#that happens to such an extent here and it's to keep the commonwealth from developing. it doesnt entirely work bc humans are SO tenacious

[endivinity]

WOUGH okay so the premise all started because of the way I play FO4 on survival which is about as long and arduous as this post. it's ALL in settlement building and most of my mods reflect this. I play that shit like minecraft. I'll chuck some screenshots at the end

the more you think about it, the less plausible it is for a soldier or a lawyer respectively to have ANY idea about the fine tuning of crafting a fusion generator or a water purifier, let alone know how to construct a pre-broken window pane. None of the wood is useable - there's no amount of fantasy that can make me believe a whole bed can be constructed out of two pencils and a pack of cigarettes. Realistically - the resources need to come from somewhere. I've also read critiques about how the commonwealth hasn't progressed for two centuries (which, part of this is because of how Bethesda handles the Fallout franchise vs the established societies in 1 and 2. for the record i LOATHED 3 and am very firmly a new vegas bitch). They're still living in Diamond City surrounded by piles of trash and the rest of the NPC settlements are canonically wiped out or basically considered the dregs (Goodneighbor, the Children of Atom, charitably the Atom Cats; Quincy and University Point, etc). They live off scavenging for trash and components that are somehow still lying around untouched. Most of this is because the game wants you to use this cool mechanic they've introduced and to feel like you're rebuilding the wasteland with your bare hands, and you get your pick of a huge scope of lands to build on, and the appearance of actual civilisation suffers for it. Nobody lives there. Realistically, you're going to build up one or two really good settlements and the rest are barebones or empty.

Jake (probably has a longer name. it's never mentioned) is a civil engineer who has combat training and survival know-how for funsies and by the cusp of the great war her department had enough downsizing that she was taking on the work of coworkers who had been "let go" (executed for thought crimes), so she knows some stuff about blueprinting things other than major city infrastructure, at least enough to delegate or make suggestions. She also stirred the pot and got higher-ups very angry at her and was punitively assigned to marriage and domesticity in Sanctuary Hills. Most importantly, she's not related to the family that have the kid. Nate gets shot and Nora suffocates in cryo.

She enters a world that perplexes her specifically because nothing has progressed for two hundred years, but through very very careful investigation she finds out that something or someone is actively interfering with any attempts to settle and develop. There's an intensive spying network going on and she has to figure out what's safe, who's safe, how the raider groups are able to be raiding year-round without dying of starvation because they're certainly not farming, how to build and manage and educate her new settlements without tripping the local spy network, how to set up trade convoys for lumber and concrete without tripping the local spy network OR instigating the raider gangs that systematically wiped out the convoys in the first place, and how to source parts for this goddamn water purifier schematic while not dying to super-radstorms or a really big wild hog. She customarily fights with a knife (Throatslicer); she's proficient at sniping and occasionally uses a plasma sniper or a gauss rifle.

Deacon is her story companion because of the 'friend' RR sign above the vault. Guy's been spying from the get-go. But because Jake's super paranoid and realistically, he has no way of knowing who you are because you aren't stupid and bald and wearing a pair of signature sunglasses, he loses her the moment she ditches the vault suit at the Abernathys'; half of his part of the story is trying to find out what happened to her, why the institute was involved in the vault at all (and increasingly wild theories about how she's a synth plant), and who this weirdass woman is who's suddenly taking over the trade routes, and talk of new settlements that's kept so hush-hush he can't even crack the secrets with his super believable caravan hand outfit.

Eventually Jake realizes she's in way over her head trying to manage settlements and hunts down the Railroad to ask for help, which... they're very downsized. They're basically a skeleton crew. I have no idea how they suddenly have all those heavies at the battle of bunker hill or the castle or whatever the fuck. So they can't and/or won't help her, and it comes down to Deacon to make an executive decision over what he thinks is going to be longterm better for the wasteland and the synth populations, and when weighing up the options between this cool lady who never shows her face and creeps around spiderman-style to sever a gunner's spinal cord and wants to crack the Institute wide open, or being trapped in a crypt with Carrington and successfully exfiltrating one synth every three months, the decision is obvious

and since you made it this far here's some shots of builds I've worked on. My main base at Egret Tours; Sanctuary Hills after I removed all the shitass housing for funsies; Murkwater Construction with incredibly poor navmeshing; my other main at Dalton Farm. yes my save file hates me

[gstqaobc]

FROM THE MONARCHIST LEAGUE OF CANADA

As this Ecomm went to publication, we received word of the death, at the great age of 96, of Bill Silver, a significant benefactor of the League from its early days, and for many years a pillar of our Ottawa Branch.  We wished to remember him here: his ebullient spirit, fierce loyalty spoken gently, innate modesty and kindness.  Indeed Chaucer might have had forethought of Bill in describing one of his characters as a “very parfitt gentle knight.” May his ardent spirit rest in peace, and his memory be a blessing and example to us all.   LEAGUE ISSUES NEW FLYER: THE CASE FOR THE CROWN The League thought it timely and useful to issue, offer in its advertising and distribute as widely as possible - both via the website and in printed form - a new flyer which will give you, our members, ammunition to argue logically the case for the Crown in conversation with others, and, we hope, to distribute strategically. One never knows when such an item, left on a waiting room table at the doctor or dentist’s office, affixed to a supermarket or other community bulletin board, put through neighbours’ mail slots - the possibilities are many - will do good work for our cause. We hope you will both enjoy and profit from this item, and that many thousands will be distributed across the country. See item one in the WHAT CAN I DO FOR THE CANADIAN CROWN? section of this Ecomm, below, to read online and request printed copies.   And special thanks to our wonderful team of no less than seven translators, all francophones from La Belle Province, who so kindly volunteered to make the French version one that is accurate in expression and eloquent in its prose.                     WHAT CAN I DO FOR THE CANADIAN CROWN? Some suggestions for member activity during these times. We invite members to send additional ideas by return of email. 1.    How about asking the League to send you several print copies of our new flyer:  THE CASE FOR THE CROWN, or print them on your home computer:  https://www.monarchist.ca/index.php/publications and give them to others who may be unaware or sceptical of the importance of Canada’s constitutional monarchy, or even hostile to it. School teachers could be encouraged to read the League’s educational booklets, also available both online and in print at the same URL, or even to request a class set.   2.    When you read an editorial, opinion column or letter to the editor in a newspaper, or a tweet or Facebook post, critical of the Crown, don’t get mad - get even! In other words, use a temperate tone and logical argument to refute the writer’s attack.  Keep it brief: focus on the obvious flaws in reasoning, mis-statements of fact or name-calling substituting for logic.  Same goes for radio talk shows. In the long run, on all media, whatever the provocation, whatever the momentary satisfaction of ”giving them a piece of my mind” - an old adage remains true: “You catch more flies with honey.” 3.    Write your elected representative at the federal level to re-state briefly the reasons you support constitutional monarchy as our system of government,  and asking the MP whether not your view is shared. 4.    Once pandemic restrictions ease, try to make sure that Royal events - such as the upcoming 95th birthday of our Queen, 10th Wedding Anniversary of William and Catherine or 100th birthday of Prince Philip are celebrated both in your home but also among your wider family, your friends, your colleagues at the office,  your place of worship/faith community or service club. The League generally sends you some ideas to mark these celebrations. Remember, as they are incorporated into family life and public life, the     Crown becomes further embedded in the heart of the nation, and truly represents The Queen’s wish that it ”reflects all that is best and most admired in the Canadian ideal.” This is especially true when you go out of your way to include in your observance the newest members of our Canadian family, who generally are eager to participate in the traditions of their new homeland, and in turn to share their own traditions with the wider community. 5.    Always use a Queen stamp when you write a letter or pay a bill by mail. 6.     At events of ceremony, whether a Council meeting, a graduation, a civic celebration - whatever - make sure that the Royal Anthem is sung as well as the National Anthem. To the extent you can, discourage event organizers from having a soloist “perform” them. Far more pride and         learning develop from the untrained voices of loyal folk singing together. In that way, the Anthems are sung “with heart and voice” and not merely listened to.   A FINAL IDEA: AN ACT OF LOVING SUPPORT & THANKS Apart from the above, we think it would be enormously comforting and supportive for every one of us to  write a kind letter to The Queen, expressing your thoughts at a difficult time: her beloved husband ailing, a grand-child chiding other family members via sensational television, the drumbeat of the tabloids and the restrictions on her busy life caused by the pandemic.  A selection of letters, especially those from Commonwealth Realms, are indeed seen by The Queen - and their number and tone are summarized to Her Majesty. The address is - Her Majesty The Queen, Buckingham Palace, London SW1A 1AA, UK Theoretically you don’t need postage to write the Sovereign; in practice, it is safer to affix the international airmail stamp available from your local Canada Post outlet.   AN INTERESTING OPINION PIECE FROM TODAY’S DAILY TELEGRAPHWe thought you might be interested to see the following strongly-worded opinion piece, reflecting a good deal of the tone of recent British public opinion, rather different from much of the Canadian and US commentary. Meghan’s fake interview has real-world effects The Sussexes’ claims have undermined the monarchy and done lasting damage to the Commonwealth by Tim Stanley, March 15, 2021 Two headlines appeared on the BBC News website on the same day. At the top: “Harry and Meghan rattle monarchy’s gilded cage”. At the bottom: “The kidnapped woman who defied Boko Haram”. Well, that puts the Sussexes' problems in perspective, doesn’t it? Yet across Africa, one reads, the Duchess’s story has revived memories of colonial racism, tarnishing the UK’s reputation, and has even lent weight to the campaign in some countries to drop the Queen as head of state. The only nation that seems to think a lot of nonsense was spoken is Britain. In the wake of an interview that Joe Biden’s administration called courageous, British popular opinion of Harry and Meghan fell to an all-time low, and the American format had a lot to do with it. Oprah Winfrey is not our idea of an interviewer. She flattered, fawned and displayed utter credulity. Imagine if it had been her, not Emily Maitlis, who interviewed Prince Andrew over the Jeffrey Epstein allegations. “You were in a Pizza Express that day? Oh my God, you MUST be innocent! Tell me, in all honesty, though...did you have the dough balls?” This wasn’t an interview, it was a commercial for a brand called Sussex, a pair of eco-friendly aristo-dolls that, if you pull the string, tell their truth – which isn’t the truth, because no one can entirely know that, but truth as they perceive it. “Life is about storytelling,” explained Meghan, “about the stories we tell ourselves, the stories we’re told, what we buy into.” Meghan is a postmodernist. Just as Jean Baudrillard said the Gulf War never happened, but was choreographed by the US media, so the Royal narrative she was forced to live was fake, her public happiness was fake and, following that logic, this interview might involve an element of performance, too. People have challenged her claims, alleging contradictions and improbabilities, but one of the malign effects of wokeness is that you have got to be very careful about pointing this out. Why? Because wokery insists on treating a subjective view as objective truth, or even as superior, because it’s based upon “lived experience”. To contradict that personal perspective is perceived as cruel, elitist and, in Meghan’s case, potentially racist, so it’s best to wait a few weeks to a year before applying a fact check. In the meantime, affect sympathy. People would rather you lied to their face than tell them what they don’t want to hear. The result is profoundly dishonest, for I have never known an event over which there is such a gulf between the official reception, as endorsed by the media and politics, and the reaction of average citizens, who are wisely keeping it to themselves. Into that vacuum of silence steps not the voice of reason but bullies and showmen – like Piers Morgan, who said some brash stuff about Meghan’s honesty and, after an unseemly row on Good Morning Britain, felt obliged to resign from his job.  “If you’d like to show your support for me,” he wrote afterwards, “please order a copy of my book.” Dear Lord, was this row fake, too? I can no longer be sure, though I despised Good Morning Britain before and still do: it embodies the cynical confusion of emotion and fact, a show made for clicks, where even the weatherman has an opinion. So what is real in 2021? The Commonwealth, which does a lot of good in a divided world. The monarchy, which has been at its best during the pandemic, doing the boring stuff of cutting ribbons and thanking workers that, one suspects, Meghan never grew into (can you imagine her opening a supermarket in Beccles?). It contains flawed people, but that only adds to its realness, and they can adapt faster than you might think. Prince William got the ball rolling by telling reporters, who he is trained to ignore, that his family is not racist. His wife paid her respects to the murder victim Sarah Everard, demonstrating that she is neither cold nor silenced. I’d wager Kate does her duty, day after day, no complaint, not because she is “trapped”, as Harry uncharitably put it, but because she loves her family and believes in public service. Meghan and Harry have indeed prompted the Royal family to change: not in order to endorse their criticisms, however, but to answer them.

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦🇬🇧🇦🇺🇳🇿

[askalibertarianus]

Partyarchy With Agorism

Travis Hallman, 7/15/2018

Agorism and Partyarchism are both libertarian social philosophies that advocate for all relations between people to be voluntary exchanges. However, they both have very different means. Agorists claim that such a society could be more readily established by employing methods such as:

education

direct action

alternative currencies

entrepreneurship

self sufficiency

civil disobedience

counter-economics (AKA black markets)

The purpose of employing these methods of self-governance is to defund the state until it cannot afford to exist.

Partyarchs pursue a free-society through political parties via campaigning, voting, and holding offices. This includes the vetoing of draconian legislation, as well as passing bills designed to allow for greater freedom.

The debate between these methods has raged for decades, possibly millennia. It is worth considering that there may be no single, conclusive right or wrong path to a free society.

The study or practice of self-governance is very insightful by helping people realize they do not need a government in order to progress in a peaceful manner. Homeschooling is an example of autonomy which teaches parents that government-funded schools are not necessary. Here are a couple of examples, in support of agorism, that teach how civil disobedience and counter-economics can effectively cause politicians to remove laws:

According to Civil Disobedience Weekly, “Gandhi led the Salt March in 1930, in order to eliminate the Salt Tax, a tax on salt, which harmed India’s poor population. The Salt Tax was beneficial to the British as they financed subjugation of India by the Salt Tax. If having India as a colony was no longer profitable for the British, the Indians thought they would eventually leave. This did end up happening, because after World War II, the British did not want to stay. They did not want to raise taxes from their own people for a war against India, and they did not want to spend their money on a war.”

According to Freedom Leaf, “Large gatherings of pot smokers in Colorado each year on 4/20 signaled the public groundswell of support for legalization. Major events that include public smoking, like Seattle Hempfest and the Boston Freedom Rally, have served as the main vehicles for political reform.”

However, is self-governance the only path to a free society? The laws would not have been removed if the politicians didn’t consent to removing them.

Here are a few examples of counter-economics that have been practiced around the world:

According to The New Libertarian Manifesto on page 20 (written in 1983):

“In the Soviet Union, a bastion of arch-statism and a nearly totally collapsed ‘official’ economy, a giant black market provides the Russians, Armenian, Ukrainian and others with everything from food to television repair to official papers and favors from the ruling class. As the Guardian Weekly reports, Burma is almost a total black market with the government reduced to an army, police, and a few strutting politicians. In varying degrees, this is true of nearly all the Second and Third Worlds.

Italy, for example, has a ‘problem’ of a large part of its civil services which works officially from 7 A.M. to 2 P.M. working unofficially at various jobs the rest of the day earning ‘black’ money.

The Netherlands has a large black market in housing because of the high regulation of this industry. Denmark has a tax evasion movement so large that those in it seduced to politics have formed the second largest party. .. Currency controls are evaded rampantly; in France, for example, everyone is assumed to have a large gold stash and trips to Switzerland for more than touring and skiing are commonplace.

..

According to the American Internal Revenue Service, at least twenty million people belong in the ‘underground economy’ of tax evaders using cash to avoid detections of transactions or barter exchange. Millions keep money in gold or in foreign accounts to avoid the hidden taxation of inflation. Millions of ‘illegal aliens’ are employed, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Millions more deal or consume marijuana and other prescribed drugs, including laetrile and forbidden medical material.

And there are all the practitioners of ‘victimless crimes.’ Besides drug use, there are prostitution, pornography, bootlegging, false identification papers, gambling, and proscribed sexual conduct between consenting adults.

..

But it doesn’t stop here. Since the 55 mph speed limit enacted federally in the U.S., most Americans have become counter-economic drivers. The trucking industry has developed CB communications to evade state enforcement of regulations. For independents who can make four runs at 75 mph rather than three runs at 55 mph, counter-economic driving is a question of survival.

The ancient custom of smuggling thrives today from boatloads of marijuana and foreign appliances with high tariffs and truckloads of people from less- developed countries to the tourists stashing a little extra in their luggage and not reporting to customs agents.”

Citizens are not directly culpable for the system in place; however, how do agorists justify reconciling their means to a free society with traveling on government-funded roads or using federal reserve notes for trading or providing commonwealth government identifiers (such as a social security number and a zip code) to attain a job? Is it possible, at all, to be a pure agorist in the United States of America? If an agorist is anything less than pure then is it still self governance?

Agorists only support engaging in political activity as a means to educate voters about the unnecessity of voting. According to The New Libertarian Manifesto on page 28 (written in 1983), “The best form of organization is a Libertarian Alliance in which you steer the members from political activity (where they have blindly gone seeking relief from oppression) and focus on education, publicity, recruitment and perhaps some anti-political campaigning (i.e. ‘Vote For Nobody,’ ‘None of the Above’, ‘Boycott the Ballot,’ ‘Don’t Vote, It Only Encourages Them!’ etc.) to publicize the libertarian Alternative.”

According to The American, “Only 1.3 percent of the total population—38,818 people—cast ballots in the first presidential election.” Yet, a ruling class was still created. How do agorists intend to get 100% of the population to refrain from voting? This task is seemingly impossible considering how many citizens want a voice in the political arena. What are some large/major efforts taken by agorists to educate the public about the benefits of a free society? Do agorists voluntarily create collectives to educate others on the benefits of a free society? Please visit the bottom of this article to view a list of agorists.

The entirety of the Libertarian Party is a large/major effort taken by partyarchs collectivizing to educate the public about the benefits of a free society. Partyarchs seem to be championing this field of educating others. Please visit the bottom of this article to view a list of partyarchs.

The following questions are intended to challenge the philosophical means of agorists:

If offered, would you accept the opportunity to present the benefits of a free society on a government funded tv channel?

Since aggression is ethically justified as self-defense and voting for statists causes aggression toward yourself and/or others; then would voting for partyarchs be self-defense?

Is agorism appealing to minarchists, classical liberals, right-anarchists, and other interpretations of the non-aggression principle?

The following questions are intended to challenge the philosophical means of partyarchs:

Would you not engage in profitable civil disobedience and/or counter-economics if you were presented with an opportunity?

How do you intend to defund and dismantle the state if everyone exclusively engages in the white market?

If elected, would you resort to agorist means if the state resisted your legislation creating a free society?

Are the means from each social philosophy so different that the two cannot work together toward a voluntary society? Seemingly, everyone engages in some amount of agorism, whether paying the least amount possible in taxes, bartering (without payment of taxes), civil disobedience (such as consuming cannabis), gardening, or something entirely different. This includes agorists, partyarchs, and everyone else. According to The New Libertarian Manifesto on page 21 (written in 1983), “To some extent, then, everybody is a counter-economist! And this is predictable from libertarian theory. Nearly every aspect of human action has statist legislation, prohibiting, regulating or controlling it.”

The New Libertarian Manifesto (written in 1983) on pages 28 – 31 describes the transition from a statist society to a free society using agorist means; beginning with phase 0 and ending at phase 4. The author describes part of phase 3 in the following manner, “Wars and rampant inflation with depressions and crack-ups become perpetual as the State attempts to redeem its authority.” This statement begs to ask the question, “Would the state initiate aggressive wars if the state consists predominantly of partyarchs or would the partyarchs simply allow for a free society (considering that’s also the end goal of partyarchs)?”

Agorism “vs” partyarchism is a false dichotomy. The two are not competitive in reality; whereas, partyarchism with agorism would be cooperative and compatible. At minimum, the supporters of either philosophical means can work together to educate others about the benefits of a free society.

Consistencies offer legitimacy to any philosophy. As written in The New Libertarian Manifesto on page 3 (written in 1983), “Consistency of ends, of means, of ends and means.” Agorists claim that since there would be no political arena in the end then engaging in a political arena as a means would be inconsistent. However, the political arena is aggressive so using aggression as defense would be justified ethically. This remains consistent with the means and end because aggression (unfortunately) will always occur; so defensively using aggression as a means would not be inconsistent with the end. Here is a short video detailing how aggression would be resolved in a free society.

According to Lysander Spooner, “In truth, in the case of individuals, their actual voting is not to be taken as proof of consent, even for the time being. On the contrary, it is to be considered that, without his consent having even been asked a man finds himself environed by a government that he cannot resist; a government that forces him to pay money, render service, and forego the exercise of many of his natural rights, under peril of weighty punishments. He sees, too, that other men practice this tyranny over him by the use of the ballot. He sees further, that, if he will but use the ballot himself, he has some chance of relieving himself from this tyranny of others, by subjecting them to his own. In short, he finds himself, without his consent, so situated that, if he use[s] the ballot, he may become a master; if he does not use it, he must become a slave. And he has no other alternative than these two. In self- defence, he attempts the former. His case is analogous to that of a man who has been forced into battle, where he must either kill others, or be killed himself. Because, to save his own life in battle, a man takes the lives of his opponents, it is not to be inferred that the battle is one of his own choosing. Neither in contests with the ballot — which is a mere substitute for a bullet — because, as his only chance of self-preservation, a man uses a ballot, is it to be inferred that the contest is one into which he voluntarily entered; that he voluntarily set up all his own natural rights, as a stake against those of others, to be lost or won by the mere power of numbers. On the contrary, it is to be considered that, in an exigency into which he had been forced by others, and in which no other means of self-defence offered, he, as a matter of necessity, used the only one that was left to him.”

Here is a long list of individual agorists educating others about the benefits of a free society: Larken Rose, Patrick Smith, Peter Kallman, James Corbett, Derrick Broze, J. Neil Schulman, Wally Conger, Gary Greenberg, and very few more.

Here is a short list of partyarchs educating others about the benefits of a free society:Adam Kokesh, Darryl Perry, Mary J. Ruwart, Arvin Vohra, John McAfee, Will Coley, Craig Bowden, Caryn Ann Harlos, and very many more. *Disclaimer: the partyarchs on this list have engaged in the political arena with serious intentions of using their elected political positions to work toward a free society and may or may not have engaged or supported agorist means too.

In liberty,

-Travis Hallman

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[johnandrasjaqobis]

hey! i know you're a big fan of x6, and i'm gearing up to possibly include him in a Thing i'm planning with a partner, but i also know that canon doesn't develop him enough. i'm planning on hitting up YT vids for reference, but what are your fav fic reccs for him? and/or your fave tumblr post metas and/or headcanons in general, that'd be great too /fingerguns and slides out of here

I do in fact love the scary Courser man, I love him a lot and always love to see him in more things. Canon definitely dropped the ball on him -- the hints we got were pretty great, but that was pretty much it.

so boy let’s see

(I’ll throw it under a cut because it got long)

There are very sadly few fics, as I’m sure you know, but the body electric is one of my favorites, and it has a ton of great stuff on Coursers in general. I mean pretty much everything by @nomette is fantastic, and maybe they will also have some suggestions to add on?

most of my tag for him (which is just ‘x6′) is art and some headcanons from nomette, if you ever need some inspiration that way

Here is one post I did about him and kind of Coursers in general that I ended up really liking.Here is another that someone else did with just general meta that is A+

As for just thoughts/headcanons in general (and given how little we know, almost everything is a headcanon with that guy).....there is evidence that he’s both afraid of heights and bugs. I love that. It’s only shown in like, little bits of dialogue, but I love the seemingly mundane fears that this otherwise unshakable guy has -- fears that he, of course, will try so hard to never let show, because Coursers aren’t afraid.

He’s got such a ridiculously dry sense of humor. Something, again, vaguely hinted at, but the exchange of, “Jesus, that’s a mouthful.” “Then talk fast, ma’am.” comes to mind. Most of the time it’s suppressed, but there are some comments that he just genuinely doesn’t register as something like a joke, which tends to make it even funnier.

The guy is ridiculously loyal. To the Institute, obviously, but to the Survivor by extension, and if it’s someone that treats him like something more than a weapon, there’s a potential for that loyalty to shift if theirs does.It’s still not going to be an easy feat. The Institute is literally everything he has, they made him, they decide to keep him alive, keeping the interests of the Institute safe is the entire reason for his existence. Like, tbh, I think it would be really hard to get him to side with anyone who decided to destroy the Institute without them being undercover and earning his trust for a very long time. The simplest way to manage it is to send him away before sabotaging everything, because he can’t go down with the ship if he isn’t on the ship.Then, of course, it’d be a matter of convincing him that he’s still someone without the Institute, that he hasn’t lost all purpose in life, but y’know, it’s complicated.

In a less game-supported train of thought, he does not like most dogs. They feel too uncontrolled, they drool too much, they just kind of go everywhere.On the flip side, he finds that he really appreciates cats.

Like any gen-three, he loves Fancy Lads. But he hates that they get powder all over his coat. They leave evidence.

He’s the only Courser who wears sunglasses constantly. He thinks his eyes being so blue takes away some of the intimidation factor, and sunglasses are the perfect way to hide any stray emotions that might slip through for a second.

It’s my own personal fic headcanon, but I think he was the Courser (and the only Courser) they sent to take out the Switchboard.They didn’t need more than the one with a small battalion of gen-twos.

Part of the reason he loves it when you agree not to tell the Institute about Acadia (which is just a whole huge thing on its own) is because he remembers Chase. Not very well, but he remembers the hushed whispers that went around the synths and, to some extent, the Coursers, when she escaped.He remembers a very small part of him hoping they never found her.

Related, X6 does believe in his job. He does understand the synth’s fear of reclamation, because he understands the fear of that chair all too well himself, but he also thinks that the surface is the actual worst thing that can happen to someone. Bringing the synths back might mean they get reset, but it also saves them from facing a fate worse than death in the Commonwealth.But it’s different with Coursers.When Coursers escape, a very small part of him -- a part he tries not to consciously acknowledge -- is rooting for them. Coursers can survive the surface, whatever it throws at them, and as hellish as it may be up there, they won’t fall victim to a simple raider gang or an angry radstag. Harkness was before his time, something that is only discussed now in the middle of the night patrols, in hushed tones, spoken like a myth (and for all they know, it might be). Chase was more recent. Neither were caught.They know neither were caught, because if they had been, they know it would have been made into a huge display, a blinding example of the Institute’s control.And X6 hopes, without every acknowledging that he hopes, they never will be.

i just

i have a lot of thoughts about this scary robot man

i can’t even just say he’s a good egg because he’s terrifying, he can and has wiped out entire settlements to get one synth back, but

i love him so much and i will always rant about him if you ever want to bounce ideas

[wespeak-yolros]

This question is a bit broad but what is the world like

Alright, this could get a bit long so I apologize in advance.

Edit: this is super heckin long I’m sorry 

This is the basic world map of Yosra.

Enik, Shecai and Geshith are monarchies at different levels. 

Enik is a regular monarchy (ruler guided by a counsel) and also a diarchy (ruler and spouse rule together). 

Shecai is an absolute monarchy so the empress/emperor have complete control. 

Geshith is mostly a constitutional monarchy (kinda like Britain) on the Mainland although the ruler does have significant say in the happenings of the state and regularly meets with the elected prime minister (check the world map tag for a bit more info cause I’m working on close ups for all the countries). The Main Island is mainly large stationary tribal groups consisting mostly of naga (legs and tail) gorgons. Each group has a chief that inherits their title and there’s a head chief (title also inherited though can be stripped if the person’s deemed unfit) that organizes meetings between all of them to stay in contact.     

Hellui is a dictatorship run through heritage (if a tyrant dies their eldest child or named heir takes over).

Jakil is home to a nomadic people’s so there’s a lot of different groups that travel around. Every group has a leader of some sort (whether elected or by heritage depends on the tribe) that organizes and protects their tribe. There’s little outside influence because it’s so bloody cold. It has snow for most of the year despite having a between 4-8 hours of sunlight a day which becomes 12 hours in the summer. Any non-porcupine living there have established self sustaining villages, complete with farming, enclosed in clear domes and connecting but clear, enclosed walking paths (much like Ikduma’s underwater society but above ground). The tribes tend to steer clear of these places but they’re not against those people as long as they’re not disrupting things. Plus the people who live in the villages do venture out and trade with them from time to time.        

Liclica is an in-world second world country. Some parts are really developed and others not so much. Also some of the islands are home to tribes of people who will literally kill you if you come anywhere near it (freaky shit goes on there). In terms of government they’ve established a rocky confederacy but it’s only been in place for about 200 years and there are still people alive who remember when the country was under Geshith’s control (they were a tribal people before Geshith conquered them which unfortunately resulted in the enslavement of the native ghosts).   

Vremsin is a well developed democratic commonwealth country. 

Oktice is a theocracy (a deity is recognized as the ruler and rules are interpreted by oracles and the country is run by these interpreters). It is incredibly well developed and considered another commonwealth country.       

Ikduma is home to selkies so a large part of their civilization is actually underwater. Their land base is used for trading and farming and things. Selkies can’t breath underwater so underwater buildings are surrounded by clear, water tight domes and there are several chambers one has to go through to drain all the water before entering a building. Every building is connected by thick, clear, watertight, walking tunnels that give a great view of the surrounding waters but can be intimidating. Things like skateboards rollerblades etc. can be utilized in certian lanes of the walking tunnels but cars and bikes are permitted only on the surface. Non-selkie people’s are more than welcome in the underwater society if they can find a way down there first.  

Tiokal is classified as an in-world third world country and as a result is much like an old western movie. No external influence has reached the interior at all because it’s so bloody hot only the native scorpions and immigrated gorgons can handle it; everybody else who’s tried has died. Today, Geshith leaves Tiokal alone meaning any gorgons living there were a) born there or b) are really stupid it’s so hot what are you doing. It’s literally the opposite of Jakil. Also no one leaves unless they’re adventurous. Running water is a thing but electricity is scarce (and expensive; candles are cheaper) and cars do not exist, it’s all horse and buggy. Every town has a sheriff but other than that it’s the lawless west, pardner.  

Here’s a basic chart of things that isn’t quite finished yet but I’ll post it again under #world map once it’s filled out  

In terms of in-world movement all countries (except Tiokal obviously) are considered multicultural with Vremsin being a vast mixing pot of peoples much like real world Canada. No one leaves Tiokal unless they’re really adventurous so scorpions can be a rare sight in most other countries but there are some. Porcupines are a rarer sight in other countries than scorpions since they greatly prefer to stay in their tribal groups. Naga gorgons (gorgons with both legs and a tail) are developed tribal groups living in the rain forests of Geshith’s Main Island but can be found across the globe in steady numbers (it’s just a lot more concentrated in Geshith). 

Trade connections between countries vary. 

Enik, Shecai and Geshith have very good connections with each other (partially do to the 3 royal families intermarrying). Vremsin, Ikduma and Oktice are on good terms with everybody; including Tiokal (since trade happens along the coast where it’s cooler) and Jakil (not so much the tribal groups but the villages). Hellui’s rather conservative in there trade and doesn’t do business with Shecai, Geshith or Enik at all do to political power clashes (that changes when a new dictator comes to power tho). Tiokal mainly exports to Hellui, Geshith and, to a lesser extent, Liclica. Jakil has little to offer except stories and a good number of famous authors live there.           

Race is not defined by skin colour. It’s defined by species (check the list nabove).

Arranged marriage was a thing in Enik, Shecai and Geshith until relatively recently and still occasionally happens in Tiokal (but nowhere near as much as it did).

There are a sub class of peoples called Wanderers (which have members from nearly all races of people but are called by different terms based on language. Wanderer is the universal language term for them) who can be considered society’s outcasts to a certain extent. Waanderer’s typically have powerful magic and fire-telling (storytelling but with fire) is an ancient tradition (if you’ve ever seen the hunchback of notre dame, they’re like the Yosra version of gypsy’s). Their main concentration is in Enik (the majority of the Wanderer population are peciks (people with peacock tails)) but they can be found just about anywhere. 

The sub race of ghosts known as Apparitions are mysterious peoples that live almost on a higher plain than the rest of Yosra. These people’s have the ability to alter a person’s genes to make them an Apparition meaning that there are people of other races that have been unwittingly pulled into this higher plain. They’re completely invisible and speak a language called Liksora which cannot be taught. People who’ve had encounters with them but didn’t have their genes altered can pick up some of the language in the breeze and occasionally see flashes of this race of people but otherwise you’d have to become an Apparition or be born one to know the language fully.  

Another ghost sub race are the Revenants. Humans were absorbed into evolutionary lineage Megaannum’s (millions of years) ago and Revenants are the closest living relatives to humans. They’re classified as ghosts because they have an aura about them but lack the abilities of their brethren making up for it by becoming master’s of black magic. They’re thought to be extinct because it’s been millennia since any of them were seen up close and the person lived to tell the tale. They live on isolated islands far off Liclica’s coast and are the ones that will either kill you if you get close enough or curse you so you die anyway. 

There is a sub class of hellhounds known as wolves and a sub class of kitsune’s known as foxes. These are groups of people who’ve abandoned society and many have forgotten how to use their human forms or simply don’t have a human form if they were born into a wild pack. Wolf ales (especially alphas) typically have harems and the female alpha always has a litter either from the packs head alpha or one of the lesser ones (same with foxes but they don’t have litters so it’s typically one at a time unless it’s like twins or something). They live typically in forests or anywhere away from civilization and are most commonly found in Vremsin.   

Harems are common amongst chief’s of naga gorgon clans on Geshith’s Main Island but it depends on the chief. If there’s a female chief she can choose to have a male harem if she wishes. If there’s a chief that swing for more than one gender they can choose to have a mixed harem. All members of the chief’s harem (no matter their gender) must agree to be a part of it, otherwise the chief cannot/will not touch them. Harems are also often shared with the chiefs knowledge and consent and a small price must be paid (whatever that price is again depends on the chief) if someone wishes to leave the harem before the end of 2 years. After that if a member tells the chief they wish to leave then the chief can no longer touch them.       

Peciks have clutches like hellounds have litters and they range in size from about 2-6 kids per clutch/litter.

Social dynamics vary too but I won’t get into that.

I think that’s it so far. I’ll keep reblogging and adding to this as stuff progresses but there ya go!

P.S. It’s so long thank you for reading to the end                   

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: Required Reading

The US Department of Interior announced on Twitter that this was their most popular image of the week. It’s a sunset in Zion National Park in Utah and it was taken by Shay Blechynden. (via @interior)

Want to know why the Peggy Guggenheim Collection ended up in Venice? Well, this concise history is very helpful:

Venice promised Peggy a more civilised welcome and, after much house-hunting, she found a vacant palazzo on the eastern stretch of the Grand Canal. It was a curiously proportioned building, very wide but only one storey high. The Venier family, who had commissioned it in the mid-18th century, had imagined it rising to a monumental five storeys, but ran out of money (and male heirs). Locals derisively nicknamed it the Unfinished Palazzo, but for Peggy, who was living alone with her dogs and her art, it was the perfect size.

She remained there for the remaining 30 years of her life and, during the summer, opened it up to the public. It was an eccentrically informal arrangement, with Peggy’s collection mixed into the muddle of her domestic life. Guests staying at the palazzo would find eager art tourists wandering into their bedrooms and (given the lack of toilet facilities) catch them peeing discreetly in the garden. But over time, the Venier palazzo became one of Venice’s major attractions, and a spur to the city’s development as an international showcase for contemporary art.

Jessica Lynne speaks with the curators behind the Brooklyn Museum’s landmark We Wanted A Revolution: Black Radical Women 1965–85 exhibition:

Jessica Lynne: This exhibition has been a few years in the making. Could you talk about the impetus of the project and why it was vital for the show to exist within the museum’s series A Year of Yes: Reimagining Feminism at the Brooklyn Museum?

Catherine Morris: Several years ago, we started thinking about how the projects we were focusing on pushed against historical orthodoxies, and about second wave feminism, which is the foundation of the Sackler Center. What are the stories that aren’t told? It came down to an exercise of revising revisionism. Revisionist history is one of the most important contributions feminist theorizing has made to the history of art, but it was time to turn that method on itself. We Wanted a Revolution captures that spirit.

Rujeko Hockley: Exactly. A lot of We Wanted a Revolution came out of my work in graduate school and the work I had done about women of color and black feminism outside of the art world. There is an institutional history here vis-à-vis the museum’s community gallery, a space that existed from 1968 to ’86 which was a problematic space in some ways. And a lot of the work in the show is part of the Brooklyn Museum’s collection, including a Black Arts Movement collection of work acquired by the museum in 2012. We are building on institutional history and bringing out stories that we ourselves didn’t necessarily know that well.

Andrew Russeth writes about the awful Damien Hirst show that opened in Venice. I don’t think this is anywhere close to the worst exhibition of contemporary art in the past decade, but it’s fun to read:

Damien Hirst’s doubleheader in Venice is undoubtedly one of the worst exhibitions of contemporary art staged in the past decade. It is devoid of ideas, aesthetically bland, and ultimately snooze-inducing—which, one has to concede, is a kind of achievement for a show with work that has taken ten years and untold millions of dollars to create.

This should have been a triumph. Hirst loves a grand occasion, and the prospect of taking over collector François Pinault’s palatial spaces in the Most Serene Republic, the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana, would seem like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to let it rip. I was looking forward to an extravagant bit of Hirst nihilism, betting that the artist could at least deliver something so truly bad that it would be delightfully good. Instead, Hirst choked. It is bad show, and a depressing one.

What’s Santa Fe like for art dealers? Art Market Monitor talks to dealers Mike Tansey and Barry Ellsworth about a scene that has always been one of the main art markets in the US (the city has 200 galleries, for instance):

John Oliver on the importance of Net Neutrality is so good. Please watch:

Related: gofccyourself.com

Why are there still so many Confederate monuments?

It will come as little surprise that the greatest number of these sites are in the states of the Confederacy, and to a lesser extent in border states. Nor is this a case of the Deep South being somehow behind the times, as opposed to their more forward-thinking neighbors. In fact, the upper South is dotted with rebel symbols. The greatest collection is in Virginia, with 223. That makes some sense, since Richmond served as the Confederate capital for most of the war; the commonwealth hosted more battles than any other; and the Confederacy’s two most famous generals, Lee and Jackson, were both Virginians. Texas, with 178, comes next, followed by Georgia, North Carolina, and Mississippi. But a surprising number of sites are not in the South. A handful of symbols bear Confederate dedications in Northern States, including New York, which furnished more soldiers to the Union war effort and saw more of them die than any other state, and California, where schools in San Diego and Long Beach are named for Robert E. Lee. (Illinois, the land of Lincoln, has none.)

The Dakota Access Pipeline has already leaked (and it’s not even fully functional). Where did we hear this before? Oh, yeah:

“They keep telling everybody that it is state of the art, that leaks won’t happen, that nothing can go wrong,” said Jan Hasselman, a lawyer for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which has been fighting the project for years. “It’s always been false. They haven’t even turned the thing on and it’s shown to be false.”

Is social media making us miserable? Well, kinda:

On social media, the top descriptors to complete the phrase “My husband is …” are “the best,” “my best friend,” “amazing,” “the greatest” and “so cute.” On Google, one of the top five ways to complete that phrase is also “amazing.” So that checks out. The other four: “a jerk,” “annoying,” “gay” and “mean.”

While spending five years staring at a computer screen learning about some of human beings’ strangest and darkest thoughts may not strike most people as a good time, I have found the honest data surprisingly comforting. I have consistently felt less alone in my insecurities, anxieties, struggles and desires.

Once you’ve looked at enough aggregate search data, it’s hard to take the curated selves we see on social media too seriously. Or, as I like to sum up what Google data has taught me: We’re all a mess.

Ok, now some tweets from the week, including this one, which has become the MOST retweeted and faved tweet in history (and it’s about chicken nuggets):

HELP ME PLEASE. A MAN NEEDS HIS NUGGS http://pic.twitter.com/4SrfHmEMo3

— Carter Wilkerson (@carterjwm) April 6, 2017

Well, this is insightful (and scary):

Either the history books will teach the brief troubled presidency of Donald Trump as an object lesson or there will be no history books.

— Gary Shteyngart (@Shteyngart) May 11, 2017

Something about this image is satisfying … I wonder what it is:

@realDonaldTrump http://pic.twitter.com/u4U3kZTehD

— Mike Denison (@mikd33) May 12, 2017

And one more:

This. http://pic.twitter.com/PUzzqVZiMC

— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) May 10, 2017

Required Reading is published every Sunday morning ET, and is comprised of a short list of art-related links to long-form articles, videos, blog posts, or photo essays worth a second look.

The post Required Reading appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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