make that face I want to take this further. So I suggest you stop, unless that's what you want?”

You turn your head back to look at Victor and for a fleeting moment you could swear his bewitching eyes were filled with an intense heat.

“I…”

Your tongue feels like lead in your mouth and you swallow hard. The rest of the dance is spent in silence while Victor’s gaze seems to hold you under a spell. You're grateful when he suggests leaving, it's only slightly early and the last thing he wants is for you to exert yourself too much. You leave the glittering ballroom behind and as he offers you his hand to help you into the carriage you could swear you saw that same flash of heat as you did on the ballroom floor.

It was late when you returned to the castle. You and Victor walked side by side when he came to a stop at the bottom of the staircase.

“Victor?”

“This is where I asked you to accompany me tonight.”

You remembered, it was only four days ago after all. Admittedly you were surprised when Victor asked you but he said it would be better if he had a companion for this particular ball as he flashed you a dazzling smile and you couldn't help but agree.

“I remember.”

“Perhaps I can pose another question here then, since the first worked out so well.”

Victor gave you that same dazzling smile and you nodded. He reached out and touched your cheek before trailing his fingers down your neck leaving a trail of heat in their wake.

“You have the freedom to do anything or go anywhere you like but…”

Victor leaned in his voice low as he whispered in your ear.

“Would you give into the darkness tonight?”

Victor kissed your earlobe and your breath hitched while your heart beat at a frantic rate. Was he truly asking what you thought he was? He stepped back from you and when you gazed into his eyes this time the heat in them wasn't fleeting.

“I have something minor I need to take care of first but if you agree…”

Victor took your hand in his and placed a kiss upon it.

“Wait for me in my room, little robin.”

It happened so fast but Victor's lips brushed softly against your own for the briefest of moments before they pulled away, an all too short but oh so sweet first kiss.

“As I said you have the freedom to do as you want, but I hope to see you shortly.”

Watching Victor's back as he walked toward his office you brought a hand to your lips running your fingers along them, the lingering heat from Victor's kiss causing desire to spark and grow inside you. Climbing the stairs you came to the landing and peered down the familiar hallway. You walked slowly down it passing several doors until you reached your own, hand resting on the handle.

You have the freedom to do anything…

You turned your head and looked down the hallway to the very end, to Victor's door. What did you want to do, did you want to give fully into the darkness or just stay dancing in between the light and shadows? Slowly your hand comes away from the handle and you turn away and walk towards Victor's door. You pause only long enough to take a deep breath before entering his room, shutting the heavy door with a quiet thud.

As your eyes adjust to the minimal light let in from the moon you begin taking in your surroundings. Victor's room feels warm yet mysterious like him, a desk covered in paperwork, a sofa and table, a neatly organized bookcase, a not so neatly organized open trunk that seems to hold various props for his magic tricks. As you step further into the room you run your fingers along the side edge of the huge four poster bed that's covered in black silk sheets with an intricately embroidered comforter spread along the bottom edge. Of everything though your eyes are most drawn to the massive windows along the far wall, not just because it's where the light is emanating from but because the view is breathtaking.

Standing there lost in the beautiful view of the gardens submerged in the moonlight, a familiar scent reaches you and warm arms wrap around your waist before you've even realized you're no longer alone.

“You always look lovely, but even more so in the moonlight.”

A gentle kiss lands upon your ear followed by more down your neck and out along your exposed shoulder. You shudder from the sensation of his kiss and your stomach starts to flutter along with a faint throbbing between your legs.

“Victor.”

Your voice is breathy and he lets you go as you turn around to face him.

“Are you ready to freely give into the darkness?”

His voice is like you've never heard before, deep and seductive and something inside of you lit in response to it.

“Yes.”

A mischievous smile lit up Victor's face and he offered you his hand.

“Then take my hand and entrust yourself to the Grim Reaper completely.”

You don't hesitate to place your hand in Victor's and he pulls you towards him, encircling your waist with his free hand as he captures your lips for a kiss. Unlike your first kiss not even an hour before this kiss is neither brief nor gentle but fierce and hungry.

Your lips move together as his tongue slips between them and begins to explore your mouth. His hand that held your waist now slowly makes its way up your back, his dexterous fingers undoing the lacing on your dress along the way. With each kiss, each touch to your bare skin the heat inside you grows.

“Mmm Victor.”

Your kiss may now be broken but Victor's lips don't stop. They travel over your jawline and down your neck sucking and nipping while leaving faint red blooms behind them. Your knees feel weak and your arms instinctively wrap around his neck to help steady you. The laces now all undone Victor slowly removes your dress while continuing to rain kisses upon your bare flushed skin. Everywhere he touches you he leaves a burning fire in his wake and you let out soft moans of pleasure.

“It feels that good already little robin?”

Victor's lips clamp onto the swell of your breast sucking hard.

“Ahhh…yes it…does.”

Your body arches into him as your arms tighten around his neck and fingers weave their way into his still pulled back hair. Before long the rest of your clothes are laying on the floor and quickly joined by Victor's jacket and shirt. Another hungry kiss and then he pulls away from you, his jewel-like eyes roaming lustfully up and down your naked body.

“You're practically glowing. The flush upon your cheeks and that wanton look in your eyes, the darkness becomes you.”

“You really think so?”

Victor reaches out his hand for you and you dutifully comply pressing your body up against his.

“Absolutely.”

You smile up at him then stand on the tips of your toes to plant a kiss on his lips. He groans into your kiss and you can feel his bulge pressing against you. Suddenly your feet leave the ground as Victor lifts you into his arms and carries you over to his bed. He places you gently on the edge before his lips leave yours.

“This is your last chance, you can still go back to the light if you desire right now but any further…”

You reach for him, wrapping your arms around his waist and pulling him closer.

“I desire you Victor.”

Warm lips crash against yours hard and hungry. The way his lips move against yours, his tongue pushing it's way further in and claiming every part of your mouth leaves you breathless. He pulls away quickly and you look up at him to pout. His eyes are dark, consumed with heat and desire for you and they draw you in. His hands begin removing the rest of his clothes and you shuffle backwards on the bed.

“Trying to run away now?”

Victor's smile lets you know he's teasing you but even still you shake your head.

“Never.”

You return his smile as he climbs onto the bed and makes his way towards you, his firm body leaning over yours as he claims a kiss before pushing you down onto the sheets.

“Wonderful.”

He begins exploring your body in earnest now, his hands mapping every line and curve of you as his mouth and tongue follow their own path. Your own hands follow his example as you wrap them around his back then lightly rake your fingernails across it. At first he's gentle with you but he grows bolder and hungrier by the moment. The differing sensations make your head spin and your body arches under his talented touch as the throbbing between your legs only grows.

One of his hands grabs onto your hips, his fingers digging into you as his mouth latches onto your nipple and lightly bites. Your head falls back in pleasure and you moan out his name. His tongue swirls around your nipple before lapping over his bite. He kisses and nips his way across your chest stopping at your other nipple and doing the same to it. Your panting and your body feels like it's on fire, kept in check only by the coolness of the sheets.

Victor's lips begin moving down your stomach and you shiver in anticipation. His pace slows as he kisses across the top of your thigh and his hand leaves your hip to slowly glide across your most sensitive spot. Your hips jerk towards him and you can feel his lips curve into a smile.

“It seems dancing isn't the only time your body just naturally follows my lead.”

He punctuates his words with a kiss to your inner thigh as he slides his fingers into your wet core. Your head snaps back against the pillow as your hips buck.

“Victor!”

Soon his lips have made their way over to your sensitive nub, his tongue lapping at it hungrily as his fingers slowly move in and out of you. The different places make you feel as if you'll go mad and you place a hand on his head, fingers gripping at his hair as you cry out. As your pleasure is coming close to its peak Victor removes his fingers and draws his tongue along your slit before sitting back and you whine at the absence of him. You manage to gather yourself enough to look at him just as he removed the ribbon holding back his hair. He slowly moves over you planting kisses over your skin along the way. He cages you in between his arms and stares into your eyes. His long black hair falls around you blocking out what little light the moon had offered and enveloping you darkness.

“I told you before that I'm a very greedy man, little robin.”

You feel Victor's heat plunge into you in one swift motion, filling you up and stretching you out. Victor waits what seems like an eternity, but in truth is only a moment, for you to adjust to him before the hard and quick thrusts begin.

“And now that you're mine I will take every part of you, forever.”

Victor's lips meet yours in a passionate kiss and you moan into it from sheer ecstasy. You've never been so blissfully happy as you are right now, in the arms of a villain and enveloped in the darkness.

[superluigiglitchy]

Triple Does Troubles

Some things regarding Meggy's troubles with being fucking up 3 times

- similar to Callie, Meggy has headaches and a few eye problems post-hypnoshades but thankfully not to the point it'd cause trouble for her in the long run, she does need to wear reading glasses now tho and also takes pain killers whenevr the migraines get particularly bad

- Meggy has some pretty bad nightmares regarding her time in the deepsea metro, they've gotten better over the years but they're very persistent, it helps to have someone nearby when she sleeps because it keeps the nightmares at bay

- Meggy has occasional flare ups in the form of intense pain all over or in specific parts of her body because of the sanitisation ink, it used o be MUCH worse post-octo expansion but because of some procedures performed by Dr. E. Gadd and some medicine, it's gotten significantly easier to handle and rarely happens, unless she over exerts herself or has a particularly bad panic attack

- Meggy recently (Post-RotM) has been struggling with newer mammalian instincts such as purring, aggressiveness, along with a whole bunch of other stuff (the amount of times bob has been bitten)

- sometimes she has dreams where she's in the pov of some mammal in a nature documentary and it's REALLY weird but oddly pleasant for some reason???

[fountainpenguin]

"Is she bright, so well read? Are there novels by her bed? Is she the sort that you've always said could satisfy your head...?"

---

New Factor It In chapter today!

Chapter 4 - “Theoretical Probability”

Read on FFN || Read on AO3

---

WordGirl's not the only one who's concerned about having Kid Math around the city, and the villains aren't afraid to let her know it. You know, he sort of reminds them of another insensitive "hero" they dealt with not too long ago. While WordGirl struggles to assuage their concerns, Tobey speculates on her secret identity... though some theories are more probable than others.

(First 1,000 words under the cut)

---

Theoretical Probability

.:: January 3rd - Saturday - 4:10 pm ::.

"Take time to predict resulting actions. Then take control."

(Ancient Hexagon proverb)

➕ ➖ ✖️ ➗

Psst! Look for the words insensitive and replacement

---

3.46 miles due southeast of the jail, the crooked wheel of a shopping cart rattles and squeals. Ew. It croaks a final plea and finally grinds to a halt all together. The poor shopper behind it tries to force it the last few steps to her van, but the cart bucks against her wishes. A warbled wail echoes over the parking lot, pleading for help. Her toddler bursts into tears. Hm.

Rex lets his super-hearing blur out of focus. A stuck shopping cart? That's hardly his problem. The lady will fix it before he gets anywhere near her. He leans all his weight on the two jail cell bars in his hands, calculating the exact amount of energy he'd need to exert if he chose to bend them, flick Seymour Orlando Smooth on the nose, and pull everything back together before Warden Chalmers finished speaking with Becky further down the row. With WordGirl. WordGirl… Not Becky.

Seymour is still gabbing. Rex tries to listen - he really does - but the invisible cellmate behind him is incredibly distracting. Watching water slosh over unseen hands is something Rex never really thought he'd do. He tightens his grip around the bars. Seymour stands a few inches from his face, fumbling with his fingers as he yaks on and on. Frankly, his vocabulary is lost on Rex's ears.

3.1 miles west, two children on a playground argue over the swings. A ragged little dog barks, chasing a stick that wasn't thrown- or if it was, it was thrown in silence. Its paws kick up a splash of dry dirt. It sprinkles across the sidewalk in a light patter, patter. One little heartbeat is racing especially fast. Is it the puppy's? Impossible to say.

The dog's having a nice time, though. Squirrels bounce through the tree branches in the park, lightweight as they free themselves a mite early from winter hibernation. Or doom themselves to months of suffering. Who knows. Two joggers pant near the site of the new barber shop. Hungry rats scuffle in the sewer. A cat mews in hunger, claws scratching against a door.

A bit farther west, Theodore 3 paces around his bedroom. The shuffled pacing always turned out to be Theodore 3's big feet. He lives with his mother, Claire McCallister, and her home lies halfway between Ms. Question's lair and the Big Left Loft.

Not that it matters, really. After a quick search for buzzwords on the wind, Rex picks up no scheming whispers from either one of them. They're silent. At least, unless they've hidden among the ranks of two dozen homeowners clicking dishes in their sinks.

In the south, the Whammer baps a tired hand repeatedly against either the arm of his chair or a punching bag; Rex can't be sure and doesn't really care, but the reverberation of the sound matches his exact calculations of texture, strength, and size, so the Whammer it must be.

And speaking of sinks… Rex presses a little closer to the bars, legs lifting behind him. Sooner or later, Invisi-Bill has to finish with his hands. And then he'll reappear.

"Come on… Come on…"

Wait. What's that? 2.2 miles away, Violet Heaslip pulls open the lightweight front door to her adorable-as-a-fractal wooden house. She greets the person who knocked instead of ringing the bell, and he says her name in a chipper, gushy way. Gentle windchimes tinkle in the breeze. Her cat lets out a purr. Judging by the newcomer's rapid-fire, cheerful voice, Violet's saying hi to Becky's reporter friend. Rex has yet to pin a name to his face (Wide hat, black hair… He's picking this up, slowly but surely, like an exponential function).

1.7 miles in the opposite direction, the grocery store manager starts to hum along to the music in his store. That prickles Rex's attention, unavoidably. For better or worse. White, bouncing shapes of all kinds began to dance across his vision, reacting to the synesthesia he'd gained alongside the rest of his superpowers after leaving the minerals of his home planet behind. Even when he blinks, the shapes crowd behind his eyelids. They look like sugar on black cloth. Crystal arrangements. Molecule formations.

0.4 miles north. A familiar, drawn-out mumble for help drifts from a side street as the voice's owner makes a small trip to fill up on gas. His wife murmurs encouraging words. The car wheel hits a sharp stone. It flies sideways and bounces off a brick wall. The noise clicks once, but the second click that represents the stone landing simply vanishes in the grocery store manager's song.

0.0 miles away. Here they are tonight in the Fair City jail, soft and routine. You know, Rex has to hand it to the warden- he actually kept to his goal of running a neat, organized ship all week long. Looks like he won't be eating his hat after all.

(Well, he might choose to anyway.)

Each of the 6 inmates he can see have been pinned in their cell behind solid iron bars. Each bar is exactly 3 inches in diameter and spaced 5 inches apart. And all the jail's current residents have been organized in pairs, precisely two to a cell… with the lone exception of the Butcher, who pouts in his titanium-tofu prison in the neighboring room. 3 x 2 = 6. Not many villains had wanted to commit crimes so near the holidays. Who knew?

Seymour finally nails the shape he'd been trying to create with his fingers. He holds up his thumbs and forefingers so they make a rectangle. Rex purses his lips. He gives Seymour a few more seconds to wrap up his cheery, zing-y little elevator pitch (That's what WordGirl calls his ramblings) and taps a finger to his cheek.

"So… it's likely each of my guardians has a card with numbers on it?"

"Numbers on the front and the back," Seymour assures him. "And you can share those numbers with me in exchange for a grand prize beyond your wildest dreams!"

"Well, it is hard to say no to a personalized string of numbers…"

"Don't do it!" WordGirl's voice echoes across the jail. Rex glances over, but she's still busy with the warden. He stays where he is, floating in front of Seymour's cell. Seymour rolls his eyes, drifting away towards his bunk.

"WordGirl's right," says the Narrator. "Sharing your foster parents' credit card number can land you in major trouble. I advise against it."

"Hm. Okay."

[Cnt'd on FFN / AO3 - Links at top]

[midnightwind]

thinking about dnd vampire lore because of course I am and I am Losing My Mind over how normal food works for them

like they drink wine so they can clearly process some foods (or I guess consider wine Worth It for whatever fall out it may cause) and pretty boy mentions liking steak as rare as can be so it sounds like raw meats work well enough too

if they eat a normal meal, does it just sit in their stomach and slowly rot if they don't puke it back up later? like not being able to eat anything a normal human can would make hiding the whole vampire thing way harder, so from a narrative point it feels more fun and fulfilling to either make them have to get rid of it later or just be sick once their body finishes trying and failing to digest it

AND ANOTHER THING not having a heartbeat or breathing also makes covering up the undead thing super hard so like, they gotta have something in place there right, I know fake breathing is probably easy enough to pull off but

I personally like subscribing to the whole "a well fed vampire has a very, very faint heartbeat and warmth to them" and that they all do actually need to breathe to talk because otherwise how would the vocal cords work, but they can stop breathing otherwise especially if they just straight forget to outside of conversing

but also like little vestiges of being mortal linger so maybe they still get out of breath from running or laughing because their body remembers even if it doesn't need it, maybe because they've spent so long back with the living they're reclaiming the little useless pieces that scream they're alive still, even in these small ways

and also what about rest? maybe they don't need to at all unless they're constantly over exerting themselves and/or getting hurt, but like imagine your buddy who seems a little sickly laying down to sleep and just not breathing and there's no heartbeat, homie is a corpse, but they wake up when you nudge them and get annoyed you're bothering them but then right back to corpse land, how do you deal with that lmao

[bestbonnist]

Chapter 166.2

The doll is laying back in a chair like the nameless boy during its first appearance.

The person with the blindfold also first appears in a chair. The all-white lighting of this scene and the way they struggle forward are also reminiscent of when Fushi first used the nameless boy's body and struggled to move in it.

And then the poses in these panels also mirror each other. Just a guess, but this person is probably the reason the doll is so determined to become human, just like the nameless boy was for Fushi.

I'm never going to shut up about how Fushi spent the last two arcs feeling like they weren't allowed to be happy unless they were constantly helping others and now no one can be happy unless the people around them decide that they've helped enough to earn a good rating. Everything is so much worse now. With all my love to Mizuha and Yuuki, they fucked up big time.

I really like that we're looking at what lies outside of the star system along with the people inside it. The star system is presented like it's fair because it gives everyone an even chance. You don't get human rights unless you have stars, and how much of a human you are is dictated by how many stars you have, nothing else. Every human gets an equal opportunity to earn stars once they turn eight. But then characters like the doll and Kanitarou don't have a hope in high heaven of being human, because they were never part of the system.

Just spinning my gears here, this is all hypothetical but if human beings are being mass produced and tailored to each customer's specifications like we saw in Chapter 166.1, then they're no more "real" than Kanitarou and the doll are. Toys are made up of wires, not flesh and blood, but human society only functions with the chips inside each person's body. Both rely on technology to live. People can even end up looking less and less human as well, if they get a low rating. They might eventually end up looking like a toy, given that the ramen store owner and others assumed the doll was just a person who had one star. The qualifications for being human are very specific and very arbitrary, aren't they.

On a side tangent, it struck me that the powers ordinary humans possess are more like the Beholder's than like Fushi's. The ability to make things that weren't already preexisting, the ability to give vessels life, the ability to replicate tiny details like grains of sand and such, even the ability to stretch lifespans indefinitely. Together, humans and knockers have reached a new height where anything is possible, and it's terrible. It's true that if Fushi had taken on the Beholder's abilities, they might have been able to present this from happening, but it's because they were unwilling to exert control over others like Kaibara Cybernetics does that they decided not to. You can't be a good person while holding onto that kind of power. For Fushi, they wouldn't have been able to be a person at all.

Which begs the question, what kind of state are the five star people working at Kaibara Cybernetics in? Just food for thought.

Kanitarou and the doll have the start of an interesting character dynamic. Kanitarou is polite and logical where the doll is brutish and intuitive, but by the end of the chapter it's apparent that he's just as hard-headed as it is. I think it's interesting that he insists becoming human is a pipe dream but despite that, still has a strong sense of justice for toys and wants them all to be treated well. A little sad how he basically repeats what the boy who was torturing him said, that he and the doll are just programs. It's not any less hurtful if he says it nicely.

Overall, he seems very kind, and his attentiveness to the doll seems to bring out her kindness as well. They're goofy, I hope they become friends and stick together.

[sigridstumb]

My autism journey: Physical sensations are unreliable narrators

So I've been working with a therapist on my alexithymia. I asked her where the key is for this map. Other people seem to be able to detect when they are having a feeling and can also identify it. I asked, how can they tell that they are having a feeling? She said that frequently there are physical signs in one's body.

Great! What are they, and which symptom correlates to which emotion?

WHERE IS THE KEY FOR THIS MAP.

Apparently there really isn't one. She sent me a link to the Emotion-Sensation Wheel, which is mildly useful. Mostly in my objecting that when I have X physical sensation is has nothing to do with whatever emotion-word she correlated. This is useful in two ways. First, it let me know that I do have some sort of internal definition of some feelings, that I know that "restless" does not mean I am feeling "anger." Second, every time I thought, "no, that's not what that means," I then pondered what it might mean instead.

Here's the thing. Bodily sensations are a SHITTY guide to ANYTHING, because they all indicate more than one thing. Hands-shaking could mean anxiety, or rage, or an essential or intention tremor, or lack of food, or fever and chills, or over-exertion, or a dozen other things. Bodies communicate shit all the time, and most of it is worth ignoring. Yes, Meatsack, I know your shins hurt, they've been hurting for two days, I have stretched and done massage, now shut the fuck up. Yes, Meatsack, I know your digestion is disordered, it has been for years, you don't have a gallbladder anymore, shut up.

I do not listen to my body except under certain specific conditions.

New pain requires that I examine it, assess it, determine a cause (if possible,) and decide what the best mitigation is (if possible.) New pain that either prevents my daily function or does not go away after two weeks indicates that consultation with a medical professional is required. For instance, when I caught my finger in a blender it was a new pain, the cause was evident, it interfered with my daily function, I knew it would not resolve on its own in a manner I desired, so I went to urgent care. Another example, when my (already permanently damaged) foot had very sharp stabbing pain that was new, I waited two weeks to see if it would go away, and when it did not, I got an x-ray.

If I am very irritated with everyone, I eat a food. When I have a headache that will not go away, I eat a food and drink some water. When I cannot focus my eyes properly, I go to sleep. Like I said, I have a rule-set for when bodily signals require action on my part.

The notion that random fluctuations in signals from this mildly-electrified container of moist clinging conglomerate adhered to a living frame might indicate important changes in my mental-relational state offends me. It offends me. I mean, a human body is like a mobile coral reef. Does a coral reef feel grief? Joy? I mean, maybe, I don't know, but my point is, people just correlate shit. What a fucked-up system. Who fucking designed this bullshit?

Anyway, I refuse to participate in this buffoonery. Unless and until someone can show me a reliable correlation between the manifestations of endocrine system fluctuations and specific, SPECIFIC, emotional states, I opt out. None of this tea-leaf-reading "oooooh, your skin is flushed, you must be angry!" bullshit, when flushing is merely a rush of blood to the surface of one's skin and can result from temperature, exertion, a number of medical conditions, not to mention any number of emotions such as shame, arousal, excitement, grief, etc.

It is rank buffoonery.

If any of you have an actual, functional, reliable key to this whole "physical sensations indicate emotions" theory, let me know.

Until then, I opt out.

[sapphire-weapon]

jeez, about your situation with toxic fans, are they mostly aeons? or are they just a mix of other fans?

no it's a hodgepodge of people.

aeons are a staple, sure, but there's a lot of things at play here.

i got dragged into a beef against my will with another blogger and their fans, so that was a thing for a while.

the primacy effect paired with availability cascade is a huge contributor to people lashing out against me, since i speak out against information on the wiki, and the wiki is how most people learn things about the series, (along with aeons dominating the discourse for so, so, so long), who then in turn pass that knowledge onto other people, and then things just become accepted as common knowledge, etc etc.

so basically: people are more likely to believe that the first thing that they've heard about a subject is true and that any information that comes in later to correct that first thing is wrong. and this gets exacerbated when it seems like everyone around them also holds to that initial thing that they were first told.

so when i come in with corrective information, people lash out at me, because they don't like to be made out to feel stupid or like they got duped or bought into bad info.

angry weebs get fucking pissed at me when i say that nothing that exists outside of the games or CGI movies is canon, because they want to exert some sort of control over the fandom and gatekeep the fuck out of people.

people also don't like that i refuse to take a "death of the author" approach to my analysis and don't accept everyone's interpretation or headcanons as valid readings of the text. because people don't know what "death of the author" means. because they're not being taught that in school anymore. modern fandom has grown up with a very weird mindset that says that anything you want can be canon unless the canon very explicitly black and white spells out that xyz thing definitely without ambiguity is not canon. that's not true. and i won't validate that. so people get upset, because they start to feel excluded or talked down to. they get really offended when i say things like "capcom's not talking to you" because they don't fall in the "western cishet men age 18-35" demographic that capcom's targeting with RE, as though i'm trying to insult them and not just stating an unfortunate fact of reality and business.

the most common complaint lobbed my way is that i think i'm always right. i don't. i've said repeatedly that in order to be a meta analyst, you have to be okay with being wrong. i'm wrong all the time.

but i don't wring my hands and go "THIS IS JUST MY OPINION" and put "i think" "i think" "i believe" in front of every fucking thing i say, and people don't understand what a thesis statement is. they think i'm trying to dictate canon to them when i analyze things. they don't understand how to read or write analysis or persuasive speech.

i speak with certainty when i build arguments because that's how i was taught to write and build arguments over the course of many years in school, and people end up under the impression that i think that what i'm saying is irrefutable. it's not. but no one ever bothers to refute me. they just jump straight to being asshurt and trying to harass me into shutting up.

i get attacked by people who are terrified of upsetting the applecart or rocking the boat. eagleone fandom infamously turned on me in a huge way because i didn't fall into lockstep with the most popular fanartists in the ship, and because i was trying to upset the "aeon is canon and you can't do anything about it and it is endgame and if you think otherwise you're wrong and delusional and shut the fuck up YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO TAKE IT INTO CONSIDERATION WHEN YOU LOOK AT ANYTHING" status quo, and they were afraid that i'd put a negative spotlight on them by association.

i get attacked by people who can't understand that this is a personal blog and i'm not creating content for them. i create content for myself and for people who share my interests and sense of humor. i do it for the truck nuts people. the "here lies steve. he never scored." people. i'm not trying to be universally relatable or market myself for mass consumption. i'm not trying to be inoffensive and welcoming. i'm trying to have fun. and people get fucking pissed when they like my literary arguments but not my personality, so their asses explode shit all over my inbox demanding me to change my personality to be more palatable for them. i won't.

people get offended when i quote this xeno clip because they think i mean it sincerely. they don't get that it's a joke. they don't understand hyperbole. somehow, people don't understand that, in terms of being a "content creator" (whatever the fuck that means in the context of tumblr) i am not markiplier. i am not trying to be markiplier. i'm not here to be wholesome and relatable. i am xenosys vex. that's why i keep linking to xeno videos. ffs my toxic american running gag meme is ripped right from him. don't ever question me!!!

so no. it's not just aeons. people from all over this fandom come here and shit their asses at me.

because people think that me expressing myself in my own personal space and not bothering anyone else is exactly equivalent to them going to someone else's account and direct messaging them harassment -- that they're just doing to me what i do to them.

and they're not.

they're just dicks.

[lonely-soul-02]

Hello, I like reading your thoughts! In your most recent ask you made an interesting point about Debbie. I have to say I've been wondering to myself if Debbie and Noel would get on because I think Noel used to be quite possessive of Liam and hated it when someone tried to challenge his role in Liam's life. And now Liam has someone who is not only his girlfriend but also his co-manager. If the brothers would make up and also reunite Oasis now, I wouldn't be surprised if Noel and Debbie would fight over Liam. Back in the day I think Noel would have really hated it if one of Liam's girlfriends/wives would have tried to meddle with Oasis. But then again they've all mellowed by now, so maybe it would work out better or maybe Debbie would know not to get in between Liam and Noel. Anyway, I just hope the brothers find their way back to each other very soon. It's so heartbreaking that they're apart for so long

Hi! I know I'm mostly rambling into the void, but this place provides an outlet for me so...thanks for reading!

Yeah, good question about how Debbie would fit in with a reconciled Liam and Noel. I guess, whilst Noel could be possessive of Liam in Oasis days (and Liam could be possessive of Noel) I don’t think their relationship dynamic would be quite the same today. I'm guessing it'd take them a while before they felt comfortable 'hanging out' again.

Also, now that they’re both that much older and with more life experience under their belts - kids, blended families, divorces, health issues - I suspect Noel would be grateful for Debbie being in Liam’s life to keep him on the right track. It’d be a demanding job and I can’t see Noel wanting to exert that much energy these days (Debbie once affectionately compared Liam to a toddler who needs routine and to be kept constantly occupied!).

I know there are some Liam stans out there who don’t like Debbie much and think she’s too controlling but ‘big personality’ rock stars like Liam sometimes need strong, assertive women in their lives for their own well being, otherwise they go off the rails. See: John and Yoko.

Would Noel get along with Debbie?  No idea. It’d depend on if they have anything in common besides Liam.  If anything, Debbie may be wary of Noel. Looking at it from her perspective, she might fear that Noel would hurt Liam and become very protective of him, as we know she can be, and that might be an obstacle. This is one of the reasons I think Debbie and the rest of that camp aren’t actively encouraging reconciliation. It's why I feel Noel and Liam need help from a mutual friend who loves them both.

As for Debbie getting involved in Oasis matters, I can’t see that happening at all and unless she had a successful track record managing a range of other artists, any involvement on her part would surely be a bad business move. I imagine she'd stick to managing Liam and stay away from Oasis.  If there is an Oasis reunion, they'd likely draw up fairly strict terms and conditions to ensure no conflicts of interest and avoid any expensive falling out between the brothers, similar to how Guns N’ Roses have very successfully managed their reunion - 7 years now and still going. Prior to that, Axl and Slash didn't speak for 20 years! There is hope for Liam and Noel!

[apexulansis]

What's some inconveniences of living with your muse?

First thing's first here's some that covers all of them, ESPECIALLY Yeskiv lmao

They're big and usually weigh a lot more than other aliens. That with their natural strength means they're just pretty incompatible in many different areas when it comes to alien architecture, objects, etc etc. Anything built for them needs to be built better so it doesn't break. It's not cost effective living with a Kariian.

White fur everywhere. They don't shed overly much outside of certain times, but during those times, it is relentless.

ARDAKA

He likes to collect things. This only extends into a few things, like alien masks or swords, but he does build a bit of a hoard. He doesn't want to get rid of them.

Cannot stay in one area for too long (if he isn't unconscious). Will get very restless and need to move or do some kind of physical activity, mostly preferring running / chasing something. Usually he will just leave to get out that energy and not bother whoever he might be living with, but if that isn't an option.... He gets stir-crazy. The only time he can be lazy is after exerting those bursts of activity.

Somehow, he's very quiet. That paired with his tendency to use scent nullifiers and his literal invisibility cloak, he sneaks up on people frequently. He doesn't mean to do it, but it's still probably incredibly startling because he's huge with glowing red eyes. Better hope you get used to that.

He'll store blood in your fridge sometimes.

It really depends on where the place is, as he doesn't do this in cities obviously, but if you live close by to the wilderness, he will bring animal corpses home. Big ones. Frequently.

He can be very nosy. If he's comfortable with you, he's very curiosity driven. He likes asking questions a lot.

If you're in a space that was his, then it's undoubtedly fucking booby-trapped. Like a very advanced Home Alone. He has to adjust it for guests. This tendency has saved his ass before on a handful of occasions.

ZOVARIY

Doesn't care at all what time it is at any given point. They're so used to living in space, and regulating their sleeping schedule on a timeline that has nothing to do with any suns or time of day. Mostly it is absolutely incompatible with others. When they're on the Head-Hunter, they don't care about being quiet for the sake of sleeping guests. It's their space, so you can adjust to their schedule. Simple as that.

They are menacing as fuck and you're probably constantly going to be wondering if they're thinking of murdering you because they are. Even if they don't intend on doing it, they're still thinking about how they'd do it.

Likes keeping trophies. Gruesome ones. Blood, bones, eyeballs, teeth. They like keeping them and preserving them in some regard. Yes, it looks very macabre, and makes the space around them start to resemble a taxidermist's den.

The Head-Hunter has mechs, sentries, droids all over the place. Most of them are inactive, looking more like empty suits of armor, but they definitely give the feeling that you're being watched by them. You are.

They're not social. At all. They're very, very solitary, and they don't like sharing what they consider to be personal. They'll provide enough for their guests, but they'll be curt about some things simply being off limits. When they've decided that, there really isn't any changing their mind.

YESKIV

Like Zovariy, she believes you adjust to her time. Thankfully her living quarters are so vast, and Yeskiv herself so quiet and reclusive, that it isn't really a problem.

Have you SEEN how big she is. For the sake of everyone involved, it's best if you live with her and not the other way around, unless you also happen to be around 20 feet tall.

That said, Yeskiv hates being constrained. What she considers to be her home or home-base, it's always going to be a large swath of territory, because she simply will not tolerate a too-small den.

She can be cuddly. If she feels like grabbing you and using you as a pillow to spoon in her sleep, unless you can overpower her in strength you will just not have a choice about it. She's very fluffy and warm though!

When she's not quiet, if she's not purposefully speaking softly, she's LOUD. If Yeskiv growls, you'll hear it from three rooms away. If you're in the same room, you'll feel that growl vibrate through your whole body. She has a very dominating presence.

Generally no compatibility with you using what's hers, and her using what's yours if you're under 15 feet.

When she's well and properly asleep, you're on your fuckin own. She HATES having her beauty-hibernation interrupted.

[caestusvulpes]

I've gone over hikari's oversensitivity to temperature and how she can't sweat or regulate herself in the cold, but I haven't gotten into how she handles pain.

As a vampire, Hikari had a very limited response to pain. This lines up with other JoJo vampires ( and in Bruford's case, a zombie ), unable to truly feel pain unless they've been afflicted with hamon. Upon becoming human, however, she was hit with a lot of things at once including the entirety of her nerve pain in her arm that was non-existent when she was a vampire, general aches that come with being in your early twenties, headaches from emotional stress, ect. It was a very agonizing day or two, and her neurotmesis would be better or worse depending on the day and how much she exerted her limb.

straizo taught her how to use hamon to numb herself, and she used that as a form of main management to keep her normally stiff arm more limber. This would be her warmup routine during training, and she would continue this course of action pretty much a few times a day as a form of physical therapy.

i've already gone thru her sadomasochist tendencies in a fight tho but i might make another post abt it later.

[goodhorse413]

A lot of people care a lot about politics, a lot of important things hinge on how political problems are solved, and intelligent people disagree with each other on politics. This seems to merit an explanation. Why doesn't everybody agree? I see three explanations thrown around, or more commonly, visible as implicit assumptions behind political statements or arguments.

The first and most prevalent is Idiot Theory. Idiot Theory states that political disagreement exists because everybody is an Idiot except for me. I hold my political beliefs because they are obvious, and everyone else holds theirs because they are Idiots. Sometimes a more intelligent Idiot Theorist will come up with a clever reason why their opponents are prone to Idiocy. They have been taken over by a mindvirus or self-reinforcing memeplex, or they were born with Idiot genetics, or are part of an Idiot culture, or they've been brainwashed into Idiocy by a malevolent force (thus making them Useful Idiots). It's easy to believe in Idiot Theory because there is a lot of evidence for it. Idiocy is very common in politics. It cannot be argued otherwise. I won't deny that Idiot Theory can indeed explain a lot of political disagreement, maybe even the majority, but I still think it's an insufficient explanation, as even very smart people disagree on politics. Also, if you believe that Idiot Theory is the sole and sufficient explanation for political disagreement, you should assume that, because even the least Idiotic people have failed to overcome Idiocy, there's no way you can do it either. Politics must be so complicated and difficult to understand that discovering the correct take is impossible.

The second I will call Values Theory, or you could call it Idealist Conflict Theory. Different individuals have different Values. Just like some people prefer purple and some people prefer yellow, some people prefer equality and some people prefer community. Thus, disagreement exists not because anyone is necessarily stupid, but because they have fundamentally different goals, and so come into conflict with each other. This explains why ideology seems to correlate with geography and culture so much, and why ideological differences persist after rational reflection. It paints kind of a grim view of politics, since unlike Idiot Theory, which offers the Theorist the fantasy that one day the truth will be revealed and be victorious, there's really no reason to believe that your Values are going to triumph over others, unless you have Values that are highly appealing to the strongest and most influential groups in society. Which brings me to theory three.

Interest theory, or you can call it Materialist Conflict Theory. Society is composed of various individuals with their own material Interests. These individuals form groups of people with common Interests. Labor unions, trade associations, political parties, lobbying groups. Politics is a vehicle for different groups to exert power over society by cooperating with each other. If there's a proposal to raise the minimum wage, workers will support it and businesses will oppose it. This is because one group stands to gain and the other stands to lose. There is no irrationality among any participant. They know what is going to happen, and they have differing opinions on whether it's going to be good or bad, because they're looking out for their own group. This need not necessarily be because of selfishness. A wealthy businessman sees firsthand what happens to businesses when the government passes minimum wages, regulations, and high taxes. The whole world they live in seems to break apart at the seams and everything gets worse for no reason. Meanwhile a union worker sees the same policies make everything around him better, and improve the lives of the people they care about dramatically. From each person's perspective, you'd have to be an Idiot to disagree about the merits of these policies, and they could easily support them on altruistic grounds, sacrificing their own money or time for the fellow members of the Interest group. In fact, you would expect that Interest groups with particularly cooperative, loyal, and altruistic members will achieve the most success.

What Marx would say is that material Interests come first, and the Values and Idiocy springs up to justify it. I think there's a lot of accuracy to that, but it's an incomplete explanation. Frequently Values and Idiocy show up on their own, with no Interest necessary. And sometimes someone's Interests flow from their Values, rather than the other way around. What someone considers to be in their best Interest may depend on what they Value.

In any case, I think it's common to see people overstate the explanatory power of Idiot Theory, and political discourse will be moderately less confusing and anger-inducing if one understands the importance of conflict.

[gemshroud]

"Theoretically... If you transformed one of our company into a sheep, do you think it would hinder the tadpole's control over them?" Entreri asked. "Possibly even free them from the worm's influence?" He was seriously considering how they might profit from the possibility... But of course if they were going to be doing any experiments here, he absolutely would not be the one volunteering to become a sheep. Maybe they could polymorph Gale. Surely they didn't need two mages.

"The question of sentience does interest me, though. For all that they're presumably baby mindflayers, they've been exerting rather minimal influence over us. Unless yours has been chatting to you?"

It occured to him now that, for all they knew, they could each be having a unique experience with their specific worm partner.

"At the very least, if it's possible to piss them off, I want to. Which makes the sheep idea all the more alluring."

She didn't know if he was annoyed or not that she was glad to feel a little terrifying, but she shrugged gently. "Most people think I'm weak. If they came upon me in the forest, tending to plants or an injured animal, most wouldn't assume I could best them. To be thought of, as even a little intimidating? It's refreshing."

Eve did wonder though, what exactly his skill set was. He was clearly strong, and he was skilled with weapons, but she wondered if the true extent of what he could do wouldn't be revealed to her unless she forced it and she didn't want that. She had had plenty of close combat situations in the forest that she had wanted to leave behind her. Adapting to fighting from afar had suited her just fine...and she didn't want to hurt someone she considered an ally.

"Hmm?" she managed, but she smiled a little at the question posed before her. "I would expect, actually, that they would hate it." Being a sheep meant not being able to have access to their magic, right? Being a sheep was nowhere near as fun as being a walking and breathing being with magic or prowess. "At the same time, how sentient do we think these things are?"

More importantly: should they be more worried?