megpie71

[megpie71]

Not everything in this world is an instruction manual. Just about anything in this world can be used as an instruction manual (even if it's by indirection - "this shows me all the wrong ways to do things, so I should probably avoid those") if you have the correct mindset. But not everything needs to be a nice straightforward step-by-step 101 instruction manual.

People fuck around. They find out. Some of us learn directly (through our own fuck-ups only); others are capable of learning indirectly (by watching the fuck-ups of others).

When I'm reading fiction, I'm reading for entertainment, not moral, ethical, or social instruction. If your story isn't entertaining, I'm not going to keep reading it, no matter how worthy it might be.

i feel like people forget that sometimes characters in fic are written like that because it's a reflection of real life.

people have sex without setting boundaries. people have unprotected sex without talking about their sexual histories or producing recent sti tests. people play with kink without discussing it ahead of time or establishing a safeword. they have anal without 'enough' prep or lube—they may even prefer it like that.

and none of this is really a fantasy. it's all pretty normal. you can feel that it's inappropriately normalised, and you'd probably be right! but it is normalised: one study found that 58% of female undergraduate students on the campus studied had been choked during sex. 20% of those students said that they'd never been asked if it was ok; another 30% said they'd only sometimes been asked if they consented. fully half! (non-paywalled journal article on choking during sex here, including these numbers.) despite a rise in stis of all sorts, condom use is declining. (pdf link to the full text of this study about declining condom use in the us; aidsmap article about an australian study with similar results.)

even when people do talk about things—sex or anything else—they communicate imperfectly. 'yeah, but don't go too far' is consenting and setting a boundary, and also relying that the person you're talking to has the same metric for 'too far' that you do. for some people, 'the trash needs to go out' is a neutral, factual observation; for others, it's a request that the person they're speaking to take out the trash.

even when people understand each other perfectly, people react unpredictably to things sometimes! we behave irrationally! people laugh uncontrollably at funerals, or get angry at the straw that broke their back rather than the enormous load they were already carrying. they get scared and lash out at people trying to help them. when hurt, most people do not instinctively reach for therapy-approved grounding exercises and 'i feel' statements.

pretty much any bad choice that characters could conceivably make is a choice that people make in real life, on purpose, all the time. people do things that can have catastrophic, life-changing effects because it felt like a good idea at the time, or they're leaning into the vibe, or they just didn't think about it all that much, or an infinite number of other reasons.

fiction isn't intended as a guide on the best, safest, and most responsible ways to live your life, and fanfic isn't any different. it's not a narrative flaw to let characters do things that are messy or harmful or downright stupid—it's a reflection of what people are actually like, and not something that authors should feel they have to apologise for.

[megpie71]

Boosting signal

[megpie71]

Boosting signal

[megpie71]

If you're going to have that, it needs to be a bit less culturally specific. As an Australian, while I can answer the final three, I certainly can't answer the first one in any detail.

Today, because I live in the UK, Discord required me to verify my age before it would allow me to see an @ from a friend, on a server now deemed “adult.”

Unfortunately, my face.

I know I’m youthful but taking twenty years off is ridiculous. GUVE ME MY AGE BACK DISCORD

[megpie71]

Boosting signal.

Could people in the USA please speak to their politicians to get this one passed, because those of us in the rest of the world are not particularly happy that your payment processors are busy telling us what we can and cannot spend our money on.

Just to clarify, there's a bill that would STOP credit card companies from controlling who's allowed to spend money on porn or "risque" (read: queer) content. If you don't think big business should be able to tell you what to spend your own damn money on, call your senators and reps to let them know! It's the Fair Access to Banking Act, H.R.987 in the House, S.410 in the Senate.

[megpie71]

Boosting signal

Look.

This is a super easy litmus test.

If you are ever talking about someone in the context of human health and nutrition and they make a recommendation for fluoride-free toothpaste, you can dismiss their perspective on all other subjects relating to human health and nutrition.

If someone wants to improve human health but they're willing to profit off of fluoride-free toothpaste, they're either totally unaware of what they're talking about and are therefore not worth listening to, or they're a scammer and are therefore not worth listening to.

Lead Safe Mama sells a bunch of bullshit through Amazon affiliate links, but the easiest one to see right away as the sign of someone who cares more about their money than your health is fluoride-free toothpaste.

"Lead Safe Mama Says" is not a good reason to do anything except ignore whatever instructions follow.

There is definitely reason to be concerned about the lead concentrations in cassava flour, there are a few products that, if consumed daily, would put you at risk of having higher lead levels than recommended by the FDA.

But Lead Safe Mama doesn't bother with the FDA, the difference between the presence of lead and exposure risk, or the way that lead is actually tracked by people who are looking to prevent heavy metal poisoning.

Lead Safe Mama says "there is no safe level of lead according to the WHO." What the WHO means when they say that is is that there is no known safe level of lead in your bloodstream. What LFM means when she says that is "all lead is scary and coming to turn your children into autism zombies."

Lead Safe Mama was also the one who raised a huge stink about lead in Stanley cups and other thermoses a couple of years ago. There is lead in some of those products - it's present in the solder used to seal things and isn't bioavailable. Lead Safe Mama was also the one who was scaremongering about vintage plates. She tests for lead in paint using dubious techniques then over-states the risk of exposure and possible outcomes from exposure. There was a whole tumblr shitpost that went viral about it.

So this post (descriptions in alt):

Is entirely based on reporting by a lady who believes that childhood lead exposure is being misdiagnosed as autism, and claims that explains the current high rate of autism diagnosis. A lady WHO RECOMMENDS NATURAL CHELATION for autistic children when they are too frail for CHEMICAL FUCKING CHELATION.

There's a similar post by the same blogger circulating about this Consumer Report's survey of lead in cassava flour that says that Bob's Red Mill is showing lead levels that is 2343% higher than the Consumer Reports recommended .5 micrograms per adult per day (that .5 microgram number is itself modeled on California Prop 65 standards).

So that's got to be a ton, right, like a crazy amount of lead, right?

Nope. It's 11.715 micrograms.

That is below the 12.5 microgram per day reference value set by the FDA for people who are pregnant or could become pregnant, but definitely higher than the 3microgram per day value set for children. Probably your child should not consume a cup of cassava flour from Bob's Red Mill per day.

One point I'm making here is that actually Bob's Red Mill and Pamela's are actually probably fine with their CA65 warning labels - there's not an absurd risk of high blood lead levels from eating their cassava products.

The other point I'm making here is get this fucking autism mom and her bullshit bad science and her child chelation recommendations and her fluoride free toothpaste off my dash.

[megpie71]

Australia has only just (as in, within the last five years) got to the point where computer games which could be rated R (not intended for people between the ages of 2 and 18 years) according to our movie classification systems are legally allowed to be sold in this country. Until very recently, MA15+ was the highest rating a game was allowed to merit in order to be saleable here in Australia. We still don't allow the public sale of games which could be rated X (non-violent erotica). Unfortunately, Australian censorship laws are very much applied "for the good of the public" according to some very class-based colonial metrics (it's notable that the one place in Australia where you can readily acquire X-rated materials is Canberra… it's very handy for those of our conservative federal politicians who want to obtain evidence when they organise their next ratchet tighter of our censorship laws). Nobody asks the public whether they're actually offended by the things being banned - it's just presumed that either we will be, or we should be.

It annoys me that these SWERFs are busy trying to undo by stealth all the hard work game creators, game players, anti-censorship advocates, and ordinary feckin' adults who wanted to be treated as adults have put in to ensure we're able to see more than the most child-safe video games, under the guise of "preventing exploitation of girls and women". As an Australian adult and a woman, I'm more annoyed by being exploited by the SWERFS - which I am, when they claim to speak for me, and describe myself and others like me as perpetual "victims" of "exploitation". They do not speak for me. They are being fraudulent should they claim they do.

As an adult woman, I'm capable of reading warning labels, checking reviews, and deciding whether or not something is to my taste before I purchase it. I presume the vast majority of male adult gamers are similarly capable as well.

just so we're clear in light of the itch.io adult content ban (with no warning. btw) banning sexual expression in any way shape or form is already fascist and being like "they're going to do queer games next!!!!!!" just makes you look stupid. the fascism is already here dipshit open your eyes

[megpie71]

Boosting signal.

I'm gonna be real with you, i don't think weirdo kinksters should be considered acceptable collateral damage when banks/credit card companies enforce adult content bans on sites like patreon and ko-fi

[megpie71]

Boosting signal.

INFORMATION ABOUT QUEER/ADULT CONTENT BEING DELISTED

Hey, I'm sure you've heard by now that several online retailers have blanket delisted queer/adult content. Information seems sporadic, so I want to create a masterpost of what happened, why it matters, and what you can do about it.

WHAT HAPPENED

You've probably heard that Steam and Itch.io have removed all of their adult/queer content from listings. Itch has even gone so far as to prevent creators from being able to get their payouts.

This is not Steam/Itch's fault. Mastercard and Visa have pressured them to remove their adult content. Visa and Mastercard collectively hold over 90% of the market share in payment processing. Unfortunately, if they cut you off, you pretty much lose over 90% of your gross income, which is a death sentence for basically any company.

This is also not just localized to Steam and Itch. Several anime/manga retailers have also been affected, and more companies are likely to follow. I would not be surprised if Patreon cracked down again soon, so if you have adult/queer content on there, I suggest you prepare accordingly.

The reason for this happening is not a response to the current US political climate, or these payment processors randomly deciding to force their puritanical views. It is a concerted effort by a group called Collective Shout, an anti-porn group masquerading as a feminist liberation org. (Look up the meaning of the word SWERF.)

Collective Shout has, allegedly, sent over 1,000 letters to Visa and Mastercard urging them to take action against certain digital retailers selling adult content. Which, thankfully gives us an avenue to respond. More on that in the third section.

WHY THIS MATTERS

For some of you, I don't need to explain why you should care. For others, let me explain to you why this is a massive cocern for everyone, not just adult content creators.

First of all, we've already seen perfectly sfw queer content catching strays from this. You should already be well aware that adult content and queer content are often conflated, and the two are pretty inextricably linked to each other. If you try to ban one, you will, inevitably, end up banning the other as well.

Secondly, this sets a precedent for "concerned citizens" to be able to pressure payment processors into removing whatever content they don't like from the internet. Even if you don't partake in adult content. Even if you're not queer. Even if this doesn't currently affect you or anyone you know right now, it will. They managed to do this with only 1,000 letters. If they get away with it, it'll only be the beginning.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Remember when I said they sent 1,000 letters to make this happen? I bet we can get more.

I wrote a form letter for Mastercard and for Visa. Fill in your name. Print them. Sign them. Mail them out. The addresses for the respective companies are at the top. It shouldn't cost much. Even international postage shouldn't be prohibitively expensive for most people.

Some people are sharing phone numbers and emails. That's fine, but I prefer a physical footprint. You can't see 1,000 phone calls. 1,000 emails don't take up physical volume. If you get 1,000 letters about something, you can see how much people care about it. That means something in this day and age.

IF YOU LIVE IN THE US there is a bill being introduced right now that stops payment processors from being able to control what people can and cannot purchase. Call your representatives. Right now. Even if you don't think they'll support it. Here's a script I wrote. And trust me when I say it'll help. I used to talk to politicians for a living. I know what I'm talking about.

SHARE THIS POST. Reblog it. Reblog it multiple times a day. Send it to everyone you know. Seriously. Everyone. Even if they're not on Tumblr. Get the word out. The most successful advertising is word of mouth. So use your voice and make sure people hear it. We've beaten this shit in the past and we'll do it again, but we still need to put in the work.

[megpie71]

Boosting signal

Steam, Itch.io and the banning of explicit and LGBT+ Content. What can we do?

[All images in this post have alt/id text if you need it or want to copy paste anything]

With no warning, Itch.io, a site where many host their indie games, comics, books and more, has started purging and shadowbanning explicit and LGBT+ works. Creators got no warning. And if they were still owed payouts from these works, Itch.io is saying they won't give them their money as they 'broke the rules'. Rules that were only just set in place, with no warning, and therefore no way for creators to try and draw out their money or delete these 'offending' works before they got banned under the new rules.

So Itch.io has been the most recent to fall to the demands of a group that's been contacting Visa and Mastercard and convincing them to threaten sites/businesses with 'stop selling what we consider to be explicit content on your sites of we'll stop allowing your site to have transactions with Visa and Mastercard'. Steam folded, and now Itchio has too. And a reminder earlier this year Gumroad also stopped allowing explicit content, further back than that Patreon banned some kinks and fetishes even if it's depicted in fiction not real life, and I don't have to explain to you guys the great Tumblr explicit content ban of 2018.

And as always remember this doesn't stop with sexually explicit work as LGBT+ stories and people are often labelled as explicit and already we're seeing works being taken off Itch.io that are about LGBT+ and especially trans stories. Other non-sexually explicit works I've seen already getting shadowbanned, delisted or deleted are SFW games featuring furries/anthros, SFW dress up games (because when you take the clothes the model is nude), and the aforementioned SFW games that include LGBT+ characters and stories.

I'm compiling here information I've seen around various social medias, mostly Bluesky, because I haven't seen all these things shared over here.

I don't personally have explicit content on itch, but I had been considering one day selling things on there and I do currently have explicit content on my Patreon, my main source of income, and am terrified that Patreon is going to fold next (if anyone knows alterative for hosting audio content behind a paid subscription service please let me know so I can start maybe making a back-up in case the worst happens). Because for me personally if Patreon goes next, it's not like I can go out and easily get another job. Not only because in general finding and getting a job is difficult enough, but I'm autistic and have chronic pain and have been constantly getting sick or new pains over the last few years and don't feel safe being trans in the UK right now and all of that combined rules me out of a lot of jobs and makes me feel unsafe to apply to any. I'm so grateful I've been able to make a community around my work, but if Patreon caves next and I just leave my SFW posts on Patreon... 10% of my Patreons are signed up to the SFW tier, 90% are signed up to the explicit tier... I know if Patreon caves I will go from someone living comfortably who's searching to move out of my parents so I can live in a safer environment to someone who can no longer even afford the rent I pay to my parents. I'll try and get an alterative found and set up in case that happens and I can only hope you guys will follow me to whatever other site I have to set up... but it feels unlikely that people will get a whole new account on a whole new payment provider just to support me on a website they might never have heard of...

But what can we do right now?

A petition you can sign (international but you do have to give your name, email, and postal/zip code):

Get calling:

Mastercard (US): 1-800-627-8372

MasterCard (UK): 0800 964 767

Mastercard (International.): +1-636-722-7111

Visa (US + Can): 1 800 847 2911 / 1-800-VISA-911

Visa (AUS): 1 800 125 440

Visa (UK) : 0800 891 725 or use their international call collect +1 303 967 1096

Visa (International): (call collect - it costs them $): +1-303-967-1096

PayPal (US): 1-888-221-1161

PayPal (UK): 0800 358 7911 from landline, +44 203 901 7000 mobile

PayPal (International): 1-402-935-2050

(numbers gathered from these posts X X X )

Don't know what to say on the phone? Here's a script written by timidtanuki:

Creators have had their work removed off Itch.io with no warning and since it's been removed for 'breaking the rules' (rules that were suddenly in place with no warning) they aren't entitled to get their payouts. Just like other sites such as Youtube and Twitch and Etsy, Itch.io hold onto money from their users in a wallet and then give them payouts. So there is money creators have made, are owed, that Itch.io is not giving to them.

People are recommending that if you still have works on Itch.io to turn down the revenue sharing to 0% so that Itch.io no longer takes a cut or your money if you no longer want to support Itchi.io finically but don't want to remove your works from their platform. X

Other Bluesky posts and calls to action I've seen:

radiantg.bsky.social is asking for anyone on Itch.io who got their game deindexed, removed , or payouts turned off to reach out to them (espeically if you make explicit and/or LGBT+ games) for a piece of journalism about what is happening.

sleepyhard.bsky.social is making a threat of all the games that Itch.io has censored/removed from their site search function. Obviously be aware this will include 18+ only games, games with sexual content and other dark or heavy themes.

thetransfemininereview.com wants you to reach out to them if you're a trans creator on Itch.io who is being affected by this so they can make an accurate report. they say 'authors' in their post and I'm unsure if they also want game devs to reach out.

dropdownbear.bsky.com wants you to reach out if you have purchased things on Itch.io that you can now no longer access because of this ban. they can include them in a report being filed with the Australian Consumer Commission as this may be a violation of Australian Consumer rights. If you are Australian you can no longer access things you purchased of Itch.io you can report directly with this guide.

It's a scary time for adult creators and sex workers. It's a scary time to be trans. Support creators. And if anyone knows of any alternate payment providers that allow explicit work, and/or alternate websites to Itch (and in case things get worse, also give me Patreon alternates please) where people can host, sell and/or offer paid subscriptions to writing, images, videos, audios, games and more please leave them in the replies. And please help share this post, the posts I'm linking too, and any other resources you can find.

Minors DNI. Ageless blogs DNI. I want resources and help but I don't reply to this post or follow this blog if you're under 18, this is an explicit blog and not for anyone under 18.

[megpie71]

why isn’t anyone allowed to be wrong anymore? it’s okay to be wrong. being wrong, and realizing you were wrong, is how you learn and grow.

[megpie71]

Pssst

Hey, are you an artist or writer with WIPs?

Come here... I got a secret for you pssst come ‘ere

[megpie71]

If you're still having trouble spotting the pun, try reading the last sentence with the kind of US accent where "Harry" and "hairy" have the same vowel sound.

I was reading a piece of fan fiction about a girl so beautiful, all the heroes wanted to make her their wife, yet so powerful, no villain dared fighting her. Instead they sought legal action against her.

Had to lay it down, I can't stand these marry/sue characters.

I'm looking at you with very narrowed orbs right now

[megpie71]

The solution to any negative comment about your work is to block the author of the comment.

Reading fiction on AO3 is not compulsory; therefore, neither is you reading negative comments about your work as an author. Blocking the author of the comment means they can't see your work (which should make them happy) and means you don't have to see their comments (which will make you happier) - it's a win:win situation.

Another reason to ignore negative comments (especially on AO3)

So at work I’ve been forced to learn about “AI Agentic Workflows”. But being an AO3 author, I couldn’t help but think of how this technology affects authors on AO3 (and honestly on other social media platforms too).

What I learned was this: Agentic AI workflow software makes it extremely easy to automate, and bulk-post, HIGHLY-STORY-SPECIFIC negative comments to AO3 fics.

If you’re not familiar with what an AI Agentic Workflow is, I highly recommend informing yourself. You’ll be hearing it a LOT very soon. Basically, it’s a linked linked chain of AI prompts on one/many software platforms. Each “agent” completes a task. Then it hands off the completed task to the next AI Agent in the chain, which builds on it. Then that result is handed off to another agent, etc etc, even potentially to a final agent which analyzes what worked well and what didn’t, and changes what the other agents do.

There are a ton of repercussions here.

But let’s stay focused on AO3.

With AI Agentic workflow software, a person/group who wants to silence the voice of a community can easily scrape a tag, analyze stories by the thousands, then post thousands of highly customized, story specific negative comments, all without a human being ever seeing your words.

They could even set up AI agents watching to see if you delete your story, or delete your profile, which would be a marker of success. That success marker could be shared back to the other AI agents, and the whole workflow could be changed via automation to use that more effective approach.

I’m sure the OTF is working on ways of stopping this. I’m sure most social media companies are too.

But as usual the tools to create havoc are ahead of the ones to prevent havoc.

Anyway.

TL;DR: If you get a highly-story-specific negative AO3 comment — it does NOT MEAN it was written by a HUMAN! You were probably just story 20,031 in a scraped database of 50,000 stories, all of which were being targeted because they belong to a group/topic/tag that some shitty group or agency wanted to silence because of their horrible political or social.

Don’t let them silence you. They never looked at your words to begin with.

[megpie71]

Snagging for reference and hysterical laughter

Vrtra really said "Even here have we heard of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn" like he wasn't having Thavnair intelligence scooping up every detail of anything and everything to do with Louisoix Leveilleur the second he heard Bahamut hatched and was ready to glass Eorzea and Some? Mortal??? from Sharlayan managed to almost tank the blow

Ahewann, sprinting out of the meghaduta into the town square: I Need The Sharlayan Ambassador Right The Fuck Now

Five, six years later and the intel squads say the Scions have imploded, except whoops no they haven't they've snuck out of the regicide accusations into Ishgard and have disappeared into Dravania trying to end the Dragonsong War? pffff yeah good luck with that Nidhogg's been filling up my inbox for a thou- WAIT WHAT? WHO?? AND THE LEVEILLEUR GRANDSON???

Ahewann, sprinting straight to the Ishgardian consulate without stopping: Hey Uh Can You Tell Me What, and please understand this is very important, The Fuck

Then for a short bit family matters quiet down, again, maybe. Estinien "Not Not Nidhogg" Wyrmblood passes through Thavnair but moves on to Othard pretty quickly. Ahewann gratefully takes off his running shoes and Vrtra peels himself off the ceiling like a scared cat from worrying which would be worse to meet, Estinien or Nidhogg. Midgardsormr dies again but that's less of a big deal than it should be, he'll sleep it off. Tiamat is suddenly flying again for the first time in five millenia so that's . . . good, the world is ending but that's good at least. Estinien Wyrmblood may or may not have joined the Scions, no one can get a solid confirmation. Anyway he's got to get these scales to the alchemists, the Baldesion reps are coming soon, he can't focus on his own family drama right now-

He looks up and standing before him is an Archon astrologian in a bathrobe, another Archon nerd cosplaying as a gunbreaker, two Archons oh this must be the Baldesion group, [INSERT INSANE PLAYER CHARACTER APPEARANCE], well they look . . . interesting, are they imitating the Warrior of Light? and an Ishgardian dra -

Vrtra, malms away in the meghaduta: A

Vrtra: Ahewann

Vrtra: Ahewann we've got a Code Leveilleur situation here

Ahewann: What?

Vrtra: THE SCIONS ARE HERE

Vrtra: ESTINIEN WYRMBLOOD IS H E R E

Vrtra: GET YOUR SHOES ON AHEWANN HOW DID WE MISS THIS

Ahewann, spilling curry down his front, bursting out of the throne room with laces untied: Hey Everybody Come Help Me Throttle The Spymaster

[megpie71]

I believe Terry Pratchett had a wonderful way of describing people like that: "the type of person who would pronounce 'negro' with two g's".

One thing I hate in talks about racism is when some troglodyte says some stupid shit like "I'm not gonna let some white person explain racism to me." but the white person literally explained the most basic shit about not being a racist asshole.

Oh, ok so you're not gonna listen to a white person when they tell you that calling a black person an "Uncle Tom" is racist? You as a non-black person, are gonna claim yourself above it all and say that a white person's words mean nothing? That you refuse to be educated by a white person on the topic of racism. You're going to openly argue that you have the right to call a black person "Uncle Tom" because you disagree with him, and even when he asks you to stop, you're going to argue "Because your are a Uncle Tom. That's why I call you that." So you're above a black person telling you that your racism cuts deeper than any other insult you could attack him with. But you refuse to listen to "some white person" and you also refuse to listen to the black man you've attacked with racially charged accusations, just because you dislike him.

Shut the fuck up. How dare you call yourself a leftist. Holy shit you're no better than any old racist, you backstabbing piece of shit garbage racist fuckass.

Here's some mic drop for fuckers like that. It doesn't matter if the person is white, or if you hate them. If someone tells you "Don't be a piece of shit scummy human being." then it doesn't fucking matter what they look like or if you dislike them, you're gonna shut your goddamn mouth and fucking apologize and then fuck off. Pieces of shit pretending not to know what racism they spout is the most pathetic shit ever, and this guy had called the black man a monkey a few months prior as well. Guess what else, another black man had even called him out, tried to educate him, and Mr Racist McFuckshtick still didn't learn his fucking lesson.

I'm fucking convinced this guy would have called the first black man the N-word with hard R if it wasn't the poster child of slurs. You just know when someone is deeply fucking rotted on the inside, and that the only thing stopping them from letting all the maggots pour out is the social and economic backlash of being human scum so brazenly, it's fucking embarrassing that this piece of shit calls himself a leftists and anti-racist.

--

[megpie71]

The main purpose test cricket serves, here in Australia, is to give the fans a good reason to stay home and watch the game on Channel 9 while listening to the commentary from the ABC. You stay home and watch the game on television because that means you can sit in the air-conditioned comfort of your own home, rather than being out in the middle of an open field in boiling hot summer weather under the blazing Australian sun. It also provides Australian sports fans with a chance to recover from the religious warfare caused by our winter religion of choice being football (there are four different games which can be referred to by Australian fans as "footy", and more are being discovered by research commentators every year), because everyone knows that cricket is cricket is cricket.

My boyfriend is trying to explain cricket to me again. “He’s only got two balls to make 48 runs”, he says. The camera focuses on a man. Underneath him it says LEFT ARM FAST MEDIUM. A ball flies into the stands and presumably fractures someone’s skull. “There’s a free six”, my boyfriend says. 348 SIXES says the screen. A child in the audience waves a sign referencing Weet-Bix