#will takeover event 2

[st4rstudent]

I've had this idea for a while but everytime I actually gave it thought, I'd get frightened last minute. But anyways, with summer coming up (and more free time), I've been considering making an ask blog of sorts just for fun. Does that seem like anything anyone would be interested in

naturally itd be more hc based because well. heh. looks around. gets scared

[ask-rachethabaster]

Nemesis and Morpheus: what's the deal with you two and Hecate and what was that 'backup plan' you mentioned

Morpheus: Alright, we should probably explain. Now, we like Hecate, we're so glad she's on our side, she's a great help et cetera et cetera but...

Nemesis: We're not convinced she's gonna stay on our side.

Morpheus: Listen, I know this sounds bad but demigods die, most of them very young and at some point you just gotta accept that. Even if there was some way to have them live longer they're mortal and they all die eventually. Me and Nemesis both agree we are changing things for, hopefully, the next few millenia so that means we can't prioritise the demigods we have right now. Hecate, however, if the situation ever came down to choosing between us and her children, we think she would choose her kids.

Nemesis: The backup plan is something me, Morpheus and Eris planned together, in case it appeared we weren't getting the respect we deserved we figured we would take inspiration from Hera, Poseidon, Apollo and Athena by plotting our own little coup. And, if in dire need, we do have a plan for a whole revolution. Again, only in dire need.

Nemesis: The reason we haven't told Hecate is because... we think she has a bit of a bias for Kronos. She directly helped Zeus against Kronos, I didn't care and Morpheus didn't exist but Hecate helped them a lot. A thing about her: is she's very petty on a good day, it's not usually a problem and I love it but we think she's biased for Kronos because the Olympians don't care about her. We don't want her to protest what we've had planned for almost a year now. At the end of the day we're her... allies and we want what's best for her.

[abluehappyface]

The tenth and FINAL cover of the Mokou Takeover! It's a Clocktower Cover! This is a new kind of cover, so there's no set rules on how to make one yet, but I tried to get this one to match Ran's as close as I could. I LOVE this! It's so intense and dramatic just like Ran's!

[bagelbucket]

don't stop the party i guess

[mr-walkingrainbow]

Okay yall! People seem to be posting some hella awesome fanfic ideas and as someone who hopes to in the future run for king of bridgella angst, I’d like to throw my fanfic idea into the mix!

A tragedy in the making:

THE CHOICE

~———————————~

What if?

Red returns to the present. Only to not be able to find Chloe in the crowd.

She spots her mother, who now looks radically different, similar in appearance but bursting with color and joy (picture the reformed queen we see at the end of the movie)

Only when she goes to ask her where Chloe is, she is introduced to three dramatic changes

1. Chloe seems to have never existed in this world

2. their is a very large and menacing looking RING on her mothers finger

Cinderella is walking over, and Bridget’s referencing too her as her WIFE!

So not only does Chloe and Chad not exist in this world. But Red now has TWO passionately loving moms. Bridget and Ella.

And in Reds eyes. This world is a dream come true. There was no coup. Wonderland is a peaceful world. Her mom was never a tyrant. AND was never put through the traumatic psychological breaking event. And Red gets two loving moms. Which is a huge step up from having one extremely manipulative one.

in all seriousness, she should be overjoyed.

but Chloe. Isn’t. Here.

And for all Red knows. There is no way for Chloe to exist, and for the Queens coup to never happen. This Red never saw another result. This is the only other one she’s seen.

So she has to make probably the hardest decision in her entire life. Because going back to the past to change this would not only in her mind be sentancing Auradon to a mad takeover. But Retraumatize her mother, rip her away from a life where she gets to live with her deepest love. AND sentence Cinderella to certain doom.

But doing so would mean Chad and Chloe would get to live.

Would mean Chloe could still be there. Would mean the only person and friend who’s ever believed in Red would still be there. Even in a dystopian world.

What choice does Red make? Well that’s for you to find out!

lol I’m still ironing out a lot of kinks and i definitely haven’t written much. But this has been an au that’s been growing in me head for the last week or so!! Let me know if any of yall are interested!!!

@c-rose2081 @somedudenamedanthony @strugglingsapphic do tell if you think this is a fic worth writing. I love the idea but if you don’t think it’s worth a read I’d definitely take that into account

Also who’s the king and queen of glass heart lol? Who do I go to to throw my hat in for running of King of Bridgella angst

[misfitwashere]

How to Stop Fascism

Five Lessons of the Nazi Takeover

Timothy Snyder

Jul 05, 2024

As the United States hovers at the edge of fascism, the history of Germany can help.

To be sure, Americans have other histories to ponder, including their own.  Some American states, right now, are laboratories of authoritarian rule (and resistance).  The American 1860s and American 1930s reveal tactics authoritarians use, as well as the weaknesses of the American system, such as slavery and its legacy. At those times, though, Americans were lucky in their leadership.  Lincoln and Roosevelt were in office at the critical moments.  And so we lack the experience of the collapse of the republic.

We can certainly learn from contemporary authoritarian success, as in Russia and in Hungary, which I have written about elsewhere.  Yet the classic example of a major economic and cultural power collapsing into fascism remains Germany in 1933. The failure of the democratic experiment in Germany led to a world war as well as the Holocaust and other atrocities.

Yet today a taboo hovers around anything concerning Hitler.  As soon as the collapse of the German republic in 1933 is evoked, American voices commence a fake lament — America is uniquely good so nothing about Nazis can ever apply, and/or Hitler was uniquely evil and so nothing concerning him is relevant.

To be sure, every person and every event is in some sense unique.  But history is precisely the interaction of individuals and situations which, seen in isolation, will appear unique.  The taboo on fascist history shoves people back to a turbulent present, leaving them feeling more helpless. It is an element of the fascist takeover.

The lessons from Germany that I present below are not at all new.  We have been trained by digital media to believe that only what happens right now matters.  But the people who intend to destroy the American constitutional republic have learned from the past.  One of the basic elements of Project 2025, for example, is what the Nazis called Gleichschaltung: transforming the civil service into a fascist nest.

Those who wish to preserve the American constitutional republic should also recall the past.  A good start would be just to recall the five basic political lessons of 1933.

1.  Voting matters.  Hitler came to power after an election which enabled his appointment as head of government.  It is much easier for fascists to begin from within than to begin from without.  Hitler’s earlier coup attempt failed.  But once he had legitimate power, inside the system as chancellor (prime minister), he could manipulate it from within.  In the American system, “voting” means not just going to the polls yourself, but making donations, phone-banking, and knocking on doors.  We are still, happily, at the stage when unglamorous actions can make the difference.

2.  Coalitions are necessary.  In 1932, in the crucial German election, the far left and the center left were separated.  The reasons for this were very specific: Stalin ordered the German communists to oppose the German social democrats, thereby helping Hitler to power.  To be sure, the American political spectrum is very different, as are the times.  Yet the general lesson does suggest itself: the left has to hold together with the the center-left, and their energies have to be directed at the goal rather than at each other.

3.  Conservatives should be conservative.  Which way the center-right turns can be decisive.  In Germany in 1932, conservatives enabled the counter-revolution.  They did not see Hitler and his Nazis as something different from themselves.  They imagined, somehow, that Hitler would preserve the system rather revolutionize it.  They were wrong, and some of them paid for the mistake with their lives.  As in American today, the German “old right” was less numerous than the “new right,” the fascists.  But how the traditionalist center-right acts can very well make the difference.

4.  Big business should support democracy.  In the Germany of the 1930s, business leaders were not necessarily enthusiastic about Hitler as a person.  But they associated democracy with labor unions and wanted to break them.  Seeing Hitler as an instrument of their own profit, business leaders enabled the Nazi regime.  This was, in the end, very bad for business.  Although the circumstances today are different, the general lesson is the same: whether they like it or not, business leaders bear responsibility for whether a republic endures or is destroyed.

5.  Citizens should not obey in advance.  Much of fascism is a bluff — look at our loyal cult, listen to our outrageous language, heed our threats of violence, we are inevitable!  Hitler was good at that sort of propaganda.  Yet to gain power he needed luck and the errors of others.  American fascism, likewise, is far from inevitable.  It too is largely bluff, most of it digital.  The internet is much more fascist than real life, which is discouraging.  But we vote in the real world.  The crucial thing is the individual decision to act, along with others, for four months, a little something each day, regardless of the atmospherics and the polls and the media and the moods.

It’s simple: recalling history, we act in the present, for a future that can and will be much better.

[linderosse]

Wielders of Wisdom: Introduction Part 3

Dusk (Scholar) [TP]

Constantly exasperated; keeps the others in line

Often comes across as cold or heartless due to her stoic demeanor and cautious outlook

She doesn’t know Twilight well. But they both loved Midna, and her loss unites them.

The most sentimental Zelda

Story: The populace has begun to recover from the twilight takeover. However, monsters and bandits still roam the land, and the soldiers of Hyrule are, in Dusk’s expert opinion, incompetent. Dusk’s own public image has suffered due to her initial surrender to Zant and possession by Ganondorf. Telma and the Resistance are a blessing, but they can’t be everywhere at once— especially now that rumors are starting to circulate about a connection to the Twilight Realm reopening…

Artemis (General) [HW]

Bold and fearless, extremely headstrong

Often impulsive; easily provoked

She and Warriors dance around each other’s feelings like old politicians at a rally. It’s a familiar dance. Neither of them have tired of it. Yet.

The most fashion-conscious Zelda

Story: The War of Eras is over, and the heroes have returned to their lands. Artemis feels her friends’ absence acutely as she struggles to take the reins of a kingdom that’s still recovering from war. Dissidents taunt her at every corner, and traitors and assassins lurk in the shadows. Artemis and the others will have to root them out before it’s too late…

Flora (Scientist) [BotW, TotK]

Inexhaustibly curious; a mad scientist and innovator

Developed patience during her long battle against Ganon

She’s relearning her relationship with Wild. She has to admit she’s a fan of this new, freer version of him.

Most likely to be fiddling with something; sometimes breaking it, sometimes fixing it

Story: Civilization blossoms once more in the wild. Flora has gotten used to living again, finding pleasure in small comforts and learning her country. Research still beckons her, though, and recent events and breakthroughs have allowed for new fantastic inventions. Flora works to promote unity while keeping an eye on progress, yet a strange malice lurks beneath the kingdom…

< Part 2 | Part 4 >

Masterpost

[alienpossession]

Ethnographic Research: Part 1

Loud screams and flailing hands, yet no one to help as all of them already jumped off their boat in the middle of the lake. They can feel it, something is filling them up, fast, and they cannot do anything about it. But after a wild couple of minutes, deafening silence as no more scream for help coming out. Soon, they climb the ladder by the side of the boat and get back up to the deck, looking at each other with curiosity and gleeful, awkward smile. One of them then mouthed

"Let's inform the Mother Ship of a job well done," and just like that, the cold expression-less face turned warmer, rowdier even, as it takes on a more humane color and expression.

----

There's no such thing as a memo or pointers on "How to Perfectly Blend In among Human" or "Step-by-Step Guide for Seamless Integration into Human Society". At least not for the Xarthan. As an invasive, cruel yet hyper-intelligent extraterrestrial being, taking over by sheer force and adapting accordingly is always the playbook. It's in their DNA to give complete disregard of other species as long as their species advanced or survived through their tumultuous, warring lifestyle. Yet, a handful of Xarthan believed that there's a better way of life out there. That they don't have to continously move from one planet to the others, pillaging one's life after the other, just to get their euphoric-inducing stimulant release. That maybe killing other species is not the only way they can get that sensation that makes them alive. Their centuries of research eventually led the descendants of these slightly differing Xarthans to the small blue dot their transmission revealed to be called planet Earth.

So, these small pack of 20 Xarthans decided that their research hypothesis need to be verified. They descended in batches, 2 in each spot seemingly infested by human being and planned to converge after each of them lived at least around a month or two acclimatizing to Earth's society. Their mission is to verify whether or not the sexual release done by the male population of Earth released a similar stimulant to what the Xarthans experienced when they manage to exterminate other species

In a complete Xarthan's style, these batches of alien take over the first human they encountered with little to no regards about the life these human previously have. In its static form, a Xarthan is usually 7-8 feet tall, translucent and very slender being. But due to its "liquid" nature, it can adjust its shape. Upon contact of the vessel's internal water or blood, a Xarthan will merge with it and then spread itself through the entire system of the body. This also applies to bodies of water in the wild, so in the event of encountering bodies of water, a Xarthan can break down into millions of microparticles and takeover multiple vessels at once. After taken over, those vessels will be controlled by a singular hive mind as those microparticles originated from a single Xarthan entity before breaking down. That case happened to the unfortunate Pike boys and their girls who spent their time on a lakeside cabin for their weekend break. When they jumped to the water, they have no idea that 2 Xarthans just landed a couple minutes before right around the area where their boat stopped. Upon unknowingly making contact to the infested water, their bodies all contorted and spasmed as millions of microparticles swarmed their system. They tried their best to save themselves but it was just too much and before long, they were all taken over

Still in the States, but more to its Northwest area, the hunting group didn't realize that there's a pair of predator lurking around the shadows. The group went to Montana for a casual hunting since this is not yet the season for elk hunting anyway. They split themselves into group of two, not knowing that by the end of the day, a pair of them will be back as totally different person. That misfortune befell on Richard and Logan, the slightly more experience hunter among the group as they were USMC veteran and probably have the most experience with gun compared to the others. The Xarthans that took over their bodies laughed on the last memory the two humans have

"He was scared shitless. It was genuinely the most horrified he's ever been,"

"Yup, same goes here. I think he peed his pants HAHAH"

The 4 Xarthans in the States are just 1/5 out of the research group. If went according to the original plan, the other 16 will land around:

1. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2. the Greek isles

3. Bangkok, Thailand

4. Ibiza, Spain

5. The Carribbean

6. Northern Europe, and

7. Eastern coast of Australia

[art]

Tumblr Live Bricks Takeover

Calling all builders, photographers, and collectors in the US! Ready your minifigs, MOCs, and greebles. Dust off your streaming devices. Because on February 16, Tumblr Live will be aaaaall about those bricks.

The first 50 registered participants to stream anything LEGO® for 2+ hours between 7 and 12 PM ET on February 16 will receive 40,000 diamonds—that's the equivalent of a Galactic Explorer Set for those of you who speak LEGO®.

Sound good? Register and learn more about the event below. We can't wait to see what you're building!

LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this site.

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week - April 3, 2023

Kentucky Legalizes Medical Marijuana in Bipartisan Vote After Decade of Failed Attempts

The state of Kentucky has legalized the use of medical marijuana. The bill received final passage on Thursday. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear signed it into law Friday morning after a decade of failed attempts in the state legislature.

The news makes Kentucky at least the 38th state in the U.S. to legalize medical marijuana.

Now Indiana is surrounded by weed states. The encirclement is complete 😂

2. The Maryland House of Delegates voted Saturday to approve the Trans Health Equity Act

The Maryland House of Delegates voted Saturday to approve the Trans Health Equity Act — a bill that just a year ago disappeared from the chamber’s agenda ahead of a floor vote.

The bill would require Maryland Medicaid, beginning on Jan. 1, 2024, to provide coverage for additional gender-affirming treatments, which are currently disallowed in the state’s plan but commonly covered by private insurance. The expanded treatments include hormone therapy, hair alteration, voice therapy, physical alterations to the body, and fertility preservation.

3. FDA approves over-the-counter Narcan. Here's what it means

The approved nasal spray is the best-known form of naloxone. It can reverse overdoses of opioids, including street drugs such as heroin and fentanyl and prescription versions including oxycodone.

Making naloxone available more widely is seen as a key strategy to control the nationwide overdose crisis. Effects begin within two minutes when given intravenously, and within five minutes when injected into a muscle. The medicine can also be administered by spraying it into a person's nose.

4. Boston expands tuition-free community college program to all residents

Boston has expanded its tuition-free community college program to include all city residents regardless of age, income or immigration status.

Starting this fall, any city resident will be eligible to pursue an associate’s degree or certificate at one of six partnering local institutions without paying to attend. The program also includes a $250 stipend for incidental expenses each semester for up to three years, and up to $2,500 of debt relief for students whose account balances are keeping them from re-enrolling.

5. First cheetah cubs born in India since extinction 70 years ago

India has welcomed the birth of four cheetah cubs - more than 70 years after the animals were declared officially extinct there.India's environment minister announced the good news, calling it a "momentous event".

The country has been trying to reintroduce the big cats for decades, and last year brought eight cheetahs over from Namibia as part of the plan. Another 12 cheetahs were brought to India from South Africa last month.

6. BBC education show in Afghanistan helps children banned from school

The BBC has launched a new education programme for children in Afghanistan who are banned from school.It is aimed at children aged 11 to 16, including girls whose secondary education has been stopped by the ruling Taliban.

The weekly programme is called Dars, which means lesson in Dari and Pashto, Afghanistan's official languages. It is hosted by BBC Afghan female journalists who were evacuated from Kabul during the 2021 Taliban takeover.

Each new weekly half-hour episode of Dars will air four times a day, Saturday to Friday, on the newly launched BBC News Afghanistan channel.

7. A Trans Creator Has Raised Over 1.5 Million for Trans Healthcare on TikTok Live

Transgender TikTokers are celebrating Trans Day of Visibility by raising over $1.5 million for gender-affirming care around the world.

Mercury Stardust — a DIY TikToker and trans advocate who calls herself the “Trans Handy Ma’am” — raised $120,000 last year in a livestream for the mutual aid nonprofit Point of Pride, which maintains funds for surgeries, hormone therapy, and free binders and gaffs. This year, Stardust and cohost Jory, a.k.a. AlluringSkull, set themselves a goal of raising $1 million in a planned 30-hour live stream…and then smashed that milestone less than six hours after starting the stream Thursday evening.

----

I have started a Youtube channel with wholesome videos I can find on the internet. Check it out :)

That's it for this week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Also don’t forget to reblog

[alicent-vi-britannia]

Why does Shirley have to die?

One of the most frequent comments I found while browsing when I entered this fandom and it bothered me greatly was that Shirley's death was useless, which reflected a lack of understanding of the series and the character of Shirley and her relationship with Lelouch and Suzaku. So today I'll explain what the effects of Shirley's murder were.

Broadly speaking, Shirley's murder serves as a catalyst between the first and second half of the second season. Likewise, Shirley's sad murder resonates with the main theme of the series and influences the narrative arcs of Lelouch and Suzaku.

1. Shirley's death was what pushed Lelouch to change his plans for the Geass Cult. Instead of controlling the orphans who had been turned into Geass users, Lelouch decided to destroy the Geass Cult by decimating the children and scientists who participated in the project by organizing a clandestine operation with the Black Knights.

1.1. This operation will later become one of the reasons why the Black Knights will betray Lelouch. It's information that is leaked to Asahina, a member of the Four Holy Swords, and reaches through him Tohdoh, who, together with Ohgi, were the ones who convinced the rest of the Black Knights that they were angry with Zero for abandoning them in the middle of the takeove of the Tokyo Settlement. So the massacre of the Geass Cult influenced the betrayal of Tohdoh, one of the pillars in the Order of the Black Knights and most loyal to their leader.

1.2. Additionally, the Black Knights' attack on the Geass Cult resulted in the death of V.V. and attracted the Emperor who took the code from V.V. and then attempted to initiate the Ragnarök Connection in episode 15, but C.C. prevented this by sealing her code and suppressing her memories. Something that will influence Lelouch's isolation. Also, in the massacre of the Geass Cult, Lelouch captured Cornelia, which will be important in the future.

2. Shirley's death was what pushed Suzaku over the edge and motivated him to coerce Kallen through refrain to get confirmation that Zero was behind her murder. About to do so, Suzaku realized that he was about to become completely corrupted and begins to rethink his beliefs and methods for the first time. It's because of this incident with Kallen that Suzaku is willing to reunite with Lelouch and team up with him, even if it means abandoning Britannia. But, well, Schneizel ambushes the two former friends and makes Lelouch believe that Suzaku betrayed him once again. Consequently, Lelouch is determined to kill Suzaku in revenge, but it turns out badly due to the cursed order he gave him long ago and which causes the total annihilation of the Tokyo Settlement, something that will mark a turning point in Suzaku's narrative arc and It will also affect Lelouch...

3. Shirley's death was a turning point in Lelouch and Rolo's relationship. It was a relationship in which love and hate were quite balanced, but, after this event, Lelouch leaned towards hate. I'll talk more about this point in my analysis of Rolo's motivations for killing Shirley, so that's all I'll say for now. I'll add that, if Mao made him realize that Geass can corrupt the user and Euphemia's death made Lelouch realize that Geass is an evil power, Shirley's death made Lelouch realize that Geass will condemn him to isolation (damn, Lelouch saw a lot of red flags and kept going; I don't know whether to call it idiocy or determination). At the same time, he realized how terrible the power of Geass is in the hands of a child and became terrified that all Geass users were like Rolo, which is why he thinks it is better to eradicate the Geass Cult and not control them.

4. Shirley's death is linked to the main theme of the series (will) and, in a certain way, influenced the epiphany that Lelouch will have in the final stretch of the series. Rolo didn't get into a vehicle, he drove to Shirley's house and got out to shoot her. No. Shirley was murdered, following her will. She abandoned the security force that was guarding her because she wanted to offer her help to Lelouch. To paraphrase Lelouch's words to Schneizel in the series' penultimate episode, people are actively seeking happiness, and for Shirley, her happiness was with Lelouch. Even though Lelouch erases her memory over and over again to protect her, Shirley will always do what her will dictates, and that includes falling in love with him again. Shirley's firm resolve, added to that of other characters, is what teaches Lelouch to value human beings' will and constant pursuit of happiness.

In short, Shirley's death is what leads to most of the events that occur in the second part of R2. Without that, the Zero Requiem doesn't even take place. For all this, it is ridiculous that the alternate universe continues with the same events as the canonical universe, but, well, nothing makes sense in the alternate universe (hence it is complete garbage and I'll maintain this statement until the last day of my existence.)

Having said that. If anyone still wants to be angry about Shirley's death, they have to change their focus on her. The point isn't that Shirley's murder adds nothing to the plot (we already saw that it isn't true); but this seems to show that Shirley is a "woman in refrigerator." This is a term coined by Gail Simone to refer to female characters who face disproportionate harm, which will serve as a plot device to motivate male characters. The term was used to talk about situations in Western comics, but can be extrapolated to other media. Is Shirley a "woman in refrigerator"? I would say yes, but I think that term should be applied when there are female characters who have great potential and the authors don't exploit it, but rather prefer to reduce them to a motivation for the current male hero. And Shirley is not Kallen (an action heroine and Knightmare pilot, whose talent and skill can change the flow of a battle), she is not C.C. (an Immortal Witch who knows all the secrets of Geass and is clandestinely working with our protagonist's worst enemy for her own interests), she is not Euphemia (a princess in the Holy Empire of Britannia who can challenge the status quo and change the system from the inside), she is not Nina (a prodigy in science, capable of creating a weapon of mass destruction). She's only Shirley. An innocent civilian trapped in a bloody war. She cannot contribute more than she can, so let's not ask for pears from the elm.

I really wanted to write this analysis! I just removed a thorn that was stuck. I feel better.

[cosmos-dot-semicolon]

Act 1, and Leshy's relationships with the other Scrybes

There was a post on here a while ago about Leshy outright hating Magnificus more than P03, and one interesting observation was that he cuts the Wolf's stats, but boosts the Stoat's. I think there's more you can gather from Leshy designing around the other Scrybes, though:

GRIMORA:

Leshy seems to be the most amiable with Grimora. Yes, I think this probably comes a bit from the dev finding their aesthetics and gameplay styles easier to pair up, but I think's its also a little bit because she values fun quite strongly, which meshes well with his focus on lore: both things that aren't purely gameplay based unlike the weirder mechanics of the west-side Scrybes.

Similar to Leshy in act 2, none of her puzzles really cause any harm to her subordinates. It's meant to be some fun flavour plot for the player to engage their brains with before the battles. Honestly, the amount of times she says 'Marvelous!' alone should convince you of her priorities (outside of destroying the world!)

Leshy goes out of his way to design a totally new card for Grimora, which doesn't appear anywhere in act 2 or Kaycee's mod.

It's the only one with a sigil on it - it's a fragile card, but it requires more actual strategy than playing the non-sigil Wolf and Stoat.

One line of dialogue remarks that he wishes he had kept Grimora around, as she was at least a worthy challenger.

He says that the Stinkbug is weak, but other than that accepts you having it in your deck. Compare that to him absolutely hating the Stunted Wolf on sight.

If you look closely in the finale, Grimora has an insect crawling across the table in her campaign. I don't know if it's really a stinkbug, persay, but it's an interesting parallel to his choice of her species.

Someone has said before that there are notably more insect cards than any other species in act 1, which also plays into him being closer to her than the others.

Bones are literally the secondary currency in his campaign, whereas energy doesn't appear at all, and sigils are limited to a single map event.

stinkyyyy

MAGNIFICUS:

Between Leshy actively saying he hates Mag's card once you first get it (versus one line about the Stinkbug being weak), and him literally stabbing the guy's eye out, it's safe to say Leshy fucking hates this guy. I've seen different theories on this, between the clashing gameplay and Leshy being kinder to his subordinates, but the one I've thought was the most interesting was that Magnificus is arguably, the most powerful Scrybe.

He's the only one who does have a plan to get Leshy's takeover back to normal, and the other two Scrybes are desperate for you to find him in act 1 because of it. He has future vision, he writes letters to the others warning about potential takeovers, and you never see him scrounge for the OLD_DATA. correction in reblogs: i think it is mentioned that he has

I've always read Leshy's feelings towards Mag as jealousy, mixed with clashing ideologies. I don't think there's a single moment where the two agree on anything outside of act 3.

I don't have much to say on his card, gameplay-wise, as you get it very late. Honestly most of the Stunted Wolf's design is just foreshadowing that Leshy beat this guy up and stabbed out his eye, lmao, but it's still interesting to note that:

The Stunted Wolf is one of those cards that's a variant of another one (i.e. Wolf Cub/Wolf, Mantis God/Mantis), but it's notably the only one whose stats are worse than its predecessor.

At the same time, it only costs one blood, and it's the only 2-attack card to have that. Gameplay wise, this is to balance things out, but it hints towards Magnificus having been much more powerful in the past. Like it makes you ponder how fucking good it would be to start off with a one-blood 3-2 card.

Magnificus's only other gameplay feature in act 1 is the sacrificial alters (given his association with magic and sigils). These are fucking busted. God I wish I could have four sigils on a card in Kaycee's mod.

P03:

Leshy seems to not think very much of P03 (both in the sense of not acknowledging it and thinking it's not a good designer), but doesn't seem completely unwilling to work with him. I'd argue he's not really hostile towards P03, just very aggressively trying to push it into his own ideal of the world.

In Kaycee's mod, Leshy refers to him as a rival and not an enemy, which I think gives a good basis for interpreting how he views it. P03's breakup speech snapping at Leshy in act 2 is ultimately what gets him to question his intentions at all.

The mention that the stoat's suffering was real during the tutorial isn't really ever brought up again by Leshy. It's interesting to think about in hindsight, given that P03 being a robot means its the least likely to have experienced pain out of the four.

Combined with P03's remark that Leshy keeps him around just to suffer, and the later remark in act 2 that he thinks that it is noble to be a beast card, "even one as lowly as a stoat," this implies that Leshy's at the very least trying to get P03 used to his world, and almost hopes that he'll come to like it.

The unbuffed stoat is a really terrible card. All the 1-2 cards have some sort of gimmick to them to make them playable, but the normal stoat just doesn't at all. The buff to 1-3 is a gift from Leshy to P03, despite everything. It implies he at least thinks there's something that can be salvaged between them, in his own view.

And like. The buffed stoat is so so useful in act 1. The extra HP means it can take a hit from so many more cards and it's a solid foundation for basically any run.

The stoat's the only one of the talking cards without an animal family. Of course it is! Nature and technology are usually thematic opposites, especially compared to magic and death. P03 doesn't fit in here, but Leshy is still clearly trying to make it a foundational card in his campaign.

[tinytalkingtina]

Free Show

2222 words | Rating E | Full fic on Ao3 Written for the @steddiesmuttyseptember event, Week 2 Prompts: "clothes on" and "back seat" Tags: Dom Steve/Sub Eddie, exhibitionism and semi-public sex, car sex, edging/orgasm control, some very mild CBT, spoilers for Die Hard (1988), pre negotiated scene, they get pretty messy

The Beemer rolled to a gentle stop. They had made good time, previews were only just starting. Eddie fidgeted excitedly in the passenger seat beside him.

“You know, the premise for this movie kind of reminds me of a puzzle from the first campaign I ran. Had an evil gang kidnap a bunch of nobles during their takeover of a wizard’s tower. Planned to have 10 floors of traps and monsters for the players to fight through before getting to the end, it was going to be brutal. Only problem was, I forgot Jeff had a saddle of flying. So whoosh,” Eddie punctuated his words with a flap of his hands. “All my plans, foiled by a horse with wings. But barring a wild departure from genre standards, I’m going to assume this cop will have to fight the baddies off without any magical items.”

Steve chuckled quietly. Personally he wasn’t really sold on how the guy from that comedy detective show would do in a serious action movie, but he did look forward to watching the explosions. And it didn’t hurt that in the trailer, it looked like Bruce Willis would spend most of the movie with his chest on full display.

Though, if the night went according to schedule, the two of them would have to rewatch Die Hard again at some point.

A few minutes in, the limo driver introduced himself as “Argyle”, and Eddie snorted. “Oh my G-d we’re gonna never hear the end of this from Jon are we.”

“No, I don’t think we are.” Steve laughed. He chose that moment to let his hand wander, resting it casually on Eddie’s crotch. Eddie’s breath hitched as he started to gently squeeze and massage.

“Not that I mind the attention Steve, but if you keep that up, I’m probably going to have a uh…situation,” he whispered, mindful of the open window. Steve leaned in close and pressed his hand in a little harder. 

“Nope, you’re just going to have to control yourself. Wouldn't want you to get so messy, not here. There's so many people around." 

In reality, there really weren’t. It was a Tuesday night in the middle of nowhere at a barely functioning drive-in theater (Steve was honestly shocked he’d found one playing a major summer blockbuster). Their car was the only one on this side of the lot, and he’d parked right by the tree-line, carefully out of the direct glow of the screen.

But Eddie didn’t notice all that. He didn’t need to. They had worked out all the details for this little game last week, so all he had to do was sit back and let Steve get him more and more worked up.

A small whimper left Eddie’s lips. "I can't help it when you're, oh, being so…mean about it!”

Steve smiled. “I know what you’re thinking, that I’m gonna make you come in your pants a bunch of times while we watch a movie, yeah? Maybe see if we can break your record?” The temptation was there. It would be so easy to just keep teasing until Eddie couldn’t hold back anymore, to take him to that place where he went all boneless and pliant. Tonight though, Steve had other plans.

Eddie nodded frantically, hitching his hips to rut against Steve’s palm harder. 

“Yes, yup, please, I don’t think we can beat five but—.” He moved his hand away from Eddie’s crotch, ignoring the small noise of confusion.

“Tonight, I thought maybe we’d try something new. Can you keep your hands up here for me?” Steve gently tugged on Eddie’s wrists, moving them until he was holding onto the headrest. “Not planning on tying you down. But you’re not gonna move from this position unless I tell you to, right?” Eddie nodded, his eyes glazing over. “Good boy, thank you.”

His boyfriend relaxed a little at the praise, but kept shifting restlessly. “Can you touch me again now? Please? If I’m going to get arrested for public indecency I want at least one orgasm out of it.” Steve huffed out a laugh.

“Stay still for me, and maybe I will.”  He slowly undid the zipper on Eddie’s jeans and wiggled down his briefs to leave him bare-assed on the passenger seat. As asked, Eddie obediently kept the squirming to a minimum, even if he gave another whimper at the exposure. His dick on the other hand, gave an interested twitch, already half hard.

Steve held out his hand. “Spit.” Even in the darkness, he could make out how red Eddie’s face was as he did so.

He reached down and gave a few solid pumps while rubbing his thumb over the tip, not letting up until Eddie was fully hard. “Here’s the rules for tonight. I’m gonna keep doing this right up until you’re about to blow it. But you’re not gonna come. Not until the credits roll. When you get close to the edge, I want you to be good and tell me, okay?” It took Eddie a few seconds but he did finally nod. Steve grinned at his wide-eyed stare. This was going to be fun.

Thirty minutes later, the German terrorist leader shot someone. Steve wasn’t entirely sure he was actually a terrorist, but the finer details of the plot were kind of a lost cause at this point. And Eddie definitely wasn’t in a state to concentrate on anything besides what was happening in the car.

Read the rest on Ao3!

Popcorn divider credit: Firefly Graphics

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 10/01/2024

Kill & Learn (Recut Ver​.​)

Season 4 Episode 1 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume L [Side B] Also on: STUDIO TRIGGER QUALITY MUSIC WORKS

Ripped by Smoky

High Quality Never Dies.

The end of Season 3 was quite a tumultuous time for SiIva. Being a music channel on YouTube, the SiIvaGunner channel always teeters over the gaping maw of copyright strikes from music production companies, made worse by YouTube's lack of protection from these false strikes. All of SiIvaGunner's content obviously falls under the umbrella of fair use by the nature of the channel: its core goal and aim is to REMIX music, not reupload it. Yet, in December 2018, eight videos were targeted by Sony Music Entertainment of Japan, which eventually spiralled into the channel's deletion at the beginning of 2019. Five years and one day ago, on January 9th, SiIvaGunner celebrated its third anniversary - with its main channel dead in the water due to YouTube's incompetency.

It's a damn shame that shit like this can happen to just about any aspiring creator on YouTube, and the team was immensely fortunate to have an audience large enough to catch YouTube's attention this time. By February of that same year, the channel was back, Season 3 was over, and Season 4 Episode 1 was officially online. And those copystruck rips were not going to be forgotten.

Kill & Learn (Recut Ver.) is not the same rip as the one that was initially part of that eight-video striking spree from 2018. Yet its an absolutely terrific remastering effort, uploaded during the long-awaited STUDIO TRIGGER event later in the Season. Much like the Planet Wisp Mashup Medley, its a direct tribute to the legendary ripper Triple-Q and one of his many in-jokes, of drawing comparison between the stories of Sonic Adventure 2 and STUDIO TRIGGER's Kill La Kill. Kill & Learn (Recut Ver.) is technically the third spin on this idea, with Triple-Q's own mashup Kill la Kill OST: Final Boss Theme first, followed by the original Kill & Learn (Uncut Ver.), and finally with Kill & Learn (Recut Ver.). All three follow the same premise, mashing up Kill La Kill's second OP Ambiguous with the main theme of Sonic Adventure 2, Live & Learn, yet all feel very different from one another. Live & Learn (Recut Ver.) is, to me, the ultimate endpoint of this concept, and the best of the three - it screams hype from every point of the song, with Live & Learn's vocals fitting the instrumental of Ambiguous like a glove - it's a mashup that felt destined to happen, and is here executed with five years worth of refining.

It warms my heart to see Kill & Learn (Recut Ver.) sitting at such a high view count (over 700K views as of writing) despite the troubled circumstances of its production, of how the original Kill & Learn (Uncut Ver.) is likely never going to be back up on YouTube. Yet, through the hype of the STUDIO TRIGGER takeover and sheer love of the original rip, we found a way to push this rip far past the original's view count. No matter what, high quality finds a way to live on!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Private equity plunderers want to buy Simon & Schuster

Going to Defcon this weekend? I'm giving a keynote, "An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet's Enshittification and Throw it Into Reverse," on Saturday at 12:30pm, followed by a book signing at the No Starch Press booth at 2:30pm!

https://info.defcon.org/event/?id=50826

Last November, publishing got some excellent news: the planned merger of Penguin Random House (the largest publisher in the history of human civilization) with its immediate competitor Simon & Schuster would not be permitted, thanks to the DOJ's deftly argued case against the deal:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/07/random-penguins/#if-you-wanted-to-get-there-i-wouldnt-start-from-here

When I was a baby writer, there were dozens of large NY publishers. Today, there are five - and it was almost four. A publishing sector with five giant companies is bad news for writers (as Stephen King said at the trial, the idea that PRH and S&S would bid against each other for books was as absurd as the idea that he and his wife would bid against each other for their next family home).

But it's also bad news for publishing workers, a historically exploited and undervalued workforce whose labor conditions have only declined as the number of employers in the sector dwindled, leading to mass resignations:

https://lithub.com/unlivable-and-untenable-molly-mcghee-on-the-punishing-life-of-junior-publishing-employees/

It should go without saying that workers in sectors with few employers get worse deals from their bosses (see, e.g., the writers' strike and actors' strike). And yup, right on time, PRH, a wildly profitable publisher, fired a bunch of its most senior (and therefore hardest to push around) workers:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/18/books/penguin-random-house-layoffs-buyouts.html

But publishing's contraction into a five-company cartel didn't occur in a vacuum. It was a normal response to monopolization elsewhere in its supply chain. First it was bookselling collapsing into two major chains. Then it was distribution going from 300 companies to three. Today, it's Amazon, a monopolist with unlimited access to the capital markets and a track record of treating publishers "the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/31/seize-the-means-of-computation/#the-internet-con

Monopolies are like Pringles (owned by the consumer packaged goods monopolist Procter & Gamble): you can't have just one. As soon as you get a monopoly in one part of the supply chain, every other part of that chain has to monopolize in self-defense.

Think of healthcare. Consolidation in pharma lead to price-gouging, where hospitals were suddenly paying 1,000% more for routine drugs. Hospitals formed regional monopolies and boycotted pharma companies unless they lowered their prices - and then turned around and screwed insurers, jacking up the price of care. Health insurers gobbled each other up in an orgy of mergers and fought the hospitals.

Now the health care system is composed of a series of gigantic, abusive monopolists - pharma, hospitals, medical equipment, pharmacy benefit managers, insurers - and they all conspire to wreck the lives of only two parts of the system who can't fight back: patients and health care workers. Patients pay more for worse care, and medical workers get paid less for worse working conditions.

So while there was no question that a PRH takeover of Simon & Schuster would be bad for writers and readers, it was also clear that S&S - and indeed, all of the Big Five publishers - would be under pressure from the monopolies in their own supply chain. What's more, it was clear that S&S couldn't remain tethered to Paramount, its current owner.

Last week, Paramount announced that it was going to flip S&S to KKR, one of the world's most notorious private equity companies. KKR has a long, long track record of ghastly behavior, and its portfolio currently includes other publishing industry firms, including one rotten monopolist, raising similar concerns to the ones that scuttled the PRH takeover last year:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/07/books/booksupdate/paramount-simon-and-schuster-kkr-sale.html

Let's review a little of KKR's track record, shall we? Most spectacularly, they are known for buying and destroying Toys R Us in a deal that saw them extract $200m from the company, leaving it bankrupt, with lifetime employees getting $0 in severance even as its executives paid themselves tens of millions in "performance bonuses":

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/06/03/private-equity-bosses-took-200m-out-of-toys-r-us-and-crashed-the-company-lifetime-employees-got-0-in-severance/

The pillaging of Toys R Us isn't the worst thing KKR did, but it was the most brazen. KKR lit a beloved national chain on fire and then walked away, hands in pockets, whistling. They didn't even bother to clear their former employees' sensitive personnel records out of the unlocked filing cabinets before they scarpered:

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/09/23/exploring-the-ruins-of-a-toys-r-us-discovering-a-trove-of-sensitive-employee-data/

But as flashy as the Toys R Us caper was, it wasn't the worst. Private equity funds specialize in buying up businesses, loading them with debts, paying themselves, and then leaving them to collapse. They're sometimes called vulture capitalists, but they're really vampire capitalists:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/05/private-equity-buyout-kkr-houdaille/

Given a choice, PE companies don't want to prey on sick businesses - they preferentially drain off value from thriving ones, preferably ones that we must use, which is why PE - and KKR in particular - loves to buy health care companies.

Heard of the "surprise billing epidemic"? That's where you go to a hospital that's covered by your insurer, only to discover - after the fact - that the emergency room is operated by a separate, PE-backed company that charges you thousands for junk fees. KKR and Blackstone invented this scam, then funneled millions into fighting the No Surprises Act, which more-or-less killed it:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/21/all-in-it-together/#doctor-patient-unity

KKR took one of the nation's largest healthcare providers, Envision, hostage to surprise billing, making it dependent on these fraudulent payments. When Congress finally acted to end this scam, KKR was able to take to the nation's editorial pages and damn Congress for recklessly endangering all the patients who relied on it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/14/unhealthy-finances/#steins-law

Like any smart vampire, KKR doesn't drain its victim in one go. They find all kinds of ways to stretch out the blood supply. During the pandemic, KKR was front of the line to get massive bailouts for its health-care holdings, even as it fired health-care workers, increasing the workload and decreasing the pay of the survivors of its indiscriminate cuts:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/11/socialized-losses/#socialized-losses

It's not just emergency rooms. KKR bought and looted homes for people with disabilities, slashed wages, cut staff, and then feigned surprise at the deaths, abuse and misery that followed:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kendalltaggart/kkr-brightspring-disability-private-equity-abuse

Workers' wages went down to $8/hour, and they were given 36 hour shifts, and then KKR threatened to have any worker who walked off the job criminally charged with patient abandonment:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/02/plunderers/#farben

For KKR, people with disabilities and patients make great victims - disempowered and atomized, unable to fight back. No surprise, then, that so many of KKR's scams target poor people - another group that struggles to get justice when wronged. KKR took over Dollar General in 2007 and embarked on a nationwide expansion campaign, using abusive preferential distributor contracts and targeting community-owned grocers to trap poor people into buying the most heavily processed, least nutritious, most profitable food available:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/27/walmarts-jackals/#cheater-sizes

94.5% of the Paycheck Protection Program - designed to help small businesses keep their workers payrolled during lockdown - went to giant businesses, fraudulently siphoned off by companies like Longview Power, 40% owned by KKR:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/20/great-danes/#ppp

KKR also helped engineer a loophole in the Trump tax cuts, convincing Justin Muzinich to carve out taxes for C-Corporations, which let KKR save billions in taxes:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/02/broken-windows/#Justin-Muzinich

KKR sinks its fangs in every part of the economy, thanks to the vast fortunes it amassed from its investors, ripped off from its customers, and fraudulently obtained from the public purse. After the pandemic, KKR scooped up hundreds of companies at firesale prices:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/30/medtronic-stole-your-ventilator/#blackstone-kkr

Ironically, the investors in KKR funds are also its victims - especially giant public pension funds, whom KKR has systematically defrauded for years:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/22/stimpank/#kentucky

And now KKR has come for Simon & Schuster. The buyout was trumpeted to the press as a done deal, but it's far from a fait accompli. Before the deal can close, the FTC will have to bless it. That blessing is far from a foregone conclusion. KKR also owns Overdrive, the monopoly supplier of e-lending software to libraries.

Overdrive has a host of predatory practices, loathed by both libraries and publishers (indeed, much of the publishing sector's outrage at library e-lending is really displaced anger at Overdrive). There's a plausible case that the merger of one of the Big Five publishers with the e-lending monopoly will present competition issues every bit as deal-breaking as the PRH/S&S merger posed.

(Image: Sefa Tekin/Pexels, modified)

I’m kickstarting the audiobook for “The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation,” a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It’s a DRM-free book, which means Audible won’t carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

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/2023/08/08/vampire-capitalism/#kkr

[mydictionary-yume]

★A3! Event Announcement★

On July 9th, the anniversary event “A Year of Romance With You” will begin! Come celebrate Lu’s first full year in the company with this special event!

More information under the cut!!!

HAHHHHHH….. crazy to believe it’s already been a full year since Lu and the Acting Angels were born…… Thanks to everyone who supported me and jokingly bullied me into putting her out there!!! It’s been a pretty crazy journey, but I don’t regret it one bit!!! Okay, sappy stuff over, I’ve gotta actually explain the event wwwwww😔

A Year of Romance with You!!

This will be a 9-day long event spanning from 7/9 - 7/18 with a few different festivities and works featuring Lu and Saku to celebrate their 1-year anniversary!

Event schedule:

7/8: Lu 1-year anniversary gacha card reveal! The art here is a preview of that!

7/9: Event officially begins! There will be a small post promoting the event and the blog!

7/9 - 7/18: Lusaku ask box takeover!!! Feel free to chat them up, ask them questions, send them stuff, or just wish them a happy anniversary!! I’m sure they’re just as excited to start as I am huhu :3

7/10: Lu gacha card backstage part 1 drops!

7/11: Lu gacha card backstage part 2 drops!

7/12 - 7/18: This will be a bit of a free space, maybe something will drop, maybe something won’t, it really depends on what I can get done!

Event story dropped!!

I thiiiiink that’s all I need to say about the event for now???? I’ll add anything if it needs to be, and I hope to see you all stop by!!!!