#just had to make this for mobile links

[solargeist]

I was wondering if maybe we could have kinda a run-down of the lore ? (the xequela au stuff)

I absolutely love the sillies but I am so confused 😔😔

/nf

thank u ! I’ve given a brief rundown before [here] !!

The kid Xelqua AU can still be viewed as a regular fankid AU, I just like to get into the weirdness of it sometimes hahaha

[cometrose]

my thoughts on khux and kh mobile games

Now that the dust has settled, missing link has been cancelled and I think this marks an end to kingdom hearts mobile games as whole (or at least for now). Unchained X released in 2016 and Dark Road released in 2020 and ended in 2022. For about 6-7 years we received kh mobile games and it's difficult to describe their impact and influence on the series.

Pros

A brand new story told in a new way.

When khux released on ios and android it introduced an brand new, live update form of storytelling on probably the most accessible kh platform to date. It's practically impossible to do anything without a cellphone and khux covered that market. Like fans waiting for a weekly manga or tv show, khux regularly released new story cultivating a fanbase and tension that other kh titles can't do.

Plus khux added a lot of new characters and a lot of lore and story that can't be done in the traditional titles. Being a cute 2D mobile game allowed devs to shove hours and hours of content and characterization which wouldn't be possible outside of novels or books or multiple games.

We met so many new characters and grew alongside them. Union Cross and Dark Road despite their cute aesthetics managed to craft unique and at times gruesome storylines that many argue are some of the best in the series.

A sense of community

I am still in the discord with my khux guild and I still remember those raid bosses. Not only could you create your own avatar and "keykid" but you got to talk with other guild members and other content creators about the story. Fan theories about whose the traitor, or the future of ventus and laurium, about the master, about ava. Sure we still theorize about what's to come in every kh game but not in the same manner.

I still remember the day lauriam was revealed as a dandelion because strelitzia died mere moments prior and everyone was convinced he was the traitor. The whole fandom was shaking and yelling and there was so much excitement and energy. Being able to experience those moments with everybody at the same time was wonderful.

Accessibility

I touched on this briefly earlier but by being a mobile game, khux was potentially many people first interaction with the series.

In 2016 there were no All-in-one collections, we had just started received the 1.5 and 2.5 editions but those were only for playstation so most of the series was out of reach for a lot of people. A large portions of the franchise was still spread across a lot of platforms (DS 3DS PS3 PS4) and khux was on a platform that many people had access to. It brought new fans and new people to the franchise.

Especially in regions like Japan, mobile games are incredibly popular. A lot of people don't have time to go home and turn on their huge PS5 or want to lug their Switch around to school, having mobile games is a great way to play games virtually anywhere you can get a signal.

And besides most importantly these are free to play games. You don't have to spend $60 to $70 on a game and another $500 on a console to play these games.

Cons

predatory gacha game

Khux was a gacha game period. Yes it had colorful gameplay, fun characters, and interesting story but you really couldn't access any of that if you weren't strong enough to beat story missions and for that you needed medals and hours poured into the game to level up your keyblades.

These games are fundamentally exploitive and exist to drain consumers of money. As someone who has played many gacha games (sw, gi, wuwa, love nikki, crk, crob) and continues to play them the biggest stain on their existence--no matter how fun the combat, or interesting the characters, or how beautiful the world and music is--will always be that they are money hungry projects designed to strip you of your money.

Sure kh3 alone for the ps4 is like $60 + $400 for a ps4 but regular gacha spending rates can easily climb to the thousands with $30 packs, $100 packs, battlepass, other subscriptions. $5 montly battlepasses will cost $60 within a year. If you spend any regular amount of money on these games over time the prices skyrocket far beyond any console platform game.

Daily login rewards that force you to login everyday for in-game currencies or limited time events that are designed to keep your screentime and money focused on the game. All of these are just ways to keep you spending and nothing to do with crafting or enhancing the kh universe.

that's not to say that can't be fun or that you are obligated to spend money but they are gambling covered in cute aesthetics. khux's value in my regard will always be less than the others titles just for being fundamentally what it is. A game whose purpose and story will always be overshadowed by the amount of jewels and money you pour into it.

Accessibility...

the problem with live service games is that they will one day come to an end. Outside of the ginormous ones who have been running for decades, many of these mobile games will eventually die. khux was no different and doubt missing link would have stood the test of time either. These games were fated to die and all of the hours and money you have spent in them were doomed to die along with it.

you can still play 358/2 days, you can still play re:coded, you can still play the original chain of memories for the gameboy advance. Those games will exist forever! They are physical games with physical hardware (though you can pirate them too) their stories will always be told and their gameplay will always be accessible.

the only way to experience khux is to watch 10 hour videos on youtube.

this accessibility issue is only amplified by the value it has on the series. Everything in khux from the dandelions to the foretellers will impact the rest of the kh franchise. Such crucial and vital storytelling is effectively lost forever.

Will kh remedy this? Yes probably. The plotpoints in khux will likely be rehashed and retold in future kh titles. But will every detail and characterization from khux make it into kh4 or 5 or whatever? No that just not feasible nor really necessary as the story focuses on Sora. Sure they can integrate some lore through books or collectibles but this experience can't be replicated outside of brand new game.

Especially for dark road. You have backstory about the main antagonist for the first 15 years of kingdom hearts be locked away in gacha hell and eventually completely gone. You can't even download khdr they took them off the app store!

khux was the most accessible and inaccessible kh property to date. And given square enix's current executive moves and strategy I don't see them reinstating khdr any time soon or dedicating any time to it outside of integrating story elements into the next major installments.

Gameplay and Investment

When khml was announced I think many of us were excited until we saw Mobile GPS game. With combat and gameplay locked behind gacha and being so different from the traditional action rpg mechanics of the main titles many old kh fans were fundamentally disinterested in anything mobile. Personally, myself included. With kh4 sitting right next to missing link I found it hard to care about anything about it when it wouldn't exist in 5 years.

When khux came out it filled a void in the kh series. Post DDD was chronologically the penultimate title to KH3 and there was nothing coming out between that time (other than 2.8). khux gave players something to do while we wait. While I think missing link intended to serve the same purpose I think it fundamentally failed to capture the interest of many.

Whether it be the GPS mechanics, its short lifespan, or that KH4 loomed right next to it, many people didn't want to invest time and effort into something that would reach end of service the second KH4 released.

No matter how fun khux was the game was not meant to live long after kh3 and I think many people have learned from that.

Conclusion.

Do I think the khux and the mobile games are wholly bad? No.

The light of the past from KH3 and watching all those names appear on the side of the screen was one of the most magical feelings I have ever felt in this series (and one of my favorite moments ever I remember filling out that form before kh3's launch). Knowing that even though khux is gone, the fans and people who played it are forever engraved into the series makes me happy.

Arguing with people over whether ventus was the fake or who killed strelitzia or the future of the dandelions was great. Decorating my keykid with cute outfits or messing with medals was fun. I remember waking up in the morning to do Raids and running around disney worlds with our friends.

But I also remember spending $80 to get Illustrated Kairi EX in her debut then NOT getting her and becoming disillusioned with gacha games forever and never spending a dime on a another one (maybe thats also a good thing).

All things come to an end, and I have long gotten over the money I spent on the game because at the time in made me happy. khux granted players a more personal way to interact with kingdom hearts. We were keyblade wielders! And the fact even now all of characters live within the series as dreameaters is a praise for how kh integrated all of us into its wild story.

However, community is one thing and games are another.

You can't play khux anymore and that is the most important thing. It's frustrating to have hours and hours of lore and story hidden within a game that won't exist in a decade that often has derivative gameplay in a franchise that is known for having exciting and well thought out combat and mechanics.

When the KH4 trailer came out many people didn't have clue who Strelitzia was because they didn't play the mobile games. While I think is a minor issue as the game will definitely reintroduce her (guys Sora doesn't know who she is either) many people are frustrated to be locked out of story and lore for the future because they didn't play khux. This issue is only amplified in today's time because the game is gone! And not many people want to just sit on youtube watching cutscenes.

In an era that has become saturated with gacha games to point of oversaturation I think it's fair that people don't want to waste time and money on a temporary game. And I also understand why people are upset that we lost a kh game. Brain's story, the lost era? Even if I wasn't heavily invested in the game itself I definitely wanted to know the story and the fact it is gone is disheartening.

Also I don't think cancelling khml suddenly means kh4 production is going to skyrocket. They were probably different teams from the get go.

Plus for square to cancel a game that had multiple betas, music and voice acting ready, means years and years of money and time has been wasted. We don't know what will happen with IV but considering khml was stated multiple times to have very important lore for IV, I won't be surprised if the game suffers a couple delays as the devs and writers are forced to incorporate or even remove khml lore from the story. A game being cancelled so late in development is not a good thing guys.

And again, it might not impact KH4 that much or it might impact it greatly we don't know and Square Enix's total lack of communication on Kingdom Hearts in another rant entirely.

I love Kingdom Hearts and I will probably enjoy any game I play but I feel I am in the crowd that would have loved a console game. KH is no longer spread across 10 different platforms any kh game that comes out today will be on ps, xbox, switch, steam and epic almost immediately. There is no need to limit ourselves to ios and android games and there are countless co-op mmos on console as well. There are so many ways to have vast online communities without locking fans in phone gacha hell.

As fun and as interesting as these stories are the issue will always be their fundamentals. It's a shame missing link is gone truly, but I do hope kh steps away from these kind of properties.

Did they do more harm than good? I'm not sure yet. But having so much story and content be stripped away from fans feels awful no matter what.

TLDR: khux are fun games but their short lifespan and predatory gameplay are so frustrating I think it's fair the series move away from them.

[starbuck]

me: hey, so i feel like you maybe disregarded my saying that caretaking on top of work and school and pre-planned travel is a lot for me right now and i’m not comfortable with all of that pressure being on me alone when i wanna make sure you guys have everything you need when i’m not around…

my family: of COURSE we heard you, that’s why we started doing a bunch of things by ourselves at great cost to our physical well-being instead of asking you for help!!!!!!

me:

[inscrutably-coy]

you know, it suddenly occurred to me

i'd assumed jon's insistence upon taping everything and keeping a tape recorder on him at all times was related to his burgeoning Eye powers (and the latent paranoia, "i refuse to become another goddamn mystery" etc)

archiving things and all

but I just had the thought that it might have been related to his preexisting Web influences

the Web appears to be the driving influence in most of jon's life, ever since a guest for mr spider (and one could argue that this was the first step in the mass ritual and that the web planned all of this from the beginning), it's there in the background during most of the significant points in the series (the lighter, the table, hilltop road, annabelle cane)

while the other archival staff are neutral toward 94 actively hate the tape recorders (tim and melanie don't like being recorded, while martin is mildly surprised when one shows up without his influence but doesn't feel one way or another about it), jon is always secretly taping, he risks his life to protect the recorders (like during the prentiss raid), he clings to them like a lifeline when he can't trust anyone else (season 2), and he keeps taping statements even when he doesn't work at the archive anymore (season 2, the end of season 4, all of season 5, like literally why is he taping statements during the apocalypse who is listening to these) and one could argue that last point is force of habit but I think that's stretching force of habit quite a bit

gertrude didn't carry a tape recorder on her while she was away (jon asks about it and is told no which makes me think he also realizes he's not being normal about these) so we know it's not just an Archivist thing, she only taped statements for the actual archive

jon's reaction to the recorders is unique, and i think it implies that he always belonged to the Web and not the Eye. he was never elias's perfect archivist (or as my friend put it, five star gacha pull), the same way it was never magnus's or the Eye's ritual. the Web rigged the drop rate and jon was always the Archivist it needed.

[genderfluid-druid]

love it when a well-established app decides it needs to be more profitable and becomes nigh unbearable to use

[rustedleopard]

source on Flint?

The dirt.

Okay, joke answer aside, I'll put the source under the cut...

I'm going to assume that you're likely referring to the fun fact tidbit that I posted yesterday about Flint originally intended to be involved in the Jealous Bass boss fight.

The Cutting Room Floor has an archive of stuff that was cut from Mother 3 but still exists as data within the game. If you scroll down to Flint, you'll see that he has unused sprites for dodging the train, which is an event that happens in chapter 4.

And if you put Flint into your party as the second party member in debug mode then go to the train, he will dodge the train with that sprite animation. Compare that to Claus, who when programmed to be the second party member, does dodge the train like intended (and Boney, as the third party member, does not) but does not display the proper animation for this motion, we can see that while the behavior of jumping out of the way is programmed into the second party member, they only have the proper sprite for the scene if they're supposed to be there. This tells us that Flint was supposed to be involved in Chapter 4, at least up until the train, but was cut late into development. The only thing that stops Flint from jumping out of the way is the fact that he isn't there.

We also have a cut animation of what appears to be Flint clinging onto the airship, which is what Lucas and the rest of his party does at the end of chapter 5. Now, can I say with absolute certainty that this is what this animation is intended for? No, because I wasn't on the development team. But considering how closely that sprite of Flint resembles the rest of the party in that scene:

And how close Chapters 4 and 5 are to each other, as well as how the Spaceworld (1999) Earthbound 64 trailer* (apologies for the blurriness, but TCRF does have a clearer image of this scene on their website) does show Flint, along with Lucas, Claus, Duster, and Boney clinging to an airship, it's easy to deduce that's it's highly likely that Flint was intended to be in the party at least up until the party separation at the end of Chapter 5.

Also, so no one could say that that animation of Flint was actually supposed to be for Chapter 7 when Lucas and company were clinging onto the bird cage, here's a screenshot of that. You can see that if Flint was involved here, his animation would've had him hanging on from the wrong direction (apologies for the Lucas mooning).

[Also as a small aside: while not exactly evidence on its own but something worth pointing out, there is a notable difficulty spike in Chapter 4 when there's only Lucas and Boney in the party. The enemies at this point in the game the can wipe your party quite easily if you're not careful, and I always struggled against them even in the standard mode and I'm sure I'm not the only person who experienced this (while the game tells you not to mess with the Cattlesnakes, there's nothing to stop the Horsantulas and Ostrelephants from running right at you and initiating a battle). Having a heavy hitter in your party like Flint would've made the chimeras outside of Club Titiboo as well as the Jealous Bass easier. Again though, I'm not going to use my experiences as evidence because it could just be that I'm not good at the game.]

So, we have a timeframe that says that Flint was supposed to be in the party from around the beginning of Chapter 4 to at least the end of Chapter 5, which is well within the timeframe that the Jealous Bass boss fight occurs. Now, of course, just because there's evidence that Flint was supposed to be in the party for Chapters 4 and 5 doesn't mean that he would've been involved in the Jealous Bass boss fight with a 100% certainty. Flint could've been rendered incapable of participating in the attic dungeon (and, subsequently, that fight) for one reason or another. Maybe he gets locked in the bathroom while showering? Who knows? While it would've been an odd story direction, I wasn't the one making those sorts of decisions, so I can't say with absolute unshakable faith that he was going to be there. And for that, I apologize. I have changed the wording of that post a bit so it's a bit more ambiguous. There's nothing I can do for versions that have been reblogged unfortunately, but at least the base post reflects that. But there's at least enough evidence to prove that this is likely what was intended to happen.

* While I do not consider Earthbound 64 and Mother 3 the same games, it's undeniable that Earthbound 64 did lay the grounds for the direction that Mother 3 went in. If the only piece of evidence I had for Flint clinging to the airship was from that trailer alone, I would not have used it.

[figuringitoutasigoalong]

Hi! I came across this and I absolutely love it. It's so cute! Early days Splinter and turtle tots is such an unexplored thing, and has so much potential for cuteness!

I don't have a lot of early early days fic, but I have a few, if you're still interested! I post them here, on @aquietwritingcorner and on my AO3!

Please, Don't is very early days, still in that first burrow. Unresponsive is sometime after that, but before they all went to the Ancient One.

Fever isn't early early, but it's still tot days. Snowball Fight is as well, as is Turtle Pile. Why Raphie Hates Bugs is also a tot story!

I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but I thought I'd toss them out there for you anyway! ^_^

Been thinking that it would be really interesting to see more fanworks exploring the very early days of Splinter and the turtles after their mutation. Here's a quick doodle to satisfy my craving for cute baby turtles with ratdad <3

(hit me up with recommendations if you know fics like this👀)

[crushedsweets]

CREEPED VISUAL NOVEL Link, tutorial, extra art, Q&A, some chatter

The CREEPED Prologue is completely free and browser-ready. Gameplay is about 10 minutes. Please read the "tutorial" and notes before playing!

Follow Y/N and their dog, Max, through their grandparents' farm and a mysterious forest filled with...less than fortunate people!

PLAY HERE; works best on PC

This visual novel is powered by GOOGLE SLIDES! It has 0 programming and was created by one person in a little over a month, so please bear with any "bugs" and clunkiness!

TUTORIAL

>Click using mouse/trackpad >Go slowly to not break game >Do not use arrow or space keys

EXTRA NOTES:

>Works best on PC/Browser, I haven't tested the full game on mobile yet >In general, clicking the PNGs on the textbox (Apple, Teddy Bear, Hatchet, etc) will lead you to the right page >If you land on a page that tells you to "go back," that's when you should click the back-arrow key. If your cursor disappears, it doesn't register the click correctly >I recommend moving your cursor periodically to avoid it disappearing and sending you to the wrong page

EXTRA ART

some WIPS and the original sprite-style i was gonna choose LOOOOOOOL

Q&A

Q: Is this an x reader? A: This is a reader-insert, but it's not romantic and I try to keep it as neutral and unidentifiable as possible! Q: What's the plot? A: GENERALLY AND WITHOUT SPOILERS, your dog gets you into trouble and you're just looking to help him!

Q: Who is in the prologue? A: Tim, Brian, Toby, and Kate! More will be added in future chapters.

Q: When will future chapters be posted? A: Not sure! This took me about a month to do, and half was spent over winter break. I will try to get chapter 1 posted before summer, but I am a full-time student, employed, have extracurriculars, etc etc

ok thats all i only remember 4 questions feel free to ask more LMAO

CHATTER(because you know i can talk forever)

ok i just wanted to be able to talk about how the process was with this and how i feel about the results and whatnot...

ive been wanting to make a google slides visual novel since i was like 13 LOL it hit the point where i was repeatedly told i should just learn to code but i was like NOOOOO ITS GOTTA BE GOOGLE SLIDESSSS which is totally stupid but hey. i think that gives it some sort of simple charm that reminds me of being 16 and doing little projects in my room LOL i like working with the easiest tools . my bad

anyway. im just very happy LOL. it's not perfect but i feel like i came full circle in a sense?!?! i've been into creepypasta since i was 9 and it comforted me when things were really hard, and when i was 18 i was going through a really hard time and got back into creepypasta as a way to distract myself. i've always had a habit of throwing myself into fiction for escapism when things suuucked.

i'm 20 now but i've met SO many amazing people, had so many fun awesome exciting projects with friends, created tons of stuff im proud of, felt more motivated to create since i was like 13, have been inspired by so many amazing artists/authors on here, etc. just so so so lucky to find community in such a tight-knit cute fandom that thrives off of creativity and playing around! i hope i can keep the momentum and make a couple more chapters this year, but im kinda busy with school and work...LOL . i'm just excited to have this posted so i can have more discussion about it T_T

anyway thank you if you read this far and thank you if you played etc etc yaahhhhhh omg ok BYE THIS IS SO EMBARRASSING im just so grateful to be in this fandom

[zincbot]

i lowkey want to make a carrd but i never actually do it

[otaku553]

First meeting

(Spade Pirate Sabo AU Masterpost)

I completely forgot how polite Ace was to Deuce initially when I was drafting this comic and by the time I realized Ace had manners I was too far along to change it. Just imagine that Sabo being Sabo (even if Ace doesn’t realize it) awakens the Cain instinct to be rude to him

Here are the two last panels without the text (I’m quite proud of these!) If I keep making more of these comics I’ll try to link them to a master post or something so they’re easier to find :) but for some reason tumblr is really annoying and doesn’t let me paste things into the hyperlink bar on mobile so I’ll figure it out later

I had to go back after drafting this post and add Tage’s bag strap onto the last panel lmao I completely forgot. Let’s see also how many times I forget to draw his neck scars,,,,

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Apple faces criminal sanctions for defying App Store antitrust order

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me at NEW ZEALAND'S UNITY BOOKS in AUCKLAND TODAY (May 2), and in WELLINGTON TOMORROW (May 3). More tour dates (Pittsburgh, PDX, London, Manchester) here.

Epic, makers of the wildly popular Fortnite video-game, have waged a one-company war against the "app tax" – the 15-30% rake that the mobile duopoly of Apple/Google take out of every penny we spend inside of apps.

Epic's own digital practices are hardly spotless: just this year, the company was caught cheating players – many of them children – with deceptive practices and had to refund over $72m:

https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/refunds/fortnite-refunds

But in this fight, Epic is on the side of the angels. The 30% that Apple/Google sucks out of the mobile economy is a brutal tax, and not just on app makers. Patreon performers recently raised a stink when the company announced that it would be clawing back 30% of the money pledged by their supporters – that 30% surcharge is passed straight through to Apple/Google:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/12/24218629/patreon-membership-ios-30-percent-apple-tax

From independent news outlets to crafters selling their work out of small storefronts, all the way up to massive entertainment services like Disney Plus and Fortnite, the mobile cartel takes 30% out of every dollar, a racket they maintain with onerous rules that ban apps from using their own payment processors, or even from encouraging users to click a link that brings them to a web-based payment screen.

30% is a gigantic markup on payment processing. It's ten times the going rate for payments in the USA, already one of the most expensive places in the world to transfer money from one party to another. In the EU, payment processing typically runs 1%…or less.

But crafters, Patreon podcasters and small-town newspapers are in no position to fight Google and Apple. Instead, we get Epic, a multi-billion-dollar company that's gone to the mattresses to fight these multi-trillion-dollar companies. Personally, I dote on billionaire-on-trillionaire violence.

Epic was wildly successful. It mopped up the floor with Google, securing an especially punitive award from a judge who was furious that Google had destroyed evidence:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/12/im-feeling-lucky/#hugger-mugger

Epic also won against Apple, though not as thoroughly as it had with Google, because Apple had the commonsense not to get up to the kind of shenanigans that make federal judges very, very mad. In the Google case, the court found that Google had acted as a monopolist and ordered it to open up the payment system in Google Play, a direct blow to the Android app tax.

In the Apple case, the judge did not find that Google had acted as a monopolist, but did rule that the App Store's payment processing racket violated the law, and ordered Apple to end its own app tax:

https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/30/epic-games-just-scored-a-major-win-against-apple/

That's where things get gnarly. Apple is addicted to corrupt sources of income – like the tens of billions it illegally receives every year in bribes from Google make it the default search:

https://apnews.com/article/google-antitrust-search-engine-verdict-apple-319a61f20fb11510097845a30abaefd8

And it really, really loves the app tax. When the EU ordered Apple to allow third-party app stores (as a way of killing the app tax), the company cooked up a malicious compliance plan that was comically corrupt:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/06/spoil-the-bunch/#dma

So, the mere fact that a federal judge had ordered Apple to open up its app store to competing payment processors was not going convince Apple to actually do it. Instead, Apple cooked up a set of rules for third-party payment processing that would make it more costly to use someone else's payments, piling up a mountain of junk fees and using scare screens and other deceptive warnings to discourage users from making payments through a rival system:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/judge-rules-apple-executive-lied

That's the kind of thing that is apt to make a federal judge angry – and, as noted, angry federal judges can make life very hard for tech monopolists, a lesson Google learned when it destroyed key evidence in its Epic case. But Apple didn't just flout the court order – they lied about it to cover it up, and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is furious. She held that Alex Roman, Apple's Vice-President of Finance, "outright lied under oath," and she has raised the possibility of criminal contempt penalties for Apple:

https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/05/01/pacer_epic_vs_apple_injunction_judgement.pdf

The judge further wrote:

This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order. Time is of the essence. The Court will not tolerate further delays. As previously ordered, Apple will not impede competition. The Court enjoins Apple from implementing its new anticompetitive acts to avoid compliance with the Injunction. Effective immediately Apple will no longer impede developers’ ability to communicate with users nor will they levy or impose a new commission on off-app purchases

In other words, any junk fees, any impediments to opening up third party payments, will be switfly and harshly dealt with. As of right now developers can start to build third-party payments into their apps and Apple cannot block them. It's the end of the app tax, a source of about $100b/year for Apple:

https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/01/apple_epic_lies_possible_crime/

The world is on fire and everything is terrible, but we are also living through the most consequential season in the history of the war on corporate tech power. Google has been convicted three times of being a monopolist and is almost certainly going to have to sell off Chrome, most of its ad-tech stack, and possibly Android. Meta just put up a pathetic showing in an equally serious antitrust case that could see it forced to sell off Instagram and Whatsapp:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/11/it-is-better-to-buy/#than-to-compete

Countries around the world have passed big, sweeping, muscular antitrust laws specifically aimed at smashing corporate tech power, like the EU's Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act:

https://www.eff.org/pages/adoption-dsadma-notre-analyse

Most importantly, all of this is happening from the bottom up. There is no dark money campaign to fuck up the tech companies. The politicians and enforcers who are taking on Big Tech are being shoved from behind by billions of everyday people who are furious and refuse to take it any longer:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/10/solidarity-forever-2/#oligarchism

I am deeply grateful for the public servants who have championed this cause, but I also know that these people are the effect of our movement, not the cause. When Kier Starmer fires Britain's brilliant and effective top competition enforcer and replaces him with the former head of Amazon UK, that does nothing to tamp down the political outrage that Britons feel towards America's tech giants:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/22/autocrats-of-trade/#dingo-babysitter

All over the world, countries that passed IP laws to protect US tech interests in exchange for tariff-free access to US markets are grappling with the end of free trade with America. This represents a generational opportunity to pass laws that enable local technologists to jailbreak US tech exports and liberate their people from the extractive practices of Big Tech forever:

https://archive.is/CiBIz

There is nothing harder to stop than an idea whose time has come to pass.

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/2025/05/01/its-not-the-crime/#its-the-coverup

Image: Alex Popovkin, Bahia, Brazil from Brazil (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Annelid_worm,_Atlantic_forest,_northern_littoral_of_Bahia,_Brazil_%2816107326533%29.jpg

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

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[luludeluluramblings]

A meme for feral basis if I may:

*babies first kidnapping*

Criminals: "We have you're daughter now give us 12 million or she dies."

Bruce: *sweats* "WhIcH dAuGhTeR!?

Criminal 1: *describes feral mc whose actively biting through her restraints*

Bruce: Good luck! *laughs and hangs up*

Criminal 1: What the?! dang kid your dad must hate-

*notices they're gone*

Criminal 2: Where I'd she go?!

*They hear feral laughter from everywhere*

Criminal 3: She's in the walls. SHES IN THE WALLS!!

Mc: *Appears behind them like the undertaker* Boo!

Criminals: *horrified screams*

Actually this is baby's third kidnapping.

The first kidnapping Feral!Reader was on their best behavior. They had just moved to Gotham and the whole family had been pounding into their head that they needed to behave and show some decorum.

So Feral!Reader managed to keep all intrusive thoughts under control that one incident.

Bruce (and the rest of the family) freaked the fuck out. Their little abomination was kidnapped for ransom. They're monstrosity had some thugs holding a gun to their head.

Of course, Feral!Reader doesn't flinch or anything. They stay very mindful and demure.

After the whole incident, Feral!Reader does get grazed with a stray bullet. But, they were so excited that they did such a good job even if Bruce was in cardiac arrest from the possible close call.

Bruce makes the decision then and there that Feral!Reader is allowed to go ape shit ONLY when kidnapped.

Which leads us to the second kidnapping. Well, attempted. The idiots tried to kidnap Feral!Reader from a gala. High society has given Bruce so much space since.

☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️

*Goons break into Gala to hold everyone hostage and steal shit*

*Villain of the week monologging *

*Bat Fam hidden in various locations around the Gala with com-links*

Bruce *hidding in a closet* : Who's on patrol tonight?

Barbara *in the BatCave* : Jason, but he's twenty minutes away.

Damian *Under one of the tables* : We can take them.

Stephanie *By the dessert table* : Not if we want people to ask questions.

Duke *back at the manor* : I can maybe swing it in fifteen if I use the Bat mobile.

Damian: Now who wants to drive it?

Tim *stuck with a group of investors getting their luxury watches stolen* : Shut up you two.

Jason *Driving on his motorcycle* : I'm on my way. Cass can be my backup.

Bruce: Good, we can manage until-

Dick *at a random table* : Feral!Reader vanished on me!

Stephanie: How did you lose them?!

Bruce: Does anyone have visual on them?

Damien: No, but I have a bad feeling.

Barbara: I'm pulling up security footage of the venue.

Jason: I'm booking it.

Duke: I'm heading to the Cave to suit up.

Tim: Wait, I think I saw them. Their by the buffet table.

*Feral!Reader ginning manically while they steal the fuel pots from the food warmers.*

Tim: Oh, that's not good.

Bruce: What's not good?

Tim: Babs, get the fire department on speed dial.

*Feral!Reader manged make a pipe bomb with a few things they found. Then used some random fabric they ripped from their clothing hog tie the villain and their goons.*

Villain: You little bitch!

Feral!Reader: Don't call bitch or you ain't gonna like what I do to you!

Villian: Do your worst, bitch!

Feral!Reader: Bet.

*Feral!Reader proceeds to procure a bottle of maple syrup and a fire ant farm before shoving both objects down the villains pants.*

Feral!Reader: My cousin once said that this was a good hack to make your dick bigger.

*Villain screaming.*

*Goons screaming cause the ants are getting on them too.*

*Gotham elite looking in horror.*

Bruce: ...

Bruce: Well, I'm sure this was just a one time incident.

*It was not.*

Tim: Someone needs to check on that cousin…

[raiseupyourbat]

not a kh fan or a pokemon fan where did the character kidnapping come from. it's fascinating to observe but i'd like to know why

okay so basically, theres a kingdom hearts mobile game called kingdom hearts union cross (khux for short) thats fully lore relevant (now out of service as of 2021) that featured a very very loved character named brain (yes thats actually his name). He looks like this:

at the end of that game he woke up in a new place we had yet to see and thats pretty much where it left off.

In 2022, they announced a new mobile game, called missing link. he showed up in the trailer for it, lots of kh mobile game fans were very excited.

the thing is. we were told the game was releasing last year. we had a closed beta for it early last year and then... nothing. no news. not even an announcement that its been delayed or anything. this particular corner of the fandom has been slowly going more and more insane these past three years. people have been starving for any kingdom hearts news at all for the past three years and brain fans especially seem to have been going insane.

this is a fandom who go completely off the wall bonkers with no news. 'stairposting' was a thing after khux dried up, where everyone talked about their favourite step in a. random flight of stairs in an area of khux. i am not joking. 'stairposting' is a whole-ass tag filled with khux posts almost exclusively, i just grabbed a couple but theres a lot if you search it

(first post) (second post)

lots of jokes recently about how hes trapped on the balcony he was seen on in the trailer this past week. ive seen 'roofposting' and 'balconyposting' for a while.

enter the new pokemon legends ZA trailer. we got footage of the game for the first time on thursday, as well as getting to see what the protags look like.

this is the male protag.

all of the missing link fandom has decided this is brain now, that hes finally free from his balcony and decided to fuck off to pokemon france since his game is never coming out.

people were making posts about him being trapped on the balcony THAT MORNING before the announcement, even. and you know what the kicker is?

they put this fucker on a balcony.

[ovrgrwnivy]

THE WALLS ; JJ MAYBANK

SYNOPSIS ; when an unknown face appears in the outer banks searching for a father she's never met, she's unaware of how her life is about to be completely turned upside down.

WARNINGS ; jjmaybank x routledge!reader, strong language, depictions of violence, afab!reader, sexual content, mentions of abuse, drug and alcohol consumption, strangers to lovers, fast burn to slow burn, canon adjacent, not proofread.

AUTHORS NOTE ; buckle up pookies, as this is merely part one of a multi-part fic that spans as far as the end of season three ( on the fence about season four but we will see ). as noted above, this fic will be canon adjacent, mainly focusing on the storyline as portrayed in the outer banks chapters of the 'netflix stories' mobile app. without any more of my yapping, i hope you all enjoy!

you can't help but squint once you step off the bus, your dollar store sunglasses doing very little to shield your eyes from the burning, outer banks sun. you bring your hand up in an attempt to further protect your eyes, needing to make your way to the seahorse hotel and fast.

a flash of long, blonde hair invades your vision, something you don't think twice about until the body attached to said hair knocks right into you, saturating your white tank top with her oversized cherry-coloured drink.

there's a beat of silence between both of you, behind darkened lenses your eyes bore into the girl before you. if looks could kill.

"shit! i am so sorry!" the blonde apologises, face turning as red as the newfound stain on your shirt. her hand darts out in an attempt to miraculously wipe the stain away "oh god, this is so embarrassing."

a part of you feels empathetic, it was an easy mistake to make in hindsight. another part of you wanted to push past the girl and continue getting on with your day.

"my name is sarah," she continues rambling, her hand still frequently scrubbing at the stain, making it worse "i didn't get your name, well no shit" the last part is barely a mumble, but you still catch it.

an unintentional laugh escapes you, finding amusement in her panicked awkwardness "if i tell you will you stop feeling me up?"

it was a joke, at least mostly, yet sarah froze in horror as the realisation set in. she was feeling up a stranger at the bus stop.

before she can begin rambling again, you speak up "my name is y/n." purposefully, you drop the surname. sure, sarah seemed sweet, but that didn't warrant spilling your life story at her feet.

sarah nodded in acknowledgement, taking a step out of your personal space and taking a proper look at you "touron?"

your face screws up, it feels like she just called you a name you couldn't repeat "excuse me?"

"you're a tourist, right?" sarah clarified, gesturing towards the scruffy backpack hanging from your shoulder.

"not quite," you trail off, unsure of how to broach your new arrival without dropping yourself in hot water "just, in town for a while."

"unlucky you.."

"unlucky how?"

sarah links her arm through yours, all but dragging you down the street alongside her "i'll fill you in on the way."

your protests and kidnapping allegations fell on deaf ears, only being told to stop being dramatic as she dragged you along. eventually, the dragging falls back into you willingly walking with her through pristine neighbourhoods that housed buildings like nothing you had ever seen.

you listened as sarah explained the outlandish rules that accompanied living on the island. the outer banks were essentially split in half, the kooks and the pouges, the haves and the have-nots, the sarahs and the y/ns.

when her pace eventually stalls, you have to tense your jaw to stop your mouth from falling open. you had seen some serious houses on the way here, but compared to sarahs they looked like dives.

"welcome to tanneyhill" sarah beams, but you can feel the uncertainty bubbling inside her as if she was embarrassed "come on, i'll show you my room."

you follow her through the glass doors and into the manor, eyes intently scanning the walls as you climb the staircase "you make a habit of bringing random strangers into your house?"

"do you make a habit of going home with random strangers?"

"depends if they're my type."

your quick rebuttal elicits a laugh from sarah as she pushes the door open, waving you into her room and heading straight for the closet "and what is your type?"

"you sweet on me, stranger?" you tease, your playful tone making it clear you were simply messing with her.

"with my whole heart, newbie" she laughs, the contents of her closet being dropped to the floor as she rifled through it "but our secret love affair must remain hidden as i am a taken lady"

with a dramatic gasp, you slap your hand to your chest and fall back on the bed "you wound me."

"sarah 'the heartbreaker' cameron is what they call me." as you're processing her surname, a white cropped tank is flung at you from the opposite side of the room "now, come on, boy talk"

"what if i wanna girl talk?" you question, holding the piece of fabric up to examine it "sarah 'the homophobe' cameron more like"

as she crosses the room to sit alongside you, sarah rolls her eyes "my sincerest apologies, sex talk then"

"cameron now i really think you want me." you wiggle your eyebrows at her, huffing when she hits you with a pink pillow with a sparkly 's' "hey! watch the rhinestones"

"you know, i was gonna try play matchmaker at the boneyard tonight but if you wanna be like that.."

"you just said a lot of words with very little meaning" you tut, not fully clued in on the outer banks slang.

by now you have risen to your feet, standing between the bed and the window as you changed into the clean shirt, balling up the stained one and stuffing it in your backpack.

"its a pre-storm rager on the beach, the one place kooks and pouges get along. we party as long as we can and when the storm hits, run for cover"

you're only half listening to sarah, instead your attention hones in on the head of curly brown hair down on the dock as it moves along a boat named 'my druthers'.

you barely register the figure by your side, watching just as closely as you were as the brunette is joined by three others, laughing and joking.

"that would be john b," without looking you can hear sarahs grin, mistaking your fascination for attraction.

"routledge?" your mouth opens before your brain can stop it, you knew who it was, but you needed to hear it.

"you know him?"

finally, your brain catches up and you somehow manage to pull a lie out of your ass "not personally, saw him on tv. some appeal for his dad."

sarah bellows out a soft, sad sigh, letting her thoughts be known without saying a word. there's an unspoken air of silence between you, until sarah, literally, shakes it off and stands upright again.

"wanna meet him?" the blonde offers, despite the fact its more of a demand as you're being dragged along once again.

only this time your refusal is much clearer, practically begging the girl to let you go before she managed to get you out into the yard. again sarah is misreading the situation, interpreting your panic as awkward butterflies.

your demands persist, though much quieter as you're dragged further down the dock, closer to john b and his friends.

"hello, ladies" john b's blonde friend greets with a low whistle and a cheeky grin, shamelessly checking both you and sarah out.

for a moment your anxiety vanishes, your entire nervous system sparking still but for different reasons. this might be the most beautiful boy you've ever set eyes on.

this. this was your type.

"you're new" he speaks, gesturing towards you "that's for sure, yet to be a time i've forgotten a face like that." with a wink, he takes your hand to place a kiss on the back of it.

you curse god. why couldn't you have met this guy somewhere else? why wasn't he the blonde stranger that took you home?

"you done macking on the kook?" a girls voice echos from behind him, her words and her expression dripping with disgust as she eyed you.

"i'm not a kook." you bite back, sightly too aggressive for a first impression but you couldn't help it with the look of clear disdain embedded on her face.

sarahs arm links through yours, a mumbled "easy, newbie" falling only on your ears "y/n is new in town, i brought her down here while i found out what you guys are doing on my dads boat." despite her civility there's a challenging edge in her voice.

"lest ye forget, i work here."

john b, suddenly emerging from the ships hull and hurling a snide smile in sarahs direction. you had only ever seen him on fuzzy news broadcasts, he was taller than you had anticipated, confrontational too.

though, genetics could explain that one.

"can we help you?" the girl speaks again, sending your eyes rolling as you face john b.

"can you tell your guard dog to stand down? last i checked one of us was invited here and funnily enough it wasn't her"

you hear another boy mumble an excited "cat fight!" to your new, blonde, hyperfixation as they exchange money on bets.

"seriously? i expect this shit from jj but pope? disappointing" john b tutted, sounding like a disappointed father as he got off the boat "not looking for trouble, just bringing back the diving shit, full."

menial conversation is exchanged between sarah and john b, though your attention mainly resides with the newly named jj. he was leaning back against the boat, rolling a joint without a care in the world.

you try to keep the glances to a minimum, after all you had much bigger problems to wade through right now, but you simply couldn't look away. he was the definition of magnetic.

even when he catches you looking, there isn't a morsel of awkwardness, just a knowing look of curiosity that lingered far longer than it should have.

then, he winks. he fucking winks before returning to rolling with that stupid, insanely hot grin on his face. you were far from shy, and only for the audience around you, you would've jumped on him long ago.

any reckless ideas potentially coming to fruition is spoiled when sarah, still linked with you, retreats back toward tanneyhill. with a final glance back at jj, you hold your thumb and pinky to your ear and mouth 'call me', earning yourself a wink and a crossed heart in return.

maybe this wouldn't pan out to be a total shit show after all.

[what-is-this-car]

This car is a 1986-1994 first generation Range Rover.

See: 1985-1994 dashboard, Austin Montego column stalks introduced in 1986. - post by @tumblehcendrum, ID and year range by @tumblehcendrum and @brick-enthusiast

[Requested by @noahreidstyle]

Noah Reid via Ian Lake's ig (x)

[comicaurora]

Tahraim is my fav absolutely adore him! I love that you’ve made the smith deal in introspection and cryptic bs, a lot of times smiths are very straightforward characters in stories. What made you decide to shake it up?

Can gods be tied to concepts as well as cities? As Tahraim seems to be a god of blacksmithing (or at least has some serious motifs) does he have a city thats just forges?

He also seems a lot more mobile than the other gods, or is he just “tied” to Danix?

Tahraim is a conceptual god, a class of deity considered grander and more untethered than city or nature gods. Also in his weight class are Emnis and Erebas (dreams and nightmares), Shanyasi (music), Sennaia (knowledge), Jiya (war), and a whole bunch of others. They're gods of ideas, and their domains are in the collective consciousness of mortals. They can manifest anywhere they hold sway, and several of them have constructed domains of their own in pocket dimensions; Sennaia has a transfinite library hidden away somewhere, and Tahraim has a forge.

Tahraim's personality comes from my own experience with artists and craftspeople. Many artists are acutely aware that in order for their work to be better, they need to be better. The process of creation and introspection becomes inextricably linked. Forging a tool changes the forger, little by little.

There's also an element I've observed from teachers. I was always a firm proponent of "don't be cryptic or cute, just tell me the thing and I'll get it," and while that's true a lot of the time, there are concepts that cannot be Just Told in any meaningful way. They don't hit or stick if the person doesn't put them together themselves and construct a way that works for them. Teaching isn't always the impartation of information; a lot of the time it's guidance so the student crafts the tools that work for them. Even if the teacher can perfectly communicate what method works for them, everyone is different, and a student that does the exact same thing exactly right might gain no benefits or be actively harmed by the process. Instead, the student has to parse the lesson and create their own tools to execute the same goal.

Personal example under a readmore because it got a little long:

I've sporadically dealt with intrusive thoughts my whole life, though I didn't understand what they were at the time and they've mostly gone away on their own. When I was little, upsetting thoughts would get stuck in my head and stay there; things would give me nightmares that lasted for weeks, or I'd be stuck awake in the wee hours ruminating on every time in my life I'd done something shameful or harmful or wrong. My dad recognized I was upset, and tried to teach me a method of "counting thoughts" that worked for him, where I could sit for a few minutes and just passively observe the thoughts floating by, counting them and observing them and thus becoming aware that they were small, fleeting things with no power on their own. The problem is, this method didn't work for me at all, because "count the thought" didn't communicate to me "and that makes the thought not a problem anymore." The thought still hurt just as bad, all I was doing was reminding myself how many bad thoughts were happening. I would get overwhelmed and end up more distressed, and the fact that this thing that should have worked didn't work just convinced me that I was trapped and nobody could ever help me.

It took actual years before I found a method that clicked in my brain, and it was just one step further down the path of counting thoughts:

"Having that thought is harmless."

Every thought that got stuck in my head was about times or ways I might've harmed people. The things that distressed me most were things I'd done wrong that I had zero power to change, so the wrongness would just haunt me forever, making me miserable forever. But the root of the distress was that I had messed up and hurt people.

The thing that clicked was that having the thought does nothing to anyone but me. The thought is harmless, even if the event the thought is about wasn't or wouldn't be. Having the thought hurts no-one else. And since 90% of my distress was distress at the thought of hurting other people, it hit me that in reality, even in the depths of my angst, I was just sitting there, hurting no-one.

And suddenly I found that the last few intrusive thoughts rattling around in my brain withering, because the last thing that had been feeding them was gone. I was given the technique for Counting Thoughts, but it wasn't made for my hands. I had to make my own version out of it. And just because it worked for me and my own personal brain doesn't mean this method would work for someone else, just the same way the method that worked for my dad didn't click for me. If I wanted to teach someone a way to bypass intrusive thoughts, all I would have to work on would be what worked for me, but I could try to guide them through a path similar to the one I followed to find my method so they could maybe find their specific hangups and what specifically would work for them. Every mind is different.

This is also why it's so frustrating to hear someone say stuff like "Oh I used to worry about that too, but it's actually fine, you can just stop worrying about it!" And it's like, "oh, fuckin brilliant, just stop worrying about it? Absolute genius, I just hadn't thought of that-" like yea it sounds flippant and yea it's not helpful, but they are using the only frame of reference they have and describing what they did. They stressed about something, realized it was not actually a problem, and knowing that was enough to make it leave their mind alone. But saying that they "just stopped worrying" doesn't make you understand or internalize how they did it. And because they can't seem to help you, it makes you mad. But then sometimes, with time and perspective, you look back and think "wow, yea, at some point I really did just stop worrying about that." It doesn't mean their advice worked, it just means somewhere along the line something clicked in your mind and started working.

Tahraim is a smith who sees no difference between shaping a tool and shaping a person, but there are some ways that people can't be shaped from the outside, and instead have to shape themselves. He likes to be subtle and cryptic, but he also has good reason to be. The only way to make something click in someone's head is to guide them towards it and nudge them when necessary. It's not all hitting stuff with hammers.