#(or rather starter in general)

[savior-of-humanity]

I'm pretty sure I've talked about this before but anyways!

I've been thinking of rebranding my blog in terms of theme/url to better reflect the whole multi-muse nature of it (especially considering how currently it's very Master Chief-centric despite me barely roleplaying him at all as of late)

The only issues are that I'd have to tweak my theme, some of my graphics (mainly just the header for the dashboard/mobile view of my blog + the actual icon), and whip up a new promo. Which I can definitely do, it's just that the problem is I have zero ideas for what I want in terms of actual aesthetic, and I don't know if I can maintain the energy and attention span for long enough to finish it before I inevitably put it to the side and forget about it.

And I also don't really have any actual URL ideas either... like I have one but it's literally just adding an S to my url so that it's saviors-of-humanity. Which would work! But also I'm worried it might cause confusion for people trying to find my tag(s) or find my blog or whatever.

[vieaccorde]

i have kind of been thinking about him strongly again since yesterday, so... would anyone like a starter from rimbaud??

[cinnabeat]

still thinking abt fairy tail like idk if i can actually articulte why i wouldnt recommend it to anyone despite liking it so much? like its a generic shounen story but i did in fact enjoy it (until the end but thats like a staple to the genre at this point i think) but gun to my head i wouldnt be able to tell you what abt it i would change to make it better

[fluxofthemouth]

Dune Messiah Verse drabble || Also a prologue for a thread! @succubus-lili

Content warning for canon-typical violence & death

-----------

The Grand Arrakeen is one of the capital's better known hotels. It's close enough to the palace to be within reasonable walking distance of just about everything interesting. It's also far enough away to properly have the appearance of a large and impressive building, without the obligation to shrink under the shadow of comparison. The hotel does its part to be gaudy and kitschy, a friendly nod to the pilgrim fever that has perpetually swept up the local culture. You can buy spiritual knickknacks in the gift shop that were manufactured on Giedi Prime. Over an impressive span of 20,000 years, chai has stubbornly persisted as a word for tea, and there's a cafe on the ground level called Chai Hulud. But underneath the hotel's cheerful concessions to the tourist industry, there's a beating heart of sincere effort. A genuine investment in providing a service of value. Many of the hotel's customers come to understand and appreciate this, which is why many of them keep coming back.

Indeed, unlike many of the businesses that have come to thrive in Arrakeen, the Grand Arrakeen is no insincere tourist trap strung up to make money quickly for as little effort as possible. It's the crown jewel of Evangeline Sky, a rising star in the hospitality industry who came to Dune with nothing and now owns more than twenty properties across the planet.

Evangeline is also a seventy-nine year old woman. And according to a story that is consistent across several witnesses, a guest named Brody Angler yanked her cane out of her hands and threw it at her just a few days ago. She and a group of her friends had happened to pass him and one of his traveling companions in a hallway, and she had only asked him to speak more quietly during the late hours. She wasn't badly hurt, but Brody's sudden violence had scared her. And it galled her to see how Brody had laughed and laughed.

The other noteworthy thing about the Grand Arrakeen and other hotels in the family business, the other thing in addition to the undercurrent of sincerity behind their operation, is that sometimes people die there. Not often, but just often enough to get people wondering what the normal number for yearly deaths in hotels is.

Piter de Vries could find that number out pretty quickly. It would be the number of deaths total, minus everybody who died because he wanted them to. Evangeline Sky is an industry giant and a seventy-nine year old woman, and she is also Piter's mother. He isn't really thriving like she is, in this new shape the galaxy and its Empire have taken. Nor was he thriving in the Empire's previous form. But he does own one or two of the hotels, and he does keep himself occupied with an information brokerage. That doesn't actually bring in a lot of money directly, but his efforts are as sincere as Evangeline's, and his clients recognize that just as gratefully. People come to his operation regularly, and he comes to know of many things that happen on the planet. Changing out the man playing at Emperor did not impact a simple truth that Piter knew well in his previous role: information is a kind of currency all on its own. The practice also fuels a hell of a lot of drama, which he then gets to be in the thick of.

When it comes to those unlucky people Piter chooses to target (a complication to his claim of being a retired assassin), most are connected to scandals and secrets he uncovered through his hobby, with many of these deaths contracted explicitly by clients. Unsurprisingly, Evangeline doesn't like bloodshed near the hotels that have become both her life's work and the revenue stream they both depend on. Piter has to be careful and choosy about pursuing targets through family-owned hotels; sometimes showing restraint despite how easy it would be otherwise, sometimes hiding his tracks even from his mother.

The other, smaller category of people Piter wants killed is the category of people who think they get to make trouble for Evangeline.

Piter lives in Carthag these days. He doesn't come out to Arrakeen very often because he knows full well that the Emperor's people are likely to torture and kill him if they happen to recognize him as a former Harkonnen agent. The one who crafted the plan that killed the Emperor's father, even! And the one who personally ordered the Emperor and his mother to be left in the desert for the worms.

(Oh, how those were very different times! And how is one supposed to know that the scrawny teenage son of a disfavored Duke is going to be an emperor someday? Also, in most cases, sending someone out into the desert for the worms has this tendency of actively preventing them from becoming an emperor, or much of anything.)

Evangeline, meanwhile, doesn't end up making it out to Carthag all that often, because she is busy and because of her age. Their relationship can be strained, but it isn't fraught. Piter grins openly as he watches her react to opening the door and finding him there, even as he knows he's in for a kind of scolding: there's surprise, then a tender gladdening, then suspicion and disapproval, then worry. She beckons him in quickly, as if Atreides' people were actively scouring the streets for him. He hugs her and takes his time, soaking in affection.

"If you're here, I suppose Angler is already dead," Evangeline says matter-of-factly as she heads towards the kitchen to make tea. There is affection for him here, but he needs to know that he can get more of it by killing fewer people in her goddamn hotels.

There's been a measure of guilt in Piter's aspect from the start. Now, it flares up prominently, and alongside some cheeky non-repentance, in a different sort of grin. It's not the least unsettling expression a human face has ever made.

"Angler has been dead, Mother," Piter replies, almost as matter-of-factly, but with a keening hope of praise. "Since the moment he made the choice to scare and hurt you. Won't you let yourself be precious to someone?" He taps sand from his boots in the entryway and hangs up his cloak. An attempt to venture further into the house stops cold at a gesture from Evangeline, and he works on shaking the sand from his clothes more thoroughly there in the entryway.

"You know how I feel about bloodshed in my hotels," Evangeline says, disappearing into the kitchen. She notes, and has noted, a spineless proclivity towards obedience in Piter, and she thinks it's pathetic. That doesn't stop her from counting on that same quality to keep him from tracking sand in her living room even though she isn't watching.

These conversations always end at an impasse. If Evangeline presses the point too thoroughly that she disapproves of brutality, they will have to face the squirming truth that he ended up in a school built on a premise of psychological torture, and was taught to be a ruthless killer there, on her watch as a parent. Meanwhile, if Piter presses the point too thoroughly that he loves her and wants to keep her safe, they will have to face another delicate reality. That she struggled through years of poverty on Giedi Prime while he climbed his way to a cushy government career and spent the money getting high.

So they grumble and fuss over tea. They trade little comments that could mean anything and nothing, and they avoid statements that are truthlike enough to really draw blood. They would each like to win the argument, in theory, but they don't know how to, and they slowly come to the unspoken agreement that it isn't urgent anyway. Piter hasn't broken any line of Evangeline's that truly must not be crossed. Underneath the clash of perspectives and the drama of it all, they actually find each other's presence calming. Like recognizing like. They are both dangerous creatures in their own way. They are both generally unsuited to caretaking, too. That's a scab that they can pick at. It's also a shared trait they can find common ground in, however dark. Barbs give way to curiosity, then to jokes and easy smiles as they chat there in the living room, each wearing the deep scars of the other's neglect. Two tigers wearing stripes companionably.

"I hate to bring up Angler again," Evangeline says, finally. "But he didn't suffer, did he?"

"He suffered terribly," Piter says emotionlessly, into a mostly empty mug.

"Oh," Evangeline says. She raises her eyebrows, pours herself more tea, and offers more to her son. It isn't a disappointed oh.

Piter beams and can't look directly at her as he sets the mug on the coffee table and slides it forward. He's accepted by now that he isn't going to get the style of praise he was hoping for. But here, finally, is the style of praise he''s been waiting for.

[aletheialed]

Edgeworth struggles with social interaction and the nuances of emotion often even with the people he knows best. It's no surprise then, that talking with strangers can be even more difficult, sometimes to the point of absurdity.

...That doesn't apply in every situation, of course. Brief interactions and professional situations are areas in which he excels, thanks to no small amount of effort on his part, and the experience he's gained over the years. The times when he struggles are more... in casual conversation, making small talk - and other things of that nature.

This situation, however, is somewhere in-between. While he's not about to engage in a casual chat, he's still completely out of the depth of his field of employment here, and as he goes to speak to Serena, there's a brief moment when he has no idea what to say. But then he falls back on old habits, deciding to speak as if he were at work, the stiffness in his voice only somewhat noticeable, if at all.

"Excuse me? Might I have a moment of your time?"

@wihlted ( starter for serena! )

[lyonnerileyauthor]

your orc mechanic 🔧

your car wouldn't start this morning. fuck. but your last mechanic, he always talked down to you, and tried to sell you things you knew you didn't need.

you'd heard about this new guy, an orc, who worked out of his garage. you didn't think orcs were car guys, but you learn something new every day.

you go in, ready to turn down all the extra services he wants to charge you. instead, he takes your keys, pulls the car into his garage, and invites you to take a look with him.

the starter plugs are bad, he says after only a few minutes of poking around the engine. the cost is parts plus labor. he glances at you over his shoulder, and one of his big tusks lifts as he gives you a lopsided grin. actually, I'll throw in the labor.

he must really be trying to make a good impression in town, you think, as he gets to changing out the starter plugs. but he watches you as he works, that grin climbing higher and higher on his cheek.

you might have an oil leak, he says after he's almost done, and points to a spot on the floor. sure enough, there's a dribble of oil there. I can fix that for you, though.

how much? you ask, because you don't have cash to throw at your car right now.

it's on me.

well, that seems rather generous, but you won't turn it down.

he takes off his shirt, exposing an incredibly large body, with a full chest and a thick belly, all of it coiled muscle under a layer of protective fat. you can't help but stare as he drops down onto the floor and slides under your car, his knees parting as he works. the massive bulge between his legs is obvious, even with loose jeans.

jeez, he's packing.

you wait patiently as he works, trying not to stare but unable to tear your eyes away. when he slides out from under the car again, he catches you in the act, and finally he shows all his teeth as he grins.

do you like what you see? he climbs up to his feet.

your mouth is painfully dry, but you have to admit the truth. yes, of course he's absolutely gorgeous. he laughs when he hears it, and closes the distance between you.

I was hoping you would, because I like what I see.

he tilts up your chin with one grease-stained hand, leaving his fingerprints behind and marking you as his. he has to lean down to reach you, and you find yourself rising up on your toes to meet him.

the orc's kiss is fierce, consuming. it's new to you to navigate around his tusks, but they frame your face perfectly as he takes your mouth, devouring you, conquering you. he pushes you up against the garage wall, making the tools hanging there rattle. the lump in his jeans presses against you as his hand ventures up under your shirt.

you explore him just as ravenously, feeling his sturdy body, the tree-trunk size of his arms. without a second glance at it, the orc clears everything off the work table and picks you up by your ass, setting you on it.

show me, he growls low in his throat. so you obey, taking off your shirt, then shucking your own pants. his pupils are huge and blown-out as he unbuckles his own belt, reaching into his jeans to pull out his cock. he strokes it as he watches you.

touch yourself. you can't help but do as he says, finding yourself already wet. his hand speeds up, pre-cum dripping from that green cockhead as he pins you to the table with his eyes.

are you ready? he advances on you, dragging you to the edge. reflexively you spread your legs, and he smirks as he lines himself up with you. I hope you can take me.

you hope so, too.

but you're so slick, so ready for him, that the soft head of his cock pushes through. you grab onto his arms as he continues guiding himself inside you, biting his lip as he tries not to plunge in deep.

what a perfect pussy. the orc grunts as he squeezes even more of that enormous beast inside you. swallowing me up so well.

you shake and moan as he reels his hips back, then slides in even deeper, until he's fully sheathed in you. you clutch him so tight your nails dig into his strong arms as he starts to fuck you. he kisses you, swallowing all of your moans and cries as he sends you spiraling up higher and higher.

then, all at once, you crash to the earth in a burst of pleasure. your scream fills up the garage as he slams into you once, twice more. he yanks his cock out and his cum arcs out, covering you.

your orc mechanic takes a deep, shuddering breath. now you smell like me, he says with satisfaction, rubbing his cum all over you. I guess I had better fix that oil leak now.

[mylittleponyoh]

MylittleponyOh Starter Pack - The Sims 4 Version (Plot twist, it's not AI generated !)

You have probably seen this AI Prompt going crazy lately, and I loved the idea behind it, BUT, as a 3D artist, if I had time, I would definitely make it myself rather than generate it with AI. I don't have the time BUT, I have the Sims 4 and you do too ! So, I've created a PSD file with layers so if you also want to do your Simself Starter Pack version and don't want to use AI you can ! I love how not using AI pushed me to be creative ! All the textures have been hand drawn in Gimp ! How to do it ?

In game, take pictures of your simself with or without poses (I used one tehehe), and objects that represent yourself. Preferably a front view !

Supress the background of the in game pictures (I used this one online).

Get all the layers + your simself + objects in a 2D Editing Software (I mostly use Gimp and Canva) and place it as you like ! (I have created a blank layer just so you know where to place your different pictures !)

Add drop shadows to your pictures so it constrats with the background !

Add your own text ! (I did mine on Canva).

You are done <3

Download on my Patreon !

All the Love, MLPO

Decided to do a Demo vid with my hubbys Simself !

[dyke-dreemurr]

i love the way that deltarune draws attention to toriel's flaws as a parent. because while they were present in undertale, we didn't get much of a chance to explore what the relationship between her and her children truly looked like.

before deltarune, it was pretty easy (and common) for the fandom to mischaracterize her as this perfect, can-do-no-wrong, all-loving mother. her biggest flaw came from the fact that she couldn't (or rather chose not to) stop the previous fallen children from exiting the ruins.

but in deltarune, we play as kris- who has lived with toriel for years- likely their entire life. even in just the two chapters that are currently out, we get a much better picture of what toriel's parenting and general problem-solving attitude looks like.

for starters, she locks the oven/her room knowing that kris will eat all the sweets if left unattended. it's possible that this was simply meant to be written as a silly quirk of theirs, but kris's behavior is very much in line with that of someone with a binge-eating disorder. most eating disorders stem from some desire for control- and toriel's response to lock up the sweets worsens that desire by giving kris a false sense of scarcity when it comes to certain foods.

in chapter 2, toriel's comment on how kris "does this sometimes" when locking themself in the bathroom has some odd implications. it's not exactly clear whether kris's bizarre relationship with their soul is a new development unique to us intruding on their life, or if there's always been some strange fight for control between them.

i'm certainly not the first person to suggest that kris ripping out their soul is in part a metaphor for self harm. they make risky/high impulse decisions like slashing their mom's tires and opening a dark fountain during the small window of time they're not possessed by us, showing that kris's desire for control comes out in ways that hurts them and those around them, and it's possible that this is something toriel is aware of to an extent.

but the biggest flaw i see in her parenting comes from the line about kris's red headband. upon asking when their horns would grow in- rather than explaining the difference between humans and monsters, potentially obscuring information regarding their adoption- toriel opts to get kris a horned headband. she does nothing to address the problem, instead alienating kris further; causing them to wonder why they're so different from the rest of their family- and by extension, hometown as a whole.

kris is... quite obviously not alright, yet there's surprisingly little that toriel does to actually support them. and while it's certainly not out of any malice or lack of care, toriel simply isn't equipped to raise a human. sure, she checked out a how to care for a human guide from the library, but meeting the basic needs for one's survival isn't enough.

one of the most common pieces of advice you'll come across when researching interracial adoption is that children should be provided spaces where they have the opportunity to interact with communities of the same race/ethnicity as them. they should be given opportunities to learn where and from what cultures they originate. not only is kris is the only human in hometown, but they appear to have strong feelings towards humanity judging by the way they react to the photos of humans in the library book i previously mentioned.

all this to say- toriel, while well-intentioned- has hurt kris in ways she didn't foresee. i really hope that this is something we see addressed/expanded upon in chapter 3, especially given the likelihood that it's going to be very dreemurr-centric.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Even if you think AI search could be good, it won’t be good

TONIGHT (May 15), I'm in NORTH HOLLYWOOD for a screening of STEPHANIE KELTON'S FINDING THE MONEY; FRIDAY (May 17), I'm at the INTERNET ARCHIVE in SAN FRANCISCO to keynote the 10th anniversary of the AUTHORS ALLIANCE.

The big news in search this week is that Google is continuing its transition to "AI search" – instead of typing in search terms and getting links to websites, you'll ask Google a question and an AI will compose an answer based on things it finds on the web:

https://blog.google/products/search/generative-ai-google-search-may-2024/

Google bills this as "let Google do the googling for you." Rather than searching the web yourself, you'll delegate this task to Google. Hidden in this pitch is a tacit admission that Google is no longer a convenient or reliable way to retrieve information, drowning as it is in AI-generated spam, poorly labeled ads, and SEO garbage:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/03/keyword-swarming/#site-reputation-abuse

Googling used to be easy: type in a query, get back a screen of highly relevant results. Today, clicking the top links will take you to sites that paid for placement at the top of the screen (rather than the sites that best match your query). Clicking further down will get you scams, AI slop, or bulk-produced SEO nonsense.

AI-powered search promises to fix this, not by making Google search results better, but by having a bot sort through the search results and discard the nonsense that Google will continue to serve up, and summarize the high quality results.

Now, there are plenty of obvious objections to this plan. For starters, why wouldn't Google just make its search results better? Rather than building a LLM for the sole purpose of sorting through the garbage Google is either paid or tricked into serving up, why not just stop serving up garbage? We know that's possible, because other search engines serve really good results by paying for access to Google's back-end and then filtering the results:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

Another obvious objection: why would anyone write the web if the only purpose for doing so is to feed a bot that will summarize what you've written without sending anyone to your webpage? Whether you're a commercial publisher hoping to make money from advertising or subscriptions, or – like me – an open access publisher hoping to change people's minds, why would you invite Google to summarize your work without ever showing it to internet users? Nevermind how unfair that is, think about how implausible it is: if this is the way Google will work in the future, why wouldn't every publisher just block Google's crawler?

A third obvious objection: AI is bad. Not morally bad (though maybe morally bad, too!), but technically bad. It "hallucinates" nonsense answers, including dangerous nonsense. It's a supremely confident liar that can get you killed:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/01/mushroom-pickers-urged-to-avoid-foraging-books-on-amazon-that-appear-to-be-written-by-ai

The promises of AI are grossly oversold, including the promises Google makes, like its claim that its AI had discovered millions of useful new materials. In reality, the number of useful new materials Deepmind had discovered was zero:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/23/maximal-plausibility/#reverse-centaurs

This is true of all of AI's most impressive demos. Often, "AI" turns out to be low-waged human workers in a distant call-center pretending to be robots:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/31/neural-interface-beta-tester/#tailfins

Sometimes, the AI robot dancing on stage turns out to literally be just a person in a robot suit pretending to be a robot:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain

The AI video demos that represent "an existential threat to Hollywood filmmaking" turn out to be so cumbersome as to be practically useless (and vastly inferior to existing production techniques):

https://www.wheresyoured.at/expectations-versus-reality/

But let's take Google at its word. Let's stipulate that:

a) It can't fix search, only add a slop-filtering AI layer on top of it; and

b) The rest of the world will continue to let Google index its pages even if they derive no benefit from doing so; and

c) Google will shortly fix its AI, and all the lies about AI capabilities will be revealed to be premature truths that are finally realized.

AI search is still a bad idea. Because beyond all the obvious reasons that AI search is a terrible idea, there's a subtle – and incurable – defect in this plan: AI search – even excellent AI search – makes it far too easy for Google to cheat us, and Google can't stop cheating us.

Remember: enshittification isn't the result of worse people running tech companies today than in the years when tech services were good and useful. Rather, enshittification is rooted in the collapse of constraints that used to prevent those same people from making their services worse in service to increasing their profit margins:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/26/glitchbread/#electronic-shelf-tags

These companies always had the capacity to siphon value away from business customers (like publishers) and end-users (like searchers). That comes with the territory: digital businesses can alter their "business logic" from instant to instant, and for each user, allowing them to change payouts, prices and ranking. I call this "twiddling": turning the knobs on the system's back-end to make sure the house always wins:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

What changed wasn't the character of the leaders of these businesses, nor their capacity to cheat us. What changed was the consequences for cheating. When the tech companies merged to monopoly, they ceased to fear losing your business to a competitor.

Google's 90% search market share was attained by bribing everyone who operates a service or platform where you might encounter a search box to connect that box to Google. Spending tens of billions of dollars every year to make sure no one ever encounters a non-Google search is a cheaper way to retain your business than making sure Google is the very best search engine:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Competition was once a threat to Google; for years, its mantra was "competition is a click away." Today, competition is all but nonexistent.

Then the surveillance business consolidated into a small number of firms. Two companies dominate the commercial surveillance industry: Google and Meta, and they collude to rig the market:

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

That consolidation inevitably leads to regulatory capture: shorn of competitive pressure, the companies that dominate the sector can converge on a single message to policymakers and use their monopoly profits to turn that message into policy:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

This is why Google doesn't have to worry about privacy laws. They've successfully prevented the passage of a US federal consumer privacy law. The last time the US passed a federal consumer privacy law was in 1988. It's a law that bans video store clerks from telling the newspapers which VHS cassettes you rented:

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

In Europe, Google's vast profits lets it fly an Irish flag of convenience, thus taking advantage of Ireland's tolerance for tax evasion and violations of European privacy law:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/15/finnegans-snooze/#dirty-old-town

Google doesn't fear competition, it doesn't fear regulation, and it also doesn't fear rival technologies. Google and its fellow Big Tech cartel members have expanded IP law to allow it to prevent third parties from reverse-engineer, hacking, or scraping its services. Google doesn't have to worry about ad-blocking, tracker blocking, or scrapers that filter out Google's lucrative, low-quality results:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

Google doesn't fear competition, it doesn't fear regulation, it doesn't fear rival technology and it doesn't fear its workers. Google's workforce once enjoyed enormous sway over the company's direction, thanks to their scarcity and market power. But Google has outgrown its dependence on its workers, and lays them off in vast numbers, even as it increases its profits and pisses away tens of billions on stock buybacks:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/25/moral-injury/#enshittification

Google is fearless. It doesn't fear losing your business, or being punished by regulators, or being mired in guerrilla warfare with rival engineers. It certainly doesn't fear its workers.

Making search worse is good for Google. Reducing search quality increases the number of queries, and thus ads, that each user must make to find their answers:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

If Google can make things worse for searchers without losing their business, it can make more money for itself. Without the discipline of markets, regulators, tech or workers, it has no impediment to transferring value from searchers and publishers to itself.

Which brings me back to AI search. When Google substitutes its own summaries for links to pages, it creates innumerable opportunities to charge publishers for preferential placement in those summaries.

This is true of any algorithmic feed: while such feeds are important – even vital – for making sense of huge amounts of information, they can also be used to play a high-speed shell-game that makes suckers out of the rest of us:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/11/for-you/#the-algorithm-tm

When you trust someone to summarize the truth for you, you become terribly vulnerable to their self-serving lies. In an ideal world, these intermediaries would be "fiduciaries," with a solemn (and legally binding) duty to put your interests ahead of their own:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/07/treacherous-computing/#rewilding-the-internet

But Google is clear that its first duty is to its shareholders: not to publishers, not to searchers, not to "partners" or employees.

AI search makes cheating so easy, and Google cheats so much. Indeed, the defects in AI give Google a readymade excuse for any apparent self-dealing: "we didn't tell you a lie because someone paid us to (for example, to recommend a product, or a hotel room, or a political point of view). Sure, they did pay us, but that was just an AI 'hallucination.'"

The existence of well-known AI hallucinations creates a zone of plausible deniability for even more enshittification of Google search. As Madeleine Clare Elish writes, AI serves as a "moral crumple zone":

https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/260

That's why, even if you're willing to believe that Google could make a great AI-based search, we can nevertheless be certain that they won't.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/15/they-trust-me-dumb-fucks/#ai-search

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

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

--

djhughman https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Modular_synthesizer_-_%22Control_Voltage%22_electronic_music_shop_in_Portland_OR_-_School_Photos_PCC_%282015-05-23_12.43.01_by_djhughman%29.jpg

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

[kayawolfhorse]

Tall Claims TV

Full list of faux-news headings from the Mumbo vs Hermitcraft case!

Record Sales Down After Players Discover /playsound Trick

Rich&Rich Gets Record Bonuses Despite Losing Customer Funds

Permit Office Closed from December to June for Christmas

Snow Begins to Fall as Xisuma Forgets to Run ‘No Rain’ Command

AI Chat Bot Found to be Lonely Man With a Redstone Keyboard

Mined Worker in Hospital After Proving ‘Water is Safe to Drink’

Diamond Inflation at All Time High as Doc Builds Another T-Bore

Bop and Go Jingle Still Topping Charts, World Tour Announced

Neck Roll Parrot Dance Goes Viral on Brick-Tok

Gem-M is Ditching Voice Chat and Would Rather Message Instead

Shopping District Portal Deemed ‘Ugly Beautiful’ by Poll

Etho Upgrades Tissue Box to a Washed Takeaway Container

Globe Earthers ‘Still Believe’ Despite Farlands Expedition

Moon Size Report: Still the Same (Thank Goodness)

Netherite Out of Style as Youth Opt for Less Flashy Brands

Independent Study Finds Thumb Shifting to be Optimal

Increase Arm Muscle 33.3% With One Simple Click! Story at 10

Big News: TV Caption Writers Would Like More Pay, Says Everyone

Older Minecrafters Say New Generations Have it Easy

Villagerian is the Most Hostile Language, According to Poll

Surplus Mega Corp. Says ‘Air Quality is Better Than Ever’

New Zombie Flesh Diet Guarantees Fast Results

Hacker Infiltrates Ender Chest Network—Items Lost

Engineers Add 5th tick to Repeater, Public Still Uninterested

‘Is That Sheep Looking At You?’ New Show by MineFlex

How Many is Too Many? Asks TV Caption Writers

Leaving Floating Trees Named Biggest ‘Ick’ by Gen-M

Blockympic Gold Medalist Banned After Failed Speed Potion Test

Pig Kills Owner After 20th ride Without Getting Carrot

New Smart Watch Puts F3 on Your Wrist

Wart Epidemic Caused by Irresponsible Marketing Campaign

New Study Finds 91% of Players Don’t Understand Comparators

Kelp Powered Furnaces Recommended to Fight Climate Change

Research Finds We do Not Live in a Simulation

Skyscraper Firm Lobbies Government for Increased Build Height

Copper Voted Best Block in Minecraft, Despite Limited Uses

Theoretical Physicists Model Curved Blocks Called ‘Balls’

Magic Mountain Lawn Flamingo Company Goes into Liquidation

Hungry Hermit Addiction Reaches Epidemic Levels

Gen-M Should ‘Stop Eating Golden Carrots’ To Save For Starter Base

[epicspheal]

Words Are Unnecessary! A Red Analysis

Picture this: You’re a 90s kid, you got a Gameboy and this new game called Pokemon (or as your parents likely called it, Pokeman). And you get one choice of protagonist, a boy from Pallet Town named Red. 

Game Red is a silent protagonist turned silent NPC, so one may think it might be hard to do a character analysis on him (compared to say his Origins, Pokespe or Anime counterparts). Yet like much of Kanto, Red is a character told through environmental storytelling.

Let’s start with his name, in all official translations his name is Red. The color Red is a primary color which low key represents his role as the protagonist and the top of the Kanto hierarchy. This is most apparent when you compare Blue’s Japanese name Green which is a secondary color (implying he’s the second best of the Kanto trainers). Symbolically the color red represents passion, love, strength, confidence and importance. As time has moved on and TPCi has made Red an important character just as much as a protagonist, we can see that he embodies so much of the symbolism of his namesake color.

He’s described as having a quiet passion and love for Pokemon. He exudes strength and confidence in any game related adaptation and he’s quite possibly the most important trainer in the series. When you consider the fact that originally, Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal were supposed to be the last games in the series you realize that Red’s naming was not just random but meant to be a story of his arc. From your entry into the wonderful world of Pokemon the formidable passionate flame on top of Mt Silver that would serve as your final obstacle. 

Alright so let’s take a look at Red’s team. Now canonically we know he completed the Kanto Pokedex of 151 unique little critters. That’s a huge accomplishment that affords him a vast rotation of Pokemon that most trainers in the world will not have. Yet in his NPC appearances we see that he tends to stick to a certain subset of Pokemon and this actually gives a lot of insight into his character

Like most Pokemon champions he opts for a more balanced team with varied typings. I’m going to focus on his HGSS team since that’s the one that is used the most over generations. We see he has a Pikachu, the three Kanto Starters, Lapras and Snorlax. The first thing that stands out is his use of a (very high leveled) Pikachu in a team of otherwise fully evolved Pokemon. This is of course a reference to Pokemon Yellow, but it also just shows his trust in his Pokemon. The fact that he would still keep one of his Pokemon unevolved due to the Pokemon’s own personal preference shows that Red respects the choices of his Pokemon. He even gives his Pikachu a Light Ball to hold in order to boost the powers of his moves, further showing how much he wants to work with his Pokemon to achieve their ultimate potential rather than deciding for them. 

The three Kanto Starters are a way to not formally canonize which starter he chooses, but they’re also a reference to Pokemon Yellow as all three can be obtained from gifts. The same goes for his Lapras and Espeon (in GSC) which are also obtained as gifts. Snorlax rounds out the team as the Pokemon he gets by waking up with the Pokeflute (the Pokeflute being a gift). So what does this all mean for Red? It shows that despite having caught the entire Kanto Pokedex (including legendaries and mythicals) he ends up prioritizing the Pokemon he got as gifts. This shows a very sentimental side of him. This makes sense when you consider the guide to Pokemon RBG where it shows he wishes to regain his friendship with Blue back after the latter starts being mean. The Kanto journey for Red is as much of a coming of age story as it is a sentimental one as he really wants his best friend back.

Now taking a look at the moves Red chooses for his team we can see he has a varied amount of attacks that helped to hit most types for super-effective damage. A couple of things to note here is that he does seem to have a preference for moves that give status conditions as a secondary effect showing that he tries to open multiple paths to victory in battle. This shows he is calculating and knowledgeable about the moves he uses. For his HGSS Mount Silver battle you’ll notice the Kanto starters all have the three ultimate moves: Frenzy Plant, Blast Burn, and Hydro Cannon. This once again symbolizes the high degree of love Red has in his Pokemon. 

However those moves are much like elemental Hyper Beams in that they require a recharge turn. And indeed Red has Giga Impact on his Snorlax which also requires a recharge turn. Not only that he uses moves like Focus Blast which has not the best accuracy. He also uses moves like Flare Blitz and Volt Tackle which give recoil damage. All this to say, Red has a bit of a reckless streak as well. Which checks when you think about how he single-handedly drove Team Rocket out of Kanto, and his actions during the Pokemas Kanto Villain arc. I do want to point out that he has the move Blizzard on three of his Pokemon which is normally a low accuracy move…except in the Hail. Which, what do you know, Mount Silver has Hail (er snow). This shows that while Red can be reckless he also is very smart in taking advantage of his surroundings. 

I’m actually going to jump to his Alola Team because you see aside from levels nothing has really changed except for the moves. Once again he still has some high risk-high reward moves but they’ve been toned down a bit. This actually provides a bit of subtle character growth as we see he’s toning down his reckless streak as he has become an adult. We also see in his moves and items in the battle tree that he varies the strategies he uses against opponents in terms of moves and items used. This is fitting given that this time he’s now known as a Battle Legend. He uses quite a few mega items in the Battle Tree which once again affirm the love and trust he has for his Pokemon.

Now let’s take a look at the few quotes we get from Red

"Hi! Do you like Pokémon? Uh no, I just asked you. Huh? You're strange!" 

"Hi! Thanks for earlier! Pardon? Is it that fun to mimic my every move?" - Talking to CopycatThis is one of the non-Pokemon Masters spoken words we get out of Red from RBGY/FRLG. Here he’s talking to Copy Cat who is…copying every word he says. It’s a funny bit of dialogue that shows despite being a living legend he was still definitely a kid with brutal honesty by calling CopyCat strange. But we get to see he is a polite child as he thanks CopyCat for the TM he get while also still curious as to why CopyCat seems to enjoy mimicking him.

"…?""…?!" -if Red defeats the player in the Pokemon World Tournament In Pokemon Black 2/White 2 When most of us think of Red, we think of the fact that he typically speaks in ellipses. I really liked this set of ellipses from the Pokemon World Tournament as it’s possible for any character to beat the player without forcing a rematch to progress the story. So that means any of the champions can claim victory. In the case of Victory with Red, here he seems to express a bit of shock that he won against Nate/Rosa. This shows a great deal of humility for him because by the time of the second Unova story events, he’s well regarded as a living battle legend.

"...I accept your challenge!" - To Blue before the Pasio Tournament Finals

This was a very touching moment between Red and Blue. Blue was admittedly rashly challenging Red to a battle due to his own insecurities about being a good rival to Red especially given the Pasio format of three on three battles. Normally when Red accepts challenges he does so silently, but here we see him make a verbal acceptance. This is huge because it shows how important Blue is to him. He recognizes Blue still struggles with insecurity in regards to the rivalry and rather than just wordlessly accept a battle, he tells Blue he accepts to show that he acknowledges Blue not just as his best friend, but as his rival. Even when he’s challenged by champions like Leon and Cynthia he is wordless, but with Blue he speaks to affirm the challenge. It speaks volumes about how much Red cares about Blue. Again going back to the RBGY guide book that talks about how Red wants to get his friend back, you can see how Red doesn’t want to lose Blue as a friend again and is willing to verbally affirm Blue, because he recognizes that words of affirmation are a love language to Blue.

"(Blue, Leaf...Let's win this—together!)" - in his head Okay so he didn’t actually speak this out loud but this counts. As they’re preparing for the finals of the Pasio Tournament, you see once again how much Red values his two childhood friends. He doesn’t just want this to be “The Red Show” where he, the living legend, effortlessly takes down the opponents and with all of  the glory going to himself. He wants to win it with the help of his friends. This once again shows how sentimental Red is as a person

"Congratulations! You won!"

This is also major in one of the few times he speaks after losing, but also in front of a large audience. Him verbally congratulating Scottie/Bettie and their team for their win shows a high degree of respect that he has for the rookie trainer to be able to lead a team to victory against him and his closest friends. Considering that (despite what team you use against him) the cutscene shows Rosa, Misty and Brock this is also a way of him showing major respect to the first two gym leaders he ever took on when he began his journey in Kanto years ago. 

"... ... ... ... ... ... Words are unnecessary!"

I remember seeing this “A Day with Sygna Suit Red” the first time and absolutely dying of laughter when these words were uttered. Red was absolutely trolling Flint and Scottie/Bettie at the moment knowing very few would believe them if they said they heard Red speak. It’s nice to see a more playful side of him that also shows why he, Blue and Leaf all get along so well. They’re all little shits. 

Alright I’m going to add a few more quotes from some other characters to give a bit more context to Red’s character

"Red is never satisfied with how strong he is. He's always looking for new ways to grow as a Trainer and bring out the potential of his Pokémon." - Professor Oak

With this quote from Professor Oak, we can see once again how despite how strong Red is he never lets it get to his head. He’s always constantly seeking improvement."With Red, what really stood out to me wasn't that he was strong but that he seemed very gifted as a Trainer." - Brock

Even though it may seem like to some that Red is portrayed as having always been this ultra strong trainer, Brock’s words here show that he had to grow into his strength. Yes he may have had a bit of a knack of battling, but those early victories weren’t flawless. He’s still fallible

"Well, don't go overboard with the tough love, Red." - Blue

To be honest, it was hard to choose a quote from Blue, since he won’t shut up about Red. But I really liked this one from the Neo Champion event. It gives some more fallibility to Red as he doles out tough love to his mentees and Blue cautions him about not overdoing it.  "Winning makes you two happier than anyone, while losing makes you the most frustrated. You're both unbelievably straightforward and earnest when it comes to Pokemon" - Blue, again And more quotes from Blue! Here we see him talking to Leon and comparing the two showing how similar they are on a core level. This comparison highlights Red having a straightforward philosophy when it comes to how he interacts with Pokemon and how he deals with battling. It's simple but as we can see from his results it's been very effective in catapulting to the sheer ability and strength he has.

“He’s been battling nonstop, even cutting back on sleep” - Elio That tough love he dealt to his mentees during the Neo Champion event also extends to himself as he pushes himself extremely hard after his close win against Leon in the Arc-Suit story. This tracks with him disappearing for years on Mount Silver to train after becoming the Kanto Champion. This highlights his drive to improve but also his reckless streak. It also shows just how much he respects Leon’s strength as he’s pushed Red to a limit he’s not used to being pushed to. It's also telling that he picks the three trainers (Elio, Rosa and Ethan) who in the mainline games are shown to be able to defeat his team. Once again highlighting Red's continuous strides for improvement.

Red throughout the years has been a powerful icon of the franchise and is in many ways a symbol for how as the generations pass, GameFreak continues to find new ways to explore the potential of the world of Pokemon. He’s a quiet flame filled with endless passion and a bit of recklessness. But above all he’s filled with love, love for Pokemon, the human friends he’s close to and the thrill of battle.

[samkerrworshipper]

bloody hell

arsenal wfc x reader, light kyra cooney-cross x reader

wrote this purely based off my last weekend lol. hope you all enjoy!

warnings: fear of blood, fainting, concussions

There are many pros to being a younger player. You’ve seen a lot less of the ugliness that can come with football. The injuries, the recoveries, pay gaps, poor conditions, all the things that seem to have been previously normalised in women’s football but aren’t really anymore. It doesn’t change how you play or how you live but it does make things easier. You aren’t ignorant to the work or misfortunes that have come before you, it's simply an issue of underexposure to a lot of the issues. You’ve seen some things, the acl pandemic in football has not escaped your teammates, and you’ve seen a variety of other injuries that seem to come and go between opponents and teammates.

You’ve seen some things but you’re still fairly unexposed, it’s both a positive and a negative in its own way. Inexperience is something that any young player hates, including yourself. It’s what sets one player aside from another, your lack of experience as a player and person often isn’t a positive thing. It’s nice though in its own blissful ignorance way where you feel less broken down by it all. You are more lenient when it comes to most things, there is more room for you to make mistakes and learn.

There are some things you probably never want to see or experience, but with sport there isn’t the privilege to pick and choose.

A part of you, you hope, will always be slightly in awe of playing at the Emirates. You weren’t a childhood Arsenal fan, in-fact it’s your biggest secret that you grew up in an all Chelsea house. Though it doesn’t take anything away from the sheer bewilderment you experience every single time you step out on the pitch. The crowd, the atmosphere, the size, the general feeling takes away all the blue roots that run deep in you.

You don’t think any amount of experience in that respect will take the feeling away, you’re fairly certain based off of the way that teammates of yours like Leah and Kim who have been playing for the club for so long you can’t even begin to comprehend still walk out in the same state of amazement as you.

You may be inexperienced but you aren’t lacking in opportunities, having been a starter for Arsenal so far for this whole season as well as for England. No amount of experience can change skill or observation levels.

You play on the field with a level of agility and aggression that just translates to easy goalscoring, you place balls in the back of the net with such ease that for any defensive line it’s impossible.

Today’s been no different, having scored a chip at the 20’ minute mark and an assist to Alessia in the 23’. You don’t think your team is far off of securing a third against a significantly weaker Tottenham side as you all set up for a corner. Kyra’s the one kicking it, and whilst you’re slightly personally biased, there’s a good chance that she’s sending it straight to you, hovering just above the back post.

The ball soars, and it just about makes the distance before Steph and one of the Tottenham players end up midair together. Steph’s head finds the ball, but so does the Tottenham player's head and once the ball ricochets off of the two of them there is nothing to stop their two heads from hitting at a rather concerned angle.

Normally, you’d be hunting for the ball as soon as it hits the ground, desperate to send it somewhere over the line. You rush forward though, not towards the ball but instead towards Steph’s body which is a rather big red lump in the middle of the goal area.

The Tottenham players crowd around their own in a similar fashion, everyone hesitating to touch before the medics arrive. You haven’t seen many head injuries but you’ve done the basic enough medical training to know that until the medics have cleared the neck and c-spine area it’s best to leave a person as they are.

The medics are quick, they always are with neck injuries and everyone clears away to let them work. T

The positive is that Steph is conscious, and whilst she’s clearly foggy, she’s coherent enough.

Once her neck has been cleared and everyone sees that she’s fine the whole team starts to turn towards the sidelines, you gravitate towards Kyra naturally, her arm reaching out for yours at the same time yours reaches for her. You’re about to say something to her about her kick not quite getting to you when your eyes catch onto the Tottenham player.

As everyone from Arsenal has dispersed, it’s left a gap around the Tottenham player. She’s awake too, like Steph and seems to be in a similar condition except for the massive gash on her eyebrow that’s leaking blood all over her face.

As soon as you see it, it’s lights out.

All the air leaves your lungs and everything swims into a big black cloud until there’s nothing more for you to see.

Kyra doesn’t know what’s happening until you're face down in the grass in front of her, you were clumsy, shes assumed you’d just stumbled on a piece of grass or your own cleat. It’s too late for her to try and catch you.

You wake up foggy, and in a much darker room. The first thing you notice is how much your head hurts, every blink sends a throbbing pain straight to your forehead. You have absolutely no awareness of your surroundings and are sure you’re in a fever dream of some sorts when someone talks.

“You’re awake! We thought you’d gone sleeping beauty on us, or at least Kyra thought so.”

You haven’t quite blinked the white away from your vision so you trust your intuition on who you’re conversing with.

“You think out of the two of us I’d be the sleeping beauty? Have you seen how many naps a day she takes?”

Your voice seems to have attracted the attention of somebody besides Steph, who from your very little amounts of spatial awareness seems to be floating somewhere to the left of you. Your memory is patchy, but you can manage to remember something to do with an altercation between her and another player.

“Can you open your eyes fully for me, please?”

You are trying your hardest but even in the dark room every millimetre more you open your head only seems to swim more.

“That’s alright, if it hurts don’t worry about it. Can you tell me where we are right now?”

Rose is your favourite physio, by far, but under the current circumstances her voice sounds like the worst thing you’ve ever heard.

“Emirates?”

Statistically, because you’re in game gear it’s either the Emirates, meadow park or an away venue. Based on the comfort of the physio beds the Emirates seems like a good guess.

“Answer or question? Can you tell me where your head hurts, or when it hurts most?”

It hurts to do anything is the answer you want to give, but the physios are never happy with ambiguity.

“Mostly above my forehead, everything hurts but opening my eyes most.”

Rose’s hands on your temples are completely unwelcome, but warm so you aren’t extremely bothered.

“Can you tell me why your head is hurting?”

Up until this moment you haven’t put much thought into it, thinking hurts, really intensely.

“Saw blood, assume I passed out.”

The laugh you hear from your left makes you want to lean over and smother Steph. Your fear or avoidance towards blood hasn’t been an issue so far, shockingly, but it was always bound to come out at some stage.

“Well that explains a lot, I’d make a fair assumption that your dive into the pitch has given you a good concussion as well. We’ll have to take you to the hospital to get scanned with Steph, you know the drill. Rest up and keep away from blood, huh?”

It was an issue that affected your life so rarely that you often forget about it entirely. Every other body fluid you were fine with, your own blood didn’t bother you, yet when it came to other people you just… dropped.

“Bloody hell mate.”

Steph clearly thought she was hilarious.

“You aren’t funny.”

Steph was still pissing herself from her spot next to you, in any other situation you’d probably be laughing with her but the way every single chuckle made your ears ring took away from the feeling.

You couldn’t even open your eyes and yet you swore you could feel the room spinning, like the bed you were lying on was secretly spinning in big circles.

“I-I think I’m going to vomit.”

Steph’s laughing seized almost immediately, a little bit of your nausea faded but not enough for the risk of vomit to fade.

Very quickly a vomit bag was thrust into your hands and within a few seconds the protein bar and lucozade you’d had before the game were being emptied out of you.

You weren���t supposed to be the injured one in this situation, yet you felt Steph seat herself beside you, rubbing your back as you gagged on the taste of your own bile.

“You picked the right line of work, imagine you wanted to be a doctor and found out about all of this during your first surgery or something, face planted into a person's stomach or brain.”

Steph’s joke fell on a silent crowd, your nausea subsiding and your body slumping against half of Steph’s body and the rest again the physio bed.

“God, Kyra playing nurse. That is going to be a sight, you think blood nearly killed you? Imagine Kyra having to be a responsible adult for the first time in her life. I’ll be praying for you.”

You try not to think about your girlfriend's inability to cook, clean and really function as an adult without you helping her out. It’s too much for your already pounding head.

“What was the end score?”

You can’t remember what stage you were hurt at exactly, but you assume the match must be over.

“Last time I checked we were 3-0 up going into the second half but Rose took my phone off of me as soon as we came down here. I’d say it should be over in less than half an hour.”

Steph took your vomit bag from you and threw it in the bed, helping you as best she could to relax against the bed before moving to her own. Her concussion was very minor considering the collision, but she still had a headache.

“No sleeping, okay? I can be quieter but I can’t have you dying on me. Imagine the tombstone, death by blood exposure.”

Normally you have a pretty good sense of humour, but it’s all lost with the blinding headache you can’t remotely shake.

“Steph if you speak again I’m going to reach over and strangle you.”

It’s no empty threat and Steph seems to get the message because the room falls silent and the only sound you can hear is the whirring of some kind of machine somewhere.

Even if you wanted to sleep, you can’t. Your head feels like it’s going to explode and also shrink into itself all at the same time and it’s possibly the worst sensation you’ve ever experienced. Mixed with the drowsiness, nausea, fatigue, spinning and pain every time you try to open your eyes you feel downright miserable.

You assume it’s just Rose returning when the door to the room opens, she’s come in and out a few times since Steph has stopped talking, checking to see if you feel any better or worse. You stick with the same answer every time of feeling the same.

When a hand gently rests on your ankle though, and it doesn’t quite feel like Rose’s you try your very hardest to open your eyes. You manage to get them open enough to a small squint and make out a blob of a person in all red, that’s about it.

“Hey baby, keep your eyes closed, it’s okay.”

Kyra’s voice instantly relaxes you, some of the tension in your legs diffusing as her hand moves to rest on your shin.

“Ky?”

The hand squeezes lightly and none of your physical symptoms truly fade but you swear you feel ten times better.

“Yeah it’s me and Cait and Katie. Wanted to make sure you didn’t die on us.”

The underlying worry doesn’t surpass you, it had to be scary for Kyra having her partner eat shit right in front of her out of nowhere. Your mind immediately goes to Friad and her accident last season, whilst you don’t have anything in common with it, you can remember your own fear when that happened and you weren’t particularly close to Frida.

“Your lovergirl has a fear of blood, apparently just drops at the sight of it, as we all saw.”

Your eyes clench as your hear Katie drop into a fit of giggles from wherever she is in the room, it booms and makes everything ten times worse.

“Fear of blood? Yer an athlete, we see blood everyday mate, need some thicker skin.”

Kyra’s hand left your leg for a moment, and in that moment it was impossible to hear the dull sound of somebody hitting somebody else.

“Fear of blood? Baby why didn’t you tell me? How didn’t I notice?”

Kyra’s hand moves up to your arm, nestling itself on top of your bicep. You try to not flinch away from the cold tinge they have.

“Never came up.”

Katie’s still laughing, the noise of it makes your head spin.

“Yer telling me that every time you get a papercut or scratch yerself on something, you just pass out? God aprils fools day has just gotten so much better. I think we need to test the effectiveness of this.”

You hear Caitlin giving Katie a good telling off and it makes you feel better, if not for your head but because you know that Cait wears the pants in the whole situation.

“It’s only other people's blood, not my own. It’s worse when I’m not expecting it.”

You try to relax as much as you can, knowing subconsciously that your head will thank you for it.

“Shoulda become a doctor, you’re in the wrong career if you ask me.”

Katie sets Steph off, and when you’d finally thought you’d gotten back to a place of peace you’re sorely mistaken.

“That’s what I said!”

You want noise cancelling headphones right now, or to pass out again.

“Wait, what about last month when we… when I was on-.”

The laughter seizes and you curse Kyra’s obliviousness with every fibre of your being. If you weren’t so touchy you’d probably find it funny, but right now it just serves as another topic of torture.

“EW- closing my ears closing my ears.”

“You guys are still children! Children!.”

“There are just some things that you keep to yerselves.”

[witch1nghour]

𝜗𝜚 ⠀𝗕𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗙 𝗠𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗨𝗠𝗕   ﹔   various  sentence  starters(   general/platonic/romantic/antagonistic/etc   )  from   THE INVITATION (   2022   )   .  please   ,   like   or   reblog   if   you   plan   on   using   .   don’t   claim   as   your   own   .   content   warning   :  mention of death , murder , etc.

you  must  eat  something.

you  must  be  terribly  weak  by  now.

I  won't  do  it  anymore.

everyone  is  most  concerned  about  your  behaviour.

you  know  how  hard  it  is  out  here.

he's  family,  and  I  don't  have  any.

leopards  don't  usually  change  their  spots.

scandals  aren't  what  they  used  to  be.

I  can't  imagine  what  you've  gone  through.

you  just  have  to  tolerate  my  terrible  sense  of  humour  for  a  few  days.

you  definitely  must  be  on  your  best  behaviour.

if  we  don't  help  each  other  out,  who  will,  right?

I  don't  care  whose  fault  it  was.  just  get  rid  of  it.

you're  most  welcome  to  venture  anywhere  within  the  estate.

are  those  all  real?

I  can  assure  you  everything  is  authentic.

the  master  is  a  great  supporter  of  the  arts.

the  mirror  broke  last  week  but  we've  ordered  a  new  one.

I  know  the  pain  of  losing  someone  never  quite  leaves  you.

next  thing  you  know,  you'll  be  posing  for  nude  portraits.

did  you  overdo  it  on  the  bubbly  again?

it's  not  safe  in  the  dark.

what  are  they  doing  down  there?

please,  go  back  to  bed.

it  truly  means  more  to  us  than  you  can  ever  know.

so  thrilled  to  have  you  join  us.

it's  customary  that  I  have  the  first  dance.

I  can't  shake  the  feeling  that  everyone  is  staring  at  me.

you  even  make  jealousy  look  radiant.

even  a  life  of  indulgence  has  its  drawbacks.

if  you  like,  I  could  stay  with  you  till  you  fall  asleep.

i'm  tired  of  this  facade  and  constantly  keeping  up  appearances.

I  want  someone  to  see  me  for  who  I  truly  am.

how  well  can  you  know  someone  if  you  don't  know  their  past?

I  think  you  should  take  people  as  they  are,  you  know?

when  I  saw  you  packing  your  things,  that  scared  me.

please,  don't  run  away.

i'm  so  glad  that  we  can  finally  be  honest  with  each  other.

if  you'll  indulge  me  for  one  more  moment.

my  love,  whatever  is  the  matter?

I  thought  we  agreed  that  we  were  done  with  this  charade.

we  are  now  free  to  be  our  true  selves.

we'll  soon  be  just  like  sisters.

it  was  a  gallant  attempt.  I'll  give  you  that.

you  think  you  can  change  thousands  of  years,  just  like  that?

I  killed  him.  it's  over.

it  was  just  a  flesh  wound.

you  don't  tell  me  what  to  do  anymore.

I  would  rather  die  than  be  a  part  of  this.

[ms-dead-inside]

WHY IZUKU BEING BORN QUIRKLESS IS A POINT FOR DAD FOR ONE:

Now, I'm not saying that I'm a die-hard DFO believer. I think that the theory is fun, and as a joke, I told my friend that if Izuku's father wasn't introduced by the end of the manga then DFO was officially canon by process of elimination. I'm just here to give my opinion about one of the main points people claim disproves DFO: Izuku being born quirkless. I would argue that Izuku being born quirkless, rather than having his quirk stolen as an infant, gives more credibility to the DFO theory.

For starters, when Izuku is told he in the first episode by the doctor (who is obviously AFO's doctor) that he's quirkless and is shown the x-ray of his foot, the doctor says a line (and I'm paraphrasing here) about how "it was virtually unheard of for a child born from two fourth-generation quirk users to be quirkless." The doctor could potentially be lying, but that is very unlikely. Even if he's evil, there's no reason for him to lie in that scenario: Quirks have been around for over a century by then, and lying about something that could be so easily disproven would be moronic.

So, with the belief that he was telling the truth, then it gives more insight into how quirks work. Quirks, in some way, shape, or form, are genetic. It's why quirk marriages were a thing. It's why Katsuki was the unbelievably lucky mix of both his parents' quirks, allowing him to make explosions. It's why Tsuyu's whole family looks froglike. Quirks aren't magically bestowed upon people like Celestia with visions: it's passed down genetically. Quirks are formed from a genetic mutation. This means that based on what the doctor said, quirks are a dominant allele.

To give a basic recap in biology: each gene has two alleles, one from each parent. Genes are what give you your appearance and more: whether your eyes are blue or brown. If you'll be blonde, brunette, or end up as a redhead. If you are more susceptible to different health problems like stroke or Alzheimer's. Alleles, on the other hand, can be either "dominant" or "recessive." "Dominant" alleles need only one parent to transfer it to the child for the trait to show up. "Recessive" alleles, on the other hand, require the allele from both parents to show up in the child. For example, curly hair is dominant over straight hair. If you use 'A' to describe the allele for curly hair and 'a' to describe the allele for straight hair, then it could be looked at as this:

AA= curly hair

Aa= curly hair (dominant allele present)

aa= straight hair (both recessive alleles present)

This means that quirks show up when through a dominant allele. The mention of "fourth-generation quirk users" implies that two quirked parents can give birth to a quirkless individual. That wouldn't be possible if quirks were a recessive allele. Therefore, if both of Izuku's parents were fourth-generation, then it is technically possible for Izuku's ancestors to have passed on the recessive quirklessness through the generations. And Izuku just happened to be the unlucky son of a gun who lost the genetic lottery.

But do you know what this means? It means that it doesn't disprove DFO in the slightest. In fact, having a parent who is a first-generation quirk user adds to the credibility. Canon shows that AFO was the first person who had a quirk. While Izuku is still unlucky on his mother's side of the genetic lottery, having a dad who automatically has a recessive allele makes his quirklessness much more likely.

In conclusion: Izuku being born quirkless just adds to the Dad for one theory. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[fyodor-s-rat]

BUNGOU STRAY DOGS - NSFW headcanons

ft.: Dazai, Edgar, Fyodor, Nikolai

tw.: nsfw content

Dazai

he has many experiences

and it's canon that he's probably really good in bed

he is constantly horny, so he loves quickies

he would do it literally ANYWHERE (even ADA's office

he's extremely touchy

he loves being dominated as much as he loves to dominate

moans like a whore

LOVES teasing you

constantly dirty-talks

has really skilled fingers

after sex, he's very clingy

and although he's not good with aftercare, he'll cuddle with you

Edgar

he is very shy and awkward.

he's either a virgin or he has like one experience, and it was a bad one

he's anxious and scared that he won't be able to satisfy you

so you HAVE to praise him

he reads smut tho, so he learns quite quickly lol

he is VERY sensitive

even though he tries to suppress his moans, he just CAN'T.

he is above average and is aware of that, so he always goes slow on you

no but seriously, he's SO GENTLE

treats you like a queen

definitely prefers to be a bottom; he feels more comfortable

his aftercare is the best

he constantly makes sure you're alright, if you need anything, etc.

will run you a bath, make something to eat, or read you one of his books

generally the sweetest 💞

Fyodor

just for starters - he doesn't have high libido

he just doesn't need sex; he finds it kind of useless

HOVEWER, even he has to release the stress somehow

when you actually do it, it's long and very passionate

he's a virgin, but you wouldn't even know since he's a quick learner

isn't loud, but whimpers sometimes

definitely prefers to be the dominant one

he is not into dirty talk and will NOT degrade you (this is a popular hc for fyodor, but i honestly can't see him degrading his partner)

would NOT do it in public

his legs start shaking when he's about cums (it's so beautiful to see him like this)

he doesn't need aftercare, it's pointless to him

but he's aware of your vulnerable state, so he will make you at least some tea, for example

he doesn't really like cuddling, i'm sorry, he likes his personal space

but if you hug him first, he will let you

he secretly enjoys your warmth since he's always cold

Nikolai

is very goofy during the act

making silly jokes and stuff

he's definitely VERY kinky

he enjoys being dominant as much as being submisive

although when you two are done, he softens and lets himself be vulnerable

he is big and he's aware of that.

he also has skilled, large hands

is not opposed to quickies, but will much rather prefer to take time with you

VERY loud, moans and whimpers like a slut, he got no shame

he wants you to be loud too though, to let him know how good he's doing

if you're trying to stay quiet, he gets annoyed and his thrusts become rougher

however, like i said, he is very soft and affectionate after sex

he lets his vulnerable side take over, and he becomes clingy af

he just loves to lay in bed with you in his arms, not saying a thing.

[1thesewordsaremyown1]

Looking at the way this season, in particular the way that Buck's story line has panned out so far, I'm going to put on my Optimistic Akubra (that's like a bush/stockman's kind of hat for non-Aussies wondering what the hell that is) here and say that Buck and Tommy will be back together by the end of the season.

Read under the cut for my long arse dissertation as to why I think this is the case.

Now I know there have been many of us who have said that Buck and Tommy's story has been following a rom com trope and we're ready for the final third act. I fully agree with this, but I'm not going to look at their story through that lens, but more of that of general storytelling within television, and specifically what we have seen in 911 so far.

While 911 mostly have insular stories, they do have story arcs that carry out throughout a whole season (or even multiple seasons) for their characters. Hen had her medical school arc that lasted for several seasons, this season Eddie's arc has all been about being able to get Christopher back, and this season (last two really, although it's been more prominant this year), Buck's arc has been about his relationship with Tommy. (Yes, his abandonment issues as well, but that's been an arc that has been going on since pretty much day 1, so at this point it's more a point of who Buck is rather than an arc.)

Looking at it through the lens of a GA (or as best as I can), in the last two seasons we've seen Buck meet a guy who blew him away so much it made him realise he was bisexual, start a relationship with this person, be happy with this person, get broken up with only to not be able to stop thinking about this person, meet up (and hook up) with said ex and reveal each other (and the audience) that they both still want to be together only for them to be absolute idiots and part ways again, still hurting (and still baking...). If the season doesn't end with the resolution of them being together and instead Buck is left single and alone once more (it is faaaar too late in the game to suddenly throw in buddie this season if that was what they were going for), it leaves an anticlimactic taste in the audience's mouth. Even if they did have a nice conversation and decide they shouldn't get back together after all, it would leave the audience questioning "what?!? All that pain, and pining, only for them to NOT resolve their differences and get back together, especially when they have shown that they WANT to? What a waste!"

Another thing to look at is all of Buck's partners on the show so far. Tommy has been the longest lasting of any of his love interests to date. You could argue that Taylor has lasted longer as she first appeared in S2 and her last appearance was in one ep of S6, but besides hooking up, they didn't actually get together until the end of S4 and were broken up by the end of S5, whereas while Buck and Tommy were also together for roughly a season, they have a "will they won't they" dynamic still playing out that we know will most likely continue until at least episode 14/15 on an 18 episode season. Now if the plan had always been for Tommy to simply be a "starter relationship", why bother going to all this effort to keep Tommy around? They could have had them break up at the end of last season, although considering how it was reduced to only 10 eps, you could argue they ran out of time to do so. Ok then, why not break them up off screen in the hiatus like they did with Natalia? Instead, even though (I believe) he wasn't initially supposed to be there, they brought Tommy back in the first ep to remind the audience that Buck has a boyfriend (a boyfriend that he was very much into by the way, with all their heavy flirting). Well ok, you could then argue that they wanted to SHOW the breakup. So why bother writing ep 8x05? I mean, as much as we love Tommy, the truth is he hadn't had a lot of screen time - if 8x05 had not existed, the casual viewer wouldn't have been as invested with the breakup. "Oh well, this guy that we see pop up every now and then has broken up with one of our mains. meh, okay, we didn't really see much of them anyway." But Tim decided to create 8x05 AFTER they had already filmed 8x06 because he wanted the breakup to hurt.

Now, I know we were all a bit pissed when we heard this. Thought it was Tim just being cruel towards bucktommy shippers. But thinking objectively, why would he want to be? Bucktommy shippers have been nothing but supportive of the relationship from day 1. We have all loved Tommy's character, the relationship and the storyline. We didn't send death threats or harassed the showrunners or the actors on social media - we were heaping them with praise! Unless he's an absolute sociopath, why would Tim want to hurt us when we appreciated what he was doing? Unless he wasn't intending to hurt us specifically - he wanted to hurt the GA. He wanted that extra episode to flesh out Tommy's character a bit more, show how Buck and Tommy's relationship really worked so that when they broke up, the GA would be upset and want the pair back together. Because with no 8x05, the GA would be wondering why the hell Buck is still pining for this guy weeks and months later.

So why would Tim bother making sure the GA were receptive towards Tommy unless... he had planned on bringing him back? If Tommy wasn't meant to be important to Buck, why bother having him pop up in 8x11? If they wanted to show that Buck was lonely after Eddie left, they could have had him hook up with anyone. But instead, they had him hook up with Tommy. Because he's not just lonely in general - specifically it is Tommy that he misses, it's Tommy he wants to be with. Because despite what they had Maddie say, Buck has been alone before. In fact, he has been alone throughout most of the series! Of the six seasons prior to the shift to abc, he's probably spent at least half of that time single. And no breakup has ever left him as devastated as what Tommy has left him. And furthermore, if they do have Tommy called in to pilot one of the helicopters we've seen in the spoilers for eps 14/15, again, they could have had any pilot do that - Tommy is not the only pilot at Harbor. If they had no intention of reuniting Buck and Tommy, they could have used any random actor and they just do an offhand comment about Tommy not being on shift at the time, or Buck say how they haven't spoken since the breakup etc to effectively write Tommy out of the show. Having Tommy keep popping back into Buck's life is a very deliberate choice that the writers are making.

Now going onto the target audience of 911. 911 is a procedural - it runs on network television where it drops one episode a week for an approximate 18 episode season (this has varied over the years due to multiple factors, so we'll keep it at the 18 average). The style of tv is aimed at the older audience - older millennials through to boomers - who have grown up with this and are used to this style of tv. The younger generations, the streaming era, from what I've seen in the forums of a variety of shows tend to prefer shows with shorter seasons and released in the one shot so they can binge. And on top of that, look at the cast of 911 - the two youngest are Oliver and Ryan at 33 and 37 respectfully. The rest of the cast's ages range from 49 through to 66. It seems only logical that the vast majority of their audience are within this age bracket (and if you look at their viewing figures, you'll see that this is pretty accurate). Their target audience are MOSTLY people who don't go into fandom spaces like tumblr. So we have to remember, that no matter how much the buddie fans bang and crash and scream on all sorts of social media platforms, they are not the majority of the audience. We are not the majority of the audience. 911 pulls in about 3.5 million to 4 million viewers a week. US viewers that is. There are also who knows how many millions of viewers outside of the US (of which I am one). Yet the 911 instagram page only has 965k followers. Their facebook page has just under double that. And of those followers, they don't even get 1% of that number engaging in their posts - the most engagement they get are usually bucktommy and buddie related posts where the buddie fans have a tendency to spam the comments, but even then, those posts get only a maximum of 3-4 thousand comments. Let's face it - the fandom world is MINISCULE compared to the general audience. Tim and co are not going to write to cater for the buddies (although I do believe the last ep was them trying to finally shut buddie down without one of the characters staring down the camera and blatantly saying it, because small as they are, they have caused a lot of harm in the past with their harassment). Hell, they're not going to cater to us either. They're going to cater to the general audience. And what the GA are seeing on screen, what they are being guided by the show to do is cheer on Buck and Tommy. All the show has ever shown is Buck and Eddie as a close friendship, and when you look at the comments from the general audience on facebook (you can tell they are GA as they don't seem to have "fandom speak") many of them (the ones who aren't homophobic and are still hating on bi-Buck that is) are liking Buck and Tommy together. Were upset when they broke up.

We also have to remember that 911 was cancelled back in season 6, before it was picked up by abc for season 7 and beyond. When they made the switch, they probably picked up a lot of new viewers (I've certainly seen plenty of posts on tumblr of people admitting they only started watching from S7). I know we all complain about how 911 has a tendency to recycle stories, but the thing is, not everyone who started watching once it hit abc have either the means or the motivation to go back and watch a whole six seasons to catch up. This could explain why we are getting stories that we thought were wrapped up years ago brought up all over again - Bobby's trauma over losing his family, Eddie's inability to move on from Shannon, Hen and Karen trying to grow their family again etc. Season 7 and 8 have basically been almost a soft reboot of the show or a really long winded "here's what you missed last week on Glee."

So for those viewers who have only ever watched from season 7 onwards, what have they seen of Buck's storyline? Sure, there has been the mention of past ex's (mostly Abbie) but from what the GA have seen, Tommy has been Buck's only love interest. They are onto the second season at abc now, and broken up or not, Tommy is still here. That has to mean something to that audience. That Tommy means something, especially as Lou is not a main. And for those of us who have been here from the beginning? Well, like I said, the show likes to recycle storylines, and we are seeing it here - this story has played out before. But not with Buck - with Chim and Maddie. A couple who seemed so good together, only to break up. One is a runner, the other a clinger. Unable to move on from each other, they end up hooking up, before finally deciding to get back together. Now obviously, they can't reuse that storyline with Maddie and Chim themselves by breaking them up again and redoing it, that would be waaaay too on the nose, but they can certainly do it with someone new, and we are seeing it with Buck and Tommy.

Now, I was GA up until 7x04, until I saw the chemistry that Buck and Tommy had and went looking for fanfiction (which ultimately led me here), so while I admit I have a bias towards Buck and Tommy now, i'm still new enough to this fandom that I can remember what I saw and felt as a member of the GA. I had no idea buddie was such a big thing until I first popped onto Tumblr (although to be fair, I wasn't surprised when I found out - I have been in several different fandoms over the years, and m/m non canon ships always seem to be the favourite. I was surprised at how aggressive they were though, which I really shouldn't have been, as I've unfortunately seen that in other fandoms too). The people in my life who still watch the show and are in NO WAY part of the fandom (I don't think they even know what a fandom IS), are tv watchers only, and have never had the slightest inkling that there might be anything more to Buck and Eddie than friendship. I have seen that sentiment echoed by others here who have told of the reactions of GA members in their lives. Like I said, most of the audience are seeing what the show is telling us. And so far? The show is telling us that Buck is NOT in love with his "straight best friend". That Buck and Tommy still care about each other. They still want to be together. Their story isn't over.

And here is why I think they will reunite by the end of the season (I know, I know, it took me a whole arse ramble to get me to this point). The thing is, they can't wait until next season to resolve Buck and Tommy's story line. People will have lost interest in the what, four/five month long hiatus between seasons? Not including Natalia, because they thought they were being cancelled and wanted Buck to have a happily ever after, but there's a reason that all of Buck's prior relationships have fizzled towards the end of a season - so they can start fresh when the new one begins without the baggage weighing him down (there was obviously baggage following Abbie, but she was a main, so there has to be exceptions made to explain her absence and to be fair, Buck only held on because he thought she was coming back - once he realised she wasn't, there wasn't much pining going on). Hell, almost ALL of the character's major relationship dramas have been resolved by the end of a season (only for fresh ones to pop up at the next) - it's just the way 911 likes to work. But they've broken away from the regular script here. They had Buck and Tommy break up towards the beginning of the season. They deliberately have shown Buck pining and unable to move on. He keeps mentioning Tommy. They brought Tommy back and teased them almost getting back together until they blew it with their communication issues. We know Tommy will be back for the big two parter, and that they will be utilising his skills. Tim and co are going out of their way to try and make Tommy sympathetic (they could very well have made him the absolute villain when he broke up with Buck, but they haven't), to show him as useful and more than just a "bed buddy" for Buck. Why bother with all this effort, with all this character building for a recurring character, if it's going nowhere? Because guaranteed, bringing back Tommy for this one time post breakup has sowed the seeds of a potential reconciliation in the minds of the GA. But bring him back a second time, for a big story line? They will absolutely be expecting by the end of this season, if not before, for them to reunite.

Now am I 100% sure this will happen? Of course not. Will I be upset if they don't get back together? Absolutely. Because no matter how much it makes sense (and now that SWAT has been cancelled, we know Lou will have more time to pop in as a recurring next season so availability shouldn't be an issue, not to mention Lou has said he loves playing Tommy) the writers could decide to ball this all up and throw it in the bin. They have dropped big plot lines before. Hen's med school story for example. I really thought they were going to use that as a way of expanding the 911 world - the 118 do the rescues and then bring them to Hen to save them. And can you imagine the drama of Hen having to work on one of her old teammates? Of her coming in to work on a lightning strike victim only to see it's Buck on the table?!? But nope, all that time, effort and MONEY that Hen would have spent on that education only for her to go "meh." What a waste. Anyway, I digress. There's every chance that Buck and Tommy will never get back together. But what I am saying though, is if the writers do decide to follow the road they have been laying out, it only makes sense for Buck and Tommy to reunite before the season ends.

And I am 100% here for it if they do.