#unregulated resource use

[weirdstrangeandawful]

Me: *trying to be calm*

Every Tesla in a 10km radius: oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo… eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee [that’s the sound when in drive. The oo is reverse]

[fandomtrumpshate]

Our Stance On Gen-AI

This year, for the first time, we've had a couple of reports from bidders that the FTH fanworks they received were produced using generative AI. For that reason, we've decided that it's important that we lay out a specific, concrete policy going forward.

Generative AI tools are not welcome here.

Non-exhaustive list of examples:

image generators like Imagen, Midjourney, and similar

video generators like Sora, Runway, and similar

LLMs like ChatGPT and similar

audio generators like ElevenLabs, MusicLM, and similar

Participants found to have used generative AI to produce a fanwork, in part or in whole, for their bidder(s) will be permanently banned from participating in future iterations of Fandom Trumps Hate.

Why?

We understand that there can be contentious debate around the use of generative AI, we know individual people have their own reasons for being in favor of it, and we recognize that many people may simply be unaware that these tools come with any negative impacts at all. Regardless, we are firm in our stance on this for the following (non-exhaustive) list of key reasons in no particular order:

negative, unregulated environmental impact

Over the years, you may have noticed that we’ve supported multiple environmental organizations doing important work to combat climate change, preserve wildlife, and advocate for renewable and sustainable energy policy changes. Generative AI tools produce a startling amount of e-waste, can require massive amounts of storage space and computational power, and are a (currently unregulated) drain on natural resources. Using these tools to produce a fanwork flies in the face of every environmental organization we have supported to date.

plagiarism and lack of artistic integrity

Most if not all generative AI models are trained on some amount of stolen work (across various mediums). As a result, any output generated by these models is at worst plagiarized and at best extremely derivative and unoriginal. In our opinion, using generative AI tools to produce a fanwork demonstrates a lack of care for your own craft, a lack of respect for the work of other creators, and a lack of respect for your bidder and your commitment to them.

undermining our community building impact

One of the best things to come out of the auction every year—we can't even call it a side benefit, because it's so central to us—is that bidders and creators form collaborative relationships which sometimes even turn into friendship. Using generative AI undermines that trust and collaboration.

undermining the value of participating as a creator

Bidders participate in Fandom Trumps Hate for the opportunity to prompt YOU to create a fanwork for them, in YOUR style with YOUR specific skill set. Any potential bidder is perfectly capable of dropping a prompt into a generative AI tool on their own time, if they wish. We hope all creators sign up with the aim to play a role more significant than “unnecessary middleman.”

In general, we try to be as flexible as we can in our policies to allow for the best experience possible for all Fandom Trumps Hate participants. This, however, is something we are not willing to be flexible on. We realize this may seem unusually rigid, but we ask that you trust we have given this serious consideration and respect that while we are willing to answer clarifying questions, we are not open to debate on this topic.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Ron Deibert’s “Chasing Shadows”

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

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/04/citizen-lab/#nso-group

Since 2001, Ron Deibert has led Citizen Lab, the world's foremost "counterintelligence group for civil society," where they defend human rights activists, journalists and dissidents from the digital weapons deployed by the world's worst autocrats and thugs:

https://citizenlab.ca/

Citizen Lab's work is nothing short of breathtaking. For decades, this tiny, barely resourced group at a Canadian university has gone toe to toe with the world's most powerful cyber arms dealers – and won.

Today, Simon and Schuster publishes Chasing Shadows, Deibert's pulse-pounding, sphinter-tightening true memoir of his battles with the highly secretive industry whose billionaire owners provide mercenary spyware that's used by torturers, murderers and criminals to terrorize their victims:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Chasing-Shadows/Ronald-J-Deibert/9781668014042

Mercenary spyware companies are based all over the world, but the global leader in providing these tools is Israel, where the signals intelligence Unit 8200 serves as a breeding ground for startup founders who grow wealthy serving dictators around the world, thanks in part to Israel's lax export standards for cyberweapons.

Most notorious of these companies is the NSO Group, whose Pegasus malware has been deployed by corrupt, narco-affiliated Mexican politicians, murderous Saudi royals, and dictators in Central Asia, Latinamerica, and all around the world.

The NSO Group's founders told their customers that they were invisible, as ethereal as shadows, so their products could be deployed without fear of detection or consequence. At the same time, NSO ran a disinformation campaign for the broader public, insisting that they have the highest ethical standards and closely monitor their products' use to ensure that it is only deployed against terrorists and serious criminals. This latter strategy is backstopped by harassment and intimidation of journalists who investigate this narrative – I have personally been threatened by lawyers retained by the NSO Group.

Diebert and Citizen Lab disprove both of NSO's narratives. Their technical staff developed incredibly clever, subtle methods to detect malware infections all around the world and identify who had been targeted by NSO's products (they were greatly aided in this by farcical blunders in NSO's products).

In so doing, Citizen Lab not only showed that customers for mercenary spyware will someday be discovered – they also thoroughly disproved the company's narrative about its squeaky-clean image and high morals.

Much of Deibert's book is a true-life technothriller recounting the technology, the politics, and the human cost of a largely unregulated industry whose protectors are among the most powerful people in the world.

This book contains many never-revealed revelations from Deibert's distinguished career, like notes from a meeting where Stephen Harper's top spooks and Privy Council officials threatened and intimidated Deibert over Citizen Lab's reports on Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's use of spyware on Canadian residents.

Deibert also reveals some juicy bits of less consequence, like the fact that it was he who tipped off the BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones that Research In Motion was helping Middle Eastern autocracies and India's far right government spy on dissidents' Blackberry devices, just minutes before RIM co-founder Mike Lazardis was to sit for a televised interview with Cellan-Jones for the BBC's Click. When Cellan-Jones asked Lazaridis about the matter, Lazaridis at first denied it, then demanded that the camera be turned off before halting the interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6iGe7vuGeQ

But the majority of Deibert's book is a string of horrifying stories of dissidents, activists, journalists, opposition politicians and the people around them having their lives peeled open by companies like NSO Group and their competitors. They run the gamut from multiple, successive presidents of Catalonia to the US-based children of activists agitating for limits to sugary drinks in Mexico.

On the way, Deibert is hounded by all kinds of dirty-tricksters, like the bumbling ex-Mossad spook that Black Cube – whom Harvey Weinstein hired to harass his victims – hired to discredit the organization:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/world/black-cube-nso-citizen-lab-intelligence.html

He's also chased by troll armies working on behalf of South American despots, the corrupt Modi government of India, and middle eastern autocrats in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. While most of these trolls are anonymous jerks, a few high-profile serial online harassers-for-hire are singled out by name, their deeds publicly connected for the first time.

Deibert shows the human impact of mercenary spyware: the connection between these companies' products and intimidation, arbitrary detention, punitive rape, torture, and murder – for example, he painstaking lays out the role that the NSO Group's products played in the murder and dismemberment of the US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

This is a dirty business, but it's also a lucrative one. Citizen Lab goes eyeball-to-eyeball and toe-to-toe with farcically wealthy, well-resourced attackers, who've waxed fat by abetting corruption and sadistic greed.

But this isn't mere rage-bait. Deibert's story is an inspiration, both in how it shows how principled, decent, hardworking people can make a difference – Citizen Lab researchers repeatedly discover and burn the vulnerabilities exploited by mercenary spyware, a process Deibert likens to disarming them – but also in the bravery and resilience of the subjects who trust Citizen Lab to analyze their devices, risking everything to come forward and tell their stories.

Citizen Lab is enmeshed in a global, digital community of human rights defenders – a community that wouldn't exist without the internet. Deibert's life's work is to create an internet that is fit for human thriving – and to wrestle control of technology away from the monsters who project their greed and sadism around the world through our devices.

[eelerschoice]

Eeler's Choice S2 Crowdfund and TTRPG!

Hello Eel Enthusiasts. I have two announcements for you.

1, Lou and I have been working with Gabriel Robinson (who you may know from The Silt Verses RPG and Trophy, to create a brand new TTRPG set in the Eeler's Choice Universe.

The Eeler’s Choice RPG is a game of maritime folk horror and ecological threats, where hardworking folk build their lives along the coast, and the ocean never gives back what it takes… unchanged.

In this game, a group of residents of the coastal town of Eskmouth are serving their year of community service in the Watch, as all folk of Eskmouth do. Each comes from a different background, bringing their unique skills to respond to situations which threaten the livelihood of the town’s residents.

The Watch go about their lives in Eskmouth, tackling local problems and aiding the community as best as they can by pooling their resources and skills. But something else threatens the city and way of life as most folk know it – a creeping tide of sickness, pollution and strange aquatic mutations. The Watch will soon realize this is caused by the sinister forces of unregulated industry, and must ultimately confront the corrupt organization responsible, all the while maintaining the lives they’ve built in Eskmouth.

Gabriel and I sat down to discuss Game design as well as the Eeler's TTRPG in an interview you can find here

"This all sounds fantastic. How can I play this game?" I hear you cry.

Well, the full game is still some time away from release. But there is one way you can get access to an early access playtest version.

By donating to our crowdfund! If we reach our first stretch goal of $10,000, all backers will receive an early access copy of the game, as well as the opportunity to provide feedback that may be incorporated into the final game when it is released.

That brings us to point number 2,

2. The Eeler's Choice Season 2 Crowdfund!

Our prelaunch page is live now. You can sign up to be notified when we launch on May 1, 2025.

We have all kinds of great perks in store, including exclusive merch items, workshops, signed and annotated scripts, and more. If you loved season 1 and can't wait to see us delve even deeper into the waters of Eskmouth, you won't want to miss this.

Season 2 will have new characters, new locations, and new mysteries. We cannot wait to bring it to you, but we need your help to make it possible. So if you can spare a dollar or ten, that gets us that much closer to being able to pay our cast and crew the fair rate they deserve.

If you can't donate at this time, that's okay! You can help us by sharing this crowdfund with your friends and family. Eeler's is an indie project without an advertising budget. We can only spread through word of mouth. Every share makes a difference.

Thank you!

Daisy

[13en-i]

(06/16/2025)

Vera posting! I fear the last time I spoke about her textually came off as negative? "Manipulative" is the word I used to describe her, which, not sure. But I think a more fitting word would be "Persuasive"? "Confrontational"? "Assertive"?

Hmmm. Anyhow, I linked a whole ton of Vera hc's and lore below. Reblogs are appreciated! :]

She lives with her mom (working nurse) and her maternal grandma

She and Damien are childhood best friends! Their moms are friends too

She works at a Guyanese bakery early before or late after school, perpetually smells like pastries

She also helps a lot with the advertising/marketing of said bakery, it's one of those small cozy family friend owned places

Misses a lot of extracurriculars + hangouts between work, homework, taking care of her grandma, and burnout

She never misses Multi-cultural night at their school though. Trust she carries her booth every time, mind there's barely visits except Curtis (who's already working on his booth) and Damien (who's usually busy with Track & Field that time of year, but tries to stop by)

She stress-bakes entire batches of pine tarts. Doesn't really know what to do with them after

Has seasonal allergies. Pollen allergies. She loves the aesthetic of spring but hates acc stepping out

Her comfort movie is Penguins of Madagascar. Her pfp on almost every social is a terribly cropped Skipper meme

And some more introspective HCs!

She has to make all the decisions because she needs to. Her mom works long hours and is dazed/withdrawn when she's off duty, her grandma's memory is deteriorating and she needs extra care, and Damien and Curtis are both too conflict-adverse and indecisive. Somebody has to take the lead.

Was desensitized to pain/violence because of unregulated internet/TV. She'd soak up those late night Trash TV shows that profited off that sort of stuff

(That's how she found out about Total Drama!)

She was a true crime girl. Something about just wanting to be safe and in control and doing her "due diligence". Even for things that aren't her fault

She still has a very real and very scary fear of death. She has vivid nightmares about death

She sometimes sleeps at Damien's apartment because it's closer to her work than her actual home (+ TTC closures yass)

She's not actually that close to Curtis. They both bond over like, prank videos and Love Island or whatever gimmicky Reality TV thing is trending. But they never even exchanged numbers. lol

She likes flowers, but her allergies make it hard for her to enjoy them

She is literally this song

If she cares so much about the people she loves, Why would she set Damien up for Total Drama?

Well, for starters, it was genuinely a silly dare. Think about it, there are hundreds if not thousands of auditions and Damien's audition was arguably "bad", so she didn't think they would've actually picked him. Even when the news came out and he got accepted, would it not make sense that she thought he could handle himself?

Narrative-wise (in this AU's timeline) it's that point where Vera has been busy with her own stuff but she has a history with Damien, she knows his strengths. She knows that he's charismatic and would easily be a social threat, she knows that he does relay and would be physically fit enough to not cost a challenge, and she knows he's driven, reliable and resourceful. We see the naive and cowardly Damien which I'm sure was still present pre-game, but there's that nuanced side that people closer to him would see that we wouldn't.

Like not letting him know about obvious danger, obviously sucks. I just like sprinkling a bit of nuance bc I dunno. They're all dumb kids and I wanna feel sympathetic towards these two silent BG characters (the gravity of Damien's situation and how it affects him WILL be explored!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

[daymemebeliever]

Hey Fanguins! Want to Help Real Life Penguins? :D

Why Now?

5 out of the 18 penguin species are listed as endangered

That’s approximately 28% that are endangered, not including those under the “vulnerable” or “near threatened” statuses.

These endangered species include:

The Yellow-eyed Penguin

Northern Rockhopper Penguin

Galapagos Penguin

Erect-Crested Penguin

African Penguin

Cute little guys like these African penguins are predicted to go EXTINCT by 2035.

Biggest Threats to Penguins:

Overfishing

Plastic Pollution

Oil Spills

Habitat Disruption

Invasive Species

Climate Change

So… What can We Do?

I know sometimes it seems hopeless when there are major corporations having extensive negative impacts on the environment.

But there are small, everyday changes you may be able to make to contribute for the better (at least a little).

Small actions can add up over time.

Shop Consciously

Overfishing and unregulated fishing are big contributors to penguin populations decreasing.

Less available prey means penguins have to spend longer time at sea to feed their chicks and themselves. This could force them to abandon their chicks, reach the point of exhaustion and pass away as a result, or return to emaciated chicks.

Seafood Watch is a wonderful resource to ensure the seafood you’re buying has been caught sustainably. https://www.seafoodwatch.org/recommendations/download-consumer-guides

Swap for More Sustainable Options

Aside from seafood, you might be able to make many swaps to reusable products.

Reusable grocery bags/tote bags can actually make transporting groceries easier while reducing plastic usage.

If you have access to clean water, a water filter pitcher or a reusable water bottle are also great options when available! 😊

Swapping plastic containers for aluminum cans or cartons (these are easier to recycle)

Swap balloons for other party favors (many released balloons end up in our oceans). Penguins and other sea animals can choke on or get tangled in these while swimming.

Conscious Pet Ownership

Choose pets responsibly and never abandon a pet if you can no longer take care of it. This could lead to the rise of invasive species.

Keep pets on a leash when outside even when you do not see local wildlife.

Penguins, especially those whose habits are around human populations, are regularly attacked and lethally injured by unattended dogs or cats. These include feral or stray animals that have become invasive.

Learn More Directly from Non-Profits:

SANCCOB is an internationally renowned rehabilitation center for South African seabirds (including African penguins) leading conservation efforts for this species. https://sanccob.co.za/about-sanccob/

The Yellow-Eyed Penguin Trust is another great non-profit located in New Zealand that tracks behavior and nesting patterns of the Yellow-eyed penguins. They also remove invasive predators to ensure Yellow-eyed penguins have a chance at repopulating to sustainable levels. https://www.yellow-eyedpenguin.org.nz/yellow-eyed-penguin-trust/about-the-trust/

Penguins International is a nonprofit that educates about penguins and penguin conservation efforts. https://www.penguinsinternational.org/about-us/

Any AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums that support conservation efforts

Advocate:

Sign petitions encouraging legislation change that aims to reduce climate change or regulate fishing

Write to/email legislators when penguin species are at risk

Donate (if you can/would like):

Both Penguins International and SANCCOB do symbolic penguin adoptions to support penguin conservation.

On SANCCOB’s website, you can choose an egg, hatchling, rehabilitated penguin, or long-term penguin resident to symbolically adopt/sponsor. You even get to give your adopted penguin a name!

The Yellow-Eyed Penguin Trust also accepts donations of various amounts.

I figured since if you follow this blog, penguins have inspired media and art that means a lot to you or that has at least brightened your day. If you’re as amazed as I am about the real life species, please consider taking steps to help or learn more about real penguins. I figured sharing this information, while trying to make these changes myself, are the least I could do to honor these amazing creatures!

Thank you for reading! 😁

(Lol I’ll get off my soapbox now 😉)

Maybe Tom McGrath can explain it better 😉 (skip to 3:16 to hear him talk about how amazing penguins are! 😊)

[reaper2187]

Caitlyn x Female prisoner reader

Prisoner's help (part 4) pev

The night air was cool against their skin as Y/N and Caitlyn listened intently to their captive's revelations. The well-dressed man, who introduced himself as Elias, spoke quickly, his eyes darting nervously as if expecting danger to materialize out of the shadows.

"The Chem-Baron," Elias began, his voice trembling, "his real name is Viktor. He's a brilliant scientist who turned to crime after Piltover’s elite rejected his radical ideas. He’s been consolidating power in Zaun, leveraging his technological prowess to control the underworld."

Caitlyn frowned, her mind racing. "And his connections in Piltover?"

Elias nodded, wiping sweat from his brow. "Viktor has people inside Piltover's Council. They've been funding his operations in exchange for new technologies and illicit substances. It's all about power and control. They want to dominate both Piltover and Zaun, and they're using Viktor to do it."

Y/N's eyes narrowed. "Who on the Council? Give us names."

Elias hesitated, glancing around nervously. "There’s one in particular. Councilor Salo. He's been the main contact, facilitating the exchange of funds and resources. He’s deeply embedded in Piltover’s political structure, making him almost untouchable."

Caitlyn’s jaw clenched. "We need proof. Something we can take to the authorities, expose this conspiracy."

Elias nodded. "I can help with that. I have access to Viktor’s records. They’re stored in a secure location, a hidden lab beneath an old warehouse in the Industrial District. It’s heavily guarded, but if you can get in, you’ll find everything you need."

Y/N and Caitlyn exchanged a look, a silent agreement passing between them. This was their chance to strike at the heart of the conspiracy, to bring down the Chem-Baron and his allies.

"Alright," Caitlyn said, her voice firm. "You’re coming with us. Show us the way."

Elias nodded, his fear palpable. "Just keep me alive. If Viktor finds out I helped you…"

"He won’t," Y/N said, her voice steely. "But if you betray us, you'll wish he did."

The Industrial District of Zaun was a labyrinth of factories and warehouses, a grim testament to the city’s unregulated industry. As they approached the old warehouse Elias had mentioned, Y/N and Caitlyn could see the telltale signs of security: guards patrolling the perimeter, surveillance cameras scanning the area.

"We need a plan," Caitlyn whispered, her eyes narrowing as she assessed the situation.

Y/N nodded. "We can’t take them head-on. We’ll need to find a way to disable the cameras and create a diversion to draw the guards away from the entrance."

Elias fidgeted nervously. "There’s a maintenance entrance on the east side. Less guarded, but still watched. If we can get in there, we can access the security room and disable the cameras."

Caitlyn smiled, a plan forming in her mind. "Good. Y/N, you and Elias take the maintenance entrance. I’ll create a diversion to draw the guards away. Once inside, disable the cameras and signal me."

Y/N nodded, her determination matching Caitlyn’s. "Let’s do this."

Caitlyn moved off to create the diversion, while Y/N and Elias made their way to the east side of the warehouse. They stuck to the shadows, avoiding the patrols until they reached the maintenance entrance. A single guard stood watch, his back turned to them.

"Stay here," Y/N whispered to Elias. "I’ll take care of him."

She moved silently, her steps as light as a cat’s. In one swift motion, she incapacitated the guard, catching him before he could hit the ground. She waved Elias over, and they slipped inside, making their way through the narrow corridors towards the security room.

The hum of machinery filled the air as they reached the security room. Y/N peered through the door’s small window, seeing a lone technician monitoring the camera feeds. She nodded to Elias, who took a deep breath and followed her lead.

They burst into the room, Y/N swiftly subduing the technician while Elias moved to the control panel. His fingers flew over the keys, disabling the cameras and unlocking the main entrance for Caitlyn.

"Done," Elias said, a bead of sweat trickling down his temple. "Cameras are down. She should be able to get in now."

Y/N nodded, pulling out a small communicator. "Caitlyn, you’re clear."

"On my way," came Caitlyn’s reply, crackling through the device.

Minutes later, Caitlyn joined them in the security room, her expression focused and determined. "Good work. Now, let’s find those records."

Elias led them through a series of winding corridors, descending deeper into the bowels of the warehouse. They reached a heavy, reinforced door, which Elias unlocked with a trembling hand.

Inside, the lab was a stark contrast to the grimy exterior of the warehouse. It was filled with state-of-the-art equipment and shelves lined with files and documents. A terminal sat in the corner, its screen glowing softly.

"This is it," Elias said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Everything Viktor’s been working on, all his transactions and communications, are in this terminal."

Caitlyn moved to the terminal, her fingers dancing over the keyboard as she began to download the data. "We need to move quickly. It won’t be long before they realize something’s wrong."

Y/N nodded, her eyes scanning the room for any signs of danger. "Elias, keep watch at the door. Let us know if anyone’s coming."

Elias nodded, taking up a position by the door. The seconds ticked by, each one feeling like an eternity as Caitlyn worked. Finally, the download was complete, and Caitlyn transferred the data to a secure drive.

"Got it," Caitlyn said, standing up. "Let’s get out of here."

As they turned to leave, a sudden noise made them freeze. Footsteps echoed down the corridor, growing louder with each passing second.

"Elias, what’s happening?" Y/N whispered urgently.

Elias’s face was pale. "They’re coming. We need to move, now!"

They rushed out of the lab, the sound of approaching guards spurring them on. The corridors twisted and turned, a maze designed to confuse intruders. Y/N led the way, her memory of the route guiding them through the labyrinth.

As they neared the exit, they were confronted by a group of armed guards. "Stop right there!" one of the guards shouted, raising his weapon.

Y/N and Caitlyn moved in unison, their training and experience turning them into a well-oiled machine. They disarmed the guards with precision, their movements a blur of speed and efficiency. Within moments, the guards were incapacitated, and the path to the exit was clear.

Bursting out into the night air, they ran towards the nearest safe house, a hidden bolthole known only to Y/N. They slipped inside, barricading the door behind them.

Panting and adrenaline-fueled, they took a moment to catch their breath. Caitlyn plugged the secure drive into a portable terminal, scanning through the data they had retrieved.

"This is it," Caitlyn said, her eyes wide with realization. "Everything we need to expose Viktor and his connections in Piltover. Transactions, communications, even blueprints for new technologies."

Y/N leaned over her shoulder, her eyes scanning the screen. "We need to get this to someone we can trust. Someone who can act on it without tipping off the Council."

Caitlyn nodded. "I know just the person. We need to get back to Piltover and deliver this data to Jayce Talis. He’s a Councilor, but he’s also one of the few who’s not corrupt. He’ll help us."

Y/N’s eyes met Caitlyn’s, a mixture of determination and exhaustion in her gaze. "Alright. But we need to be careful. Viktor and his allies will stop at nothing to protect their secrets."

The journey back to Piltover was fraught with tension. They moved under the cover of darkness, avoiding patrols and keeping to the shadows. Every sound, every movement in the night, set their nerves on edge.

As they approached the city, the towering spires of Piltover loomed above them, a stark reminder of the power and corruption they were up against. They slipped through the gates, making their way to Jayce Talis’s residence.

Jayce’s home was a blend of elegance and practicality, a testament to his dual role as an inventor and Councilor. They knocked on the door, their urgency apparent. Moments later, Jayce himself opened the door, his expression one of surprise and concern.

"Caitlyn, Y/N," Jayce said, ushering them inside. "What’s going on? You look like you’ve been through hell."

Caitlyn wasted no time, handing him the secure drive. "We have proof, Jayce. Proof of a conspiracy involving Viktor, the Chem-Baron, and members of the Council. They’re using him to consolidate power in Zaun and Piltover. We need your help to expose them."

Jayce’s eyes widened as he scanned the data. "This is… this is incredible. If this gets out, it could bring down half the Council."

"That’s the idea," Y/N said, her voice grim. "But we need to act fast. Viktor’s men will come after us, and they won’t stop until we’re dead."

Jayce nodded, his expression resolute. "I’ll take this to the authorities, but we need

to be smart about it. We can’t trust just anyone. I’ll gather a few trusted allies, and we’ll make our move."

As Jayce moved to make the necessary arrangements, Y/N and Caitlyn exchanged a weary glance. They had taken the first step in dismantling the conspiracy, but the road ahead was still fraught with danger.

Y/N reached out, her hand brushing against Caitlyn’s. "We’ll get through this. Together."

Caitlyn squeezed her hand, a small smile playing on her lips. "Together."

[mrghostrat]

How old were you when you started reading fanfics and do you think someone can do to young to read fanfic?

12 or 13 i think! friends at school introduced me to bandom, and i started reading (and writing) my chemical romance, the used, and fall out boy fics on livejournal 😂

i don't think you can be too young, just like a teenager can go and help themselves to adult shelves at the library. but it's important to have someone in your life who you're comfortable talking to about themes that might arise in fics, just like when reading a difficult book. and to remember that fic is uncensored, unregulated content made just for fun, and not an informative resource

[witchofthesouls]

Hey! I saw an earlier post you had about the boys in the grocery store and it got me wondering about how they would react to hunting. I’m a hunter, have been all my life. I hunt deer, boars, ducks, coyotes, turkeys, quails, pheasants, wild Burmese pythons, and I fish locally too (strictly a vermin exterminator and food hunter, I find sports hunting to be distasteful and I strictly use a bow and arrow, no traps or guns as I take issues with those too). I can picture the absolute horror of the TFP or Lost Light bots seeing their/a human skinning and processing an animal that they just hunted for food, they see the modern convinces that are grocery stores so it’s easy to forget where human food actually comes from 😂

Weirdly enough, IDW/MTMTE does have Cybertronian edibles like cesium salami and rust sticks.

But then again, there's a big percentage of the crew members who were produced by the war, so there's a great chance that they didn't get a crash course on things that were deemed "unnecessary," like Cybertronian cuisine and fauna to forage and hunt.

TFP Cybertronians, on the other hand, have Questions.

Get ready to pull up diagrams, manuals, videos, and live demonstrations via YouTube or your own hands because they got the curiosity of two-year-old with the capacity to keep you in their palm for no escape.

Ratchet absolutely hates it. It's too messy and squishy and completely unalike the organized and relatively clean method of converting crystals to fuel. Horrified over the mysteries of hotdogs and how everything can and will kill humans without specific preparations to negate the toxins. Ratchet is boggled over spice challenges and how the hell humanity hadn't died in its infancy over culinary explorations. Someone told him to look up Hákarl.

He takes great displeasure when the kids sass him over Cybertronians eating their own blood. Different. Absolutely different. He clucks over the base kitchen and is not above making things disappear. He argues with June and Agent Fowler over the groceries and fast food bags. Ratchet's crunchy.

Bulkhead actually enjoys fishing. He's more catch and release rather than for keeping and gutting. He likes soaking up the heat of the sun, the sound of running water, birdsong, and insects buzzing, the gear setup and picking out the right lure and bait. It's a different kind of downtime, but it's nice. All he's missing is engex, but he's able to throw a line farther out than anyone else and has the capability to detect motion far greater than an average human. He still wants an engex cube.

Arcee has mixed feelings. She enjoys hunting. Patience, tracking, stealth, and the sense of accomplishment with a clean catch. She likes less the process of handling carcasses, but really hates waste anything that could have been useful. Meat, leather, tools, jewelry, and raw ingredients that could be sold or traded. Arcee just doesn't like sharing something with Airachnid's methods.

Bumblebee's a scout. People expected him to like foraging or the wilds. He prefers domesticated stock. In particular, beekeeping. To him, it represents a more equivalent partnership: he provides accessible resources and safe quarters and the bees yield honey, comb, and wax in return. If the hive don't like him or the area, then they can leave elsewhere.

Optimus is deeply fascinated by how Earth's biodiversity is so immense and how ecosystems are so diverse and complex, yet so fragile. He quietly wishes for Alpha Trion's presence because Optimus is seeing familiar similarities of Cybertronian long gone biomes: wetlands, woodlands, and reefs. The Sea of Rust once was a massive ocean of mineral-laden Energon. It has long since disappeared by the consensus of heavy, unregulated industrialization, but if Earth has the water cycle, ocean currents and belts, and complex system of thermoregulation that replenishes itself, then Cybertron had to have something similar at one point, no?

[sahashbelvanie]

Organizations of Iso — Metal Ruin

Many of Iso’s organizations trace their origins to the ancient past, during the Age of Metal Ruin, when mankind was nearly lost. The world was poisoned, rotted—and so humanity sought to mend the damage wrought through their neglect and careless industriousness. Some organizations were lost to history, either buried or subsumed by redundancy. The following are Iso’s most predominant:

 Fied: Fied is an organization that utilizes technology to cultivate livable conditions by developing environmentally safe methods of energy production, combat, and assistive devices. Their goal is to make the world a safer, cleaner place. Their signature color is red.

Ebb: Ebb is an organization that operates across Iso, with its facilities serving as trade inventory, local depositories, and hubs for the commercial transport of goods. Much of their revenue comes from trading salvage with the Diving Guild. Ebb’s signature color is white.

Bleek Delivery: Bleek is a residential delivery service. Its employees use specialized travel gear to traverse great distances quickly. A Bleek agent is typically equipped with a weapon to safeguard the package. Their signature color is brown.

Mint Medical: Mint prioritizes the portable availability of medical aid. The organization’s aid kits are stocked with essential resources such as antiseptics, tools, bandages, and instructional materials. Mint facility workers, especially their physicians, are known for their ferocity. Their signature color is teal.  

Tenwear: Tenwear is a company and clothing brand that specializes in efficient, all-terrain garments. The brand is quite popular, given the working nature of Iso’s people, where practicality is essential. Their signature color is green.

Karaban: Karaban is the epicenter of machine engineering and AI development. Its monopoly on the salvage market has allowed the organization to grow in both wealth and influence. Karaban’s industrial practices have sparked controversy with Fied due to unregulated pollutants. The organization also hosts a private military division. Their signature color is blue.

Diving Guild: The Diving Guild, or Diver’s Guild, refers to the regional practice of excavating salvage from the depths of various ruin sites. Divers play a crucial role in facilitating the salvage trade across the market, earning significant trust. Many Divers retire as wealthy merchants. Their signature color is black.

[rainy-petals]

Delusional men who had a lot of time in their hands invented religion so that they could brainwash other men and women, as well as girls and boys, into manipulation + exploitation, taking rights away from the women and girls around them and then use that to subjugate, keep them down, and brainwash those groups into being mindless fearful followers of said religion. These monotheistic and polytheistic religions have nothing in it that are of benefit to women and girls and they need a better community of women who are leaders that uphold them elsewhere. Religion is just one of the many systems of oppression conservative and right wing male religious figures and politicians use along with unregulated capitalism from rich ones. Although there are food banks and churches that help out people who need these resources, it is the bare minimum and what religion and politicians should actually do to serve the community instead of manipulating them like in mega churches. I don’t understand how any woman follows it in this day and age (unless they were groomed by their community) when society expects you to be selfless meanwhile those communities take advantage of that.

[mumblesplash]

You like these questions? I have more!!!

Is Redstone closer in nature to a base or an acid? Does it have corrosive properties if left unchecked and unregulated?

Does Redstone have a catalyst and if so what happens?

Can Redstone be used as seasoning? Is there a hybrid you would attribute a strong enough palette to safely consume it?

What is the general consensus on whether Redstone is dangerous? Are there people who believe that it should not be used?

How does Redstone react with Skulk? Additionally, how does it react with mobs spawning from the Deep Dark such as Wardens?

Would Redstone ever be considered a fashion statement, and if so, as what kind of clothing piece? Could you, if you made it thick enough, potentially knit with Redstone?

Can Redstone be used as a spell component for witches and evokers?

Is Redstone a unlimited resource, and if it isn't, what are the precautions on how much you can use?

Will Redstone alter properties of inherently magical things, like end crystals or totems of undying?

I have so many nessecary and unessecary questions

oh nice questions! (just for the sake of efficiency i'm gna put asterisks by any questions i had answers for already, everything else you can assume i'm making up on the spot lmao)

*Is Redstone closer in nature to a base or an acid?

neither! it's more like a scab :)

*Does Redstone have a catalyst and if so what happens?

no it does not, at least by my understanding of what a catalyst is in this context

Does it have corrosive properties?

hmm i'm gonna go with no

*Can Redstone be used as seasoning? Is there a hybrid you would attribute a strong enough palette to safely consume it?

can? yes. should? no. safely? well, tango's still alive, so...

*What is the general consensus on whether Redstone is dangerous?

the general consensus is that yes, it is dangerous, though the extent of the danger is unknown. safety measures are taken out of an abundance of caution

Are there people who believe that it should not be used?

probably. none of the hermits, obviously, but it would be very easy to disapprove of from a number of angles. at least a few people being Anti Redstone seems pretty much inevitable

*How does Redstone react with Skulk?

...see me after class

Would Redstone ever be considered a fashion statement, and if so, as what kind of clothing piece?

not clothing but i bet there's some level of prestige associated with the color of redstoners' eyes. whether they're considered good or bad would be pretty context-dependent though

Could you, if you made it thick enough, potentially knit with Redstone?

no, but you could probably dye clothes with it

Can Redstone be used as a spell component for witches and evokers?

i don't think evokers have much use for it, and i don't think witches use extended potions (could be wrong there, but also i don't consider the witches to be canon to the game lore)

*Is Redstone a unlimited resource, and if it isn't, what are the precautions on how much you can use?

the stone itself exists in unknown but presumably finite quantities, the signal it emits is infinite

Will Redstone alter properties of inherently magical things, like end crystals or totems of undying?

i don't think so? it does extend the duration of potion effects, though

[sentient-carrot]

I think something that is very uncomfortable for people who aren't at a particular risk of police violence, is that the police will almost universally align itself with authoritarian systems. The police institution itself is inherently based on dominance through use of force and violence. If they make you feel safer, then you are already shielded in a way that allows you to ignore the danger it poses on society as a whole.

I'm white in a country with a large amount of trust in the police relatively speaking, and that offers me some protections. I have other reasons that make me more likely to be targeted, but all in all I am not of our most vulnerable at all. With that in mind it would be easy to believe in the potential good of the police. After having worked with harm reduction for drug users however, I'm keenly aware of the damage the police enact on people who need help more than anything.

I don't think Norwegians in general know that the police regularly fully trash very mentally ill people's homes. They burst in, ruin the door (and with it your privacy until you can get the door fixed yourself or wait weeks) and throw all your stuff around, truly leaving you with days worth of cleaning and fixing. They beat people up brutally and can get away with that due to being... The state-sanctioned violence enactor.

When I bring up the harm they do, especially while drugs remain illegal and unregulated giving them free reign to destroy so many lives with a flimsy excuse of "Well they broke the law", people get surprised. They ask "But what is the option? We need some protection" which sure, you could argue that. The problem is though that violence is not protection, violence enacted does not protect you, it gives you the illusion of protection when what is really protecting you is your social status as a white, generally functioning person doing your demanded civic duty of work.

The amount of resources we spend on furthering violence and harm is immense. It's quite frankly wildly wasteful given that studies upon studies show compassion and support being much, much more effective at preventing harmful behaviour to oneself or others.

This is what I wish Norwegians (and pretty much all social democrats etc around the world) would understand, that the police only protects you as long as you're liked enough by the whims of society, and if you ever fall out of favour as vulnerable minorities tend to do when times get harder, you'll suddenly find this protection wasn't so much there for you as it was there to uphold the system and the structures of the dominant majority.

[partikron]

Rubicon is Dying - What About Earth?

The planet Rubicon-3 is a world ravaged by corporate greed. The planet is absolutely covered in Grids, structures that bear an eerie resemblance to oil rigs many thousands of feet tall. The world has clearly been strip-mined to no end, as I imagine the corps and even the PCA wouldn't spend the extra cash to bring resources in from off-world in order to rebuild after the Fires of Ibis, so to build the planetary closure system and rebuild the Grids must have required an ungodly amount of resource extraction.

This makes me wonder: what does Earth look like in this universe?

Somehow I doubt it's a conservation and resource management success. If we use history as our guide, colonial powers devastated Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere for their resources, but that didn't mean that they conserved their own. No, quite the opposite: while colonial powers got richer and their elites more decadent, their own nations still suffered under heavy and unregulated industrialization, and while the average European might have enjoyed better standards of living than those in far-away nations being broken and exploited to extract those resources, they were still oppressed by those same elites. Makes me think that Earth might even be worse off than Rubicon, the planet stripped of all useful resources and natural beauty, a wrecked world that we wouldn't recognize. Maybe that's what pushed humans out into space.

But it could also be the opposite. What if the governments of Earth and its colonies elsewhere had put in place heavy regulations on industry and corporate power, and so Balam, Arquebus et al. pushed outward to strip another world of its bounty because they couldn't do it there. We know from the modern world that people will allow needless slavery, death and the wanton pillaging of resources as long as it is far enough away from them, so I wonder if perhaps Rubicon is damned only because Earth has even the slightest modicum of sense, but perhaps political power is too distant, too decentralized or perhaps too apathetic to do anything for Rubicon-3 and its people.

My guess is that Earth looks as bad as Rubicon, because the thematic vibe of Armored Core is that corporate greed knows no bounds, and its appetite can never be sated.

[johnschneiderblog]

On the march

Looking out my window, it’s hard to believe that wild turkeys were once scarce in Michigan. By the turn of the 20th century, the destruction of habitat, along with unregulated hunting, damn near drove them to extinction.

In the 1950s, the state’s natural resources officials began a reintroduction program. The newcomers fit right in.

Look at us now; Michigan’s wild turkey population now stands at about 200,000, at least half which have been circling our home in recent days, like an army ready to pounce.

I counted 35 in a single platoon.

My guess is that the melting snow has revealed an unexpected banquet of grubs in our soggy lawn. The turkeys are welcome to them.

[yes-these-obsessions-are-healthy]

I don’t know, I can’t swallow the arguments posed by some amateur ‘class conscious’ and marxist critics of shows like Arcane have where “the villain made good points and the writers were too cowardly to put their all in revolution so they wrote in some stuff that made him evil to show that revolution is bad.’

Like what moment did you think that Silco was a good guy, and what point did you think that the revolution was being portrayed as bad? Ekko is RIGHT there not disagreeing with the need for change but very much disagreeing with how Silco is literally poisoning Zaun in his efforts to make weapons and scary super soldiers. Silco reluctantly and cynically understands that ‘base violence’, or the threat of it, is necessary to force change but where Silco gets it wrong is that he’s willing to sacrifice the well-being of his own people to achieve it. You can have a militant revolution and not poison your people. You can have a violent uprising and not force children to work in dangerous toxic factories, but for Silco, such exploitation is all he knows, because that exploitation is what got Piltover their prosperity and results, so in Silco’s mind the same exploitation is alright because it will be for Zaun’s benefit.

The writers of Arcane didn’t just randomly tack on some evil moments to Silco’s character to undermine his cause. The man’s final form is from the ground up a complex character sketch of how the violence of poverty can turn you down several different paths. You become a Silco, a Vander, an Ekko, a Powder, a Vi.

Do you think that gangs in real life are some knights in shining serving their communities? No, they’re terrorizing it same as the police. They’re poisoning their neighborhoods with drugs and weapons and intimidating shops and luring kids with no future prospects into violent lives. The only difference between them and Silco is that Silco is a Thomas Shelby/Don Corleone type, an echo of the early 20th century organized crime boss who has the business acumen and political savoire faire to match and mirror any of their ‘legitimate’ oligarch counterparts.

Silco is not a political leader who happens to do ‘counterproductive criminal things’ that are then supposed to be intended by the writers as ‘see? Revolution bad’. He was an aggrieved socioeconomically marginalized man who threw himself into the gray-black world of unregulated drug and weapon manufacturing because those avenues granted a modicum of power and money back to the community (see the tweet about Vander and Silco setting up the Lanes with smuggling. That was to take back some economic power denied to them by Piltover). Silco distinguished himself by wanting to go further. He wanted to use what resources Zaun had to fight for its independence. Of course he was a criminal and did criminal things. Being poor in Zaun is a crime and a punishment in the eyes of Piltover. When fighting for the right to exist is a crime, when basic luxuries and staples of decent living are inaccessible except through illegal channels, do you honestly not expect or understand why men like Silco might want to push the envelope further? Why the exploitation and violence (inherent to scarcely fettered capitalism) inflicted upon them might not then be internalized and reflected back onto the world in retaliation? Do you not expect men like Silco to be moulded from these circumstances, to be a bit wayward and skewed in their morals and values? Like what the hell are we even doing here.