#which is obviously not him being authentic

[beepfuckingbeeprichie]

Jinx and Caitlyn are officially my favorite parallels this season and I love what the show is doing.

Jinx and Cait simultaneously lost a parent and were then immediately thrusted into a some measure of responsibility— Caitlyn as sheriff, Jinx as a parental figure and almost a partner to Sevika. And despite their upbringings and past history, they pivot to unexpected directions.

Jinx grieves Silco in the River and let’s him go. We’ve only seen Jinx hallucinate once in these three episodes, and it was Silco asking her if she was ready to go. As she exits the river, it intercuts with scenes from last season of her baptism with Silco in the same river. Jinx has finally decided who she is, and without Silco to make her worse (love him, but he did), she almost immediately begins on a path of healing. She rebuilds past relationships by connecting with Sevika, they mutually commiserate Silco’s memory, and then she makes a gift for Sevika as a bid for connection. She even begrudgingly builds a new relationship with Isha, who has basically imprinted on her like a duck.

Cait’s first appearance is being one of the only clear things in the stylized backdrop of her mothers funeral. The scratchy style of some parts are even reminiscent of Jinx’s visual hallucinations. People reach out to Caitlyn, and while she doesn’t necessarily push them away at first, she isn’t communicating effectively. Her and her dad have a brief conversation and she springs the enforcer badge on Vi with no context. By episode three, she’s almost entirely isolated herself from her former support system, told her girlfriend that she’s not “one of the good ones”, and uses the responsibility she’s been given as a weapon.

Caitlyn learns about the air ducts through her mother’s key, which are specifically for directing clean air into Zaun, and immediately weaponizes it. Not sure how long Jinx has known ab them, but she’s actually the one who uses the ducts to direct clean air into Zaun. And she’s the terrorist!!

Caitlyn’s weapons get upgraded to be more brutal, efficient killing machines. We’ve seen Jinx use her gun, obviously, but one of her bombs is simply filled with glitter. Sevika’s arm is decked out to play music, shoot fireworks, even has a punch option, which isn’t very effective if you’re going for the kill. They’re still weapons, but they’re fun, and arguably less dangerous than the hex core and more authentic to Jinx’s personality. Even the paint in clearing out the air ducts is just that- paint. She could have weaponized it, and chose not to.

Even the small things characterize them! Jinx channels her grief into a creative outlet, while Caitlyn searches for catharsis through violence! A good example is when she seeks catharsis by shooting the cardboard figure of jinx at the pop up gun range.

They’re both trying to find final closure through killing someone, they’re being thrust into roles of leadership, they’ve lost a parent, they now both have a complicated relationship with Vi. I’m really excited to see how things develop, as Jinx about to become the symbol of Zaun and Caitlyn has just become a puppet dictator.

[centrally-unplanned]

I'm curious, how do you feel about harem tropes in anime and vns as a straight (for now, we will get you one day!!!) poly dude? Does the "genre" hold any appeal to you, and are there any standouts you would point to to say "yeah they really nailed what I like here"?

Look someone has to be a straight guy on here, affirmative action to ensure we get a diverse community! Overall I think they are fine as a concept - essentially harem is too "basic" to have like any one opinion on it, right? It can take on a million different forms, some will work and some don't.

For me most of the time they don't work, primarily because the typical deployment is in some weird asexual abeyance state where the protagonist has a dozen girls who are into him but they never cross the threshold. It is essentially a piece of media with no progression that substitutes in lateral quantity of girls for interesting narrative. Even this can work though, if the work is a sufficiently silly or weird sex comedy - those don't need any progression, right, the fun is in the jokes. The key for me is to make the lack of progression actually part of the humor. Few land this honestly, but while I am cheating because here the MC *does* date all the girls, The 100 Girlfriends Who Really Really Love You is a good example - he has to date all the girls or THEY DIE because God fucked up their destinies. Totally stupid, great premise for a comedy. Or My Next Life as a Villainess, where the heroine is isekai'd into an otome is obsessed with not being murdered like in the game, so fails to realize that she has dodged that bullet so successfully everyone wants to bone her (that show isn't good for its own reasons alas).

The other path is the "ancillary" harem, where the story has some other primary plot going on, fantasy wizard war or w/e, but the main character also has 4 hotties in the crew who are in various degrees of thirst over him. Normally still dumb ofc but this is less offensive because it isn't the main story, so it can have more logic. Additionally, you can use their role in the main story to make them cool/attractive, such that you have more investment with them. "I want to date you" is not a great pitch for why someone would want to date you, after all. Still, it is all better if you get like Mushoku Tensei and actually date them, since then you can have very interesting multiple-relationship arcs that intersect the main story. At the rare peaks this is authentically great, and never seen in TV outside of anime.

Visual Novels, funnily enough, are not that commonly harem! Because of split-routes you set up the harem "premise" at the beginning, but then you "choose a route" and the other girls fade away and it becomes a mono romance. Obviously they do exist, but VNs just typically have other genre conventions - and the ones that do exist I just tend to have not played. Maybe some out there do cool harem stuff! I am open to recs.

Being poly honestly effects this very little, because most harem anime just isn't poly. It is too far divorced from any level of "poly rep" for my own life experiences or w/e to come up beyond the occasional joke. Which makes sense - the audience isn't poly! Very similar to how the average yaoi is made for women, not gay men. And just like gay men enjoying yaoi, I can still enjoy a good harem even if it isn't For Me in that way.

[stagehunt]

♤*´. 𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐍, 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐀𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐄?

... 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲. everyone hates you because you are a facetious lying bitch ... kidding, i think. seriously, though! you try way too hard to look like a picturesque example of class and responsibility, but you use your position as a social butterfly to take advantage of those weaker than you. it's rare for anything not to be your fault, and everyone thinks you're crying wolf when you actually HAVEN'T done anything. it gets kind of tiring to have everyone on your dick all the time, but it's less interesting to actually behave. good luck with the therapy?

tagged by @halovien, steal it from me if you want !!!

[pochapal]

"the endgame had never been finished" meaning......kinzo died before he could put this plan of his into motion?

[sheathnknife]

the vampire diaries 8.16 // louise gluck, crossroads

“and damon, like the voiceover tell us, he was worried he would never see stefan again. it was just elena assuring him that there would be peace. that we’ve dealt with this other side of darkness for several seasons, but there’s also light out there and there’s peace, and damon will find it. if you search for it, you will find it. and we wanted to get that last moment to see that [...] damon found it too, and it looked just like his brother.” — kevin williamson

[slvttyplum]

suguru, being the great actor that he was, didn't like to improvise or fake scenes; they weren't authentic, and he couldn't get his creative juices flowing whenever he did.

it just didn't work that way for him, especially when it came to sex scenes. he didn't wear the cover-ups he was given or the fake "sweat" they tried to spray on him from time to time. he took pride in his work and made sure to take advantage of that when it came to you.

he had a crush on you, and just like everyone else, he was ecstatic the first time he found out he was going to be working with you, and you were too, with how good of an actor he was, along with his good looks.

a friendship blossomed, and you all got familiar with the way the other person worked, including suguru and sex scenes. you were nervous the first time you heard about the way he did things. he didn't fake things; he actually fucked on set. with other people watching, you weren't sure if you were going to be able to do that, but with enough convincing, it happened… multiple times.

it didn't just stop on set; it went right into the bedroom, and you can say for certain that the sex itself was off the fucking rails. he knew how to fuck and how to make you feel good. by the three month mark of being in between your legs and inside your pussy every night, he knew every spot on your body that had you gripping at the sheets and moaning his name.

suguru didn't know how this happened or why yall were fucking off set; all he knew was that it felt too good for him to stop, and yall were in too deep for it to stop any time soon. it was magical and everything he ever wanted.

he didn't do this with any of his other co-stars, but you were the exception because of how badly he craved you. all his thoughts from when he was young up until now were consumed by you, so of course he was going to find a way to be in your panties every chance he got.

the way your bodies synced up and blocked the sound of everything else while y'all were on set, that's when he knew that you were the one for him. you matched his nasty too well, and he wasn't going to let it go, and he didn't; he snatched and bagged you up successfully.

it wasn't a surprise to your fans or the crew members when you announced you were together; the chemistry was too much for it to pass through. just the way the two of you looked at each other and felt each other up on the tv screen was enough to tell everyone what needed to be said without any words.

at first, people thought it was just amazing acting and PR from the show, but from the way he felt you up and the slick comments while answering comments to the sex scenes that were obviously real, everyone saw through the bullshit and couldn't just cover it up.

anytime suguru would tell someone the method, they would tell him no and that it wasn't for them, which was obviously valid. who wanted to fuck in front of a bunch of people, but for you, you gave it a chance, because why the fuck not? it turned into the best sex you've had in years, not caring if everyone was there or not, and all you had to do was match his freak.

[mattserenity]

i hate saying this bc i know some people are 100% gonna hate me for this but it is kinda crazy how much they have changed over the years, i recently started rewatching their old videos all over again and they don’t even sound like the same people. they used to be so authentic and homemade and unlike any other youtuber, and i get it people change over time and you can’t stop that of course but they have DRASTICALLY changed. nick was so sweet and loving and cared about all his fans and now he js screams at us and is kinda mean tbh and i understand it’s all for the video and he doesn’t mean anything he says but years ago he would thank us every video and he was just so happy and kind, i don’t think chris has barely changed he’s still the sweetest and silliest out of the three and isn’t really that rude to anyone, but when chris is pissed he is really pissed like he will not hold back, like in that one stream when he was angry the whole time and told matt to euthanise nick, but matts definitely changed the most, he went from being a shy introvert which was still really loud and funny when he wanted to be, to lowk being a obnoxious extrovert, he isn’t really the quiet sweet cute matt anymore and that’s fine i understand growing up but just because you’ve matured doesn’t mean you can’t still be nice, and he obviously does have his moments when he’s kind and loving still but most of the time he’s screaming and calling everyone annoying. lowk if old fetus matt saw himself rn as like a different person i dont think he would like him or want to be friends w him, all he tries to do now is just be nonchalant and mysterious like babe your still the same person who used to kiss the camera goodbye. sometimes i genuinely struggle to watch the videos because of all the arguing and shouting and i get it their brothers, i have siblings i know, but they used to have funny light hearted arguments and now it’s like full out big ass disagreements that make it difficult to watch

also lemme js add about the tiktoks, they used to be so random and funny and just filming randomly and now their all just thirst traps or lip syncing😭😭

one more thing, the way nicks lowk kinda ableist.. the schizophrenic comment, the autism stimming comment, the lack of empathy for people who suffer with epilepsy, etc..

anyway i js wanted to put my thoughts on paper so it isnt trapped in my head. you don’t have to agree with me i just wanted to state my opinion whether you agree or not is your choice !!

love u all

[felassan]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard info compilation Post 3

[Part 1] [Part 2] Post is under a cut due to length.

There is a lot of information coming out right now about DA:TV from many different sources. This post is just an effort to compile as much as I can in one place, in case that helps anyone. Sources for where the information came from have been included. Where I am linking to a social media user’s post, the person is either a dev, a Dragon Age community council member or other person who has had a sneak peek at and played the game. nb, this post is more of a ‘info that came out in snippets from articles and social media posts’ collection rather than a 'regurgitating the information on the official website or writing out what happened in the trailer/gameplay reveal’ post. The post is broken down into headings on various topics. A few points are repeated under multiple headings where relevant. Where I am speculating without a source, I have clearly demarcated this. if you notice any mistakes in this post, please tell me.

Character Creation

All armor and clothing options will scale and mesh to any body type [source]

The character creator has lots of sliders for body parts and overall shape, none of which are tied to the voice or pronouns (she/her, he/him, or they/them) that you choose [source]

"Epler took special care to show off the extensive curly and textured hair options in the game, including several versions of braids and locs, noting that increasing these options in particular was very important to the team" [source]

You can change your character’s physical appearance at any time during the game, but not their class or backstory [source]

"Each individual class has some variability, too; even the mage class has some up-close-and-personal attacks, since a mage player character could still conceivably have an assassin backstory and would therefore need to have some attacks to accommodate that sort of career path" [source]

" "We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about skin tone,” Corinne said. The character we made, a Black elf, seemed to glow in the bluish light of a nighttime scene, and under bright sunlight, I could see the richness of his color. Corinne: "We want to make sure that skin tone is reflected authentically" " [source]

" “We have dozens and dozens of hair types,” she said. “And they’re fully affected by physics.” The quality and variety of choices I saw delighted me. The rows of bouncy, luxurious-looking hair of all curl types and textures (and yes, the annoyingly ubiquitous “Killmonger cut” was among the options, what can you do?) brought the biggest smile to my face in the hour I spent with Busche and The Veilguard." [source]

Story and lore

NPCs will remember when you chuck a shopkeeper through a plate-glass window [source]

" The game’s story sees Solas intact a plot that will result in the deaths of thousands. When his justification that “people die, it’s what they do,” falls on deaf ears, you and your merry band of misfits have to stop him " [source]

" “Early in the demo and in the trailer, you’re in a part of the world you’ve never been in – Tevinter,” Epler tells me. “Tevinter is known for being a place of high magic; visually, it’s different. Obviously in Origins you’re in Ferelden, which was grubby, muddy, and very visually different and distinct. That said, it’s the first hour of the game, so we’re only seeing the prologue. As you go deeper, you’ll find that the game can be just as bloody and just as grim as Dragon Age Origins, 2, and Inquisition. For us, it’s that feeling of contrast. You get moments of higher fantasy magic coming back to the world through Solas’ ritual, but also things get pretty grim, and things get pretty dark in some spaces for sure.” " [source]

"Snappy dialogue" [source]

The game is really about each of the companions [source]

Narrative narrative narrative! [source]

The Shadow Dragons are an underground resistance that engages in guerrilla warfare against the corrupt mage rulers of the Tevinter Imperium [source]

"Varric has created the group called the Veilguards, recruiting a veritable group of weirdos to pursue Solas, who’s carved a path through the magical empire of Tevinter" [source]

"There’s intrigue to the game’s tale already, with Varric hoping he can convince Solas to stop his plan of tearing open the Veil: a wish by the dwarf to save a dear friend. There’s a fascinating relationship that's already being set up, Varric and Solas as opposing narrative forces, with your character, Rook, pulled between them" [source]

"There’s extra context to flesh out dialogue, with short descriptions that help give a vague idea of how things play out. The example we were shown was Rook trying to take down a gang leader inside a bar. We could choose to defuse the situation with either words or weapons, but the catch is you don’t know how effective those approaches will be" [source]

" Busche explained that the team wanted to give players a game where locations were imbued with just as much personality as the characters. “That meant making contrast from the areas that are dark and decaying to the areas that are illuminated with magic,” Busche said " [source]

" “This is a part of the world where magic has been embraced,” Busche said. “It is a society of mages and magic in this world is inherently colorful. So whether we’re seeing them use magic for everyday purposes like signage or using them as spells, that color really comes through.” " [source]

We will visit the Necropolis of Nevarra [source]

Gameplay, presentation, performance etc

There are dozens of abilities and spells [source]

The game has an easy mode [source]

There is a setting where your character can't die in battle [source]

"The Rogue class in our demo had a bow with recharging arrows for ranged attacks, and dual blades that could unleash a furious flurry of instantaneous blows" [source]

[☕ found this post or blog interesting or useful? my ko-fi is here if you feel inclined. thank you 🙏]

[rizsu]

ㅤᡣ𐭩ㅤ◟ the infamous instagram live. . . ! ── gojo satoru ﹕ jujutsu kaisen.

﹙ rookie mistake ﹚ ⊹ being a new-gen actor had its perks. it's easy to gain a fanbase, gain recognition, and easy for your show to go viral. what's not easy, however, is privacy. someone's bound to expose..

love, ‘su › the comments are typed out like “@cuntcarti: heyyy” for authenticity bc i am not recreating a real ig live in smau format #lazy

“hey guys! what's up?” satoru's oddly close to the camera. his nose being the most prominent feature in everyone's screen.

he's been on tour for jujutsu kaisen's new movie and it's been far too hectic. if it weren't for the luxurious hotel's service, he would've died in between schedule. the hours the crew were allowed to slumber slowly decreased: from eight to five to three to twenty-five minutes — just unnecessarily busy.

aside from experiencing the dark side to being an actor, he enjoys the fame. the attention that comes with it is nothing compared to the lightheaded feelings he feels everytime it's 8pm. being a crazed attention seeker is the main reason why he's live when he really, really should be asleep.

@satonuts: tilt the phone down lets see whats there

@daily-jjk: back up a little..

@nanamiroleplay: how's it been?

@tojiggle: drop the pants

“god forbid a man gets close to his screen,” he jokingly grumbles, shifting his position to laying down on his pillow.

now the view's better: his arm's stretched upwards to allow half of his upper body to be in frame. of course, he's shirtless. what's an attention seeker without being half naked? nothing! there's a small-sized silver chain around his neck; dare the fandom admit, it adds a special flavour... perhaps this shall be their new lockscreen.

@daily-jjk: my fault king

@itasaki: i love you <3 i told my father about us <3

@tojiggle: drop the pants

@crazygetofan: is geto around?

reading the last comment, satoru does the lick -lips-and-bite-lower-lip combination.

“yeah, but he's in the shower—” he pauses and furrows his eyebrows, “no, i'm not gonna show you butt-naked suguru.”

@crazygetofan: worth a shot bye

@stsgshipper25: its bc he's hiding his bf!!

@fushigurosbitch: @stsgshipper25 wym im right here ??

@tojiggle: drop the pants

he doesn't respond to any comments, nor does he make any stupid comment himself. he's silently admiring himself while going through a bunch of saved filters. while satoru was too immersed in loving himself, he failed to notice suguru entering the room.

it's a win-lose situation that'll occur here. the win is obviously suguru making his entry which would mean that he'd join in satoru's live. the lose here is that he has a big mouth. suguru's mouth talks before his mind analyzes the outcome of what he'll say.

suguru walks over to the space in between his bed and satoru's, fiddling with the items on the bedside table until his hands fall on satoru's wallet. like a moth to a flame, he mindlessly opens it, counting the bills and how much it totals up to.

“damn, satoru, you only have ninety dollars?”

“don't out me like that, bro,” a sigh leaves satoru, “there's a reason i have a card.”

“alright bro.”

@crazygetofan: show me my man

@jjkhateropbetter: nah dawg u broke

@tojiggle: drop the pants

@satonuts: @tojiggle QUIT IT

“anyway guys,” satoru stands up, “let's have a mukbang.”

walking towards the television stand, satoru slams his hand on the chips, gripping it like it's the last time he'll ever have a meal. once he acquired his meal, he goes back to the bed, propping the phone with stacked pillows so he's in frame when he sits.

suguru can be seen in the background, pacing around the room in a white robe that's loosely tied. this was more than enough for the geto suguru fans that joined satoru's live for that purpose.

“wait bro,” suguru calls out to satoru but doesn't turn to him. he's occupied with rubbing moisturiser into his cheeks vigorously.

satoru hums, acknowledging his roomate. he, too, doesn't look at suguru.

“did you get the thing for (y/n)? you've been talking about that all day.”

satoru's silent. this time he's not falling in love with himself. the chip that's halfway into his mouth falls. can he consider this to be doxxing? no way suguru just did him like that.

“...oh come on, bro.” his shoulders drop. a clear indication of disappointment.

as suguru's still has his back turned to satoru, he's unaware of his expression and thinks that his comment was meant for him to shut up about the gift/souvenir. after all, suguru has been teasing satoru about it.

“seriously? you still haven't figured out what to get your girlfriend? lame ass.”

“can you say it any louder?!”

“YOUR GIRL— what the fuck?”

satoru forces him silent by throwing the air conditioner's remote at him. it worked, kind of. if only it had an effect on his rapidly beating heart. he's now anxious and a tad bit afraid to look at the comments.

slowly, his eyes glance at the comments. they sure are coming in fast!

@itasaki: killing myself <3

@fuckgojo_wasdailyjjk: cant have shit on earth

@jjkhateropbetter: nah dawg u gonna get jumped

@tojiggle: don't drop the pants

@miadollypie: check out twitter link in bio for spicy stuff

@chosoballs: couldnt be my man!

@kystoru: @chosoballs thats why yo bitch dying next season

@chosoballs: ?

@fwkuna: love seeing ppl i hate miserable

@fushigurosbitch: they gonna break up next two weeks

@satonuts: guys rmbr we do not know satoru irl, be nice

@fwkuna: @satonuts ykdw ur crying on the inside

@satonuts: @fwkuna DIE

the comments are overflowing in such a speed that it overwhelms even satoru. he swallows hard, switching his eyes to suguru.

suguru's back to busying himself with his skincare routine, unaware of the damages he's done.

‘fuck,’ he curses in his mind, nervously laughing before he speaks up.

“oh boy, would you look at the time!” he says ever-so enthusiastically. “i'll see you guys later, sleep well, ‘kay?”

“huh? why'd you end it?” the damager dealer questions, turning around to finally face satoru with a charcoal facemask on. it's good for whiteheads!

“ask one more fucking questions and i'm killing us both.”

the aggressive comments makes suguru recoil. he didn't expect that — he's also confident that he did nothing of the sort to result in such violence.

“damn, did she block you or something? i get it, i get it. i'd be mad too.” he nods, showing satoru that he understands and feels for his friend.

satoru's face twists in annoyance. the man gifts suguru a middle finger before he moves the chips onto the bedside table.

he's tired now. not in the sleepy way, though. in the ‘what am i gonna do now’ way. nothing good comes up in mind to lessen the damage on the internet, so he falls back on the bed.

with his phone face down and an arm over his eyes, he tries his best to sleep.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

AI art has no anti-cooption immune system

TONIGHT (July 20), I'm appearing in CHICAGO at Exile in Bookville.

One thing Myspace had going for it: it was exuberantly ugly. The decision to let users with no design training loose on a highly customizable user-interface led to a proliferation of Myspace pages that vibrated with personality.

The ugliness of Myspace wasn't just exciting in a kind of outsider/folk-art way (though it was that). Myspace's ugliness was an anti-cooption force-field, because corporate designers and art-directors would, by and large, rather break their fingers and gouge out their eyes than produce pages that looked like that.

In this regard, Myspace was the heir to successive generations of "design democratization" that gave amateur communities, especially countercultural ones, a space to operate in where authentic community members could be easily distinguished between parasitic commercializers.

The immediate predecessors to Myspace's ugliness-as-a-feature were the web, and desktop publishing. Between the img tag, imagemaps, the blink tag, animated GIFs, and the million ways that you could weird a page with tables and padding, the early web was positively bursting with individual personality. The early web balanced in an equilibrium between the plunder-friendliness of "view source" and the topsy-turvy design imperatives of web-based layout, which confounded both print designers (no fixed fonts! RGB colorspaces! dithering!) and even multimedia designers who'd cut their teeth on Hypercard and CD ROMs (no fixed layout!).

Before the web came desktop publishing, the million tractor-feed ransom notes combining Broderbund Print Shop fonts, joystick-edited pixel-art, and a cohort of enthusiasts ranging from punk zinesters to community newsletter publishers. As this work proliferated on coffee-shop counters and telephone poles, it was visibly, obviously distinct from the work produced by "real" designers – that is, designers who'd been a) trained and b) paid by a corporation to employ that training.

All of this matters, and not just for aesthetic reasons. Communities – especially countercultural ones – are where our society's creative ferment starts. Getting your start in the trenches of the counterculture wars is no proof against being co-opted later (indeed, many of the designers who cut their teeth desktop publishing weird zines went on to pull their hair and roll their eyes at the incredible fuggliness of the web). But without that zone of noncommercial, antiestablishment, communitarian low weirdness, design and culture would stagnate.

I started thinking about this 25 years ago, the first time I met William Gibson. I'd been assigned by the Globe and Mail to interview him for the launch of All Tomorrow's Parties:

https://craphound.com/nonfic/transcript.html

One of the questions I asked was about his famous aphorism, "The street finds its own use for things." Given how quickly each post-punk tendency had been absorbed by commercial culture, couldn't we say that "Madison Avenue finds its own use for the street"? His answer started me down a quarter-century of thinking and writing about this subject:

I worry about what we'll do in the future, [about the instantaneous co-opting of pop culture]. Where is our new stuff going to come from? What we're doing pop culturally is like burning the rain forest. The biodiversity of pop culture is really, really in danger. I didn't see it coming until a few years ago, but looking back it's very apparent.

I watch a sort of primitive form of the recommodification machine around my friends and myself in sixties, and it took about two years for this clumsy mechanism to get and try to sell us The Monkees.

In 1977, it took about eight months for a slightly faster more refined mechanism to put punk in the window of Holt Renfrew. It's gotten faster ever since. The scene in Seattle that Nirvana came from: as soon as it had a label, it was on the runways of Paris.

Ugliness, transgressiveness and shock all represent an incoherent, grasping attempt to keep the world out of your demimonde – not just normies and squares, but also and especially enthusiastic marketers who want to figure out how to sell stuff to you, and use you to sell stuff to normies and squares.

I think this is what drove a lot of people to 4chan (remember, before 4chan was famous for incubating neofascism, it was the birthplace of Anonymous): its shock culture, combined with a strong cultural norm of anonymity, made for a difficult-to-digest, thoroughly spiky morsel that resisted recommodification (for a while).

All of this brings me to AI art (or AI "art"). In his essay on the "eerieness" of AI art, Henry Farrell quotes Mark Fisher's "The Weird and the Eerie":

https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/large-language-models-are-uncanny

"Eeriness" here is defined as "when there is something present where there should be nothing, or is there is nothing present when there should be something." AI is eerie because it produces the seeming of intent, without any intender:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spooky-action-at-a-close-up/#invisible-hand

When we contemplate "authentic" countercultural work – ransom-note DTP, the weird old web, seizure-inducing Myspace GIFs – it is arresting because the personality of the human entity responsible for it shines through. We might be able to recognize where that person ganked their source-viewed HTML or pixel-optimized GIF, but we can also make inferences about the emotional meaning of those choices. To see that work is to connect to a mind. That mind might not necessarily belong to someone you want to be friends with or ever meet in person, but it is unmistakably another person, and you can't help but learn something about yourself from the way that their work makes you feel.

This is why corporate work is so often called "soulless." The point of corporate art is to dress the artificial person of the corporation in the stolen skins of the humans it uses as its substrate. Corporations are potentially immortal, artificial colony organisms. They maintain the pretense of personality, but they have no mind, only action that is the crescendo of an orchestra of improvised instruments played by hundreds or thousands of employees and a handful of executives who are often working directly against one another:

https://locusmag.com/2022/03/cory-doctorow-vertically-challenged/

The corporation is – as Charlie Stross has it – the "slow AI" that is slowly converting our planet to the long-prophesied grey goo (or, more prosaically, wildfire ashes and boiled oceans). The real thing that is signified by CEOs' professed fears of runaway AI is runaway corporations. As Ted Chiang says, the experience of being nominally in charge of a corporation that refuses to do what you tell it to is the kind of thing that will give you nightmares about autonomous AI turning on its masters:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/autocomplete-worshippers/#the-real-ai-was-the-corporations-that-we-fought-along-the-way

The job of corporate designers is to find the signifiers of authenticity and dress up the corporate entity's robotic imperatives in this stolen flesh. Everything about AI is done in service to this goal: the chatbots that replace customer service reps are meant to both perfectly mimic a real, competent corporate representative while also hewing perfectly to corporate policy, without ever betraying the real human frailties that none of us can escape.

In the same way, the shillbots that pretend to be corporate superfans online are supposed to perfectly amplify the corporate message, the slow AI's conception of its own virtues, without injecting their own off-script, potentially cringey enthusiasms.

The Hollywood writers' strike was, at root, about the studio execs' dream that they could convert the "insights" of focus groups and audience research into a perfect script, without having to go through a phalanx of lippy screenwriters who insisted on explaining why they think your idea is stupid. "Hey, nerd, make me another ET, except make the hero a dog, and set it on Mars" is exactly how you prompt an AI:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/20/everything-made-by-an-ai-is-in-the-public-domain/

Corporate design's job is to produce the seeming of intention without any intender. The "personality" we're meant to sense when we encounter corporate design isn't the designer's, nor the art director's, nor even the CEO's. The "personality" is meant to be the slow AI's, but a corporation doesn't have a personality.

In his 2018 short story "Noon in the antilibrary," Karl Schroeder describes an "antilibrary" as an endlessly deep anaerobic lagoon of generative botshit:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/08/18/104097/noon-in-the-antilibrary/

The antilibrary is a generative AI system that can produce entire librarys’-worth of fake books with fake authors, fake citations by other fake experts with their own fake books and biographies and fake social media accounts, on-demand and instantly. It was speculation in 2018; it’s possible now. Creating an antilibrary is just a matter of investing in a sufficient number of graphics cards and electricity.

https://kschroeder.substack.com/p/after-the-internet

Reading Karl's reflections on the antilibrary crystallized something for me that I've been thinking about for a quarter-century, since I interviewed Gibson at the Penguin offices in north Toronto. It snapped something into place that I've trying to fit since encountering Henry's thoughts on the "eeriness" of AI work and the intent without an intender.

It made me realize why I dislike AI art so much, on a deep, aesthetic level. The point of an image generator is to buffer the intention of the prompter (which might be genuinely creative and bursting with personality) in layers of automated decision-making that flense the final product of any hint of the mind that caused its creation.

The most febrile, deeply weird and authentic prompts of the most excluded outsiders produce images that feel the same as the corporate AI illustrations that project the illusion of personality from the immortal, transhuman colony organism that is the limited liability corporation.

AI art is born coopted. Even the 4chan equivalent of AI – the deeply transgressive and immoral nonconsensual pornography – feels no different from the "official" AI porn churned out by "real" pornographers. "Shrimp Jesus" and other SEO-optimized Facebook slop is so uncanny because it is simultaneously "weird" ("that which does not belong") and yet it belongs in the same aesthetic bucket of the most anodyne Corporate Memphis ephemera:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Memphis

We call it "generative" but AI art can't generate the kind of turnover that aerates the aesthetic soil. An artform that can't be transgressive is sterile, stillborn, a dead end.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/20/ransom-note-force-field/#antilibraries

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

--

Jake (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1970s_fanzines_(21224199545).jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[edwinspaynes]

I don't want to get too deeply into this in a post that I would encourage people to reblog, but one main reason that Dead Boy Detectives hits so hard for me is the lack of justice.

When I was in high school, some genuinely horrific things happened to me and several other girls. Obviously, it wasn't the same since we, you know, survived. But the Bad(tm) involved a teacher who was then investigated a few years later. We all went back and worked with both the cops and the school district to try and get justice for ourselves and the other victims.

The district did nothing. They had the teacher to resign in the interests of preventing a scandal. Like St Hilarions. What happened to us didn't matter, and the school covered it up just as they covered up Charles's death.

The first time I watched DBDA, Edwin's little speech at the end of episode 1 resonated with me in an incredibly deep way. Here was a person - two people - who did not get any semblance of justice for a grave wrong. I could easily feel Edwin's deep hurt because I experience the same hurt every time I remember what happened to me. It never stops being a raw open wound that sits in your chest, and the cover-up can sometimes hurt more than even the actual event.

For the first time, in DBDA, I was seeing people who were wronged like me. More than that, though, I was seeing people seek out justice for others because they did not get it for themselves. I was seeing an alternate version of my own story play out onscreen, and both Edwin and Charles made me feel much less alone.

They still do. Those boys will always hold a really special place in my heart for a lot of reasons, but this is a major one.

And, like me and at least three of the other girls involved in the Incident at my school, Edwin is canonically queer. And his queerness is handled so well, shown positively but also just as a small part of this rich, nuanced, complex character. He feels so authentic, like someone I could have met and loved in the real world. No part of him feels like a caricature, which is a rare thing in queer media.

Seeing Netflix cancel this show and end the boys' stories in such an unjust way feels like a reopening of those old wounds. These stories matter. They have to matter.

They do matter. Charles and Edwin showed me that, because they are wonderful and special and their story is resonant and wonderful. And to watch Netflix treat this story as though it's insignificant hurts So. Fucking. Badly.

[midnightblues444]

User not found |

Cam couple! Reader x dabi and viewer! Hawks

Warning: m masturbation, cam couple, voyerism, , bisexual Hawks, squirt

Notes: this is heavily inspired by yunggravys leaked tape

Although keigo lives alone, he still locks the door when he jerks off

It gives him a sense of privacy that even having the curtains drawn cant provide. Seated at his PC slightly further from the desk, he places lotion close enough next to him, ritualistically like it's the only spot for it. The lights of his room are dimmed, and the screen is the main source, the clock reads exactly, 11:43pm

Logging into his anonymous Twitter account where his username is quite literally the standard username provided by the app (wouldn't want his fans to catch wiff of this account) he searches:

Inferno_xxx

A porn account he favors heavily, the owner is you. Most of the feed is links to cashapp and provocative photos as the incentive. Though he prefers your videos more, specifically the ones made with your boyfriend.

Hes scarred up, and Hawks cant really make out his name cause you never moan it clearly (obviously).

You never put effort into captions, nonetheless each video drives him nuts(literally).  His personal favorite video being titled, "we got back together x"

Your videos never seem scripted or fake which really stood out to him. It was like you only filmed for your own pleasure each moan sounding authentic to him . Even your boyfriend, makes noises, sending jolts straight to his dick.

The camera work is sloppy, the phones flash  being the only sense of lighting, exposing your body's intricacies, tattoos and your boyfriends hand marks from his grip on your waist

The cameraman holding a vibrator to your clit roughly, he can hear him laughing at your struggle.

The sounds you made, little giggles that meshed with your moans, the audible power of the vibrator and the amusement of the cameraman could be felt through his computer screen.

"Fuckkkk just like that" your boyfriend whispered out

"Mhmm, ngghh okay baby" you hiccup,bouncing vigorously on him. Tits effectively being shoved into the cameras focus

Keigo strokes himself to the pace of your bounces, moaning out as if you were doing it to him

The camera pans to your joint bodies and the vibrator. Sheen liquid begins to accumulate, and squelching sounds mesh into the soft whirring of the toy.

You begin to let out high pitch moans, whining about making a mess,

"So make a mess" you boyfriend dares you to, as he visually begins thrusting upwards faster

Hawks eyes are closed now, he focuses on the sounds of you two combined.

The camera messily pans from your fucked out face to your abused clit that's beginning to squirt messily.

"Ngghh" Your boyfriend moans, and so does Hawks as his cum spurts all over his hand. The camera moves to your face as your boyfriend roughly cups it.

"My dirty girl, all mine yea" he laughs, and you nod absently.

The camera then moves to the back of you clearly displaying your messes sliding down the guys balls. He slaps your ass for effect and the video ends suddenly.

Keigos dick twitches, at the aftermath,

As he presses replay

[kidrat]

having feelings about trans Gwen,,, like there's the 'superhero leading a double life' allegory for being closeted, which ppl have noted, but there's plenty I haven't seen anyone mention yet! like, the fact her dad has a trans patch in support of her means she's out.

She's a young trans *girl* (as opposed to a trans woman) living as her authentic gender in a loving home. she went to her school dance in a dress. she did ballet! which of course boys can do too, but often times when people are assigned male they don't get the chance to explore feminine hobbies. It's really lovely that someone, likely Gwen's dad, supported her enough to let her have those girly experiences and memories, whether she was living as a girl when she took dance up or as a gnc boy.

While it's subtle rep, I still think it's awesome to imply a character like Gwen is trans. Trans girls don't always get to have a childhood. Transmisogyny fetishizes transfems and presents them as always victimisers, never victims. They're barred from girlhood and it's connotations of innocence, vulnerability, lovableness.

Not that Gwen isn't a hashtag strong female character! And not that she hasn't had to grow up fast in other ways. She Is Literally Spiderwoman and she plays the drums and has agency and expresses negative emotions. But she's also a teenager, and she gets to be hugged and comforted, and to be set up for a soft friends to lovers relationship with another teenager, a cis boy who respects her and only knows her as a girl and thinks she's amazing and draws her in his sketchbook. That is not a role the media often lets trans girls have!!! It's lovely to think young transfems might be able to see themselves in a character consistently shown as worthy of affection.

Of course, the fact that Gwen is in the closet about being spider-woman is even sadder knowing this is her second rodeo. Lots of us have hesitated to come out a second time because our parents were supportive about the first thing and well, putting something else on them feels like taking the piss or hoping for too much.

Something else I wanted to talk about is how Gwen being trans effects a reading of her Peter's death, especially taking into account the new information this film gave us about this. There's this gendered switch happening, where Peter passes on his usual role to a woman. What's more, he has to die for her story to happen. She loves him, and never wanted him to die, but she's blamed for it anyway. Her father talks affectionately about the dead Peter, calling him his daughter's best friend. He talks about him like a son. He vows revenge on Gwen for killing him. It's a fantastic allegory for how some transphobic parents hate their out trans children for 'killing' the kid they had before.

I think with the above in mind, maybe we can see the subtext of Gwen's arc with her dad in this film as that of a supportive parent who's nevertheless got some biases left that hurt his trans daughter, who doesn't speak up for fear his acceptance is conditional.

I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that protecting a trans daughter is this Captain Stacy's motivation while he's working as a cop. Obviously there's the text that he wants to be a 'good cop' to work against the institution's bigotry, and he displays the trans flag on his work jacket. His quitting the police is a fantastic story beat because it makes a point about the real world while also serving a lot of the analogies going on.

Good cops quit. They realise you can't be a well intentioned cog in a bigoted machine. It doesn't matter if you're a bigot or just taking actions a bigot might because you're working within parameters set by bigots. It's an important message. Within a trans reading of the film, I'd also see this plot moment as Stacy realising he can't protect his trans daughter if he's still playing by the rules of a society that see her as threatening and duplicitous. He's then able to stop seeing her on some level as having killed his son.

They're able to be close again because he has completely rejected the cis culture he was a part of, rather than just decrying the worst parts and slotting Gwen in. She no longer has to worry that he'll rescind his acceptance if she's too trans, and so he gets to know all of her because she can let him into her world without self-editing.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on Gwen after watching Across The Spiderverse two hours ago lmao.

[bsd-elle]

I know that Buddy Daddies is a dumb show with cute moments, and I totally agree.

But I just can't help but marvel at their writing choices.

They could've very easily continued with the sxf narrative, two hitmen adopt a kid for some reason, and hijinks ensues.

But rather, they opted to create a genuinely authentic found family trope, where two adults, both traumatised and not equipped to be parents, have taken it upon themselves to raise a child, to the best of their abilities.

Rei, who's father can't even be addressed with that title, who never had the chance to live his childhood.

And kazuki who never had any parental figures, who's chance at family was ripped away from him, for which he blames himself constantly.

These two people, who come together, to adopt and take care of a sunshine child like Miri, not only do they give her a loving, caring family dynamic, something she wasn't privy to earlier, but the two of them heal through her.

Rei is able to live his childhood, and enjoy his life, has a space where he can show his emotions, without being a stoic figure.

Kazuki, my poor boy, who feels like he doesn't have the right to have a family because he couldn't 'protect' them, now have a chance to raise a child.

And what I love about it is, not once does kazuki project his trauma onto Miri, not once does it seem like he's trying to 'redo history'.

He's very self aware of himself, the trauma he carries, and the mistakes he's made.

Yet, he constantly tries to better himself, and be the best parent to Miri.

Their love for each other is so palpable, obviously with his over protection and physical touch, but beyond that, the small things he does.

'our Miri', 'my girl', 'our genes'.

He fully has accepted Miri into his life, and considers Rei as his co parent, and I... I just love that so much.

Because I imagine this airing in a conservative country like Japan, and even if it wasn't gay parents, this could also be used for adoptions, where some people believe that it's not that same thing as having a blood relationship.

Buddy daddies simultaneously breaks down so many gender roles, and this ideal family notion, by having two male parents.

But more on the writing, Rei's care towards both Kazuki and Miri was so clear.

It's through subtle words, he tags along for everything Kazuki does, he reassures him even though he has no idea what to do either.

And with Miri, my sweet angels, that episode where he refers to himself as her papa, I scream everytime.

At the end of the day, yes, buddy daddies is a dumb show with cute moments, that shouldn't be taken seriously, but it's also a show that tells you that family is definitely something you can have, but it is also something you can choose, the people you choose to have in your life, the people who choose to be in your life, the people who love you regardless of who you are, the people who love you will be there for you, no matter what.

[oriharakaoru]

mukbang thoughts:

i just rewatched because obviously. it's nice to see how excited they were about the ii dvd (and so proud - understandable! huge accomplishment!) but there was also an overall melancholy vibe. like, tour was over. dan was sort of unsure what was next (which he says in the video in regards to his channel and just how tour gave him day-to-day purpose). they talk briefly about dan's breakdown a month before tour started. and obviously it must have just been a HUGE come down after going full-tilt for months and months on tour and then weeks editing the DVD. all the while keeping up the gaming channel (and phil's channel).

but we also know more about the behind the scenes. we know dan was SUPER struggling with his sexuality and coming out. that was the whole reason behind the breakdown. and he talks about emerging from his chrysalis "soon" AND about how he's struggling to live authentically. also pretty clear they knew the hiatus was coming (not how long, just that it was coming. phil doesn't outwardly struggle or allude to his own being in the closet, but we know NOW it did affect him, just differently than dan. and how much more free he feels now. like, phil even made a few gay jokes (the delivery person looked like zac efron etc) but we know those would go 100x harder now.

after the mukbang i watched a much more recent video that was similar in banting tone. i watched viewers roast dan's outfits. the difference in how happy they seemed was super obvious. like clearly they weren't as tired after travelling around the world, but they were just free and open and holding none of themselves back. leaning into the gay on purpose. reveling in it. what a stark contrast to go from pre-coming out content to post-coming out content.

so i guess what i'm saying is, a new mukbang with post-coming energy?? where they spill more tea?? now i'm even MORE hyped.

[lexirosewrites]

Hey happy Slick Sunday™️!! I fear this is cringe but I have had the thought of omega Steve but he’s a popstar stuck in my head and needed to get it out somewhere. And I know so many people say he would be like Sabrina Carpenter, but I wanna see high fem omega Steve but like Chappell Roan. He’s just doing the absolute most and living his best life, singing about being an omega, and love and lust between omegas. He’s drag and camp, and the most authentic to himself that he’s been in his whole life.

Obviously he blows up after his full length album comes out, which just leads to the most insane press tour that you can imagine. One of his live interviews he walks out in assless chaps, a thong and a crop top so short every time he moves his tits pop out (there are cute nipple pasties in a fun shape underneath, but it’s still scandalous). The whole interview he spends not only spreading his legs and arching his back, but nonstop talking about the new Corroded Coffin song and how hot their lead singer/guitarist is. At this point in time Eddie is incredibly well established and respected in the music industry, the song spoken of is only the second single for their upcoming 6th studio album. Steve however doesn’t really pay much mind to how established they are though, he is way more concerned with the fact that Eddie is a much older and incredibly attractive and masculine omega whomst he would like to have the babies of.

Apparently this stunt is the trick to getting Eddie’s attention. Eddie replies to a tweet saying “where can I get one” on a photo shoot set of Steve in a Barbie box. He becomes obsessed with Steve, enamored and captivated not only by him, but his music as well. Not long after this they meet at an industry party. The chemistry is there immediately; each others presence feeling like a cooling balm after a surge of electricity. By the end of the night Steve is found sitting on Eddies lap and purring in contentment.

Soon they are spotted almost everywhere with each other, holding hands, kissing, etc. There’s even a photo of Eddie playfully scruffing Stevie and his blissed out face to go with it. Within a few months Steve is spotted wearing a brand new red claiming collar with the letters EM sitting right over his bonding gland. A surprise for some considering they didn’t expect the couple to go along with anything considered traditional.

Despite these comments, until their bonding Steve is never seen without a collar, getting it made in multiple colors to match all of his outfits. And if he’s spotted wearing a new collar after their bonding, one that may suspiciously look like a day collar, well then thats their business and theirs alone. (Expect for the very explicit and kinky songs Eddie writes for CCs next album that everyone knows Steve was the muse for lol)

woo-hoo famous and flirty omega/omega steddie!!! i didn’t know i was missing this vision in my life, but i’d love to be a fly on the wall in that bedroom🤭😩🥵