#Digital Influence Factors

[zomb13s]

The Illusion of Influence: An Examination of the Media, Security Agencies, and Technological Power in Shaping Public Perception

Introduction In today’s digital age, the boundary between reality and illusion has blurred significantly. This essay explores how the perception of magical influence, akin to saying “hocus pocus” and seeing changes unfold, mirrors the intricate interplay between journalism, security agencies, state agencies, and information specialists in contemporary society. By examining these mechanisms and…

[champstorymedia]

The Trust Factor: Building Brand Loyalty Through Authenticity and Transparency

## Introduction In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, businesses must prioritize building trust with their audiences to thrive. The concept of “The Trust Factor: Building Brand Loyalty Through Authenticity and Transparency” highlights the cornerstone roles that authenticity and transparency play in not only establishing connections with customers but also retaining their loyalty. Consumers are…

[signode-blog]

Life Can Change Any Moment

BeerBiceps aka Ranveer Allahbadia YouTube Channels Getting Hacked: A Deep Dive into the Incident and Its Implications In the fast-paced world of digital media, creators are often vulnerable to cyberattacks that can derail years of hard work and dedication. One such incident that shocked the Indian YouTube community was when popular content creator Ranveer Allahbadia, also known as BeerBiceps,…

[richarlotte]

more tips to become that girl?

From most important to least important, here’s a list of what you should be focusing on building: your identity, your beliefs and values, your behavior and mindset, your skills and capabilities, and your environment and friend groups. I think you should progress through this list in order, focusing on yourself first and then outside factors like the city you live in and your relationships.

Who is the next level me? Give her a name of her own and take your time creating your vision and your future.

What does she identify with? Find what she relates to.

How does she view herself? Slowly build her image up.

How do others view her? Choose how she presents herself and her views to her friends and to the world.

It’s important that you focus on slowly building your identity first instead of changing your environment, because while your environment does matter, you can't build yourself and your whole life around a time and place that will change regardless of whether you want it to or not. The focus should be on planning it all out.

You should be journaling at least a page every day and taking note of how you feel so you can look back and see what felt wrong or what felt right and choose how to carry on. Part of actively improving yourself and your situation is being able to look back and reference when things were bad so that you can be sure to do better and so you can learn from your mistakes.

Consider a digital detox once you've gathered your inspiration. it's healthy to step away from influencers and social media mavens, and in an era where we're constantly being influenced and advertised to, it's good to take some time away from IG to clear your mind and give yourself a completely fresh start.

[dana-chan-the-control-brain]

TADC: Thoughts on Jax in Episode 2

Thoughts on Jax after Amazing Digital Circus Episode 2 Dropped.

Massive spoilers below the cut. Just watch the ep before you read.

Amazing Digital Circus had an amazing second episode as we're introduced more to what the adventures are like, and what NPCs are like and ofc the existential horror of being a living AI only created for a source of entertainment.

Also, I love the dream sequence at the beginning, because we actually get some deeper insight into Pomni's thoughts on Ragatha. Feeling like her helpfulness is the guise of like "man, you're not cut out for this like the rest of us" which is typically something a lot of people who have been bullied in highschool perceive genuine acts of kindness and engagement. (which I kind of suspect Pomni might have been, or at least, been a shut-in and didn't have a lot of friends in her human life. )

Jax wasn't really the main focus of the episode, but it wasn't really until the end of the episode I understood his behavior and what this episode is foreshadowing overall.

Since while Jax isn't the focus emotionally, he is definitely the plot device to push things forward. And I mean, a plot device in a very active and quite literal way. He's the one that causes Pomni to clip out of the map, takes advantage of everyone and is just... genuinely an unpleasant person.

I actually really like this.

As, I know the first episode in the digital circus, many people (me included) could perceive or analyze Jax's actions as someone who is "helping" in a roundabout asshole way. Episode Two has none of that here. He just wants Bloodshed, And I love that we're getting additional context on his character.

It's hard to tell how much fan reception Gooseworx saw of episode one before episode two hit production, so I don't know how much of the fandom perception of Jax had an influence on the writing process, but I can't deny that might have been a factor in assuring us "no he's not secretly helpful, he's just an asshole" But I'm just going to assume that this has been part of his characterization from the start and it becomes way more clear as the episode goes on.

But there was something in his behavior throughout this whole episode that seemed off to me. Like Jax was taking up a majority of the B-plot, while Pomni had the A-plot. So I was wondering why Jax seemed to be the protagonist with the B-plot when Pomni was the A-plot when they seemed to be so disconnected with eachother in motivations and telling us things about the characters.

But then it hit me when the episode ended and the two plots merged together.

"who... knows... what could happen..."

And then it hit me.

Pomni finds comfort in an NPC who is going through a similar experience to her and can emphasize, despite their being other humans who have gone through the same thing, due to her self-admitting to being a loner in her human life. Well, she didn't admit it outright, but from how she perceives Ragatha's kindness as an act, or patronizing, it seems like she doesn't have a lot of friends...

Meanwhile... Jax... He treats the adventure like a videogame. Why shouldn't he? He's trapped in a videogame, right? But it really goes beyond that.

The fellow humans that Jax is trapped with, he treats THEM like they're NPCs, while Pomni treats the NPC like they're human.

Jax says to Gangle "Aren't you supposed to be the suggestible one?" Which you wouldn't typically wouldn't say to a person, right? That's something you would say more about a character that you maxed out the dialogue trees in.

He calls Pomni "His Bridge" even.

They're his objects. His tools, his own npcs he's exhausted the dialogue options on.

Jax dehumanizes the players in a way that Pomni humanizes the NPCS.

These are two opposite ends of the spectrum but what really sold it for me was Jax's reaction to the funeral.

And Jax is the one member out of the cast who doesn't even show up to the funeral. (aside from Caine and Bubble but they are AI.)

He does NOT want to think about the Players as real people. And showing that opposite perspective compared to Pomni I think is much as important going forward.

Jax was the plot catalyst of this entire episode, and served the thematic theme of the episode quite well, even if it didn't look like it on first glance.

I absolutely loved this episode and I can't wait for more.

Also... Poor Pomni can't have shit in Detroit

[tumblingxelian]

If I may ask with an open enough mind, might I hear out your thoughts on the character of Chloe Bourgeois? I don't expect an answer right out the gate so don't rush on my account. I'm merely trying to collect varying perspectives over what's become a uniquely controversial character.

Oh my that is a doozy of a question, I've debated no less than three separate videos on the topic and multiple essays to boot. Still, she's on my mind and the thing I am working on is obstructing me from modelling or writing but quires breaks to let stuff load so I have time for a longer ask:

So, what are my thoughts on Chloe Bourgeois?

Exactly where to start is rather tricky, so forgive any digressions or rambles.

Chloe is thematically the everyday reality of an Akumatized person.

What I mean by this is that Akuma victims are people in states of emotional distress, tribulation or trouble. Who thanks to the enabling of a power greater than themselves are both encouraged and enabled to lash out at others with borrowed power.

These people are meant to be sympathetic, their emotional tribulation taken advantage of, their situation, methods and thought process untenable. But they do need to be stopped from doing harm, and then healing needs to begin, with some effort made to redress the issue that led to them lashing out in the first place.

Akuma victims are the supernatural theme, Chloe is the reality.

Of course, some might claim she has no reason to have issues but...

Her mother is negligent and largely absent. The time they spent together prior to Queen Wasp, consisted of Chloe praising, giving gifts and trying to please Audrey. Only to be torn down, ignored, rejected or have her efforts disparaged. The woman doesn't even get her name right and the only means by which she earned even a scrap of approval was through being cruel. Something explicitly encouraged by the show's main character which is ???. 

Though it seems Audrey got bored with her fairly quickly regardless.

Audrey is unrelentingly hostile, selfish and cruel and encourages these traits in others and only avoids turning them on a person if they are sufficiently useful, or a match for her in viciousness. You are either her victim, her tool, or a conspirator. This is a hilariously awful parent, the damage she can do limited only by her sheer lack of interest.

Andre is somehow worse.

I am going to ignore the reading undertones of subtext into things but suffice to say that ratchets him up from just a bad parent to kill him with fire parent.

What we see with Andre is a man who explicitly taught Chloe to lie, cheat, intimidate, extort and bribe people to get what she wants. She is fourteen, and has been doing this since before she was in double digits. She's not bad because there's something innately wrong with her, she behaves badly because she's been explicitly taught that was the proper way to conduct herself.

We know full well Andre is capable of reigning Chloe in, be it gently in the Christa episode or with disciplinary action in Kung Food. However he only does this when it suits him, or her actions might cause him problems. For all his alleged affection for her, or her alleged influence on him, Chloe's always on the end of a leash Andre can and will tug back on the moment he feels like it.

This isn't just bad because it's so blatantly hypocritical and self serving. It's bad, because it means he enables Chloe's most self destructive and harmful traits so long as they don't impact 'him'. Given also that he is the one who, to put it charitably, raised her, that means the consequences and fallout of her actions should fall on him.

The fact he is presumably the one who encouraged Chloe to impersonate his wife, given Audrey didn't start rewarding that behavior until Queen Wasp, is also bad parenting. Like even if you ignore the disgust factor, its just fucking awful parenting and like everything else he taught her. It contributed to the fact Chloe is a social pariah hated by most people she has to spend time around.

Because let's get to the next stage, subversions!

In most shows like ML, Chloe as "The mean girl" would be popular, or at least feared, able to pose a threat in a social context, and is usually insulated from the more magical issues.

None of this applies to Chloe.

Even if we don't treat Origins as the shows starting point, she's already only tangentially involved in class stuff. Her fathers hotels own doorman outright says she has no friends, extremely out of pocket of him. & Origins sees one of the first things said to him being that Chloe is a brat and he halfway ditches her before 24 hours are up, and keeps her at nominal arms length for the rest of the series.

We can talk about how there's reasons for this, sure, but the thing that's interesting here is the subversion.

Chloe's mean-ness has not won her friends or influence as it does other mean girls in fiction, such as Heathers or Mean Girls.

Instead, it's made her barely tolerated by her peers and this only grows worse for her as the show goes on leading to her ensuing isolation which only worsens her condition and attitude. This is something Chloe is even varying shades of aware of, as she tearfully confessed to Ladybug when hiding from her Akumatized father. She knows something is wrong, but doing things differently goes against everything her parents taught her or exemplified, so it's not a shock she struggles.

Similarly, compare how Bonnie from Kim Possible could actually out-compete Kim for the role of cheer captain. 

Can Chloe beat Marinette in anything?

No, not really, or least the narrative never lets her do so even when she does have the skills for it, such as 8 years of ballet losing to nice vibes.

This is much less interesting than the previous point because it's basically just the writers using Chloe as a speed bump which gets boring after a while.

Then consider how Totally Spies own Mean Girl, Mandy is rarely tied to the actual adventures save maybe in a way other civilians are; leaving altercations with Clover as civilian affairs.

Does this apply to Chloe?

Fuck no XD

Chloe's frequently targeted by AKuma, even when she either shouldn't be singled out, (Ivan, everyone was scared) or for comparatively minor transgressions (Nathanial, his teacher screamed at, insulted & shook him) or outright targeted by the main villain of the show. (One who has known her since she was an infant!) 

Even before she had a Miraculous, Chloe was a frequent target of violent murder attempts. But this is largely treated as neutral, or even as comeuppance for bad behaviour. The issue is, the sheer scale of what she's being targeted with is so completely disportionate to what she did, assuming she even did things wrong, that it comes off as more unfair than anything else, & liable to give trauma. 

Especially as the show has double standards at times.

I think often-times the writers neglected to actually think through their karmic punishments for Chloe.

Take Pixelator, 

Chloe is the one who recognized Jagged, helped her father, and actually did her fucking job, but is the only student not rewarded with a concert ticket despite having done nothing to piss Jagged off.

Or how when her locker was broken into she's largely dismissed and needs to threaten the principal with her father to get a response. One might say this is abusing her power, but A, it's her dads power and B, we see with Lila later that the principle will basically just bow to whoever can make the bigger fuss. This isn't a Chloe issue it's a Damocles issue and I think being upset people broke into her locker isn't exactly unfair.

Similarly, I noted above how Chloe loses to Marinette even when she shouldn't logically do so. 

A bigger example of the narrative short hand delivered is the fact we see other characters do stuff Chloe does and get free rides.

IE, Kagami can dramatically strut into a fencing hall talking the most boastful shit, actually lose more or less legitimately, Akumatize and still be treated with sympathy and become a hero.

Chloe boastfully auditions to be Ladybug for a music video, but actually is the best audition scene, but loses out to positive vibes, gets angry & through her father lashes out, gets punished & no one gives a shit about her side of the story. 

To be clear, I like Kagami, I find this comparison interesting, I just don't think the show realized that it did this or does stuff like this a lot. 

That whole episode also demonstrates what I said at the start, about Chloe embodying the thematic of Akuma, IE, anger or distress, powerful sponsor, lashing out, ETC. 

So the double standard in how she's framed and treated VS Kagami is framed and treated becomes a weakness of the writing and show. 

We also see this with stuff like her & Marinette sabotaging Kagami, but Marinette largely getting portrayed sympathetically for doing so while Chloe isn't. 

This creates the impression the problem isn't Chloe's bad behavior, it's with her mere existence.

IE, she's the audience and writer's punching bag/designated target, so it feels like the writers just kind of don't bother a lot of the time actually making her wrong or thinking through the implications of their story beats with her, or other characters' behaviour. 

This stuff is present in Season 1, much more overt in season 2 and basically caps off season 3 which is where I stopped watching.

Cos like, the villain who's known her since forever has been actively trying to utilize her through the seasons, who explicitly aimed to puther in a state of severe emotional distress, ambushed her in her own home & had her parents in his grasp.

Right after the show's hero blatantly walked back a previous ruling that kept Chloe from being Queen Bee, (& did so for selfish and if one considered HK targeting known heroes, incredibly callous reasons)

But we're meant to hate the 14 year old for responding badly?

I would also argue stuff like this is a large part of what makes Chloe such an ensemble dark horde to the fandom. Not just because one can read into things about her history and character, but because the author's hand is so heavy it actively hurts and hinders its own narrative in order to harm Chloe and so feels unfair.

Some final notes I couldn't place elsewhere:

Akuma don't usually harm their loved one's. Chloe's mother tried to kill her on sight & then kept looking for excuses to do so & finally did. Andre turned the powerful & willful Audrey into a simpering hanger on and wanted to do the same with Chloe, which again, yikes.

When fused together they declared her incapable of loving anyone but herself. A fact blatantly disproven already but even in the episode itself with her demanding their release in exchange for helping Hawk Moth. & then tried to fucking EAT HER.

Her butler, school friend and teacher seemingly love her more than her own parents.

As an aside, Sabrina's explicitly encouraged to work for Chloe by her father as it makes her "Useful" which has loads of implications. But at least one can't blame Chloe for Sabrina's character.

Madame Bustier, when Akumatized uses having "Taken care" of her father as a lure to try and get Chloe to come to her. So again, yikes if one wants to read into it as it means even as an Akuma who was upset by Chloe, Bustier perceives Andre as the threat/problem to her.

Chloe by all accounts seems to live alone in a hotel suite, not even one of the fancier, super suites but like... The walls are 50% glass with no curtains, that lead to publicly exposed areas (as we see interviews with Jagged being conducted in them) and there's almost nothing to identify it as a space she lives in. Hell, the pictures on the wall are often blank and it seems she's lived here alone since she was a toddler.

That would have calamitous impacts on a Child's psyche & development! 

Despite her portrayal, Chloe was shown to be extremely good at being Queen Bee in many respects.

She almost soloed Mayura.

She is the first person shown able to resist Akuma, got civilians out of an Akuma infested train cart & protected Sabrina during the second red Akuma swarm.

She was able to quickly and easily keep up with Ladybug on the roof tops and using a similar weapon & travel style creates a visual parallel between the two which carries implications of them being counterparts. 

But most especially Chloe proved herself a skilled and heroic combatant during Heroes Day; covering for the other heroes without orders, doing so easily & needing to be targeted by multiple villains all with personal ties to her to be brought down, while protecting other heroes.

But that never really gets acknowledged.

So much like with "Nearly being brutally murdered for being kind of a dick" this sense of narrative imbalance engendered sympathy from those who notice.

I also find it fascinating that Chloe is, despite spending her life surrounded by abusers and enablers both, that she, without any real guidance, managed to soften their behaviors on her own.

Yes she buys Sabrina presents in luew of saying sorry, but she also spends time with her and does fun stuff, Andre just buys her off. She wants Adrien at her side and the like, but she doesn't actually try to stop him from befriending people she hates, Gabriel tries to keep him locked up. She doesn't like losing, but compares her relatively mild huffiness or brief theatrics to Audrey's violent response to merely being snubbed.

She's already doing better than all of them despite explicitly being taught or demonstrated, or victimized with all the wrong lessons and is fourteen.

Chloe also obviously has a deeply unhealthy understanding of relationships as seenin in how she recreates her parents awful dynamic with everyone around her. 

IE,

Andre fawns on Audrey, who is domineering, never satisfied and harsh at best. Chloe acts accordingly with Sabrina, while fawning on her mother and Ladybug who are much the same though  for different reasons. She's internalized this deeply unhealthy dynamic and applies it to herself as much as she does to anyone else.

This is just one element of the fact she honestly seems deeply troubled on a social level. I mentioned earlier that Chloe seems to know "Something" is wrong with everyone hating her & is clearly unhappy about it. But also seems unsure how to fix it, or what the source of the problem is.

The fact she often doesn't seem to get social cues, even from people she's treating like a peer, such as Ala or Adrien, gives off the sense that her problems go deeper than just "Being a brat".

This is further emphasized by the fact that so much of her daily persona seen is her doing an impression of her mother. Or otherwise putting on a show to try and get her dad or Kim, or the principle ETC, to do something.

Because when she's "upset" it's all theatrical prancing and squeals of daddy and then it's over.

But when she's actually upset, like panicking over losing Adrien upset, or breaking down cos Ladybug chose another hero with a known identity over her (Said by Kagami in the episode so we can't pretend it's not true). Chloe usually builds up to a brief explosion followed by a collapse, or just collapses outright into a panicked, curled up state. One that in one instance seemed to be intentionally drawing comparisons to an infant, but again give what we know that says less about her & more about Andre.

Basically, Chloe's life is a performance, we rarely see the real her, because she's always trying to play a role she thinks she's meant to, in order to be liked and successful & is confused, hurt and lonely because it's not working the way her family promises or demonstrated it would.

I also think it's interesting how Marinette & Kagami both firmly instruct her to stop bothering about seating arrangements. Like, we see he react to insults and anger with anger back, but those firm instructions seemed to make her actually inclined to listen, or at least intimidate rather than rile her up.

Also on the insults front, I think it's notable with the pariah angle that Chloe did basically become an open target. No, she doesn't do herself any favors, but her efforts to do video assignments, or participate in art class getting naught but degrading insults. Or her simply not participating in Madame Bustier's birthday causing the class to collectively tear into her says a lot.

Also much like with Damocles, Chloe getting away with mean-ness is not a Chloe thing, the other students get away with it too. At most getting a mild "Well that was kind of mean" which gets shrugged off.

So again we are back into one rule for Chloe another rule for everyone else, which engenders sympathy or frustration in many of the audience. 

Also I find her & Adrien's friendship conceptually fascinating. because like... Adrien outright admits that he totally understands sabotaging a train to try and win a parents love. Meaning he both can likely imagine himself doing the same and also does not grasp how fucked up it is to think one has to go to such insane lengths for someone who treats them like trash.

Am I speaking about Audrey or Gabriel?

Trick question, it's both!

As a sort of final cap off, I quite enjoy the fact that Chloe's so aggressively defiant. Yes she can get scared & panic, but like. She spent 95% of her Stoneheart kidnapping oscillating between bored, pissed off and irritated.

One can say it's a fight based trauma response and I agree, but it's also just a fun dynamic to have for a character who'd normally be relegated solely to screaming damsel.

So yeah, I think she's a fascinating character in concept and at times execution. Who subverts, twists and breaks expected tropes tied to her archetype in fascinating ways but who's handling leaves me wanting, I hope this was useful! 

@princess-of-the-corner @generalluxun @maestro04yayyy you might like this post too!

MAJOR EDIT!

I can't believe I went through Chloe's entire persona section & neglected to mention the fact that her efforts to flirt with guys always come off as so awkward and in-genuine compared to her enthusiastic adoration of Ladybug.

[cyjammy]

Vox and Alastor’s Dynamic is so FUN

Hazbin Hotel Season 1 Episode 2 Spoilers ahead!

I have to talk about Vox and Alastor’s “rivalry”. I love how Alastor just couldn’t care less, he’s witty, he’s emotionless and that makes him all the more powerful.

Well, not emotionless since he does express outward disgust towards anything digital, but the fact he can keep himself composed because he knows he is the shit and that’s what makes him my absolute favorite.

That showed through in the pilot and the show didn’t fail to deliver. I love how he’s handled. Viv’s characterization is wonderful.

Most fics I have read with Alastor have shown him as vunerable despite the story never alluding to that and it’s such a breath of fresh air to have canon content of Alastor being his authentic self.

My god do I love a character that’s strong and not swayed by emotion, but they can be handled well too. I.E. VOX oh my god. Every fanon had him pegged down as the victim to Val’s wrath, but he’s the mastermind behind the scenes. A complete subversion of everyone’s expectations. And that’s for another post I’m about to go crazy on, but I digress.

Vox is a man up in his ivory electronic tower with villainous intentions, but he falls short because of emotion!

Handling Velvet’s demands to get Val together? A quick pep talk with himself and he’s got it.

Addressing unforeseen circumstances with concerned sinners? Easy.

But Alastor?

He sees RED. He let Valentino have it when he even thought about going on a rampage over a sinner under his thumb.

When it comes to Alastor, Vox goes on a hate campaign and makes a fool of himself.

Meanwhile, Alastor was minding his business, and Vox couldn’t deal with that.

So much so he causes a blackout in the Wrath ring!

Why? Because of his rejection sensitivity.

He is this all powerful overlord with companions in his rule and when he asks someone of similar station to become his equal he gets rejected.

It’s unheard of for him. He cannot fathom it.

Because that makes Alastor a factor he cannot control.

Val says that Alastor “almost beat him”. Val may not have witnessed that fight and Vox spun it around to claim he came out on top.

But if he did, he definitely wouldn’t let Alastor get away.

Valentino and Vox have known each other for a long time, as shown in a photo in the background in the episode.

So either this spat began before they had met and Vox lied or Valentino witnessed it. I'm excited to see which way that goes.

In terms of influence, Alastor seems to win that battle. Vox is in charge of electrical currents and anything in the digital space.

Alastor is so far removed from that Vox has no influence over him. He refuses to be involved with new technology.

But with Vox having an army of sinners under his wing through subliminal messaging, he had security and power.

With Alastor’s return he brings CHARISMA and he’s doing it SO FUCKING WELL.

This is not a battle, it’s a slaughter, and Alastor is WINNING. With television there are so many ways to captivate a viewer but with radio all the host has is their voice and personality. It all has to be shown in a medium that doesn’t have many options for uniqueness.

Alastor defends himself with grace. He throws out compliments to his fellow overlords while still having it be a slight to the man who began the fight.

THE Vs ARE PREENING AT HIS PRAISE. THIS MAN IS GOATED.

It's night and day, but that's probably because Valentino and Velvet are tired of Vox's shit. I love this parallel so much!

Vox needed to be the person he was with Valentino at all times if this is a battle he wants to win, but he’s so bitter he will never see that.

He’s stubborn and that’s his main flaw.

And I fucking love it.

Alastor knows what he’s thinking and how to avoid it.

Always a step ahead. And their duet showcases that perfectly.

Alastor uses his opponent’s power against them, seeing the slanderous TV campaign and immediately going on air.

He does that in the pilot as well and seeing that this has become a habit for him is so fun to see.

Alastor is not to be messed with and I feel like people decided to gloss over that. But it’s so in your face you cannot deny it.

Alastor is TERRIFYING with a chilling deposition that will give you nightmares if you dare cross him.

Give him the respect he fucking deserves.

And the music and the visuals of the song — A whole fucking masterpiece.

I’m in love with their dynamic so far and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

So far Vox is the obsessed fanatic that couldn’t handle rejection.

There has to be more than that.

[poltergeist0002]

Some things you need to know about Kazuma Kaneko design

Throughout the years, I've frequently encountered people asking: 'Why do some of Kaneko demon designs differ from their original mythological depictions? Is he unaware of the authentic imagery? Or did he reference incorrect sources?'

There are multifaceted reasons, which typically include the following:

Game narrative requirements This is usually the main factor. For instance, in "Persona 1&2, all the demons were designed as a set of stage costumes with masks, reminiscent of ancient Greek dramas.In the DDSat series, all the demons are required to appear as carnivorous beasts without eyes.

Avoiding Visual Repetition‌ Some designs intentionally adopt less iconic representations to prevent stylistic overlap. For example, his depiction of Michael drew inspiration from a statue in Coventry Cathedral to distinguish it from the traditional imagery of the other three archangels.

Creative reinterpretation He often reinterprets mythological figures through his imagination and endows them with brand-new images. For instance, his robotic depiction of Metatron stems from the figure’s origin as the human prophet Enoch – the transformation from human → cyborg symbolizes Enoch’s ascension into an angelic being. While such designs may deviate from classical depictions, his conceptual explanations often reveal their underlying logic.

Pre-internet research limitations. he largely worked without online resources during his prime creative period, making occasional inaccuracies in references inevitable.(Just think about it. We didn't have wiki until 2003, and by then it was already the era of SMT3.)

Mystical inspiration. At times, he follows intuitive, almost revelatory impulses to create designs he cannot fully rationalize. For example, his insistence that Bellis should be cyan and Eligor red defies conventional logic or color symbolism.

To illustrate these points, I will elaborate with specific examples:

Cerberus。Yes, the Cerberus from Kaneko doesn't look like it was in Greek mythology. It usually has only one head. It doesn't even look like a dog but more like a lion. Why? Doesn't Kaneko know that Cerberus is a three-headed dog?

The first Cerberus, which originated from the Digital Devil Story： megami tensei (1986) novel and the OVA animation (1987) adapted from the novel. Design by Hiroyuki Kitazume

here is a requirement for its appearance proposed by the story: Cerberus must be massive enough because it needs to carry the male and female protagonists as they leap through the mountains. As a righteous character, it shouldn’t be too ugly. Thus, as you can see, to meet these conditions, the designer didn’t depict it as a hound but instead rendered it as a lion.

The second Cerberus comes from the first Atlus megami tensei game(1987).You can see that its appearance follows the design in the OVA animation, just changing it to white,a white lion.

The third Cerberus comes from the second Atlus megami tensei game(1990) Design by Kazuma Kaneko.

This is his first Cerberu art from SMT1(1992).Now you won’t question why it doesn’t resemble the imagery of Greek mythology – since the Atlus game has inherited megami tensei’s name and design. This "white lion Cerber" has become a traditional hallmark of megami tensei.

The fourth Cerberu comes from Soul Hacker(1997) This time Kaneko wants to make some changes. Cerberu has three heads. However, Kaneko still retained the tradition of the white lion and did not turn it into a hunting dog. So this time Cerberu is a white lion with three heads.You can still see the influence from the OVA animation.

The fifth Cerberos comes from reamek SMT1 (2001) It is basically a redrawing of the 1992 version, more detailed and more like a big white lion. The 3D models in today's Atlus games are all based on this art piece as a reference standard.

The sixth Cerberus originates from DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA (2004). DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA is not a member of the SMT series, so this time there was no need for Kaneko to keep Cerberus looking like a white lion. However, this version's design purpose isn't to perfectly recreate the Cerberus from Greek mythology either.Similar to the White Lion from the OVA, this design also serves for game narrative requirements.

In DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA, the setting revolves around a digital world, So Kaneko used reflected in the design through geometric lines, sharp angles, and glowing circuit patterns to emphasize this is a "digital Cerberus" and, In this story, It isn't a real Cerberus, but an "Asura"—Humans infected by the virus turned into demons, driven solely by predatory instincts. so,none of Asura have eyes (the red parts resembling eyes are actually the upper jaws of its mouths) So, this version is actually digital Cerberus, not Cerberus from Greek mythology

The seventh Cyperus, from Tsukuyomi: The Divine Hunter (2025)

As you can see, this time, its appearance is completely in line with the description in Greek mythology. It doesn't look like a lion. It has three heads. Its abdomen and tail look like a snake.

Because this game has nothing to do with the SMT series, it doesn't put forward any requirements in terms of game narrative either. So this time, Kaneko only needed to draw a Greek mythological version of Cerberus.

I believe after reviewing the seven design versions above, you now understand:

Kaneko had a clear understanding of Cerberus' depiction in mythology. Had he wanted to, he could have faithfully reproduced the exact Cerberus from Greek mythology. The reason his SMT Cerberus differs from classical representations is because the demand from the game.

This isn't an isolated case limited to Cerberus. I plan to continue introducing more such examples in the future.Thank you for watching.

[fadingclub]

I understand that Psychopomp was born out of necessity due to the policies put in place by Unity, but alot of the story and designs for environments and characters are incredibly thought out. Were these ideas retooled from previously scrapped projects or ones you worked on before the Unity debacle (Mechana/Dreamwild)? What are your influences on some of the more esoteric concepts/mystical oddities within the stories of your games? Also, why is the moon's design one of the main unifying factors in your games? (Atleast that i know of, I only played Dashbored, Dreamwild, and Psychopomp.)

I had the idea for Psychopomp a few months before the Unity policy debacle, so when that all happened, it ended up being more of an opportunity to revisit that character and idea again (though at that point it was really just the one character design and the idea of the helmet)

For the most part, the ideas from Psychopomp weren't borrowed from my other games. There are a few however. In the 2014 early development version of DashBored (Then called "Drive") the second level was a factory run by a giant severed head. You would have to mercy kill the head to continue on. This was removed pretty quickly from the game, but I wanted to revisit it, because it made one of my highschool friends really uncomfortable. The head came back ten years later for Psychopomp, and the design is even taken from Drive.

(The old sprites. I didn't really know how to make digital art at this point)

The King of Mercury and King of all Dogs were originally from an idea for a separate video game. However, I really liked them, and I didn't want to wait to have to wait for years to be able to potentially make something with them in it, so I worked them into the story of Psychopomp.

(The original drawings that would become the King of all Dogs and King of Mercury. The King of All Dogs inner face here is inspired by traditional Haida art. This influence was dropped for Psychopomp because it didn't fit the grimy artstyle, but I'd like to bring it back in the future.)

I grew up in a household surrounded by a lot of spiritualism and various eastern philosophies. A lot of my youth was spent in spiritual shops and various shrines of different denominations. I ended up with a lot of esoteric concepts in my head and came to really appreciate a lot of the various spiritual aesthetics of the world. It's hard to come to terms with a world that's brimming with so many concepts, many of which contradict and attack each other, and that spiritual anxiety makes up a lot of my feelings in Psychopomp.

As for the moon, all I can say is: Note who it appears to, and when and where it appears. The moon is watching.

Thanks for the ask! This is a really great question! I hope you enjoyed the games, and I hope you'll enjoy what I have in store for the future!

[soullessjack]

i love the discourse about whether or not dean and sam are antiheroes. babygirl two of their close friends and surrogate family members are the Demon King of Hell who canonically alluded to murdering infants once, and his abusive witch mother who still violently murders her own enemies after several mini-redemption arcs. half of the series’ conflicts are their fault because they were either too stupid to realize what they were doing, too selfish to stop doing it because it had some personal benefit that outweighed the damage it would cause, or they just didn’t think another option was out there.

and yea, even though most of their Big Bad arcs were a product of the… [title card]…supernatural; possession, curses, soullessness, eldritch influences, whatever else…it’s not like they were completely good people without those factors. dean was a deeply sadistic torturer in hell for no other reason than being in pain and wanting to inflict that pain onto others. Cas created first-generational trauma with the family of his vessel, was briefly both a cannibal and a megalomaniacal zealot who tried to take over heaven and earth. sam believes all incarcerated people are evil and deserve to be in the system (lol) murdered his grandfather and allowed a child to be tortured (by Cas).

not even going into the numerous apocalypses they were all responsible in, or the amount of innocent people they all collectively murdered in cold blood because they stopped giving a shit about saving vessels after like season 2. if even that. even jack has a fair amount of murder and torture and wrongfully harming innocents under his belt and he hasn’t hit chronological double digits yet. bonus mention for the fact that across multiple perspectives, these guys are either regarded as psychopathic serial killers, psychopathic hunters, or Those Guys Who Constantly Fuck Up Peoples Lives And Endanger Everyone Around Them.

like, an antihero by the dictionary definition is “a main character in a narrative (in literature, film, TV, etc.) who may lack some conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism, and morality,” — and, (cont’d) — “Although antiheroes may sometimes perform actions that most of the audience considers morally correct, their reasons for doing so may not align with the audience's morality.”

that’s literally a grocery list for them to scratch off girl. come on now.

[some-small-mercy]

Shadows in the Cave - Threat Analysis - Victims of the Art

THREAT SANGUINE OCHRE is the most dangerous confirmed FOREIGN agent of the 21st century encountered to date. Despite seeming to be a one-man operation with no real funding or material support, his creations spread dangerous FOREIGN influence across several states before he was hunted down and destroyed - and have only continued to do so since. The entire file is proof positive of what B-CELL has been saying for years: SANGUINE OCHRE was not the results of mindless or bestial incursions, or of an American exploiting dangerous power for his own gain. He was a knowing enemy agent, facilitating an organized conspiracy from ABROAD in spreading its influence across the United States for unknown, nefarious purposes. 

Given the events of OPERATION AVIAN TRILL, more than a decade after his execution, this clearly remains a more urgent strategic threat than A-CELL has been led to believe by conventional reports. To remedy this, B-CELL has prepared the following overview on SANGUINE OCHRE, his creations, PATRIOT efforts to contain or destroy them, and the damage he is still causing to this day. While this is technically outside the Cell’s area of focus, it is hoped that this will help inform decision-making and resource-allocation going forward. 

As well as a traitor, SANGUINE OCHRE was (unsurprisingly) an artist. An apparent life-long failure, he left few traces; either personal or digital. Despite the complete lack of fame or influence, six of his paintings have been discovered across the United States, often with no clear explanation as to how their current owners came into possession of them. This is not necessarily surprising, as each of these paintings is a dangerous weapon in its own right. Everything he touched is saturated with FOREIGN energies, and carefully designed to be antithetical to human life and sanity. 

Including bystanders and collateral damage, SANGUINE OCHRE is responsible for over two hundred deaths across America. A number that is still rising.

* * *

The Townsend Collection is maintained by Velos Antiquities’ Managing Partner for purposes of scholarship and experimentation. Rather than acting as a middleman for a client commission or assembling a collection for speculative purposes, the Company thus has a direct, first-party interest in acquiring and preserving pieces of the collection - something that factors and agents should keep in mind when determining their own priorities. 

Edward Townsend (1987-2013) hailed from a middle-class Boston family, but was troubled by mental instability and misfortune from his adolescence until his own tragic ending. Leaving university in the nadir of the 2008 Financial Crisis, his last years were dominated by a spiral into crippling agoraphobia and poverty - yet it was precisely during this period that his artistic production reached his zenith. Never working through any established dealers or galleries, he sold his works at local flea markets, or else gifted them to improbable friends made online. He is believed to have completed at least a dozen works in this period before perishing in an electrical fire which consumed the building he was then living in. 

The collection is of interest not because of any biographical detail of their creator but due to the works themselves. While the danger and intensity varies, each Townsend is a Hypergeometrically active object. Which would make each of them an intriguing potential acquisition in its own right, but what makes the collection unique is that each Townsend is active in distinct (often contradictory or mutually exclusive) ways - quite extraordinary, for the work of one man without education or support. 

The Managing Partner thus has a standing order out for any discovered Townsends - including a significant fee payable to the agent who acquires and transports them. What follows is a summary of the Company’s file on traits shared by known Townsends and endorsed best practices for their safe acquisition and handling. Consider them high-level targets of opportunity, should you encounter the trail of one.

* * *

We theorize that the three pieces in question are, despite the dramatic differences in style and effect, actually the work of a single artist; one possessed of truly uncommon vision and insight. An outsider artist par excellence, their work illustrates ways of reaching across cultural and epistemological paradigms, allowing true connection and understanding in precisely the ways that the Anderson Heritage Trust is dedicated to encouraging. We hope you will find that the funding proposal that follows is, despite the expense, wholly in line with the Trust’s strategic plan for the next five years; we also hope you will agree that it represents a rare opportunity to advance the dream of a more open and connected world, and one that should not be allowed to pass untaken. 

The three works of art in question were discovered by various friends of the Arts across the Great Lakes and Pacific Northwest over the last year, though their true provenance remains sadly unknown. Each is a masterpiece in empathy and forced perspective, inviting (if not insisting) the audience view the world through alien eyes and consider their lives, indeed the sum total of human civilization, from perspectives drastically divergent from their own. 

The effect is dramatic; for the properly prepared it can even said to be transformative, whereas for some sensitive and unprepared viewer have found it to be disturbing and even traumatic; something which had undoubtedly led to the tragic destruction or neglect of similar works at the hands of caretakers without the proper background and education. It is for exactly this reason that we propose the construction of a carefully curated exhibition of these and similarly affecting outsider art, where they can be properly appreciated in an environment that encourages the most significant and least traumatic audience experience. 

* * *

PATRIOT Agents first encountered SANGUINE OCHRE in 20XX, when M-CELL became involved in what became OPERATION ASPHALT ARCADIA. That said, the connection between hypnotic graffiti brainwashing (and spreading across) members of a Mid-Atlantic street gang and OCHRE was only discovered well after the fact. It was only in 20XX when K-CELL located and destroyed two more traditional paintings in the same Boston neighborhood that their common source was traced back. OPERATION AUSTERE FRIAR was the result. 

Elements of K-CELL acted decisively to terminate SANGUINE OCHRE and any accomplices. OCHRE was destroyed, but in every other way the operation should have been a sign that this was not the work of one more insane or self-interested FOREIGN agent. The confrontation ended in an inferno that destroyed the entire building, killing all present PATRIOT Agents and eliminating any evidence of OCHRE’s enablers or distribution methods. K-CELL nonetheless considered the mission a success, and the file was closed without review for several years. 

That was how long it took for L-CELL to encounter one of his paintings. On the other end of the country, with no possible way a failed artist’s worthless painting could have ended up as the mural on a nightclub’s bathroom wall. Destroying it thoroughly enough to prevent any reconstruction took a ‘gas main explosion’ that destroyed the entire building, with significant collateral damage. It was only after the fact, and after L-CELL had expended weeks and precious resources tearing through potential cultists who might have been responsible, that the artist’s signature was analyzed and a connection to SANGUINE OCHRE was drawn. This can’t be allowed to happen again. 

There have been two further encounters with SANGUINE OCHRE since then, each one of his works appearing with no possible explanation except FOREIGN action at some point in the past. Each is a dangerous terror weapon, damaging the sanity or physically warping (if not consuming entirely) anyone vulnerable in its vicinity. The pattern behind the paintings’ appearances is unclear, but we can only assume it is the result of an enemy plan to prepare softened landing zones for an eventual full invasion. 

* * *

The ultimate case of the Townsends - how one particularly disturbed young man became the vector for so many distinct Infections - is unknown but of significant interest to the Managing Partner. While any information that is happened upon is valuable and should be secured, it is also hardly something that Velos employees are trained or equipped to hunt down. Suffice to say that Mr. Townsend was likely possessed, for one reason or another, of a very unique sensitivity - and that it seems several different strains of parasite and infection took advantage of the fertile ground. The dramatic nature of his death is very likely related. 

Velos Antiquities expects a great deal of independence and initiative from its factors, but verifying the location and authenticity of - much less acquiring - a Townsend is more often than not a task that will require the assistance of experts in alternative skill sets. If any are simply forgotten in a warehouse or storage locker, Velos has not found any hint of them in more than five years of searching. Rather, in every case one has been encountered, it has been in the very determined possession of an individual with at least some vague idea of its significance (if not its origin). The assistance of the usual contractors tapped to deal with recalcitrant sellars was in every case necessary (though very far from sufficient). If you have good reason to believe you have a line on a Townsend and require their support, a request to Senior Leadership for support from our friends in the security services or else more specialized contractors will likely be approved. That said, Townsends are both obviously valuable and incredibly fragile (no more resilient to entropy or violence than any other painting), and so care must be taken to ensure that Velos Antiquities does, in fact, secure custody of the piece. 

The case of the late Mrs. Cruz is instructive. Having tracked a lead on Devilish Revels across several countries, she found herself at a decided disadvantage actually acquiring it from the current owner - a man with little or no idea what he had, but quite convinced it was the key to ultimate cosmic power. The Managing Partner was able to prevail upon several local business partners to provide support convincing him to part with it, but we have been unable to track down any survivors of the resulting gunfight in a state to provide a full explanation of what followed. Neither Ms. Cruz nor the previous owner (nor, in fact, the Townsend) has been seen since. Very nearly literally, as in the eight months since every portrait and analogue photograph of either has either gone missing or become damaged in very distinctive and improbable ways (should any of you have worked closely with her, you are encouraged to examine your own archives for any odd visual artifacts involving greasepaint and motley).

Mrs. Cruz is the closest any Velos agent has come to acquiring a Townsend in the last three years - though not, it must be said, the only lead that ended in lively exchanges with other interested parties. Please keep her example in mind when deciding what level of investment should be made in risk mitigation. 

* * *

What do we mean, when we call these pieces “outsider art"? The label applies in the vernacular sense - the artist was clearly alienated and marginalized from society, and died without public memory or legible legacy, but the three pieces we have are deserving of the appellation in a much more profound way. Put simply, they are art from outside and, like all great art, to truly appreciate them is a paradigm-breaking exercise in empathy. Bound so tightly in our web of socialized expectations, it is a truly bracing, if not revelatory, event to experience the true xenos, to feel the vibrations of someone knocking against the frosted glass which comprises the hard border of your universe. To, perhaps, realize the glass was neither so solid nor so opaque as you had always taken it to be. 

These are art in the highest sense, fine centerpieces of an exhibition, attempts to communicate concepts and emotions so subtle and so vast that the idea of conveying them through words is absurd on its face. It is quite astounding that they seem to have been painted by the same hand and with the same materials, so distinct are the styles and effects; it is only through analyzing them in relation to each other that the true message being conveyed by the artist’s oeuvre can be understood. Even working with an entirely inadequate budget and lodgings, simply framing the three works in our possession in the correct relation to each other in an area with a small amount of work done to encourage the connections have had  truly dramatic effects on the viewing experience, and on the subjectivities inherent in the works themselves. 

We believe the unknown artist has a true message they were trying to convey, one that could change the world. With the support of the Anderson Heritage Trust, we believe we could create a gallery that would give that message a chance to be truly heard, and even responded to; a place where a true exchange of views entirely beyond our own might begin. We have contracted architects and designers who can realize our vision, but funding remains an issue; as, for our greatest dreams, does the lack of whatever other works the artist must surely have sketched or inked while creating these three masterpieces. This is why our second major funding request is for a long-term effort to search for and safely bring home similar pieces of outsider work from across the globe…

* * *

SANGUINE OCHRE was a valuable FOREIGN agent, that much can’t be argued. When he became a dangerous loose end, his handler terminated him and took out half a cell of PATRIOTS for its trouble. But that doesn’t mean ABROAD and its agents aren’t still trying to use him. PATRIOT Agents have encountered three OCHRE THREATS in the last X years, and two of those cases involved a dangerous FOREIGN conspiracy that actively fought to secure the threats for their own ends before the PATRIOTs on the ground could apply sufficient quantities of incendiaries or explosives to reliably destroy the THREAT.  

The nature of the FOREIGN-directed conspiracy is unknown, but it seems to be an organized criminal syndicate. Other street gangs and criminal elements have been involved as hired guns, but at its core it seems to have grown out of the Russian mafia. This sort of organized, internationally active group of traitors to humanity has been exactly what B-CELL has warned about for years. Their short-term goals are unknown, but their long-term dedication to the betrayal of all life on Earth in favor of their FOREIGN masters is obvious. 

We are at war, even if we don’t know it yet. SANGUINE OCHRE is just the beginning, but we hope it is all the warning that A-CELL requires to finally take our warnings with the gravity that addressing them will require. 

[psychotrenny]

It's so stupid how people talk about ideas on social media as though they're the product of aliens or demons or something, arbitrary notions from a bizarre realm with no relation to "The Real World". Like the digital world is a product of the physical one, and ideas in the former reflect the ideas of the latter. Meanwhile ideas from the digital world in turn influence the development and spread of ideas in the physical. Sure some level of distortion takes place due to various factors like the structure of specific websites, user demographics etc. For example certain ideas are more prevalent in certain social circles than in the broader population, or you'll see a specific variation in ideology online that lacks a significant political presence physically. But these ideological "aberrations" are still very much rooted in "The Real World", with any variations from "Real" ideology occurring for reasons beyond random insanity.

Even in cases where things are written without sincerity or direct human intention, trolls and bots and all the other sources of internet "fake stuff", those "nonsense" statements don't exist in a vaccum. The kind of ideas a troll thinks will be most stupid and obnoxious are something they thought of and judged based on the values they do genuinely hold, while all the data output by bots is a product of whatever "real" data was put into it in the first place. That's not to say you should take every scrap of info you see on the internet completely seriously; there's certainly a lot of meaningless nonsense that's worth ignoring by itself. But you need to stop acting like there's an absolute separation between the "Real" physical world and "Fake" digital one. Appreciating the relationship between the two is vital if you want to understand either the internet itself or how it actually affects the physical world.

Because the internet is fundamentally still a part of our reality; it couldn't exist without the physical infrastructure that supports it while the data and ideas found within can be ultimately traced back to various aspects of the material world. It's misleading to refer to the physical world as The Real World, because Online is also Real

[inkformyblood]

bury the lead (SVSSS)

Pre-relationship BingQui / BingYuan; early in canon before the Abyss.

Shen Qingqiu folds his hands into his sleeve, his fingertips brushing against the blade concealed there. It’s a clumsily made thing, the handle splintering and held in place by a fraying twist of string. It would slice his own fingers open just as neatly as any attacker, but it is better than nothing. A twist of bitter nostalgia loops around his throat, squeezing tight for a moment before he clears his throat, and speaks. “We’re about to achieve a tremendous victory that we do not want.”

Dark eyes blink up at him, one beneath the fall of each sleeve, and several others clustered around his feet. He can’t move forwards to gesture at  the map stretched over the table, the clusters of painted figures scattered across the marked surface, so he waves his fan at it instead. 

“Shizun?” Luo Binghe leans forward, rising onto his toes so he doesn’t have to sacrifice his prized space at Shen Qingqiu’s side. His hair swings free from behind his ear and he shoves it back roughly without losing his focus. “This student is confused why a victory would not be desired.”

Ning Yingying tugs at Shen Qingqiu’s sleeve, her face already set into a comically pronounced frown. Her frustration only grows as Shen Qingqiu cracks against the shore of his self-control and ruffles her hair, a small section coming free from her hair tie, and she swipes at his hand with a grumble. 

Shen Qingqiu — Shen Yuan, kicking his feet in sheer delight at being able to perform any small variance from his scum villain designation — only smiles down at her, blunts his expression behind his fan. “You had a question, Ying-er?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Luo Binghe’s pout, bright and beautiful like the sun and that is how he has to watch his protagonist grow, in digital fragments so he doesn’t break in the face of what he will do. Sticky little lamb. 

“Yes.” Ning Yingying puffs out her cheeks before she pops into speech. “A-Luo is right, why wouldn’t a victory be wanted? In the scenario, the enemy are clustered beneath a hill that is known to be unstable. A careful explosion would send the hill plummeting down on top of them without needing to risk our own troops in the process. Any competent spy could plant such a device without being seen so it is available to non-cultivators.”

Shen Yuan will allow himself a moment. Just a moment. He’s a fanboy down to his blackened bones, his determination forged through the most insistent of internet forums and his own spite that saw him spawn countless copypastas and a viral Youtube series documenting his best comments. Behind his fan, Shen Yuan bites the side of his cheek to contain his grin. His thin face wouldn’t allow anything more than that, no tell-tale stain of colour of his cheeks to tip off his too observant students clustered around his ankles like they want to crawl inside his robes and shelter there. 

Like cats staring out of the clear window in a modified hoodie. 

That could be something. Not a hoodie, the collective of the other Peak Lords would collapse in a screaming fit if Shen Yuan tried to wear anything more fitting than his assortment of robes. Hell, Yuan Qingyuan wouldn’t even look at him when Shen Qingqiu’s robes tore at the mid-calf during an argument at a budget meeting. A modified array stitched into a bag, maybe a tent?

Luo Binghe is motionless at Shen Qingqiu’s side, a restless energy thrumming through his limbs. He’s grown slightly since Shen Yuan’s last notice, his limbs overly long on his slight teenage frame, promising broad shoulders and a powerful build in the future, if Shen Yuan is alive long enough to notice it.

“An explosion would require luck to function correctly,” Ming Fan argues, leaning around the bulk of the students separating himself from Shen Qingqiu. “Too many factors could influence the direction and strength of the explosion, and if our spy is uncovered then the enemy will have additional resources to use against us!”

Shen Qinqiu chances a glance at Luo Binghe, a tip of the lashes, nothing more. The boy’s mouth is pressed into a thin line, his gaze locked onto the pieces, and then beyond them. Excellent.

“Both are excellent and worthy points to consider when counselling a strategy.” The System beeps, some minor fluctuation in Luo Binghe’s happiness at someone else being praised. Shen Qingqiu ignores it. “Luo Binghe. You have an idea.”

Not a question, a statement, an expectation, everything that Shen Yuan hated when one of his private tutors inflicted it on him — fractions laid out between the beeps of his heart monitor like some specially constructed torture — but it is a delight to use so he can look past it. Just.

“It is the hill, Shizun.” Luo Binghe chews his lower lip, his shoulders rounded beneath his ears. “Beyond it is farmland. If the hill is destroyed, then their lands will flood in the coming season. They will have no crops, the victorious army will struggle for food in the upcoming months.”

“Yes.” Shen Qingqiu grins, breaking his carefully crafted facade for a moment, a singular instance to inspire his students to work hard in the future. He leans forward, his sleeve gathered in his free hand so it doesn’t hit Ning Yingying’s well-aimed pout, and nudges the figures to one side with his fan. Not bad for someone who used to only play Risk online and quit after a few  easy games.

“It’s important to keep this in mind. As strategists, you are not just planning for the immediate moment, but for the future.” Shen Qingqiu punctuates by snapping his fan open, hiding his satisfied smile behind it. There’s a strange gleam in Luo Binghe’s eyes, a look of such intense focus that the beeping of the System in celebration can’t negate the chill running down Shen Yuan’s spine.

Note: Binghe in the future turns up after the Abyss with his well-detailed plans for their wedding and joint tombstone: as you taught me, Shizun <3

[justforbooks]

‘I felt nothing but disgust’: Tesla owners vent their anger at Elon Musk

The tycoon’s links with Donald Trump and Germany’s far-right AfD have slammed the brakes on sales and put the car’s owners in a spin

When Mike Schwede first sat in a Tesla Roadster 15 years ago, he felt like it was a glimpse into the future. By 2016, he was the proud owner of a Tesla, revelling in the thumbs up he would get from other drivers as he whizzed along Europe’s highways in the electric vehicle.

But of late the sheen of owning a Tesla has begun to wear off. For years the brand has been synonymous with Elon Musk and his stance against the climate crisis. Recently, Schwede watched aghast as the Tesla CEO poured hundreds of millions into backing Donald Trump as he made promises to ramp up domestic oil and gas production.

“He was getting more and more weird,” said Schwede, an entrepreneur and digital strategist based in Switzerland. The final straw came when Musk made back-to-back fascist-style salutes during Trump’s inauguration in January. “I felt nothing but utter disgust,” said Schwede. “And I no longer enjoyed sitting in my Tesla.”

On Tuesday, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association showed sales of new Tesla cars almost halved in Europe last month. The figures left analysts scrambling to assess how big a factor customers turning their backs on the brand because of Musk’s foray into far-right politics may be.

The Texas-based carmaker sold 9,945 vehicles in Europe in January, down 45% from last year’s 18,161, the association said.

Now, there are signs existing Tesla owners who have become disgruntled with Musk’s views are making their anger heard.

Schwede contemplated selling his car, but after racking up more than 60,000 miles on it, there was little value left in it. So he came up with his own means of reclaiming his Tesla and the liberal ethos that had underpinned his purchase; he began donating 10 cents for every kilometre driven to a range of charities, countering Musk’s support of the far right with direct support to those who help LGBTQ+ youth or fight hate and extremism. “It was something Elon wouldn’t like,” he said. “That’s my personal revenge.”

It’s a hint of how some Tesla owners in Europe are fighting back, putting up their own – albeit small-scale – resistance as Musk wades into global politics, using his wealth to help secure Trump’s return to the White House and his sprawling influence to back far-right and anti-establishment parties across Europe.

For Germany’s Patrik Schneider, the turning point came as he was heckled by a stranger at a petrol station, who pointed to his Tesla and called him a Trump supporter. Saddled with a long-term lease on the vehicle, he scrambled to find a way to address his relationship with a brand that – in his mind – had soured.

“Of course, as a Tesla driver you were always the fool: the Green party voter, the world saviour, the CO2 guy,” Schneider told Germany’s Capital.de media. “But now you’re in a category that’s no longer funny.”

What he came up with was a line of “Anti-Elon stickers” for Tesla cars. In an echo of an American initiative, he began selling the stickers online six months ago, taking orders for messages that range from “I bought this before Elon went crazy” to “Elon sucks”.

As Musk waded more deeply into German politics, hosting the far-right AfD’s co-leader, Alice Weidel, in an interview on X and turning up at an AfD rally where he disparaged multiculturalism and lambasted the country’s focus on “past guilt”, demand for the stickers soared.

Demand has now climbed to as much as 2,000 stickers a day, with orders pouring in from across the German-speaking world but as far as Australia and South Korea. All of it was done without any advertising, said Schneider, adding wryly: “Elon Musk does that for us.”

Others have called for the actions to go further. In Poland – where the Nazi German occupation led to the deaths of 6 million Poles, including 3 million Jews – the country’s tourism minister called on citizens to boycott Tesla after Musk’s surprise appearance at the AfD rally. “All I can say is that probably no normal Pole should buy a Tesla any more,” Sławomir Nitras recently told Polish broadcaster Tok FM. “A serious and strong response is necessary, including a consumer boycott.”

In August, the German drugstore chain Rossmann said it would no longer buy Tesla cars for its corporate fleet, citing Musk’s support for Trump, while the German energy company LichtBlick said on social media that it would be “pulling the plug” on the Tesla vehicles in its fleet, citing Musk’s backing of “a rightwing populist and extremist party”.

The message was echoed recently by UK-based campaign group Led by Donkeys after they projected images of Musk’s salute on to the facade of the Tesla gigafactory near Berlin.

“The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, is promoting the far right in Europe,” the campaign group wrote on social media after their collaboration with Germany’s Centre for Political Beauty. “Don’t buy a Tesla.”

In London, activists put up a parody “Tesla – The Swasticar” bus stop advert with the tagline “goes from 0 to 1939 in 3 seconds”, referencing the start of the second world war, and stickers with similar wording have been slapped on Tesla cars. In Tottenham, north London, a member of the activist group People vs Elon took a cardboard cutout of Musk’s salute into a Tesla dealership.

In Sweden, the EV maker Polestar has sought to capitalise on the discontent. “We get a lot of people writing that they don’t like all this,” the company’s CEO, Michael Lohscheller, told Bloomberg, adding that he had directed sales staff to target disgruntled Tesla owners.

After a Dutch poll suggested 31% of respondents who owned Teslas were considering selling them or had already done so, it remains to be seen what the impact will be on the company. Matthias Schmidt, a Germany-based automotive analyst, said “2025 will be one of the biggest tests for Tesla.”

“With all respect, consumers tend to be like goldfish; they tend to forget things very quickly,” Schmidt added. “But Germany is potentially slightly different because of its history … The shift to him backing the AfD was potentially far more damaging in Germany than his move to back Trump.”

Last year, Tesla saw sales in Germany plunge 41% – outpacing the overall 27% decline in EVs across the country – as rivals rolled out their own electric vehicles and governments rolled back subsidies.

Figures for early 2025 show that Tesla sales fell sharply across several European markets. Registrations were down 63% on a year earlier in France, 59% in Germany, 44% in Sweden, 38% in Norway and 12% in the UK.

While buyers could be reacting to Musk’s comments, other factors may also be at play as consumers await Tesla’s release of the updated Y model, said Schmidt.

When contacted by the Guardian, Tesla did not reply to a request for comment. But late last month, Musk appeared to be upbeat during a call with investors, hinting that 2025 may be a tough year but that 2026 would be “epic” for the company.

“Musk is kind of like a character that – like a cat – has nine lives,” said Schmidt. “And he’s almost used up those nine lives. And it will be interesting to see what happens now.”

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[thsyu-global]

Thsyu Alert: Bitcoin Pauses Near $69k as Weakening Yuan Tests China's Capital Controls – Policy Impact Analysis

Bitcoin's (BTC) recent upward momentum stalled Tuesday, consolidating around the $69,000 mark despite a potentially potent bullish catalyst emerging from Asia: the weakening Chinese Yuan (CNH). While BTC initially dipped nearly 2% over 24 hours to ~$68,900, the offshore Yuan slid further against the US Dollar, trading above 7.27, reflecting persistent depreciation pressures potentially linked to PBoC policy divergence and broader economic headwinds.

Data Point: USD/CNH > 7.27 vs. BTC ~$69k (April 8-9).

Policy Impact: The core tension lies between the Yuan's weakness potentially driving capital flight towards alternative stores of value like Bitcoin, and Beijing's stringent Capital Controls and existing ban on cryptocurrency trading within the mainland. Historically, significant Yuan devaluation has correlated with increased BTC buying pressure, interpreted as a hedge against currency depreciation by Chinese investors accessing offshore markets. However, the effectiveness of this channel is constantly tested by regulatory enforcement. Market observers on global platforms, including Thsyu, are closely monitoring flows for signs of this dynamic re-emerging despite policy barriers.

The current Bitcoin price consolidation, however, suggests the Yuan's influence is currently muted or offset by other factors. Analysts point to normalizing spot Bitcoin ETF inflows in the US, pre-halving profit-taking (with the event estimated mid-April), and general macroeconomic uncertainty tempering aggressive bids. Bitcoin failed to sustain moves above the critical $71,500 resistance level earlier this week, indicating trader caution.

Geopolitical Context: The PBoC's accommodative stance contrasts sharply with the Federal Reserve's data-dependent approach, contributing to yield differentials pressuring the Yuan. This divergence occurs amidst ongoing global trade frictions and geopolitical maneuvering, making currency stability a key policy focus for Beijing. Any perceived increase in capital outflows triggered by Yuan weakness could invite tighter enforcement actions, impacting crypto sentiment indirectly. For traders using platforms like Thsyu, understanding these policy crosscurrents is vital.

Market Reaction: While the "weak Yuan = strong Bitcoin" narrative persists, current price action suggests the market is weighing regulatory friction and other dominant crypto-native factors more heavily. The immediate impact of Yuan depreciation appears contained by China's policy framework for now. Yet, sustained currency weakness remains a key variable; a significant break lower in the Yuan could still test the resilience of capital controls and potentially fuel demand visible on exchanges like Thsyu.

Outlook: The interplay between PBoC policy, Yuan stability, China's regulatory grip, and global crypto market drivers like the upcoming halving and ETF flows creates a complex outlook. Monitoring Beijing's policy signals regarding capital flows and enforcement alongside broader crypto market indicators remains crucial for navigating potential volatility. Users on the Thsyu platform are advised to stay informed on these fast-moving geopolitical and regulatory developments impacting digital asset valuations. The coming weeks will be critical in determining if the Yuan slide translates from a theoretical catalyst into tangible market momentum.

[nerdygaymormon]

Happy Pride 🏳️‍🌈

I want to wish a happy Pride to:

Glitter

Glitter represents joy, celebration, and transformation, and can create a sense of wonder. Glitter is used for self-expression and even rebellion. All of which are good reasons for why queer people have embraced glitter, from drag performances to protest movements, as a way to highlight and celebrate queer identities and experiences. This is why the sparkle emoji ✨ is often used as code for "gay" or "queer." Within the queer community, glitter is symbolic of joy, confidence, and the power of self-expression.

Watermelon

Because the watermelon is composed primarily of water, it is used as a symbol for sexual fluidity and abrosexuals. Abrosexuality refers to a fluid sexual orientation where someone experiences changes in sexual or romantic attraction over time. The Abrosexual pride flag's colors of pink, white, and green are similar to the colors of watermelon.

Crochet Clothing

Crochet has become a popular element in queer fashion as a way to express identity and creativity. For queer women, who are often viewed as breaking traditional gender roles, doing crochet is a way to reclaim traditionally feminine crafts, and for queer men it's a way to subvert gender expectations. Crochet allows for a high degree of customization and personalization, which is appealing to people expressing their individuality and challenging gender norms. Having Olympic gold medalist Tom Daley become a prominent crochet & knitting influencer further cements the link between crochet fashion and the queer community.

Butterflies

Due to the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly, butterflies are a symbol of transformation. Because of this, butterflies are used to symbolize gender transition and transgender identity.

Vibrant Hair Colors

Queer people who are in the closet often try to blend in and stay under the radar, and many queer people grow up in conservative communities which emphasize traditional gender fashions. Having bright, vibrant hair color is a way to push back against that and is a way to explore and embrace our queer identity. It signals boldly and unapologetically that you are confident in who you are.

Lesbian Manicure

The lesbian community has historically been closely associated with short fingernails, in part as a rejection of traditional female fashion norms. For femme lesbians who prefer the aesthetic of long, sharp nails, the practical compromise is to keep two fingernails short, usually the index and middle fingers, which are nicknamed the "party fingers," in order to safely and easily engage in sexual stimulation and digital penetration.

Both shorter nails overall and the 'party fingers' style of manicure have become symbols of lesbian pride and a form of mutual identification between queer women in public.

The Golden Girls

The Golden Girls' appeal to the LGBTQ+ community, particularly gay men, stems from a combination of factors including the show's themes of chosen family, its campy aesthetic and humor, and the real-life activism of its stars in support of AIDS charities and marriage equality. The television show addressed LGBTQ+ issues and positively portrayed characters who were gay or lesbian, which was pretty groundbreaking for the time.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt

The AIDS Memorial Quilt is largest community arts project in history, and helps us remember the unique lives and stories of those we’ve lost to HIV/AIDS. The quilt is composed of 3’ x 6’ panels which are decorated in honor of an AIDS victim. These have been displayed in small and large settings, and there's even an interactive online version. The quilt was a way raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic, humanize those who died from this disease, change the social stigma regarding HIV/AIDS, and to advocate for funding into research & treatment.

Thrifting

Thrifting is often associated with the queer community as it provides a space for creative self-expression and gender exploration, and many thrift stores actively support LGBTQ+ organizations and initiatives. In a thrift store will be fashion in a variety of styles, fabrics, and decades, it's a place to experiment with style and identity and create unique looks as you can find clothing which might not be available or accepted elsewhere