#Anonymous Whistleblowing

[theycallmehobbitrex]

Top 10 favourite video games?

Hogwarts Legacy

Stardew Valley

Resident evil 3

Resident evil 2

Outlast

Resident evil 8

Legend of Dragoon

Final Fantasy X

Baldur's Gate 3

Bouncer

[survive-object-poll-island]

i am an anonymous whistleblower among the co-hosts

we have been destroying planets and solar systems because we can

there is nothing you can do to stop us

i just thought i would warn you

if your planet is destroyed i am sorry

From: Anonymous Whistleblower

Hm? What? Who?

Planets get destroyed all the time

I - I'm sure it's fine :)

[captainlordauditor]

My beef usually isn't with a writer or even a run but with people who fetishize a run. No, Dick Grayson being a cop makes no sense outside of circumstances peculiar to Dixon's Nightwing run (Does the name Matches Malone ring a bell?), yet the fan base seems to think it's his life's dream.

People don't even fetishize as you put it that run lmao they just straight up pluck random parts of Nightwing 1996 (I'm including Grayson's run!) and throw it into a bowl like the world's shittiest salad. I disagree that Dick being a cop makes no sense outside of that run, because one of Dick's more consistent long running traits is his skill at undercover work, and the problem is that that's what gets ignored, and people act like he actually genuinely joined the police force instead of treating it as an undercover op, which is what it was.

Fundamentally from that perspective Dick and Dick in particular being a cop makes a lot of sense. Undercover work is Dick's greatest and most overlooked skill - he was undercover in the BPD, he was undercover in the Church of Blood, he was undercover in Spyral, and he was briefly undercover in the Court of Owls. Renegade was halfway to being an undercover op. Some versions of his origin have him disguising himself as an urchin to gain information, including the Golden Age one, so this is a skill that he started cultivating early. Like, this is not unusual behavior for Dick.

This is Dick's specialty in the family! Cass and Jason are too inflexible in their thinking patterns and morality to get really good at this. If you do something Jason doesn't like, he shoots you, if you do something Cass doesn't like she beats you up and arrests you. Bruce has some skill at it, but he's too recognizable and too similar to Cass to really do it longterm the way Dick does.

But for some reason people don't recognize this?? Despite it being a recurring plot in his comics?? So you get these two sides of the discourse where for some reason it's turned into "Dick is a cop and loves it and that's great" and "Dick is a cop because Chuck Dixon is a conservative, fuck that, ACAB" and it's like okay so you have both just admitted you didn't read the comic you're discussing

[informatology]

The Dark Web: What is it and Why Should You Care?

The term “Dark Web” has become increasingly common in recent years, but what exactly is it? In simple terms, the Dark Web refers to a portion of the internet that is not indexed by search engines and can only be accessed through special software. This allows for a degree of anonymity and privacy that is not possible on the regular internet.

While the Dark Web is not inherently illegal or malicious, it is often associated with criminal activity. This is due to the fact that the anonymity it provides can be used by individuals and groups to engage in illegal activities such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, and the sale of stolen goods. It is also a haven for hackers and cybercriminals who use it to buy and sell malware, exploit kits, and other tools of the trade.

But it’s not all bad news. The Dark Web is also home to a number of legitimate uses. For example, journalists and activists in repressive regimes may use the Dark Web to communicate and share information without fear of retribution. Whistleblowers may also use it to leak sensitive information without being identified. Additionally, some individuals may simply use it for privacy reasons, such as to browse the web without being tracked by advertisers or governments.

So, why should you care about the Dark Web? Well, even if you have no interest in engaging with it yourself, it is still important to be aware of its existence and potential dangers. Hackers and cybercriminals can use the Dark Web to buy and sell your personal information, such as credit card numbers and login credentials. They can also use it to launch attacks on websites and services, causing disruptions and potentially exposing sensitive data.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to protect yourself. First and foremost, it is important to practice good cybersecurity hygiene, such as using strong, unique passwords and enabling two-factor authentication. You should also be cautious when clicking on links or downloading attachments, even from sources you trust. Finally, consider using a virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt your internet traffic and protect your privacy.

In conclusion, the Dark Web is a complex and often misunderstood aspect of the internet. While it can be used for both legal and illegal purposes, it is important to be aware of its potential dangers and take steps to protect yourself online. Stay safe out there!

[swiftfootedachilles]

i know theres a plethora of gallavich deleted sex scenes they havent shown to the public that they NEED to release. Atp i’ll even take scripts as long as its canon

unfortunately i dont think any intimate scenes even made it outside the writers room other than the one s5 deleted scene 🥲 those bitches HAD to be homophobic. and even for scenes like the dock scene the leaked script has literally 0 direction for intimate moments it just says "they fuck like old lovers" like wonderful beautiful etc but this is a script not a novel so please give some blocking notes. damn

this is why fanfiction is so important 😭

[problematickincalls1]

Waylon Park from Outlast:Whistleblower, I’m a fictive. I’m looking for Eddie Gluskin, and I’m bodily 20, so I’d like others in the same age range. Kins are also allowed to interact, not just other fictives. Thanks.

Interact with this post and I’ll get back to you.

.

[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

[lazycats-stuff]

Please a Clark fic, where reader is a new intern adn Clark is just love struck. And he slowly starts to court (?) the reader, and at some point take him home for a home-cooked meal, where the reader meets Conner and Jon. I think Conner at first doesn't really like reader, but Jon immediately clings to reader. After some time Conner warms up to reader and they all become a happy family

Of course my dear anon. Some superfam sounds good right now. Also, I have decided to make (Y/N) from Gotham... It sounds good, trust me.

Summary: Clark likes (Y/N). Conner is suspicious.

Warnings: I don't think there's any... Fluff mostly.

" Morning Clark. " Lois said to him as she passed him to get some coffee. Clark simply nodded as he booted his computer to start up. He had a piece to write about Lex Luthor scandal which for once wasn't brought to light by the Justice League.

An anonymous whistleblower who contacted Daily Planet with a shit ton of damning evidence. Clark jumped on the said opportunity to expose Lex, both as Superman and Clark Kent.

" Working on the Lex thing? " She asked as she came back, leaning on the edge of his desk, glancing at the computer screen to check the progress. " Yes, it's great to see how he's slowly crumbling. The stock share prices are going down faster than our faith in humanity. " Clark said with a smile, making Lois chuckle.

" Yeah, it's truly satisfying. Also, I have some news for you Smallville. " She said, stopping to sip her warm coffee. Clark raised his brow, fixing his glasses as he leaned back in his chair, smoothing his pants out.

" What those might be Lois? " Clark asked, turning his chair to face her fully.

" We got an intern. Someone from Gotham it seems. His name is (Y/N) and he will work in this department. " Lois stated, lifting her cup of coffee as if she was silently saying finally.

" Oh really? " Clark asked, tilting his head in curiosity. " It seems that Perry has decided to throw us a bone. We could use a courier. " Clark joked and Lois chuckled.

It's nice to have an extra set of hands. " Also, did you say he was from Gotham? " Clark inquired and Lois nodded. Clark whistled quietly. Gotham people are often tougher and more direct and even more blunt.

Clark knew that very well, ahem, read Bruce.

" That will be a nice change of pace. Someone with tough skin. " Clark noted and Lois nodded.

" Now we have someone to take as a bodyguard when we go out. Everyone is afraid of Gotham people. " She joked, sipping more of her coffee before her eyes moved forward, right behind Clark. He turned his chair around to check what she was looking at.

She was looking at the new intern who entered with their boss, Perry White. The room fell silent as Perry stood with a tall guy, (H/C) hair and (E/C) eyes in a suit, standing with a stoic look on his face. And there was a Gotham aura and vibe radiating from (Y/N).

Clark had to stifle a chuckle.

" Everyone, this is our new intern, his name is (Y/N). He transferred from Gotham. Be nice to him. I don't want chaos around here. As for you (Y/N), you'll be working with Kent. He is more than capable to show you the ropes. " Perry said and Clark raised his brow from his seat.

Being a mentor isn't new to him anymore, ever since Conner came as a clone and stepping up ever since then. And since Jon came into the picture, he had no choice but to really step it up as a father. Since the mom left...

Clark rubbed his forehead for a moment, then set his sight back on (Y/N). Clark looked him up and down subtly. He... He is drop dead gorgeous in Clark's eyes. Clark did have a few relationships with men in the past, but he was always more attracted to women.

But the tides have changed.

Clark has been struck with probably love at first sight. He never really felt like this before... So lovestruck. Oh Bruce would have laughed so hard at him in this situation...

Oh God and he is responsible for (Y/N) too? This won't be good in the slightest. He gulped quietly as Perry led (Y/N) to him and the office started bustling with activity again.

" This is Clark Kent (Y/N). Kent, you'll be making sure he gets the basics down since I'm sure Gotham Daily Planet is not up to standard with us. " Perry joked, making (Y/N) laugh.

Clark's heart did a few flips at the laughter. Oh dear God, (Y/N) is so damn adorable when he laughs. But he looks so damn tough too and it makes it a bit more difficult to read.

Gotham does make you more tough.

" Also, this is Lois. " Perry introduced and (Y/N) shook hands with her. Clark stood up and shook hands with (Y/N), whose hands were so soft. Oddly enough. For a Gothamite especially.

" Clark, nice to meet you. " Clark said with a firm handshake. (Y/N) nodded. " (Y/N), nice to meet you. " He said politely.

" Well, I'll take you around the office to show you around and then you can help Kent or whatever else he needs. " Perry said before he led (Y/N) away, telling him about the Daily Planet and how good the place is.

" You are in love Smallville. " Lois said behind her coffee mug making Clark sigh quietly.

She won't let this go.

" Don't you have some work Lois? " Clark asked her, clearly not in the mood to deal with her teasing. Lois simply snickered and raised her hand and mug in a way to show she surrenders and left to go to her desk, that was, coincidentally, right next to Clark's.

" This is will be fun. " Lois muttered under her breath, knowing fully well that Clark could hear her. Clark simply rolled his eyes. She was right, though, this was going to be fun. Clark listened intently to Perry and (Y/N)'s conversation. His super hearing is something that he can't just turn off anyway.

Might as well use it.

After a few months, Clark decided to start making his moves. He decided to start with bringing some coffee every morning to them both. (Y/N) was suspicious at first, the Gotham nature in him telling him to not trust because, again, Gotham makes you on guard all the time.

Especially when someone is nice to you. Maybe (Y/N) is a bit more cold, but every Gotham native is like that. If you try to be nice to them, they are a bit suspicious. Can you blame (Y/N)? But, Clark's ambition and patience had slowly been paying it off.

It started with small cups of coffee every morning to get the energy going for writing and editing articles. (Y/N)'s editing skills were insanely good and Clark was more than impressed the first time (Y/N) showed him the finished version.

Then, (Y/N) was being sent out on the field with a camera to capture events and what not. Perry justified with the saying, you are from Gotham, you'll be fine.

And that turned out to be true actually.

One day, while dropping off some photos at Perry's office, his face was bloody and it was clear that there was some sort of brawl or a fight. Clark and the rest of the office was concerned, but (Y/N) simply acted casually, as if nothing had happened to him.

The only thing he is said is, 'You should see the other guy.'

It made Clark think of Bruce and his nature. Tough Gotham nature.

But Clark had a lot of experience with that nature. Again, dealing with Bruce's nature made it easier to navigate (Y/N). And although (Y/N) and Bruce are two completely opposite people in every shape and form, it still gave Clark good points what not to do and what to do.

And slowly but surely, he did it.

He asked (Y/N) to come with him to his house, for some dinner. A nice good, old, home cooked meal. A recipe his mom sent him so he could impress (Y/N).

(Y/N) was pleasantly surprised and decided to say yes. As well, (Y/N) knew that Clark is a father. 2 boys, if he could judge from his framed photos on his desk. One younger and one older.

Conner and Jon if (Y/N) remembers correctly. Jon is younger and Conner is the older one. And (Y/N) remembered that Clark was a single parent.

So, (Y/N) decided to accept and say yes to the call, never saying no to a good, nice, homecooked meal. And Clark was a nice guy too so it wasn't a bad thing. He was cute too and (Y/N) slowly started to like him.

So, entering his place, he was greeted by Clark's sons, Jon and Conner. Jon is a bubbly personality, immediately clinging onto him. (Y/N) thought that he was adorable.

But Conner was a whole another story. He was more cold and calculating and clearly suspicious of (Y/N). (Y/N) respected it. Don't trust people that have just entered your life.

All in all, the dinner went well and Clark and (Y/N) went on a few dates and soon enough started dating seriously. Soon enough, after a few years, the two got married.

However, during that time, Conner and (Y/N) got more and more closer. It was a nice feeling and was rather emotional for them both. Clark was happy and soon enough, (Y/N) had two boys to call his sons, despite not being biologically related to them.

[incorrectbatfam]

What company did Blaise work for that ignored safety? Because it would be hilarious if it was a hand railing manufacturer.

He worked for a company that did concert pyrotechnics. His boss was always cutting corners and ignored multiple warnings for safety, but Blaise put up with it because he liked pyrotechnics and enjoyed the people he worked with, including his childhood best friend Charlie Burns. It all changed at a concert when a faulty piece of fireworks equipment resulted in Charlie getting permanently injured. Blaise ghosted his job for a couple weeks as he grappled with self-blame as he felt he should've taken more of a stand against their boss, and after getting officially fired for abandonment, he turned his anger outward. What officially set him on his criminal course was a month of stalking his former boss, gathering incriminating evidence, leaking everything to the Gotham Gazette as an anonymous whistleblower, and burning the boss's office to the ground as a final act of revenge

[snail-eggs]

Fics For Gaza

In hopes of being able to raise money to aid those in Gaza, I have decided to join @ficsforgaza! They have lots of wonderful information on their blog, as well as vetted fundraisers; proof of donation to these will be necessary for for both sponsoring a WIP and requesting a drabble!

I will be doing this at a rate of $1/100 words, and will be updating my progress on each fic accordingly.

As for requests, I am bending my own no request/OC only rule and allowing them both for this cause. They can be up to 1k words and I am open to both SFW and NSFW.

With proof of donation (sensitive information redacted) you can send me an ask letting me know which WIP you would like to sponsor or what request for a fic you may have!

*updates for every WIP will be posted regularly until they are finished and posted. donors, if not anonymous, will be tagged.

you must be 18+ to send in a request, as per the rules on my blog

Sponsor a WIP:

Famous Last Words (An Ode To Eaters) | Baldur's Gate 3 | Astarion/OFC | Bones and All AU

This fic has been fully sponsored!

est. final wc: 10,500

current wc: 6,619

Ever since she can remember, Nyra has led a lonesome life fueled by her desire for flesh. To sink her teeth into it and rip it from the bone, feeling the pulse of her poor victim beating against her mouth. She lives drifting from place to place, giving in to this ravenous hunger that controls her, leaving nothing but devastation in her wake. But Nyra yearns for something else; a connection that she cannot quite place and it is only when she meets fellow eater Astarion that she finds it. It terrifies her, this intimacy. It is a thing she never thought she would know in her lifetime and yet here it is, in the form of the pale elf. Together, they traverse the country and fall into their gruesome routine, finding themselves becoming closer. Inseparable. A sense of normalcy and comfort washes over them that Nyra can't seem to settle into. Something is out there, watching them, and at every stop, she can feel it getting closer.

Urn | Cyberpunk 2077 | Johnny Silverhand/OFC

est. final wc: 25,000 (3 chapters)

current wc: 0

She watches from the church parking lot as animals are taken to slaughter. Looks into their sweet, mournful eyes from holes in shit covered trailers. Hers water. A dust storm is blowing through a town in middle-of-nowhere Texas and she’s in the thick of it. Letting the dirt erode her, the wind rock her from side to side. The storm howls. Shouts vile things in her ears that she cannot understand. It is violent — biblical in its anger. She listens.  Jessica Ferreira has lived in the same town her entire life and has, above all, learned to listen. 

Whistleblower | Resident Evil | Leon Kennedy/OFC

est. final wc: 50,000 (10 Chapters)

current wc: 0

Amateur reporter Lana Laguerre is going against every NDA, every penny and dime of hush money to expose what happened in Raccoon City. All the while, Leon Kennedy is desperately urging her to let it die. Her life hangs in the balance of this earth-shattering expose. Its 1999 and wounds are fresh in a city alive and teeming with endless possibility. Will Lana live long enough to see her story through?

Thoroughfare | Red Dead Redemption 2 | Arthur Morgan/ OFC

est. final wc: 15,000

current wc: 0

Arthur thought this would be easy. Rob the store and get out. Now with a shotgun at his temple, he can’t help but fear that his life is about to end. Ana’s has only just begun.

Requestable Fandoms:

Fallout (TV and game), Baldur's Gate 3, Dragon Age, Stardew Valley, Saints Row, Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, Watch Dogs/Watch Dogs 2

dividers @/saradika

[stealingyourbones]

in an AU DPxDC world...

There are laws for Metahumans, which in addition to humans with powers, includes aliens...

Shortly after the GIW manages to pass the anti-ecto laws...

Sam, Tucker and Danny start a movement with the teenagers of Amity Park against this law, because it conflicts with the laws of metahumans...

The argument... the ghosts are coming from another dimension, that is, the are aliens...

Ooooo this could be super neat. I am truly fucking abysmal at writing pseudopolitics but lets say that U.S. President Lex Luthor is staunchly opposed, but the people speak out and their voices are loud. Loud enough to notify the JLA.

Bruce manages to uncover every single bit of the Anti-Ecto laws and anonymously sends the evidence to every pro-meta news outlet in America. An anonymous whistleblower leaks the horrific things that the GIW has done to ghosts. They consider ghosts as animals and yet their practices violate animal welfare laws for experimentation and studies as well. The people grow more and more outraged at this blatant violation of non-human rights. It’s time to do something about this.

[dangermousie]

The Killing Vote - all these excellent dramas are killing my free time

Full disclosure - I rarely like police/killer/etc dramas (or narratives in any medium) and only checked out The Killing Vote because of my utterly irrational and unhinged thing for Park Hae Jin. We are all anonymous here so I can admit that when he first showed up on the screen I literally exclaimed "oh, fuck me!" in Pavlovian delight. The man just does it for me, OK?

(That's not his first moment but I like this cap.)

However, to my pleasant surprise, as I expected to be forwarding for a few glimpses of PHJ, I really really REALLY like the dark and unhinged the first episode.

The set-up is fairly simple, a little like Devil Judge Only Not Legal. Basically some mysterious dude sends "questions" to all citizens of Korea to vote on whether some criminal who escaped sufficient punishment should die or not; if majority votes yes, he kills them. The government is in uproar and forms a team to track the man down. Park Hae Jin's character is the leader of the team (about him more later.)

OK, why do I love it? It's a very dark show - I don't mean just visually (so many scenes take place at night) but narratively - the place is portrayed as a cesspit of humanity and nothing is clear cut. In fact, the drama very interestingly (it remains to be determined if they will develop it properly) posits of how much everyone is on continuum of vigilantism and what is acceptable. For example, our protagonist, the cop played by PHJ is, while clearly not a murderer, is hella unhinged.

He himself is a vigilante with a badge, which can be a very dangerous thing (we don't know why he is so relentlessly driven but if I were a betting person, I'd bet that scene in the prologue, where he had to arrest a man who killed his daughter's killer because said killer walked is one of his goads.)

Honestly, one of the big draws to me is just how utterly unhinged he is. He really has no stops. Look at him with the human trafficker:

And then he makes sure the camera won't catch it and bangs his own head on the table a few times as hard as he can until it bleeds. !!!!!!!

He has no stops and you begin to wonder if it's really a difference merely in degree of extreme between him and the killer he is supposed to catch. You can tell a large part of him sympathizes.

The matter of fact his assistant says as he's bandaging up PHJ's face after that little stunt says volumes.

One of the reasons I love PHJ is his unnerving intense vibe on screen - he can play someone where you don't know if they will be loving or they are secretly a serial killer, and do so incredibly convincingly. (The first drama I've seen him in was East of Eden, a sprawling epic of nurture versus nature, where he was the swapped at birth bio son of a noble worker brought up by evil businessman and he was magnetic and repulsive all at once - his "father" was so unhappy about him having genuine feeling for the girl he was obsessed with since childhood, he paid someone to drug and force him into sex and later sonny turned around and raped the girl he was obsessed with since childhood because monsters and abuse beget monsters and abuse. Childhood friends to rapist and victim is quite an arc. The drama tried to later redeem him with mixed success - it was a vvvvvv long drama - whether it worked out is something up to each viewer to decide - I - am biased by his hotness in the safe confines of fiction - but he was a truly fascinating character to watch.) The whole episode he is so on edge; you can see it burn in him when he has to protect the scumbag who got early release despite being a rapist, abuser etc etc and a part of him definitely sympathizes with the killer who eventually does the man in. His no holds barred character appears to be why despite his insane success rate he's not promoted and disliked by higher ups. He and cyber whistleblower cop girl both appear to be not good at fitting in.

This is not a drama that is likely to have any romance (alas) but I actually do like the vibe between them - they are very very different but both pretty damn unhinged.

PS This bit from East of Eden is basically what crack is like:

Here is Park Hae Jin ripping open his shirt so as to make it easier for Han Ji Hye to stab him. Ahahahaha god I miss old kdramas and their insanity.

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

Punk is a thought, not a look. It's a message, not a sound. ________________________

Mariah-Janet Waters

Hobie's 'Mary-Jane' | Earth-138

18 - Any Pronouns - 5'3'' - Aro/Bi - Autistic - Pronounced Mariah-JA-net

Mixed Nigerian and Irish

Police Whistleblower from age 15, publishing anonymous exposés and hosting a local illegal anarchist radio-show

Daughter of Captain Walter Waters

Earned her blue laces off her father at 16 - Doesn't regret it all and still sleeps sound as fuck at night (well... not soundly)

Survivor of 4 assassination attempts - counting on a 5th

Most talkative person on planet earth - but wears the mask 24/7

Hates being called MJ DEEPLY

No piercings, untatted, and doesn't even like punk music

Entirely Punk none-the-less

[unmasked Mariah at the end]

Background:

Mariah-Janet has dedicated her life to the anarchist movement, and taking down Fisk's administration - no matter what it costs. Not that she had much left to spend. Born to Captain Walter Water's, a white police officer, and Barbra, her Nigerian mother, Mariah's mother left her life early - at the age of 4, not bothering to take Mariah with her. Instead she was raised by her father, an abusive cop mad at the world- and out to make it his daughter's problem. Raised in a tiny flat in low-income Tower Hamlets, he spent the majority of her childhood trying to iron the blackness out her hair and beat the queerness out of her soul. Though none of it ever worked much. She says change ain't in her nature. As Fisk's administration grew, so did her father's ruthlessness, and his newly earned V.E.N.O.M symbiote was only fuel to his fire. And at 15, Mariah become 'Red' - An anonymous Anti-Police whistleblower. Publishing dozens of exposes, reports, and zines against the administration - 'Red' rose to infamy through his illegally broadcasted rogue-radio show and his uncensored and ruthless protesting tactics. However, at 16 Mariah came across a story that would change her career - discovering the murder and cover-up of her own mother. Enraged but determined, Mariah leaked the report, at the same time her father uncovered her identity. Consumed by rage and powered by the V.E.N.O.M symbiote, when her father attacked her, Mariah earned her blue laces. And started wearing her mask, living life as the wanted 'Red'. Today Mariah lives in hiding, couch-surfing at the places of other organizers, or squatting in vacant flats.

Personality:

Don't let the bandana and dead stare fool you - Mariah is far from quiet and cold. Being autistic and hyperverbal, Mariah talks A LOT - whether she's actually saying something or not. She's not very expressive or emotive, and her humor is pretty dry and bland (think Dwight from the Office), even though she hates mean-spirited jokes. On the lighter side of things, Mariah is pretty brash and open. She's a writer, not a leader, and she's more interested in going with the flow than being in charge, though she often finds herself there. She fairly laid back - and incredibly confident. Almost outright cocky, even moreso than Hobie. She sits legs spread and burps loud and rolls her eyes and sucks her teeth. She enjoys cursing in front people who think it's 'rude', and she has an accent thicker than Hobie's. But unlike Hobie - she's not a 'typical, actual' punk (yeah right). She doesn't listen to punk music. In fact, she doesn't listen to much music at all. She has no real interest in the clothes, or the music, or the crowded live shows. And when she met Hobie, she had no real interest in the pretty boy who brings a guitar to a protest. Mariah is a punk, because that's how she lives her life. And she'll genuinely laugh in your face if you tell her she isn't, just because she thinks the Sex Pistols are shite. And she's incredibly loyal. To say Mariah doesn't trust anyone (from her universe at least) is an understatement. She can't afford it - what with 4 assassination attempts and counting - but if there's anyone on Earth she trusts, it's Hobie. But her and Hobie don't always see eye-to-eye. On the darker side of things, Mariah lacks the 'radical kindness' that Hobie does. Even though her and Hobie are both hard-core anarchists, 'Red's definition of 'justice' is often far more extreme. Mariah hates cops. All of them, and she genuinely wants them dead - in the most painful way she can muster. Knowing there are more men like her father out there, still sleeping soundly at night, and that there are men out there protecting them, Mariah says the movement isn't over until all of them are either punished, dead, or both. Mariah wants merciless punishment, and she isn't afraid to say it. For cops, politicians, fascists, nazis, racists, and any other bigot still breathing. She's an amazing planner, and a phenomenal speaker, but her protesting tactics often teeter into dangerous and malicious territory. Including arson, and if given the chance, execution. When Spider-Punk saved Mariah's life from a cop torturing her - the third attempt on her life - Mariah insisted he kill the already downed officer. Because it'd be 'One less to worry about.' Hobie didn't. And both began looking at each other a little bit different from that point forward. When they're alone and Mariah talks about how good it would be to live in a world without cops, Hobie can't help but agree. He's just afraid of what Mariah is willing to do to get there. And the more she tries, and the more she speaks, the more dangerous it gets for her.

Hobie & Mariah

Meeting:

Hobie knew his MJ Canon Event was coming - he just didn't know he already knew her. Hobie had met Mariah as 'Red', at an 'unpermitted political protest/performance art piece' - Hobie's words, not theirs. A Molotov cocktail in hand, and a balaclava across his face. To Hobie, to meet the person behind the words was surreal, and only for a few brief moments. Red met Spider-Punk months later. Coincidentally, while staring down the barrel of a gun. Faced with his second assassination attempt, Red comes face to face with the other masked anarchist, and is instantly filled with respect for him. Red's a fan, and Spider-Punk's a fan of his as well. And soon, the two are working together on the regular. Staging protests, running an illegal anarchist-rock-radio-show, and exposing insider information. It isn't until Red's third - and fourth - assassination attempt, that Hobie realized Red was now living in a bullet proof vest. After the fourth attempt, Hobie demasked himself, bringing an injured Red to the boathouse. He somehow convinced Red to stay while he healed. It was only then that Red revealed her identity to Hobie, and switched from ski masks to bandanas, and from Red to Mariah.

Relationship:

They aren't dating. If you even insinuate anything of the sort, Mariah is very likely to either tell you to 'piss off', or she'll (lovingly and playfully) insult him. 'I love charity work, darling. But not that much.' Romance isn't in the cards for them - Mariah's aro anyway. But that's not why this canon event exists. In every universe where MJ and Spidey are together, they are a rock for each other, mentally and emotionally. They're there to keep each other standing. Hobie didn't believe in canon events, and he still doesn't. But it took him a while to understand why Mariah was his canon event. Not to love her, but to protect her. Hobie believes in Mariah's message. And he believes in the power of her voice. 'Red' is loud. And Fisk knows it. She's a threat, because she's the voice of the people. Hobie may not agree with all of her methods. And that's fine. He can live with that. Because he believes in her message - and more importantly, he believes in her power. Hobie and Mariah were never meant to be partners in romance. And they'll forever be partners in crime. Outside of that - Hobie and Mariah's relationship is purely sexual and platonic. They're more than best friends. To them, they're two people who puts their lives in each other's hands every day, and respect each other beyond anything in this world.

Face Claims: Ice Spice /// Erin Kellyman

More about Mariah [Mentions of My Spidersona Disco-Spider Diane below]

Mariah is pretty romance averse. Her and Hobie never kiss outside of sex, and she's not touchy unless she's flirting. (Which she does, A LOT, just not to Hobie. She always tells him she can pick up more chicks than him - which, true.)

If Hobie tried to kiss her on the lips out of nowhere, she would look at him like he was absolutely insane. (She'd be like 'bruv - fuck are you in my face for')

She's not interested in romance at all, either thinking it's bizarre or distracting - and she's not afraid to say it

Though she has no interest in Hobie romantically (and doesn't see the appeal), she's still happy that he has Diane in his life. And she's VERY happy to leave that gushy shit to her.

*Makes retching noises when Diane & Hobie kiss in front of her*

Unlike Diane & Hobie, Hobie & Mariah are pretty open about the fact that they're fucking and nothing more. They're casual about it, but when Mariah is making Hobie sit on her lap at an afterparty - it sends a message.

She also likes to grab his ass at any opportunity, especially in front of people - doing things like pulling on his suspenders (then letting them go so they snap at his back lol)

She's also involved with Diane - originally independent of Hobie, after Mariah and Hobie got together - getting together shortly after Diane came out as bi

She knows Diane is not from their Earth - Hobie told her this before she ever met Diane. They first met when Mariah went alone to go introduce herself to Diane in her universe (with Hobie's blessing)

She went unmasked, and so Diane saw her face when they first met

The three of them are in a soft polycule

Mariah's masc-bi-butch and she prefers masculine descriptors.

Most of her clothes are thrifted jerseys of teams she doesn't back, and jeans 3 sizes up. When protesting, he'll wear all red.

Mariah prefers he/him pronouns when out as 'Red'. When out with unfamiliar people, organizers, or active protests - He's most often in balaclavas and ski-masks

Mariah doesn't wear boots - only trainers, but she still ties blue laces around the shins of her baggy pants every morning, because she feels like she's earned them

Wears her bandana almost constantly, and will wear it even when alone with Hobie - though she takes it off by herself. She has dozens, so it's always easy to grab one.

Very rarely will she take it off to eat or drink. She'll try to eat around it or drink around a straw, which is usually successful. If it isn't, she'll leave the room

She doesn't want people to memorize her face. And it's not that she doesn't trust anyone - which, she doesn't - it's that enough torture could break anyone. And she's not taking the risk.

If she takes off her bandana in front of you (unlikely) and you scan her face, she immediately doesn't trust you. (Why you looking so hard)

She wears her bandana so often around Hobie, that he finds it very easy to tell her emotions, even though Mariah does not emote much in general - besides, Mariah talks A LOT

It took her multiple months before Hobie saw her face, and she only showed him after living on the houseboat for some weeks, after they'd slept together

Raised being called 'MJ' by her father, Mariah highly dislikes it. She'll tell you not to call her it once, and every time after, she'll be a little more pissed

Around Hobie and people he trusts, Red prefers to go by Mariah or M - and uses any pronouns. If you ask Mariah their gender, you'll get an amused smile and bored shrug. What are you, a cop?

Asks people 'What are you, a cop?' or 'You a narc??' quite often. Half the time she's joking. Will also say "Okay, Officer." If you're being pushy and annoying, and laughs if that irritates you (Hobie)

Her laugh is very sharp, and it almost sounds mocking. Even if she isn't

Lots of times people don't trust her, what with the mask. These are the people she likes to take the piss out of most

Mariah experiences a lot of chronic pain, mostly derived from her father, and her 3 & 4th assassination attempts - making protests extremely taxing on her

Though she will hide this at all costs, in front of everyone except Hobie. During times of stress or increased pain, she'll take painkillers in sporadic doses. But being wanted by the state, she can only get her hands on so much.

She doesn't do much but protest and write. She doesn't like music like that, and she doesn't see the appeal. She doesn't draw anymore, though she used to

After years of living in survival mode, she works, plans, chain-smokes, and tries not to get killed while doing it

She doesn't understand Diane's groupie behavior, or Hobie's 'punk' rockstar cover. She thinks it's pointless, and on occasion she'll say this, not realizing how callous that may sound

To her, Hobie is a dork. And she calls him a dork all the time. How someone could see him as cool or rather - 'groovy' - is beyond her.

Has little to no filter - unless it comes to secrets and observations. Either she tells you exactly what she's thinking, or you get nothing at all.

Often has to be told when it's too much, and on occasion, during political planning, she has told Hobie he talks 'too nice'.

Though she does envy Diane, and her ability to just dance. Mariah has no form of escapism - her writing will always be a harsh reflection of reality. And she admires Diane's ability to live in spite of that, without the anger her and Hobie often go through.

The only escape Mariah has is reading, and puzzles. Mainly rubix cubes and things like that.

She loves fiction and fantasy. But her love of books doesn't stop there, and Red's radio show isn't all screaming.

Mariah is extremely versed in political and anarchist literature, being able to memorizes passages from manifestos and books easily, as well as speeches or direct pieces of confidential files she reads

Mainly leads riots - using anti-tear gas safety, road-blocking, and anarchist warfare like molotov cocktails & destruction of surveillance

Whereas a lot of Hobie's protests preach Love & Kindness among the community, Red's radio show and organized riots are backed by rage - telling the people to end the oppression by direct action, at any cost

Red wants revenge and a future, and if that means burning it all down and rebuilding from ashes and graves, then that's what he'll do. Happily.

She has killed in front of Hobie before, and he was not very happy about it (to say the least)

Sleeps in Hobie's bed a lot of nights - mainly because of the nightmares. She doesn't like doing this, and wish it didn't happen, but it is what it is. What helps helps, and she trusts Hobie more than anyone

Unlike how he is with Diane, Hobie is extremely protective of Mariah and worries about Red constantly - to the point that he's hypervigilant

Still has the badge she took off her father at 16. Her most prized possession

________________________________

ART STYLE: [We're almost done I PROMISE]

Less animated and expressive than Hobie - Mariah does not change colors the way he does. Most of the time she is black, white, grey, or the color of aging parchment, detailed with handwriting and lined paper.

Mariah can only turn Red, when enraged or at protest, and Blue, for injured, scared, or upset. As she gets angrier, the handwriting across her becomes more and more erratic and illegible.

INSPO:

Mariah is about being authentic without performance.

She's a punk, even though she 'doesn't look it'. She gets told that a lot. She's black, even though she 'doesn't look it'. Disabled, though she 'doesn't look it'. She's bi, but she 'doesn't look it' either.

Mariah isn't quiet, and she never hides the truth. But because people can't see her face, they act like they can never get a read on her - even though she's brutally honest.

I wanted her to defy the idea of what a punk is. She's not the girl who goes to Hobie's shows and kisses him backstage. That's Diane.

Mariah is the one that follows him into battle and debates him for hours. Even if she doesn't like his music. She still believes in anarchy, and fighting, and freedom.

She's still punk, and despite the anti-blackness of her father, she's still black.

Mariah is the opposite of Diane, although that wasn't really on purpose.

A lot of the time in the comics, MJ and Peter's relationship is about them being on the same side, and facing the world together - MJ always a encouraging force for Peter. And I wanted to boil that down as much as I could. So often that encouraging force is through romance and romantic affection - but unlike MJ and Peter, Hobie and Mariah have everything but that aspect. Both their attraction to each other and their mutal emotional support of each other are divorced from romance - instead being based in respect and care. Hobie wants to protect Mariah, and Mariah wants Hobie to fight at her side. Mariah is the reflection of Diane. She represents his political side, while Diane represents more of his musical side. She represents his enraged determination, while Diane is his radical kindness. Diane and Hobie aren't open about being 'together', but the romance between them is clear. Meanwhile Hobie and Mariah are open about sleeping with each other - and the lack of romance is just as clear. And my favorite part is their reflection of morals. To Diane suffering for the system, and for the Society, is a worthy cause. A necessary sacrifice. Diane is community oriented above all else, something she gained by her communist upbringing. Meanwhile, Mariah couldn't disagree more. No community liberated her. Instead, she liberated herself - not by sitting outside a courthouse - but by direct action - and killing her father when she got the chance. If life was a garden, Diane tries to plant flowers. Mariah is more interested in pulling up weeds. Maybe Diane is naive. Or maybe Mariah is cynical. Or maybe they both know exactly what they're doing. Either way Hobie cares for both of them beyond words. And in return, they love giving him headaches.

If you read this far - THANK YOU SOOO MUCH. Mariah took a while to come to me, but now that she's here she's as hardheaded and smug as can be (affectionately)

Her and Hobie are basically bros that fuck sometimes and their 'kisses' are actually just passionate looks of rage when they lock eyes during a riot lol

And because you made it this far: Here's a rare unmasked Mariah!

As per usual, take this Hobie photo, absorb it, cherish it, and use it in times of weakness for it will give you strength

Bye.

[7association-was-here]

It has been a considerable amount of time since Faust has updated on this blog herself, hello.

Faust is here because Heathcliff is currently drenched and soaking wet. It is a long story but to give a brief summary of the events, Heathcliff has decided that he can quote-unquote “take on” a band of U Corp pirates. By himself.

The conclusion is quite plain.

With some assistance from the other fixers amongst our team we swiftly dealt with our threat (Faust would like to mention that no, the Captain did not help in any way whatsoever). And from an anonymous tip we were able to locate a specific barrel aboard the enemy ship to rescue “The Whistleblower” and…

What seems to be a Mirror Identity… of Yi Sang. This one was coincidentally a member of Captain Ishmael’s missing crew, but he has not a single recollection of how and why he has accidentally stowed away, perhaps he has minor amnesia due to blunt force trauma or other similar injury. It is awkward for everyone from the association to witness yet another Yi Sang but nonetheless Faust knows there is more to this than simply that…

For now, everyone can point and laugh at Heathcliff.

[darkmaga-retard]

A damning affidavit by an alleged whistleblower regarding the ABC News presidential debate has emerged on social media.

The six-page affidavit was reportedly filed in New York on Monday, Sept. 9 – one day before Donald Trump and Kamala Harris’ televised debate. The anonymous whistleblower, who said they did not endorse the former president, claims to have been an employee for over ten years.

It alleges that “many employees” of ABC questioned the fairness of the debate given the “common knowledge” that both moderators “are well known not to support Donald Trump,” adding that assurances were given to ensure a balanced broadcast.

Section four, pertaining to debate fairness, is the most damning. The affidavit claims the Harris campaign “received particular accommodations” such as a smaller podium for the shorter candidate as well as “assurances regarding split-screen television views” to favorably impact the Vice President.

The document also claims that Trump would be subjected to fact-checking throughout the debate while “Harris would not face comparable scrutiny.” It also alleges that the Democrat’s campaign was provided with sample questions after it imposed restrictions on questions relating to President Joe Biden’s health and Harris’ tenure as San Francisco Attorney General.