#Adversarial Attacks

[nicolae]

Challenges and Risks of Artificial Intelligence in Electronic Warfare

Sfetcu, Nicolae (2025), Challenges and Risks of Artificial Intelligence in Electronic Warfare, IT & C, 4:1, pag, xxx,   Abstract Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a disruptive force in electronic warfare (EW), enabling advanced signal processing, threat recognition, and real-time decision-making. However, the integration of AI into EW systems introduces a range of challenges and risks.…

[cyb3rs3cur1ty]

AI Revolution: Transforming Identity Verification and Authentication

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming many aspects of our daily lives, and one of the most crucial fields it is revolutionizing is identity verification and authentication. These processes are critical in today’s digital age, where identity theft, fraud, and data breaches have become major concerns. Leveraging AI in this space offers increased accuracy, scalability, and security. This…

[aitalksblog]

The Hidden Enemy: Understanding the Growing Threat of Adversarial Attacks on AI Systems

(Images made by author with MS Bing Image Creator) While artificial intelligence (AI) holds the promise of transformative advancements, its vulnerability to malicious exploitation remains a pressing concern. Adversarial attacks, aimed at compromising AI systems, jeopardize their security and reliability. This post explores attack techniques and strategies to fortify AI resilience against these…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Are the means of computation even seizable?

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in PITTSBURGH in TOMORROW (May 15) at WHITE WHALE BOOKS, and in PDX on Jun 20 at BARNES AND NOBLE with BUNNIE HUANG. More tour dates (London, Manchester) here.

Something's very different in tech. Once upon a time, every bad choice by tech companies – taking away features, locking out mods or plugins, nerfing the API – was countered, nearly instantaneously, by someone writing a program that overrode that choice.

Bad clients would be muscled aside by third-party clients. Locked bootloaders would be hacked and replaced. Code that confirmed you were using OEM parts, consumables or adapters would be found and nuked from orbit. Weak APIs would be replaced with muscular, unofficial APIs built out of unstoppable scrapers running on headless machines in some data-center. Every time some tech company erected a 10-foot enshittifying fence, someone would show up with an 11-foot disenshittifying ladder.

Those 11-foot ladders represented the power of interoperability, the inescapable bounty of the Turing-complete, universal von Neumann machine, which, by definition, is capable of running every valid program. Specifically, they represented the power of adversarial interoperability – when someone modifies a technology against its manufacturer's wishes. Adversarial interoperability is the origin story of today's tech giants, from Microsoft to Apple to Google:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

But adversarial interop has been in steady decline for the past quarter-century. These big companies moved fast and broke things, but no one is returning the favor. If you ask the companies what changed, they'll just smirk and say that they're better at security than the incumbents they disrupted. The reason no one's hacked up a third-party iOS App Store is that Apple's security team is just so fucking 1337 that no one can break their shit.

I think this is nonsense. I think that what's really going on is that we've made it possible for companies to design their technologies in such a way that any attempt at adversarial interop is illegal.

"Anticircumvention" laws like Section 1201 of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act make bypassing any kind of digital lock (AKA "Digital Rights Management" or "DRM") very illegal. Under DMCA, just talking about how to remove a digital lock can land you in prison for 5 years. I tell the story of this law's passage in "Understood: Who Broke the Internet," my new podcast series for the CBC:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/08/who-broke-the-internet/#bruce-lehman

For a quarter century, tech companies have aggressively lobbied and litigated to expand the scope of anticircumvention laws. At the same time, companies have come up with a million ways to wrap their products in digital locks that are a crime to break.

Digital locks let Chamberlain, a garage-door opener monopolist block all third-party garage-door apps. Then, Chamberlain stuck ads in its app, so you have to watch an ad to open your garage-door:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

Digital locks let John Deere block third-party repair of its tractors:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

And they let Apple block third-party repair of iPhones:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/22/apples-cement-overshoes/

These companies built 11-foot ladders to get over their competitors' 10-foot walls, and then they kicked the ladder away. Once they were secure atop their walls, they committed enshittifying sins their fallen adversaries could only dream of.

I've been campaigning to abolish anticircumvention laws for the past quarter-century, and I've noticed a curious pattern. Whenever these companies stand to lose their legal protections, they freak out and spend vast fortunes to keep those protections intact. That's weird, because it strongly implies that their locks don't work. A lock that works works, whether or not it's illegal to break that lock. The reason Signal encryption works is that it's working encryption. The legal status of breaking Signal's encryption has nothing to do with whether it works. If Signal's encryption was full of technical flaws but it was illegal to point those flaws out, you'd be crazy to trust Signal.

Signal does get involved in legal fights, of course, but the fights it gets into are ones that require Signal to introduce defects in its encryption – not fights over whether it is legal to disclose flaws in Signal or exploit them:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/05/theyre-still-trying-to-ban-cryptography/

But tech companies that rely on digital locks manifestly act like their locks don't work and they know it. When the tech and content giants bullied the W3C into building DRM into 2 billion users' browsers, they categorically rejected any proposal to limit their ability to destroy the lives of people who broke that DRM, even if it was only to add accessibility or privacy to video:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/open-letter-w3c-director-ceo-team-and-membership

The thing is, if the lock works, you don't need the legal right to destroy the lives of people who find its flaws, because it works.

Do digital locks work? Can they work? I think the answer to both questions is a resounding no. The design theory of a digital lock is that I can provide you with an encrypted file that your computer has the keys to. Your computer will access those keys to decrypt or sign a file, but only under the circumstances that I have specified. Like, you can install an app when it comes from my app store, but not when it comes from a third party. Or you can play back a video in one kind of browser window, but not in another one. For this to work, your computer has to hide a cryptographic key from you, inside a device you own and control. As I pointed out more than a decade ago, this is a fool's errand:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/01/10/lockdown-the-coming-war-on-general-purpose-computing/

After all, you or I might not have the knowledge and resources to uncover the keys' hiding place, but someone does. Maybe that someone is a person looking to go into business selling your customers the disenshittifying plugin that unfucks the thing you deliberately broke. Maybe it's a hacker-tinkerer, pursuing an intellectual challenge. Maybe it's a bored grad student with a free weekend, an electron-tunneling microscope, and a seminar full of undergrads looking for a project.

The point is that hiding secrets in devices that belong to your adversaries is very bad security practice. No matter how good a bank safe is, the bank keeps it in its vault – not in the bank-robber's basement workshop.

For a hiding-secrets-in-your-adversaries'-device plan to work, the manufacturer has to make zero mistakes. The adversary – a competitor, a tinkerer, a grad student – only has to find one mistake and exploit it. This is a bedrock of security theory: attackers have an inescapable advantage.

So I think that DRM doesn't work. I think DRM is a legal construct, not a technical one. I think DRM is a kind of magic Saran Wrap that manufacturers can wrap around their products, and, in so doing, make it a literal jailable offense to use those products in otherwise legal ways that their shareholders don't like. As Jay Freeman put it, using DRM creates a new law called "Felony Contempt of Business Model." It's a law that has never been passed by any legislature, but is nevertheless enforceable.

In the 25 years I've been fighting anticircumvention laws, I've spoken to many government officials from all over the world about the opportunity that repealing their anticircumvention laws represents. After all, Apple makes $100b/year by gouging app makers for 30 cents on ever dollar. Allow your domestic tech sector to sell the tools to jailbreak iPhones and install third party app stores, and you can convert Apple's $100b/year to a $100m/year business for one of your own companies, and the other $999,900,000,000 will be returned to the world's iPhone owners as a consumer surplus.

But every time I pitched this, I got the same answer: "The US Trade Representative forced us to pass this law, and threatened us with tariffs if we didn't pass it." Happy Liberation Day, people – every country in the world is now liberated from the only reason to keep this stupid-ass law on their books:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/15/beauty-eh/#its-the-only-war-the-yankees-lost-except-for-vietnam-and-also-the-alamo-and-the-bay-of-ham

In light of the Trump tariffs, I've been making the global rounds again, making the case for an anticircumvention repeal:

https://www.ft.com/content/b882f3a7-f8c9-4247-9662-3494eb37c30b

One of the questions I've been getting repeatedly from policy wonks, activists and officials is, "Is it even possible to jailbreak modern devices?" They want to know if companies like Apple, Tesla, Google, Microsoft, and John Deere have created unbreakable digital locks. Obviously, this is an important question, because if these locks are impregnable, then getting rid of the law won't deliver the promised benefits.

It's true that there aren't as many jailbreaks as we used to see. When a big project like Nextcloud – which is staffed up with extremely accomplished and skilled engineers – gets screwed over by Google's app store, they issue a press-release, not a patch:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/05/nextcloud-accuses-google-of-big-tech-gatekeeping-over-android-app-permissions/

Perhaps that's because the tech staff at Nextcloud are no match for Google, not even with the attacker's advantage on their side.

But I don't think so. Here's why: we do still get jailbreaks and mods, but these almost exclusively come from anonymous tinkerers and hobbyists:

https://consumerrights.wiki/Mazda_DMCA_takedown_of_Open_Source_Home_Assistant_App

Or from pissed off teenagers:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/29/23378541/the-og-app-instagram-clone-pulled-from-app-store

These hacks are incredibly ambitious! How ambitious? How about a class break for every version of iOS as well as an unpatchable hardware attack on 8 years' worth of Apple bootloaders?

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/25/mafia-logic/#sosumi

Now, maybe it's the case at all the world's best hackers are posting free code under pseudonyms. Maybe all the code wizards working for venture backed tech companies that stand to make millions through clever reverse engineering are just not as mad skilled as teenagers who want an ad-free Insta and that's why they've never replicated the feat.

Or maybe it's because teenagers and anonymous hackers are just about the only people willing to risk a $500,000 fine and 5-year prison sentence. In other words, maybe the thing that protects DRM is law, not code. After all, when Polish security researchers revealed the existence of secret digital locks that the train manufacturer Newag used to rip off train operators for millions of euros, Newag dragged them into court:

https://fsfe.org/news/2025/news-20250407-01.en.html

Tech companies are the most self-mythologizing industry on the planet, beating out even the pharma sector in boasting about their prowess and good corporate citizenship. They swear that they've made a functional digital lock…but they sure act like the only thing those locks do is let them sue people who reveal their workings.

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/2025/05/14/pregnable/#checkm8

[vebokki]

the fearsome emperor of the combined realms

[julerosemary]

A Super Smash Bros Ultimate Moveset for The Princess

General Playstyle

The Princess can be considered a grappler. Her attacks do a lot of damage, but have significant startup, as she nearly always needs to change into one of chapter two or three forms to attack. She is a heavyweight character (that chain weighs her down), albeit one of the lightest heavyweights, having the weight of the sandbag*. She is decently fast on the ground (faster than R.O.B., but slower than Kirby), but slower in the air, having the same airspeed as Snake and Villager with a high falling speed (the same as Bowser), as well as being burdened with a somewhat small jump height (the same as Zelda). This generally makes her unable to go high over the stage, but she can go off it due to ridiculous up-special recovery. She does not have access to many useful projectiles, but has many command grabs. 

Notes: The Princess is able to crawl.

Ground Attacks

Jab -- The Soft Princess: The Soft Princess continuously stabs downwards. Low damage, but hard to escape from.

Forward tilt -- The Witch: The Witch stabs the pristine blade forward and slightly up. This attack does significant extra damage if The Witch stabs the opponent’s back, and almost no damage if that is not the case.

Up tilt -- The Burned Grey: The Burned Grey throws a torch in an arc forward. Low range, but lights opponents that it hits on fire.

Down tilt -- The Thorn: The Thorn directs thorny vines from the ground to her body. One of The Princess’s quickest attacks, but does self-damage.

Dash attack -- The Eye of the Needle: The Eye of the Needle rushes forwards with her arms swinging.

Smash Attacks

Forward smash -- Heart-ripper (The Spectre): The Spectre reaches into the opponent’s body and takes out their heart. While this locks the opponent in place and does significant damage, she is vulnerable while her hand in the body. The opponent collapses to the knocked-down state once the heart is ripped out. Has significant endlag.

Up smash -- The Apotheosis: The Apotheosis grows to a massive size before quickly shrinking back to the Princess’s base form. Has significant knockback and startup.

Down smash -- The Fury: Command grab. The Fury grabs her opponent and rotates them so they are hidden from the camera, behind her body. They take damage and are knocked straight up.**

Aerial Attacks

Neutral aerial -- The Adversary: The Adversary elbow bashes forward.

Forward aerial -- The Beast: The Beast lunges forward, her mouth open, propelling the princess forward. If an opponent gets in range of the attack, they will be bitten.

Back aerial -- Let’s Go Again (The Adversary): The Adversary grabs an opponent behind her, twists and throws them, sending them flying in front of her.

Up aerial -- The Den: The Den flaps her wings and pounces upwards at an angle, her mouth open. If an opponent gets in range of the attack, they will be bitten.

Down aerial -- The Drowned Grey: The Drowned Grey summons her corpse to drag those directly below her down.

Grabs & Throws 

Grab -- The Razor: The Razor unsheathes a sword from her right arm and attempts to skewer an opponent.

Pummel -- She Skewers You (The Razor): The Razor unsheathes her left arm and skewers hers opponent, then pulls out her left sword

Forward throw – The Empty Cup (The Razor): The Razor explodes into her final form and swings her left hand, knocking the opponent in a low angle, but taking self-damage, as her hand crumples.

Back throw -- No Way Out (The Razor): The Razor unsheathes her left arm sword and uses it to skewer and drag her opponent behind her. The knockback the opponent will take will be skidding on the ground.

Up throw -- Mutually Assured Destruction (The Razor): The Razor explodes into her final form and uses both blades to throw her opponent diagonally upwards. A kill-throw that isn’t that great at killing, but does significant damage to make up for it.

Down throw -- The Arms Race (The Razor): The Razor unsheathes her left arm and uses it to whack her opponent off her right sword, bouncing them off the ground in front of her.

Get-up Attacks

Floor attack (front) -- The Harsh Princess: The Harsh Princess gets up and attempts to slit where a human’s throats would be with the pristine blade. Slow, and has a small hurtbox.

Floor attack (back) -- The Prisoner: The Prisoner rolls onto her back, summons a chain that will latch onto an opponent the right distance away, and pulls them towards her, knocking them down and towards her.

Floor attack (trip) -- Roots of the Wild (The Witch): The Witch summons roots in front of her to crush the opponent’s legs or equivalent.

Edge Attack -- The Wraith: The Wraith grabs her opponent’s leg/bottom part and crushes it.

Special Attacks

Neutral special -- The Nightmare: The Nightmare floats next to her opponent and raises her index finger to their face, doing damage, but not paralyzing them. Can be canceled into Down Special.

Side special -- The Tower: The Tower points forward, forcing them to hurt themself (usually by punching themself), although they are still able to move. The opponent attacking will end this effect. Has decent range.

Up special -- The Spectre: The Spectre becomes invincible, and slowly floats upwards. She can go through the stage, which will extend the timer of the move until she is out of it. There is notable endlag when exiting from the stage, and The Princess will go into free fall when this move ends while she is in the air.

Down special -- The Moment of Clarity: The Nightmare takes off her mask and forces her opponent to look at her face, paralyzing them and doing damage. Must be canceled from neutral special, has no effect otherwise (The Princess will motion to take off a mask, and look confused). The most damaging of all her attacks, excluding final smash.

Final Smash -- The Shifting Mound. Opponents in The Princess’s surrounding area are taken to The Long Quiet, where the Shifting Mound bursts from the floor, sending opponents upwards and doing damage.

Animations & Aesthetics

On-screen appearance -- The Princess flickers in front of a halfway-open door*** before solidifying fully.****

Taunts

Up taunt -- The Damsel: The Damsel becomes more poorly drawn up to four times. The up taunt input must be pressed again for each time.

Side taunt -- The Stranger: The Stranger shatters and multiplies up to four times. If cancellation is attempted, The Stranger will instantly multiply into five Princesses before the taunt is canceled. 

Down taunt -- The Networked Wild: The Princess becomes the Networked Wild. If attacked while performing this taunt, she will enter shield-break.

Shield-Break -- The Wounded Wild: The Wounded Wild is stuck in a small tree for the duration of shield-break.

Idle poses

Idle 1 -- The Princess sits down, adopting a slumped posture.

Idle 2 -- The Princess sits down, adopting a composed posture.

Victory poses

Left -- The Princess opens the door out of a cabin, holding hands with The Long Quiet.

Up -- The Shifting Mound opens the construct, holding hands with The Long Quiet.

Right -- The Stranger opens the door out of a cabin, holding hands with The Long Quiet.

Palutena’s Guidance

Palutena: You’re in Skyworld. And in Skyworld there is a temple. And in that temple is a princess. You’re here to KO here. If you don’t, it will be the end of the match.

Pit: Forget about that! Why does she fight like that!

Palutena: The Princess took most of her fighting style from when she was placed in a life-or-death situation, so the way she fights is…brutal.

Viridi: Well, you can avoid most of her attacks if you just don’t get grabbed! Her attacks have a lot of start-up and little range, so pepper her from a distance and zone her out!

Pit: That’s harder than you make it sound! She has a lot of dirty tricks!

Palutena: Pit, respect your great-great-grandmother.

Pit: WHAT?

*-Perception becomes her reality, and people are likely to perceive an average fighter as the weight they are most familiar fighting against.

**-What happens here is not appropriate to be shown in a game with an E10 rating.

***-Door frame is included.

****-This is a reference to events preceding The Nightmare.

[theetwinkleboy]

“I didn’t like how this storyline/character was handled—“ yeah express yourself hon

“—and that’s why I think horikoshi is the worst person alive” whoa there

[leonbasinwriter]

AI is rewriting cybersecurity—faster, smarter, stronger. But here’s the brutal truth: it’s also weaponizing cybercrime at an unprecedented scale.

[dravidious]

You're more amazing than :O

You're more amazing than an EX Drilltusk Tetsucabra corpse.

Also I had another dream where I was menaced by the passive presence of a giant monster. This time it was Shara Ishvalda rising out of some hole in the ground and staring at me.

For context, this is what Shara Ishvalda looks like:

[kazifatagar]

Five-Year Battle Against Chinese Cyber Adversaries Targeting Southeast Asian Infrastructure

Sophos’ “Pacific Rim” report outlines a five-year defensive and counter-offensive operation against multiple Chinese-linked cyber adversaries targeting Southeast Asian critical infrastructure. The attackers, including well-known groups like Volt Typhoon, APT31, and APT41, aimed at compromising unpatched devices with novel exploits, conducting surveillance, sabotage, and espionage. Sophos…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Forcing your computer to rat you out

Powerful people imprisoned by the cluelessness of their own isolation, locked up with their own motivated reasoning: “It’s impossible to get a CEO to understand something when his quarterly earnings call depends on him not understanding it.”

Take Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg insists that anyone who wanted to use a pseudonym online is “two-faced,” engaged in dishonest social behavior. The Zuckerberg Doctrine claims that forcing people to use their own names is a way to ensure civility. This is an idea so radioactively wrong, it can be spotted from orbit.

From the very beginning, social scientists (both inside and outside Facebook) told Zuckerberg that he was wrong. People have lots of reasons to hide their identities online, both good and bad, but a Real Names Policy affects different people differently:

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/01/22/social-scientists-have-warned-zuck-all-along-that-the-facebook-theory-of-interaction-would-make-people-angry-and-miserable/

For marginalized and at-risk people, there are plenty of reasons to want to have more than one online identity — say, because you are a #MeToo whistleblower hoping that Harvey Weinstein won’t sic his ex-Mossad mercenaries on you:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/harvey-weinsteins-army-of-spies

Or maybe you’re a Rohingya Muslim hoping to avoid the genocidal attentions of the troll army that used Facebook to organize — under their real, legal names — to rape and murder you and everyone you love:

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-facebooks-systems-promoted-violence-against-rohingya-meta-owes-reparations-new-report/

But even if no one is looking to destroy your life or kill you and your family, there are plenty of good reasons to present different facets of your identity to different people. No one talks to their lover, their boss and their toddler in exactly the same way, or reveals the same facts about their lives to those people. Maintaining different facets to your identity is normal and healthy — and the opposite, presenting the same face to everyone in your life, is a wildly terrible way to live.

None of this is controversial among social scientists, nor is it hard to grasp. But Zuckerberg stubbornly stuck to this anonymity-breeds-incivility doctrine, even as dictators used the fact that Facebook forced dissidents to use their real names to retain power through the threat (and reality) of arrest and torture:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/25/nationalize-moderna/#hun-sen

Why did Zuck cling to this dangerous and obvious fallacy? Because the more he could collapse your identity into one unitary whole, the better he could target you with ads. Truly, it is impossible to get a billionaire to understand something when his mega-yacht depends on his not understanding it.

This motivated reasoning ripples through all of Silicon Valley’s top brass, producing what Anil Dash calls “VC QAnon,” the collection of conspiratorial, debunked and absurd beliefs embraced by powerful people who hold the digital lives of billions of us in their quivering grasp:

https://www.anildash.com/2023/07/07/vc-qanon/

These fallacy-ridden autocrats like to disguise their demands as observations, as though wanting something to be true was the same as making it true. Think of when Eric Schmidt — then the CEO of Google — dismissed online privacy concerns, stating “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place”:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/12/google-ceo-eric-schmidt-dismisses-privacy

Schmidt was echoing the sentiments of his old co-conspirator, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy: “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it”:

https://www.wired.com/1999/01/sun-on-privacy-get-over-it/

Both men knew better. Schmidt, in particular, is very jealous of his own privacy. When Cnet reporters used Google to uncover and publish public (but intimate and personal) facts about Schmidt, Schmidt ordered Google PR to ignore all future requests for comment from Cnet reporters:

https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/how-cnet-got-banned-by-google/

(Like everything else he does, Elon Musk’s policy of responding to media questions about Twitter with a poop emoji is just him copying things other people thought up, making them worse, and taking credit for them:)

https://www.theverge.com/23815634/tesla-elon-musk-origin-founder-twitter-land-of-the-giants

Schmidt’s actions do not reflect an attitude of “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Rather, they are the normal response that we all have to getting doxed.

When Schmidt and McNealy and Zuck tell us that we don’t have privacy, or we don’t want privacy, or that privacy is bad for us, they’re disguising a demand as an observation. “Privacy is dead” actually means, “When privacy is dead, I will be richer than you can imagine, so stop trying to save it, goddamnit.”

We are all prone to believing our own bullshit, but when a tech baron gets high on his own supply, his mental contortions have broad implications for all of us. A couple years after Schmidt’s anti-privacy manifesto, Google launched Google Plus, a social network where everyone was required to use their “real name.”

This decision — justified as a means of ensuring civility and a transparent ruse to improve ad targeting — kicked off the Nym Wars:

https://epeus.blogspot.com/2011/08/google-plus-must-stop-this-identity.html

One of the best documents to come out of that ugly conflict is “Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names,” a profound and surprising enumeration of all the ways that the experiences of tech bros in Silicon Valley are the real edge-cases, unreflective of the reality of billions of their users:

https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/

This, in turn, spawned a whole genre of programmer-fallacy catalogs, falsehoods programmers believe about time, currency, birthdays, timezones, email addresses, national borders, nations, biometrics, gender, language, alphabets, phone numbers, addresses, systems of measurement, and, of course, families:

https://github.com/kdeldycke/awesome-falsehood

But humility is in short supply in tech. It’s impossible to get a programmer to understand something when their boss requires them not to understand it. A programmer will happily insist that ordering you to remove your “mask” is for your own good — and not even notice that they’re taking your skin off with it.

There are so many ways that tech executives could improve their profits if only we would abandon our stubborn attachment to being so goddamned complicated. Think of Netflix and its anti-passsword-sharing holy war, which is really a demand that we redefine “family” to be legible and profitable for Netflix:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/02/nonbinary-families/#red-envelopes

But despite the entreaties of tech companies to collapse our identities, our families, and our online lives into streamlined, computably hard-edged shapes that fit neatly into their database structures, we continue to live fuzzy, complicated lives that only glancingly resemble those of the executives seeking to shape them.

Now, the rich, powerful people making these demands don’t plan on being constrained by them. They are conservatives, in the tradition of #FrankWilhoit, believers in a system of “in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect”:

https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288

As with Schmidt’s desire to spy on you from asshole to appetite for his own personal gain, and his violent aversion to having his own personal life made public, the tech millionaires and billionaires who made their fortune from the flexibility of general purpose computers would like to end that flexibility. They insist that the time for general purpose computers has passed, and that today, “consumers” crave the simplicity of appliances:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/01/10/lockdown-the-coming-war-on-general-purpose-computing/

It is in the War On General Purpose Computing that we find the cheapest and flimsiest rhetoric. Companies like Apple — and their apologists — insist that no one wants to use third-party app stores, or seek out independent repair depots — and then spend millions to make sure that it’s illegal to jailbreak your phone or get it fixed outside of their own official channel:

https://doctorow.medium.com/apples-cement-overshoes-329856288d13

The cognitive dissonance of “no one wants this,” and “we must make it illegal to get this” is powerful, but the motivated reasoning is more powerful still. It is impossible to get Tim Cook to understand something when his $49 million paycheck depends on him not understanding it.

The War on General Purpose Computing has been underway for decades. Computers, like the people who use them, stubbornly insist on being reality-based, and the reality of computers is that they are general purpose. Every computer is a Turing complete, universal Von Neumann machine, which means that it can run every valid program. There is no way to get a computer to be almost Turing Complete, only capable of running programs that don’t upset your shareholders’ fragile emotional state.

There is no such thing as a printer that will only run the “reject third-party ink” program. There is no such thing as a phone that will only run the “reject third-party apps” program. There are only laws, like the Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, that make writing and distributing those programs a felony punishable by a five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine (for a first offense).

That is to say, the War On General Purpose Computing is only incidentally a technical fight: it is primarily a legal fight. When Apple says, “You can’t install a third party app store on your phone,” what they means is, “it’s illegal to install that third party app store.” It’s not a technical countermeasure that stands between you and technological self-determination, it’s a legal doctrine we can call “felony contempt of business model”:

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

But the mighty US government will not step in to protect a company’s business model unless it at least gestures towards the technical. To invoke DMCA 1201, a company must first add the thinnest skin of digital rights management to their product. Since 1201 makes removing DRM illegal, a company can use this molecule-thick scrim of DRM to felonize any activity that the DRM prevents.

More than 20 years ago, technologists started to tinker with ways to combine the legal and technical to tame the wild general purpose computer. Starting with Microsoft’s Palladium project, they theorized a new “Secure Computing” model for allowing companies to reach into your computer long after you had paid for it and brought it home, in order to discipline you for using it in ways that undermined its shareholders’ interest.

Secure Computing began with the idea of shipping every computer with two CPUs. The first one was the normal CPU, the one you interacted with when you booted it up, loaded your OS, and ran programs. The second CPU would be a Trusted Platform Module, a brute-simple system-on-a-chip designed to be off-limits to modification, even by its owner (that is, you).

The TPM would ship with a limited suite of simple programs it could run, each thoroughly audited for bugs, as well as secret cryptographic signing keys that you were not permitted to extract. The original plan called for some truly exotic physical security measures for that TPM, like an acid-filled cavity that would melt the chip if you tried to decap it or run it through an electron-tunneling microscope:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/05/trusting-trust/#thompsons-devil

This second computer represented a crack in the otherwise perfectly smooth wall of a computer’s general purposeness; and Trusted Computing proposed to hammer a piton into that crack and use it to anchor a whole superstructure that could observe — and limited — the activity of your computer.

This would start with observation: the TPM would observe every step of your computer’s boot sequence, creating cryptographic hashes of each block of code as it loaded and executed. Each stage of the boot-up could be compared to “known good” versions of those programs. If your computer did something unexpected, the TPM could halt it in its tracks, blocking the boot cycle.

What kind of unexpected things do computers do during their boot cycle? Well, if your computer is infected with malware, it might load poisoned versions of its operating system. Once your OS is poisoned, it’s very hard to detect its malicious conduct, since normal antivirus programs rely on the OS to faithfully report what your computer is doing. When the AV program asks the OS to tell it which programs are running, or which files are on the drive, it has no choice but to trust the OS’s response. When the OS is compromised, it can feed a stream of lies to users’ programs, assuring these apps that everything is fine.

That’s a very beneficial use for a TPM, but there’s a sinister flipside: the TPM can also watch your boot sequence to make sure that there aren’t beneficial modifications present in your operating system. If you modify your OS to let you do things the manufacturer wants to prevent — like loading apps from a third-party app-store — the TPM can spot this and block it.

Now, these beneficial and sinister uses can be teased apart. When the Palladium team first presented its research, my colleague Seth Schoen proposed an “owner override”: a modification of Trusted Computing that would let the computer’s owner override the TPM:

https://web.archive.org/web/20021004125515/http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/2002-07-05.html

This override would introduce its own risks, of course. A user who was tricked into overriding the TPM might expose themselves to malicious software, which could harm that user, as well as attacking other computers on the user’s network and the other users whose data were on the compromised computer’s drive.

But an override would also provide serious benefits: it would rule out the monopolistic abuse of a TPM to force users to run malicious code that the manufacturer insisted on — code that prevented the user from doing things that benefited the user, even if it harmed the manufacturer’s shareholders. For example, with owner override, Microsoft couldn’t force you to use its official MS Office programs rather than third-party compatible programs like Apple’s iWork or Google Docs or LibreOffice.

Owner override also completely changed the calculus for another, even more dangerous part of Trusted Computing: remote attestation.

Remote Attestation is a way for third parties to request a reliable, cryptographically secured assurances about which operating system and programs your computer is running. In Remote Attestation, the TPM in your computer observes every stage of your computer’s boot, gathers information about all the programs you’re running, and cryptographically signs them, using the signing keys the manufacturer installed during fabrication.

You can send this “attestation” to other people on the internet. If they trust that your computer’s TPM is truly secure, then they know that you have sent them a true picture of your computer’s working (the actual protocol is a little more complicated and involves the remote party sending you a random number to cryptographically hash with the attestation, to prevent out-of-date attestations).

Now, this is also potentially beneficial. If you want to make sure that your technologically unsophisticated friend is running an uncompromised computer before you transmit sensitive data to it, you can ask them for an attestation that will tell you whether they’ve been infected with malware.

But it’s also potentially very sinister. Your government can require all the computers in its borders to send a daily attestation to confirm that you’re still running the mandatory spyware. Your abusive spouse — or abusive boss — can do the same for their own disciplinary technologies. Such a tool could prevent you from connecting to a service using a VPN, and make it impossible to use Tor Browser to protect your privacy when interacting with someone who wishes you harm.

The thing is, it’s completely normal and good for computers to lie to other computers on behalf of their owners. Like, if your IoT ebike’s manufacturer goes out of business and all their bikes get bricked because they can no longer talk to their servers, you can run an app that tricks the bike into thinking that it’s still talking to the mothership:

https://nltimes.nl/2023/07/15/alternative-app-can-unlock-vanmoof-bikes-popular-amid-bankruptcy-fears

Or if you’re connecting to a webserver that tries to track you by fingerprinting you based on your computer’s RAM, screen size, fonts, etc, you can order your browser to send random data about this stuff:

https://jshelter.org/fingerprinting/

Or if you’re connecting to a site that wants to track you and nonconsensually cram ads into your eyeballs, you can run an adblocker that doesn’t show you the ads, but tells the site that it did:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah

Owner override leaves some of the beneficial uses of remote attestation intact. If you’re asking a friend to remotely confirm that your computer is secure, you’re not going to use an override to send them bad data about about your computer’s configuration.

And owner override also sweeps all of the malicious uses of remote attestation off the board. With owner override, you can tell any lie about your computer to a webserver, a site, your boss, your abusive spouse, or your government, and they can’t spot the lie.

But owner override also eliminates some beneficial uses of remote attestation. For example, owner override rules out remote attestation as a way for strangers to play multiplayer video games while confirming that none of them are using cheat programs (like aimhack). It also means that you can’t use remote attestation to verify the configuration of a cloud server you’re renting in order to assure yourself that it’s not stealing your data or serving malware to your users.

This is a tradeoff, and it’s a tradeoff that’s similar to lots of other tradeoffs we make online, between the freedom to do something good and the freedom to do something bad. Participating anonymously, contributing to free software, distributing penetration testing tools, or providing a speech platform that’s open to the public all represent the same tradeoff.

We have lots of experience with making the tradeoff in favor of restrictions rather than freedom: powerful bad actors are happy to attach their names to their cruel speech and incitement to violence. Their victims are silenced for fear of that retaliation.

When we tell security researchers they can’t disclose defects in software without the manufacturer’s permission, the manufacturers use this as a club to silence their critics, not as a way to ensure orderly updates.

When we let corporations decide who is allowed to speak, they act with a mixture of carelessness and self-interest, becoming off-the-books deputies of authoritarian regimes and corrupt, powerful elites.

Alas, we made the wrong tradeoff with Trusted Computing. For the past twenty years, Trusted Computing has been creeping into our devices, albeit in somewhat denatured form. The original vision of acid-filled secondary processors has been replaced with less exotic (and expensive) alternatives, like “secure enclaves.” With a secure enclave, the manufacturer saves on the expense of installing a whole second computer, and instead, they draw a notional rectangle around a region of your computer’s main chip and try really hard to make sure that it can only perform a very constrained set of tasks.

This gives us the worst of all worlds. When secure enclaves are compromised, we not only lose the benefit of cryptographic certainty, knowing for sure that our computers are only booting up trusted, unalterted versions of the OS, but those compromised enclaves run malicious software that is essentially impossible to detect or remove:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/28/descartes-was-an-optimist/#uh-oh

But while Trusted Computing has wormed its way into boot-restrictions — preventing you from jailbreaking your computer so it will run the OS and apps of your choosing — there’s been very little work on remote attestation…until now.

Web Environment Integrity is Google’s proposal to integrate remote attestation into everyday web-browsing. The idea is to allow web-servers to verify what OS, extensions, browser, and add-ons your computer is using before the server will communicate with you:

https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/blob/main/explainer.md

Even by the thin standards of the remote attestation imaginaries, there are precious few beneficial uses for this. The googlers behind the proposal have a couple of laughable suggestions, like, maybe if ad-supported sites can comprehensively refuse to serve ad-blocking browsers, they will invest the extra profits in making things you like. Or: letting websites block scriptable browsers will make it harder for bad people to auto-post fake reviews and comments, giving users more assurances about the products they buy.

But foundationally, WEI is about compelling you to disclose true facts about yourself to people who you want to keep those facts from. It is a Real Names Policy for your browser. Google wants to add a new capability to the internet: the ability of people who have the power to force you to tell them things to know for sure that you’re not lying.

The fact that the authors assume this will be beneficial is just another “falsehood programmers believe”: there is no good reason to hide the truth from other people. Squint a little and we’re back to McNealy’s “Privacy is dead, get over it.” Or Schmidt’s “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

And like those men, the programmers behind this harebrained scheme don’t imagine that it will ever apply to them. As Chris Palmer — who worked on Chromium — points out, this is not compatible with normal developer tools or debuggers, which are “incalculably valuable and not really negotiable”:

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/Ux5h_kGO22g/m/5Lt5cnkLCwAJ

This proposal is still obscure in the mainstream, but in tech circles, it has precipitated a flood of righteous fury:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/googles-web-integrity-api-sounds-like-drm-for-the-web/

As I wrote last week, giving manufacturers the power to decide how your computer is configured, overriding your own choices, is a bad tradeoff — the worst tradeoff, a greased slide into terminal enshittification:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

This is how you get Unauthorized Bread:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/

All of which leads to the question: what now? What should be done about WEI and remote attestation?

Let me start by saying: I don’t think it should be illegal for programmers to design and release these tools. Code is speech, and we can’t understand how this stuff works if we can’t study it.

But programmers shouldn’t deploy it in production code, in the same way that programmers should be allowed to make pen-testing tools, but shouldn’t use them to attack production systems and harm their users. Programmers who do this should be criticized and excluded from the society of their ethical, user-respecting peers.

Corporations that use remote attestation should face legal restrictions: privacy law should prevent the use of remote attestation to compel the production of true facts about users or the exclusion of users who refuse to produce those facts. Unfair competition law should prevent companies from using remote attestation to block interoperability or tie their products to related products and services.

Finally, we must withdraw the laws that prevent users and programmers from overriding TPMs, secure enclaves and remote attestations. You should have the right to study and modify your computer to produce false attestations, or run any code of your choosing. Felony contempt of business model is an outrage. We should alter or strike down DMCA 1201, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and other laws (like contract law’s “tortious interference”) that stand between you and “sole and despotic dominion” over your own computer. All of that applies not just to users who want to reconfigure their own computers, but also toolsmiths who want to help them do so, by offering information, code, products or services to jailbreak and alter your devices.

Tech giants will squeal at this, insisting that they serve your interests when they prevent rivals from opening up their products. After all, those rivals might be bad guys who want to hurt you. That’s 100% true. What is likewise true is that no tech giant will defend you from its own bad impulses, and if you can’t alter your device, you are powerless to stop them:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Companies should be stopped from harming you, but the right place to decide whether a business is doing something nefarious isn’t in the boardroom of that company’s chief competitor: it’s in the halls of democratically accountable governments:

https://www.eff.org/wp/interoperability-and-privacy

So how do we get there? Well, that’s another matter. In my next book, The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation (Verso Books, Sept 5), I lay out a detailed program, describing which policies will disenshittify the internet, and how to get those policies:

https://www.versobooks.com/products/3035-the-internet-con

Predictably, there are challenges getting this kind of book out into the world via our concentrated tech sector. Amazon refuses to carry the audio edition on its monopoly audiobook platform, Audible, unless it is locked to Amazon forever with mandatory DRM. That’s left me self-financing my own DRM-free audio edition, which is currently available for pre-order via this Kickstarter:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

I’m kickstarting the audiobook for “The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation,” a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It’s a DRM-free book, which means Audible won’t carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/the-internet-con-how-to-seize-the-means-of-computation

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/2023/08/02/self-incrimination/#wei-bai-bai

[Image ID: An anatomical drawing of a flayed human head; it has been altered to give it a wide-stretched mouth revealing a gadget nestled in the back of the figure's throat, connected by a probe whose two coiled wires stretch to an old fashioned electronic box. The head's eyes have been replaced by the red, menacing eye of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' Behind the head is a code waterfall effect as seen in the credits of the Wachowskis' 'The Matrix.']

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

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

[nnctales]

What AI Cannot Do: AI Limitation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made remarkable strides in recent years, revolutionizing industries from healthcare to finance. However, despite its impressive capabilities, there are inherent AI limitation to what it can achieve. Understanding these limitations is crucial for effectively integrating AI into our lives and recognizing its role as a tool rather than a replacement for human…

[novelistwriter]

The Ancient Warrior

DP x DC Prompt

Danny is either bored of King work or is forced on a vacation from his Ghost King duties in the DC Universe. But because of Clockwork, Danny is sent the very distant past of the world, and because of his immortal body, something he got when he accepted the Crown of Flames and the Ring of Rage when he was 19, he doesn't age at all or die from being hot with a fatal blow.

Clockwork was the one to tell him to be a warrior where the Halfa found himself, so he donned a modified version of his Kingly Armor that covers his entire body and makes his voice deeper and more menacing and had done so. The modified armor he has allows him to access weaker versions of the Ancients powers.

Danny had unknowingly started a new religion in the DC Universe, the Warriors Religion. It's a religion about fighting, but even Danny himself has told those part of it, when he eventually found out about the religion, that it's not always about fighting physically, it can be for any battle one takes.

Danny has many fighting styles, as he is the Ghost King and needs to defend himself when attacked, which are made up of many long dead fighting styles from many Ghosts in the Infinite Realms, amd because Pandora was one of his mentors, he had Amazonian training as well.

As the years go by, with it getting closer to modern times in the DC Universe, Danny has had many students and adversaries. Ra's Al Ghul and his daughters Talia and Nyssa were some of his students, Diana of Themyscira was an adversary, but not one to battle him to death like many others before her. And then he got another student, Bruce Wayne. While training Bruce, the Al Ghuls would challenge him in battles, but not to the death, as they seen what he did to those killed, as whenever he killed someone, the intense emotions, the ectoplasm from him, and a violent death at his hands causes all his opponents to become Ghosts, but before they could fully form, he gently grabs there forming core in one hand, and teleports them to the Infinite Realms after saying something to the cores. Because those he kills and sends to the Infinite Realms can not be revived by the Lazarus Pits

"May you find peace in the afterlife" for those that had no ill will

"May you find redemption in the afterlife" for bad guys he kills

When Danny is not his 'Warrior' persona, he's an average Gothamite with an average job and trying to survive till the next day in the chaotic city he calls home.

[aeth-eris]

★ the rising signs & their enemies: 6th house, 8th house, 12th house, 7th house ★

the 6th house enemy (the relentless taskmaster) forces them into exhausting routines, health struggles, and responsibilities they resist.

the 8th house enemy (the shadow) drags them through power struggles, loss, and emotional transformations they fear.

the 12th house enemy (the hidden saboteur) lurks in their subconscious, whispering fears, doubts, and self-destructive urges.

the 7th house enemy (the mirror) appears as challenging relationships, adversaries, and karmic partners who expose their weaknesses.

★ aries rising : the critic, the manipulator, the phantom, the diplomat ★

the critic (6th house, virgo) forces them to pay attention to detail, refine their skills, and practice patience—three things aries finds unbearable.

the manipulator (8th house, scorpio) drags them into power struggles, intense emotional wounds, and betrayals that shake their trust in others.

the phantom (12th house, pisces) is a hidden force whispering fears of failure and clouding their instincts with self-doubt.

the diplomat (7th house, libra) appears in relationships that demand compromise, balance, and emotional maturity—things aries struggles to embrace.

★ the critic (6th house, virgo) ★

how it attacks:

aries rising thrives on spontaneity and speed, but virgo in the 6th house forces them into a world of rules, precision, and detail-oriented work. the critic appears as demanding bosses, relentless deadlines, and never-ending to-do lists. work environments feel suffocatingly structured, full of picky supervisors and coworkers who obsess over minor details. aries wants to charge ahead, but the critic forces them to slow down and follow proper procedures.

how aries self-sabotages:

they rush through work to escape boredom, but end up making careless mistakes that cost them more time. they resist structured routines, leading to chaotic, unproductive cycles of burnout and recovery. their health suffers because they ignore their body’s warning signs, pushing themselves to exhaustion rather than pacing themselves. the more they resist patience and discipline, the more the critic tightens its grip.

how to defeat it:

aries must learn that working smarter is better than working harder. they can use their energy more effectively if they accept the power of structure and preparation. instead of seeing routine as a cage, they must learn to use it as a weapon.

★ the manipulator (8th house, scorpio) ★

how it attacks:

scorpio in the 8th house drags aries rising into power struggles, toxic relationships, and situations that demand emotional endurance. the manipulator appears as controlling lovers, financial traps, or betrayals that leave lasting wounds. aries prefers quick fights with clear winners, but the manipulator plays the long game, slowly pulling them into webs of emotional intensity and secrecy. they may find themselves deeply entangled in affairs, debts, or psychological battles they can’t easily escape from.

how aries self-sabotages:

they jump into commitments too quickly, thinking they can control the situation, only to realize they’ve given away their power. they ignore their own emotional wounds, but the manipulator forces them to face their fears of dependence and vulnerability. when they feel trapped, they lash out aggressively, only for scorpio energy to strike back ten times harder.

how to defeat it:

aries must learn that true strength includes emotional intelligence. instead of fighting against transformation, they must embrace it and become strategic rather than reactive. the manipulator cannot control aries if aries masters their own depth and intensity first.

★ the phantom (12th house, pisces) ★

how it attacks:

pisces in the 12th house makes aries rising doubt their own instincts, leading to uncertainty, procrastination, and emotional exhaustion. the phantom isn’t a direct enemy—it lurks in the background, making aries feel lost and disconnected from their usual confidence. it appears in moments of burnout, whispering, “what if you’re not as strong as you think?” aries thrives on clarity and action, but the phantom clouds their judgment, making them feel like they are fighting an invisible battle.

how aries self-sabotages:

they avoid deep emotions, fearing that slowing down means losing their edge. they distract themselves with reckless behavior, trying to escape feelings they don’t want to acknowledge. their impulsivity leads them to make quick decisions that come back to haunt them.

how to defeat it:

aries must learn that facing their emotions doesn’t make them weak. if they stop running from their subconscious fears, they can conquer self-doubt and make peace with the unknown. stillness isn’t failure—it’s a different kind of power.

★ the diplomat (7th house, libra) ★

how it attacks:

libra in the 7th house makes relationships feel like a battlefield of compromise and indecision. the diplomat appears as partners who challenge aries’ need for control, forcing them to slow down and consider others. aries prefers taking the lead, but libra energy demands fairness, patience, and balance. they may attract passive-aggressive partners, people who make them question their choices, or relationships that feel like constant negotiations.

how aries self-sabotages:

they push people away before they can get hurt, creating a cycle of short, intense relationships that never last. they see compromise as a weakness, leading to conflicts that could be avoided. they mistake calmness for boredom, gravitating toward passionate but toxic relationships.

how to defeat it:

aries must understand that true leadership includes knowing when to listen and adapt. instead of seeing compromise as losing, they need to see it as a skill that makes them stronger in the long run. the diplomat teaches them that not every fight is worth winning—sometimes, peace is the real victory.

★ taurus rising: the indecisive, the wildfire, the instigator, the seducer ★

the indecisive (6th house, libra) disrupts their routine, forcing them into social politics, unclear expectations, and frustrating indecision.

the wildfire (8th house, sagittarius) drags them into chaotic transformations, financial instability, and unpredictable emotional upheavals.

the instigator (12th house, aries) lurks in their subconscious, feeding them impulsive urges and self-sabotaging desires that conflict with their need for peace.

the seducer (7th house, scorpio) appears in intense, consuming relationships that demand vulnerability, trust, and transformation—things taurus resists at all costs.

★ the indecisive (6th house, libra) ★

how it attacks:

taurus rising thrives on consistency, structure, and predictability. but libra in the 6th house makes their daily life feel unbalanced, full of constant adjustments and unspoken expectations. the indecisive appears as fluctuating work environments, bosses who can’t make up their minds, and obligations that require constant social maneuvering. instead of a clear, stable routine, their work life is full of compromise, diplomacy, and trying to keep everyone happy. this drains taurus, who just wants things to be simple and efficient.

how taurus self-sabotages:

they overextend themselves trying to create harmony, taking on more than they should in order to keep the peace. they delay decisions out of fear of disrupting balance, leading to missed opportunities and built-up frustration. they struggle with health routines, often neglecting their needs in favor of pleasing others or maintaining external appearances.

★ the wildfire (8th house, sagittarius) ★

how to defeat it:

taurus must learn that their well-being comes first. if they stop worrying about external harmony and focus on creating stability for themselves, they will gain true control. learning to make firm decisions and set boundaries will weaken the indecisive’s grip.

how it attacks:

sagittarius in the 8th house forces taurus into chaotic, unpredictable life changes that destroy their sense of control. the wildfire appears as sudden financial upheavals, unexpected breakups, or major life shifts that happen with little warning. taurus seeks security and careful planning, but this enemy forces them into situations where nothing is guaranteed. it teaches them that the only constant in life is change, a lesson they desperately resist.

how taurus self-sabotages:

they cling to stability so tightly that when change inevitably comes, it feels like a disaster rather than a transformation. they resist new opportunities out of fear of risk, missing out on growth and expansion. they may stay in stagnant relationships or jobs long past their expiration date, choosing comfort over evolution.

★ the instigator (12th house, aries) ★

how to defeat it:

taurus must learn to see change as a gateway rather than a threat. if they embrace adaptability and allow themselves to take calculated risks, they will harness the wildfire’s power instead of being burned by it.

how it attacks:

aries in the 12th house creates a hidden, internal battle between taurus’ need for stability and a subconscious craving for reckless action. the instigator lurks deep in their mind, whispering, "burn it all down. shake things up. do something wild." they may suppress anger, frustration, and impulsive desires, only for them to explode in destructive ways when least expected. this enemy thrives on pent-up rage and frustration, creating a cycle of bottling things up, only to act out in self-destructive ways.

how taurus self-sabotages:

they suppress their emotions, pretending everything is fine until they snap and make impulsive, out-of-character decisions. they lash out at loved ones unexpectedly, then feel guilty and retreat further into denial. they may sabotage themselves by avoiding conflict until it becomes an unavoidable disaster.

★ the seducer (7th house, scorpio) ★

how to defeat it:

taurus must acknowledge their hidden anger and suppressed desires. if they express frustration in healthy ways rather than letting it fester, they will prevent the instigator from causing sudden, reckless destruction. recognizing that some risks are necessary will also help them avoid self-sabotaging stagnation.

how it attacks:

scorpio in the 7th house brings taurus into intense, consuming relationships that demand emotional depth and transformation. the seducer appears as partners who are magnetic, mysterious, and emotionally overpowering. they attract lovers who force them to let go of control, exposing their deepest fears and insecurities. relationships feel like life-or-death experiences, pulling them into passion, jealousy, and emotional power struggles they don’t know how to handle. taurus wants stability, but scorpio partners make love feel dangerous and uncontrollable.

how taurus self-sabotages:

they fear emotional vulnerability, so they may shut down or distance themselves from relationships that get too intense. they hold onto people they should release, fearing that letting go means losing control. they may attract possessive, obsessive partners, or they themselves become secretly possessive, refusing to trust fully out of fear of betrayal.

how to defeat it:

taurus must learn that true emotional security comes from trust, not control. if they allow themselves to experience deep love without fearing destruction, they will master the seducer’s power rather than being consumed by it. learning to release relationships that no longer serve them will also free them from toxic emotional cycles.

★ gemini rising: the strategist, the tyrant, the prison guard, the preacher ★

the strategist (6th house, scorpio) places them in work environments full of power struggles, secrecy, and intense expectations that drain their energy.

the tyrant (8th house, capricorn) drags them into slow, grueling financial and emotional transformations that test their patience.

the prison guard (12th house, taurus) keeps them trapped in comfort zones, making them fear commitment, security, and stillness.

the preacher (7th house, sagittarius) appears as partners who challenge their beliefs, freedom, and ability to keep relationships light and casual.

★ the strategist (6th house, scorpio) ★

how it attacks:

gemini rising thrives in fast-paced, lighthearted work environments, but scorpio in the 6th house places them in high-pressure jobs, intense coworker dynamics, and workplaces full of secrecy and manipulation. the strategist appears as bosses who micromanage, colleagues who withhold information, and work projects that demand deep focus and long-term dedication. gemini prefers multitasking and variety, but the strategist forces them to dig deep and fully commit to one thing at a time. work becomes mentally and emotionally draining, filled with hidden agendas and power plays they weren’t prepared for.

how gemini self-sabotages:

they avoid dealing with workplace tension, choosing to play along rather than confront problems head-on. they struggle with maintaining focus, leading to unfinished tasks or wasted potential. they burn out because they don’t pace themselves, overloading their mind with too much information, too fast. they may leave jobs abruptly when things get too intense, but this enemy follows them into every workplace until they learn to handle high-stakes situations with strategy rather than avoidance.

★ the tyrant (8th house, capricorn)★

how to defeat it:

gemini must develop emotional intelligence in professional settings. they need to recognize when they’re being manipulated, set boundaries with draining coworkers, and commit to mastering a skill instead of bouncing between interests. if they can channel their adaptability into resilience, the strategist will lose its power.

how it attacks:

capricorn in the 8th house forces gemini rising into slow, painstaking transformations that demand endurance and responsibility. the tyrant appears as financial debt that takes years to pay off, emotional baggage that refuses to be ignored, and long-term commitments they can’t escape from. gemini wants quick solutions, but this enemy ensures that growth comes at a painfully slow pace. they may feel trapped in difficult family obligations, controlling relationships, or legal struggles that demand structure and discipline.

how gemini self-sabotages:

they avoid long-term financial planning, leading to money struggles that haunt them for years. they enter deep emotional connections without preparing for the responsibilities that come with them. when things feel too heavy, they run, only to find themselves stuck in the same cycles later on. the tyrant wins when gemini refuses to commit to their own long-term success.

★ the prison guard (12th house, taurus) ★

how to defeat it:

gemini must learn to take control of their financial and emotional future. if they develop patience, structure, and discipline, they can turn the tyrant into an ally rather than an oppressor.

how it attacks:

taurus in the 12th house makes gemini rising fear being trapped in a life of stillness and predictability. the prison guard appears as comfort zones they can’t break out of, routines that lull them into complacency, and an inability to fully commit to something out of fear of losing their freedom. gemini craves mental stimulation and new experiences, but deep down, they fear stability. this enemy makes them feel restless, unsatisfied, and always searching for something better, even when they already have what they need.

how gemini self-sabotages:

they jump from one thing to the next, thinking the next opportunity, relationship, or project will be the one that finally makes them happy. they avoid long-term commitments, fearing they will lose their sense of self. they stay in situations that are “good enough” rather than taking action to create something truly fulfilling.

★ the preacher (7th house, sagittarius) ★

how to defeat it:

gemini must understand that true freedom comes from within, not from constant external movement. if they embrace a sense of inner security, they will stop running in circles and start creating real stability on their own terms.

how it attacks:

sagittarius in the 7th house brings gemini rising partners who are larger than life, intensely opinionated, and constantly challenging their beliefs. the preacher appears as romantic and business partners who demand that gemini commit to something bigger than themselves, even when they aren’t ready. these relationships push them toward philosophical growth, travel, and long-term visions that require full investment. gemini prefers casual, adaptable partnerships, but the preacher forces them to step up, engage in serious discussions, and face uncomfortable truths about themselves.

how gemini self-sabotages:

they attract partners who force them to commit, but they hesitate, afraid of losing their freedom. they fall into hot-and-cold relationships, bouncing between intense passion and restless boredom. they avoid deep discussions, but the preacher always brings them back, making them face difficult conversations they’d rather escape from.

how to defeat it:

gemini must learn to embrace the idea that deep relationships don’t have to limit them—they can expand their world instead. if they commit without fear, they will gain something much more valuable than surface-level connections.

★ cancer rising: the wanderer, the machine, the chameleon, the fortress ★

the wanderer (6th house, sagittarius) disrupts their sense of routine, forcing them into chaotic work environments, health struggles tied to stress, and unpredictable daily life.

the machine (8th house, aquarius) drags them into cold, impersonal emotional transformations, sudden losses, and crises they cannot emotionally process in real-time.

the chameleon (12th house, gemini) lurks in their subconscious, making them doubt their own emotions and get lost in mental spirals that detach them from their intuition.

the fortress (7th house, capricorn) appears in relationships that feel more like contracts than love, forcing cancer to prove themselves and work for emotional connection rather than receiving it naturally.

★ the wanderer (6th house, sagittarius) ★

how it attacks:

cancer rising finds comfort in stable routines and environments, but sagittarius in the 6th house brings constant change and unpredictability. the wanderer appears as unstable jobs, overwhelming responsibilities, and schedules that never seem to stay the same. cancer wants structure, but this enemy forces them into high-energy, ever-changing work environments that demand constant adaptation. they struggle with balancing personal and professional life, often feeling like their work obligations pull them away from home and emotional security. their health also suffers due to stress, irregular sleep, and emotional eating.

how cancer self-sabotages:

they try to create strict routines to regain control, but life continues to disrupt them, leading to frustration and burnout. they may stay in unfulfilling jobs out of fear of instability, but deep down, they crave freedom from overwhelming responsibilities. they avoid necessary changes because they resent unpredictability, but this only makes them feel trapped in situations they secretly want to escape from.

★ the machine (8th house, aquarius) ★

how to defeat it:

cancer must learn that flexibility does not equal instability. if they embrace change with an open heart, they can create a sense of emotional stability within themselves rather than relying on external factors. the wanderer loses its power when cancer rising accepts movement as part of life instead of resisting it.

how it attacks:

aquarius in the 8th house forces cancer rising into impersonal, unpredictable emotional transformations. the machine appears as sudden losses, betrayals that come out of nowhere, and situations that demand complete emotional detachment. cancer wants depth and connection, but this enemy forces them into cold, distant transformations where emotions are ignored or dismissed. instead of the slow, meaningful healing they need, they are thrown into sudden, shocking changes that feel like they have no control over them.

how cancer self-sabotages:

they cling to past emotional wounds, refusing to accept sudden changes. they become too emotionally attached to situations or people who have already moved on, making it harder for them to heal. they suppress their grief and emotions in an attempt to move forward logically, but this only creates a deep sense of emptiness. the machine wins when cancer rising refuses to embrace emotional change and instead becomes frozen in time, unable to move forward.

★ the chameleon (12th house, gemini) ★

how to defeat it:

cancer must learn that not all changes need to be personal. sometimes, life moves quickly, and not every loss is a betrayal. if they can separate their emotions from external situations and allow themselves to process grief without attachment, the machine loses its power.

how it attacks:

gemini in the 12th house creates a constant inner dialogue that questions cancer’s emotions and instincts. the chameleon appears as racing thoughts, self-doubt, and a subconscious fear of never truly understanding themselves. cancer is deeply intuitive, but this enemy makes them overanalyze everything, causing them to detach from their emotions and question their feelings instead of trusting them. it manifests as sleepless nights, endless mental loops, and a deep fear that they are making the wrong decisions based on emotions rather than logic.

how cancer self-sabotages:

they suppress their intuition, trying to rationalize everything instead of feeling it. they get caught in toxic thought patterns, overanalyzing relationships, decisions, and emotions to the point where they lose sight of what they actually want. they struggle with expressing their deepest fears, often talking about surface-level concerns rather than addressing the real, painful emotions underneath.

★ the fortress (7th house, capricorn) ★

how to defeat it:

cancer must learn to trust their emotions instead of overthinking them. if they allow themselves to feel without explanation, they will reconnect with their inner world. the chameleon loses its power when cancer realizes that not every thought needs to be analyzed—some things are meant to be felt, not explained.

how it attacks:

capricorn in the 7th house makes cancer rising feel like love is a responsibility rather than a source of comfort. the fortress appears as partners who are emotionally unavailable, distant, or overly focused on practical matters instead of intimacy. cancer wants nurturing relationships, but they often attract serious, work-oriented partners who struggle with emotional vulnerability. they feel like they must earn love through effort rather than simply being loved for who they are.

how cancer self-sabotages:

they overcompensate in relationships, trying to prove their worth by giving too much. they stay in emotionally distant relationships for too long, believing that if they just work harder, they’ll finally be loved the way they need. they mistake stability for love, sometimes choosing partners who provide security but lack emotional connection.

how to defeat it:

cancer must learn that love isn’t something they have to earn—it’s something they deserve unconditionally. if they stop seeking validation from emotionally unavailable partners and instead find those who nurture them in return, the fortress crumbles.

★ leo rising: the overseer, the abyss, the phantom king, the outcast ★

the overseer (6th house, capricorn) places them in structured, high-pressure work environments where their freedom and creativity feel suffocated.

the abyss (8th house, pisces) drags them into murky emotional depths, forcing them to deal with loss, betrayal, and subconscious fears they’d rather ignore.

the phantom king (12th house, cancer) lurks in their subconscious, making them fear irrelevance, abandonment, and losing the admiration they thrive on.

the outcast (7th house, aquarius) appears in relationships that challenge their need for attention and admiration, making them feel overlooked or disconnected from their partners.

★ the overseer (6th house, capricorn) ★

how it attacks:

leo rising thrives on passion and creative expression, but capricorn in the 6th house forces them into structured, demanding work environments with little room for individuality. the overseer appears as bosses who expect perfection, high-pressure job expectations, and relentless responsibilities that drain their energy. instead of being recognized for their natural leadership, they are forced to prove themselves over and over again through discipline and hard work. their daily routine becomes rigid and exhausting, making them feel like they are losing their personal freedom in the pursuit of success.

how leo self-sabotages:

they resist structured routines, leading to chaotic schedules that leave them overwhelmed. they rebel against authority, refusing to follow rules that they see as beneath them, which can lead to career instability or professional conflicts. they take on too much responsibility, feeling like they have to do everything themselves to prove their worth. this enemy wins when leo rising tries to fight structure instead of learning how to use it to their advantage.

★ the abyss (8th house, pisces) ★

how to defeat it:

leo must realize that discipline and structure do not limit their creativity—they refine it. if they learn to balance responsibility with self-expression, the overseer loses its control.

how it attacks:

pisces in the 8th house forces leo rising into deep emotional crises where nothing is clear or predictable. the abyss appears as betrayals that come out of nowhere, financial instability, and emotional wounds that refuse to heal in a straight line. leo rising prefers clarity and control, but this enemy clouds their judgment, making them feel lost in emotional confusion. they may struggle with being deceived by those they trust, feeling like the rug has been pulled out from under them without explanation. their relationships and financial security often feel uncertain and unstable, making them fearful of the unknown.

how leo self-sabotages:

they cling to illusions, refusing to see the truth in situations where they have been deceived. they distract themselves with external validation, avoiding processing their emotional pain in a healthy way. they rush into financial or emotional commitments without considering the risks, only to feel trapped when things don’t go as expected. the abyss wins when leo refuses to acknowledge their emotional wounds and instead hides behind their pride.

★ the phantom king (12th house, cancer) ★

how to defeat it:

leo must learn that true strength comes from vulnerability, not avoidance. if they face their emotional pain with honesty and allow themselves to heal, the abyss loses its hold.

how it attacks:

cancer in the 12th house creates a hidden fear of losing relevance and being abandoned by those they love. the phantom king whispers, “what if they stop caring about you? what if no one sees you anymore?” leo rising thrives on recognition and connection, but this enemy makes them fear losing their place in people’s lives. they may struggle with hidden insecurities about being replaceable, leading to subconscious self-sabotage in relationships and career moves. this enemy appears in moments of loneliness, nostalgia for the past, and fears of fading into the background when they aren’t actively in the spotlight.

how leo self-sabotages:

they overcompensate by demanding attention, fearing that if they aren’t constantly visible, they will be forgotten. they hold onto relationships that have run their course, terrified of losing emotional connections that once defined them. they hide their own emotional needs, pretending to be strong and unbothered while secretly fearing rejection. the phantom king wins when leo rising lets their fear of irrelevance control their actions.

★ the outcast (7th house, aquarius) ★

how to defeat it:

leo must realize that their worth is not tied to external validation. if they build a strong inner foundation and embrace self-love without needing constant recognition, the phantom king fades away.

how it attacks:

aquarius in the 7th house attracts partners who are independent, unpredictable, and emotionally distant. the outcast appears as lovers who resist deep emotional connection, friendships that feel distant, and business partners who prioritize logic over feelings. leo rising wants passion and devotion, but this enemy places them in relationships that feel cool, detached, and sometimes outright indifferent. they may feel like they are giving their all to people who never fully reciprocate their energy.

how leo self-sabotages:

they attract partners who challenge their need for admiration, feeling frustrated when their efforts go unnoticed. they mistake freedom for rejection, struggling with trusting that love doesn’t have to be constant validation. they push people away when they feel unappreciated, rather than allowing relationships to breathe and grow organically. the outcast wins when leo rising seeks constant affirmation instead of building secure, balanced relationships.

how to defeat it:

leo must understand that love is not about possession or constant reassurance—it’s about trust and mutual respect. if they allow themselves to experience relationships without needing control, the outcast loses its power.

★ virgo rising: the fool, the destroyer, the ghost, the trickster ★

the fool (6th house, aquarius) disrupts their carefully structured routines, throwing them into unpredictable work environments and health struggles that defy logic.

the destroyer (8th house, aries) drags them into sudden, painful transformations that strip them of control and force them into crisis mode without warning.

the ghost (12th house, leo) lurks in their subconscious, whispering fears of being invisible, unappreciated, and never truly recognized for their efforts.

the trickster (7th house, pisces) appears in relationships that deceive, confuse, and challenge virgo’s desire for certainty and clarity in love.

★ the fool (6th house, aquarius) ★

how it attacks:

virgo rising craves efficiency, order, and structured routines, but aquarius in the 6th house brings constant change, unconventional work settings, and unpredictable health patterns. the fool appears as disruptive coworkers, unstructured job environments, and sudden shifts that force them to adapt when they’d rather plan ahead. workplaces feel disorganized, full of eccentric personalities who don’t follow the rules. instead of a reliable schedule, their daily life is full of interruptions, last-minute changes, and unexpected complications. their health may also be affected by nervous energy, sudden stressors, or erratic habits they can’t control.

how virgo self-sabotages:

they cling too tightly to routine, panicking when things don’t go as planned. they try to fix chaos with logic, but the fool doesn’t play by their rules. they struggle with overthinking and micromanaging, exhausting themselves in an attempt to control what can’t be controlled. the more they resist embracing spontaneity, the more the fool tightens its grip.

★ the destroyer (8th house, aries) ★

how to defeat it:

virgo must learn that not everything needs a strict plan. if they embrace adaptability and trust themselves to handle the unknown, the fool loses its power. finding balance between logic and flexibility will allow them to navigate chaotic situations with confidence.

how it attacks:

aries in the 8th house forces virgo rising into intense, fast-moving crises that demand immediate action and emotional endurance. the destroyer appears as sudden losses, financial upheavals, and deep betrayals that happen without warning. virgo rising prefers carefully planned transformations, but this enemy rips control from their hands, forcing them into high-pressure situations where they must act fast. this enemy thrives on pushing them to their emotional and financial limits, demanding resilience without preparation.

how virgo self-sabotages:

they overanalyze rather than act, trying to delay crisis instead of adapting quickly. they suppress anger and emotional intensity, but the destroyer forces them to confront raw, unfiltered emotions head-on. they struggle with letting go, resisting transformation until it happens by force. the more they try to control the uncontrollable, the harder the destroyer strikes.

how to defeat it:

virgo must learn that not all change can be planned—some must be faced head-on. if they accept that destruction is sometimes necessary for rebirth, they can turn moments of crisis into opportunities for renewal. the destroyer loses its grip when they trust their instincts rather than fear them.

★ the ghost (12th house, leo) ★

how it attacks:

leo in the 12th house creates a hidden fear of invisibility, unrecognized effort, and being overshadowed by others. the ghost appears in moments of self-doubt, whispering that no matter how hard virgo rising works, they will never receive the recognition they deserve. they thrive on being useful and competent, but this enemy makes them feel unseen, unappreciated, or constantly second to someone else. they may struggle with feeling overlooked in their personal and professional life, believing that their worth is only as strong as their ability to serve others.

how virgo self-sabotages:

they work tirelessly to prove themselves, but never feel fully satisfied with external validation. they suppress their own creative desires, prioritizing helping others over their own self-expression. they fear taking up too much space, often downplaying their achievements instead of owning their success. the ghost wins when virgo rising lets self-doubt keep them in the background instead of stepping into their own spotlight.

★ the trickster (7th house, pisces) ★

how to defeat it:

virgo must realize that they are not just valuable because of what they do for others—they are valuable simply for who they are. if they allow themselves to take pride in their talents and step forward with confidence, the ghost fades away.

how it attacks:

pisces in the 7th house makes relationships unclear, unpredictable, and often filled with illusions. the trickster appears as partners who are hard to pin down, emotionally elusive, or dishonest in ways that are hard to detect at first. virgo rising wants practical, straightforward partnerships, but this enemy attracts romantic and business relationships where nothing is as it seems. they may fall for people who manipulate with charm, promise stability but never deliver, or disappear when things get serious. love feels like a constant puzzle, full of missing pieces that virgo rising desperately tries to solve.

how virgo self-sabotages:

they overanalyze relationships, trying to find logic in emotions that can’t be rationalized. they seek perfection in partners, only to feel disillusioned when reality doesn’t match their expectations. they ignore red flags, assuming they can fix or help the people they love, but the trickster thrives on false hope and illusions.

how to defeat it:

virgo must learn that love is not a problem to be solved—it is an experience to be felt. if they stop seeking certainty and instead embrace emotional flow, the trickster loses its ability to deceive. trusting intuition over logic in relationships will allow them to see through illusions and avoid unnecessary heartache.

★ libra rising: the workhorse, the storm, the doppelgänger, the challenger ★

the tide (6th house, pisces) pulls them into waves of emotional and professional overwhelm, blurring the line between responsibility and sacrifice.

the sandstorm (8th house, taurus) buries them in slow-moving but unavoidable emotional and financial transformations that challenge their patience and comfort zones.

the masquerade (12th house, virgo) lurks in their subconscious, whispering self-doubt and perfectionism, making them feel like they must constantly refine themselves to be worthy of love and success.

the warrior (7th house, aries) appears in relationships that demand courage, independence, and confrontation—things libra rising instinctively avoids in order to keep the peace.

★ the tide (6th house, pisces) ★

how it attacks:

libra rising craves clear responsibilities and work-life balance, but pisces in the 6th house brings fluidity, uncertainty, and obligations that drain them emotionally rather than just physically. the tide appears as jobs that expect too much, coworkers who overshare personal struggles, and unclear boundaries between professional and emotional labor. libra rising often finds themselves absorbing the stress of their environment, feeling responsible for fixing problems they didn’t cause. their work feels like an ocean of shifting expectations, where they must constantly adjust without clear guidance. their health also suffers from stress, exhaustion, and difficulty maintaining routines due to external demands.

how libra self-sabotages:

they say yes too often, believing that if they help enough people, everything will fall into place. they struggle with setting boundaries, fearing that asserting their needs will make them appear selfish or unkind. they avoid structure, thinking that rigid schedules restrict their freedom, only to become overwhelmed when they lack direction. the tide wins when libra rising lets themselves be carried away by responsibilities they never truly wanted to take on in the first place.

★ the sandstorm (8th house, taurus) ★

how to defeat it:

libra must learn that helping others does not mean drowning in their problems. if they establish firm boundaries and create routines that prioritize their well-being, the tide loses its grip. learning to say “no” without guilt will allow them to regain their own sense of flow without being swept away.

how it attacks:

taurus in the 8th house forces libra rising into slow, heavy transformations that cannot be rushed or avoided. the sandstorm appears as financial burdens that take years to resolve, emotionally draining relationships that linger, and personal evolutions that feel like walking through endless resistance. unlike the quick, adaptable change libra prefers, this enemy demands endurance and patience, refusing to let them move on until they fully face what needs to be transformed.

how libra self-sabotages:

they cling to comfort even when it no longer serves them, fearing that leaving stability behind means making an irreversible mistake. they avoid difficult emotional conversations, thinking that if they pretend everything is fine, it will eventually resolve itself. they struggle with letting go, often holding onto people, financial obligations, or emotional burdens long past their expiration date. the sandstorm wins when libra rising remains stuck in cycles of avoidance, letting change happen to them instead of actively participating in their own transformation.

★ the masquerade (12th house, virgo) ★

how to defeat it:

libra must accept that not all change can be controlled, and some things require endurance rather than avoidance. if they face their financial and emotional struggles with patience rather than trying to rush to the finish line, the sandstorm loses its grip.

how it attacks:

virgo in the 12th house creates a hidden voice of self-criticism that constantly questions libra rising’s decisions, making them feel like they must be polished and flawless to be truly accepted. the masquerade whispers, "are you sure this is the right choice? are you refined enough, successful enough, desirable enough?" libra thrives on beauty and balance, but this enemy makes them fixate on flaws, second-guess their actions, and fear being exposed as inadequate. they may struggle with an internal pressure to maintain an idealized version of themselves, constantly adjusting to meet others' expectations instead of simply existing as they are.

how libra self-sabotages:

they overanalyze every social interaction, every choice, and every commitment, paralyzing themselves with indecision. they struggle with acknowledging their own needs, often deferring to what they believe will please others rather than what truly fulfills them. they may hold themselves to impossibly high standards, believing that any mistake could damage their reputation or relationships. the masquerade wins when libra rising lets their own self-doubt keep them from embracing their true identity and desires.

★ the warrior (7th house, aries) ★

how to defeat it:

libra must realize that they do not need to be perfect—they need to be authentic. if they trust their instincts rather than constantly refining themselves for others, the masquerade loses its power.

how it attacks:

aries in the 7th house attracts partners who are direct, independent, and sometimes confrontational. the warrior appears as lovers who push libra rising to assert themselves, stand their ground, and make decisions without overthinking. libra prefers harmony and mutual understanding, but this enemy places them in relationships that demand personal strength and self-assertion rather than constant compromise. they may attract partners who challenge their desire for fairness by pushing them to be decisive, competitive, and self-reliant.

how libra self-sabotages:

they avoid conflict at all costs, often sacrificing their own needs just to maintain peace in relationships. they mistake assertiveness for aggression, struggling to stand their ground when it truly matters. they may become overly reliant on a partner’s leadership, believing that someone else should make the hard decisions for them. the warrior wins when libra rising fears confrontation so much that they lose their ability to fight for what they truly want in relationships.

how to defeat it:

libra must realize that standing up for themselves does not mean creating conflict—it means claiming their power. if they embrace self-assertion and make decisions based on their own needs rather than trying to please others, the warrior loses its grip.

★ scorpio rising: the taskmaster, the wildfire, the mirror, the tower ★

the taskmaster (6th house, aries) forces them into grueling work environments, exhausting responsibilities, and non-stop action with no room for rest or strategy.

the whirlwind (8th house, gemini) spreads rapid and unpredictable destruction through miscommunication, betrayal, and emotional upheavals they never see coming.

the mirror (12th house, libra) lurks in their subconscious, forcing them to reconcile their need for control with their hidden desire for harmony and validation.

the tower (7th house, taurus) appears in relationships that challenge their emotional intensity with stability, patience, and resistance to their usual tactics of manipulation or control.

★ the taskmaster (6th house, aries) ★

how it attacks:

scorpio rising prefers to move with strategy, taking control over their own pace, but aries in the 6th house drags them into constant action, high-pressure work environments, and physical exhaustion that leaves no time for careful planning. the taskmaster appears as demanding jobs, overwhelming routines, and responsibilities that never seem to end. scorpio rising craves depth and meaning, but this enemy forces them into mindless, repetitive labor that drains their energy. their health suffers from stress, overworking, and pushing themselves to the absolute limit.

how scorpio self-sabotages:

they refuse to rest, believing that if they stop, they will lose control over their success. they bottle up frustration, only to explode when the pressure becomes unbearable. they reject help, thinking that true strength means doing everything alone. the taskmaster wins when scorpio rising burns out completely, leaving them unable to function effectively.

★ the whirlwind (8th house, gemini) ★

how to defeat it:

scorpio must learn that working smart is more important than working hard. if they embrace efficiency, delegate responsibilities, and prioritize their well-being, the taskmaster loses its power.

how it attacks:

gemini in the 8th house forces scorpio rising into fast-moving emotional crises, unexpected betrayals, and chaotic transformations that they cannot control. the whirlwind appears as partners who spread misinformation, friendships that dissolve without warning, and secrets that surface at the worst possible moments. unlike the slow, deep emotional transformations scorpio prefers, this enemy brings sudden, jarring changes that leave them scrambling for answers.

how scorpio self-sabotages:

they obsess over hidden meanings, desperately trying to piece together fragmented truths. they hold onto grudges, unable to let go of past betrayals even when moving forward would serve them better. they overestimate their ability to control narratives, believing that if they dig deep enough, they can uncover the full truth—but the whirlwind ensures that truth always remains elusive.

★ the mirror (12th house, libra) ★

how to defeat it:

scorpio must accept that not every mystery needs to be solved, and not every battle is worth fighting. if they let go of their need to control information and embrace adaptability, the whirlwind loses its power.

how it attacks:

libra in the 12th house creates a hidden contradiction within scorpio rising—on the surface, they exude power and independence, but deep down, they secretly crave harmony, acceptance, and even love from others in ways they don’t admit to themselves. the mirror whispers, “you are not as in control as you pretend to be. you want to be loved, just like everyone else.” scorpio rising wants to believe they are above the need for external validation, but this enemy forces them to reckon with the parts of themselves that desire approval, affection, and connection.

how scorpio self-sabotages:

they push people away, fearing that letting others in will make them vulnerable. they dismiss their own need for love, pretending that they do not care about being understood. they struggle with internal contradictions, torn between their desire for power and their secret longing for peace. the mirror wins when scorpio rising denies their softer side, refusing to acknowledge their need for balance and connection.

★ the tower (7th house, taurus) ★

how to defeat it:

scorpio must accept that they can be both powerful and vulnerable, both dominant and loving. if they embrace their desire for harmony instead of suppressing it, the mirror loses its hold.

how it attacks:

taurus in the 7th house attracts partners who resist scorpio’s usual tactics of control, manipulation, and emotional intensity. the tower appears as lovers who refuse to engage in power struggles, who demand stability instead of chaos, and who hold their ground rather than bending to scorpio’s will. relationships feel slow, unmovable, and sometimes frustratingly stable, lacking the extreme emotional highs and lows scorpio is used to navigating. unlike the deeply transformative connections scorpio prefers, this enemy forces them to experience love as something steady and unshakable rather than dramatic and consuming.

how scorpio self-sabotages:

they test their partners, pushing limits to see if they will react, but taurus energy remains calm and unmoved, which frustrates them even more. they resist trust, believing that if they let go of control, they will lose their power. they mistake consistency for boredom, often sabotaging stable relationships because they crave something more intense. the tower wins when scorpio rising rejects stability, convincing themselves that love must be painful in order to be meaningful.

how to defeat it:

scorpio must realize that true strength lies in trust and patience, not just in power and intensity. if they embrace the idea that love can be stable and fulfilling without being destructive or obsessive, the tower loses its foundation and crumbles.

★ sagittarius rising: the warden, the undertow, the serpent, the ballast ★

the warden (6th house, taurus) forces them into repetitive, rigid routines that feel suffocating and slow, demanding discipline and patience rather than excitement and variety.

the undertow (8th house, cancer) drags them into overwhelming emotional depths, forcing them to confront attachment, loss, and intimacy in ways they instinctively resist.

the serpent (12th house, scorpio) lurks in their subconscious, clouding their instincts with paranoia, self-doubt, and fears of hidden betrayals that may or may not be real.

the ballast (7th house, gemini) appears in relationships that feel too logical, detached, or mentally exhausting, challenging their need for passion and spiritual depth in love.

★ the warden (6th house, taurus) ★

how it attacks:

sagittarius rising thrives on spontaneity and movement, but taurus in the 6th house drags them into slow, repetitive routines that feel like an inescapable prison. the warden appears as unwavering responsibilities, work that demands patience and endurance, and an environment that offers little stimulation or adventure. sagittarius wants quick results and flexible schedules, but this enemy demands consistency, discipline, and a long-term commitment to progress. it shows up in strict work schedules, demanding health regimens, and daily obligations that seem to drag on forever.

how sagittarius self-sabotages:

they avoid commitment, jumping between jobs and projects before they see results. they procrastinate on long-term goals, believing they will figure things out later, only to feel overwhelmed when responsibilities catch up to them. they resist slowing down, fearing that stillness means stagnation. the warden wins when sagittarius rising refuses to develop discipline, leaving them stuck in cycles of unfinished ideas and fleeting interests that never turn into something stable.

★ the undertow (8th house, cancer) ★

how to defeat it:

sagittarius must learn that structure does not equal confinement—it is the foundation that makes long-term freedom possible. if they embrace patience and steady effort without seeing it as a cage, the warden loses its power.

how it attacks:

cancer in the 8th house forces sagittarius rising into deep emotional waters they are not prepared to navigate. the undertow appears as intense, overwhelming relationships, family burdens they cannot escape, and a need to face their own emotions instead of running from them. unlike the lighthearted connections sagittarius prefers, this enemy drags them into matters of life, death, and legacy, forcing them to feel things they would rather intellectualize or joke about.

how sagittarius self-sabotages:

they avoid deep emotional bonds, keeping relationships surface-level to avoid being tied down. they shut down when people expect emotional vulnerability, preferring to keep things light rather than diving into painful discussions. they distract themselves with travel, work, or new experiences rather than sitting with their feelings and processing them fully. the undertow wins when sagittarius rising denies themselves true emotional connection and healing because they fear the weight of it.

★ the serpent (12th house, scorpio) ★

how to defeat it:

sagittarius must learn that freedom is not just physical—it is emotional too. if they allow themselves to face their feelings rather than escape them, they will find deeper meaning and connection than they ever thought possible.

how it attacks:

scorpio in the 12th house creates a lurking fear of betrayal, failure, and losing control. the serpent coils around sagittarius rising’s subconscious, whispering "what if you're wrong? what if you’ve trusted the wrong people? what if there's something lurking beneath the surface you’re too blind to see?" sagittarius prefers truth, openness, and expansion, but this enemy poisons them with paranoia, self-doubt, and subconscious sabotage that leads them into self-destructive patterns. they may laugh things off on the surface, but underneath, they are haunted by unspoken fears of what’s waiting in the shadows.

how sagittarius self-sabotages:

they become reckless to avoid confronting their inner darkness, throwing themselves into distractions instead of acknowledging their deeper wounds. they doubt their own wisdom, fearing that they will never have all the answers, leading them to overcompensate with arrogance or avoidance. they keep their pain buried, assuming that if they don’t think about it, it won’t affect them—only for it to creep into their decisions unconsciously. the serpent wins when sagittarius rising lets fear of the unknown dictate their actions rather than embracing the power of transformation.

★ the ballast (7th house, gemini) ★

how to defeat it:

sagittarius must realize that fear only has power when ignored. if they confront their hidden wounds, embrace vulnerability, and trust in their ability to overcome, the serpent loses its venom.

how it attacks:

gemini in the 7th house attracts partners who challenge sagittarius rising’s need for passion and adventure with logic, detachment, and intellectual debates that can feel cold or exhausting. the ballast appears as lovers who overanalyze everything, make love feel like a mental chess game rather than a passionate connection, or constantly test their beliefs in frustrating ways. sagittarius seeks a lover who will run wild with them, but this enemy keeps them tethered to reality, forcing them to engage in difficult conversations rather than simply escaping into passion or philosophy.

how sagittarius self-sabotages:

they get restless in relationships, craving constant novelty and excitement. they avoid serious conversations, choosing charm and humor over emotional depth. they struggle with staying present in relationships that require patience and effort, assuming that if things aren’t effortless, they aren’t meant to be. the ballast wins when sagittarius rising rejects commitment, assuming it will slow them down rather than expand their world in new ways.

how to defeat it:

sagittarius must realize that real love is not about constant movement—it is about trust, growth, and exploration together. if they stop fearing commitment and embrace meaningful intellectual and emotional connections, the ballast loses its weight.

★ capricorn rising: the conveyor belt, the pyre, the shadowcaster, the maelstrom ★

the conveyor belt (6th house, gemini) throws them into chaotic routines, constant multitasking, and shallow distractions that drain their efficiency and focus.

the pyre (8th house, leo) forces them into ego-destroying transformations, stripping away their carefully built self-image through loss, betrayal, and power struggles.

the shadowcaster (12th house, sagittarius) lurks in their subconscious, creating an inner conflict between their need for control and their hidden desire for boundless freedom and escape.

the maelstrom (7th house, cancer) appears in relationships that overwhelm them with emotional intensity, unpredictability, and demands for vulnerability they struggle to meet.

★ the conveyor belt (6th house, gemini) ★

how it attacks:

capricorn rising thrives on structure and efficiency, but gemini in the 6th house disrupts their carefully laid plans with constant interruptions, overwhelming responsibilities, and shallow tasks that waste their time. the conveyor belt appears as a fast-paced work environment that prioritizes speed over quality, an endless influx of responsibilities that prevent deep focus, and a lack of consistency that makes it difficult to establish long-term stability. capricorn rising prefers steady progress, but this enemy forces them to juggle too many tasks at once, leading to burnout and dissatisfaction.

how capricorn self-sabotages:

they micromanage everything, believing that if they control every detail, they can prevent chaos—only to exhaust themselves in the process. they overcommit to responsibilities, taking on too much out of a sense of duty, even when it drains them. they ignore their need for rest, believing that working harder will solve everything, even when their lack of efficiency is the real problem. the conveyor belt wins when capricorn rising mistakes busyness for productivity, losing sight of their long-term goals in the process.

★ the pyre (8th house, leo) ★

how to defeat it:

capricorn must learn that quality matters more than quantity. if they prioritize deep work, delegate unnecessary tasks, and allow flexibility in their routines without sacrificing structure, the conveyor belt loses its grip.

how it attacks:

leo in the 8th house forces capricorn rising into sudden and often humiliating transformations that strip away their pride, authority, or sense of control. the pyre appears as public failures, betrayals that damage their reputation, or deep emotional losses that force them to let go of their rigid self-image. unlike the gradual, structured change they prefer, this enemy burns away everything they once relied on, leaving them exposed and vulnerable before they have a chance to rebuild.

how capricorn self-sabotages:

they cling to their authority and status, refusing to admit when they need help or when their old methods are no longer working. they fear showing weakness, leading them to bottle up emotions until they explode in dramatic ways. they struggle with letting go, often trying to salvage control in situations that demand surrender. the pyre wins when capricorn rising fights against necessary transformation, only to have it forced upon them in painful, unavoidable ways.

★ the shadowcaster (12th house, sagittarius) ★

how to defeat it:

capricorn must accept that sometimes destruction is necessary for renewal. if they embrace change rather than resisting it, they can rise from the ashes stronger and wiser. the pyre loses its fire when capricorn learns to let go of outdated versions of themselves before life forces them to.

how it attacks:

sagittarius in the 12th house creates a subconscious conflict between capricorn’s need for stability and their hidden desire for escape, risk, and freedom. the shadowcaster whispers, “what if you’re missing out? what if you built this entire life only to realize you never really lived?” capricorn rising thrives on control and careful planning, but this enemy fuels impulsive desires to abandon everything and run toward the unknown—an urge they struggle to reconcile with their responsibility-driven nature.

how capricorn self-sabotages:

they deny their need for adventure, suppressing any impulse that threatens their structured world—only to find themselves secretly fantasizing about escape. they intellectualize their emotions, avoiding deep spiritual reflection in favor of tangible achievements. they fear uncertainty, preferring to stay on the path they’ve built, even if it no longer excites them. the shadowcaster wins when capricorn rising lets fear of instability keep them from evolving, leaving them feeling trapped in a life they built but no longer connect with.

★ the maelstrom (7th house, cancer) ★

how to defeat it:

capricorn must learn that they don’t have to choose between stability and adventure—they can have both. if they integrate spontaneity and self-discovery into their structured life, the shadowcaster fades away.

how it attacks:

cancer in the 7th house attracts partners who bring deep emotional intensity, unpredictable moods, and demands for vulnerability that capricorn rising struggles to meet. the maelstrom appears as relationships that require them to open up, soften, and connect on an emotional level rather than just a practical one. capricorn rising prefers partnerships built on mutual goals and stability, but this enemy forces them into love that is raw, nurturing, and sometimes overwhelming in its depth and intensity.

how capricorn self-sabotages:

they emotionally detach, keeping relationships strictly transactional or goal-oriented rather than allowing them to be deeply felt experiences. they view emotions as distractions, struggling with being present in moments of deep connection. they fear dependency, believing that needing someone too much will make them weak. the maelstrom wins when capricorn rising pushes away genuine intimacy out of fear that they will lose control in the process.

how to defeat it:

capricorn must learn that true strength lies in allowing themselves to be loved fully, not just respected or admired. if they embrace emotional connection rather than avoiding it, the maelstrom loses its storm.

★ aquarius rising: the tidebreaker, the iron veil, the hollow, the sovereign ★

the tidebreaker (6th house, cancer) disrupts their logical, structured world with unpredictable emotional demands, workplace drama, and physical stress rooted in unresolved emotional baggage.

the iron veil (8th house, virgo) forces them into slow, grueling psychological transformations that demand patience, humility, and meticulous self-analysis—things they resist deeply.

the hollow (12th house, capricorn) lurks in their subconscious, creating an inner war between their rebellious ideals and a hidden, relentless drive for control, status, and power.

the sovereign (7th house, leo) appears in relationships that challenge their detached, intellectual approach to love by demanding passion, adoration, and unwavering presence.

★ the tidebreaker (6th house, cancer) ★

how it attacks:

aquarius rising thrives on rationality and objectivity, but cancer in the 6th house forces them into work environments and daily routines that are dictated by emotion rather than logic. the tidebreaker appears as unpredictable coworkers, emotionally draining work responsibilities, and health struggles that stem from bottled-up stress. unlike the detached and calculated approach they prefer, this enemy turns every task into an emotional ordeal, making it difficult for them to separate work from personal feelings.

how aquarius self-sabotages:

they dismiss emotional needs as irrational, avoiding self-care until stress manifests as physical exhaustion. they detach in workplace drama, refusing to engage but still feeling the weight of unresolved tension around them. they overlook the importance of emotional balance in their daily life, leading to burnout and erratic productivity cycles. the tidebreaker wins when aquarius rising ignores the emotional undercurrents affecting their well-being, mistaking detachment for control.

★ the iron veil (8th house, virgo) ★

how to defeat it:

aquarius must learn that emotional intelligence is just as important as intellectual intelligence. if they acknowledge the emotional weight of their environment instead of dismissing it, they can create boundaries that protect their energy rather than pretending they don’t need them. the tidebreaker loses its force when aquarius rising embraces both logic and emotion in their daily life.

how it attacks:

virgo in the 8th house forces aquarius rising into painfully slow, detail-heavy personal transformations that feel suffocating and never-ending. the iron veil appears as a cycle of self-improvement that is never enough, deep insecurities masked as perfectionism, and crises that require careful, tedious healing instead of quick fixes or intellectual solutions. unlike the sudden breakthroughs aquarius prefers, this enemy demands meticulous self-work that cannot be skipped or avoided.

how aquarius self-sabotages:

they intellectualize their emotions, analyzing their problems instead of actually processing and feeling them. they avoid deep personal work, preferring to distract themselves with new ideas or future plans rather than dealing with old wounds that still influence them. they deny their own vulnerability, refusing to admit that they, too, need healing and emotional care. the iron veil wins when aquarius rising avoids necessary transformation, staying stuck in mental loops rather than making real progress.

★ the hollow (12th house, capricorn) ★

how to defeat it:

aquarius must realize that true transformation is not about intellectual mastery—it’s about emotional integration. if they embrace the discomfort of slow healing instead of trying to "logic" their way out of it, the iron veil loses its power.

how it attacks:

capricorn in the 12th house creates a hidden conflict between aquarius rising’s rebellious, nonconformist ideals and their subconscious desire for control, power, and recognition. the hollow whispers, “you act like you don’t care about success, but what if deep down, you do? what if everything you claim to reject is actually what you crave the most?” aquarius prides themselves on breaking societal norms, but this enemy reveals the part of them that fears being irrelevant, directionless, or incapable of building something lasting.

how aquarius self-sabotages:

they reject traditional success too aggressively, sometimes turning down opportunities just to prove they are different. they act as if they don’t care about legacy or reputation, even when deep down, they want to make a lasting impact but fear being seen as hypocritical. they hide their need for structure, believing that admitting to their ambitions would mean surrendering to the very systems they claim to resist. the hollow wins when aquarius rising lets their fear of conformity keep them from fully embracing their power and influence.

★ the sovereign (7th house, leo) ★

how to defeat it:

aquarius must realize that power is not the enemy—misuse of power is. if they accept that ambition does not have to mean selling out, and that structure does not have to mean restriction, the hollow loses its grip.

how it attacks:

leo in the 7th house attracts partners who demand loyalty, grand gestures, and unwavering presence—things aquarius rising often struggles to provide. the sovereign appears as relationships that feel larger than life, lovers who expect admiration and deep emotional engagement, and partnerships that challenge their need for independence and detachment. aquarius rising prefers companionship that allows for freedom, but this enemy demands total commitment, forcing them to confront their resistance to deep emotional investment.

how aquarius self-sabotages:

they keep relationships at arm’s length, fearing that if they give too much of themselves, they will lose their identity. they downplay their emotions, sometimes acting indifferent or unavailable even when they deeply care. they resist partners who want to be the center of their world, struggling with expressing appreciation in ways that feel genuine to them rather than performative or forced. the sovereign wins when aquarius rising rejects the vulnerability of love in favor of detached intellectualism, losing deep connections in the process.

how to defeat it:

aquarius must learn that true freedom in relationships comes from trust and mutual respect, not distance and avoidance. if they embrace devotion without feeling like it threatens their independence, the sovereign loses its power.

★ pisces rising: the inferno, the marionette, the rift, the sentinel ★

the inferno (6th house, leo) burns through their desire for quiet, intuitive work, forcing them into high-pressure environments where ego and recognition dictate success.

the marionette (8th house, libra) traps them in emotional and financial dependencies, pulling their strings so subtly that they do not realize they are losing control until it is too late.

the rift (12th house, aquarius) lurks in their subconscious, making them feel like an outsider in their own mind, torn between their dreamlike visions and the cold detachment of reality.

the sentinel (7th house, virgo) appears in relationships that demand practicality, structure, and discipline, forcing them to reconcile their ideals with the need for stability and reliability in love.

★ the inferno (6th house, leo) ★

how it attacks:

pisces rising thrives on fluidity, creative expression, and quiet inspiration, but leo in the 6th house throws them into environments where they are expected to be seen, acknowledged, and perform under pressure. the inferno appears as demanding bosses, high-stakes careers that require constant self-promotion, or daily routines that require them to maintain a dominant presence rather than flowing at their own pace. unlike the dreamlike, intuitive work environments they long for, this enemy demands authority, structure, and external validation.

how pisces self-sabotages:

they shrink from leadership roles, fearing that stepping into the spotlight will strip them of their deeper, spiritual purpose. they avoid structured routines, preferring spontaneity even when discipline could help them thrive. they downplay their own success, believing that seeking recognition is egotistical when, in reality, it’s necessary for growth. the inferno wins when pisces rising refuses to embrace their inner strength, instead letting themselves drift aimlessly in jobs or routines that do not fulfill them.

★ the marionette (8th house, libra) ★

how to defeat it:

pisces must realize that being seen does not mean losing their authenticity. if they allow themselves to take up space, lead with compassion, and accept recognition as part of their journey, the inferno loses its flames.

how it attacks:

libra in the 8th house forces pisces rising into deep, complex emotional and financial connections that feel impossible to untangle. the marionette appears as relationships where they lose themselves in others, joint financial burdens they cannot escape, and a never-ending struggle between maintaining peace and asserting their needs. unlike the free-flowing, romantic bonds they seek, this enemy ties them to obligations that grow more complicated over time, draining them of energy and autonomy.

how pisces self-sabotages:

they prioritize harmony over self-protection, staying in situations that are quietly suffocating them just to avoid confrontation. they believe love means sacrifice, sometimes giving up more than they receive in return. they become financially or emotionally dependent, making it difficult to walk away from relationships that have become entangled with their survival or sense of self. the marionette wins when pisces rising mistakes obligation for connection, binding themselves to others at the cost of their own freedom.

★ the rift (12th house, aquarius) ★

how to defeat it:

pisces must learn that true connection does not come from dependence—it comes from mutual respect and balance. if they assert their boundaries and reclaim their independence, the marionette’s strings will snap.

how it attacks:

aquarius in the 12th house creates a deep internal divide between pisces rising’s rich inner world and an underlying fear of emotional detachment or irrelevance. the rift whispers, “your dreams are beautiful, but what if they don’t mean anything? what if you are just another wandering soul, lost in illusion?” pisces rising is deeply connected to spirituality and creativity, but this enemy injects doubt, making them feel isolated even within their own mind. they may experience visions, intuition, and dreams that feel profound, only to question if they are truly connected or if they are merely lost in their own delusions.

how pisces self-sabotages:

they avoid grounding themselves, preferring to stay in the world of ideas and dreams even when reality is calling them back. they doubt their own intuition, fearing that they cannot trust their instincts or that their inner world is somehow “wrong” or meaningless. they disconnect from others, feeling too different or too misunderstood to fully belong anywhere. the rift wins when pisces rising convinces themselves that they are a ghost drifting through life rather than an active creator of their own destiny.

★ the sentinel (7th house, virgo) ★

how to defeat it:

pisces must realize that they do not have to choose between dreams and reality—they can build a bridge between them. if they anchor their creativity and intuition in the physical world through action and expression, the rift loses its power to separate them from themselves.

how it attacks:

virgo in the 7th house attracts partners who demand order, structure, and logic—things that pisces rising often struggles with in their romantic relationships. the sentinel appears as partners who need stability, who expect routines and reliability, who analyze love rather than surrendering to it. pisces rising seeks romantic, intuitive, and spiritual bonds, but this enemy challenges them to be practical, to make love something tangible rather than just a dream or a feeling.

how pisces self-sabotages:

they romanticize instability, sometimes choosing lovers who “save” them rather than ones who help them grow. they resist structure in relationships, fearing that commitments will strip away the magic and mystery they crave. they become passive, allowing partners to dictate the direction of the relationship because they fear confrontation or responsibility. the sentinel wins when pisces rising refuses to engage in the practical side of love, expecting devotion to be purely intuitive rather than a daily act of commitment and care.

how to defeat it:

pisces must learn that love does not lose its magic just because it is stable. if they embrace consistency and effort as part of devotion rather than limitations on passion, the sentinel loses its power.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

words for when your characters get into a fight (pt. 4)

Pain

ache, anesthesia/anaesthesia, distress, harassment, hurt, pinch, strain, suffer, torture, wrong

Attack

aggression, assail, beat up, blast, blind-side, bomb, brutality, charge, come at, coup d’état, embroil, encroach, fire, foray, go for, infest, insurrection, invasion, lay into, mug, occupation, offensive, onslaught, overrun, pillage, pounce, raid, ravage, rush, sortie, subvert, waylay

To destroy

ablate, abolition, annul, batter, bomb, bring down, burst, butcher, clobber, come unglued, consumption, coup de grâce, crumple, cut down, decimate, deforestation, demolition, desecrate, desolate, devastate, dismantle, dispatch, do away with, do in, end, endanger, eradicate, erosion, execute, expunge, exterminate, extinguish, finish, genocide, hara-kiri, homicide, jeopardize, kill, knock off, liquidate, mangle, massacre, murder, obliterate, paralyze, pillage, poison, prostrate, pulverize, put away, put out, quench, raze, ruin, sack, shiver, slaughter, smash, stamp out, subdue, suppress, undo, vandalism, violation, wipe out, wreck

To injure

abuse, ail, batter, beat, bruise, cost, crush, debilitate, deface, deform, desecrate, devastate, disagree, disfigure, expose, fragment, gripe, handicap, hurt, incapacitate, jeopardize, lacerate, maim, mar, mistreat, mutilate, outrage, paralyze, poison, pummel, repay, ruin, sabotage, scar, shatter, shoot, smart, snap, spoil, stress, taint, torture, turn, violate, vitiate, wrong

To make dirty

adulterate, clutter, mess up, smudge, stain, tarnish

To make hot or cold

air, chill, freeze, heat, melt, numb, refrigerate, shrivel, warm

To make wet

absorb, dampen, dip, drench, drool, dunk, extinguish, marinate, oil, permeate, saturate, souse, splash, spray, squirt, submerge

Military action

barrage, blow up, conflict, coup d’état, deploy, deposition, dethrone, disarm, draft, engage, enlist, explosion, incursion, induction, invade, maneuver, occupation, offensive, overthrow, rebellion, revolt, salute, station, volley, warfare

Bad person

accessory, accurser, adversary, aggressor, alarmist, antagonist, ass, assassin, authoritarian, barbarian, bigmouth, bottom feeder, bum, burglar, cad, captive, charlatan, clod, cold fish, conspirator, criminal, crook, culprit, deadbeat, delinquent, demon, derelict, desperado, devil, dirty old man, dolt, do-nothing, dope, dregs, drone, dumbbell, dunce, enemy, espionage, exile, failure, fall guy, femme fatale, fighter, firebrand, fool, fugitive, gangster, glutton, good-for-nothing, gossip, grump, hellion, hobo, hot dog, hypocrite, imbecile, impostor, incubus, insurgent, intruder, Judas, killer, klutz, know-it-all, lawbreaker, lemon, loafer, loser, lummox, mad person, maniac, menace, misanthrope, miser, mole, mountebank, naysayer, ne’ er-do-well, nuisance, nut, ogre, organized crime, parasite, pawn, pessimist, pill, placebo, prodigal, prostitute, psychopath, quack, rascal, renegade, rogue, ruffian, sap, scamp, schlemiel, Scrooge, shirked, shyster, simpleton, skinflint, sleazebag, sneak, sourpuss, spy, swindler, tattletale/tattler, thug, tool, traitor, troll, truant, tyrant, vandal, wanton, whipping boy, wimp, witch

NOTE

The above are concepts classified according to subject and usage. It not only helps writers and thinkers to organize their ideas but leads them from those very ideas to the words that can best express them.

It was, in part, created to turn an idea into a specific word. By linking together the main entries that share similar concepts, the index makes possible creative semantic connections between words in our language, stimulating thought and broadening vocabulary. Writing Resources PDFs

Source ⚜ Writing Basics & Refreshers ⚜ On Vocabulary Writing Notes: Fight Scenes ⚜ Word Lists: Fight ⚜ Pain

[egotistic-artist]

fucked up evil creatures experience remorse

witch and adversary my beloved, loved them since the moment I saw them <333

insta | youtube | tiktok | kofi

ramble under the cut

I had to do this after I played pacifist with the adversary, I love the parallels of both the princesses undoing themselves if you refuse to continue the cycle of violence

The way witch ends up looking more human in the thorn while the adversary literally turns herself inside out. The witch expects violence but longs for for connection, she wants to hang on to the glimmer of hope you had given her in her past lives yet she feels like fool for that, but the adversary found connection in the violence, it is truly all she's ever known

The line "I don't want to think, why are you trying to make me think?" got me fucking feral

she thinks she's found her place in the pain, she doesn't want to look at what else there could be and in that desperation she twists herself into something worse, and then she tries to hurt you again

do you guys get it

do you guys see what i see

neither of them think theres any way out of the role theyve been given and the realization that there is kills them and gives them a new shape and it hurts them so much but thats the only way you guys can leave the cabin together

and even then youve got to be so careful with the thorn because shed rather be in pain forever than be a fool again, and youve got to be patient with the fury while she shows you what shed done to herself because of your absence

they both want a better existence so bad but neither of them even know what that is and youve got to offer your hand over and over again

does this make sense

no this doesnt say anything about me what are you on about

also also if you attack the adversary death becomes meaningless and you dont even get a third chapter (much like the witch if you do anything other than giving her the blade) because where else is there to go at that point? yet if you attack the witch the place crushes you both alive because this isnt what you guys are meant to be

and still if you choose violence in their third chapters you have no other choice but slay the fury and get trapped with the thorn, youve done nothing but repeat what you did to them in their first lives

ghhrgrrhr i am so normal and coherent about this

if youve come this far know that there will be a follow up piece