#which this sector straight up doesnt have

[flying-potato2]

this just in: stupid idiot builds worlds most scuffed surge factory

[truly-a-snitch]

May i request headcanons with ranpo and dazai with a s/o who has heterochromia and is insecure about it? Could be hurt/comfort or just straight up fluff :)

-🧛

ofc ofc !!! ty for the request ^_^

WARNINGS: none :3 this is straight up fluff ! i do hc these two as nd (dazai is autistic, ranpo is audhd) !!

---

dazai and ranpo with an s/o who has heterochromia and is insecure about it

dazai

dazai to me has always seemed like the type to not really care about appearances if he's looking for an actual relationship

like i know he's always like "i want to die with a beautiful woman" but if he's planning to LIVE with/for someone, the thing that gets him is their brain, so having heterochromia doesn't matter to him

(however comma he actually thinks its really pretty and makes sure to tell you at EVERY possible moment even if ur not feeling too bad abt it at the moment)

he definitely does some sappy ass bullshit like staring into your eyes whenever he can

i hc him as autistic but like the type that makes way too much eye contact so he sees your eyes a LOT

once he finds out that youre insecure about it he amps up how often he compliments your eyes like. tenfold

like to the point you would think he's making fun of you if he wasn't so genuinely sincere about it

"the way the light catches your eyes is simply gorgeous, darling" or some bullshit like that. homeboy is so silly

if you two live together, he makes so many passing comments about how happy he is that your eyes are the first thing he sees when he wakes up

(look at you, seducing him into healthier sleeping patterns with your eyes)

at the end of the day, dazai doesnt care about your appearance (though the fact that he thinks you are the most graceful creature to ever walk this earth certainly helped when he asked you out)

he makes sure to remind you at every opportunity that the things you perceive as 'flaws'- your eyes, notably- are beautiful to him ^_^

a pretty solid experience all in all ! this man is such a hopeless romantic emphasis on hopeless he will bust out the sappy poetry to make u laugh and cheer u up

ranpo

again, a man who i don't think cares about appearance all that much if only because he can read everybody so easily that appearances sort of become obsolete

i hc him as the kind of audhd that hates eye contact with a burning passion so he isnt into the whole 'staring into your eyes' thing the way dazai is

however comma he likes to hold stuff up to your face and compare it to your eyes if its the same color

(if you have blue in your eyes he holds up his ramune marbles but he makes do regardless of color)

i also hc him as having heterochromia (one eye green one eye brown) so if u have complete heterochromia hes like omg we match !!

he isnt insecure about his appearance because he isnt big about appearances i mean he walks around with that tie that clashes with his ENTIRE outfit he truly does not care. no fucks given. we love u king. anyway the point is hanging out with him and dating him is going to lead to a confidence spike on ur part bc hes so casual abt his own heterochromia

if he notices youre having a bad day- which he will lets be honest- he makes a passing comment about how pretty your eyes look to cheer you up and then goes back to his psp. might let u beat him at whatever hes playing to make u feel better too

since appearances arent super important to him he doesnt really comment on it that much unless he knows ur feeling particularly upset about it

when u feel down abt it tho he is lowk ur BIGGEST hype man like "look how cool my s/o is u guys"

bro even shares his snacks with you if youre feeling insecure (about anything tbh but especially abt ur appearance bc ur literally so cool ??)

if you have sectoral heterochromia he says u and atsushi r twinning frfr (forget armed detective agency this is the fucking. heterochromia detective agency) and if u have central heterochromia hes like oh hell yea we collected the whole set

all in all id say since i hc him as having heterochromia its a solid experience !! vvv supportive

[stingrayloveblog]

Alright because I'm curious: What is wrong with Marina's quest to help sanitized octolings? Because as far as what little we knew about it it was blended up people, removed memories to make mem cakes, and then if you botch it, then you become part of them. It was both vague enough to get the general idea across and open enough for more information to be revealed.

So what didn't you like about the idea?

The problem was that in octo expansion, we were told that the sanitized octolings had no vital signs, and in typical splatoon lore fashion, we were told in a dev interview that sanitized octolings are formed out of sanitization ink. Its hard to take dev interview information seriously, but judging by the fact that they rarely ever put actual important worldbuilding details in the game we have to take what we can get. Basically meaning, none of the sanitized octolings are any one person in particular. They cant get their memories back because they arent any original person. Theyre basically walking frankensteins monster corpses with no purpose but to do whatever kamabo tells them to do. Letting the color chip memories "sort themselves out" inherently has way too many risks and issues. It straight up just would not work. Anyone can have any color chips in their pallet. And if any color chip is made of any mem cakes, all marina essentially did was destroy the memories and basically do exactly what kamabo co did. The only one it would probably work on is acht since they are visibly not fully sanitized and the devs, for some godforsaken reason, decided not to give acht any reasonable or sensible plot relevance at all regarding literally anything that was going on. This basically means either only some sanitized octolings are made from the ink while others are just regular octolings that got sanitized, or they just retconned that first fact. They also tried to say that agent 8 is sanitized when they are clearly obviously visibly not sanitized in any way, shape, or form, unless theyre only now trying to make sense of how sanitization works by making it a multi-stage process. This still makes acht a complete outlier in the sanitization process since they remember everything pre-kamabo (while conveniently acting like they didnt canonically willingly get sanitized in the first place), while eight remembers nothing. Either way, the character creation part of octo expansion doesnt line up with agent eights canon backstory. Thats a whole other thing though.

Another issue is fuzzified octolings. No mention of them or anything that happened in alterna. From what we can gather from alterna, there is no more octarian army or at least a huge chunk of them are gone frok their society because of alterna. And yet, this plot point isnt brought up ever again, even within alterna since they for some reason forgot octavio existed right after forcing him into the story. Also, they had a hint that dedf1sh got fuzzified too, with one alterna track being named #35 captured, yet here they are, perfectly fine and still sanitized. Also doesnt help that fuzzification is functionally the same as sanitization, it just happens on contact instead, but nothing about memories is focused on. Marina absolutely should have been aware that a huge chunk of octarian society went missing to the point where even octavio went to look for them, unless side order happens before alterna, in which case it still ends up making marinas efforts useless.

The problem too with what marina did is that they showed no proof of any of it actually working. Agent 8 was supposed to be the first one to test it out, meaning we never actually know if the color chip-mem cake thing actually works, nor will we know if it will ever work, because for some reason we still let smollusk take control over the order sector. Marina should not have to hack her own creation to make things work. And sure, they have this one-off line thats like "wow eight you got your memories back !!", but thats something that couldve been shown so that its actually impactful and so that eight has an actual motive in the story that isnt just Stand There And Do Things Because You Were Told To, as well as Stand There And Listen To These People Talk To Each Other simulator. They even had mentions of other octoling devs that helped her make the memverse and yet we dont get any focus on them either. Smollusk talks about them, yet somehow they arent made important to the plot. This also implies that octolings can just go back and forth freely between their society and the surface, unless these devs also happened to leave and just so happened to not be involved with the fuzzification issue. We also have the case of people supposedly being dragged into the memverse and they look spaced out in the real world, yet thats also not made into an actual plot point and instead just mentioned once and never focused on again. If they had just shown any actual impact to the characters or the real world at all, maybe it wouldve been more interesting. They really went with a tell-not-show route with side order and it sucked.

And, to add on, it wasnt only octolings that kamabo co did stuff to. Iso padre is the biggest example of that. He lost his memories too. Yet they decided to leave him out of the story when he arguably wouldve been more relevant to what was actually happening than acht was, but unfortunately they opted to focus more on adding a popular character to the story for the sake of adding new useless information about a character and nothing else. All they had to do was make acht actually involved with the actual plot and not just sit in the elevator doing literally nothing and adding literally nothing but dialogue for them and marina to act like they just saw each other last week.

[wh00pwh00p]

@glupiypryanik THIS IS FOR YOU (n also a great excuse to info dump about my babies)

so i have technically 5 OC worlds (minus dnd characters), i say technically 5 because i post like 4 of them here??? the other one is mainly written so i dont have a lot of art of them. but i also have ideas for how id love to present these worlds in the future..... like making some into shows or comics (i probably wont ever do that bc time but one can dream)

im ganna cover them one world at a time from least to most info??? i think?? its a long one.... much longer than i thought.... (i might just keep adding as characters get more info n stuff)

Nova & Circus (doesn't have an actual name yet) :

Nova and circus are roommates n live in a world which is like a near future with lots of built up places heavily based on cities like Tokyo, Seoul, New York and LA in there too. very entertainment industry heavy. Nova is an Idol (i specifically draw from the aesthetics of J-pop idols and a little from K-pop idols) she is very busy all the time which leads to her being very tired when shes not doing work. she also very much enjoys her work and is relatively popular. Circus is a streamer but does like live radio type streams, he used to be a DJ and producer before he started his own thing and now he also helps produce some of Novas music. hes much better at doing his own thing and he doesnt work well with like strict schedules and such. do they have to live together? no, they both make more than enough to live separately and be pretty well off. are they living together because they are dating? maybe but dating is taken very seriously within the Idol scene and it could cause problems for both of them if they were dating, which they are definitely not doing (/s)

Heavens Finest :

oh Delilah. Heaven in this universe isn't somewhere for the dead but more so a place for angels, these angels have a normal working society where everyone is delegated jobs. Delilah was delegated the job of a guardian angel, guardian angels in this universe are the beings that give you a sense of safety, they are the beings that give you the impulse to look before crossing the road or to watch your step. Delilah is horrifically bad at this (partially on purpose). everyone Delilah is sent to keep safe dies within 2-3 business days because she's either gotten to work late or was far too preoccupied doing literally anything else than her job. however shes also the queen of weaponised incompetence, every time her boss threatens to move her to another sector she happily reminds them that she will screw up anything, anywhere, anytime and out of pure fear theyve had to keep her on. as Delilahs story continues her boss gives her an ultimatum: If the next person she guards dies within a week they will let her go. Delilah happily accepts however what she doesnt realise is that shes been assigned the stupidest yet seemingly invincible guy who just. wont. die. her story evolves from her passively letting people die to her straight up trying to kill this guy within a week.

Bp&I :

this universe is a pretty normal modern world filled with halloween monsters. Skeletons, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, think of any classic scary monster n they are here. the main groups (the biggest groups) are: werewolves, vampires, skeletons, witches, zombies, demons, ghosts, sirens and ogres. sometimes (like a 1/1000 chance) a monster can have a seconds supernatural ability, these can be anything from turning invisible to being able to speak to cats. this universe exists alongside our own, for some this is their afterlife and for others our universe is a source of food (especially for vampires and sirens). another big part of this universe are the Fighting Tournaments. every month has a tournament on the last week of the month. these tournaments consist of one race (eg: an entire vampire tournament, an entire ghost tournament so on so on) this is primarily to do with the fact that some races are less or more effected by other races (eg: ghosts cant really be touched by non ghosts unless the ghost puts energy into being a physical thing and this also effects them using objects and such or vampires are more vulnerable to things like fire but demons are immune). these tornaments give non ranked fighters the ability to enter the ranked places. once a year their is a 'Ranked only' tournament which takes place over most of the month where the top 10 from each race compete to take each others rank. Rank 0s are the highest ranks and essentially run the world. Bloodpact is a vampire who also has the supernatural ability of a necromancer, shes able to bring back people she has drank from to act as undead slaves. Bp holds the 3rd spot within the vampire ranks, shes known for having an energetic and deeply chaotic personality and fighting style. her main weapon is a harley quin-esque hammer. Ink could not be further from Bp if they tried. Bp essentially picked Ink of the street to be their mentor. Ink is a ghost with the ability to shapeshift and has always wanted to be a high rank fighter after waking up here after dying. Ink is extremely chill n mildly worried about Bps caffeine addiction.

tbt the best way i can describe these two is 'Autism n ADHD solidarity' Bp may be Inks mentor but i think ink is objectively more responsible. Bp does also have a manager to keep her (and now Ink) on track in their activities.

The Bastards :

the name sounds mean but trust me they deserve it.

this story takes place on a planet which is made up of a single planet which is mainly desert but has some very large interconnected cities and towns within large bubble like structures which create almost fake environments. they can produce different types of weather and grow crops within them. however people do live outside of these bubbles, in the desert areas. this is a modern fantasy-esque space setting (a lot ik) think like Coruscant from star wars mixed with the envoriment in the Darling in the Franxx enviroment. large pockets of perfect land and infrastructure held within localised stationary domes the capability to mimic different enviroments and weather.

this is a rough idea of what its probably laid out like:

the agriculture domes are the least populated, dominated by fields and farms. these farms are able to produce most types of vegetation and can produce enough food for the vast majority of the planet.

main cities and sub cities have very high population densities (like i said think coruscant) minor cities are like the usual cities we have (think new york and london) the towns are less dense more like large sub urbs.

the smallest domes are either villages or business quarters.

the small red cubes/rectangles are settlements outside of the domes, these houses may seem to be of lower quality than the ones in the dome but theyre just much older and built for the desert conditions.

there is one main intergalactic ship dock far from the main urban areas however some of the outer dome settlements have their own landing zones for their own ships or to get deliveries

talon lives outside of the domes, he and his dad run a ranch with a focus in raising and breeding the older more traditional native breeds.

Heartstopper lives in the main city in a relatively nice penthouse gifted to her by her parents before they disowned her

cat scratch lives in the main city in a dingy basement apartment in the....not so nice parts of the main city Cat Scratch, Talon and Heartstopper all despise each other.

(arrows pointing to someone is why they hate the person its pointing to, it was just far easier to put into a diagram.)

all three of them have become bounty hunters due to life circumstances and had a pretty bad kill on sight mentality towards each other however one day they are essentially arrested and given the choice to either go to jail for the rest of their lives or become a unit to fight more dangerous crime groups. as much as they all hate each other they all hated the idea of prison more.

now these characters are supposed to be bad people however i wanted to build them in a way that gave them stories which are just bad life circumstances or events and essentially what would happen if people neglect the fact that they are deeply effected by these things and continue to bottle it up and ignore it instead of... yk.... going to therapy. just keep this in mind as i explain them.

Cat Scratch was orphaned at a very young age, never stayed in one place for long and was always bouncing homes or families. all this contributed to them harbouring a pretty strong hatred towards the world, they blamed other people their entire life, never trusted anyone and became just very violent as an outcome. as previously mentioned they were bullied during school pretty heavily by talon n his group of goons TM which onl;y made this worse as she then had to physically fight these people. as they grew up they met new people, they met heartstopper (though she wasnt heartstopper then) and a guy who they both fell for. cat scratch believed they should have him and they did get him eventually even if it did destroy their friendship with heartstopper and required a few extra steps. this didnt last long however and eventually Cat Scratch had to make it by themselves... again. they turned to bounty hunting as it was profitable enough to keep them off the streets and... a good way to get some anger out...even if it was pretty violent.

Heartstopper had a pretty good upbringing, her family was upper class and were relatively wealthy and yes maybe she had to fight for attention sometimes between her and her multiple siblings but it was never bad. she always had a knack for lying though, just little white lies here and there and pocketing a couple small things here and there (only a stick of gum or a lipstick here and there). she grew up got a good education, great grades and eventually a good job with even better money and met new people. she met cat scratch and a guy they both fell for. heartstopper knew they both had the same feeling but he obviously chose her and she hoped that cat scratch understood that. a little bit later and they were engaged and happy. only what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life became the beginning of the end. he never turned up. not only did he never turn up but no less than a week later sensitive private images, videos, messages were suddenly not so private. the emails to her work, the lies within these emails lined with sensitive content were the final straw. her family had turned their backs on her, her job had let her go and frankly she had nothing else. these things were her life. she had no money, no life and no aspirations so she said fuck it and became a bounty hunter... a much less violent one but a snake in long grass type. if lies were so easily spread about her, then why not everyone else.

Talon would tell you he had a normal upbringing, he didnt. hid mother left when he was very young and has only ever lived with his dad on their ranch. talons dad isnt exactly a good person, pretty horrible honestly, a notorious bigot but talon didnt see that at the end of the day he was his dad and that was all he had. par a few animals and his bird, rogue, obviously. talon knew he was different. not really because of his physical appearance, horns n tails were rather common at his school but inwardly he was conscious about something. it annoyed him when he saw people who were seemingly comfortable in their skin and cat scratch was one of them. it annoyed him that they would walk around as if they had nothing to lose, how theyd look at others with disgust as if they felt like they were above others. one day he and his friends, admittedly, got a little too rough. turned out this cat has much sharper claws than they thought. the next thing talon was aware of was lightning like pain stemming from his spine and the fact that it ceased as soon as he screamed in pain as if they realised he was awake and stopped. after the pain he realised he couldnt notice anything else, he couldnt see anything else. later hed be told his eyesight was unrecoverable and that his previously tan complexion and brunette hair were now stark white and his horns and spines a silver colour. as shit as it is to loose your eyes you get used to it, you find other means of navigating, for talon it was rogue. like a guide bird if you will. she even helped with using firearms, some things were off the table but if he could set up a place to camp out rogue helped with aiming and guiding him on where to shoot through sound or touch. as talon grew up he learned to ignore the feeling that he was different, as his dad grew old he took on more responsibilities around the ranch and just didnt have time to think about it anymore. money got tight a couple times and talon decided he needed to pick up a side hustle... a bounty hunter would probably make just enough.

as the story of the bastards develops they learn to trust and understand each other. they learn that at the end of the day theres not much they can do except to strive to be better.

key story moments include cat scratch almost dying due to their own reckless behaviour and having to trust the other members to not let them die and thank them for helping when they could have let them die on the mission, heartstopper fully breaking down on a mission and admits that she barely knows who she is anymore after the others confront her on her lying and manipulation of other people leading to her having to revaluate her life and open up to those around her and talon finally finds out why hes always felt different after meeting cyrus and falling pretty horrifically in love with him over the course of a short stay during a mission and having to recon with the fact that this could destroy everything hes ever known and being backed by the others in accepting himself and what he wants.

these guys are little shits but they get better n i love them, they are definitely the most in depth characters i have along with being the most depressing but i enjoy playing with the nature vs nurture aspect of terrible people yk and how some of them can get better if they only had good friends and/or therapy (dont worry i will send these idiots to therapy once theyve finished their main stories)

if you got this far heres a pic of one of my cats :3

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

The space cowboy au sounds so fun!! Do you maybe have more info about keiths kid? Also im courious, does the Kuron in this au have a diffrent personality than the post s8 guy? Since their backstories and background are so diffrent

Honestly not much, Kid is still in workshop (at the point where i am still calling her 'Kid' instead of finding or even creating an actual name for her). But i still have something-

Kid to me is the kind of personification of the consequences of Keith's avoidant ass just straight up repeatedly abandoning everyone. The way i see it is, even after Zarkon died and Shiro was still there, Keith still went on missions with Blade which meant voltron were still down a paladin and a lion for a number of voltron missions and eventually caused the team to fracture to the point that Lance got so frustrated with others he left for home, and eventually got himself stuck in the cowboy sector. (This is like 5 years after Kid is born but no one knows the existence of Kid)

While he was on missions Keith got close to this one alien (Kid's other parent) until they you know slept together. However after few attacks Keith got paranoid that he's endangering his partner and left without even a goodbye or a letter or knowing he got his partner impregnated. Said partner tried to get into contact with Keith to atleast tell him that hey! You are a father! But eventually gave up on him cause they cant be hung up on him anymore and have a huge responsibility especially considering a war is tearing un the entire fucking universe.

So Kid grew up knowing who her father is and what he is and just absolutely fucking hating him. She saw her parent struggle to try to make ends meet and support both of them while her 'father' is treated as a hero despite him abandoning him and she hates the legacy he left behind. Not to mention galran gene pretty much skipped a generation, so Kid despite only being a quarter Galran looks much more of a human-galran-other alien amalgamation than Keith who looks fully human. This in itself is kind of a problem in the universe where Galran hate half-galrans for being impure and non-Galrans hate half-Galrans for being Galran. So not fun. Especially when you are a dirt poor pair of refugees.

Eventually (and idk maybe something happens to the the Other Parent) she decides that actually? She's going to fight her useless father and either make him pay child support or just straight up kill him. She fully believes that whatever is wrong with her can be fixed if she gets to punch Keith, maybe even kick, maim, and bite him. So she decides to embark on her mission in the name of all the children with deadbeat parents to stab her father with his own knife. She ends up taking the wrong turn and ends up in the cowboy sector (if the other parent is still than it is more like they were on a trip, got themselves stuck and even if fighting Keith isnt a mission, it is something that she is still planning to do when she's older). Here she runs into Lance and is like, "Ok here's my ticket to meet the sperm donor!" And Lance is like "Kid i havent seen Keith in years. Also this sector is pretty much an abandoned death trap. There's no way we'll even be able to get out ever!" But Kid is like "Nuh-uh!" And follows Lance around and also plans to get out of here and gets into every fight possible. And Lance who didnt even believe Kid was Keith's kid (despite her looking like him, including that scowl) and just dealing with years loneliness, depression, and hopelessness is like "Well i cant just leave the kid on her own to deal with all the bullshit." And ends up becoming her father figure.

Regarding Kuron, oh absolutely! A lot of Kuron's anger and personality in post s8 au is because of his trauma, and since this Kuron doesnt go through all of That™, he is mostly a chill dude. I am still debating on whether he knows he is a clone, or gets to know this after he meets Lance (i am leaning towards already knows) but yeah dude is mostly chill and lowkey confused with the entire sector. He was running away from Haggar and an existential crisis and an identity crisis and some other regular bullshit of the yeehaw sector. He feels directionless and aimless given he's not only a science experiment meant to be evil, he's an abandoned science experiment meant to be evil. He doesnt want to be evil, his goal in life is to survive to see the next day, and the next day, and the next, and yeahhhhh he's definitely a bit depressed. But it is Fine! He's Fine! Totally Fine!!! (Lies) Lance was a familiar face and Kid is familiar and funny so he decide to stuck around see where it goes, not expecting to be integrated in highly co-dependent found family and sooner or later having to face all his issues head on. He doesnt hate Shiro but he is also weird about him? Like he doesnt know how he would approach him or if he even would ever get a chance to approach him. So Shiro is pretty much in the backburner along with all his other issues. But yeah i'll say he's very different from ps8!Kuron.

[nintendont2502]

What's up with heirstuck and reboot

Heirstuck is just my version of the generic homestuck fantasy AU (the planning document is actually named 'Yet Another Generic Fantasy AU' so I kinda call it heirstuck + YAGFAU interchangeably lmao), but idk I think its fun. I put a shit ton of effort into the world building/lore but also I have no fucking clue what to actually do with it? Idk might write smth after I finish Reboot

Reboot is just 'self indulgent shit: the fic' and I love it so fucking much. It's also the only fic idea I've actually written something for (8k so far baybee). It's all I think about at work because driving is Boring

Hold up im gonna add a cut here because im about to infodump hard

Reboot: takes place 10 years after the game ends, and right after Dirk kills himself like he does in the Candy timeline (except there's no Ult selves this time - dude was just Not Doing Great). Jake *also* isn't doing great, manages to convince himself that there *has* to be a Dirk, and somehow Hopes into existence a 13 year old Hal, who's very confused (because his last memory was dying as Arquiussprite when he tried to leave the game*) and definitely not Dirk. Jake freaks out, Hal *also* freaks out and passes out (partially due to just being overwhelmed by being literally Hoped into existence), and Jake takes them to Dirk's old apartment where he uh. May or may not keep him kidnapped there for just over a month (although he'd never admit that he's essentially kidnapped someone to himself). Also he keeps trying to figure out how to 'fix' everything, and somehow ends up deluding himself through the power of Hope into seeing Hal *as* Dirk. Hal (who at this point is incredibly scared just by. Everything (including Jake flipping his shit and punching him at one point) goes along with it.

Eventually Jane figures out what's going on, finds Hal and loses her shit because holy shit her husband created life, kidnapped said life and didn't tell her for a month straight. Hal ends up moving in with Dave and Karkat (who are very very gay and very very in denial about that) and gets a job with crockercorp because he doesn't fully trust dave and karkat yet, and wants to be able to support himself. Eventually he realises thst he *can* trust dave and karkat (and his job is incredibly fucking boring) and he tries to quit, but whoops! Turns out he was *technically* registered as Crockercorp property.

To try and cover up Jake's... everything, Jane secretly gave him a role at Crockercorp in the research and development sector, with Hal legally being his prototype for Crockercorp's supposed AI program. Jane was originally just going to leave it, but crockercorp is struggling financially, and AI research could be enough to keep them running. Which means.- Hal isn't allowed to leave. Obviously Hal, dave and Karkat are *furious* about that, but there isn't anything they can do - legally, Hal doesnt exist as a person, and when they try to take Crockercorp to court, they lose. Bad. Jane (who isn't the absolute worst yet but judt give her time) offers them a contract where Hal can do his work from home four days a week, and only comes in on Mondays. She does get worse though. Way fucking worse - she begins to realise that if they're going to pull off the AI thing (and they have to, because they've invested so much time already and there's so much on the line), they need Hal to obey them- and right now, he isn't doing that. Being at Dave and Karkats most of tje time gives him a stable home base, so he feels confident enough to tell crocker to fuck off and not play into her robot shit. Eventually, she starts getting even more desperate, and Bad Shit happens which I won't spoil here :)

Heirstuck doesn't have a plot yet, but it's pretty standard 'homestuck fantasy AU' shit. Derse and Propsit are two separate kingdoms, ruled by the alpha kids (who are 20) with the beta kids (who are like 16) being the heirs to the throne. Alternia is a separate kingdom on the outskirts that fucking hates the human kingdoms, and the human kingdoms are also at war with each other

The rules of succession are pretty interesting though I think - each kingdom has two thrones, the male and the female throne. Only members of the royal family who show signs of magic abilities are able to claim the throne, and there's always two royals of each gender - one on the throne, and a heir. In both kingdoms, the male members of the royal family take one last name (Strider in Derse, Egbert in Prospit), while the female members take a different last name (Lalonde in Derse, Harley in Prospit).

The last Queen of Prospit (Queen Harley) mysteriously disappeared one day, along with the former King Egbert, leaving Jane and Jake to take the throne. Only a few days earlier, Queen Lalonde and King Strider of Derse *also* died, forcing Dirk and Roxy to the thrones. All four were far younger than any recorded rulers in history, and the suspiciously close timing of the rulers deaths only lead to more suspicion between the two kingdoms, fueling the war even further. Just after the crowning of the two kingdoms new rulers, the ruler of Alternia - Her Imperial Condesce - returned after her decades long disappearance, telling Alternia to ready for war

Before Queen Harley died, she spent a lot of time with her Heirs Jane and Jake, although what she did was unknown. It must have had an impact, though, because when Jane ascended to the throne, she took the last name 'Crocker' instead of the traditional Harley, in honour of the former queens original last name. Similarly, only a few days after he was crowned, King Egbert completely disappeared (although rumours have spread that he now goes by Jake English or Doc Scratch, in honour of the God he's created a cult around on the outskirts of the warring kingdoms)

(Also yeah Queen Harley is absolutely just HIC in disguise - she brainwashed Jane into further intensifying the war between Derse and Prospit before she 'died', and she told Jake about a powerful God known as Lord English in the hopes of distracting him to get a weaker King on the throne (poor John). She didn't expect him to actually raise LE - it was the equivalent of just jingling keys in front of a baby's face, only for them to snatch them, sprint away and commit mass vehicular manslaughter in your Ford f150.)

I dont really have too much in the way of plot yet, but I do have some random ideas:

- after HICs return, karkat is suddenly in a lot more danger as a mutant (and someone who neber manifested powers, unlike every other troll) - so he gets the fuck out and flees to Derse, where he meets dave

- speaking of Dave - he never manifested powers either. He shouldn't be heir, and they all know that. He came along with rose to serve as her body guard (and also to get away from his older brother, who - resentful that *he* never got called up to take the throne - trains Dave *way* too hard). Rose fakes a vision that Dave is meant to be heir, and dirk and roxy pretend to believe it because holy shit they can't just send him back

- Jake uses dirk as a host to manifest Lord English. Cue incredibly insane Dirkjake here

- I have. Thoughts about classpects and how they manifest but I can't be fucked writing them out jere

- HICs main goal is to have the two human kingdoms turn on each other so they weaken each other, and then the trolls can sweep in and take them all out (right now they live underground after some ancient war drove them out or smth).

[darqx]

Humans are Kinder Surprises

❗️For commonly asked qs please see my BTD FAQ

Well, yes and no. It actually has everything to do with the fact that Rire is a Royal and that demons are usually able to tell who is a Royal - or at the very least that they are a really powerful demon - purely by feeling. Royals are generally regarded with reverence and/or fear, and demons will act accordingly respectful / subservient / however you want me to act my lordship [please don’t kill me].

Humans have no such ability or foreknowledge and therefore don’t have the same compulsions :> They don’t even know he’s not human at first. It’s like getting a giant Kinder Surprise of possible reactions.

I’m sure he’ll find a way

Maka you changed ur name and i got thrown for a loop there XD So, the soul is somewhere in the chest cavity, and you are right in thinking it doesnt necessarily have to be a bloody affair lol. Well...i suppose he could just take the fast way and punch right through their chest in which case it WOULD definitely be...but anyway XD;

But no, he COULD very surgically and cleanly remove it via the throat (which he has done on occasion) he just doesn’t because it’s more entertaining (and technically fresh) to pluck it out quickly. Particularly, he’ll often pause as he grips the soul before pulling it out, just to draw out the experience for his victim.

The fact there’s apparently some sort of wiki always sends me XD

It’s another place/world lets put it that way haha. It’s broken up into parts called Sectors and he’s King of one of them, with the others having their own Royals. Demons only! Demons can get back and forth from it if they have the appropriate power base and learn how to use it.

Hello and thank! ^^ Correct, he is not impervious to fear so things that could greatly harm him would have him worried. That being said, he is very calculative which is useful for turning things into his favour or just straight up knowing when to bow out to avoid them - that also means he’d never truly submit to anyone as he’d always be looking for a good way to “rectify” a situation. I think the last time he was truly worried about something was in his first Battle Royale, as he wasn’t a Royal at the time, was at a distinct disadvantage with a very high rate of failure, and knew it.

If they are interesting enough he may consider it (and by that i mean depends on how they react etc). He prefers humans, but it’s not a hard limit. And yes he can tell when someone else is a demon :)

See above answer and no lol. Thank XD;

Depending on what lore you’re using this could get very circular if i just put a drawing of Demon!Rire here lol.

Rire doesn’t actually care about anyone’s sexuality as it’s not an important factor for him personally. But he does have a habit of using someone’s likes and dislikes against them in some way so take that how you will.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Experian doxes the world (again)

The nonconsensually compiled dossiers of personal information that Experian assembled on the entire population of the USA may currently be exposed via dozens, perhaps hundreds, of sites, thanks to a grossly negligent security defect in Experian's API.

The breach was detected by Bill Demirkapi, a security researcher and RIT sophomore, and reported on by Brian Krebs, the excellent independent security reporter.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/04/experian-api-exposed-credit-scores-of-most-americans/

Experian, like Equifax, has unilaterally arrogated to itself the right to collect, store and disseminate our personal information, and, like Equifax, it faces little regulation, including obligations not to harm us or penalties when it does.

Experian's API allows criminals to retrieve your credit info by supplying your name and address, information that is typically easy to find, especially in the wake of multiple other breaches, such as Doordash's 5m-person 2019 breach and Drizzly's 2.5m-person 2020 breach.

Demirkapi explains that the API is implemented by many, many sites across the internet, and while Experian assured Krebs that this bug only affected a single site, it did not explain how it came to that conclusion.

Demirkapi discovered the defect while he was searching for a student loan vendor. There is a way to defend yourself against this attack: freeze your credit report. Credit freezes were made free (but opt-in only) in 2018, after the Equifax breach.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/09/credit-freezes-are-free-let-the-ice-age-begin/

Indeed, you may have already been thinking about the Equifax breach as you read this. In many ways, that breach was a wasted opportunity to seriously re-examine the indefensible practices of the credit-reporting industry, which had not been seriously scrutinized since 1976.

1976 was the year that Congress amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act after hearing testimony about the abuses of the Retail Credit Company - a company that swiftly changed its name to "Equifax" to distance itself from the damning facts those hearings brought to light.

Retail Credit/Equifax invented credit reporting when it was founded in Atlanta in 1899. For more than half a century, it served as a free market Stasi to whom neighbors could quietly report each other for violating social norms.

Retail Credit's permanent, secret files recorded who was suspected of being gay, a "race-mixer" or a political dissident so that banks and insurance companies could discriminate against them.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/09/equifax-retail-credit-company-discrimination-loans

This practice was only curbed when a coalition of white, straight conservative men discovered that they'd been misidentified as queers and commies and demanded action, whereupon Congress gave Americans limited rights to see and contest their secret files.

But these controls were never more than symbolic. Congress couldn't truly blunt the power of these private-sector spooks, because the US government depends on them to determine eligibility for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

It's a public-private partnership from hell. Credit reporting bureaux collect data the government is not legally allowed to collect on its own, then sells that data to the government (Equifax makes $200m/year doing this).

https://web.archive.org/web/20171004200823/http://www.cetusnews.com/business/Equifax-Work-for-Government-Shows-Company%E2%80%99s-Broad-Reach.HkexS6JAq-.html

These millions are recycled into lobbying efforts to ensure that the credit reporting bureaux can continue to spy on us, smear us, and recklessly endanger us by failing to safeguard the files they assemble on us.

This is bad for America, but it's great for the credit reporting industry. The Big Three bureaux (Equifax, Experian and Transunion) have been on a decade-long buying spree, gobbling up hundreds of smaller companies.

These acquisitions lead directly to breaches: a Big Three company that buys a startup inherits its baling-wire-and-spit IT system, built in haste while the company pursued growth and acquisition.

These IT systems have to be tied into the giant acquiring company's own databases, adding to the dozens of other systems that have been cobbled together from previous acquisitions.

This became painfully apparent after the Equifax breach, so much so that even GOP Congressional Committee chairs called the breach "entirely preventable" and the result of "aggressive growth." But they refused to put any curbs on future acquisitions.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/420582-house-panel-issues-scathing-report-on-entirely-preventable-equifax-data

A lot has happened since Equifax, so you may have forgotten just how fucked up that situation was. Equifax's IT was so chaotic that they couldn't even encrypt the data they'd installed. Two months later, they "weren't sure" if it had been encrypted.

https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/450429891/Following-Equifax-breach-CEO-doesnt-know-if-data-is-encrypted

*Six months* before the breach, outside experts began warning Equifax that they were exposing our data:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/ne3bv7/equifax-breach-social-security-numbers-researcher-warning

The *only* action Equifax execs took? They sold off a shit-ton of stock:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-14/sec-says-former-equifax-executive-engaged-in-insider-trading

The Equifax breach exposed the arrogance and impunity of the Big Three. Afterward, Equifax offered "free" credit monitoring to the people they'd harmed. One catch: it was free for a year; after that, they'd automatically bill you, annually, forever.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170911025943/https://therealnews.com/t2/story:19960:Equifax-Data-Breach-is-a-10-out-of-10-Scandal

And you'd pay in another way if you signed up for that "free" service: the fine print took away your right to sue Equifax, forever, no matter how they harmed you:

https://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/equifax-lobbied-kill-rule-protecting-victims-data-breaches-2587929

The credit bureaux bill themselves as arbiters of the public's ability to take responsibility for their choices, but after the breach, the CEO blamed the entire affair on a single "forgetful" flunky:

https://www.engadget.com/2017-10-03-former-equifax-ceo-blames-breach-on-one-it-employee.html

Then he stepped down and pocketed a $90m salary that his board voted in favor of:

https://fortune.com/2017/09/26/equifax-ceo-richard-smith-net-worth/

Of course they did! His actions made the company so big that even after the breach, the IRS  picked it to run its anti-fraud. Equifax got $7.5m from Uncle Sucker, and would have kept it except that its anti-fraud site was *serving malware*:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/equifax-irs-data-breach-malware-discovered/

Equifax eventually settled all the claims against it for $700m in 2019:

https://nypost.com/2019/07/19/equifax-agrees-to-pay-700m-after-massive-data-breach/

But it continued to average five errors per credit report:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/02/11/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-takes-aim-equifax-credit-scoring/

And it continued to store sensitive user-data in an unencrypted database whose login and password were "admin" and "admin":

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/equifax-password-username-admin-lawsuit-201118316.html

Congress introduced multiple bills to force Equifax, Experian and Transunion to clean up their act.

None of those bills passed.

https://www.axios.com/after-equifaxs-mega-breach-nothing-changed-1536241622-baf8e0cf-d727-43db-b4d4-77c7599fff1e.html

The IRS shrugged its shoulders at America, telling the victims of Equifax's breach that their information had probably already leaked before Equifax doxed them, so no biggie:

https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/355862-irs-significant-number-of-equifax-victims-already-had-info-accessed-by

Since then there have been other mass breaches, most recently the Facebook breach that exposed 500m people's sensitive data. That data can be merged with data from other breaches and even from "anonymized" data-sets that were deliberately released:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/21/re-identification/#pseudonymity

And while you can theoretically prevent your data from being stolen using the current Experian vulnerability by freezing your account, that's not as secure as it sounds.

Back in 2017, Brian Krebs reported that Experian's services were so insecure that anyone could retreive the PIN to unlock a frozen credit report by ticking a box on a website:

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/09/experian-site-can-give-anyone-your-credit-freeze-pin/

That was just table-stakes - it turned out that ALL the credit bureaux had an arrangement with AT&T's telecoms credit agency that was so insecure that *anyone* could unlock your locked credit report:

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/05/another-credit-freeze-target-nctue-com/

These companies came into existence to spy on Americans in order to facilitate mass-scale, racist, ideological and sexual discrimination. They gather data of enormous import and sensitivity - data no one should be gathering, much less retaining and sharing.

They handle this data in cavalier ways, secure in the knowledge that their integration with the US government wins them powerful stakeholders who will ensure that the penalties for the harm they inflict add up to less than profits those harms generate for their shareholders.

This is why America needs a federal privacy law with a "private right of action" - the ability to sue companies that harm you, rather than hoping that federal prosecutors or regulators will decide to enforce the law.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/16/where-it-hurts/#sue-facebook

Experian promises that this breach only affects one company that mis-implemented its API. We would be suckers to take it at its word. It didn't know about this breach until a college sophomore sent in a bug report - how would it know if there were others?

Image: KC Green (modified) https://kcgreendotcom.com/

[oswednesday]

despite not having much story and the booring-est gym challenge, i really liked kabu! he had a lot of character, with his pokemon team and the lil cutsceen you get with him, like when you bump into him in the coal mine and the send off and the really surprising to me battle animation after he was like extra upright serious? loved all that! i want to play off more on it, so in this nuzlocke 

hes an heir to the coal mines, like his family long time before he was born bought up them all , he like stupid wealthy but had no interest in doing anything business and coal related, but out of a mixture of both fear and respect for his family, he essentially waited for them to knock off to pursuit a career in professional pkmn battling so he started along in his 30s rather than 18 like most trainers in galar do (the trainers are all going to be at least 18 in this thing its so silly you spend a literal hour fighting preschoolers dggggf when has there Ever been that many!!) 

he sold the coal titles over to the government’s transportation sector (so like the trains)(also there are rumours going around about how kabu’s family’s company and rose’s company are connected in some way, same goes for the transportation sector, its no secret the chairman has an energy company tho its that alternative energy), so he doesnt have to bother with it, and in return they sponsor him completely, covering any needs he has so he never has to do anything but train with his pkmn

 he enjoys traveling and studying under pkmn master in other regions, because of this he has many luxury pokemon from other parts of the world! another thing that reflect his multi-regional studies is his gym quest

( a part of me thinks a mining cart mini game would be fun and im bummed out there wasnt one in game but i think it would be more in character if there was just a no frills stair case leading further into the earth, with a trainer under kabu's tutilage standing in the way)

(ability: steam engine, moves: tar shot,high horsepower, ancient power, explosion)

(the terrain triggers the effects of its ability!)

(championship cup thingy: tar shot, ancient power, burn up, explosion) (note: the order of pkmn he sends out is in verse this time so coalsorra last! this is the one he also gigamaxes or w/e, it uses its special one for the big match!)

( like i think kabu, opal and piers are the only characters where it makes sense that they'd have like Gym Trainers under them cause the Lore is like these are sports atheletes whose lively hoods are all wrapped up in pr with challengers threatening to take that from them like,,,why would the younger ones train anyone? like thats silly)

(ninetales has some LAME ASS abilities so kabu’s extra rare ninetales has storm drain cause wouldnt that fuck you up? like oh okay sorry ma’am wont use water gun anymore have a nice night, probs like vulpixs that live in urban areas of like unova)

(ability: storm drain, moves:spite, will-o-wisp, grudge, mystic fire)

(the cup: spite, mystic fire, grudge, fire blast)

(in kabu's case its because thats how its done in eastern regions and its both a nod to his ethnic heritage (rather than being from another region straight up more like his moms family is, giving him more connections to the plot) and to his abroad training) 

(ability: flash fire, moves: extreme speed, flame wheel, retaliate,fire blitz)

(cup update: extreme speed, fire blitz, wild charge, double-edge)

(each gym trainer has one pkmn, each level you go down gets hotter which boosts fire moves and reduces damage to water, ice, grass and normal, something like its warm, its hot, its very hot! with very hot having a chance to inflict burn on any pkmn not part fire type)

(after you finish up with very hot, you enter kabu's stadium, which is a platform surrounded by lava and the terrain is like steaming with coal mounds, theres a safe place for you to stand but not much protection else wise, also ive been imaging like a protective thin see through barrier around the crowd thats like protects them from the battle, sometimes it does crack and strain but its never broken before, mr mimes probs put them up)

(ability: speed boost, moves: double kick, dual chop, dynamic punch, mega kick)

(cup update: it evos into the mega form cause i prefer the design and it matches kabu’s motif! in verse i think the mega forms will be treated like rare alt forms you can get when you have pkmn with the hidden abilites so you dont need the z stone to have them and theyre perma as an evo, moves: blaze kick, sky upper cut, dual chop, brave bird)

 (n was right)

(ability: magician, moves: future sight,howl, heat wave,wish)

(cup update: future sight, psyshock, heat wave, wish)

(cinderace is making me appreciate delphoxs design more lmao)

(note: while the rest of the order is reversed in the cup, delphox always goes second to last)

(any pokemon that isnt fire or have levitate take damage on the terrain each turn thats equivalent to ember kinda like hail or sandstorm but for fire-type, the air being very hot also has a chance of inflicting burn, i have more nit and grit about like air and fire terrian but i think ill save it for when i get to that!)

(ability: flame body, moves: wrap, bug bite, fire fang, coil) (just like In The Game he makes this cutie extra big and uses that special attack, i keep picturing it like a bonus attack you pick when you enlarge them rather than what it actually is, im sure the hypothetical battle emulator will deal with that)

(cup update: this sweet baby goes first! moves: wrap, bug bite, lunge, fire lash)

(its also shiny! it matches kabu!)

[etheiryan]

Say My Name

“Cayde!” His voice was hoarse from repeating the same words over and over in the thick smoke. “Andal! Where are you idiots?”

They’d been separated during the attack. The scorch cannons were...unexpected. As a result, here Tevis was, a lone nightstalker human trying to find his idiot friends who were probably still in the Lost Sector.

...which was burning, judging by the smoke steadily billowing out of the top of the building. Hell, it might even collapse soon.

There was still no sign of the other two hunters.

Tevis groaned to himself, reloading his scout rifle, “Guess I have to go back in, here goes fucking nothin’.”

Crouching low and with his helmet back over his face, Tevis was, for the most part, out of the smoke. Not out of danger yet, though. “Artemis, try the comms again,” he whispered as the void embraced him with its usual whispers and he shadestepped into another room.

“Contacting Andal and Cayde...nothing but static. I’ll keep at.”

Tevis sighed, tuning out the incessant voices of the void, “Any suggestions?”

“Uh...shoot some cabal.”

“...That’s as good of an objective as any, I suppose.” Tevis cracked his knuckles, “Let’s light this popsicle stand.”

“Get tethered motherfuckers!” Tevis cackled as he released his shadowshot, creating a mini-void in the middle of the room. The hive mindlessly wandering stumbled as the void snatched them up, overwhelming them with the combined voices of everyone who had ever whispered into it.

It was a simple task to blow their heads ceiling high after that.

“..evis? Tevis, come in.”

“It’s Andal!” Artemis exclaimed in surprise, “Guess the cabal had some sort of jammer or something.”

“Andal! Thank the Traveler, I was starting to think you’d died to some lowly hive shit for a second.” Despite his joking words, Tevis felt his body, tensed since they had lost contact, weaken in relief.

“Ha, it’ll take more than a simple Lost Sector to take me out,” Andal’s words were breathless, “But Cayde’s my bigger worry now.”

“Why?” Tevis straightened, seriousess returning to his voice, “What happened?”

“His thick skull hit a corner, one of the wizards got to him.” Andal reported, “They’re all dead, of course-”

Tevis got the impression that the whole room was sparking with arc blade slashes.

“-but our newest addition isn’t waking up.” He finished.

Tevis let his hood and helmet transmat away, his hand coming up to mess with his ginger waves, “Uuuhhh alright. I’ll be right there. Artemis, set a waypoint at their signal.”

“Marked.”

“How bad is it?”

Andal looked up as Tevis entered the room, reloading his scout rifle. “He’s woken up, once. Passed out again almost immediately.”

“Can’t Sundance heal him?”

“She has. He had a dent in the back of his head that got fixed, but…”

Sundance materialized over Cayde, “Physically, he’s all good. His mind...it’s a mess. It’s like his memories are all overlapping and mixing and just being really weird.”

Andal frowned and reached out to slap the exo, “Oi, wake up.”

Cayde shot straight up.

“Holy fuck!” Tevis swore, startled by Cayde’s sudden movement.

“Hey, Cayde. Buddy. Do you remember anything? How’s your head?”

Cayde blinked. Once. Twice. “...I….you…”

“Who am I? Say my name.”

“A…” his glowing eyes narrowed.

“C’mon bud. Just my name,” Andal encouraged.

“I...I don’t know…”

Took some liberties on this one, especially on wierd hive magic. Also late, but the next few ones should be on time for once. Also...is it borrowing headcanons from @nutshaxx if I helped develop them? Idk. Void hcs are mine tho. First destcember that doesnt involve an oc lmao.

[overlooker12b]

Dr. Parker Rouse CoP:112

Log:002

Date: March 12 2019

Accessed via:unauthorized Terminal in sector D:12

Dear anyone.

Currently hiding out in some knockoff Kmart. So many random buildings here that do not make any since. Some of these burger joints are equipped with cardboard cut outs of people. They move and talk but unatuarlly. I dubbed them CoP:112-2. They are harmless seem to be living but could just be puppets of some other unknown anomoly or anomalies.

Anyway I am getting off topic I want to keep some of these logs without science keep my my facilities in straight. I am Dr.Parker Rouse I was born in July/10/1964 which makes me 54.

I have 4 children. David 16 ,peter 23,Steivia 23,and Kenedy 19. Three of my kids are outlook agents the other is about out of highschool. I have a loving wife named Carla Shwitz whos 45 years old.

I graduated M.I.T at 35 as a physisit. I joined Out Look at 42 after being called in for a job interview I didn't apply for.

I am hiding currently do to the massive explosionions I keep hearing and seeing coming from where I had just left. I think it is an E-class disaster effort, The people I reported must have been some sort of spy or other agency. And were very dangerous I am lucky to be alive if this is the case.

Or worst this is some sort of cleansing process CoP does to empty sectors. I am in D:12 and have been traveling in D location or relative straight.

We have devised a map of CoP 112. A B and C are all living sectors up to 5 on the board. D E F G H are all unexplored mainly because life doesnt reach out this far. There are other sectors but we didn't feel to map them do to the shear size or SoP:112. It would be feautile and we will mark them when we settle them.

Why D? Well it's the best position on the board to be honest. East to write down and is the most clear way on the map being not so crowded. Hold up something is coming

End

Terminal: repairs needed

[the-desolated-quill]

Luther 5x01 - Luther blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Can you remember the last time I’ve written about this show? 24th December 2015. Feeling old yet? Back then I was lucky if my reviews got two notes. Now I can get as many as thirty. Goodness me, I’ve gone up in the world XD

If you would like to read my reviews of the previous episodes... well... I’d rather you didn’t if I’m honest because they’re not very good. I was still finding my feet as an amateur critic/blogger/moaning old fart at the time and only had a vague idea of what I was talking about. I can give you a quick summary of my views on the show. I love it for the most part. In recent years it’s become almost trendy to take the piss out of it due to its over the top villains and gratuitous violence, but that’s always been part of its charm for me. But above all, what puts Luther head and shoulders above most other crime shows for me is the title character. Writer Neil Cross has created one of the most compelling and morally complex characters I’ve ever seen and Idris Elba brings him to life expertly. As horrific and ludicrous as the crimes and plots usually are, it’s DCI John Luther that keeps me coming back for more.

Luther has always been more of a horror show than a crime drama and the first episode of Series 5 is no different. A masked killer with LED lights on his hood to confuse CCTV cameras, (which makes him look a lot like that ghost astronaut from Scooby Doo), is roaming around London, sneaking up on unsuspecting strangers and hammering nails into their bodies because that’s the only way he can achieve an orgasm. Oh yeah, and he also has a jar of eyeballs in his sex dungeon because of course he does. The villains in this show can be many things, but subtle isn’t usually one of them. At one point newcomer DS Haliday asks Luther if this kind of depravity is normal for him, which made me laugh. Any Luther fan could tell you that this is just an average Tuesday for him.

No other show can get away with this kind of grotesqueness, but in Luther it just works. It revels in how insane and weird it is. It’s not a question of whether or not it’s believable (because let’s face it, it bloody isn’t). It’s a question of whether or not it’s scary and it absolutely is. Jamie Payne’s direction really helps to up the creep factor and the concept itself is just inherently icky. By far the most terrifying scene was the killer creeping up on that woman on the top deck of the the night bus, almost panther-like. What made it scarier for me is that the scene was actually filmed near the Olympic Park in Stratford, which is close to where I live. Seeing a psycho wandering around areas you’re familiar with is disconcerting to say the least.

The episode also does a good job of piquing the audience’s interest and building intrigue. Hermione Norris is captivating to watch in her role as Dr. Vivien Lake, who claims to know who the killer is, but there’s clearly more to her than we think. Luther notices straight away this isn’t a normal patient/doctor relationship and we the viewer know from the outset there’s something not quite right about her. It goes beyond her empathising with the killer. She seems to have a degree of control over him, which makes you question whether she is playing a part in these murders, perhaps for her own sexual gratification. Even the reveal at the end that the patient was just a patsy and that her husband is the real killer doesn’t give away everything. I feel there’s a lot more to unpack here with this relationship and this character, and I can’t wait to see how it unfolds in the next three episodes.

The main cast are pretty good. Idris Elba is predictably brilliant, stepping back into the tweed coat and red tie with little effort. Dermot Crowley and Michael Smiley return as DSU Martin Schenk and Benny respectively and both are great fun to watch. Benny in particular plays a more active role this time, no longer being just the stereotypical computer guy and instead taking part in the action, helping Luther to remove a bomb collar from a hostage, which was cool. The weak link is probably DS Catherine Haliday, played by Wunmi Mosaku. She’s set up as the newcomer, being fast tracked to the Serious and Serial Crimes Unit from the public sector, but she doesn’t really have that much of a part to play. Luther barely even acknowledges her existence most of the time. There’s none of the Batman and Robin-esque camaraderie that Luther and Justin Ripley had in the first three series and she’s not as interesting as Emma Lane was in the previous series. She just... exists. Hopefully she’ll get more to do as the series go on.

Another actor who’s wasted in this episode is Patrick Malahide, returning from Series 4 as ‘old school’ gangster George Cornelius. Actually this is something of a recurring problem for Luther. The first series I remember fondly because Neil Cross kept everything simple for the most part. Each episode was about a different serial killer and how Luther was going to catch him. But from Series 2 onward, everything started to get needlessly complicated with B plots and C plots and side stories and so on. I can understand why they’re doing this. Idris Elba and Neil Cross aren’t as readily available as they used to be so when they do find the time to make more Luther episodes, they want to cram in as much material as they can to make up for the long wait by fans. I get it completely, but it comes at the cost of the narrative as a whole. Vivien and her sexually deranged husband is an interesting plot in and of itself, but we keep getting yanked away from it in order to deal with an entirely separate plot about George trying to find his kidnapped son. George isn’t a bad character, don’t get me wrong. Malahide does a great job in the role, but you can’t help but feel all of this is a bit pointless. Why should I care about this guy? He’s a cockney arsehole who tried to assassinate Alice Morgan (the most popular character in the show) for a bunch of diamonds last series. Fuck him. At least now that Alice is back, we can hopefully see her exact her revenge on him.

On the whole, a solid start to the new series with a lot of potential going forward.

[actualbird]

hey there, bird so you wrote a post about bilingual characters a while back that references code switching and the deliberate change in language, and i've been thinking about that a lot because it's the exact opposite for me? like i'll say one (1) german word and suddenly everything's coming up deustch. i think that's really interesting, since tagalog doesnt share a root language with english but german does! thoughts?

OHHHH INTERESTING!!!! any and all thoughts i have on this are based on personal experience and not any real research (because all my reading on language is more on the semantics/cultural aspects of english or tagalog individually, and not together)

code switching is actually super common over here (**here being middle class metro manila, because other places and other sectors of the population definitely have different language patterns), but it’s heavily dependent on who we are talking to. which i will get to later but first i gotta explain. something. 

like, if i had to say what language i speak most with most ease, i wouldnt actually say english or tagalog. i’d say taglish, the unholy code switching combination of the two. the thing with taglish thats different from what youre talking about is that with taglish, it is DEFINITELY not straight through and through from english to tagalog. every other word code switches. grammar and structure has to go through some hoops to accommodate both. we even adapt tagalog conjugations for english words, something that is SO INTERESTING TO ME (i.e. “to check” - tagalog conjugation for present tense - “chinicheck”. IT’S A DISASTER ISNT IT. esp when you take into account our conjugation goes past time and goes deeper into the purpose of the action, so. “to check” - conjugation for when you didnt really intend to do the action but you just joined in with other people who were doing that action - “nakipagcheck”. AND SO ON. WELCOME TO HELL.) (if youre interested in stuff like this, Filipino English and Taglish: Language Switching from Multiple Perspectives by Roger Thompson is a great read that goes very in depth in so many aspects of taglish, from word density to possible markers like age and tradition, etc.)

taglish is definitely not formal but it’s what i talk the most because 75% of the time im not formal talking anyway. i learned english and tagalog simultaneously, so this being my instinctive, subconscious go to makes sense!! 

except when im talking to people who cant understand tagalog. then it’s straight english and i dont even strictly notice? the change? in my head i just know that itd be pointless and rather confusing to use words that my conversational partner would not know, lest they consent that it’s fine i use taglish/are trying to learn more tagalog. like it is, again, completely natural to go straight english whereas if i was talking to somebody who did speak tagalog, my switch to taglish would be just as natural. i dont feel a, like, a force? anywhere? the hardest thing i deal with when speaking straight english are my word fillers which are in tagalog/taglish slang (i.e. yung ano, anong tawag diyan, gets?, diba?) which CONSTANTLY slip out no matter how english im talking. when i was in singapore it took me like a whole hour to realize i was doing that and i only noticed because people asked me what the hell i was saying inbetween everything else i was saying shfjdhkf.

ive only ever written one bilingual character, and thats michael. my opinions on how he’d interact with language are a little different mostly because he’s a filipino in america, and fil-ams born in the US have the tendency to not have as much fluency in tagalog or other filipino languages their parents/family know. also, i really wanted to project my conyo taglish experiences onto him. so he speaks tagalog but goes taglish with jeremy because jeremy explicitly gives consent to him that it’s fine. had that consent not happened, i doubt michael wouldve spoke any tagalog to him, and it wouldnt have been too much of a hassle, aside from words that slip through, which, in his case, would be swear words. as the fic goes on, i stray from the simple tagalog/english thing and go even  to like the emotional weight of one language and the other, but thats a WHOLE OTHER THING TO DISCUSS

//vague hand gestures??? I HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE OMG??

[moonybyte]

I once did a whole 20 min essay about mlm-aimed-at-straight-women stuff. There is actual scientific research being done about it and the current state is this:

* it's NOT an actual mlm. Look at the majority of manga/anime from that sector (ignore bara, the audience there is actually gay men)

* there is the whole uke-seme aspect which in most gay relationships just doesn't happen (or not that heavily at least). Why does it exist then? Cause it's a STRAIGHT RELATIONSHIP IN DISGUISE

*the seme looks like what women find sexy: tall, smart, big hands, not too muscular but toned

*the uke is 8 out of 10 times a woman with short hair and a dick (srsly, I could swear every second yaoi manga has them straight up grope their breasts while calling them boobs). Big eyes, volumptious lips, thick hips, small, slender. Put long hair on them (if they don't have some already) and it's your classic anime heroine

* But it's gay men, you say. It's about the gays! No. Mlm does at most scratch the surface of actual gay issues. You get some "but you can't marry?!" and "dishonor to our family" stuff, but you could put any woman who doesnt want to marry and have kids there

* Aids? Homophobia? A rarity, a d even then badly implemented more often than not. Heck, most of the time 'everyone's gay in yaoi land' applies and no one gives a flying fuck (wouldn't it be great, if being gay were that easy?)

*so why make a straight relationship gay? Cause then you can have all the bad stuff, the forbidden fantasies...but not with women :)

* there are LOADS of mlm where the seme is: abusive, manipulative, dismissive, a stalker, a rapist. Honestly, I hate the majority of semes for that kind of stuff. It's like the 50 Shades of Gray for gays.

* but HEY, it's done to a GUY, this is ok, he could FIGHT BACK (anyone notice the implications of this for both men and women in abusive relationships?). And hey, the seme really loves the uke, so it's ok, he'll learn and shit

*even the "cute" stories are questionable at best: they infantisize the uke. Poor kid can't do anything without his seme. Look at him cry and bubble. Man, he's so overemotional, can barely handle his shit, good thing that there's a strong man there to take care of him.

* it's not like this is totally an allegory for all the stories we know from straight stories, am I rite?

*so in short: mlm-aimed-at-straight-women is all the shit that men fantasize doing to women that are EXTREMELY problematic...and then women do it to effimate men to "make it ok". Dunno if it is internalised "this is normal" shit or straight up "as revenge, we'll make the life of these men hell", but it is incredibly bad

I am NOT saying I never read/enjoy mlm (cause obviously I consumed a lot). I am not saying sexy or effimate men are bad. Heck, I really love it when men can be cute as hell, be emotional and all that and just love their partner in a "it's okay to be gay" world.

BUT mlm-aimed-at-straight-woman is doing all of that a disservice! It takes what is wrong with how men treat women and puts it on gay men. An emotional gay man needs "a strong male partner" as much as any woman: not at all. Rape-for-drama is the worst trope in 99% of all cases, motherfucking including when done to men. Being gay can be cute and loving and sweet, but gay men don't need to copy women for that and sure as hell aren't as free to do so as straight women without facing serious real world issues.

So when you read mlm-aimed-at-straight-women, ask yourself this: if the uke were a girl, would you find the story still cute and sexy? Or creepy as fuck?

wlw obsessing over mlm ships because there are barely any women in media for them to ship together is NOT the same as straight women obsessing over mlm ships because they think it’s hot send tweet

[malenipshadows]

Despite his promises, Trump’s cybersecurity plan doesn’t exist

 By Steve Benen, MSNBC, The Rachel Maddow Show.  Published online 4-20-2017.  Two weeks before his presidential inauguration, Donald Trump met with leaders of the U.S. intelligence community, who briefed him on the Russian hacking scandal. Almost immediately after the private discussion, Trump straight-up lied about what he’d learned, insisting in a statement that intelligence professionals told him Russia’s operation had “absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election.”    The intelligence community hadn’t said that at all. Trump just made it up.  But in the same written statement, the Republican added that the nation’s cyber

infrastructure is at risk and he announced that his team would produce a new cybersecurity plan “within 90 days ” of his inauguration.    A week later, he had a related tweet pointing to the same deadline.   Politico published an interesting status-check today.  On Thursday (4-20-2017), Trump hits his 90-day mark. There is no team, there is no plan, and there is no clear answer from the White House on who would even be working on what. It’s quite a fine-tuned machine, isn’t it?    There was some talk of Rudy Giuliani having a cybersecurity role on Team Trump, but Politico reports that the former mayor is not working on the White House’s plan. Neither is the National Security Council.   When Politico asked the White House for some kind of explanation, a spokesperson said, “The president has appointed a diverse set of executives with both government and private sector expertise who are currently are working to deliver an initial cybersecurity plan through a joint effort between the National Security Council and the Office of American Innovation.”    Yes, that would be the same Office of American Innovation headed up by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In other words, Kushner’s policy portfolio, which already appeared ridiculously vast, also includes playing a role in the creation of a cybersecurity plan that was due today (4-20-2017), but which doesn’t currently exist.    Let’s not forget that during the campaign, this was an issue Trump at least liked to talk about. During the first presidential debate, he vowed to get “very tough on cyber.”    He quickly added, “I have a son. He’s 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it’s unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it’s hardly doable.”    I still haven’t the foggiest idea what Trump was trying to say.  Regardless, as regular readers know, the president considers himself some kind of visionary on matters of technology security. In a pre-inauguration press conference, Trump said he deserved credit for the RNC’s cyber-security measures because, as he put it, Trump believes he told the national party to create a “strong hacking defense” and they took his advice. (There’s no evidence such a conversation ever took place.)    Given his professed expertise and interest, it’s curious to see Trump and his team fail to follow through.         ** Hyperlink:  http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/despite-his-promises-trumps-cybersecurity-plan-doesnt-exist

[worldtopnewsoftheday]

One somehow doubts that President Trump is grateful to Matthew Whitaker, the former acting attorney general, for comments he made on television recently concerning the ongoing Ukraine scandal. With his usual heedless candor, Whitaker insisted to his Fox News host on Wednesday that "abuse of power" by a president is not illegal and thus not necessarily grounds for impeachment.This is totally true, albeit in the same sense in which "corruption" and "lying" and "being a totally obnoxious ass" are not crimes. None of these things has a statutory definition. Thank you, Mr. Whitaker, for being the real last honest man in the GOP.Because this is really the only argument that remains available to the president and his defenders, isn't it? Whether Trump wants to admit it or not, his political fortunes now depend not on questions of fact but on whether anyone cares that he used the authority of his office to attack a political rival. That he has done so is now more or less beyond doubt. Insisting that he was motivated by anything except a desire to affect the outcome of the next presidential election is as pollyannaish as, well, suggesting that Hunter Biden was on the payroll of a Ukrainian natural gas company because of his vast knowledge of that sector in post-Soviet Eurasian republics -- or that Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch had a polite chat on the tarmac one afternoon about a new deluxe edition of Rumors rather than the investigation of his wife's emails then being conducted by the Obama administration.This is why Republican members of the GOP in Congress are now making procedural arguments about the supposed unfairness -- with special emphasis on the alleged secrecy -- of the impeachment process. What began by casting doubts on the credibility of the so-called "whistleblower" and continued with a series of niggling hang-ups about details is now a nakedly formalist exercise in saying "No fair!" as loudly as possible. They will continue to embarrass themselves with stunts like Wednesday's attempted storming of the Secure Classified Information Facility because there is nothing else that they can say or do.Is the process actually unfair? This does not seem to me to enter into the equation. All that matters is whether Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff have enough votes to impeach the president in the House (my guess is yes, though barely) -- and whether Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republican senators will stand by the leader of their party (once again, I think the answer is yes). Impeachment is a nakedly political process. There are no clearly defined criteria for what constitutes an impeachable offense -- only the willingness or unwillingness of the House to pursue impeachment. The remedy is worthy of the illness.A more interesting question is why Trump and defenders are in fact shying away from Whitaker's argument. It is not clear to me that it is such a bad one. Anyone who believes that the office of the presidency operates in a sphere outside "politics," in the sense of the word that means partisan elections, is being naive. Of course presidents do things in the hope that they will help them to be re-elected. Ours is an exhausting news cycle full of distractions. How many of Trump's supporters from 2016 are likely to change their minds because the leaders of a more or less insignificant republic half a world away received money they were due anyway after hearing America's mayor rant at them about a man whose chances of winning the Democratic primary are not nearly as certain as they appeared to be several months ago?This no doubt sounds very cynical. It is cynical -- as cynical as promising that Mexico would pay for the wall or giving Michael Cohen money to shut up Stormy Daniels or giving corporations tax breaks before insisting that they scale back their operations in China and stop laying off hard-working Americans.This is what this presidency has been like from the very beginning. Why would the end -- whether it comes next year or in 2021 -- be any different?Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.

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