sharksfrommars

[sharksfrommars]

gang i gotta lez out into the void for a bit.

I’ve been doing a hike this weekend and I met the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen I swear and we got along really well and she knew about plants and stuff and likes cartoons and is really funny and then at the end she gave me a hug and said I was an amazing person and she was really sweet and so cute.

ok I’m done forget I said that I gotta keep my tough guy persona up

[sharksfrommars]

I’ve been playing the Alters recently, and BOY someone should put Stan Pines in that situation.

[sharksfrommars]

Here’s the context. Clippy is Against predatory business practices online, against censorship and against the gradual enshittification of the internet.

It’s a promise that, when the opportunity arises, you will stand up and be counted.

revolution Clippy! Feel free to use him

[sharksfrommars]

revolution Clippy! Feel free to use him

[sharksfrommars]

Actually, these are every lesbian couple I’ve seen

GIRLY JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT CYERCE ELEGANS

photos by Michael Plewka

If Cyerce nigricans is a butterfly, then this is a fairy... Cyerce nigricans for comparison:

photos by Ian Hutton, Kevin Lee

[sharksfrommars]

For anyone who wants to make a custom clipper pfp

I found this

[sharksfrommars]

imagine if Ford went to a specialist technical high school instead of the regular one.

maybe he got a scholarship to it, and Ford is excited to be surrounded by “his people”. Stan thinks this majorly sucks, but he’s also like 14 years old and there’s no science fair project to destroy over it so he’s kinda just forced to watch.

and they still live together

does Ford make a single friend? Would he get into WCT? I bet he enjoys the advanced classes and his school actually having funding. Will he still feel that he needs space from Stan after 4 years in separate school? After all, here’s hundreds of students who have no idea that Ford is half of a pair. They don’t even know Ford lives in the Lead Paint district of Glass Shard Beach.

how about Stan? Without his brother to cheat off, would he be forced to actually do work? Or would he instead find another scheme to float through school life. Would he get along better with his classmates? Or worse? He’d definitely be the kid that bulk buys candy to resell to the student population before being caught and getting in trouble. Would Stan actually think about the future?

I don’t know, I kinda have a headache.

[sharksfrommars]

Freedom on the internet and fighting censorship

nhi_theuserof_this

Very different from my usual stuff, but this is important

What is currently happening (YouTube ID, Steam censorship, laws and bills, etc.)

Why everyone is affected (including you)

What is currently happening (Clippy protest, fake IDs being submitted, etc.)

Alternatives and what you can do

Conclusion

This post will be citing sources(wikipedia style) and include a lot of links to other resources more comprehensive than mine—I consider this to be a sort of “layman’s take” that the average person can use to get their foot in the door against internet censorship. If any section becomes too dense/lengthy for you, there's a TLDR at the end of each section

Preface: I'm American, so this blog post is involuntarily centered around the US variant of these issues--though I am trying my best to make it generally useful and informational to internet users as a whole.

What is currently happening - The current state of internet censorship

The order of events goes something like this:

Collective Shout [their about page] [public opinion on them] contacts payment processors (like Visa and Mastercard) and claims that they are supporting terrible things by being the payment processors for game platforms that host inappropriate games. (Collective shout is specifically vague about what counts as inappropriate.)

Late July, Steam and other game distribution services (such as itch.io) are pressured by payment processors into pulling NSFW games from their platforms. Steam and Itch.io blame the removal of these games on Mastercard and Visa pressuring them into it. [article on the topic] Mastercard makes a brief statement completely denying the claims. [Mastercard statement]

Late July, the UK's Online Safety Act goes into effect. This act is proposed as a means to protect children from seeing harmful content online[gov.uk page explaining the act], though functionally requires government ID from all internet users to use any of the internet. A demonstration of this is that ID is now required to use Spotify and Wikipedia in the UK, because according to this law, these platforms have the potential to harm children. (Australia has been floating around similar ideas in the past year IIRC)

The US and several other countries are now attempting to follow in these footsteps, and platforms like YouTube are rolling out age verification features. The US specifically is reattempting to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), and push several new internet censorship acts

TLDR: Steam and Itch.io are being forced to delist NSFW games, and laws are being rolled out to force people to use government ID to prove they are adults while on the internet

Why everyone is affected (including you)

If the TLDR of the previous section wasn't clear enough, you are being monitored, and will be vulnerable to having your ID in a dataleak.

If you have to use your ID to verify your age, every platform you verify yourself on now has your government ID. YouTube specifically has conflicting statements regarding how long they hold your ID and the methods you are able to use to verify yourself.

Data leaks/data breaches are often and frequent--as of June there was a 16 billion password data leak. [Forbes article on the matter]

If there is a data leak and your ID is among the leaked information, you cannot change your birthday, you cannot change your face, you cannot easily change your address.

This isn't even touching on the fact that your government ID would then be connected to your internet use--big corporations and your government now know what podcasts you listen to, what videos you watch, what you yell into the internet void. You are no longer anonymous

TLDR: Your ID could be stolen if you share it, and you are no longer anonymous online.

What is currently happening - How people are fighting back

4chan users have been mass calling Mastercard and Visa with complaints against their pressuring Steam and Itch.io--among other things, there are hacktivist things going on that I'm not up to date about. Here's a link to a thread talking about Visa and Mastercard blocking purchases of NSFW games and how to report it for fraud. [It is a 4chan thread however]

People are using videogames to get around the facial recognition, using characters instead of their own faces to get around the age verification. [PCGamer article on it] I do not know if there are legal consequences to it, and recommend you self assess if you want to take that risk. (VPNs are also in use to prevent even being asked your age in the first place.)

A petition has been made to repeal the UK's Online Safety Act, and has passed half a million signatures [article about it] [the petition, which can still be signed]

People are calling and emailing their local senate and representatives to urge them to vote against and repeal these acts [Contact UK Parliment] [Contact your local representative (USA)]

People are changing their profile pictures to clippy over on YouTube [why clippy] [what the clippies do next], and making lots of noise on platform against these new updates CerosTV and Deep Humor specifically have been making frequent uploads recently discussing and combating the new age verification updates, as well as talking in more depth on this than I ever could [CerosTV] [Deep Humor]

I personally encourage spreading the word, contacting local government, and contacting companies that are involved in this.

TLDR: People are calling up local government and calling up all these companies to say their word against these laws and policies. People are also finding a variety of workarounds in the UK.

Alternatives and what you can do

Alternatives to YouTube - Patreon (paid), Nebula (paid), Glomble (free, donation run and currently small scale), Odysee (free and paid versions),

Alternatives to most anything - Analog media and piracy, as well as archives. The Internet Archive can be used to watch old shows and videos alongside everything else it archives such as webnovels and websites that no longer run. Analog media is generally important as well--if you can't hold it, you don't own it.

Call your local government [USA] [UK]

Research. KOSA isn't the only act the US is trying to pass regarding internet use, and surely the UK and US aren't the only countries going through this--look at what's going on where you live [Wikipedia article on internet censorship] [Wikipedia article on internet censorship in the US]

Spread the word, boost attention to these issues, tell your friends and family that the internet is being censored, keep the momentum going. Do research on your own as to why any censorship in the first place is bad--sure, delete the game that features murder, but why draw the line at that when you can delete all the games that feature it? Including the ones that specifically say, "Murder is bad, we are depicting it in a light that says it bad"

Review bomb platforms that are rolling out these features and boycott them until they're dealt with. All these platforms are worth less than one star if they want a picture of my drivers license, in my opinion.

TLDR: Research. Research research research. This and spreading the word, on top of calling up the government to say that you don't like these laws.

Conclusion

Remember when that youtuber got firebombed by the Australian government? The cartel? Both? Because both are equally viable options? Yes/No? Doesn't matter, [who firebombed friendlyjordies video] and [his channel]. He still makes videos and a lot of his recent ones are on the current state of politics in general.

Here is a collection of useful resources: [Fighting payment processors] [Terrible things Collective Shout has done] [Full copy of the US constitution] [Purchase 'banned' books as protest] [metaphor for why censoring ao3 is bad] [If you think you won't be affected, you will be] [Talk about the time TikTok was banned and Rednote was flooded with Americans(commentary on propaganda)] [anti youtube ai age verification petition] [dangerous rise of anti intellectualism] [help the YouTube boycott] [help libraries reddit thread] [help libraries, American org] [help libraries, different American org] [authors against book bans]

Censorship is very real, please do your part to keep the internet free, because as small as you think your voice is, it's a part of the tidal wave made up by the millions of us that use the internet.

This isn't a politics blog. I write fanfiction primarily and value fandom above all else. I am chronically online. This post should be reblogged to spread awareness, yes, but my blog as a whole is not consistently going to touch on these topics often, if ever again. Not in this capacity at least.

[sharksfrommars]

don’t give in to internet censorship, to predatory subscription models, to data mining or to the erasure of privacy.

EMBRACE CLIPPY

Write to your government. Tell people about what’s going on and why it matters. When the time comes, stand up and push back. No matter how small the resistance, even if it’s just refusing to do something you disagree with. Even if it’s just “forgetting” to send an email. Your voice, your actions matter. They’re what’s gonna build a better world.

CLIPPY WOULD NEVER HAVE APPROVED

[sharksfrommars]

…

No notes

I'm actually psychic. I can tell what your spirit animal is if you ask nicely.

[sharksfrommars]

Sure, go one then.

what’s my spirit animal o mystic Blanky! Please bestow me with such knowledge!

I’m sure no one could fucking guess

I'm actually psychic. I can tell what your spirit animal is if you ask nicely.

[sharksfrommars]

[sharksfrommars]

I had a dream last night that tumblr came up with a pride flag for closeted gays and it was just a light blue flag with a shrimp on it. People would also wear shrimp pins on their lapels for some Reason???

and the vegan gays started Discourse because shrimp deserved more respect

[sharksfrommars]

Twitter didn’t take the divorce well…

[sharksfrommars]

Posted this in a Kris community first but all of tumbly deserves to fall for AAC Kris Propaganda!

So I headcanon Kris as autistic with verbal and speech delays! so obviously as a kid Kris uses AAC!!! they have laminated cards and a pencil and paper for when playing outside and such. And then a proper tablet with AAC app and text to speech for other times!

(image Description at end of post!)

As a young teen Kris developes talking skills but they still experience verbal shut downs so the AAC tech still gets used! (they probably keep their cards in their backpack incase anything happens and have some kinda app just on their phone in a pinch)

I have never used AAC and dont experience verbal shut downs so if I got anything wrong please do lemme know <3

If yall hc Kris as mute in some way or another I definitely suggest giving them some sort of AAC instead of sign language or to go along with it!!! AAC representation is something we need more of U_U

[Image Description: Image 1 is a digital sketch of little kid Noelle Holiday and Kris Dreemurr from Deltarune running. Kris is pointing and saying "mmh mmhr" to repersent non word mouth sounds. Kris is wearing a cross body bag and there is a label and arrow pointing at the bag saying "full of low tech AAC for outside Adventures". Noelle is behind them saying "Wait up Kris!", with a slightly exasperated expression. At the bottom of the picture is a 2nd scene of Kris and Noelle but they are sitting on the grass. Kris is holding up 2 cards with one hand and the other is flapping. Kris is saying "Brmrm Bbmr". Noelle looks at the cards and says "Bugs again?" The cards say "lets go" with a car image and "bug" with a generic bug and net picture. Text to the side says "(Cards say "Lets go" and "Bug." Kris is communicating they want to go find bugs.)"

Image 2 is of a digital colored sketch of young Kris. They are sitting with their knees to their chest with a slightly sad expression. They had just pushed a button on their tablet in front of them thats on the floor. The tablet voices "Mom". Toriel is turning to look at Kris, she is holding scissors and is posed in a way that implies she was just doing something at a counter. She is saying "Yes Kris?". End Image Description]

[sharksfrommars]

do you use your irl name on tumblr? ie, either your government name or the name you go as in real life. if you use a different name that's not related to you irl here on tumblr then vote no

[sharksfrommars]

I made a post ages ago about if Stan moved to gravity falls whilst Ford was besties with bill.

um…. Yeah. This is long…

idk if I’m gonna write more

——————————

Stan wasn’t sure what to expect when he pulled up to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, Oregon. He quite frankly wasn’t ready to face Ford yet, but after that drunken call at 3am a few days ago, Ford had insisted. He told Stan that he could house him TEMPORARILY so long as he kept out of his way.

Stan wanted reconciliation, and this felt far from it. But, it was better than nothing. So he got out of the car and steeled himself to knock on the door.

Ford opened in a frazzled state. He stared at Stan, making him feel self conscious. Stan wasn’t in the best shape, with a black eye, bruised ribs and a broken arm. Stan only had half his teeth! Ford seemed to examine him intensely, as Stan just stood there awkwardly.

“Um… hi, Ford…” Stan waved. Ford’s piercing glare snapped to meet Stan’s eyes.

“Stanley. You look like shit.”

Stan scoffed. “Well sorry, not all of us can afford fancy science cabins in the woods.”

Stan regretted it even as he said it. Ford, by rights, should want nothing to do with him. He was helping out of the kindness of his heart. Stan shouldn’t be antagonising him. 

Ford just glared, before sighing and leading Stan inside.

“Ok Stanley. Come in. We can discuss the terms of your stay over coffee.”

The coffee was cold, strong and bitter. Ford was already on his 3rd cup whilst Stan was gently nursing his first.

“So…” started Stan, rubbing the back of his neck. Ford squinted.

“You can’t stay long, Stanley. Ive got some very important work to be doing, work that doesn’t need your interference.”

So that was how it was going to be. Part of Stan wanted to argue, but he held back. Instead, he just nodded.

“You can stay here until you get back on your feet,” Ford continued, “as long as you keep your yourself and don’t bother me. You can use the kitchen and bathroom, and I’ve set up a bedroom for you. Everywhere else is off limits.”

Stan leaned back in his chair and put down his coffee, before glaring at his brother.

“What, you expect me to just stay in my room all day? That’s ridiculous.”

Ford glared back.

“I just don’t want you breaking anything. Actually, I don’t want to see you at all.”

“Why even let me stay then?”

Ford rubbed his temples and stood up.

“I’ll show you to your room. I have work to do.”

Ford’s house was a mess of strange sci-fi gizmos and seemingly random things from outside. Stan had been especially curious about the seemingly life size t-Rex skull, but when he asked Ford about it, all he got was a dismissive grunt. He seemed annoyed that Stan was there at all, which pissed Stan off. Ford was the one who offered to let him stay! And now he was acting like Stan was an unwelcome intrusion. Still, it had been a long time since Stan had a warm shower, or slept on an actual decent bed, so Stan decided not to complain. Ford could kick him out if he wanted to. There was no use in pissing him off even more. 

Stan’s room was small and clean, not a speck of black mould in sight! It had a desk and a dresser, normal things a bedroom would have. The only strange bit was a painting of some creepy one eyed triangle, which Stan immediately took down and shoved behind the dresser. It wasn’t an amazing room by most standards, but compared to some of the motels he stayed in, it was heaven. 

Stan took a long warm shower and brushed his teeth. He noticed some post-it notes around the mirror, with equations and… flirtatious messages? Stan couldn’t find another way to read “had fun beating you at chess last night ;) let’s do it again sometime xoxo”. It didn’t seem to be in Ford’s handwriting either, instead being in some sort of blocky script. Seems like Ford may have found him a special someone. It made Stan sad, reminding him of the total dumpster fire that was his relationship with his brother. It hurt that Ford didn’t think to tell him, but they hadn’t spoken in almost a decade so he couldn’t really blame him.

Now that he was clean, he went to lie down in bed. It wasn’t how he expected his reunion with Ford to go, but it was better than nothing, right? Stan picked up a glass pyramid that was on his nightstand, and felt its cold surface and sharp edges. Stanford seemed different. More guarded, and definitely with a shorter fuse. He wanted Stan out as soon as possible, that much was obvious. What wasn’t obvious was why he let Stan in at all in the first place. 

Weeks passed, and things were still awkward. Stan actually barely saw Ford, despite looking through every room in the house on his second day. It was all the same kind of cluttered mess, with a few bits of mouldy fruit and a couple of suspicious looking stains. Stan didn’t want to touch anything yet, lest he earn Ford’s wraith, so he just left the mess alone, mostly trying to walk around it. He did, however, clean the kitchen. Stan wasn’t sure what Ford was eating considering the state he found it in.

Stan got a job at a Greasy’s, the local diner. He told Ford about it on one of the rare occasions they were in the same room, but Ford gave no indication that he was aware of Stan talking to him. Stan spent most of his days at Greasy’s, and the evenings at a local biker’s bar. He tried to engage Ford in conversation, but that was hard when he’d seemingly disappear off the face of the earth for days at a time.

Sometimes, when Stan saw Ford, something was clearly off. Usually it was at the dead of night, Ford would move all jittery, like he had no idea how. He would smile, not the smile Stan remembered, but a large strained grin that didn’t quite reach the eyes. Ford brushed Stan off those times, but Stan just chalked it up to being tired.

On top of that, the house was full of one-eyed triangles. They were carved into walls and sketched out on slips of paper. It was clearly an obsession, and a creepy one at that. Stan found Ford talking to one, once, in whispered tones. 

It all came to a head one night, when Stan went home early from his shift. There was a blizzard coming that evening, so he went home early to buckle down for the night. He felt a draught through the house, and suspecting there might’ve been an open window or something, Stan went exploring. 

Stan suspected the culprit may be Ford’s study. Usually it was locked, but somehow it was ajar that night. It kept slamming against the doorframe. Stan figured the latch must’ve broken. Stranger still, Stan could hear intense whispering through the door. He knocked, but got no answer. 

He glanced out the window. The snow had started and the winds were getting rougher. Stan needed to close the window, especially since Ford seemed to be in there, unresponsive. Stan glanced through the crack in the door to confirm. Ford sitting in the centre of the room, crossed legged and chanting in whispered tones. Snow was coming through the window so Stan went to close it. It didn’t seem like Ford was going to. He turned around and saw Ford’s front. He screamed.

Ford had blood running down the front of his shirt. He was holding a knife — was it self-inflicted? There was a circle on the floor around him, seemingly drawn by blood. Blue flames of strange candles lit the room, and Ford was holding a pure gold pyramid with an eye carved into it. It too was wet with blood.

“FORD, what the FUCK” Stan yelled as he stepped towards his brother.

“Are you okay?!”

But as soon as Stan passed the blood circle, Ford’s eyes opened, he grabbed Stan’s arm before he could touch him and gave him the most unsettling smile.

“Get out, Spare Parts, or I’ll cut you open and take your other kidney.” Ford said. It sent a shiver down Stan’s spine — no one knew about the kidney. He felt eyes staring into his soul from all around him. 

“Ford?” Stan whispered. He gulped before reaching forward.

“Ford, your bleeding-“

Ford’s hand tightened around Stan’s wrist. He grinned, unnaturally wide. Stan’s blood ran cold. The hand on his wrist was tight, too tight. It hurt. It was breaking skin. Every survival instinct in Stan’s brain went off. Whatever this thing was, it was dangerous. 

“Ford” grinned wider and leaned in close.

“Run” he said, his eyes widening slightly. He let go of Stan’s hand. As soon as he was free, Stan ran, all the way up into the attic to lock his room. 

He paced around wondering what the FUCK that thing was. It wasn’t Ford. It couldn’t be. It was barely human, no matter how much it looked like him. Stan couldn’t make sense of it. He couldn’t place a single thing that would prove that it wasn’t Ford. Maybe he should talk to him.

Stan remembered the circle of blood on the ground, the blue candles, the strange symbols littered through the house. They all felt connected. Ford was the smartest guy Stan knew, he would have figured it out too. He literally got a doctorate in this kind of stuff. Ford knew what he was doing.

… which Could mean it was intentional. If it was, bringing it up to Ford might piss him off. Stan did not want to live in his car again, he was tired of constantly running. He definitely wasn’t ready to leave gravity falls just yet. 

Stan resolved himself. Before he bought up what happened to Ford, Stan would need evidence.