#i mostly needed to write it out for a Specific Other Thing

[kaiasky]

so I was curious if editing was something cgpt was decent at, so i wrote a quick 400 word thing on sports betting, printed it and left revisions for myself, then fed it into cgpt (along with an explanation of intended tone and audience) and asked it first give overall/structural feedback and asked it to then go through each paragraph leaving edits inline in brackets.

my overall impression is that it did fairly well--it identified most of the places I marked as pain points myself, and its suggestions were all reasonable and specific. Places it brought up that I didn't mark myself, I mostly agree it has useful notes. It was able to point out when sentences were awkward or flowed badly, which was something I was curious about. in general it seemed mostly equivalent to the experience I'd get asking a peer w/ the following exceptions:

I very much had to know what I was looking for in editing, e.g. If I just pasted the essay in and said "please give suggestions" it did poorly, but didn't say like "I need more information before I even attempt that" like a human hopefully would.

man, chatgpt writes so fuckin much. just say [awk, reword] lmao

w/o specific prompting it was doing "one bulletpoint of what you did well for every bulletpoint offering feedback" but it stopped when requested.

I think it's too sycophantic to stand up for itself when I say "but I like that sentence" when it's objectively not a good fit. the best editors I've know will tell you you're being stupid, but it is a flaw many humans have too.

obviously like 400 words of nonfiction is a pretty toy testcase. it's certain it would do worse in other situations (I would not trust it with meter, e.g., and I bet it wouldn't be any help at like. "hey read my novel. does this character come across as complicated, or just whiny?") but fundamentally I do think it is not merely generating "plausible-sounding critique" I think it's broadly capable of "read this. what sounds off" and being like, mostly right.

i had a writing teacher show us how he uses chatgpt to get feedback on his writing…… like pls sir…… the robot isn’t reading your stuff it’s simply generating the most plausible sentences a critique would sound like…… i repeat the robot is not reading nor relating to your writing in any way no matter how much your ego gets stroked by autogenerated praise and tips this is the author’s equivalent of reading a horoscope

[morlock-holmes]

I don't know, I think that what the right-wingers call "Wokeness" is a real thing, so I've been slightly befuddled by those "Anti-woke activist can't even define it" videos.

And it's not really a political party or organized cult, it's a set of norms, so its inherently going to be kind of fuzzy. But I would characterize it as...

An approach to racism and sexism that focuses heavily on the psychological roots of those ideologies/behaviors within dominant groups, and this is expressed negatively through qualities like:

"Kidding on the square" jokes about whites, men, heterosexuals, cis people, and of course straight white cis hetero men. Stuff that in other contexts would be called "micro-aggressions" or just flat out "aggressions"; If somebody asks if the straights are okay, it's the job of the straights to laugh it off but also internalize it as a legitimate view that indicates a change they need to work towards;

Speaking of: The presence of various Catch-22s. Everybody is racist, but only some people deserve to be fired for their racism. Robin DiAngelo is a master at this. Are you not eager enough to do the work on fighting racism within yourself? Obviously that's a manifestation of your internalized racism. Are you too eager to start the work fighting racism? That means that you don't understand how hard the fight against racism will be and you're unfairly centering yourself in a process which should be centered on minorities.

False standpoint epistemology: a claim of having a social norm where privileged people, when called out for behavior, are trained to listen, believe the criticism, and reflect on how they can change. In practice I very rarely encountered this. What I encountered instead were environments where a certain set of positions were understood to be the voice of the unprivileged, and as a big example that started to shake me out of this ideology, about 8 or 10 years ago there were some comedians talking about how college campuses were so judgemental that they didn't really want to play to colleges or workshop their material there, and one of them was Chris Rock. Okay, so this left-leaning black man is saying that the social norms we're developing are stifling him, I know what to do in this situation, we're supposed to listen, to not get defensive, and to reflect seriously on... Oh? We're actually just going to say that's obviously bullshit being pushed by mostly white men?

In what I would class as a more neutral thing there is also heavy emphasis on language and image. A sort of pervasive focus on mental hygiene, and heavy focus on which specific words are used to describe things, how people are represented in fictional media, whether or not privileged people are using images, stories or practices that should be limited exclusively to the less privileged (Remember that museum that had to stop letting people try on a kimono because some of those people would be non-asian?).

This can also be expressed positively through the desire for more diverse casting, attention to stories and personal writing from women and minorities, etc.

The thing that drives me up the goddamn wall is that the people who have made "Fighting wokeness" the cornerstone of their politics are expressing a lot of the same flaws, such as:

False Standpoint Epistemology: I am white. I make minimum wage from my job. I just spent the last few paragraphs criticizing wokeness. You'd think that would make me a member of the storied "White Working Class." I am afraid you'd be mistaken. I am also pro-trans, pro-gay and I vote for Democrats so unfortunately that makes me a member of the coastal elite; It's guys like Elon Musk and Donald Trump who speak for the White Working Class, and disagreeing with these rich and powerful men means that I am simply not a member of the White Working Class, regardless of my skin color or economic position;

A tremendous focus on language policing and mental hygiene: The Trump administration's first goal on getting into office this time was to aggressively strip out any "woke" language from the government, a process so aggressive and haphazard that it included things like removing information about the Enola Gay from military websites, and left grant applicants fairly sure that any grant that used the word "gender" was being automatically rejected because the Trump administration believes that "sex" is the only correct word and that "gender" is not PC,

Not so much Catch-22s as just open bias and incoherence: When Mahmoud Khalil marched in a protest where some people chanted "Globalize the intifada" and "From the river to the sea" this was denounced as such total, unabashed, vile antisemitism that Khalil had to be imprisoned for national security reasons. Allowing a man that openly antisemitic to be there for the birth of his child would be an unacceptable risk to national security. Meanwhile, Marko Elez said things like "I was racist before it was cool" and "Normalize anti-indian hate" on social media, and the response of the Trump administration is that, not only should Elez not be jailed immediately, he should not be allowed to resign and should maintain access to extremely sensitive data like your social security number and mine. Trump and Musk have both actually launched legal action against media outlets that said things that they agree are true.

In that Peter Thiel interview, he talks about his fear that Greta Thunberg style environmentalism might be the first domino that leads to an oppressive and stagnant world-state.

That's obviously insane if you think in terms of cause and effect. How does Thunberg take over India? Outline the sequence of events.

But these Woke Republicans don't think that way. Much like the woke left, they imagine political outcomes as a sort of sudden eruption of mass consciousness. If enough people agree with Thunberg on twitter, that will inevitably ripple outwards into mass political change, and none of those pesky things like "Armies" or "laws" will be able to stop it.

Like, I'm sorry, which political party is actually jailing people for hate speech? Which political party is aggressively promoting the legal theory that unequivocally true speech is not necessarily legal? Which one is cutting medicaid and increasing my student loan payments while trumpeting all the ways that they've eliminated un-PC language from government web sites?

The people who call themselves "Anti-Woke" almost never actually have any problem with woke theories of the world, they are only angry that they don't get to be in charge of saying what's politically correct and what's so offensive that it should put you in jail.

I did not pull myself out of woke ideology so I could be excited about "Woke ideology but also they actually jail people for hate speech and they're okay with holocaust deniers."

[novaneet]

Thinking about Andre picking up Cal after coming off one of those shifts that make you question everything. A massive catering order — twenty pizzas — and a back of house overflowing with people barking instructions like their voices alone could will time to slow down.

“Clean this!”

“Prep that!”

“What’s the time?”

Every sentence had been a demand, a timer, a reminder that he was wasting hours of his life under fluorescent lights for people he couldn’t bring himself to care about. All of it for a job that wouldn’t mean anything to him in a few months. Maybe not even in a few days. There were more important things he could be doing. Things that mattered.

Or maybe Cal had been there the whole time. Waiting for him. Resigned to his usual spot in the back of the lobby, tucked away in the farthest booth next to the kitchen entrance. The booth was always empty, unofficially his — close enough to the chaos to hear it, far enough to pretend he didn’t exist in it. He sat curled around a pen, scribbling things others would never see, clicking through songs on his scratched-up CD player, the kind with stickers peeling at the edges.

Every time Andre stepped out to stock the lobby, they made eye contact. Just a glance, but it landed heavy. Cal might wave or smile, but mostly just looked — quiet, grounded, like a steady heartbeat. And every time, Andre would find some excuse to linger.

“Oh, give me a minute, will you?” he’d yell back to the kitchen, slammimg the doors shut and already making his way toward Cal’s booth.

He’d slide into the seat across from him, sighing into the space like it could absorb some of the weight he was carrying.

“Sarge’s calling you,” Cal would say, eyes still fixed on whatever he was writing.

“They’re lucky I don’t throw them in the fucking oven,” Andre would grumble, slumping into the seat. His voice was always a mix of humor and something deeper — weariness, anger, maybe both.

Cal perked up, pen stilling in his hand. “C-Can those ovens even fit a human body?”

Andre blinked. “Wh—what?” He laughed, eyebrows drawing together. “I don’t know, man. Probably. Yeah, a couple, if you squish ‘em in.”

Cal nodded like it was a genuine solution worth logging away. Andre shook his head, a tired grin tugging at his mouth, equal parts fond and disturbed. Cal and his questions. Always one step to the left of normal. Always just close enough to tether him, without trying to.

Always strange. Always specific.

And somehow, always exactly what Andre needed.

I'll write more about this later lol...I have a few directions I want this to go in.

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

Question about Natlan-can

I don't quite get what was upsetting about Natlan, besides the lack of formality, could you tell me what makes it something that needs a rewrite? I have a Natlan fic of my own that I'm trying to write well, and I want to understand what parts of it people are put off by. Your writing is amazing and an inspiration to me, so I was thinking that you could tell me what's wrong with the region.

this isn't so much a question about natlancan as it is about canon natlan but your wish is my command

(beware: massive ramble below)

contrary to what my ramblings might've led you to believe, i don't actually think natlan as it is needs a rewrite. i quite like it, both in a vacuum and in the context of genshin as a whole. could it improve? oh god could it improve. does it have things that are upsetting? yeah. it's far from perfect. but there's a lot to like there natlancan came not from the idea that natlan needs a rewrite, but that it already has been rewritten. that what we have rn is either a completely different story or a heavily altered version of what was originally planned. so the thought process was, if i was also given the order to suddenly rewrite natlan with little time and while having to abide by what the public already knew (stuff like travail and what little info there was pre-alleged rewrite); then what would i have done?

but that wasn't your question, so, i think we can separate the things i personally (and that i think a good chunk of the community as well but idk for sure) take issue w natlan in two categories: overall concerns, and story concerns. for a fixit fic, i think it's far more reasonable to ignore the former and try to correct the latter, as trying to deal with the overall concerns would require far more time and effort than any single fan should be expected to sink into something like this. still, it's your call, overall concerns:

the designs of the main roster. hardly any of them give you any meaningful information about what their characters and their roles in the plot actually are from first glance, which is what a design is supposed to do, usually. like not to beat a dead horse but why is mavuika in full leather. why is ororon an emo bat boy. isn't he a farmer? what in xilonen's design could possibly tell you she's a blacksmith? or a dj, for that matter? and what does her being a dj have anything to do with literally any part of her character in the plot? what even is varessa. why is citlali like that. what is the deal with kinich's pixels when no other ancient dragon technology has it. what is up with chasca. ifa is literally the only design up to par w the other regions and he's the random tall male that comes out after the aq is over. also hoyo is scared of melanin wbk but just because we know doesn't mean it stops being upsetting that they refuse to change. natlan isn't supposed to be based on a predominantly white-skinned region. on that topic,

what is natlan even based on like specifically. why is it all over the place. they reached for so much they ended up with nothing in the end. like i'm all for having tons of representation for tons of different people but at some point you want to think about the kind of representation you want and if you wouldn't rather just quality over quantity. like idk about you but i don't see people complaining that fontaine is mostly just france or that liyue and inazuma are literally just china and japan and nothing else.

story concerns:

natlan in-game isn't a nation at war, it's a nation with a war. outside of the best part of the aq (the war segment), the war they have doesn't affect the nation in most ways an actual war would: there seems to be little human life toll, there is negligible structural damage, and there is very little land damage. the pilgrimage is once a year (?) and they send what, five people? per year? and usually they just come back to life in the end anyway? so where are your casualties? in attacks like the ones we see in game? not from everyone's reactions, i'd think. the way the characters reacted it was like that was not the norm. so where is your war if nobody feels it? where is your war if all your warriors come back to life and you send them off elsewhere out of sight out of mind to do their nebulous fighting? i don't necessarily want doom and gloom but i want proper weight to this conflict, and outside of the war segment, there just is none.

why are the saurians built up and made to be the companions of all natlan warriors, these super important creatures they share the land with; and their coexistence is as basic as yours is with your dog? they're no more than glorified pets, slightly more sapient. but that's a minor nitpick and maybe my remembering them wrong. what's more glaring is that, of our entire main roster, hardly any of them have a saurian companion the way every natlan warrior ought to. ajaw, cacucu, and alaye don't count, just look at them. chasca has her mom and cucusaur sister but they're not her companions, they don't fight in the war with her. i'm down to accept mavuika's died five hundred years ago except would you look at that, the massive yumkasaur is also supposedly from back then?? unless i'm misremembering that?? so where is hers?? and kachina has one, right? why doesn't it fight with her? is it because it's young? if that's the case, then,

why is nobody distraught at the fact kachina, a child, has to fight in the war? aside from pacal acting like a normal person abt kachina suddenly having an unknown adult friend, nobody else seems to worry about her like they would a child. i'm not saying they have to baby her, but all the concern about her is bc she's mualani's friend and she's not strong enough yet. but not about the fact she's a literal child being made to fight a war. and if you want to say that that's the point, that natlan is in such dire straits that it's normal for children to go to war; then where are my children npc fighting in the war? i don't see them. i don't see a single other one. oh is it because kachina is the only one w an ancient name? weak excuse. if you want child soldiers you're not gonna start discriminating on which child is fighting unless you wanna make it a class/racist thing. and even then, okay, maybe there's never any reaction from anyone bc that's just how things are, right? but then what's the point of having the traveler and paimon as the protagonists? the entire reason why you have an outsider pov (which is what they are btw) is so they can be culturaly shocked when shit isn't as they are used to. so they can give you a different perspective. but no. the traveler and paimon aren't any more shocked at anything (bar the war segment) than they are during any other aq. if you wanted natlan to be this super violent always at war nation then make if fucking feel like it. again, the war segment is saving this, but still, outside of it?

mavuika is a mary sue, sorry. it's not the fact that she's perfect, it's the fact that the plot and the characters and everything around her bends over backwards to make sure she stays that way. it's not about her not having any flaws (i'd argue she has plenty), but about the 'flaws' she has never having any meaningful impact or consequences in the story. she has a batshit insane plan that never faces any relevant friction, never falters, and suceeds with full scores and with a surprise super special even better result than anticipated. all of this could work if the story just presented it differently. you wouldn't even have to change all that much about her, just about how you show it. think abt her situation for more than two seconds. could you imagine the levels of angst we could've gotten? the actual proper foil and paralels we would've had with capitano? with her relationship with those around her? but no. no, instead we have to sell, so she has to be powerful and perfect, and capitano is a man so he must have compelling depth to sell so he's the only one allowed to be decently written between the two. fuck i have thoughts about mavuika but god she's trapped in a gacha so nothing can be done

i'm a firm believer that as an outside pov protagonist, the traveler is at their best when they're filling in their role of the witness. i got secondhand embarrassment from the tumaini dance celebration sorry. i'm not against them being important to the plot, but i much prefer it when they're not the chosen one, the super special one, the only one who could ever do this job. natlan walks this line very clumsily and sort of dips into chosen one territory for a good chunk of it, but it could've been worse. the fact that mavuika is there at the end does keep it from being too bad, but like. man. this isn't even touching on the optics of the white blond foreigner being the savior here. that's a different can of worms lmao

the entire magic cure for ptsd interlude. what even. again, you could pull pretty much anything off with proper writing, but proper writing there was NONE in that scene.

i know they've been getting better and ik why this happens this is a gacha etc but i'm not the biggest fan of the whole. suddenly you have these characters after the aq is over. this isn't a natlan-only thing tbf it's an issue w all the regions. like who is varessa even. i know they give us a quest for her there's worse examples (still don't know who heizou is), but like. if you're gonna be making a fixit fic you might as well consider making her part of the actual world LMAO even if it's a minor role. always remember baizhu was in the liyue aq for all of five minutes 👍

[gattsuru]

@twentyfourlivesforinfinity :

#but i only kind of see how this relates to the idea of stability#like if the bank needs like assistance from the government they won't get it? or more like the bank may not be allowed to operate anymore?

Banks are regulated industries, and banks are industries where not offering subsidized services in compliance with government regulations falls between 'bad business practice' and 'active red flag'. So for a short version, both of those things, and also other banks may refuse to work with them, for both of those reasons.

[caveat: this post contains infohazards, not just in the sense that it's frustrating to hear about, but that if a bank recognizes you know them, it can make a variety of financial transactions harder. I am also not a lawyer or financial advisor, and this is not legal or financial advice. So under the readmore we go:]

In the United States, there's actually a lot of different regulations that are relevant, but I'll focus an examples of the three bigger categories : "FDIC-insured", "the check system", and "financial regulation".

FDIC-insured is the less dangerous information. Banks can choose, optionally, to sign up with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. This does absolutely zero for the bank -- they actually have to pay into the FDIC fund -- but means that if the bank loses every single dime it owned, every depositor is guaranteed to get their money back from the bank, up to 250k USD.

Of course, the FDIC does not want to have banks sign up just to collapse. In theory, this means that banks that want to sign up need to show a good bill of financial health, and promise not to do stupid things like leave the Scrooge McDuck vault unlocked. In practice, it means that the FDIC can establish rules about what loans a bank can offer, how much money it has to keep on hand, and most important for this conversation, who it's not safe to loan out cash to.

FDIC insurance isn't the only thing in this category: everything from standard 30-year-mortgages to most education loans to small business operations runs this way, just with different names and organizations. It's the one with the nice sticker on the front door and every teller's window, though.

To an extent, this even makes sense. Having a max limit to how much cash you can withdraw from your bank in a single transaction by a single card helps prevent or at least reduce the impact of card theft. One hopes that you don't have to write out 'don't give a big wad of cash to Big Jim's Meth Emporium expecting 20% extra back in a week', but if it's probably going to cost you a million bucks, pen and paper's a lot cheaper. But the financial side of things could easily be an unhappy coincidence, or outright fake. And the FDIC very specifically was the organization telling banks that (wink wink) porn and other stuff was a Bad And Unacceptable Investment in Operation Choke Point.

((Allegedly, the FDIC also will talk to bigger banks when a marginally-iffy smaller bank is having problems, and tell them that bank is available for purchase and sure the balance sheet looks like crap but just think of the incentives. But that's reading between Patio11's lines rather than on an FDIC FAQ somewhere.))

Checks are those obnoxious pieces of paper.

But they also represent a system of rules about how those pieces of paper can be worth an arbitrary amount of money basic on someone scrawling numbers in, and that if they're presented in one order but processed in another, the world doesn't blow up. As a consumer, you mostly think about this (if you think about it at all) in the sense that it's against the law to knowingly write a bad check. But it also means that if someone steals your checkbook, you can cancel and dispute a check (sometimes even after it's cleared). Conversely, someone that disputes a legitimate check, or a lot of checks, gets some extra eyeballs on them very quickly.

Checks are not the only thing in this category: ACHs use the same systems, debit and credit cards use a different-but-related one. (The difference is that banks have to accept a lot more risk on credit cards, which is why checks cost about 2-5% less per transaction... at the cost of a potentially much worse bite on fraud). Some of this is a (supposedly) a gentlemen's agreement, some of these systems are regulated private actors (eg, your job's payroll company is a credit product just because incoming and outgoing cash is a charlie foxtrot), some of this is just the law. Wire transfers aren't -- but in turn, they're incredibly dangerous to consumers because almost none of the checking system's rules about clawing back fraudulent processes exist. Whether these are government agencies in practice is kinda a mu question, but whether they are subject to government rules is not.

Unfortunately, the current setup of these rules leaves a number of known problems and glitches. An example is the 'check sweepstake' scam: the victim receives a valid-appearing check in the mail with instructions to cash it at a bank, and then send some small fraction back to the sender by wire (or Western Union). The check is then clawed back, the wire (or WU) can't be, and the victim finds that all the money from the 'cashed check' was instead removed from his or her bank account. The same problem can happen by accident, or for dozens of other reasons.

The financial services sector has settled on a trifecta of patches: in some small minority of cases, the receiving bank eats it; in a majority, the victim gets some information and (usually not monetary) assistance; regardless, the banking account and public identity of the sender gets blacklisted to hell and back. (In rare cases, the FBI will get involved.) The system for blacklisting someone from the checking system is a magic word that you never say near a bank, because their employees are restricted from telling you about it (mostly as a matter of policy rather than law) and their employees are instructed to be cautious around 'unusually sophisticated customers' (mostly a matter of law rather than policy).

Financial service regulations are the bit that you probably won't want to have learned about, but they're also the most important. Effectively every business that trades cash for a cash-like product falls under federal laws and regulations about money business services unless they become a bank; effectively every company that sends money from one place to another counts as a money transmitting service, again unless they become a bank. If you perform a money services business without the proper licensing and registration, the Feds can send you to jail for quite a long time. If you are a regulated financial service or bank and knowingly interact with unregulated money services businesses, you will find your own license disappearing.

(This knowledge and even the phrase 'money services business' is another magic word, and in the same 'The King In Yellow' sense where as a normal customer saying it really loud in a bank can make your checking account disappear.)

Licensing and registration is cheap. Compliance is expensive.

You would think, from that description, that there was some extremely clear list of things that these financial institutions are required to do, and prohibited from doing. That's not really how these rules work, or even look like. As an example, there is a rule called Know Your Customer, or KYC. Despite its name, a financial institution does not actually need to know their customer. They instead need to have documented, reasonable, and consistently-applied policies to make sure that they do not accept certain classes of customers (international terrorists, financial criminals, agents of nations under certain sanctions) and that whatever identify provided doesn't belong to someone else.

The exactly level of compliance that a specific financial institution is required to perform can vary, wildly; the exact combination of rules that they are required to perform can, likewise, vary wildly.

((Some of these results are very, very, very stupid. One rare specific law, and one consumers need to be aware of, is against breaking a deposit of cash above 10k USD into multiple smaller deposit. If you do that, or carefully keep deposits under 10k USD, and get caught -- which you will, because you're signing your name and address in with each deposit -- it's worth months in federal prison and surrender of all the 'tainted' money. It isn't against the law to just deposit a lump sum of 11k USD, though! Just a bit of extra paperwork. Which a specific bank may refuse, as a process, to accept.

For a more typical version, certain types of MSBs and almost all banks are required to report suspicious activity to FinCEN. What is suspicious activity? :shrug:))

One of the most important rules is to avoid taking in 'dirty' (not-embedded-in-legal-markets) money, or sending money to 'bad' (not-embedded-in-legal-business) people, or working with anyone that does. Some amount of that it either reasonable or at least a consequence of specific statutes: again, sending piles of cash to a country sanctioned for war crimes is the central example, and you don't want to accept money that has a suspicious history that points toward the same people.

But the exact definition of those things doesn't exist. They're instead developed as a stochastic model; if you do end up having FinCEN looking at you for any reason, you have to explain what happened, how your complied with existing processes to try to present that, and if the failure is severe enough, how you'd counter it in the future. Over time, the thresholds have decreased as the available information about the typical transaction and person have increased: more money was 'clean', and more people were clearly 'good'.

For porn, that money could be coming from Bad Things and going to Bad Places has been a concern since at least the initial showing of _Deep Throat_ in 1971, where a lot of adult theatres and film producers were just money laundering fronts for the mob, and there's a decent variety of other illegal matters that I'll leave to your imagination. But back then, so little money had clear providence and so few people (or businesses) had very clear financial identity that it wasn't a problem, yet. Today, so much does that the financial regulators can look at spaces and talk about Weird customers that just aren't clearly normal, or they can encourage the development of rules where a typical Weird customer isn't worth the cost of additional compliance.

You might think that isn't a matter of stability, but banks (and regulators) expect a certain number of failures. Typical fines are a cost of doing business, not just in the sense of rich people getting away with bad things, but in the sense that errors are unavoidable and fines are most effective way to incentivize a company against distributed behavior.

((Though there is also a lot of the 'rich companies get away with bad things' involved.))

But this results in a bit of a paradox. If these vendors are a large part of your business, even a small number of collapses -- say, a state ID verification law driving vendors out from several states -- can have a hit to your bottom line, enough to raise questions about deposit ratios (for banks) or available cash on hand (for most other financial institutions). Indeed, this can pretty quickly be a more significant hit than the typical fine. Unstable, and bad for business! If they're only a tiny part of your revenue, though, regulators and compliance can look at the first problem that comes up and ask, pointedly, why they're still customers: do you have internal policies for evaluating them, and if so, are they consistently applied and by the way how well-founded at they? Well, the punishment for not consistently applying rules is significantly worse than the punishment for merely showing up late, and bingo, unstable, bad for business.

This problems aren't specific to adult content. But it's especially easy to weaponize toward adult content.

no one has been able to adequately explain, at least to me, why mastercard and visa are so hardline about adult content. I mean it really does beg asking - why the fuck do they not only care, but care so strongly?

[freakenomenon]

i think i kind of figured out what harlan really wanted for ellen's character in the game when it came to her being black, but botched severely.

in the manual, consistently the writers feel the need to emphasize that ellens entire front of being a smart successful black woman is superficial. and that she often bumps more elbows with the behaviors of that current white american society, than black american society.

( the mention of a specifically puerto rican cuban woman is so strange btw but that's another topic. )

what they're really TRYING to describe here, for lack of better, or maybe less no-noish terminology, is that ellen is a coon.

the term coon originates from black face minstrelsy, from the character, who would have guessed, zip coon. this character was lazy, unreliable, hysterical, ect. generally every unflattering stereotype that people still try to push onto a lot of black americans.

but, a lot of black people also use the term "coon" or "cooning" to describe a black person who kisses the ass of white society and goes OUT OF THEIR WAY to look good to white society by white american standards.

of course, this behavior is often bashed by other black people, hence the need for an entire term.

but the thing is, within harlans effort to somehow make ellen come off as coonish or indulging in coonery, he simply victim blames the hell out of her.

never once, in the screenshot above, was ellen described as going out of her way to appeal to white society.

her responding the word "nigger" and not going to protests is more or less an act of self preservation due to already existing racial trauma, than a conscious act of coonery.

the writers go out of their way to mention in the manual that ellen grew up in a POOR, USUALLY MOSTLY BLACK, NEIGHBORHOOD. the GHETTO. ( the fact that they specifically use the word ghetto and not something like the projects or even just a poor neighborhood is.. evidence enough on their lack of experience with this topic. )

and while within this neighborhood. witnessed horrible acts of violence firsthand as a CHILD on her FAMILY MEMBERS because of the ignorance of white society and how they handle minorities. literally watches people DIE

as well as, again, little girl by the way, barely even like 4% developed mentally, prejudice from the non-black parts of her neighborhood.

not to mention, ellen is consistently characterized as someone who hates being in the presence of anyone who believes they are superior to her.

all of this behavior that harlan is trying to make come off as coonish and self centered just comes off as .. victim blamey. people mention that harlan was an activist, and it almost comes off as exaggerated to the point of being performative here.

why, as an activist, would someone feel the need to criticize a character they made, that is a part of a marginalized group, for not protesting. when they would be in more danger, because they are the marginalized group people are fighting so hard to silence.

calling ellens entire life and the way she managed to build herself one ( despite every part of society screaming at her that she's worth nothing ) superficial because pre-existing trauma made her want to avoid any kind of confrontation, is incredibly strange, especially from a mostly white writing team. and a WHITE creator. it's not even acceptable from a black creator, it's like tyler perry just making torture porn and hiding behind a "message"

the way they write ellen doesn't come off as "this black character is bad because they're spitting at the feet of other black people" it comes off as an excuse to say " this black character is bad because they are in a position of wealth and power , and it's just as bad when it's a black person!! it's totally not just because they're a minority."

just. ugh. ugh ugh ugh. that's all i had for today.

( edit: no it's not. this all also falls flat when you consider that none of this commentary is ever even hinted at in the game because they just straight up shove ellen head first into the evil ass rape building )

[icewindandboringhorror]

Recent life photos

[scoriarose]

Pinned Post Placeholder - Work in Progress

My girls Intro

Scoria Rose pic/favs/birthday/morph/personality/ name meaning/ prior posts including her Sakura Kurimu pic/favs/birthday/morph/personality/ name meaning/ prior posts including her

F.A.Q

You Cohab your snakes??? Previous Asks

Guides:

Enrichment/Toys (inside their enclosure) Enrichment Activities (outside their enclosure) Foods! (Different foods, what's safe, and what's a sometimes treat) Feeding guides (weight vs feeding amount) Enclosure Necessities (lighting, hides, water ponds, food areas, activity areas, safety considerations, optional aesthetics) Common Enclosure Mistakes (do it for your reptile not your human aesthetics!) Things Every Snake Keeper Should Have (information, medical, equipment) Enclosure and Substrate Types (Pros/Cons) Making a Cool/Wet/Moss Hide Making a baby bin / temp enclosure (for emergencies/vet visits) Help I lost my snake! (What to do when they escape) Scale Rot (how it happens, how to avoid it, what to do if your snake has it) How to communicate TO your snake (how to show you aren't a threat, how to express what you're trying to do) How to understand your snake (reading their body language, and encourage them to "talk" to you to express their wants and needs, "airplane") Choice Based handling & interaction (bonding) When you first get your snake! Dangers to keep away from your snake! (dangerous toys and enclosure dangers, red lights, heat pads, NO THERMOSTAT OR TEMP GUN -_-') Outdated lies and idiot keepers/vets (look out for these and keep your pets safe)

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

[taps mic] wings are to black mages as tails are to genomes, they're just axolotls about it

[waywardsalt]

bellum x linebeck chapter summary drafts that won those polls:

chapter 8

chapter 14

chapter 20

[clemmmmmmmmmmmmmm]

“Freak like me…,”

Batboys x reader headcannons

sorry yall😔i keep disappearing,i have like major writing block and my husband and i are going to renew our vows.We got married at 16(I DONT RECOMMEND) and we have been dating since we were 12, i turn 20 this year😭😭😭

ANYWAYS LEAVE REQUESTS💛

BRUCE WAYNE

🏛 Favorite Place:

-His master bedroom — but specifically the bed with fresh sheets and dim lighting. He’s private and a control freak, and intimacy is something he treasures deeply.

-However… he’s absolutely taken you in the Batcave. Against the Batmobile. Once. Maybe twice. But he’ll never admit it.

⏱ Quickies?

-Not his favorite. Bruce prefers drawn-out, sensual, controlled sessions.

-That said, if it’s been a rough mission or he’s overwhelmed, he will pull you into a dark hallway, growl in your ear, and lose his mind for 5 minutes.

-“This isn’t enough—but I need you right now.”

⸻

Dick Grayson

Favorite Place:

- Rooftops. Balconies. Anywhere high up with a view of the city lights. There’s something about the rush, the stars, and you.

-Also? Showers. He loves the intimacy of washing each other, and then not staying clean for long.

⏱ Quickies?

-100% yes. He loves them. Elevators, bathrooms, pulled-into-a-closet vibes.

-He’ll whisper something filthy in your ear during a gala and have you against the wall five minutes later.

- Very into spontaneous affection. “Hey, you looked too good. I had to.”

⸻

Jason Todd

Favorite Place:

-His apartment — couch, kitchen counter, bed, wall. But more than anything, his safe space is wherever you feel safe.

-Has a real soft spot for post-mission sex in the shower or while still half-dressed. There’s something healing about it.

⏱ Quickies?

-Loves them when they’re emotionally charged. Not a fan of purely mechanical quickies — he wants a reason.

-Angry? Stressed? Jealous? Then yes, he’ll have you bent over in a parking garage before you can say “Red Hood.”

-He’s rougher during those moments, but always with aftercare. “That was fast. But you still okay, baby?”

⸻

Tim Drake

Favorite Place:

-His office chair. That boy works too damn much, and nothing clears his head like you straddling him mid-research.

-Bonus: the Wayne Tower penthouse library. Something about the shelves, the silence, and you on the table just does it for him.

⏱ Quickies?

-He likes the idea of quickies more than he actually enjoys them. They usually stress him out unless he’s really in the moment.

-f it’s an early-morning before-you-leave-for-work kind of thing? He’s all in.

-But mostly he’s a slow burn kind of guy. Think intense eye contact, slow hands, whispered “God, you’re beautiful.”

⸻

Damian Wayne

Favorite Place:

-His room, with the doors locked and the drapes drawn. Damian is private, intense, and not one for public displays.

⏱ Quickies?

-Not a fan. He hates the rushed feeling — he wants full focus, precision, and control.

-But if you challenge him, tease him, or catch him off-guard? He might grit his teeth, grab your wrist, and make it happen fast, rough, and possessive.

-Afterward, though? “Next time, we do this properly. You deserve more than just that.”

[what-even-is-thiss]

Free or Cheap Mandarin Chinese Learning Resources Because You Can't Let John Cena One Up You Again

I will update this list as I learn of any more useful ones. If you want general language learning resources check out this other post. This list is Mandarin specific. Find lists for other specific languages here.

For the purposes of this list "free" means something that is either totally free or has a useful free tier. "Cheap" is a subscription under $10USD a month, a software license or lifetime membership purchase under $100USD, or a book under $30USD. If you want to suggest a resource for this list please suggest ones in that price range that are of decent quality and not AI generated.

WEBSITES

Dong Chinese - A website with lessons, a pinyin guide, a dictionary, and various videos and practice tests. With a free account you're only allowed to do one lesson every 12 hours. To do as many lessons as quickly as you want it costs $10 a month or $80 a year.

Domino Chinese - A paid website with video based lessons from absolute beginner to college level. They claim they can get you ready to get a job in China. They offer a free trial and after that it's $5 a month or pay what you can if you want to support their company.

Chinese Education Center - This is an organization that gives information to students interested in studying abroad in China. They have free text based lessons for beginners on vocab, grammar, and handwriting.

Pleco Dictionary App - This is a very popular dictionary app on both iOS and Android. It has a basic dictionary available for free but other features can be purchased individually or in bundles. A full bundle that has what most people would want is about $30 but there are more expensive options with more features.

MIT OpenCourseWare Chinese 1 2 3 4 5 6 - These are actual archived online courses from MIT available for free. You will likely need to download them onto your computer.

Learn Chinese Web Application From Cambridge University - This is a free downloadable file with Mandarin lessons in a PC application. There's a different program for beginner and intermediate.

Learn Chinese Everyday - A free word a day website. Every day the website posts a different word with pronunciation, stroke order, and example sentences. There's also an archive of free downloadable worksheets related to previous words featured on the website.

Chinese Boost - A free website and blog with beginner lessons and articles about tips and various resources to try.

Chinese Forums - An old fashioned forum website for people learning Chinese to share resources and ask questions. It's still active as of when I'm making this list.

Du Chinese - A free website and an app with lessons and reading and listening practice with dual transcripts in both Chinese characters and pinyin. They also have an English language blog with tips, lessons, and information on Chinese culture.

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

Chinese For Us - A channel that provides free video lessons for beginners. The channel is mostly in English.

Herbin Mandarin - A channel with a variety of lessons for beginners. The channel hasn't uploaded in a while but there's a fairly large archive of lessons to watch. The channel is mainly in English.

Mandarin Blueprint - This channel is by a couple of guys who also run a paid website. However on their YouTube channel there's a lot of free videos with tips about how to go about learning Chinese, pronunciation and writing tips, and things of that nature. The channel is mainly in English.

Blabla Chinese - A comprehensible input channel with content about a variety of topics for beginner to intermediate. The video descriptions are in English but the videos themselves are all in Mandarin.

Lazy Chinese - A channel aimed at intermediate learners with videos on general topics, grammar, and culture. They also have a podcast. The channel has English descriptions but the videos are all in Mandarin.

Easy Mandarin - A channel associated with the easy languages network that interviews people on the street in Taiwan about everyday topics. The channel has on screen subtitles in traditional characters, pinyin, and English.

StickynoteChinese - A relatively new channel but it already has a decent amount of videos. Jun makes videos about culture and personal vlogs in Mandarin. The channel is aimed at learners from beginner to upper intermediate.

Story Learning Chinese With Annie - A comprehensible input channel almost entirely in Mandarin. The host teaches through stories and also makes videos about useful vocabulary words and cultural topics. It appears to be aimed at beginner to intermediate learners.

LinguaFlow Chinese - Another relatively new channel but they seem to be making new videos regularly. The channel is aimed at beginner to intermediate learners and teaches and provides listening practice with video games. The channel is mostly in Mandarin.

Lala Chinese - A channel with tips on grammar and pronunciation with the occasional vlog for listening practice, aimed at upper beginner to upper intermediate learners. Some videos are all in Mandarin while others use a mix of English and Mandarin. Most videos have dual language subtitles onscreen.

Grace Mandarin Chinese - A channel with general information on the nitty gritty of grammar, pronunciation, common mistakes, slang, and useful phrases for different levels of learners. Most videos are in English but some videos are fully in Mandarin.

READING PRACTICE

HSK Reading - A free website with articles sorted into beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Every article has comprehension questions. You can also mouse over individual characters and see the pinyin and possible translations. The website is in a mix of English and Mandarin.

chinesegradedreader.com - A free website with free short readings up to HSK level 3 or upper intermediate. Each article has an explaination at the beginning of key vocabulary words in English and you can mouse over individual characters to get translations.

Mandarin Companion - This company sells books that are translated and simplified versions of classic novels as well as a few originals for absolute beginners. They are available in both traditional and simplified Chinese. Their levels don't appear to be aligned with any HSK curriculum but even their most advanced books don't have more than 500 individual characters according to them so they're likely mostly for beginners to advanced beginners. New paperbacks seem to usually be $14 but cheaper used copies, digital copies, and audiobooks are also available. The website is in English.

Graded Chinese Readers - Not to be confused with chinese graded reader, this is a website with information on different graded readers by different authors and different companies. The website tells you what the book is about, what level it's for, whether or not it uses traditional or simplified characters, and gives you a link to where you can buy it on amazon. They seem to have links to books all the way from HSK 1 or beginner to HSK 6 or college level. A lot of the books seem to be under $10 but as they're all from different companies your mileage and availability may vary. The website is in English.

Mandarin Bean - A website with free articles about Chinese culture and different short stories. Articles are sorted by HSK level from 1 to 6. The website also lets you switch between traditional or simplified characters and turn the pinyin on or off. It also lets you mouse over characters to get a translation. They have a relatively expensive paid tier that gives you access to video lessons and HSK practice tests and lesson notes but all articles and basic features on the site are available on the free tier without an account. The website is in a mix of Mandarin and English.

Mandarin Daily News - This is a daily newspaper from Taiwan made for children so the articles are simpler, have illustrations and pictures, and use easier characters. As it's for native speaker kids in Taiwan, the site is completely in traditional Chinese.

New Tong Wen Tang for Chrome or Firefox - This is a free browser extension that can convert traditional characters to simplified characters or vice versa without a need to copy and paste things into a separate website.

PODCASTS

Melnyks Chinese - A podcast for more traditional audio Mandarin Chinese lessons for English speakers. The link I gave is to their website but they're also available on most podcatcher apps.

Chinese Track - Another podcast aimed at learning Mandarin but this one goes a bit higher into lower intermediate levels.

Dimsum Mandarin - An older podcast archive of 30 episodes of dialogues aimed at beginner to upper beginner learners.

Dashu Mandarin - A podcast run by three Chinese teachers aimed at intermediate learners that discusses culture topics and gives tips for Mandarin learners. There are also male teachers on the podcast which I'm told is relatively rare for Mandarin material aimed at learners and could help if you're struggling to understand more masculine speaking patterns.

Learning Chinese Through Stories - A storytelling podcast mostly aimed at intermediate learners but they do have some episodes aimed at beginner or advanced learners. They have various paid tiers for extra episodes and learning material on their patreon but there's still a large amount of episodes available for free.

Haike Mandarin - A conversational podcast in Taiwanese Mandarin for intermediate learners. Every episode discusses a different everyday topic. The episode descriptions and titles are entirely in traditional Chinese characters. The hosts provide free transcripts and other materials related to the episodes on their blog.

Learn Chinese With Ju - A vocabulary building podcast aimed at intermediate learners. The podcast episodes are short at around 4-6 minutes and the host speaks about a variety of topics in a mix of English and Mandarin.

xiaoyuzhou fm - An iOS app for native speakers to listen to podcasts. I’m told it has a number of interactive features. If you have an android device you’ll likely have to do some finagling with third party apps to get this one working. As this app is for native speakers, the app is entirely in simplified Chinese.

Apple Podcast directories for Taiwan and China - Podcast pages directed towards users in those countries/regions.

SELF STUDY TEXTBOOKS AND DICTIONARIES

Learning Chinese Characters - This series is sorted by HSK levels and each volume in the series is around $11. Used and digital copies can also be found for cheaper.

HSK Standard Course Textbooks - These are textbooks designed around official Chinese government affiliated HSK tests including all of the simplified characters, grammar, vocab, and cultural knowledge necessary to pass each test. There are six books in total and the books prices range wildly depending on the level and the seller, going for as cheap as $14 to as expensive as $60 though as these are pretty common textbooks, used copies and cheaper online shops can be found with a little digging. The one I have linked to here is the HSK 1 textbook. Some textbook sellers will also bundle them with a workbook, some will not.

Chinese Made Easy for Kids - Although this series is aimed at children, I'm told that it's also very useful for adult beginners. There's a large number of textbooks and workbooks at various levels. The site I linked to is aimed at people placing orders in Hong Kong but the individual pages also have links to various other websites you can buy them from in other countries. The books range from $20-$35 but I include them because some of them are cheaper and they seem really easy to find used copies of.

Reading and Writing Chinese - This book contains guides on all 2300 characters in the HSK texts as of 2013. Although it is slightly outdated, it's still useful for self study and is usually less than $20 new. Used copies are also easy to find.

Basic Chinese by Mcgraw Hill - This book also fuctions as a workbook so good quality used copies can be difficult to find. The book is usually $20 but it also often goes on sale on Amazon and they also sell a cheaper digital copy.

Chinese Grammar: A beginner's guide to basic structures - This book goes over beginner level grammar concepts and can usually be found for less than $20 in print or as low as $2 for a digital copy.

Collins Mandarin Chinese Visual Dictionary - A bilingual English/Mandarin visual dictionary that comes with a link to online audio files. A new copy goes for about $14 but used and digital versions are available.

Merriam-Webster's Chinese to English Dictionary - In general Merriam Websters usually has the cheapest decent quality multilingual dictionaries out there, including for Mandarin Chinese. New editions usually go for around $8 each while older editions are usually even cheaper.

(at the end of the list here I will say I had a difficult time finding tv series specifically made for learners of Mandarin Chinese so if you know of any that are made for teenage or adult learners or are kids shows that would be interesting to adults and are free to watch without a subscription please let me know and I will add them to the list. There's a lot of Mandarin language TV that's easy to find but what I'm specifically interested in for these lists are free to watch series made for learners and/or easy to understand kids shows originally made in the target language that are free and easy to access worldwide)

[sidsinning]

Apothecary Diaries is pog as fuck bc serious political issues and dynamics from a woman's POV are rarely depicted in ANY form of media

It's always a man's world where women's issues surround him. Even if we get a female perspective once in awhile- it all comes back to how it facilitates his game in the end. She's a footnote in the overarching scheme of things. Misogyny exists. Back to the real plot.

Apothecary Diaries is strictly from a female perspective and how each class of woman has to act, what limits they have, what rights they have and don't have between each class, etc. These women have to behave a certain way under a patriarchy, which you would think makes it a man's story, but it never is. The women are THE focus of this show, their struggles are THE plot. The focus is about how the patriarch effects them.

Take the concubines for example. The show dives into how bearing a child affects their rank, how traumatizing it is to lose that child, the consequences of that, etc. We have barely seen the emperor who sired all these kids because this is not about him.

Jinshi's personal plot is secondary to Mao Mao's journey- he is mostly there to provide new cases for Mao Mao to solve and to learn more about the shortcomings of his class when taking care of citizens like Mao Mao.

Jinshi is not a bad person, but by virtue of his position in the higher classes, he cannot understand how harsh life as a poor WOMAN is specifically- he can only catch glimpses of it from what Mao Mao tells him and feel outrage but powerless in his wealth and luxury

Mao Mao is a fortunate commoner woman for what privileges someone in her class should and shouldn't have. She happened to be adopted by a knowledgeable man. She is allowed to read, write, learn, and has enough skill to be a poison tester and have a job EXTREMELY out of her class limit as an apothecary, also a job not traditionally meant for women

Mao Mao is not a "noT lIkE oThER gIrLs" protagonist, she is FOR THE GIRLIES. She only wants to help the women around her, and women are whom she has the closest relationships to. She sees a woman being harassed and can't let it stand. She sees a frail, traumatized woman dying from the recklessness of those who should be caring for her and spends day and night nursing her back to health, while also punishing the people who were so careless with her needs.

My girl has STUDIED UP on THE BODY to TEACH these upper class ladies on how to really HEAT things up in the BEDROOM

Sex depicted in Apothecary Diaries is both something women are not shamed to be enjoying, while at the same time being acknowledged as an unfortunately huge economic necessity to market themselves.

Like shit is just so real in this series???

Listen, I can go on and on about how GOATED the series and especially Mao Mao is but you get the picture

[nerdygirlramblings]

continued adventures of omegaverse!141

previous

an: the idea of separate task force and pack comes directly from @dragonnarrative-writes and their amazing 'Autumn Embers' series

You leave breakfast feeling both lighter and heavier. An invitation to join the 141 is a dream come true, and the idea that someone other than Captain Price was speaking favorably about your skills is intoxicating. You only know the members of the 141 by reputation, so you don't know who'd seen you on the shooting range. You wish you knew so you could properly thank them.

When he'd made the offer, Price said he'd like to speak to you more formally at 1600. You've never been anything but basic infantry, so you wonder what needs to happen to ensure your transfer into the 141. To keep yourself circling around things you can't control, you focus on leading your squad through basic land nav maneuvers.

After land nav and lunch, it's sparring and workouts in the gym. The room is busier than you like, especially as you aren't here for yourself. The constant eyes on you and your squad throw them off, but you use it to remind them all how important it is to focus despite the pressure. It certainly isn't an active battlefield, but the fight - flight - freeze reaction can help train them out of that headspace.

When it's finally time to meet Price, you dismiss your squad for the day and head to the base office complex. He told you where to find him, and you're knocking at the door a few minutes early.

"Punctual," he rumbles when he opens the door. "'s a good sign." He gestures you into his office and you notice it's spartan nature. There are only a few items in the wall: mostly awards and commendations. There's a single photo frame on the desk but positioned so only Price, or someone on his side of the desk, can see it. You wonder what it is. It must be special to be one of the few personal items in the room.

The space is dominated by a large walnut desk meant to intimidate. As if his leading 141 isn't enough. As though being an alpha, and a large one at that, wasn't already nerve-wracking for anyone sitting across from him.

He must know how the optics of the space works because he comes and sits in the chair left open next to you. He has a thin folder in his hand as he sits.

"I wanna clear the air 'bout something first. I'm sure ya know the 141's an elite task force. But we're also a pack. I know lots 'a military packs form 'cause 'a proximity: always stationed tahgether or 'round one another all the time without really bein' compatible. But that ain't us. We're compatible as a task force an' a pack. But, and I wanna stress this, being pack ain't necessary to be on the task force. Task force wan's yer skill. 'owever, if ya do join the task force, we've already decided we're open at courtin' ya, if yer open ta bein' courted."

You reel, feeling like the ground has opened underneath you. Price must notice the panic in your eyes because he forges on.

"What I got 'ere," he lifts the slim folder, " is transfer orders. Effective immediately, or as immediately as I submit 'em. They've already got my signature. Once ya sign, if yer interested in bein' on the 141, ya'd train wi' us, run drills an' simulations wi' us. Like squads, we eat tahgether an' have the same R&R. Only thing ya wouldn' do is move inta the barracks wi' us. Not unless ya decided ya wanted to be part 'a the pack. Ya'd still work wi' recruits, but ya wouldn' 'ave a specific squad."

"Wait," you interrupt, "what happens to my soldiers then, if I don't have a squad?"

Price smiles wide at that. "Lookin' out fer 'em's good. Important to the unity of the task force ta look out fer one another. But no task force sergeant has their own squad 'cause we could be sent out at any time. Tha' lack 'a consistency would be worse fer 'em. So, yeah, someone'd take yer squad."

He watches you contemplate all it would mean to become part of his task force. It's a lot, and he hopes you're still up for the challenge, because the more time he spends with you, the more he wants you on the task force and in his pack.

You finally shake off the fog in your head and ask Price for some time to think about it before fully committing. "An' I'm sorry, sir. Because I know I said yes just this morning, but I never thought I'd lose my squad." You pause for a moment before quietly adding, "An' I never imagined the offer included being part of a pack."

He catches your eye and reminds you, "Ya'd only be pack if ya wanted to be. And we'd court ya the right way. If ya wanted."

In the end he gives you the folder and says there's no official deadline for the offer, but he would appreciate a firm answer - either with signed or voided papers - within two days.

You nod, already thinking through who you wanted to consult about this when Price pulls you from your thoughts again.

"Can I make one small request?" he asks politely.

You nod, adding, "If it's reasonable, sir, absolutely."

He gifts you another smile as he leans forward and says, "Join us in the mess tonight? I'd like to officially introduce you to the lads before you make your decision."

next

series masterlist | main masterlist

[romanticintheory]

Hello!!!! I was wondering if you could write an angst with Ghost/Simon where the reader was too clingy after having a bad day and he lashed out on her but he didn't think anything of it because the next day the reader was acting normal. He only noticed after a few weeks when reader became more distant and quiet. Feel free to ignore if it's too weird or you don't like it!!! ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

this one is dedicated to all the ones who were hurt and never got that apology. hope this alleviates the pain.

simon "ghost" riley x gn!reader || masterlist || request rules

-there was no one specific reason as to why today turned out to be a bad day. it just was.

-from accidentally burning yourself trying to make breakfast after waking up late to having to deal with the most insufferable customers, it just wasn't your day today.

-but it was okay, because you had simon to return to when everything was said and done.

-the frown on your face immediately softens the moment you see him walk through the door to your shared home. as soon as he pulls his mask and boots off, you make your way toward him and engulf him in a tight hug.

-you are painfully (but understandably) unaware of the thin veil of his patience and the frustration that had been brewing within him in the past few hours. he half-heartedly returns the embrace.

-"how was your day, si?" you ask him gently.

-"fine," he responds shortly, hoping there isn't more to the conversation.

-even after you pull away from him, you trail behind him as he moves around the house. this wasn't irregular behavior from either of you. simon wasn't usually the most talkative person in the room, anyway, but he loved to hear your voice. that was one of the things he loved about the two of you together; you filled the space he couldn't.

-today, though, was different. he was pissed off at all different kinds of people. for some reason, couldn't bring himself to tell you that he was having a bad day and needed some space, especially because it was evident you were having a bad one yourself.

-so when he turned on his heel after listening to your rambles for as much as he could take and lashed out at you, he tried not to think about the unbearable amount of guilt seeping into his veins.

-"would you just stop clinging to me for five minutes? god, 's like i can't get away from you or your constant fucking talking!"

-you had heard stories, mostly from simon, about the kind of man he could be when pushed to his limit. mostly, it was of violent, physical acts when it came to work or protecting the ones he loved. other times, he would tell you about when he'd lash out at others just like he did to you, now, and he always told it to you with a quiet fear. there was an unspoken meaning to him telling you about the times he's acted out: i don't want to do the same to you. i don't want to hurt you.

-but here he was, towering over you with a coldness in his eyes and a dryness in his throat from the sheer volume of his words.

-averting your gaze from his, you let out a meek, "'m sorry," and watch as he slams the door in front of your face.

-when he slinks into bed next to your sleeping form later that night, ridden with shame and guilt, he misses the tear-stained face hidden from him. after his outburst, you felt like all of the energy in your body had been taken away from you and retreated to bed early. you cried on and off for hours.

-you always thought you had a clinging problem. it was an insecurity you carried with you starting from childhood. friends would become acquaintances and family would keep you at arms-length. after years of believing the issue was you, simon walked into your life and told you different.

-if you stopped talking because you thought he stopped listening and was uninterested, he'd always turn back to you and genuinely ask why you stopped talking. whenever you apologized for hugging him for too long or asking to spend time with him for the third time that week, he'd always tilt his head at you and say in that low, sincere voice, "but i love you?"

-for all those reasons, you tried to give him the benefit of the doubt despite how much he hurt you. so, when he tries to bring it up the next morning, you do your best to brush it off. he was having a bad day. that was all. no need to make a fuss.

-"listen, love," he calls to you as you pop your piece of toast out of the toaster. "about last night-"

-completely disregarding his words, you look at the clock and stuff your phone into your pocket. "it's fine. honestly, simon," you tell him with the best smile you could muster. "i'm gonna be late. i'll see you tonight."

-you were so adamant on getting out as quick as possible that simon had no time to respond. he thought to himself that maybe he was making a bigger deal out of it than you. maybe there were no hard feelings and you were completely fine. after all, he was always overly worried for you, anyway.

-so, when you came home, he didn't mention it. it was as if last night didn't happen, and the two of you were perfectly fine. there were times where simon thought you were being a bit more restrained in your movements or words, but he tried to chalk it up to just him being overly paranoid. you said it was fine, so it was better not to push you on it, right?

-at first, you were doing really good at keeping yourself from overthinking the situation. however, as time went on and you paid more attention to how you acted around your boyfriend, you began to wonder if you were really that clingy.

-as the week progressed, your state of mind would deteriorate. what if it wasn't just a bad day? what if that was what he thought the entire time and was just waiting for the right moment to tell you? had he just been trying to cheer you up about your insecurities the entire time? and if he was, how much of this relationship was even real, then?

-the more you thought about it, the more distant you became. the last thing you wanted to do was make simon feel like he was being suffocated by you. you slowly stopped initiating physical affection with him, restricted talking about your day to a few sentences, and tried to answer simon's questions in one word when possible.

-he notices. of course he notices, it was like a stranger was living where you were supposed to be, and he missed it. he missed you.

-he asks you about your change when you're getting ready for bed, pulling the rest of your nightshirt over your head. despite being exhausted from work and looking like you were sitting out in the wind, he thought you never looked more ethereal than you did now.

-"(y/n)," he said.

-"hm?" you hummed to him, not turning toward his direction. you sat down on the edge of your side of the bed, turning off the lamp at the same time.

-your lack of emotional presence was starting to eat at him. he sat down next to you, the mattress dipping beneath his weight and forcing you to lean toward him.

-"you alright?"

-"yes. why?"

-"i dunno, you just seem..." his eyes tried to find yours, but you couldn't bring yourself to meet his gaze. "quiet."

-it was then that you looked at him, and it was scary to simon because he couldn't make out the emotion in your expression. there was nothing he could read.

-"isn't that-" you had to pause to try and stabilize your wavering voice. "isn't that what you wanted?"

-there was a tension-filled silence that settled in the room, and for a second you were worried that what you said was somehow incredibly offensive.

-finally, he chokes out, "i'm sorry."

-again, you try to muster up a smile. "it's fine, i already told you. i should've known you wanted space."

-"no."

-"no?"

-"it was my fault," he explains. "how could you 'ave known? i didn't tell you i wasn't in the mood that day, and that's not even considering the way i talked to you. i shouldn't have- nothing excuses what i said to you."

-still, you were convinced you were to blame. "well, i have a history of being clingy, so," you were trying to come up with more excuses for him. for most of your life, you had decided that you were the issue. it couldn't be any other way, right?

-"i know. it's one of the things i love you for," he says quietly. "not to sound cheesy but it's what makes you you, and i don't want you to lose that jus' 'cause i'm still shitty at communication."

-you knew in some capacity he was right. there was no excuse for how he talked to you, but the next words you wanted to say evaded you.

-simon thought about talking some more. instead, he grasped your back with one hand and slid his other underneath your legs, repositioning you on his lap. it was like a silent plea from him, a way of proving that he wanted to be close to you just as much as you wanted to be close to him.

-"you're sure i'm not too clingy?" you ask tentatively.

-"positive," he reassures you, rubbing small circles on your back with his thumb. "you wanna know something?"

-"what?"

-"if i wasn't so fucked up-"

-"you're not fucked up."

-"right." you never let him talk badly about himself. that was something he was still getting used to after all this time. being loved and learning to love himself. "well, if i didn't grow up the way i did and became the person i am, i'd probably be way clingier than you."

-"that's impossible," you deny, unconsciously letting yourself lean into his touch.

-"you don't know how much i want you. if my mind and body would let me, i'd be close to you all the time, showing you the attention you deserve."

-"you give me plenty."

-"agree to disagree," he stops with the circles and pulls you impossibly closer to his body. "but 'm trying. 'm trying to learn to let you love me and to not be afraid to love you. 'm sorry, love. i stopped trying that night, and i think it'll be the death of me."

-you let his words sink in, a thoughtful look on your face.

-"next time you'll tell me, right? what you're thinking?"

-"pinkie promise," he agrees, letting the hand under your legs slide out and raise his pinkie finger toward you.

-in return, you link your pinkie with his to seal the promise, and it feels as though the heavy tension in the air has cleared away.

-"i love you," he says, feeling bold from his previous admission.

-"i love you, too." there's that smile on your face. he never realized until now how he probably couldn't live without it.

-he kisses you on the lips, and for a moment the two of you just stay there in each other's arms, forgiving the past, healing the present, and dreaming of the future together.

[the-autistic-vulcan]

So Loud, Yet so Hushed (Thunderbolts x Mute!GN!Reader Headcanons)

Request: For a heacannoncrequet please for Thunderbolts: Being the youngest member who is mute? Really like your stories! - Anonymous

Description: Headcanons on being the youngest member of the Thunderbolts and being mute

a/n: Reader is a Thunderbolt, Reader is mute, except able to express themselves through making noises. Reader isn't a specific age, but we'll say they're between 18 - 21 I've done as much research as I could, so I hope I do this justice!

gif credit: @princesssunderworld, @scorpiovelaryon

You are an assassin, just like the rest of them, so you already ticked the box on that part. But one thing that the team wasn't really made aware of, was your mutism (which we'll say Valentina neglected to let them know that)

They appreciated the quiet, especially Yelena and Ava - they got annoyed with the men bickering over stupid stuff, but liked you were to yourself

Until they realized you were too quiet

You were sat in your room in the tower one evening, Yelena, Ava and Bob went to go crash there just to hang out

Until Bob unceremoniously asked "...hey...you're really quiet...why's that?"

Before Ava could scold him for being insensitive, Yelena stopped her and asked you herself

Hence you wrote on your notes app "I am mute. I cannot speak at all."

They were there to give you full support, and also debrief the others - with varying success

Bucky kind of went into 'parental mode' when he heard the debrief

John was...John. He just patted your shoulder and moved on - but he was going to try

Alexei, being Alexei, despite having a very chequered past, was also willing to try

Yelena likes to sit with you and listen to music together - especially if it's anything rock or metal related. Even if it isn't, she likes to see you swaying or making some sort of happy noise

Bucky likes to spar with you, offering words of encouragement and even trying to ask for criticism from you on his technique. With a little time, you both learn to communicate via signs that he used in the army back in the '40s

Ava and John help you in a more cognitive sense, in that they teach you some skills that maybe you hadn't acquired yet - they figured cooking would help with your communication skills. And when the food is burning, you three just laugh at it all, earning a few huffs of relief from you

Alexei tells you stories of his glory days, even complimenting your style of fight and comparing them to his own. Other times, he offers you a sympathetic shoulder - it's mostly for him to make up for being a bad father, so he'd thought he would try again. But you let him know in your own way that he is doing his best

Now you and Bob are the closest in age and predicament - he struggles just as much as you do - even if you both don't suffer with the same things. In his case, Bob reads with you. He'll take time to try and get to know the types of books you read - and considering he had lost so much time out in the world, he wanted to catch up on the latest books

There are days where not even a sound would leave you - whether due to high levels of stress, a mental health episode or something completely out of your control happened

Bob, Yelena and Ava are the first to notice. Bucky and John take note also, and Alexei just straight up asks you what's going on

You write in your notes app that you're just not up to socialize, no matter how much progress has been made to accommodate you

The good thing is that they understand that feeling, and give you the space you need

If you still want to be around them, you guys just watch a movie together or sit in silence

The Thunderbolts are a strange bunch, nothing in their minds would tell them otherwise

You were basically the little sibling. And they would do anything to make sure you were happy, healthy and safe.

Like, Comment and Reblog! Have an idea? Drop it in my inbox!