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contemplatingoutlander · 4 months ago

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How Trump is reshaping reality by hiding data

Curating reality is an old political game, but Trump’s sweeping statistical purges are part of a broader attempt to reinvent “truth.”

Trump appears to be turning the federal government into its own 1984-style Ministry of Truth.

This is a gift 🎁 link so there is no paywall to read it. Below are some excerpts/highlights.

By Amanda Shendruk and Catherine Rampell | March 11, 2025 The Trump administration is deleting taxpayer-funded data — information that Americans use to make sense of the world. In its absence, the president can paint the world as he pleases. We don’t know the full universe of statistics that has gone missing, but the U.S. DOGE Service’s wrecking ball has already left behind a wasteland of 404 pages. All sorts of useful information has disappeared, including data on:

[...]

[See more under the cut.]

Three cases of legerdemath and other tricks up Trump’s sleeve

Deleting data isn’t the only way to manipulate official statistics. Trump and his allies have also misrepresented or altered data. Here are a few examples: 1. Incorrect data

Witness DOGE’s bogus statistics on its supposed government savings. The administration counts as “savings” some canceled contracts that had already been paid in full. Some canceled expenses were created out of whole cloth, such as $50 million supposedly spent on sending condoms to Gaza. 2. Misrepresented data

One of Trump’s favorite charts on immigration is riddled with errors. For one, it does not show the number of immigrants entering the United States illegally, as he claims, but the number of people stopped at the U.S. border. Similarly, when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was recently asked how much DOGE funding cuts might reduce economic growth, he suggested that the agency might decide to change how economic growth is calculated so that the usual GDP report strips out government spending altogether. This would be an abrupt change to the standard GDP methodology that has been used around the world for nearly a century, but it would certainly make the DOGE cuts look less painful. 3. Altered data

When data doesn’t tell the story Trump wants, he fabricates it. In what became known as “Sharpiegate,” Trump notoriously altered a map of Hurricane Dorian’s path in 2019.

Likewise, before Jan. 30, a National Institutes of Health website documenting years of spending data included a category called “Workforce Diversity and Outreach.” That line item is now gone — even though the money was, indeed, spent.

Taking cues from authoritarian illusionists

Such actions are straight out of authoritarian leaders’ playbooks. Research suggests that less democratic countries have been more likely to inflate their GDP growth rates and manipulate their covid-19 numbers. Statistical manipulation is also more common in countries that shun economic openness and democracy. [...] To be clear, efforts to rewrite reality via statistical manipulation often don’t work. If anything, China’s data deletions reduced public confidence in the country’s economic stability. (No one hides good news, after all.) The Trump team’s efforts to suppress nettlesome numbers have similarly eroded trust in U.S. data. Only about one-third of Americans trust that most or all of the statistics Trump cites are “reliable and accurate.”

Meanwhile, missing or untrustworthy data lead to worse decisions: Auto companies, for example, draw on dozens of federally administered datasets when devising new car models, how to price them, where to stock and market them and other key choices. Retailers need detailed information about local demographics, weather and modes of transit when deciding where to locate stores. Doctors require up-to-date statistics about disease spread when diagnosing or treating patients. Families look at school test scores and local crime rates when deciding where to move. Politicians use census data when determining funding levels for important government programs.

And of course, voters need good data of all kinds when weighing whether to throw the bums out. Many of us take the existence of economic or public health stats for granted, without even thinking about who maintains them or what happens if they go away. Fortunately, some outside institutions have been saving and archiving endangered federal data. The Internet Archives’ Wayback Machine, for instance, crawls sites around the internet and has become an invaluable resource for seeing what federal websites used to contain. Other organizations are archiving topic-specific data and research, such as on the environment or reproductive health. These are critical but ultimately insufficient efforts. At best, they can preserve data already published. But they cannot update series already halted or purged.... Some private companies may step in to offer their own substitutes (on prices, for example), but private companies still rely on government statistics to calibrate their own numbers. Much of the most critical information about the state of our union can be collected only by the state itself. Americans might be stuck with whatever Trump chooses to share with us, or not.

#government data #donald trump #hiding government data #manipulating government data #manipulating the truth #autocracy #1984 #ministry of truth #amanda shendruk #catherine rampell #michelle kondrich #sethinsua #the washington post #my edits

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year ago

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Surveillance pricing

THIS WEEKEND (June 7–9), I'm in AMHERST, NEW YORK to keynote the 25th Annual Media Ecology Association Convention and accept the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity.

Correction, 7 June 2024: The initial version of this article erroneously described Jeffrey Roper as the founder of ATPCO. He benefited from ATPCO, but did not co-found it. The initial version of this article called ATPCO "an illegal airline price-fixing service"; while ATPCO provides information that the airlines use to set prices, it does not set prices itself, and while the DOJ investigated the company, they did not pursue a judgment declaring the service to be illegal. I regret the error.

Noted anti-capitalist agitator Adam Smith had it right: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."

Despite being a raving commie loon, Smith's observation was so undeniably true that regulators, policymakers, and economists couldn't help but acknowledge that it was true. The trustbusting era was defined by this idea: if we let the number of companies in a sector get too small, or if we let one or a few companies get too big, they'll eventually start to rig prices.

What's more, once an industry contracts corporate gigantism, it will become too big to jail, able to outspend and overpower the regulators charged with reining in its cheating. Anyone who believes Smith's self-evident maxim had to accept its conclusion: that companies had to be kept smaller than the state that regulated them. This wasn't about "punishing bigness" – it was the necessary precondition for a functioning market economy.

We kept companies small for the same reason that we limited the height of skyscrapers: not because we opposed height, or failed to appreciate the value of a really good penthouse view – rather, to keep the building from falling over and wrecking all the adjacent buildings and the lives of the people inside them.

Starting in the neoliberal era – Carter, then Reagan – we changed our tune. We liked big business. A business that got big was doing something right. It was perverse to shut down our best companies. Instead, we'd simply ban big companies from rigging prices. This was called the "consumer welfare" theory of antitrust. It was a total failure.

40 years later, nearly every industry is dominated by a handful of companies, and these companies price-gouge us with abandon. Worse, they use their gigantic ripoff winnings to fill war-chests that fund the corruption of democracy, capturing regulators so that they can rip us off even more, while ignoring labor, privacy and environmental law and ducking taxes.

It turns out that keeping gigantic, opaque, complex corporations honest is really hard. They have so many ways to shuffle money around that it's nearly impossible to figure out what they're doing. Digitalization makes things a million times worse, because computers allow businesses to alter their processes so they operate differently for every customer, and even for every interaction.

This is Dieselgate times a billion: VW rigged its cars to detect when they were undergoing emissions testing and switch to a less polluting, more compliant mode. But when they were on the open road, they spewed lethal quantities of toxic gas, killing people by the thousands. Computers don't make corporate leaders more evil, but they let evil corporate leaders execute far more complex and nefarious plans. Digitalization is a corporate moral hazard, making it just too easy and tempting to rig the game.

That's why Toyota, the largest car-maker in the world, just did Dieselgate again, more than a decade later. Digitalization is a temptation no giant company can resist:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wwj1p2wdyo

For forty years, pro-monopoly cheerleaders insisted that we could allow companies to grow to unimaginable scale and still prevent cheating. They passed rules banning companies from explicitly forming agreements to rig prices. About ten seconds later, new middlemen popped up offering "information brokerages" that helped companies rig prices without talking to one another.

Take Agri Stats: the country's hyperconcentrated meatpacking industry pays Agri Stats to "consult on prices." They provide Agri Stats with a list of their prices, and then Agri Stats suggests changes based on its analysis. What does that analysis consist of? Comparing the company's prices to its competitors, who are also Agri Stats customers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/04/dont-let-your-meat-loaf/#meaty-beaty-big-and-bouncy

In other words, Agri Stats finds the highest price for each product in the sector, then "advises" all the companies with lower prices to raise their prices to the "competitive" level, creating a one-way ratchet that sends the price of food higher and higher.

More and more sectors have an Agri Stats, and digitalization has made this price-gouging system faster, more efficient, and accessible to sectors with less concentration. Landlords, for example, have tapped into Realpage, a "data broker" that the same thing to your rent that Agri Stats does to meat prices. Realpage requires the landlords who sign up for its service to accept its "recommendations" on minimum rents, ensuring that prices only go up:

https://popular.info/p/feds-raid-corporate-landlord-escalating

Writing for The American Prospect, Luke Goldstein lays out the many ways in which these digital intermediaries have supercharged the business of price-rigging:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-05-three-algorithms-in-a-room/

Goldstein identifies a kind of patient zero for this ripoff epidemic: Jeffrey Roper, a former Alaska Air exec who benefited from a service that helps airlines set prices. ATPCO was investigated by the DOJ in the 1990s, but the enforcers lost their nerve and settled with the company, which agreed to apply some ornamental fig-leafs to its collusion-machine. Even those cosmetic changes were seemingly a bridge too far Roper, who left the US.

But he came back to serve as Realpage's "principal scientist" – the architect of a nationwide scheme to make rental housing vastly more expensive. For Roper, the barrier to low rents was empathy: landlords felt stirrings of shame when they made shelter unaffordable to working people. Roper called these people "idiots" who sentimentality "costs the whole system."

Sticking a rent-gouging computer between landlords and the people whose lives they ruin is a classic "accountability sink," as described in Dan Davies' new book "The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions – and How The World Lost its Mind":

https://profilebooks.com/work/the-unaccountability-machine/

It's a form of "empiricism washing": if computers are working in the abstract realm of pure numbers, they're just moving the objective facts of the quantitative realm into the squishy, imperfect qualitative world. Davies' interview on Trashfuture is excellent:

https://trashfuturepodcast.podbean.com/e/fire-sale-at-the-accountability-store-feat-dan-davies/

To rig prices, an industry has to solve three problems: the problem of coming to an agreement to fix prices (economists call this "the collective action problem"); the problem of coming up with a price; and the problem of actually changing prices from moment to moment. This is the ripoff triangle, and like a triangle, it has many stable configurations.

The more concentrated an industry is, the easier it is to decide to rig prices. But if the industry has the benefit of digitalization, it can swap the flexibility and speed of computers for the low collective action costs from concentration. For example, grocers that switch to e-ink shelf tags can make instantaneous price-changes, meaning that every price change is less consequential – if sales fall off after a price-hike, the company can lower them again at the press of a button. That means they can collude less explicitly but still raise prices:

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

My name for this digital flexibility is "twiddling." Businesses with digital back-ends can alter their "business logic" from second to second, and present different prices, payouts, rankings and other key parts of the deal to every supplier or customer they interact with:

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

Not only does twiddling make it easier to rip off suppliers, workers and customers, it also makes these crimes harder to detect. Twiddling made Dieselgate possible, and it also underpinned "Greyball," Uber's secret strategy of refusing to send cars to pick up transportation regulators who would then be able to see firsthand how many laws the company was violating:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-greyball-program-evade-authorities.html

Twiddling is so easy that it has brought price-fixing to smaller companies and less concentrated sectors, though the biggest companies still commit crimes on a scale that put these bit-players to shame. In The Prospect, David Dayen investigates the "personalized pricing" ripoff that has turned every transaction into a potential crime-scene:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-04-one-person-one-price/

"Personalized pricing" is the idea that everything you buy should be priced based on analysis of commercial surveillance data that predicts the maximum amount you are willing to pay.

Proponents of this idea – like Harvard's Pricing Lab with its "Billion Prices Project" – insist that this isn't a way to rip you off. Instead, it lets companies lower prices for people who have less ability to pay:

https://thebillionpricesproject.com/

This kind of weaponized credulity is totally on-brand for the pro-monopoly revolution. It's the same wishful thinking that led regulators to encourage monopolies while insisting that it would be possible to prevent "bad" monopolies from raising prices. And, as with monopolies, "personalized pricing" leads to an overall increase in prices. In econspeak, it is a "transfer of wealth from consumer to the seller."

"Personalized pricing" is one of those cuddly euphemisms that should make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. A more apt name for this practice is surveillance pricing, because the "personalization" depends on the vast underground empire of nonconsensual data-harvesting, a gnarly hairball of ad-tech companies, data-brokers, and digital devices with built-in surveillance, from smart speakers to cars:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/12/market-failure/#car-wars

Much of this surveillance would be impractical, because no one wants their car, printer, speaker, watch, phone, or insulin-pump to spy on them. The flexibility of digital computers means that users always have the technical ability to change how these gadgets work, so they no longer spy on their users. But an explosion of IP law has made this kind of modification illegal:

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

This is why apps are ground zero for surveillance pricing. The web is an open platform, and web-browsers are legal to modify. The majority of web users have installed ad-blockers that interfere with the surveillance that makes surveillance pricing possible:

https://doc.searls.com/2023/11/11/how-is-the-worlds-biggest-boycott-doing/

But apps are a closed platform, and reverse-engineering and modifying an app is a literal felony – several felonies, in fact. An app is just a web-page skinned with enough IP to make it a felony to modify it to protect your consumer, privacy or labor rights:

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

(Google is leading a charge to turn the web into the kind of enshittifier's paradise that apps represent, blocking the use of privacy plugins and proposing changes to browser architecture that would allow them to felonize modifying a browser without permission:)

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/02/self-incrimination/#wei-bai-bai

Apps are a twiddler's playground. Not only can they "customize" every interaction you have with them, but they can block you (or researchers seeking to help you) from recording and analyzing the app's activities. Worse: digital transactions are intimate, contained to the palm of your hand. The grocer whose e-ink shelf-tags flicker and reprice their offerings every few seconds can be collectively observed by people who are in the same place and can start a conversation about, say, whether to come back that night a throw a brick through the store's window to express their displeasure. A digital transaction is a lonely thing, atomized and intrinsically shielded from a public response.

That shielding is hugely important. The public hates surveillance pricing. Time and again, through all of American history, there have been massive and consequential revolts against the idea that every price should be different for every buyer. The Interstate Commerce Commission was founded after Grangers rose up against the rail companies' use of "personalized pricing" to gouge farmers.

Companies know this, which is why surveillance pricing happens in secret. Over and over, every day, you are being gouged through surveillance pricing. The sellers you interact with won't tell you about it, so to root out this practice, we have to look at the B2B sales-pitches from the companies that sell twiddling tools.

One of these companies is Plexure, partly owned by McDonald's, which provides the surveillance-pricing back-ends for McD's, Ikea, 7-Eleven, White Castle and others – basically, any time a company gives you a hard-sell to order via its apps rather than its storefronts or its website, you should assume you're getting twiddled, hard.

These companies use the enshittification playbook to trap you into using their apps. First, they offer discounts to customers who order through their apps – then, once the customers are fully committed to shopping via app, they introduce surveillance pricing and start to jack up the prices.

For example, Plexure boasts that it can predict what day a given customer is getting paid on and use that information to raise prices on all the goods the customer shops for on that day, on the assumption that you're willing to pay more when you've got a healthy bank balance.

The surveillance pricing industry represents another reason for everything you use to spy on you – any data your "smart" TV or Nest thermostat or Ring doorbell can steal from you can be readily monetized – just sell it to a surveillance pricing company, which will use it to figure out how to charge you more for everything you buy, from rent to Happy Meals.

But the vast market for surveillance data is also a potential weakness for the industry. Put frankly: the commercial surveillance industry has a lot of enemies. The only thing it has going for it is that so many of these enemies don't know that what's they're really upset about is surveillance.

Some people are upset because they think Facebook made Grampy into a Qanon. Others, because they think Insta gave their kid anorexia. Some think Tiktok is brainwashing millennials into quoting Osama bin Laden. Some are upset because the cops use Google location data to round up Black Lives Matter protesters, or Jan 6 insurrectionists. Some are angry about deepfake porn. Some are angry because Black people are targeted with ads for overpriced loans or colleges:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/04/meta_ad_algorithm_discrimination/

And some people are angry because surveillance feeds surveillance pricing. The thing is, whatever else all these people are angry about, they're all angry about surveillance. Are you angry that ad-tech is stealing a 51% share of news revenue? You're actually angry about surveillance. Are you angry that "AI" is being used to automatically reject resumes on racial, age or gender grounds? You're actually angry about surveillance.

There's a very useful analogy here to the history of the ecology movement. As James Boyle has long said, before the term "ecology" came along, there were people who cared about a lot of issues that seemed unconnected. You care about owls, I care about the ozone layer. What's the connection between charismatic nocturnal avians and the gaseous composition of the upper atmosphere? The term ecology took a thousand issues and welded them together into one movement.

That's what's on the horizon for privacy. The US hasn't had a new federal consumer privacy law since 1988, when Congress acted to ban video-store clerks from telling the newspapers what VHS cassettes you were renting:

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

We are desperately overdue for a new consumer privacy law, but every time this comes up, the pro-surveillance coalition defeats the effort. but as people who care about conspiratorialism, kids' mental health, spying by foreign adversaries, phishing and fraud, and surveillance pricing all come together, they will be an unbeatable coalition:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

Meanwhile, the US government is actually starting to take on these ripoff artists. The FTC is working to shut down data-brokers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

The FBI is raiding landlords to build a case against Frontpage and other rent price-fixers:

https://popular.info/p/feds-raid-corporate-landlord-escalating

Agri Stats is facing a DoJ lawsuit:

https://www.nationalhogfarmer.com/market-news/agri-stats-loses-motions-to-transfer-dismiss-in-doj-antitrust-case

Not every federal agency has gotten the message, though. Trump's Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell – whom Biden kept on the job – has been hiking interest rates in a bid to reduce our purchasing power by making millions of Americans poorer and/or unemployed. He's doing this to fight inflation, on the theory that inflation is being cause by us being too well-off, and therefore trying to buy more goods than are for sale.

But of course, interest rates are inflationary: when interest rates go up, it gets more expensive to pay your credit card bills, lease your car, and pay a mortgage. And where we see the price of goods shooting up, there's abundant evidence that this is the result of greedflation – companies jacking up their prices and blaming inflation. Interest rate hawks say that greedflation is impossible: if one company raises its prices, its competitors will swoop in and steal their customers with lower prices.

Maybe they would do that – if they didn't have a toolbox full of algorithmic twiddling options and a deep trove of surveillance data that let them all raise prices together:

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-06-05-time-for-fed-to-meet-ftc/

Someone needs to read some Adam Smith to Chairman Powell: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."

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/2024/06/05/your-price-named/#privacy-first-again

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

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

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globalnewscollective · 4 months ago

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Trump’s Greenland Invasion: The War That Could Engulf Europe

What’s at Stake?

It sounds absurd—Donald Trump launching a military invasion to seize Greenland. But given his past interest in purchasing the island and his recent rhetoric about using force to claim what the U.S. “deserves,” it’s a scenario that can’t be dismissed outright. Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, holds immense strategic and economic value. If the U.S. were to invade, it would spark an international crisis, shatter alliances, and push Europe into an unprecedented security nightmare. As Trump himself put it: “The U.S. will take control of Greenland ‘one way or the other’.”

Why This Should Terrify You

An American military assault on Greenland would be nothing short of an act of war against Denmark—an EU and NATO member. This would force Europe and NATO into an impossible position: either defend Denmark and risk open conflict with the U.S. or stand by and watch as a global superpower seizes territory by force, setting a dangerous precedent.

Such an invasion would:

Destabilize the Arctic region, fueling military buildups from Russia and China.

Test NATO’s credibility—if the U.S. attacks an ally, does NATO still function?

Ignite economic chaos as global markets react to war between Western nations.

Drag European nations into an armed conflict they are militarily unprepared for.

Why This Matters to You

If you live in Europe, this scenario isn’t just some distant geopolitical chess game—it’s about your safety, your economy, and your future. A war in the North Atlantic could escalate beyond control, leading to military conscription, economic collapse, and even nuclear threats.

For young people, the consequences would be severe:

The possibility of mandatory military service if Europe is drawn into war.

Economic turmoil, making jobs, education, and stability even harder to secure.

A shift towards authoritarianism as governments seize emergency powers in wartime.

The Bigger Picture

Trump’s hypothetical invasion of Greenland wouldn’t just be about land—it would symbolize the breakdown of international law. If a Western democracy like the U.S. can invade an ally without consequence, what stops Russia from taking the Baltics? What prevents China from seizing Taiwan? This moment would mark the end of the post-WWII global order, ushering in an era where military might trumps diplomacy.

What Can You Do?

Stay Informed – Follow international news and watch for rising tensions.

Pressure Leaders – European governments must take Trump’s threats seriously and prepare diplomatic and military countermeasures.

Support Democratic Alliances – NATO and the EU must be strengthened to deter such reckless aggression.

Vote for Leaders Who Defend Peace – Elections matter. Support politicians committed to diplomacy, not reckless adventurism.

Raise Awareness – Talk about the dangers of authoritarian figures normalizing military aggression.

A war over Greenland may seem like a fantasy—but so did many conflicts before they erupted. When a leader like Trump makes threats, the world must listen. The price of ignoring him could be devastating.

#president trump #trump is a threat to democracy #us politics #donald trump #trump administration #white house #american politics #politics #usa politics #political #us government #jd vance #greenland #america #world politics #united states #europe #nato #nato allies

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buckets-and-trees · 19 days ago

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SHIELD GAMING

encounters for various couples in a modern AU

The agents and employees of SHIELD have one purpose: produce and distribute the most elite gaming experience. Period. The game design team is comprised of Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, Natasha Romanov, Joaquin Torres and led by team captain Steve Rogers.

Ahead of a giant release, the pressure mounts to get things to to perfect, but it will take more than just the game designers to reach that mark. Story writers, the marketing team, customer service, engineers, and testers.

Content Warnings: [check individual parts for their respective warnings] explicit smut, romance and/or liaisons in the workplace - and out of the workplace, some sass, secret relationships, oblivious idiots in love, rivals to lovers, age gap, threesome encounters, friends with benefits, etc

Game Designer!Beefy Bucky Barnes x Game Tester!Female Reader -> Perfectionists -> Test Play -> Permissions

Game Designer!Natasha Romanov x Game Designer!Joaquin Torres -> Late Night Quickie

#bucky barnes smut #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #joaquin torres #natasha romanov #forest navigation #setlist of stories

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merrinla · 17 days ago

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EA never learn. At first they rushed to make Anthem with BioWare because they saw the success of Destiny. Then they saw the success of single-player games in recent years and suddenly realized that they had a studio that was capable of doing something like that. So in a year and a half, BioWare had to turn the multiplayer/live service into a single again.

When their expectations were not met in both cases, they shifted the responsibility onto the audience.

Andrew Wilson after the release of Anthem:

We’re going to have our core BioWare audience that’s been with us for a really long time. There are kids today who are 12 years old who weren’t around when BioWare started making games… and they have different expectations of what a BioWare game should be in the context of the world they’ve grown up in. As a result of that, BioWare has to evolve and has to expand and has to test the elasticity of that brand. The teams at BioWare will continue to come to work every day and listen to their players old and new and seek to deliver on the promises they’ve made to those players. That’s what you’re seeing with Anthem today.

Andrew Wilson after the release of DAtV:

In order to break beyond the core audience, games need to directly connect to the evolving demands of players who increasingly seek shared-world features and deeper engagement alongside high-quality narratives in this beloved category. Dragon Age had a high quality launch and was well-reviewed by critics and those who played; however, it did not resonate with a broad-enough audience in this highly competitive market.

Or maybe you shouldn't use developers of a certain genre as a plug for what you lack in your collection.

#electronic arts #bioware #anthem #dragon age #dragon age the veilguard #dav

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livingdeadmlm · 6 months ago

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Hi! I really like your writing, so I wanted to make a request:

Asmodeus (obey me) x male reader. Reader just adores Asmo, praising him every chance he gets, pleasing him whenever it’s possible. Basically male reader is an absolute sucker for Asmodeus, like a service top 🙇

If you could add some smut that would be amazing, thank you!!

Asmodeus with a Service Top Reader

Pronouns: Reader is not refered to as anything

Physical Sex: AMAB

How far are things going?: they fucking!

Warnings: Anal sex, Bottom Asmo, Service Top Reader, IDK how cock rings work but its there, no protection, reader does not cum

Outline: Asmo wants to try out some new lipsticks to test if they're kiss proof.

What inspired me to write how I did: Nothing!

Other: yessss, I have not spoken about it here or anywhere, but I tend to love the pink twink characters in dating sim games, sm Like Asmo and Aster. Those two also have in common their lack of content, which kills me cause they are cuties and should get love!! Plus I am a sucker for characters you meet earlier in the game (Aster) and the freaky one you meet in the middle of the game [(Asmo) Kuya but this isn't about him]

Skipping across the vibrant halls of RAD with you by his side, Asmo’s pinkish-blond hair shimmered like spun sugar in the afternoon light, bouncing playfully with each enthusiastic leap. He was in high spirits, bubbling over with ideas for the upcoming spirit week that Diavolo had enthusiastically put in motion. “Honestly, I can’t even fathom why anyone would want to dedicate days to wearing just one color! How utterly dull and uninspired that would be!” he exclaimed, his voice filled with dramatic flair.

The day was winding down, and with it came a free period you were able to convince Lucifer to give you, insisting you'd use it as study time, which was true at first, but Asmo didn’t let the chance slip away; he always made it a point to grab and whisk you into brainstorming with him. As you strolled together, you couldn’t help but appreciate his energy. “I think that’s a very clever perspective, Asmo! Having a day to wear something outside our usual attire is a rare treat—yet dedicating it solely to one color, no deeper theme? Not everyone can coordinate their wardrobe around that one color,” you replied, a smile tugging at your lips.

As his eyes lit up with delight at your compliment, Asmo’s skipping slowed to a gentle walk, his arm playfully linked with yours. His hand covers his mouth as he thanks you for your compliment.

Asmodeus reached into his back pocket and retrieved his phone, its sparkly pink case shimmering under the bright rays of sunlight. With a quick swipe, he opened up Devilgram, feeling a surge of excitement. “Ooh! Hold on, (Name)!” he exclaimed, his voice bubbling enthusiastically, “The lighting is perfect here! This is a must-have moment!”

As he positioned the camera, the sun cast a warm glow around the two of you, highlighting every detail of your smiles and the vibrant scenery of RAD. The colors seemed to pop, making you look even more radiant as he lined up the shot.

The camera perfectly captured both of you in the frame, and Asmo could take in your expression. You stared at him with a soft look. A small smile painted your face, eyes consuming his entire being so softly. Asmo felt an electric buzz in his stomach; it made him feel so giddy. Snapping the photo and typing a quick caption, he posted it to his story. The world felt a little brighter, and he couldn't help but smile at the thought of sharing a glimpse of how you looked at him.

He hummed, linking your arms, "How about we head back home? I was sent some make-up to try, and I want you to help me test them!"

Asmodeus wiped off the orangey-pink lip gloss. He picked up another lipstick and huffed, "Not one of these is kiss-proof! What false marketing! " He pouted and opened the next color, which was supposed to be a soft pink glitter gloss.

These lipsticks had never been advertised as kiss-proof. Deep down, both of you were aware of that fact. Yet, as his slender fingers gently cradled your face, you could feel the warmth radiating from him. His slim legs draped over your lap, creating an intoxicating closeness that heightened the tension in the air.

Your hands instinctively held his hip's plush skin, fingers sinking into the softness. At that moment, caught up in the temptation of his half-lidded gaze and the electric feeling that erupted from your pact mark, who were you to point out such a trivial detail?

As your lips pressed softly against his, you could feel the gloss gliding effortlessly between your lips. The formula was smooth and not at all sticky. His pouty lips felt luxuriously soft against yours. The sweet scent of the gloss filled your nose with what you could only guess was strawberry and some other sugary fruit.

With a slight hum Asmo pulled away to check the smudge of the gloss as he let out a dissatisfied sigh.

Asmo caught your gaze in the mirror, his expression softening as he noticed how you admired him again. “You think so?” he asked, his voice sultry. You nodded, feeling a warmth spread through you as you tucked a loose strand of hair behind his ear.

“Absolutely. It brings out your eyes,” you replied, your voice barely above a whisper. Asmo smiled, the sparkle in his eyes illuminating his entire face.

He leaned closer, allowing the warmth of his skin to envelop you while the faint scent of his signature fragrance wrapped around the two of you. You could feel the steady rhythm of his heartbeat.

“Then I suppose I’ll keep this one to the side them,” he said playfully, his lips curling into a mischievous grin. The tension danced in the air as your breathing synchronized. Asmos's hand glided down your chest lifting the bottom of your uniform shirt to admire the pact mark.

Asmodeus couldn't help but giggle at the coincidence of your mark manifesting just above your pelvis. To him, it seemed ironic. However, you weren’t laughing at all. When the mark appeared for the entire first month, any friction at the spot sent waves of indescribable pulsations coursing through your body. It was a sensation that felt so good, but the constant rubbing from your uniform and jeans would drive you up a wall.

Your face burned as his slender fingers traced the swirls of the mark."Please Asmodeus," Your voice came out as a groan as your hands continued to squeeze his hips. "Let me service you~"

Asmo squealed and lept from your lap, "You're too much of a gentleman (Name)! I thought you'd ask so much sooner!! You really know how to keep a demon on his toes!" He teased as he kicked off his shorts and landed on his large mattress with a huff. He got comfortable on his stomach as his lower half hung off the bed. "What is it you want me to do Asmo?" His face fell, becoming impatient.

"I want you to take your pants off and fuck me already!!" The playful glint in his eyes returned as your pants were down within the blink of an eye. Who were you to deny him?

One of the perks of being the Lust Demon was his freedom from the need for preparation. While there were moments when he savored the anticipation of the build-up, his patience was already paper-thin, and in that moment, he craved you over him.

Your hand reached the drawer beside his bed, where he pulled out a rubber ring. With a creek, you shut the small drawer. Admiring the glittery pink ring in your hand, you slowly slipped it over the head and down your shaft. The rubber squeezed the base of your cock firmly, staying perfectly in place.

You bought the ring to last about half as long as Asmo. He insisted he didn't mind the few rounds you could handle, but you didn't back down from a challenge.

"I still think it's so sweet how you bought that for me; how romantic!" His voice shook as your cock head pushed into his hole, moving as slow as you could for your own sake. The stretch of you sliding into him made him cry out as your hands pushed up his legs, allowing you to get so much deeper than you could imagine.

Asmo keened as you finally bottomed out. The cock ring you wore flushed against him. While the ring helped you stay harder longer, that didn't mean it made having sex with The Demon of Lust feel any less mind-blowing, no matter how often you two went at it. You sighed, right hand pressing the small of Asmos's back, pressing his cock into the mattress for a new layer of simulation for him.

The wet noises that started as your pace sped up were lewd and would have been loud had Asmodeus's moans not drowned it out. It felt electrifying as you thrust continuously against his prostate. His own weeping cock rubbed harder against the soft comforter of his bed.

Asmo turned to face you, his eyes sparkling with adoration. The smooth, milky skin of his face flushed a soft pink as you maintained a firm yet relentless pace. His body contrasted beautifully with the deep purple color of the bed he was splayed across. His lips parted slightly as he panted, exposing his sharp canines. Canines shining in his mouth. "You're so beautiful; I'd never imagined a more beautiful man to lose myself with for the rest of eternity."

His first orgasm crashed against him like a wave. His eyes screwed shut as his hole felt like a vice grip around you. Your own eyes burned as you did all but pray not to cum so early. Begging your own self that you would last, to indulge longer in this bit of heaven your body could hardly handle as your legs shook.

But the blissed-out expression that painted Asmo's face made the sting of edging all the more worth it.

#male reader #m!reader #x male reader #obey me asmodeus #Asmodeus x male reader #obey me x male mc #obey me x male reader

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princess--misery · 3 months ago

Text

The Foolish Jester

a series of stories started on April Fools Day (ongoing)

Content Tags

Semi-silent protagonist

Court jester

Fantasy court life

Nonverbal communication

One-sided dialogue

Masked character

Gentle surrealism

Performer identity

Found meaning in service

Emotional ambiguity & quiet melancholy

Power imbalance (nonviolent, affectionate)

Implied immortality / time displacement

Themes of identity loss / role-as-self

Implied memory manipulation / forgetting

Caretaking / illness (non-graphic)

Existential themes (e.g., purpose, being watched, unreality)

Table of Contents

🃏 Introduction

Act I: The Court's Plaything

🃏 Court party

🔔 "Don't bother"

🃏 The private act

🔔 A whispered conversation

Act II: The Curious Wizard

🃏 The wizard

🔔 The one who jingles

🃏 Always near the throne

🔔 The king's answer

Act III: The Mask and the Mirror

🃏 What the mask remembers

🔔 The reflection game

🃏 A single bell

🔔 The other toy

Act IV: Curtain Call

🃏 The dance

🔔 The forgotten face

🃏 Laughter in the Hall

🔔 The old steward

Act V: Soft Echoes

🃏 The apprentice

🔔 The ribbon closet

🃏 The birthday joke

🔔 The forgotten door

Act VI: Many Masks

🃏 The costume ball

🔔 The witch's visit

🃏 The mask market

🔔 The reflection blinks

Act VII: Things That Last

🃏 The stone bell

🔔 The wandering

🃏 The new king

🔔 The garden

Act VIII: The King's Adoration

🃏 Soft silence

🔔 Silk and Porcelain

🃏 You Make Me Laugh

🔔 A place beside the throne

Act IX: Bells Behind The Door

🃏 The jester's shadow

🔔 The wrong mask

🃏 They were here before

🔔 The bell that whispers

Act X: A Fool's Love

🃏 The mask between us

🔔 When he was small

🃏 The hand behind the curtain

🔔 Not just a toy

Act XI: Becoming a Fool

🃏 The ribbon test

🔔 The first bell

🃏 Only if you smile

🔔 One fool to another

🃏 His own mask

Extra Stories:

🃏 An anonymous kiss

🔔 Snuggles and ribbons

🃏 The king's favorite act (jester x king reader)

🔔 When you were alone

🃏 The itch

#🃏the foolish jester🃏

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otternalremnant · 3 months ago

Text

Switch 2 Price: Objectively

Before I get started let me just say that I absolutely agree that $450 is a lot of money, not denying that one bit. Please do not be mean in the comments, I am mildly autistic and was abused as a child so I cry stupidly easy.

It goes without saying that some of this price has also been adjusted due to the new 24% tariffs on Japanese goods. (This has not been confirmed by Nintendo but it follows the market trend of companies passing those costs directly to consumers).

With that out of the way, lets look at the hardware specifications of the Switch 2 that have been confirmed by Nintendo and nvidia.

4k 120 FPS when docked

7.9" 1080p HDR LCD screen built in

DLSS, ray tracing, and g-sync support

256GB SSD storage

These specifications put the Switch 2 firmly above the capability of a PS4 in the form factor of what is essentially a tablet. The Switch 1 was about as capable as the PS3, which is also somewhat impressive for the formfactor. While we likely won't have actual benchmark tests until review units go out near launch, we can still see that the hardware is quite good based on the info we have. Now let's take a look devices with similar capability of Switch 2 that are currently available on the market.

PS5

The PS5 is a more powerful system than Switch 2 without a doubt with Sony originally toting 8k resolution support. However it is also a much larger device and is notoriously sold at a loss as has been the trend with all console manufacturers since the 1970s. The PS5 slim comes in at the same $450 as Switch 2 due to its lack of Bluray drive. It also cannot be played anywear other than your home unless you invest in the $200 Playstation Portal streaming handheld.

Xbox Series X/S

While the Xbox Series S comes in at $150 cheaper than the Switch 2, it has also been notoriously hard for developers to get their games running in 4k on the device and is widely considered a non option for others, with Microsoft having to wave certification requirements for certain games such as Baldur's Gate 3 in order for Larion Studios to even consider porting it to the Xbox.

These are also not a portable system and are likely to be discontinued soon due to Microsoft shifting focus away from console exclusivity and on to their GamePass streaming service.

Laptops

The lowest price I could find on a laptop that features similar performance to Switch 2 will cost you around $650. And while laptop PCs can do much more overall due to the nature of the Windows desktop environment, I'm looking at this from a purely gaming performance focus. These lower end devices often suffer from performance dips due to lack of proper cooling and the overhead of the OS as well.

Handhelds/Steamdeck likes

The Steam Deck is a pretty incredible value starting $400 with access to a vast amount of the Steam Library. However it struggles with running complex games in 4k and its ray tracing support is quite lacking as well, but to be fair the device was not really designed to do that. It also only has a 720p 60hz display and is quite a bit bulkier than the Switch. Steam Deck competitors such as the ROG Ally and Legion Go are a bit more capable, but have notoriously poor battery life and are much more expensive in the $700-800 range.

Switch 1

The Switch 2 is also bound to compete with the Switch 1 for sales due to pricing and availability in the first couple of years of its lifespan. While the system is 8 years old, it still has quite a vast amount of support from developers and publishers due to it having a great lifetime sales figure. It has unfortunately been notoriously under-powered since its initial launch in 2018 with developers often having to greatly pare down their games in order to get them running on the system and often releasing 1-2 years after they have already launched on other platforms. The system also hasn't dropped its price from $300 outside of rare holiday sales.

The extra power of the Switch 2 should allow for more games to run on the system at a much less compromised experience compared to PS5/PC ports.

TLDR; Yes $450 is expensive, but the cost of the hardware is a fair market price.

$80 for the games is batshit insane tho.

#gaming #video games #nintendo #nintendo switch 2 #switch 2 #analysis #ps5 #pc #xbox

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sexhaver · 1 year ago

Note

hey I have an ungraded Alpha Chaos Orb I got from a blind egg machine in the 90s. how do I get it graded and what's the best move for me with this thing? should I sell it, or is it going to continue to acquire value?

ohhhhh man that's a Spicy Meatball. first step would be getting ahold of a jeweler's loupe and doing some basic at-home checks for whether or not it's fake. the most common is the Green Dot Test where you look at the green dot on the back of the card:

there are also some other tests you can do but the efficacy of those can vary depending on the set the card is from (i.e. sometimes legit cards can still fail); r/mtgfinance is very helpful with walking you through the specifics of these

once you determine it's not an obvious fake, the next step would be getting it graded. the gold standards here are Beckett and PSA. picking which one to use is a subject of great debate; generally PSA is preferred by Pokemon collectors and stores in Japan, whereas Beckett is preferred by MTG whales (i.e. your target audience). PSA is more lenient on specifically the centering of the card though so it might be worth sending it into them depending on how that looks. also before sending the card in to any service, get multiple high-quality scans of the front and back in case a dispute arises. both Beckett and PSA are wayyyy more reputable than that card service i posted about a few days back that just declares their customers' cards fake and then steals them, but when dealing with something this expensive it pays to be cautious. i would also recommend insuring the package you mail it to them in

once you get a grade, you can decide how to proceed from there. Chaos Orb specifically is banned in basically everything so it really only has value as a collectable, which means you can probably just leave it in the plastic "slab" you'll get it back in. on the plus side, it has a LOT of value as a collectable. i don't have a finger on the pulse of alpha card prices but you're looking at multiple thousands of dollars minimum. however, you are going to run into some issues because 1. you're someone with no sale history selling a really rare and expensive card and 2. there are so few Alpha Chaos Orbs floating around that there aren't really enough sales to pin down a market price, but not so few sales that you want to go through an auction house. you definitely do not want to sell to a physical LGS (local game store) because they are not going to beat the best offer you can find online (they mostly have the edge when selling in bulk). your best bets here are probably either ebay or this facebook group, but bear in mind that ebay takes some percentage of the sale (i think 14%?) and tends to side with the buyer unconditionally if a dispute arises. if you take the facebook route, DO NOT ACCEPT OFFERS FROM PEOPLE SLIDING INTO YOUR DMS. THEY ARE LOWBALLING YOU.

im answering this one publicly so people can chime in if they have any other advice they want to share, but in any case, your first step here is to get your hands on a jeweler's loupe

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theropoda · 6 months ago

Text

SO. The Question. david 8 or 1? i think, in short, Our David(TM)(the custody battle was long and fierce but he belongs to all of us now. fuck weyland) WAS a david 8 in prometheus but this was retconned into him being the First in covenant. in long, uhhhh. it's complicated. let's get to the meat (or...cadmium alloy?) of the matter. apologies in advance if this is like incomprehensible, i'm awful with words LOL

so first of all let's go through the prometheus marketing materials: they all seem to point to david being an 8.

youtube

now i don't necessarily believe the david being interviewed in this video is Our David (yeah i'm gonna be calling him that for the rest of this post) but the fact is that this video's purpose was to give us an insight into the david that would star in prometheus, so i assume it implies strongly that the david in prometheus is also an 8

the old promotional website straight up calls him an 8

but now let's look at covenant, where he is retconned to be The First david to be made and activated. covenant opens with our david's activation: notice how old weyland is in this? he's pretty young looking compared to fuckin' methuselah we see in prometheus LOL.

BUT! how can this be? if our david is a david 8 he could have only been activated after 2068, 2068 being the year david 7 was released according to the timeline, by which time weyland, born in 1990, must've been 77.

so weyland must've been over 77 years old by our david's activation IF he is an 8. but as we see he is nowhere near that old in covenant's opening scene. if we're to assume he is activating david 1 here, he would be 34, which looks about right!

(david 8's release isn't even mentioned in the timeline page, which is something which, paired with the aforementioned "happy birthday david" video advertising david 8 models, plus the news page featuring an article dated 2072 that mentions david 8 pre-orders (imagine if they had stupid pre-order bonuses like video games have now lol? pre-order david 8 NOW and he comes with a FREE maid costume!!!!), must mean that the 8th model is NEW by the time prometheus happens. fresh out of the oven, just now available for purchase)

there's also the scene in covenant where walter tells daniels that our david is the first ever david model that weyland made that was "thought lost" in the prometheus mission. unfortunately i don't have a clip on hand of this scene, neither can i find the final movie's script which would have it written out, but i'm sure if you have quick access to the movie like on a streaming service you can find what i'm talking about :P it's sometime after david guides the covenant crew to the destroyed engineer city.

but an outright, blatant confirmation of the idea that our david is the first david lies in an early script of covenant that i DO have access to. behold:

david.....NUMBER ONE!

well i think i've made my case clear....but john, you ask, this has quite the implications about our david's quality and ability! david is so intelligent and emotional, yet this idea would imply he's an inferior model capable of such things. and you're right to wonder that, even the weyland website's investor page seems to say as much

and the answer to that question is.......... ummmm ridley didley didnt think this one thru :) i do think it's an oversight from the writers LOL so it's up to the fans to think about it and explain it.

me personally, i think the difference between a commercial david, be it a david 1, or david 8, is different from our david. our david, the first, wasn't made to be a commercial product, it was to test weyland's abilities and see just how close he could get to creating an artificial person. so he went all out, no punches held back, so we get our david being super intelligent and emotional and human and with a sense of independence. this is not a product: this is weyland seeing how far he can go. so in may ways he is the best, really.

the other davids following him though, including the commercial mass produced david 1's (which i believe the chart shows), up to david 8, these are products meant to be bought and sold. an android that is TOO human is, as walter says in covenant, quite disturbing for people, so these commercial davids actually are a little reigned in and "dumbed down" lest they get TOO smart. like yeah, in terms of materials/resources and technology and stuff, these are the superior ones, but in terms of the ability to think, to feel, to philosiphize and of course create, our david is king. the commercial davids are the better machine, our david is the better human. so that's my take.

of course everyone's free to make up their own minds since the actual films fumbled this a little. @muscari-midala had the idea that our david is a david 8 prototype specifically, or that weyland put our david's memory in newer models as they got released, which is very interesting! there's a lot of ways to go about it in my opinion.

anyways if you made it all the way here CONGRATS!!! you get a david as a prize. check your mail tomorrow.

#t #prometheus #alien covenant #david 8 #Youtube

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project-sekai-facts · 11 months ago

Note

sorry if this has been sent in/answered before, i tried searching thru the blog and couldn't find anything

i remember you made a post a while ago about beta character designs and mentioned this miku and shiho(?) placeholder card

i just found this year old reddit post theorizing that the character isn't actually shiho and might have been a "human mc" design, which, along with another commenters note about unused virtual live audios

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectSekai/comments/12kk4l9/i_dont_think_this_beta_character_was_shiho/?chainedPosts=t3_txq6vn

mm, i don't really agree with that person. saying "it looks nothing like shiho" isn't exactly a valid point. like that's not how character design works, sometimes there are massive changes. like there's too much evidence pointing towards that character being then-shiho. she's absolutely not final shiho, but she was the shiho character back then. the design matches with what we can see of the leoneed concept arts, and matches with shizuku's early design.

my theory is originally then-shiho was the "ichika" character: the face of marketing who was probably the audience surrogate miku fan, before these attributes were given to ichika. in all honestly i think it's likely that then-shiho was completely reworked into final shiho for whatever reason, still being the leoni bassist and shizuku's sister but with a new design and personality. and hey shizuku might've been changed first who knows. i think this is kinda what OP was meaning, but they completely denied the fact that then-shiho looks very related to then-shizuku, moreso than their final designs look related. like they had her down as a totally new character when imo it's pretty clear then-shiho was just reworked into what we have now. also apparently when yukki auditioned, she was cast as shiho before they even had character art of her, so that kinda backs up that she was reworked later in development (cannot find the source for this but i keep seeing people metion it for like the last 2 or so years).

and well the art is labelled as placeholder so it was probably drawn just for the sake of testing the game before finalised stuff was being drawn and implemented. the final character designs were completed in early 2019 iirc but initial planning and dev would've started long before then, since the game was first revealed later that year looking close enough to the game we saw at launch. the art style has some resemblance to early bandori cards which also makes sense since clpl is an offshoot of craftegg and it was probably one of their artists that drew that card probably not long after garupa opened service. like those blurred out arts of n25/ln/mmj are clearly very old and from the very early game concept stages.

also those voice clips were probably recorded by staff for testing. the last one is introducing a song to be performed and I think they're saying Tell Your World, which means these are stand in voice clips are placeholders for Miku. it might even be Saki Fujita voice recordings but i don't really have much to compare it to other than a few short pjdiva cutscene things.

#asks #mod talks

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reco-obsessed · 5 months ago

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do u have any super awesome reko hcs ?? id like to hear yr thoughts :3

*cracks knuckles*

most of my ideas on her are based on canon, so ive never considered them outlandish enough to call headcanons, but i guess technically pretty much all of my rants about her could be sorted as such, since they try to build on what we already know and extrapolate an analysis. i have too many to list. ill try to compile some here, though. longer ones are under the cut.

i moreso stole this headcanon then made it but i agree that reko cant cook for shit. she lives off takeout and stuff she burnt in the microwave, much to her protective older brother's dismay.

i believe reko was putting on her makeup and styling her hair every morning in chapter 2. again, i stole this one.

i think reko would be really good at video games

reko would be very good at ice skating

despite being good at drawing her eyeliner, i dont think she can draw very well on paper.

reko paints her nails sometimes (she likes the smell) but its always chipped somehow, even if she just painted them.

she doesnt have an extensive (if any) skin care routine (thats more her brothers thing) but she does have a hair care routine after almost frying off all her hair several times trying to bleach it herself. she only dyes her bangs now but she still takes good care of her hair (especially with the way she has to style it everyday).

reko is either out of the bathroom in 2 seconds or she takes an hour because she gets distracted and starts messing with her hair or makeup. it used to drive alice crazy when they both lived with their parents. not now alice, you can go shit in the bushes, reko is using her eyeliner as face paint.

reko tries not to do this when shes working on new songs, but shes the type of person who almost always listening to some kind of music. she loves finding new music and new subgenres.

shes not really a messy person but shes not very neat, either. she usually has trash slowly building up somewhere. nothing 15 minutes of panic cleaning cant fix, but its there.

i think reko made / makes a lot of her own punk clothes and accessories, and generally has frugal habits around her style. it started when she was a teen because her rebelliousness and delinquency led to her being perpetually grounded, so no allowance. shes awful at customer service so she couldnt really get an entry level job. her music wasnt really marketable and she probably didnt have her own band in her younger teens ( i think samurai yaiba was probably only started when she was about to or already graduated high school) so there wasnt much if any income from there. she may have done some odd jobs but they didnt pay much and she was intimidating to people, so it was hard to get gigs. all this led to her getting good at sewing, dying, bleaching and otherwise making her own clothes. probably owns a bunch of pins, studs, and zippers in bulk just to sew onto stuff. i think the same thing applies to her make up- she uses fancier water / sweat proof on stage, but off stage? dollar store eyeliner and foundation. she doesnt care about the risks, she goes through her make up too fast to bother with the fancy stuff.

reko has an impressive memory generally, but when she struggles with it, she makes little songs or rhymes to help her remember (she did this to sometimes help her speed memorize for tests in school. then, she had to whisper-sing it under her breath and swing her foot to the beat and itd be all you could hear in the test room, and shed either get in trouble or just be really embarrassed).

speaking of school, i dont think reko went to college or post secondary school; in ytts theres a whole thing about her hating school. but aside from that, the timing would be really tight. shes canonically 23, samurai yaiba was 2 1/2 years ago, so she wouldve been 20-21, and you graduate high school at 18. i cant say i know a lot about japanese college, but if it has the same status of degrees as in the US, it wouldnt really make sense for her to have gone to college- she was likely a drop out or never went in the first place.

i think reko has some burner account(s) where she dumps experimental music. its not always avant garde, but she likes playing with different genres. the problem is they keep escaping containment, even though shes embarrassed by them and thinks theyre all shit. no one can know about her breakcore album with 6 million views that she made while she was drunk and garage band crashed halfway through so theres weird chunks missing and distorted audio. no one. no one can know about the ska music made. god, not the ska.

reko has theater kid energy to me (both the yabusames do), but i doubt she was ever in any productions. her band/orchestra vibes are stronger and thats probably what she wouldve devoted all her time to instead. maybe, like, one musical, but she mightve not gotten the role she wanted and immediately quit. if she was, she drove everyone up a wall cause she was so hard to work with. shes a natural but she never shows up to any practices and is so easy to piss off, especially during the acting portions. skipping practice isnt a big deal to her because she can memorize things quickly, but it screws all the other actors up. she just isnt a team player (or rather, reko really wasnt a team player in highschool).

reko is a caffeine addict. she has overworking tendencies and i (used to) headcanon her as someone who abstains from alcohol / drugs / etc, so she resorts to coffee instead.

speaking of- i used to strongly believe reko wouldnt be the type to smoke or drink, specifically because i misinterpreted a line she said about her father ('hes not the best at staying true to his convictions, and gives into temptation') as being about addiction, when it was probably just supposed to be about her dad giving into the temptation of trying to make reko famous. looking back on it, thats closer to canon, and with the stress of being in the spotlight at such an early age and her self described 'delinquent phase' it makes a lot of sense to headcanon her as being a smoker or using other stimulants. i still think that you could possibly interpret her dad as having started doing those things at some point once they had surplus money from rekos early career, and i like the details that adds to her character; her trying to rebel from the industry not just out of a growing hate for it from being forced to do it, but also a wake up call for her father and hoping maybe hell stop if she refuses to be an idol anymore. her partially being so high strung later on because she never lets herself off the hook or resorts to substances that could calm her down.

i strongly believe reko has no idea how to actually be friends with people. like, yeah, when you talk to her during discussions she holds conversation pretty well and its not as if people dont want to be her friend or even that shes bad at it- its just that she has no experience. she doesnt know what shes doing. during pretty much the entirety of her developmental years, she was either getting forced into music stuff she didnt wanna do by her father or doing the music stuff she did wanna do. probably the only people she hung out with, if at all, were people she could hop the fence with to skip, and they werent really friends. alice even states himself that she had a habit of pushing people away and was alone.

in the same vein, alice may have dated more people than his far more charismatic sister. i refuse to drop this headcanon because its funny as hell. alice comes off strong, which you think would be a deterrent, but a lot of people are into that. its not as if reko doesnt, herself, but.... she has to deal with sheeping and girls thinking theyre just friends on top of that. moreover, i dont see reko as a flirty person- a lot of side content involves her getting flustered in some way. reko has an awkward flustered streak and it doesnt come out often but when it does it comes out strong, and its easy to find if you know where to look, so to speak. i mean, did you see the way she talked to nao on the 2f landing?

okay, i could keep going, but i ill spare you and stop here. thanks for letting me yap. or, rather, thanks for being my victim. if youve got stockholm syndrome, feel free to ask me for a part 2.

#the way you type reminds me of someone i know anon #argh... i feel like one of those old people who meet someone who reminds them of someone they knew decades ago and they start reminiscing #and treating you like that person #too specific?#ack... i feel all sentimental now...#obsession propagation #reko yabusame #reko yabusame headcanons #yttd #kimi ga shine #your turn to die #obsession original

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