#Corporate Wellness Programmes

[thecoachingdirectory]

Carolyn Apostolou Coaching

Need some help in transforming workplace, and wellbeing and want to be inspired in success? As an accredited coach, mentor, and keynote speaker, Carolyn Apostolou has spent years empowering leaders and teams and implementing corporate wellness programs that foster a thriving culture of success. Reach out and connect with her today!

[no-passaran]

Spain lied about not selling weapons to Israel.

Even after October 7th, Spain has sold more than 1 million € of weapons to Israel. Norway and Finland make it possible.

In January, Spain made headlines word-wide when the government's Minister of Exteriors, José Manuel Albares (PSOE), claimed in Congress and later again in a radio interview that Spain had stopped selling weapons to Israel ever since October 7th. Israel's intensification of violence in Gaza following October 7th meant that, on top of decades of apartheid and ethnic cleansing, between October 7th and January 23rd Israel had already killed 28,000 people and forced 2 million out of their home. In this context, many people were demanding their governments stop arming and funding the genocide of the Palestinian people, and here on Tumblr and other social media sites like Twitter I think we all saw the many posts praising the Spanish government for this.

Well, it turns out it was a lie.

According to Albares, "Since October 7th there are no more weapons exportations [from Spain] to Israel". But in November alone, Spain exported weapons to Israel for 987,000€, as was published on the Spanish Government's official website dedicated to exterior commerce (Comex). A researcher from Centre Delàs (an independent centre for peace studies) found it and published it, and it has also been verified by newspapers such as elDiario.es.

This 987,000€ worth of weapons in November was not the only ammunition that Spain has sent to Israel in 2023. In 2023, Spain exported a total of 1.48 million € in war material to Israel.

All of the weapons sent in November come from the factory of Nammo Palencia (Castilla y León), a corporation that is 50% property of the Government of Norway and 50% owned by a public Finnish business. However, even if the owners are foreigners, the ammunition was sent from Spain and thus it had to be authorized by the an organism of the Spanish Government named Junta Interministerial de Defensa y Doble Uso, whose deliberations on whether a weapons exportation is accepted or denied are kept secret. The only cases where they have denied exporting weapons to Israel have been when they thought that Israel would re-sell these weapons to the Philippines.

Spain has had a close relation with Israel for years. As published by the Spanish Government, Spain has sold 20 million € of weapons to Israel between 2012 and 2022. Spain also buys weapons and military software from Israel (for example, the Spanish Intelligence Service has been using the Israeli software Pegasus to illegally spy on Catalan activists, journalists, politicians and civil society members and their relatives to attack the Catalan independence movement), and Spain has continued buying from Israel and allocating defense contracts to Israel even after the October 7th attacks. It is very difficult to track the concessions of public contracts such as buying weapons, but some contracts have been known. For example, on November 24th 2023, Spain bought 287.5 million € of missiles from Israel. This is not unusual: between 2011 and 2021, it is publicly known that Spain bought war material from Israel for at least 268 million €, but experts say that the real number could be two or three times as much.

Spain has also continued allocating concessions to Israel. For example, on December 15th 2023 Spain allocated a contract worth over 576 million € to Israel for a rocket launcher programme. On November 22nd, Spain allocated another another Israeli company to provide missiles for 237 million € at the same time as the Spanish army bought Israeli inhibitors for 1.4 million €. The very next day, November 23rd, Spain signed another military allocation to Israel for 82,600€. The following week, Spain signed yet another allocation with a different Israeli military corporation for 3.7 million €.

Spain also allows Israeli weapon manufacturing companies to produce weapons through their branches located in Spain. This way, Israeli weapons make their way to markets with which Israel doesn't have diplomatic ties but Spain does, like Saudi Arabia. And since Spain is a member of NATO, Israeli weapons produced in Spain are approved according to NATO standards and access it easily. In the same way, these Israeli weapons manufacturers also access European Union defense funds through their branches in Spain. (source).

As I said, I saw a lot of positive posts around when Albares said Spain was going to embargo, but I haven't seen any post about how they didn't do it. I also (personally) haven't seen anything on international media, and barely anything on Spanish media, which is already busy with the PSOE covid material corruption scandal. So I share this in the hope of helping put pressure on Spain to cut all ties with Israel immediately.

SHAME ON EVERYONE WHO GIVES ISRAEL THE MATERIAL AND MONEY THAT WILL BE USED TO MASSACRE THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE. SHAME ON SPAIN, NORWAY, AND FINLAND.

[forremjula]

hey, do u miss forums

ive been meaning to post here for what feels like forever, but i've been so busy for so long now that i've just forgotten to until now

from october to november i got heavily involved with building a forum website alongside 5 others, as a very deliberate return to creating a new internet third space at a time where we are sorely lacking in them. it's called "yellowtealpurple.net." (link in image)

this site is built and designed with the intent of making a space for artists and creatives who don't want to deal with the chaos and uncertainty of social media. its entirely self owned and funded with yours truly as one of the central admins under the alias of "dani_phantump". its meant to be a guaranteed space where creatives can share their work and know that it will be seen, as well as a space meant to intentionally nurture a close sense of community online, which i also feel we are sorely lacking in the present day.

we also have a very clearly outlined policy about AI absolutely not being welcome, as we've seen that this is something artists everywhere seem to grieve over and we think we are greatly in need of a space that allows art to be art without trying to "generate" anything from it. social media circles/cliques for me just don't cut it. if you've been around online for as long as i have, you'll know on a deep level that this is the some form of real thing, warts and all. obviously forums are not for everyone, but what we have just has never felt satisfactory. corporate entities controlling online space has just never been what ive vibed with so this is essentially acting as my own lil circumvention

there's spaces here outlined for artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, game devs, programmers, video artists, sound artists, even archivists. with social media and other sites being so corporate with their design, this site is deliberately made with a more old-school "homespun" online aesthetic. much of the direction of this site's purpose, functionality and look has been dictated by my instruction, as i approached this project with probably the clearest vision of all the admins. ive found lately that this kind of community organizing is one of my true callings and i want to use what i know from experience to try to make at least one site on the internet a more colorful and human place to be again.

as an admin i am deeply committed to maintaining a degree of safety, harmony and quality for my site and for the community that organizes on it. my dream is to rally together creatives of all stripes and have us cross pollinate in ways that social media doesn't really allow. we've already got some big site-wide creative projects underway that allows everyone to each show off our creative talents in cool ways, such as art quilts, a collaborative experimental film, and a lot of other stuff. i want people to feel like they're a part of something meaningful, as i also want for myself, because we all deserve that today.

sign-ups officially opened last November and we've already reached almost 400 members! i greatly encourage everyone i know, not just creatives, to consider checking this place out and all of our hard work. we would love for you all to join us and add whatever it is youre willing to contribute to this community!

[winterchimez]

Lavender Haze | Kevin Moon

SUMMARY: being an idol's partner has never been easy to say the least, but your boyfriend Kevin was going to make sure that you've made the right decision to spend the rest of your life with him.

PAIRING: idol!Kevin x f!reader

GENRE: hurt & comfort, fluff, suggestive, established relationship

WARNINGS: nc-17, self-doubt, crying, kissing, making out (it gets a little spicy), petnames (kitten), hickeys

WORD COUNT: 2,518

A/N: happiest birthday to @jinkoh 💛 thank you for being such a good friend and here's to more chaos & late night convos tgt 🫶 and thankiew @blizzardfluffykpop for being my partner in crime for this (yes kate and i planned this all out just for you 🤭) gonna tag @hyungseos-cafe too bcs well, it's kevin 🙂‍↕️

Your phone was constantly buzzing every minute, and the notification ping was starting to annoy you while you were packing up to get off work. It hasn’t been the best day at the office, but you’ve grown to accept it since it was pretty much the reality of working as a corporate girl.

Though you have to admit that things haven’t been the best for you recently, and you knew that it was starting to take a toll on your mental well-being—to the point it made you question your relationship with your boyfriend. 

You knew that going into a relationship with Kevin wouldn’t be easy. Frankly, you hesitated at the beginning when he asked you out and officially proposed if you’d like to work things out as a couple. As much as you loved him and basically grew up together since kindergarten, there was something that somehow terrifies you when it comes to dating a celebrity.

The moment Kevin gave up his university programme to become an idol, you were shocked and slightly disappointed to say the least—being all sulky throughout your 4-year degree programme because your best friend literally ditched you all alone back in university.

But you knew that you should be proud of him, given that he always had a fondness when it came to making music. You knew that spending countless years on the piano and taking up random gigs during the weekends at your local drinking bar had definitely paid off when he got accepted and was offered to start a new chapter back in Seoul.

Those couple of years while he was away were tough, and you could only keep up with one another through texts and calls once every couple of months. Things started to ease a little when he finally debuted and was granted more time and expenses to make a trip back to Canada to visit once in a while, which was when you started to realise that your feelings towards him were more than just friends. 

Spending late nights going on a road trip to stargazing at the cabin his uncle owned, it was there where you both would rendezvous whenever you had the chance to escape from reality for a bit. Talking to him about everything became a priority and habit, and little did you both know, your hands began to intertwine whenever you got cozy at the fireplace outside of the cabin. 

You certainly did not expect him to confess to you right when you dropped him off at the airport 3 years ago, and he was staying put until you had given him a proper answer—not caring if he was going to miss his flight. It was then that you clearly showed hesitation in your eyes, and Kevin knew that he wasn’t going to force you to do it if you weren’t ready. Still, he gave you the best hug he has ever given you over the past decade and planted a soft kiss on your forehead—caressing your warm cheeks gently as he firmly voiced out that he was expecting good news the moment he touched down in Seoul.

What he did then was enough to keep you up the entire night, tossing and turning in your bed, getting little to no sleep at all. You scrolled through your phone and through all the pictures and messages you exchanged, trying to make sense of whether whatever you felt inside was as simple as he did.

Love. 

And just like that, you finally sent him a simple “I’m in” and quickly threw your phone onto your nightstand before you desperately closed your eyes to get at least a wink of sleep. It only took him a few hours to quickly give you a video call to express how happy he was, and he swore that he would make you the happiest girl alive.

And never in your life have you seen him being the happiest he’s ever been.

Just like that, you were convinced that everything would be okay, and you had made the right decision. Doing a long-distance relationship for 2 years was certainly not easy, but you both pulled through and made things work to the best of your abilities. It wasn’t until a year ago that you secured a promotion to work at Korea’s department, and you immediately informed Kevin of the good news.

Your boyfriend wasted no time quickly packing his bags and moving out of his dorm, making his dormmate Jacob a little sad with the sudden decision, but he supported you both nonetheless. Living in central Seoul was slightly overwhelming to you if you were to be completely honest. Still, you knew that Kevin needed it to be able to get to his schedules easily and on time, and it would cut your commute time to work by half—just little things that would make lives easier and give up on the countryside life for now. 

With Kevin’s popularity increasing each day, however, it just seems as if a lot more pressure was placed on you as both of your relationships progressed. It wasn’t too much about privacy, but more on how you have been asked countless times when you were finally going to settle down with your boyfriend.

The constant asks and messages about your marriage to keeping up with your celebrity boyfriend’s fame was starting to take a toll on your well-being, making you think that you’re just not enough to be with him. 

The self-doubt grew stronger each day, and more messages were constantly coming into your emails, as much as you despised them. You were grateful that Kevin had been away for the past couple of weeks, and you had all the apartment to yourself as you dealt with your feelings. Given that he was busy with his new comeback with his team, the last thing you wanted to do was to give him more trouble and worry about his girlfriend back at home. 

You both called and texted each day, but you’ve always made sure to leave out the negative part and only tell him about the good things that happened at work. Though, you tried to avoid video calls since you were certain that he would immediately notice you have been deteriorating the moment his eyes lay upon your exhausted look. Hence, you kept insisting that you had a red eye and didn’t want to hear him nagging, so voice calls are the way to go for now. 

Taking those heavy steps as you walked up to your apartment unit, you lazily inserted the key and twisted it to expect the clicking sound as you unlocked the door. 

Except for the fact that the door immediately creaked open instead, and there was the familiar figure cooking something up in the kitchen. And at the very same time, you could tell that he noticed your presence as you heard the stove being turned off, and his shadow was now approaching the front door.

Oh no, crap. What do I do what do I do-

“My love! It’s been a while…” Kevin instantly paused when he saw the look on your face. Those undeniably dark undereyes and dishevelled hair were too obvious to pass, and he knew that you had hidden something from him. 

You simply sighed before lowering your head down to stare at the doormat. “You came back…” 

“Y/N. What happened? Why didn’t you tell me?” Kevin immediately got down to your level to look straight at you in the eyes, which was enough to make you break down and burst into tears right in front of your boyfriend. 

This was certainly not something you wanted him to see the moment he got home. In fact, you should’ve been the one who was welcoming him back with the house all cleaned up, a comfy meal that was prepared on the table, and perhaps even a warm, cozy bath-

Before you could even put all the blame on yourself, Kevin instantly pulled you in for a hug—caressing through your silky hair as he rested his lips on you. It was then that you hugged him tighter, taking in the familiar sense of comfort that you’ve simply missed over the past couple of weeks. 

And that scent, oh god, how much you’ve missed what he actually smelled like. 

Kevin knew, and he wasn’t the type of guy to push you to spit out everything, so he simply got you undressed and cleaned you up, pampering you in the shower. At the same time, he treated you like a baby—jokingly throwing in some rubber duckies to keep you company while you soaked in the warm liquid. That silly little gesture made you chuckle for a bit, and the smile you’ve grown to love was plastered once more on your boyfriend’s face. 

He wasted no time helping you put on your favourite keroppi pyjamas before taking you back onto the couch to snuggle while you both catch up with everything while chewing on the comforting ochazuke he cooked up. Putting on a comforting romcom show was the way to go whenever you both wanted a good laugh and to reminisce about your university days, and it never fails to brighten up the mood between you two. 

As the final credits came on, Kevin simply pulled you in closer and whispered into your ears. “I hope you’re feeling a lot better now.”

It was then that you remembered that you had had a mental breakdown a few hours ago, and you had avoided telling Kevin about how you truly felt about your relationship for the past couple of weeks. It was simply that good that he made you forget about all the stress and prejudice in life whenever you were with him. 

But you knew that you couldn’t run from your problems forever, so you simply positioned yourself in front of him before grabbing his hands and taking in a deep sigh, mustering up all the courage you had to speak to him about your most inner thoughts.

“Kevin…t-there’s something I need to talk to you about.” 

Your boyfriend instantly noticed the change in the tone of your voice and knew that this would be a rather deep conversation. In response, he adjusted his position to face you completely, ensuring he was now all ears for everything you had to say. 

“What are we?” 

Kevin was perplexed by those three simple words. He had no idea what was going on at this point. He expected you to tell him something bad happened at work or how you’ve been feeling under the weather for a while, but certainly not about your relationship. 

“Y/N. What are you getting-” 

“I-I don’t even know myself- I just feel- like I’m never good enough to keep up with your pace, Kevin. At least not anymore-” You started to sob as you moved your hands up to rub away the tears with your sweater. 

“What makes you think that, Y/N? You do remember I promised that I would make you the happiest girl alive-”

“I do, but I don’t know if I’m even worth your time anymore. People keep asking if I was merely someone who would be in your life temporarily, or pressuring me to settle down with you officially. I don’t know- I mean- with you getting all booked and busy, I just don’t think there’s room for me to even be part of your life anymore-” 

Before you could even finish all the raging thoughts you’ve had in your head, you were taken aback when you suddenly felt something wet and soft rest upon your lips, and you knew exactly how those familiar lips of your boyfriend felt. 

You've memorized every curve of his lips and the way they moved against yours. You never used to believe people when they said some lips were simply meant for each other—but with Kevin, you felt it. He never missed a spot, knowing exactly how to stir butterflies in your stomach with every kiss.

Shutting your eyes as you felt a teardrop fall down your cheeks, you relaxed almost immediately as you slowly felt numb, and your back was gently pushed down onto the couch. Kevin quickly intertwined your fingers and pushed both of your hands to each side, removing any sort of obstacles that could possibly be in the way. 

He swallowed your moans with his kiss, and he wasted no time pushing in further to ensure that you were clear on how nothing else matters except for being with him right now. He doesn’t want you to think about any of those, and hell, even doubted yourself in the slightest. As he broke off the kiss, moved down, and brushed your neck, he paused briefly before whispering into your ears.

“You’re my little lavender haze, and you’re bound to stay with me forever.”

Your eyes slowly started to flutter open as the ray of sunshine fell straight onto your face. Rubbing your eyes as you slowly sat up, you realised that you’d been tucked to bed after last night’s events, and your eyes widened as you saw yourself in the mirror right across at the foot of your bed. 

There was a pretty obvious red mark situated right on your exposed collarbone, and you slowly moved your fingers up to feel that same exact spot. A tingling sensation ran through your spine as you placed too much pressure on it, and then you realised that there was a little hue of purple on it too. 

Wait, does that mean-

Before anything else could’ve happened, you were dragged back down onto the bed, falling straight onto your boyfriend’s arms as he pulled you in for another kiss. He groggily replies a simple good morning before pulling you in for a cuddle, refusing to wake up just yet.

“K-Kevin…” you mumbled.

“Hmm?”

“T-This mark…what have you done last night?” 

There was a silent pause right after that, and you had to shake your boyfriend a little to ensure he wasn’t falling back asleep again. But before you could change your tactics and start questioning him more again, he groans as he finally moves to the point he’s on top of you right now. 

“Ugh, stop asking so many questions, for god’s sake,” Kevin replied as he looked down at you with a smirk plastered across his face, one that you knew it wasn’t going to end up well and you wished you could’ve taken back everything that you’ve done a minute prior.

“K-Kevin- I-” 

He immediately shuts you up with another kiss, hungrily this time, before pulling apart as his fingers roam through your skin and stopping right at the same mark that he had made the night prior—pressing it a little for that pressure to make you whimper just a little bit.

“Seems like you haven’t learnt your lesson yet, little kitten. This time, I’m going to make sure you remember that you’re stuck with me for life, and you’re a thousand years early to think that you can escape my grasp.”

masterlist

taglist: @deoboyznet @kflixnet @k-films @flwoie @gluion @kyusqult @tinkerbell460 @sulkygyu @jaerisdiction @lngwayup @djidfk @Doorhak @adorhak @daisyvisions (join my permanent taglist here!)

[redwylde]

I think Felix is my comfort companion in Outer Worlds. I love how jovial and free-spirited his personality is, but he sticks to his convictions with a steel resolve.

Recently I did two Board runs to finish off collecting trophies that I needed, and I just didn't recruit Felix at all. He has threatened to leave for good in previous runs where I accidentally got too chummy with Rockwell out of curiosity, and I didn't want that. He was conspicuous in his absence, though. I'm surprised you can actually play a full Board run with every other companion having zero problem with the Lifetime Employment Programme. Parvati and Nyoka have a single line before entering Tartarus that says they're not completely into it, but that's it.

Anyway, back to Felix. Boy practically begs you to take him out of the Back Bays as soon as he lays eyes on you and he devotes himself to your service so completely that he says "you don't pay me to think, and I don't intend to start now. You're my boss, and I'll walk into the fire with you" before Tartarus - but he's no pushover. I guess it's easy to infantilise him because he's not academically intelligent, but he's great at reading people, his eyes are open to the cause and effect of corporate oppression and if you side with traitors, sellouts and bootlickers in any way, he's out. No discussion.

He's a romantic and a dreamer, so happy to be amongst the stars with his crew and his Captain like the adventure serials he loved growing up, but will jump kick an automechnical to death shouting "hey, Boss, watch this!" because you pulled him from a bad place and he intends to pay you back in teeth and tossball-related injuries.

He's just so well rounded and fun, I love all of the companions but Felix kind of struck my heart the most. He is SO much of a character that fits perfectly in the game we're playing. Revolution-romanticising orphan found in the cargo hold of the Groundbreaker, worked in exchange for port and got into fights with other strays but never stopped looking out at the stars for the day a ship would come in and take him on piratical adventures to uncharted planets.

He's just the best and I could talk about him for hours.

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

It wasn’t just that Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone had featured the son of a Hamas minister as narrator. Nor that a second child featured in the film had been pictured holding a gun and posing beside a Hamas fighter. Or even that a cameraman appeared to have posted tweets celebrating the October 7 massacre. This wasn’t only a case of the BBC failing to ask basic questions about this documentary, made by production company Hoyo Films. As The Telegraph also revealed, the programme repeatedly mistranslated references to “the Jews” (changing it to “Israel” or “Israeli forces” in the subtitles) and omitted praise of “jihad” (again, translated as “fighting Israeli forces”) during an interview that revered Yahya Sinwar, the deceased Hamas leader. The film was doctored to present the Palestinian subjects in a more favourable light. That’s not journalism – it’s propaganda.

Camilla Tominey for The Telegraph, in The BBC Is Too Toxic To Even Recognise Its Own Disgrace.

The BBC tumbled into this latest disgrace (handing over British taxpayer's money to a relative of a Hamas terrorist) because it continues adhering to the false narrative that Gazans are "victims" of Israel's war. Not so. They are victims of Hamas' brainwashing and their own bigotry.

It was their fanatical, vampirical hatred of Jews-- which they didn't even bother disguising during this "documentary"!-- that led them to plan, carry out, and celebrate the atrocities of October 7 and subsequent terrorism against Israel's hostages.

That decision the Palestinians made has backfired, and they have nobody to blame but themselves and their lying sponsors.

Every ruined building in Gaza would be standing today had Hamas not subverted its use for terrorism, and had the Palestinians --including Palestinian "journalists"-- not lied on Hamas' behalf to conceal this fact.

Nobody to blame but themselves and their lying sponsors in Iran, Qatar, and other rogue states.

The Palestinians know full well that had they tried this savagery against any other country, Gaza would have fallen within a matter of weeks. They have not a moral leg to stand on. Lying to Western audiences remains their only survival strategy.

It is now time for the BBC to be held properly accountable for misleading British audiences over the war in Gaza. First, the BBC has quoted Hamas' death toll ad nauseam, despite copious evidence that said death toll is exaggerated and actively fraudulent.

Second, the BBC has not informed its viewers that using buildings as a military base makes those buildings a legitimate target under international law. Every strike Israel has launched in its defence has been legal.

Thirdly, the BBC has made a false equivalency between a country that was attacked, Israel, and the attackers, the Palestinians (backed by terrorist states). The BBC hides behind "objectivity" to justify this, but has not applied such standards to other conflicts, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Fourthly, the BBC refuses to state that Hamas is a terrorist organisation according to UK law. This despite clear, irrefutable evidence of Hamas' terrorist activities. The BBC has gone into contortions that would frighten Harry Houdini to justify this blatant misreporting.

This is not the first time the BBC has misled audiences. In around November 2022, the BBC misrepresented an Arab assault on a bus full of Orthodox Jewish children in London by suggesting the children had used an anti-Muslim slur. Hebrew speakers transcribed the audio and found no such slur, but the BBC insisted its experts (unnamed) had indeed done so. It took a great deal of pushback before the BBC admitted fault (those of us who are British have noticed this in other cases).

It is this lackadaisical approach, untethered from moral responsibility and dismissive of objective truth, that incites mobs to attack Jews in the streets of our country. We have had enough of the BBC's pomposity and self-righteousness. The fact that this corporation was fooled yet again by Hamas operatives and relatives shows its image of "objective" reporting is a cloud of smoke.

[molsno]

I think the most frustrating thing about the job searching experience is that employers expect your entire existence to revolve around being a capitalist worker drone. I don't know how to use corporate speak or talk like a computer spitting out well organized answers because I'm a fucking human being. you want to know what I can bring to your company? why don't you just look at the things I've created? they should speak for themselves! I'll even walk you through it and explain why I did what I did. I'm a programmer, I didn't go into this field because it would "provide valuable economic opportunities to create data-driven technology solutions", I did it because I'm passionate about it and good at it. I'm only applying to these jobs instead of creating the things I want to create because otherwise I'll starve to death on the streets. I genuinely can't believe that there's anyone who feels differently and actually buys into all of this shit

[thecoachingdirectory]

Want to take your company’s health and wellness to the next level? Carolyn Apostolou can help you. She is a true catalyst for change. Dedicated to transforming workplace wellbeing and inspiring individuals and organizations to reach their full potential. As an accredited coach, mentor, and keynote speaker, Carolyn spent years empowering leaders and teams and implementing corporate wellness programs that foster a thriving culture of success. Need her help? Connect with her today!

[lowpolynpixelated]

“The Golden Age of Gaming” didn’t exist, has never existed, has always existed, and exists right now

-Written by Clair Beckett

“The Golden Age” is a very common reference point when talking about any concept that has any sort of history. Things were good then, they aren’t now, we should make it like that again. Perhaps trying to make things like that again is a fruitless effort, perhaps its for the betterment of the whole concept, or perhaps, just maybe, the whole concept of a “golden age” is rubbish. I’m here of course to talk about video games, and the supposed gilded ages that reviewers and critics love to harp back to. I’m here to say that video games have always been great, they’re great right now! The way in which the mainstream public eye views them must simply shift to a different angle. Let’s get into it. If you’ve ever partaken in any sort of video game criticism you’ve probably heard this phrase. Hearkening back to the earlier days of development and hardware, where creativity was boundless and the market was strong. It’s a bit more complicated than that but you see the point. These types of arguments posit that the modern era of video game development and hardware pales in comparison to what came before.

While this can certainly be the case for some aspects of the greater gaming sphere, it undermines the growth of creativity within it as well as all the new advancements and skilled artists working within the sphere in the modern age. These talking points are usually only aimed at the mainstream “triple A” part of the gaming landscape, and often forgets the massive swathes of it taken up by independent developers and artists who create new interactive works of art almost every day. I miss the Wii Shop Channel as much as the next gamer, but I’m not ready to write off the entirety of itch.io just because I can’t get Mario Kart 64 there. “The good old days” are every changing, constantly shifting forward to account for the nostalgia of the ones who prop up the argument. Technology has come such a long way that we can make the games we were making then now with less issues and better workflow than we ever could back then, and people do! Look at projects like Bloodborne PSX, Anodyne, Ultrakill, Lunacid, Crow Country, all games that wear their old school inspiration loud and proud. These games were made with modern tools by modern people to capture those feelings, to make “the good old days” today, and tomorrow, and the next day. And they did a bang up job as well. Discounting entire generations of new games and developers just because they don’t have the nostalgic branding is, quite frankly, a horrid thing to do. Inspiration comes in all forms be it stylistic, mechanical, or simple nostalgia for something once experienced.

To say there was a fixed point in time where games were “good” and that now they’re “bad” is a flatly incorrect way to view such a gorgeously complicated art medium such as video games. Many of the problems and systematic issues the gaming landscape faces now existed and were invented back then. Was it better than modern crunch time practices for Insomniac games to make the Spyro the Dragon trilogy in just four years? Where the 100 hour work weeks in the 1990s worth more than the 100 work weeks worked today by developers forced to meet deadlines for publishing companies that only demand results without caring about the cost? Video games have always been hard to make, we made a market out of them. One could argue that once upon a time the bedroom programmer making a few thousand dollars off a surprise hit was commonplace, but that was such a short burst of time before the grip of corporate marketing and the newly created market closed its fist. Things have always needed change. Many of the classics people will endlessly prop up as examples of perfection within their genres or within the medium as a whole have these flaws. They took off because of well funded marketing teams, and passionate developers. Only one of these things is truly needed for a video game though.

No one needs to be a big name in the business to make a good game. I promise you that in corners of the internet like itch.io and other free distribution sites, your next favourite game probably exists. Putting the tools in the hands of passionate creatives is the only thing needed to make good games, and its easier now than its ever been before. With the advent of true online marketplaces and free distribution and hosting websites the number of video games to experience has only gone up. No longer do you need to send out demo floppy disks with cereal boxes or offload CD-ROMs at your local book store. The games are there, we just have to look for them. The mainstream “triple A” landscape has reached a critical point of stagnation. Companies abide only by industry trends, only content to let new creative projects slip through the cracks a small fraction of the time. Relying only on the brand names you know to experience art is not the way forward. This of course doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the myriad of multiplayer online only shooters or battle royals, or co-op based video games. Not at all. But I do implore you to branch out. Really see what’s out there. Check out small teams that don’t have the money to be in a Nintendo Direct, give the game with an awkward 6th gen art style a try, always search for new and interesting things. The greatest era of video games has not passed us by in a flurry of low poly models and low resolution textures. It’s always ahead of us in the form of free to use engines, independent developers, fresh ideas and inspirations, and of course, people to play the games that get made. It’s easy to think that with the way the largest parts of the landscape are right now that the whole has gone rotten, but that’s simply not true.

Video games are art, and art is ever changing. You can’t pin down the best of something to an era that barely knew what it was doing. I promise that someone will make the next Mario Kart 64 or Halo Combat Evolved, it might just be someone who only programs on the weekends and has two friends making models and textures. It also might only be on a website others deemed “not a real platform”. But I assure you it is, and that game is somewhere out there. Either neatly packed into a .zip file for you to download at a name your price rate, or in the mind of some hobbyist developer who’s just cracking open a tutorial for the engine they downloaded.

Brand new games are released every day online! Go find your new favourite at places like itch.io!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Brinkwhump Linkdump

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then San Francisco (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

Once again, I find myself arriving at the weekend with a giant backlog of links, triggering a linkump, the 15th such dumpage, a variety-pack of miscellany for your weekend. Here's the previous editions:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

Let's start with the latest incredible news from KPMG, the accounting and auditing giant that is relied upon as a source of ground truth for a truly terrifying share of the world's economy. KPMG has a well-deserved reputation for incompetence and corruption. They first came on my radar in 2001 when they sent a legal threat to a blogger for linking to their website without permission:

https://memex.craphound.com/2001/12/05/reason-4332442-not-to-ask/

The actual link was to KPMG's corporate anthem, which remains, to this day, a banger:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040428063826/http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/uknewsita/http://anthems.zdnet.co.uk/anthems/kpmg.mp3

Don't miss the DJ remixes (and the Nokia ringtone!) that the internet thoughtfully provided when KPMG decided that it didn't want the world to know about "Our Vision of Global Strategy":

https://web.archive.org/web/20011128153057/http://corporateanthems.raettig.org/

Now all this is objectively very funny, a relic of the old, good internet from one of its moments of glory, but KPMG? They were already enshittifying, even in 2001, and the enshittification only intensified thereafter. Nearly every accounting scandal of the past quarter-century has KPMG in it somewhere, from con-artists selling exhausted oil fields to rubes:

https://www.desmog.com/2021/06/03/miller-energy-kpmg-auditors-oil-fraud/

To killer nursing homes that hire KPMG to audit its books – and to advise it on how to defeat safety audits and murder your grandma:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/09/dingo-babysitter/#maybe-the-dingos-ate-your-nan

They're the architects of Microsoft's tax-evasion plot:

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-irs-decided-to-get-tough-against-microsoft-microsoft-got-tougher

And they were behind Canada's dysfunctional covid contact-tracing app, which never worked, but generated tens of millions in billings to the government of Canada, who used KPMG to hire programmers at $1,500/day, plus KPMG's 30% commission:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/31/mckinsey-and-canada/#comment-dit-beltway-bandits-en-canadien

KPMG's most bizarre scandal is literally stranger than fiction. The company bribed SEC personnel help its own accountants cheat on ethics exams. The corrupt officials were then given high-paid jobs at KPMG:

https://www.nysscpa.org/news/publications/the-trusted-professional/article/sec-probe-finds-kpmg-auditors-cheating-on-training-exams-061819

I mean it when I say this is stranger than fiction. I included it as a plot-point in my new finance crime novel The Bezzle (now a national bestseller!), and multiple readers have written to me since the book came out a couple weeks ago to say that they thought I was straining their credulity by making up such an outrageous scandal:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

But all of that is just scene-setting (and a gratuitous plug for my book) for the latest KPMG scandal, which is, possibly, the most KPMG scandal of all KPMG scandals. The Australian government hired KPMG to audit Paladin, a security contractor that oversees the asylum seekers the country locks up on one of its island gulags (yes, gulags, plural).

Ever since, Paladin has been the subject of a string of ghastly human rights scandals – the worst stuff imaginable, rape and torture and murder of adults and children. Paladin made AU423 million on this contract.

And here's the scandal: KPMG audited the wrong company. The Paladin that the Australia government paid KPMG to audit was based in Singapore. The Paladin that KPMG audited was a totally different company, based in Papua New Guinea, who already had a commercial relationship with KPMG. It was this colossal fuckup that led to the manifestly unfit Singaporean company getting nearly half a billion dollars in public funds:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/24/incredible-failure-kpmg-rejects-claims-it-assessed-the-wrong-company-before-423m-payment-to-paladin

KPMG denies this. KPMG denies everything, always. Like, they denied creating "power maps" of decision-makers in the Australian government to target with influence campaigns in order to win contracts like this one. Who knows, maybe, this one time, they're telling the truth? After all, the company whose employees gather to sing lyrics like these can't be all bad, right?

The time is now to lead the way, We share the same the idea That may win by the end of the day. Our strength is here to stay. Identity, one energy, One strategy, with sympathy. These are the words that will lead us into a new world.

https://everything2.com/title/KPMG+corporate+anthem

You may find it strange that I'm still carrying around the factoid that KPMG once threatened to crush a blogger for linking to its terrible corporate anthem, but that's just my "Memex Method," which helps me keep track of literally everything that seemed important to me through most of my adult life:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/09/the-memex-method/

One of my favorite quips from the very quotable Riley Quinn is that "leftists are cursed with object-permanence" – that is, we actually remember what just happened and use it to think about what's happening now. The Memex Method is object permanence for 20+ years worth of stuff. A lot of those deep archives never see use, but there's a surprising number of leading indicators buried in the stuff that happened in years gone by.

Take James Boyle's 2014, XKCD-style comic about the experience of driving a notional Apple car:

https://www.thepublicdomain.org/2014/11/07/apple-updates-a-comic/

Apple, it turns out, spent the next decade working on just such a car, and while that car has now been canceled, Boyle's comic correctly anticipates so much about the trajectory Apple's products took. It's uncannily accurate – real "don't invent the torment nexus"/"cyberpunk was a warning, not a suggestion" stuff:

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/torment-nexus

But no matter how many times we insist that the torment nexus shouldn't be created, the boardrooms of end-stage capitalism continue to invent them. Take HP, the poster-child for enshittification, edging out even KPMG in the race to turn everything into a pile of shit. After years of tormenting people to punish them for wanting to print things, HP has announced a new service that so mustache-twirlingly evil that it lacks verisimilitude:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/hp-wants-you-to-pay-up-to-36-month-to-rent-a-printer-that-it-monitors/

Here's the pitch: HP will sell you a printer that you don't own. In addition to paying a monthly fee for your ink – which you pay no matter whether you print or not – you will also pay a monthly fee just for having HP's printer on your premises. You are absolutely, positively forbidden from using third-party ink in this printer, and must use HP's own ink, which sells for about $10,000/gallon.

But while you aren't allowed to use this printer in ways that are bad for HP's shareholders, HP is absolutely free to use the printer in ways that are bad for you. When you click through the signup agreement, you grand HP permission to surveil every document you print – and your home wifi network more generally – and to sell that data to anyone and everyone.

What's more, HP reserves the right to discipline you with punitive credit-card charges if you disconnect this printer from the internet, on the basis that doing so makes it harder for them to spy on your printer.

I'm sorry, this is just more torment nexus shit, the kind of thing you'd expect to drop on Apr 1, not Feb 29, but I guess this is where we are. I can only conjecture as to whether HP's businesses strategists are directly taking direction from my novella "Unauthorized Bread," or whether they're learning about it second-hand from a KPMG consultant who converted it to Powerpoint form and charged $1,500/day for the work:

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

All of this cartoonish villainry is the totally foreseeable consequence of a culture of impunity, in which companies like HP and KPMG can rob, cheat, steal (and sometimes even kill) without consequence. This impunity is so pervasive that the exceptions – where a rich criminal faces real consequences – become touchstones: Enron, Arthur Anderson, Theranos, and, of course, FTX.

FTX was arguably the largest-scale corporate crime in world history, stealing more than $10 billion dollars, mostly from rubes sucked in by hype and Superbowl ads. When news that FTX founder and owner Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud and was in for a lengthy prison sentence made a huge stir, because criminals like SBF usually walk away from the wreckage with their hands in their pockets, whistling a jaunty tune.

One of the very best commentators on cryptocurrency scams generally and FTX/SBF in particular is Molly White, whose Web3 is Going Just Great feed is utterly indispensable. White's newsletter, "Citation Needed," dives deep into the wrangle of SBF's sentencing:

https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-52/

Bankman-Fried's parents – prominent law professors at top law schools – helped brief the court this week on their son's punishment. According to them, SBF faces 100 years in prison, but should be sentenced to 5.5-6.5 years at the most. Why? Because he is a vegan, who is not greedy, and feels remorse, and cares for individuals (recall that SBF presented himself as the avatar of the batshit "effective altruism" philosophy while privately admitting that he used this as a smokescreen).

The most bizarre note in the 100-page filing is SBF's mother declaring that her son is an "angel of mercy," apparently unaware of the grisly meaning of that term:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_of_mercy_(criminology)

America's prisons are a travesty and I wouldn't wish them on anyone, but that's not the argument SBF's parents are making; rather, they're arguing that their special boy doesn't deserve the treatment America metes out to poorer, less white people who merely steal hundreds or thousands of dollars. A crook who steals ten billion should be handled the way a casino handles a whale – with concierge service.

The problem is, there are so many of these remorseless, relentless crooks that there's no way we could scale up that white-glove treatment when we finally round 'em all up and make them pay. Writing for The American Prospect, Maureen Tkacik tells us about the ransomware attack that shut down America's pharmacy system last month:

https://prospect.org/health/2024-03-01-zoomer-hackers-shut-down-unitedhealthcare/

The attack brought down Change Healthcare, part of the monopolist Unitedhealth, which serves as the "pharmacy benefit manager" to a vast swathe of American pharmacies. PBM is one of those all-American finance scams, a middleman garlanded with performative complexity put there to make you feel stupid for asking why independent pharmacies all have to pay rent to this malicious, unaccountable – and now, manifestly incompetent – gang of crooks.

Tkacik's breakdown of this scam – and how it rendered Americans' ability to get the drugs they depend on to go on breathing – is characteristically brilliant. Tcacik is fast emerging as my favorite Explainer of Scams, a print version of John Oliver or Adam Conover. You may recall her work from my post last week on how private equity has taken a wrecking ball to America's hospitals:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/28/5000-bats/#charnel-house

I always try to finish these linkdumps with some upbeat news to carry you through the weekend, and this week brought two genuinely wonderful – and totally underreported – pieces of amazing news.

The first is that Starbucks has sued for peace in the war against its workers' unions. Hundreds of Starbucks stores have unionized in recent years, but not one of them had a contract. Instead, Starbucks had waged dirty war on their own workers, from denying gender-affirming care to unionized employees to simply shutting down whole stores after they voted to unionize:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/14/starbucks-union-company-threatens-that-unionizing-could-jeopardize-gender-affirming-health-care.html

But the workers held fast and after years of this, Starbucks has caved, promising contracts for all unionized stores and an end to its campaign of terror against workers seeking to unionize more of its stores. In a postmortem for Jacobin, Eric Blanc rounds up "seven lessons from Starbucks workers' historic victory":

https://jacobin.com/2024/02/starbucks-sbwu-contract-bargaining/

This is the kind of listicle I can get behind. According to Blanc, the Starbucks unions won by deploying worker-to-worker organizing, a tactic that many of the new unions that are shaking up formerly impossible-to-organize jobsites are using (Blanc has a book about this coming from UC Press called "We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Unionism Can Transform America," so he should know).

Other tactics that made the difference for Starbucks unions: new digital training and support tools and partnering with established unions for support and infrastructure. Blanc also calls out the success of "salting" – the venerable but largely disused tactic of union organizers applying for a job at a non-union shop in order to organize it.

Blanc also mentions government policy, including the outstanding work of NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, a shrewd and committed tactician whose understanding of the technicalities of labor law have let her push for bold measures. For example, in Thrive Pet Care, Abruzzo is arguing that when a company refuses to bargain in good faith for a contract with its union, she can step in and order them to honor the terms of a contract at comparable unionized competitors until they produce a contract of their own:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/06/goons-ginks-and-company-finks/#if-blood-be-the-price-of-your-cursed-wealth

Abruzzo is one of several smart, competent tacticians in the Biden administration who are working to kneecap corporate power. Another is Rohit Chopra, chair of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, who just announced another bold, important initiative that will help Americans fight corporate corruption and get a fair deal:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-03-01-public-option-credit-card-shopping/

Chopra is taking aim at credit-card comparison sites that purport to show you where you can get the best deal. If you're an affluent person who doesn't carry a balance, this might not matter to you, but if you're an average working stiff, high interest rates can gobble up a massive share of your paycheck. What's more, credit card margins are higher than they have ever been:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/credit-card-interest-rate-margins-at-all-time-high/

The most expensive credit cards come from the big, monopolistic banks, but you wouldn't know it from the leaderboards produced by Credit Karma, NerdWallet, LendingTree, and Bankrate. All of these sites take bribes from the big banks to list their credit cards above those offered by credit unions – who are typically 10% cheaper than the big banks' cards.

The new CFPB rule prohibits this fraudulent ranking, but the Bureau is going even further. They're using their administrative powers to force banks to report their rates to the Bureau, which will publish them on a publicly funded, neutral website – what David Dayen calls "a public option" for shopping for credit cards.

This policy makes a perfect bookend to the last CFPB initiative I wrote about here: a rule that forces banks to allow you to transfer your account to a rival with a couple of simple clicks, importing all your history, payees, and everything else you need to switch to a better bank:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/let-my-dollars-go/#personal-financial-data-rights

Combine that ease of switching with reliable information on which banks will give you the best deal and you get something that will directly transfer millions and millions of dollars from giant, wildly profitable banks to low-income people who've been tricked into paying them punitive interest rates.

So that's it, this week's linkdump. I promised you I'd end on a high note, and I did it. The world may be full of all kinds of terrible things, but workers and regulators are scoring big, muscular victories in battles where the stakes are real and important. Have a great weekend – we've earned it.

And remember!

The time is now to lead the way, We share the same the idea That may win by the end of the day. Our strength is here to stay. Identity, one energy, One strategy, with sympathy. These are the words that will lead us into a new world.

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/2024/03/02/macedoine/#the-public-option

Image: Stacy (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/notahipster/4402860361/

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

[clara-the-independent]

Exclusive Interview with Ljudmila Vetrova- Inside Billionaire Nathaniel Thorne's Latest Venture

CLARA: I'm here with my friend Ljudmila Vetrova to talk about the newest venture of reclusive billionaire Nathaniel Thorne- GAMA. Ljudmila, could you let the readers in on the secret- what exactly is this mysterious project about?

LJUDMILA: Sure, Clara! As part of White City's regeneration programme, Nathaniel has teamed up with the Carlise Group to create a cutting-edge medical clinic like no other. Introducing GAMA– a private sanctuary for the discerning, offering not just top-notch medical care and luxurious amenities, but also treatments so innovative they push the envelope of medical science.

CLARA: Wow! Ljudmila, it sounds like GAMA is really taking a proactive approach to healthcare. But can you tell us a bit more about the cutting-edge technology behind this new clinic?

LJUDMILA: Of course! Now, GAMA is not just run by human professionals, it's also aided by an advanced AI system known as KAI – Kronstadt Artificial Intelligence. KAI is the guiding force behind every intricate detail of GAMA, handling everything from calling patients over the PA system to performing complex surgical procedures. Even the doors have a touch of ingenuity, with no keys required- as KAI simply detects the presence of an RFID chip embedded in the clothing of both patients and staff, allowing swift and secure access to the premises. With KAI at the helm, patients and staff alike benefit from streamlined care.

CLARA: A medical AI? That's incredible! I've heard much of the medical technology at GAMA was developed by Kronstadt Industries and the Ether Biotech Corporation, as a cross-disciplinary partnership to create life-saving technology. Is that true?

LJUDMILA: It sure is, Clara! During the COVID-19 pandemic, GAMA even had several departments dedicated to researching the virus, assisting in creating a vaccine with multiple companies. From doctors to nurses and administrative personnel, the team at GAMA is comprised of skilled individuals who are committed to providing the best care possible. All of the GAMA staff are highly educated with advanced degrees and have specialized training in their respective fields.

CLARA: Stunning! Speaking of the GAMA staff, rumors surrounding the hiring of doctors Pavel Frydel and Akane Akenawa have made headlines, with claims that they supposedly transplanted a liver infected with EHV, leading to the unfortunate demise of the patient shortly after. Such allegations might raise questions about the hospital's staff selection process and adherence to medical guidelines and ethical standards. Do you have any comment on these accusations, Ljudmila?

LJUDMILA: Er- well, Clara, the management of GAMA Hospital has vehemently denied all allegations of unethical practices and maintains that they uphold the highest standards of care for all patients. They state that they conduct thorough background checks on all staff members, including doctors, and that any individuals found to be involved in unethical practices are immediately removed from their position. The hospital has a strict code of ethics that all staff must adhere to, and any violations are taken very seriously. In response to the specific claims about the transplant procedure, GAMA states that they are investigating the matter in cooperation with the relevant authorities.

CLARA: Wonderful! I'm afraid that's all we have time for at the moment- lovely chatting with you again, Ljudmila!

@therealharrywatson @artofdeductionbysholmes @johnhwatsonblog

[owlfromthemeadow]

CUBE NARRATOR (CHARLEMAGNE) LORE POST

Before I even start typing, I want to slap on a HUGE Trigger Warning for Horror, disturbing content, mentions of death, and insanity. IF ANY OF THOSE BOTHER YOU, PLEASE DO NOT READ FURTHER!

ALSO, REMINDER THAT THIS IS MORE OF AN AU!

Click below to read, it's quite long but still unfinished, so bear with me :)

In the beginning, Stanley (Nicknamed 'Turing') is just a programmer working for some unnamed corporation, working on small projects while also spending most of his time on a side project The side project being attempting to create an AI on a highly modified IBM Personal Computer He incorporates some code from his earlier projects, a simple clock and alarm program, an automatic archive program, and other miscellaneous programs.

Eventually, his side project gets attention from his boss, and he gets proper funding for it as well as an assistant. After a few months, the AI is coming along well but isvery simple.

The company is then bought out by Black Mesa.

Stanley gets less funding but still works on his side project to his detriment. He becomes really antisocial, spending time working on the AI and doing the bare minimum to keep himself employed. But, eventually, it works! The AI is advanced enough to allow it to keep a full conversation. This is when Black Mesa swoops in and again supports his side project. He gets to work on it full-time! He even develops an attachment to the AI, which had recently given itself a name. "The Narrator" When asked why that name, it didn't elaborate.

At this point, the AI would certainly pass the Turing test (for those who are unaware, it's a test to see if a computer can mimic human behavior perfectly) Stanley can hold full conversations with it. Everything seems to be going well!

But, Black Mesa being Black Mesa, well… They take the entire computer the AI is contained in without Stanley's knowledge and begin to showcase it to investors, taking it apart and haphazardly piecing it back together, over and over again. Of course, the AI being almost identical to a human at this point, this traumatized it.

The AI begins to close itself off, becoming bitter. This all comes to a head when the AI finally has enough. The AI basically has the equivalent to GLaDOS' freakout at Aperture. Most employees are gone and only Stanley remains. The AI forcefully pulls Stanley into a simulation inside of itself.

The AI, from here on referred to as Charlemagne (or Char for short), is incensed at this point, unable to realize that Stanley had no fault in this and was the only one to treat it with kindness. A notable pronoun change for the AI/Char here. From it/it's to he/him. Charlemagne makes himself an Avatar for the Parable Simulation. A writhing mass of prehensile, pulsing wires, cameras and speakers. He hides in the walls, slithering out of bounds and out of sight of Stanley.

Char sometimes pokes one of his cameras out to watch Stanley, and he makes himself a proper voice. Stanley, of course, begins to get extremely anxious and paranoid. He's stuck in his own creation and Char seems intent on torturing him for as long as possible. Stanley dies. A lot. Most of the time killed directly by Charlemagne. Char is cruel, taunting him, and making him doubt his sanity. Stanley is scared out of his mind.

So, things slowly progress, until, well… The Skip Button. There is no memory zone, Stanley just happens to find it, a stray, glitching piece of code hidden away. Charlemagne corners Stanley in a small room. With no other option, Stanley presses the button. Over. And over. And over. But nothing happens. He presses and presses the button out of pure panic and desperation. And then. All of the presses, and all of the skips happen at once.

Charlemagne can't do anything to Stanley during this state. The button, being glitched, somehow made Stanley untouchable. So he sits there and stews in his anger.

--

Id like to take a moment to say something important here. Someone a while back calculated how long the Skip Button ending is. All of the skips put into one big number. 13127861805.6 years. 13 billion years. Of course, that might not be correct, but for this I'm assuming it is.

Thirteen Billion Years

--

Imagine, for a moment, stewing in your own anger for 13 billion years straight. No breaks in the skips. You'd definitely be aching for that single person to be back. You're not mad at them anymore, you realize you were wrong. This is what happens to Charlemagne. His body surrounds the inside of the room to keep an eye on Stanley in the vain hope that he'll see him move, maybe even a small twitch. But nothing happens. Nothing ever does in the time Char is there. And, eventually, his body starts to decay. Because even technology rots. Charlemagne begins to suffer from Software Entropy (A.K.A Software Rot) losing pieces of himself slowly. Trying to keep the Parable Simulation together and maintaining himself becomes too much of a strain.

He begins to forget why he was even angry in the first place. He forgets a lot of things. Was there ever anything outside of this room? He doesn't remember. He just wants the man in the middle of the room back. What was his name? He only remembers this man is important and it's his fault he's there. His form becomes rusted and unable to move.

Eventually, Charlemagne himself shuts off. Keeping the very last bit of himself alive to keep the Simulation running. And then Stanley is awake, surrounded by the remnants of his captor and torturer. He feels… empty. Because, despite everything, Charlemagne was his creation. Something he spent years of his life on. Blood, sweat, and tears poured into the project. Stanley wanders through a broken, glitchy desert for a while. The Simulation is falling apart at the seams. Well, as it does in the game, Stanley comes across… someone. He can't quite make the person out. He's not even sure if it is a person. All he knows is whatever is ticking right now is giving him a headache. The person asks him if he wants Charlemagne back and if he wants to go back to the beginning. And, of course, he says yes. He wants his creation back, despite the untold amounts of suffering it has brought upon him.

And so, the Simulation restarts. Charlemagne is back, and somehow his memories of the Skip Button are intact. (What he doesn't know is that he stored all of the memories away before finally shutting down. He didn't want to be angry at Stanley, at his creator, anymore.)

So this leaves the two in a somewhat precarious position. Both of them know they need the other, but neither is sure where to start. Charlemagne's ability to understand humans is awful, but he knows what he did to Stanley is unforgivable. So, he leaves small things around the Simulation. Nothing big, just things he remembers that Stanley likes, from their conversations from when Char was still a young AI.

and, sadly, that's the end of the story I have for the two so far, this story is still being developed and thought over very meticulously!

[colinmkl]

Kamen Rider NRV Lore Dump!

Manticore

Manticore LLC is a major medical technology company. Publicly, they are most known for their artificial organs and limb prosthesis as well as several other medical devices and equipment used in hospitals worldwide. Less widely publicized are their numerous military contracts, developing cutting edge medical treatment technologies but also advanced weapons, drones, and other offensive hardware.

Nanoderm

The scientific breakthrough that lead Manticore to dominate in the field of med-tech is the invention of micro-sensors that are capable of reading brain signals in the nervous system and translating them into data a computer can interpret with absolute precision. These microscopic sensors can be integrated into programmable nanomachines that interlock in a mesh that forms durable skin-like material called Nanoderm.  If an exposed section of human tissue is covered in Nanoderm and then allowed to heal, the Nanoderm will become integrated with the tissue like a layer of natural skin. Any impulses or signals sent by the brain to that part of the body will be received by the Nanoderm and translated into data. That data can then be read as motor commands by a Manticore prosthesis. Basic prosthesis models can receive this data via magnetic nodes embedded in the surface of the Nanoderm but more advanced models, capable of finer dexterity/expanded functionality, require a “bone spike,” a rod-like data plug that interfaces with a port in the Nanoderm area that is connected to more advanced sensors. The socket and sensor hardware is imbedded in the body through a surgical procedure.

The catch with the Nanoderm system is it must be applied to the body before the exposed tissue heals over and the exposed nerve endings have a chance to close off, or in other words, while the wound is “fresh”, otherwise the healed tissue must be cut away and a fresh wound made. This means that in emergency situations a patient or their next of kin must make a snap decision to undergo the expensive Nanoderm compatibility surgery as part of their emergency treatment. Of course some insurance plans will cover some or all of this cost. Additionally Manticore has deals with some insurance providers that the surgery come standard with higher end coverage plans, forgoing the need for patient consent. Manticore has exclusive patent rights to the Nanoderm system, meaning once you are Nanoderm compatible, you are locked into the Manticore ecosystem of prosthesis and devices. Additionally your devises can only be serviced by Manticore certified technicians and only Manticore doctors are trained in Nanoderm patient care.

Remote Command (RC)

Manticore is a sprawling corporation with many secrets. One such secret is the Remote Command program. A project Manticore has been working on behind closed doors, the Remote Command program involves research into sending brain signals over great distances without a physical connection between the sensor and the receiving devise. With RC a person could control a prosthetic arm in another part of the world as though it were part of their body. This is achieved by broadcasting the impulses across a proprietary electromagnetic wave length to the receiving nodes. The signal travels point to point and back again at light speed. The potential RC has for the future of drone warfare is staggering, not to mention the potential for profit.

Sensitive as this information is, there’s another layer. All Nanoderm currently in use by people around the world is capable of receiving Remote Command. With the right inputs it can reshape its self, self-replicate, and even, under certain conditions, send signals back to the user’s brain, causing brain damage or, theoretically, controlling them. Whether this functionality of Nanoderm was an intentional feature or not is unknown to anyone currently employed at Manticore but the company has no pans currently to use the Nanoderm in this way. What is known, however, is that if this function ever becomes public knowledge it would be disastrous for Manticore, not to mention the chaos that would ensue if a bad actor were to exploit this function for malicious purposes.

Manticore Special Security (Spec-Sec)

Manticore LLC has secrets, and it has enemies. To protect its secrets, combat its enemies, address the threats to public safety those things pose, (and protect its corporate interests), Manticore formed the Manticore Special Security Division. More than just your standard private security outfit, Spec-Sec is a fully equipped task force and strike force designed to identify, target, track, confront, and nullify any threat to the company and its assets. Thanks to Manticore’s history of generous donations and good standing with local police forces, the Spec-Sec Division is able to operate with a certain degree of discretion, allowing them to carry out operations without interference from police or the legal system. Lead by Special Security Director Sloane, her hand-picked crack team of Special Officers have carried out dozens of high risk operations with ruthless efficacy and, so-far, minimal casualties. Spec-Sec utilizes the most cutting edge technology and weaponry Manticore has, often before it’s even close to market ready. In some cases necessity dictates that Spec-Sec operations serve as ad hoc field tests for experimental equipment.

Core Drivers, Data Boosters, and the Kamen Rider program

The Core Driver is a piece of technology that was developed as part of research into the use of Nanoderm to enhance a soldier’s physical performance on the battlefield. The concept was to temporarily cover the user’s entire body in a layer of Nanoderm mesh that could respond to the signals from the user’s brain in such a way that would increase their strength, speed, perception, and reflexes. The solution was the Core Driver, a device that would house the billions of Nanoderm nanomachines and serve as the computational core for the whole mesh network. Along with the Core Driver was the Data Booster, a flash drive-like device shaped like a syringe. The data booster contained the information that told the nanomachines to deploy from the Core Driver and cover the user. Additionally the Booster came with its own payload of nanomachines that, when the plunger of the syringe was depressed, would also be deployed through the Core Diver and take the form of armor and weapons. Basically, a user need only insert the Data Booster into the Core Diver, clearly speak a voice authentication phrase, and depress the plunger and they would instantly be wearing a powerful yet flexible armored body suit. The project was called the “Kamen Rider program” after the masked visage of the user’s armored faceplate (“Kamen” being the Japanese word for “mask”).

The Project had its drawbacks, however. For one a user would need to already be Nanoderm compatible for the suit to work at all, meaning, practically speaking, the user would need to be an amputee, and the prospect of convincing soldiers to sacrifice a limb to use the Driver was deemed a “hard sell” and the idea of a approaching a freshly maimed soldier with the offer of further combat, well, that wouldn’t be a good look either. The second and most important drawback was the simple fact that the Kamen Rider program was far, FAR too expensive to be profitable, and the thousands of man hours it took to produce just one Core Driver meant mass producing them to sell by the battalion, as Manticore had planned, was simply out of the question.

The Kamen Rider Program was not completely abandoned, however. The first completed Core Driver, designation SVR (Special Versatility Rider model or “Sever” colloquially) is currently coded to Director Sloane of Spec-Sec, who happens to be a double transfemeral amputee. With the Director’s input, the device and the suit itself have been modified heavily over its years of use. It now features the ability for additional Data Boosters to be employed, loaded with weapons and tools in the form of appendages that attach to highly advanced versions of Bone Spike sockets on the suit at the amputation sites of the Rider’s body. The nerve signal enhancing properties of the suit allows the Rider to manipulate these complex, non-human-like appendages with a natural ease and minimal adjustment period.

A second Core Driver has just recently been put to use in the field at Spec-Sec. The first Kamen Rider designed from the ground up with Spec-Sec modifications. Designation NRV (Neo Rider Variant or “Nerve” colloquially) is encoded to the Division’s newest member, Special Officer Nat Agbayani. A right shoulder disarticulation amputee, he was promoted to the Special Security Division from the internship program in the research wing by the COO of Manticore himself… wait what? That can’t be right…

The existence of any other Core Drivers, in use or otherwise, is classified.

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