#Post Process Assembly

[blowmoldedsolutionsllc]

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[luccorvus]

I am making a full size physical replica of Geralt's silver sword 👀

[spiritcc]

at this point I don't even know if tag fragmentation in the general russian holmes space is worth addressing. a few years ago I successfully kept the ancient customs intact because I wrote a post so deranged and pretentious it displeased people into doing what I wanted but nowadays what's the point in making a grand return of being terminally online if yall kinda right

[brown-little-robin]

o.o

[technofeudalism]

I'm driving five miles across the city to check out a tip that there's an ICE rendition ongoing. I've got the scanner on the car stereo as I'm about to pull onto the street in question. It’s a quiet neighborhood, small houses on small lots, people walking dogs, the mailman waving, the lawnmowers running, and I hear the dispatcher: "We have an ICE officer over there who's allegedly being surrounded." "On our way," the officer responds.  As a local reporter for a decade now, I've learned that you can hear the cops at their most honest on the scanner. And as I'm hearing that “surrounded” comment I remember what the city's police chief told the city council in January: "We do not do civil detention arrests," Police Chief Paul Saucier said at the time, reassuring them that they wouldn’t be party to the ICE assault Trump was about to unleash. The police, he said, "do not have the authority to affect a civil arrest."  What he didn't say is that if you try to stop the civil arrest, the police will stop you from stopping it.  This morning a few dozen of us here in Worcester Massachusetts got to see that unstated fine print in action firsthand. A woman was led by federal agents in cuffs away from her family, through a throng of community organizers trying to stop it, and into an unmarked car. The local police arrived to prevent the community from protecting their neighbor from an unlawful kidnapping. They succeeded, and in the process arrested two of the people who tried to stop it. I park my car on the edge of the scene and all I can hear are the screams—the deafening desperate screams, from a mother, from her daughter, from the woman holding the daughter's baby. Wordless screams. And then I see the mother, a young woman in a green shirt, wailing, crying, held on either side by menacing white men in tactical vests, black neck warmers pulled over their noses in the style du jour for our secret police forces. Surrounding them are a few dozen community members who were tipped off about the ICE raid and got to it before the police did. Before I arrived, they demanded to see a warrant. The ICE agents refused to provide one, so they created a human chain, which the ICE officers eventually broke through.

[ ... ]

Maydee, still confronting the officers, says "Where is the warrant?" Officer Lugo, according to his nameplate, says "Ma'am we are trying our best but they are federal." Morales again asks for the warrant. "They're federal." "They still need a warrant." Another officer, frustrated, says "They don't need a warrant." Finally, one of them tells the truth. Due process is not a matter they're concerned with. The deportation must proceed. Trying to stop it is the unlawful thing. At this point an ICE agent starts pushing me away, but not very hard. Lazy jabs, his mind elsewhere. Too many people, too much pushing to be done. I return to my pre-push position. I keep filming. I don't know what else to do.   A cop pulls his cruiser behind us—we're boxed in now—and from the intercom says "This is the Worcester Police Department. This is an unlawful assembly, I'm warning you to disperse right now or you will be subject to arrest." On the other side of me, a crackle of the scanner from an officer's vest-mounted radio: "Do I have a car to escort the marshals out of here?" They don't need a warrant but they do need an escort.

i am reposting this without the video because i feel like it needs a post on it's own. look at the images, read the article and then go here to see the videos which are heartbreaking and violent and almost made me sick. this is horrifying in every way imaginable. the community tried to stop this and the police (as expected) straight up stopped them from doing so. this is full blown fascism on your streets.

[that-one-p00k1e]

─────〃★ for you, I wouldೃ⁀➷�� ♡ ⋆｡˚

✧ summary: things they would do for you ft. Ren Kaji, Hajime Umemiya, Haruka Sakura, Hayato Suo, Jo Togame, Mitsuki Kiryu, Akihiko Nirei, Tasuku Tsubakino, Toma Hiragi, Yamato Endo, Chika Takiishi

✧ content: fluff, gn!reader (I think), OOC most likely, established!relationship, not proofread I'm sorry, tsubakino's pronouns are confirmed he/him ✦ a/n: HAAAAPPPYYYYY NNNNNEEEWWW YYYYEEAAARRR BBBBIITTCHHESSSSS😝😝😝😝 six months since I last posted omg-! I'm still alive! 😍 tysm for the support while I'm gone ily'all <33

—REN KAJI would turn off his music and pull down his headphones to listen to you ramble. Though he had his attention to his phone, he'd give silent nods and hums here and there to let you know that he was listening. Occasionally, he'd throw in little comments and questions regarding the topic you were telling. Little to your knowledge, your rambles to him were like taking notes. He'd mentally highlight things that he thought were important, and would keep it in mind in the future. He's the type to look nonchalant, but deep down, he cares more than he lets on. “... What's wrong?” he asked as he heard you abruptly stop talking. “Forget it.. You're not even listening.” You looked away in disappointment, letting out a quiet sigh. “But I have been listening,” he tried to reassure, feeling slightly guilty for making you feel neglected. “Really? Then repeat all the things I've been saying.” He, in fact, did repeat most things you've mentioned and justified his word.

—HAJIME UMEMIYA would gift you random bouquets every week, as if he hasn't gifted you enough already. What's special about his bouquets is that you can never guess the theme for the week. First, he started off classic – flowers, with the consideration of them being fake so that you'd be able to keep them forever. Then, he brought you a bouquet of snacks and sweets that he knew were your favorite. Next thing you knew, he's giving you a bouquet of money he's been secretly saving up on. You felt guilty; guilty for the effort he's been putting, just for you to return it with some unprofessional homemade baked goods. It felt unfair. But does he sail on the same boat? No. He's going to reassure you that he expects nothing in return, and that you being there for him and loving him was what all he ever wanted and needed.

—HARUKA SAKURA would spend his free time struggling to assemble a Lego flower bouquet set after learning about White Day. He wanted to return your gesture of gifting him during Valentine's, despite himself denying such intention. It took a lot of effort, in both figuring out what to get while fearing you wouldn't like it –to the point that he would even call over Nirei and Suo for help – and in building the tiny pieces of bricks after settling on a final decision for the gift. He persisted to build it himself, no matter how much his friends offered to help. He wanted to make sure it was his work purely, done with his own hands. The whole process was frustrating, infuriating, and was basically a test of patience. But after seeing how you kept the received bouquet in a glass vase – delicately treasuring it on your bedroom display – he has never felt so proud yet flustered his whole life.

—HAYATO SUO would waltz into the café without a care in the world while having scattered lipstick stains decorating his face. Moreover, it wasn't your idea in the first place– it was his. Your relationship wasn't out yet, and he thought, what better way to publish it than announcing it wordlessly but gives double the impact? “Hm? Oh, this? It's my beloved’s artwork. Do you like it?” he'll innocently ask when someone questions the visible lip prints. Sakura was a blushing mess, and Suo was very much enjoying the look of bewilderment from others as they received the unspoken news. This was the reaction he wanted. This was what boosted his pride furthermore in being your boyfriend, and he'd shamelessly do it again to show off his love for you to the world.

—JO TOGAME would be your personal walking object holder. He'd take your bag and sling it over his shoulder with you needless to say; he'd keep hair bands around his wrist in case you decided to tie your hair up; he'd hold your shopping bags throughout your journey at the mall. Never were you the one to request his aid first, and never has he complained about being tired. He'd even go barefoot just to lend you his footwear when your feet start to hurt in heels. Moreover, he'd carry you bridal along the way. Despite you worrying over him tiring himself, he persisted to keep ahold of you. He loves seeing you enjoy life without a care in the world, and he'd do anything to carry burdens that dare to get in the way of that enjoyment.

—MITSUKI KIRYU would deliberately lose in a game of UNO and let you take the victory when he could've won decades ago. The whole time the both of you were playing, he's been holding a Wild and Draw 4 but refrained from using them. Instead, he kept drawing cards and just went yolo to buy time. Though he always played fair, seeing your dejected expression after losing many rounds this time was a little too unbearable for him. He promised himself for once, just this once will he let himself take a loss. He knew it wouldn't be fair, but if it meant that he'll get to see you smile in victory, then he doesn't find any problem with that.

—AKIHIKO NIREI would write down even the littlest of details about you that were thrown at him. You'd be casually mentioning a trivial preference as a ramble, but never had he pulled out his notebook and pen so quickly. During his early stages of getting to know you, he made sure to memorize everything you told him about yourself; your favorite color, favorite food, dream place to go, he even looked up your zodiac sign after knowing your birth date. He doesn't mean it in a creepy way. In fact, it was his way to know how to get closer to you. Despite already having the skill to remember it all, he likes to write it down to make sure as well as for keepsake. Thanks to that, now he has a cheat sheet on how to make you smile.

—TASUKU TSUBAKINO would wear himself a nail polish color that reminds him of you. Or, moreover, your favorite color. He loved being stylish, and what better way to do it than having at least a part of you involved in it? He'd walk proudly in his heels that you got him as a gift, and was even more ecstatic if someone complimented them, proud that your taste in fashion was appreciated by others. He'd ask to trade manicures with you for a date, where the both of you choose a nail look for each other. But if you weren't into painting nails, he'll ask you to choose a look for him instead. On special or fancy occasions, he'd often wear your fav lip combo or makeup look, as he treasures your choices and views them as something precious and only to be used when necessary.

—TOMA HIRAGI would pull up to the function wearing either a Hello Kitty or Kuromi tee under his gakuran jacket. Was it his personal choice to do it? Clearly not. Was it his choice to willingly wear it for the sake of his beloved significant other? Very much so. After many attempts of pleading, he caved in and (begrudgingly) agreed to your whole ‘matching outfits’ idea. He ate a pill or two when he saw how he looked in the mirror. Then ate two more when he finally appeared in public, especially at how much Umemiya and the others teased him for it. It was embarrassing, but was it worth it? No questions needed. The beaming smile you immediately wore when seeing him agree to your shenanigans, was enough proof that it was all – undoubtedly – worth it.

—YAMATO ENDO would revel in the feeling of being the center of your attention as you placed stickers and colored in his tattoos or drew silly doodles along his body. He liked the feeling of flexing himself while having you express your inner artist onto him. He'd think of himself as your muse; the art and the artist. Once you were done, he'd be extremely careful with doing activities, afraid of your artwork smudging off at the slightest touch. Even during the shower, he makes sure not to wipe it with full pressure. He considered turning it into an actual tattoo, really. Because it would mean that he'd get to keep something of yours to be a part of him, eternally.

—CHIKA TAKIISHI would let you do his hair as you please. He was one to outright reject the idea of someone touching him, but you – you had the privilege to do as you please to him without him raising a finger to stop you. You had him wrapped around your delicate fingers, his head leaning into your touch as you smoothly ran your hands through his long locks of red that met its ends with yellow. When he saw that you did your hair the same way as his, a flicker of surprise reflected on his eyes. Though he tried to come off as indifferent, he was secretly pleased to acknowledge the fact that the both of you were matching. He'd spend the whole day with you while wearing those matching hairstyles, not caring about how others would think of him. All he could focus on was how ethereal you looked in your current look. In fact, he always thought you looked beautiful in any shape and form of physical aspects.

[tyrannuspitch]

me normally: yeah i don't really ship loki with anyone. i consider him kind of unshippable and funnier for it. also i only care about like five characters in the whole mcu anyway so-

me the moment anyone starts trying to sell me any other loki ship: #stoki #teamstoki #stevexloki #frostshield #frostshield4eva #frostshieldwarriors #stokination stokeheads grab your tesseract frosties grab your snowmen they might have the numbers but they won't drag us off this pitiful little hill alive

[akisteahouse]

Thinking about parenting with Heartslabyul…

Synopsis: in home economics, you get randomly assigned to a partner to raise a ‘child’ - a robot baby meant to simulate a real infant’s needs. Things definitely get… interesting, to say the least.

Riddle Rosehearts!

knowing how he was raised, Riddle isn’t exactly the best parent figure - speaking to children as if they were fully grown adults, either too quickly or too slowly.

adamantly refusing the thought of naming the kid at first, because “Naming the robot is a risk far too large for me to take. The number of seniors that have failed this assignment due to growing attached to their supposed child…I absolutely cannot let this drag Heartslabyul’s dorm ranking down!”

he gives in after you give him puppy dog eyes.

“Rose is… an acceptable name."

work division wise, you’re unfortunately tasked with most of the first-hand child rearing things - feeding her, changing diapers, rocking her until she stopped fussing…

though, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t do his fair share of work.

all expenses are charged to him, as well as the assembly of the cot(which he spent at least five minutes scrutinising to check if it was safe) and pretty much all of the cleaning of the dirty laundry(how can such a small thing produce so much grime?)

somewhere along the line, you two work out an agreement where you take turns taking care of Rose.

whenever Riddle's the one taking care of her, he possesses one of those infinite mom bags as well as a baby carrier.

the only downside of this arrangement is that berating and punishing students are harder when it's his turn, because Rose isn't exactly fond of him raising his voice.

somehow teaches a literal perfect simulation of a child to follow all 810 of the Queen’s rules??? Yeah you don't question it either, just give her her tea when the time is right.

absolutely DID NOT sniffle when he had to give Rose back. >:*(

an overall decent partner, if you're fine with your robot kid having the divorced kid treatment.

Trey Clover!

names your kid something stupid, like Pistachio, for shits and giggles, all while feigning innocence.

“Pistachio's a cute name, isn't it?”, in between bouts of laughter.

a great partner - as the Oldest Child, he's pretty well-versed in taking care of kids younger than him, after all.

if only little Pistachio wasn't an absolute menace.

a fussy eater, non-stop tantrum thrower, and the type of slippery kid as in stop staring at him for two seconds and suddenly he's hanging on a laundry line.

but hey, at least Trey seems used to it!

He absolutely WILL NOT do the divorced parent arrangement - claiming that co-parenting is way easier, so congrats, you're moving into his dorm for a while!

assembles the cot in less than ten minutes, without even needing the manual. the true MVP.

pretty okay with soothing Pistachio, even if he's in the midst of class, waking up at midnight to feed the little shit, talking to him while pushing his pram…

teaches Pistachio how to speak and is SUCH a smug bastard when he says his name before yours - jerk. >:(

pretty calm throughout the return process, kinda just glad his parenting days are over. For now >:))))

a great guy to be assigned with, just don't let him name anything in the future.

Cater Diamond!

searches up ‘cute baby names’ on Magicam the minute you let him choose the kid's name, ends up with Sunny.

is… weirdly willing to take care of a baby?!

like full on watching tutorials online on how to rock a fussing baby, how to change diapers, how to feed one… before falling down the internet rabbit hole that is ‘wow, these things die easily.’

IS still the bbg in the relationship, sorry pookie, you're gonna have to assemble the cot yourself <333

fashions a pretty nice baby sling out of some spare cloth, and is never seen not holding the child for the rest of the week.

not willing to post ANY photos of Sunny on Magicam, like at all.

WILL make aesthetic Day in My Life vlogs of parenting her though, all while blurring out his precious baby's face.

doesn't really mind whatever arrangement you ask for, but preferably one where he doesn't let Sunny out of his sight, because look at her hands! They're so tiny!

adoring father #1, will impulsively buy way too many baby clothes for Sunny to the point where she'll be showing up in three different outfits a day.

grows absurdly attached to Sunny, has a full album in his phone dedicated to just photos of her.

full on near SOBBING on the day he has to return Sunny back to receive his grades.

can and will post a sad story on Magicam with his close friends list with purely just photos of Sunny with a cryptic message on top.

pretty good partner! you will have to deal with him showing up randomly to ask “Remember when Sunny -”

Ace Trappola!

another mf to name his kid after something dumb, if you let him.

thankfully, your child is not stuck with a horrendous name, after a back-and-forth bicker with Ace that goes on for far longer than it has to.

the two of you settle for Cherri, with an I, for no particular reason.

seems like a ‘agh, I hate my wife!’ Kinda guy, turns out to be a ‘happy wife, happy life,’ guy.

cocky mf who goes ‘psh, I don't need the manual’ before trying(and failing) to assemble the cot.

whines and complains about changing diapers or doing the laundry but does it anyway, will argue if you try to retract your statement and do the work instead.

another one that says he wants to do the divorced parents arrangement, folds to stay together instead. (Ace you're not slick.)

weirdly good at calming Cherri down??? just makes funny faces and tells awful jokes until she's giggling, before turning to you with a proud look on his face.

teaches Cherri how to play poker before teaching her how to talk.

‘You gotta prepare them early!’ He'd snickered. Before being wacked over the head seventy-two times. :)

WANTED to bring Cherri to basketball practice to show what a good parent he was (cough, cough, show off his cute little Cherri), but then remembered Floyd and was actually so concerned about him somehow squishing Cherri to death that he just left her in your hands instead.

another one who gets emotional when he has to give Cherri back.

“I am not crying! The classrooms just - hic! - dusty!”

a decent partner, just be prepared to be bickering with someone 24/7.

Deuce Spade!

is attached the minute he sees the kid, almost instantly tearing up.

probably names the kid after his first blastcycle or something, sorry Deuce. </3

the child is named Harley, and he is Deuce's pride and joy. (Well, at least for this week)

the second guy on this list to openly admit to not wanting the divorced parents arrangement! (Will gladly help you move your stuff in!)

another one who doesn't need the manual, and he really doesn't. assembles the cot pretty quickly.

absolutely whipped. need more diapers? okay, he'll run to Sam's shop and buy you some? Harley's fussing? give him a minute, and he'll be right there to help! Need a break? okay, he'll take Harley out for a stroll while you rest up!

adoring father #2

used to greet Harley by throwing him up in the air and catching him, before a concerned Cater walked up and told him that even a meter above the ground could cause brain damage, effectively scaring Deuce into holding Harley in general.

got probably the best behaved baby, with Harley being a literal angel - never fussing or crying, always giggly, okay with others holding him… Deuce couldn't be happier!

with Harley being so well behaved, both you and Deuce's schedule went as per usual - Deuce being able to go to class with a baby that never disrupted it, as well as to get the serotonin of looking at Harley's face during lessons.

cries when he has to return Harley. doesn't even try to hide it.

one of the best students to get paired with, though do expect to get emotionally crushed by the end of the week.

[lonerhole]

Nakshatra Places

(from The Book of Nakshatras by Prash Trivedi)

Krittika: Places with hot climates; Deserts & Arid lands; Agricultural lands; Cattle ranches; Meadows; Tropical forests; Volcanic areas; Military Bases & testing grounds; Government Buildings; Universities; Rehabilitation Centers; Orphanages; Mines in general; Factories & Industrial areas using fire in one form or the other; Fireplace, Furnaces, Heating devices within homes.

Rohini: Farms, Orchards, Gardens, Agricultural Estates, Places where herbs grow; Bus Stations, Train Stations & Shipping Yards; Ponds & Swimming Pools; Banks & Financial Institutions; Marketplaces; Bars, Restaurants, Hotels; Tourist Resorts; Studios for creative arts of all kinds; Places where gemstones are founds.

Mrigashira: Forests, Fields & Meadows; Deer Parks; Villages and Small Towns; Bedrooms; Playgrounds; Nurseries; Nursery Schools; Recreation rooms; Entertainment places of all kinds; Streets, Footpaths & Roads; Lawns & Gardens; Forest trails; Art & Music studios; Small shops; Markets and other sales places; Astrological & Psychic institutions.

Ardra: Geographical places where natural phenomena like thunderstorms, hurricanes and tornadoes are common; Research laboratories of all types; High tech studios and shops; Hospitals; Communication centers like radar facilities, radio stations, television studios, telegraph offices; Nuclear power plants; All factories dealing with poisonous chemical processes; Escalators; Military bases where weapons are stored & maintained. In today's day and age every home has its share of Ardra because of electrical wirings and appliances.

Punarvasu: Areas near Ponds, Lakes & Rivers; Farmlands; Pilgrimage Spots; Villages & Small Towns; Post offices; Transportation Places like Bus Stations & Train Stations, Airports; Space Stations; Renovated Buildings; Public Parks; Homes; Home Land; Hostels; Hotels, Bed & Breakfast Places, Inns, Motels etc. ; Restaurants; Temples & Treasuries; Markets; Rehabilitation Centers; Missions; Educational Institutions; Public & Political Assembly Places; Roads; Science Museums; Antique Shops; Community Halls.

Pushya: Rivers, Docks, Wells, Reservoirs, Fountains, Pools, Canals; Boats and House Boats; Public Places; Nests; Homes; Breweries; Women's House Quarters, Hostels and Residences in general; Aquariums; Temples & Churches; Hotels & Restaurants; Foster Homes; Child Care Centers; Maternity Hospitals; Schools; Dairy Factories & Dairy Farms; Laundromats; Manors & Public, Government buildings like parliament etc.; Charity Organizations.

Ashlesha: All places where Snakes & Reptiles dwell; Secret service Institutions (CIA, FBI etc.); Hospitals; Law Firms; All Factories dealing with Poisonous Chemical Processes; Drug Stores; Pawn Shops; Sleazy Places where Illegal Prostitution & Drug Peddling thrive; False Cults & Religious Institutions like ISKON etc.

Magha: Deserts; Forests; Capital Cities; Libraries; Museums; Palaces; Ancient Monuments & Sites; Govt. Offices; Residences of Top Politicians; National Monuments; Stages & Performance Halls; Ceremonial Grounds & Buildings; Crematories; Places of Religious, Spiritual Significance.

Purva Phalguni: Hot tropical landscapes; Flowery landscapes; Beaches; Entertainment halls; Exhibition places; Bedroom; Tourist resorts; Spas; Living rooms; Art galleries; Beauty parlors; Markets, especially the kind related to Venusian products; Pretty cottages, buildings and homes.

Uttara Phalguni: Forests; Gardens; Estates; Public Buildings; Government Buildings; Stadiums; Entertainment Halls; Residences of Rich & Famous People; Palaces, Towers, Large Halls; Playgrounds; Cathedrals & other magnificent buildings; Public Assemblies; United Nation's Buildings; Libraries.

Hasta: Agricultural Fields; Grazing Pastures; Home Gardens; Art & Craft Studios; Market Place; Stock Exchange (Wall Street etc.); Casinos; Betting Shops; Amusement parks; Fairgrounds; Factories.

Chitra: Capital Cities; Places of Architectural Importance like "Taj Mahal", "Eiffel Tower", "Empire State Building" etc.; Stages, Performance Halls and Theatres; Places frequented by artisans, merchants, consumers and women; Markets; Trade shows; Wardrobes, Closets.

Swati: High Cliffs; Places where winds blow strongly; Agricultural land; Coral reefs; Marketplaces; Business Centers; Banks; Financial Institutions; Sport Complexes; Airports (both civil & military); Educational institutions; Aeronautical facilities & testing grounds; Computer & Software related centers; Research facilities of all types; Diplomatic enclaves like Embassies, Consulates, etc.; parliament Houses; courthouses; commuter places like Train stations, Bus-Stations, etc.

Vishakha: Rocky Rough Terrains; Mountains; Big Cities like New York; Breweries; Bars; Liquor Shops; Brothels; Theatres; Military Bases; Ceremonial Halls & Grounds; Interrogation Rooms; Warring Grounds; Danger Areas either in the City or designated by the Military.

Anuradha: Forests; Mountains; Caves & Caverns; Lakes; Isolated Landscapes; Old Ruins, Castles, etc.; Stadiums; Metropolis; Technological & Industrial areas; Study & Research Places; Temples & other places used for the Practice and Study of Religion and Occult/Spiritual Topics; Places of Occult Significance; Organization Headquarters.

Jyestha: Hilly Inaccessible Terrain; Hot Tropical Jungles; Government Buildings; All places related to Telecommunications & Media in general; Airports; Hospitals; Military Bases; Capital Cities; Manors, Forts & Palaces; Old-Age Homes.

Mula: Deserts; High Mountain regions where special herbs are found; Dense rainforests & other such inaccessible places; Frozen deserts like Antarctica; Bottom of oceans, lakes, etc.; Hidden subterranean caves; Earth's core & all layers beneath the Earth's surface; Small isolated islands & places; Big institution buildings; Supreme Courts & other courts of justice; Abattoirs; Cremation Grounds and Cemeteries; Places connected to Death & Death Rituals; Agricultural Wasteland; War-grounds; Drought areas; places where mass calamities have taken place.

Purva Ashadha: Oceans; Lakes; Aquarium Parks; Swimming Pools; Docks, ports; shipping yards; Temples; Boats; High Class Estates; Air ports; Luxury Islands & Hotels; Beauty Salons; Amusement Parks; Art Galleries; Music Concert Halls; Places where pompous functions & high society gatherings are held.

Uttara Ashadha: Prairies; Flat Savannahs; Mountainous Forests; National Parks; Wildlife Sanctuaries; Bird Sanctuaries; Reservations; Government Buildings & Grounds; Courts; Temples, Churches and other religious buildings; Universities; College Campuses; Military Bases; Traditionalistic Towns & Cities; Elite Gentlemen Clubs & Societies; Sports Stadiums; Cricket Grounds.

Shravana: Universities; Libraries; Schools; Colleges; Public Auditoriums and other places of public gatherings; Recording Studios; Hospitals; Telephone Companies.

Dhanishta: All places related to music and other creative arts ranging from Schools to Studios to Dance Halls, etc.; Meditation Rooms; Managerial Offices; Real Estate Agencies; Gardens; Science Labs; Factories with high tech equipment or producing high tech equipment; Amusement Centers and Sports Stadiums; All places related to sports; Financial centers and institutions like Banks etc.; Safes where wealth and valuables are stored.

Shatabhisha: High-tech Studios & Environments; Off Shore Drilling Stations; Space Stations; Airports; Observatories & Planetariums; Physics & Chemistry Labs; Bars & Nightclubs especially Techno Clubs; Factories; Hospitals; Nuclear Waste Dumps and Waste Dumps in general; Recycling Stations; Herbal Centers; Water Treatment Plants & Reservoirs; Oceans; Sea-Side; Temples, Meditation, Yoga & Zen Centers; Outer Space; Film & Television Studios; Processing Labs; Hunting Grounds.

Purva Bhadrapada: Cemeteries, Morgues, Cremation Grounds; Factories; Heavy industries of all types; Land Fills; Dark Alley Ways; Centers for Occult Studies and practices of a dark nature; Operation Theatres and Terminal Illness Wards; Asylums and Penitentiaries; Churches; Top Secret Military Research Bases; Atomic Power Plants; Places where high technology equipment is kept; Night Clubs and all other places associated with dark entertainment.

Uttara Bhadrapada: Libraries, Temples & Museums; Occult Book Stores; Ancient ruins; Historical Places; Cremation Grounds; Holy Sites and Pilgrimage Places; Caves; Mountainous Caverns; Meditation Centers; All places suitable for meditation and quiet activities; Charity Organization Compounds; Forests, High Mountain Ranges and other uninhabited solitary places; Bottoms of Lakes, Deep Seas & Oceans; Social Welfare Centers; Centers for Psychic and Spiritual Research.

Revati: Roads, Railroad tracks, Airports; oceans, seas, Beaches; shipping yards; stage; cinema; Orphanages; Monasteries; Ships, Aero-planes, Trains, Cars, etc.; Bus Stations, Transport Industry; Public Auditoriums; Clock Towers/Watch Towers; Light Houses; Driving Instruction Schools.

Ashwini: All places related to Equine professions—Grazing Lands, Stables, Horse Tracks etc.; Hospitals and Places associated with the Medical Profession; Places where Herbs grow; Botanical Gardens; Sporting Grounds; Race Tracks of all kinds; Roads, Railway Track and all other types of Paths meant for Transportation; Military Bases; Research Centers; Technological & Industrial Centers; Health Clubs & Gymnasiums; All places where Initiations and Beginnings are done; Kindergartens & Primary Schools.

Bharani: Extreme Exotic Landscapes; Volcanoes; Areas with Volcanic Soil; Volcanic Tropical Islands like Hawaii and Polynesian Islands; Farmlands; Kindergartens, Nurseries, Nursery Schools; Children Parks; Amusement Parks; Morgues; Cemeteries; Funeral Homes; Maternity & Child Wards in Hospitals; Intensive Care Units; Gynaeology Hospitals; Film & Photography Studios; Exotic Nightclubs; High Courts; Fertility Clinics; Streets and roads with busy traffic.

[wheelie-sick]

realized I forgot to make this post oops....

How to involve yourself in offline political activism without being on the ground at a protest

featuring advice beyond "call your representatives"

for a lot of people, and especially for disabled people, being on the ground at a protest is risky, difficult, or downright impossible. this discourages a lot of people from getting involved in offline political activism because they don't know where else to go and what else to do. activism-and especially direct action-require a whole lot more than just bodies on the ground.

[US centric but may apply elsewhere] Involve yourself in jail support. when your comrades get arrested they need support upon getting out [and sometimes with getting out, depending on your state]. organize or participate in getting support to those people. show up for the arrestees in your community.

victims of police brutality and their families need support! sign up for or organize meal trains to keep people fed while they/their family recover from traumatic experiences. work to fundraise to pay rent while people are out of jobs.

get involved in the community-focused side of the activism. get involved in free markets, unhoused outreach & solidarity, free meals, etc. it's community, not charity.

graffiti, y'all, graffiti. make stencils if you need to be fast, wheatpaste, sticker bomb, these are all important parts of sending a message. graffiti artists are valuable and you can become one!

if you can't do graffiti (or you can but want to do more) create materials so other people can do graffiti. create and print flyers for wheatpasting, design & print stickers, create stencils.

protests and actions often require materials that need to be bought, created, or assembled. getting involved in any part of this process is hugely helpful.

Car support- if you are capable of driving and/or own a car you can get involved in car support for marches and other actions. many actions require car support to protest activists, whether that be by blocking traffic for a march or participating in holding a roundabout while barricades are set up

Be the extraction plan- also requires driving and/or a car. when people leave actions they need a way out. sometimes they need a fast way out. sometimes they need help driving home because they have a chemical weapon in their eyes. being on standby to pick people up is a hugely important role in activism.

Not all direct action looks like a protest or march

the relevant direct action in your area is going to depend on where you live so unfortunately I cannot give you specific recommendations but I can tell you that you are capable of participating in direct action. direct action looks like so much and does not have to be a rally or march or other protest. you can find a way to participate that accommodates you.

I am definitely forgetting a lot so additions are welcome

[callsign-rogueone]

Aoife

Brennan Sorrengail x reader (duchess!!)

words: 2.1k

🏷️: no book spoilers. read “the twins” and this ask for more context, mentions of pregnancy complications, but nothing goes wrong this time, talk of labor and delivery, the boys being unbearably cute, ridoc and sweetheart are on babysitting duty, bad formatting since I’m posting from my phone in bed, that’s about it

You’re glad that this one is more patient than their older brothers, but you are absolutely sick of being pregnant, and sick of being stuck in this bed.

You’ve been a little uncomfortable all day — more so than usual — and it’s starting to worry you. It’s not the intense, sharp pain in your side that you’d felt last time, and none of the profuse bleeding, thank the gods, but a persistent ache between your hips that feels a lot like a bad period cramp. It’s come and gone all morning, but every time it seems to be a little stronger, a little more painful.

You’ve contemplated telling Brennan, but it had taken a lot of convincing to get him to go downstairs and work with the assembly today. Calling him now would only make him hover even closer until the real arrival, and he has more than enough work to do, on his behalf and yours — you’ve done what you can from bed, but that really isn’t much.

You are definitely not doing this whole thing a third time, not when you’re going to inherit responsibility of Tirvainne in the next few years, and not with the risk to your health. You weren’t intending to do it a second time, anyway. This time had been an accident, the result of the two of you neglecting to take your supplements with everything else you had going on, including raising your boys.

And when you’d found out the news, the both of you had been so torn. On one hand, another sweet little baby to snuggle with, an addition to the family and a physical testament to your love, but on the other… last time, he’d nearly lost you in the process.

“I’m so sorry,” he’d whispered, his voice breaking. “I should have been more careful, I…”

You just leaned your forehead against his, like you have hundreds of times, and the tension started to drain from his shoulders. “Don’t blame yourself. It takes two people to make a baby. And I’ll be okay,” you soothed. “I’ll really take it easy this time. And I’ll have you and Ban and Marbh and the boys to watch over me.”

You’d both breathed a sigh of relief when the healers had confirmed it was only one baby, and not another set of twins. But you’d still decided to be cautious — you’d been too active during your first pregnancy, making the hike up to the vale too many times, exhausting yourself with your assembly duties and teaching and everything else on top of making two tiny humans. It’s unclear if that had caused your complications, but you don’t want to find out.

That doesn’t mean you’re enjoying your bed rest. But Brennan and the boys have done everything they can to make it less terrible, mainly spending a lot more time with you. Thankfully they’re out today, playing in the snow with their cousins, and whoever’s turn it is to babysit — you wouldn’t be able to hide your discomfort from them, and they’ve both been instructed to report any and all problems to Brennan as soon as possible.

There’s another twinge, one strong enough to have you squirming in your seat, squeezing your eyes shut and holding back a swear.

You wait for one of the dragons to make an appearance, but they don’t. You’ve been practicing building up your shields in the countless hours that you’ve spent lying in this bed, and it appears to have worked. You’ve been careful not to keep them up too often, though, just enough for your absence to be considered regular — so they won’t notice anything unusual, unlike if you’d slammed them up suddenly, blocking everyone out.

It occurs to you that you’ve never actually felt a contraction before. Last time, you hadn’t truly gone into labor — as soon as the healers realized what was happening, you’d been sedated and rushed to surgery, Brennan helping heal you back up within minutes. You still don’t remember any of it, just what you’ve been told, but none of it was good.

Despite not having anything to compare it to, you know in your heart that this is it.

Once the pain dulls enough for you to sit up, you don the pair of slippers laying on the floor by the side of the bed and throw a cardigan over your pajamas before you pad your way out of the bedroom, and out of your family’s quarters for the first time in months. Thankfully, the country being at peace means there’s not many people around the fortress to see you — you go completely unnoticed until you knock on the doorframe of Brennan’s office.

He pales, immediately sitting upright. “Are you okay? Why did you come all the way down here? You could have just asked Marbh to—“

“We’re fine,” you interrupt softly. “I just wanted to see you.”

His face softens, and he rises from his chair, wrapping you in a gentle embrace. “I’m sorry,” he murmurs into your hair. “I didn’t mean to snap at you. I’m just scared, is all.”

“I know,” you soothe. “And I love you for it.”

It’s so easy to melt into his touch, letting your body rest against his. You close your eyes, savoring the tender moment — you haven’t had many like this in a while.

“You’ve got to get back upstairs,” he realizes, dismayed.

Stairs had been at the top of the list of no-no’s for you in your third trimester, because they’d strain your heart and your muscles. But in a day or two…

“I won’t have to worry about that anytime soon.”

There’s that adorable look on his face, his eyebrows pulled together in confusion. You watch the gears turn, knowing exactly what he’s thinking — you wouldn’t come all the way down here “just because”, even with the hormones and increased emotions. And you won’t have to worry about stairs anymore?

Oh.

Oh.

“You think it’s happening today?”

You nod, a smile slowly stretching your lips — and then it falls, your eyes squeezing shut and teeth clenching as another cramp starts, worse than the ones before. Brennan’s hands are on your shoulders immediately, keeping you upright, and the pain ceases, a deep sense of relief washing over you.

“You do know what the healers said,” you prompt gently, once you’ve relaxed.

“I know. I can’t block all of the pain, because the contractions are the best indicator of when the baby will be born. But right now, it’s just you and me, and I don’t want you to be in any more pain than you absolutely need to.”

You manage a smile. “You’re so sweet. I should marry you.”

He laughs, and that does more to ease your anxiety than anything else ever could. “You should. Now, let’s get you to the healers.”

—————————

Everything about this experience is making you glad you’ve never had to do it before, and you never will again.

Even with Brennan blocking your pain, it’s incredibly exhausting. You’ve already filled four conduits, which had been an excellent idea to have nearby. Without them, you’d likely have set the curtains on fire by now.

The dragons have come and gone, like they’re taking shifts opening their shields to you. Not that they can do much from outside, that is, besides alerting anyone with a signet that could be of use — but you already have Brennan and three healers with you.

There’s a soft cry — not from you, but from a baby, and you collapse back against the pillows, both exhausted and relieved.

Brennan presses a kiss to the sweat-damp skin of your forehead, his thumb stroking over the back of your hand. You’d nearly broken it with how hard you’d squeezed, but you’ve let go now, limp in his hold. “The boys were right,” he says softly. “It’s a girl.”

——————

The healers take her away after a while, to clean her up and make sure she’s healthy, leaving you to sleep.

Ban had promised to tell Aotrom and Rhith that their riders would need to watch the boys a while longer, and they’ve always loved spending time with their aunt and uncle. They won’t question it at all.

You don’t see them until the next morning, when Brennan brings them up to see you and their little sister. He gives them each a boost up onto the bed, and they settle in like usual; Asher on your right, Naolin on your left.

“Hi my loves. Did you have fun playing in the snow?”

“Mm! Uncle Ridoc made it so the snow wouldn’t melt. And we went sledding, down the hill!”

“Which hill?” Brennan asks, eyebrows raised — surely they don’t mean the slope of the valley?

“The big one! It was kinda scary. But mostly fun.”

You can’t help but laugh. Of course Ridoc would have approved this idea, probably even been the one to suggest it, and definitely participated himself. His wife, however, had likely been waiting at the bottom of the hill, bandages at the ready.

At least they turned out unscathed, from the looks of them.

“I’m glad.”

There’s a moment of calm quiet before Brennan speaks. “Do you want to meet your little sister?”

Their eyes bug — evidently they hadn’t put it together that you being in the infirmary meant the baby had arrived.

Brennan picks her up out of the small bassinet, carefully transferring her into your arms. The boys have been around a few babies before, and have both inherited Brennan’s nurturing instincts — they know to speak quietly, and to be very careful with her.

“What’s her name?”

“Aoife Rose. It was my grandmother’s name.”

“How long until she can play with us?” Naolin asks.

“It’ll be a year or two before she can run around with you outside,” you say softly, giving him a gentle squeeze. “But until then you can play with her inside, and talk to her about anything you want, or read to her. The more she hears us talking, the sooner she’ll do it herself.”

“Does she also need to sleep a lot? Like you do?”

“Yeah, she does,” Brennan answers. “But for a while, she won’t sleep at night like you do. And she’ll take naps during the day after that, too.”

Asher looks like he has a question, but he’s hesitant to ask it. You carefully adjust Aoife in your lap, putting an arm around his shoulders and coaxing him closer to you. The comforting gesture is enough for him to speak his mind. “Are you coming home?”

Your heart aches. He hadn’t asked when you’re coming home, but if you’re going to at all. With all the uncertainty about your health, and the fact that you and Brennan hadn’t sat down to talk with them about how exactly all of this would work… you can easily see how he concluded that you were going to live in the infirmary from now on.

“Of course I’m coming home, honey. Probably today. Auntie Peach and the healers just need to make sure that Aoife is healthy first.” And yourself — but you don’t want to worry them further.

He nods, but doesn’t say anything.

Brennan steps in to continue reassuring the both of them. “Things are going to be a little different now that we have another person in our family. Your mama and I are going to have to spend a lot of time taking care of your sister, because she’s so little. But I promise you both that we’re all still going to live together, that we will spend as much time with both of you as we can, and that we still love you both just as much as before.”

That seems to ease them both — Naolin stops clinging to you as tightly, but still remains tucked into your side, and Asher looks less afraid, too.

“Do you want to keep reading our book?”

Now that perks them both back up.

Brennan takes the baby from you, quietly stepping outside the room while the three of you get settled in, cracking open the volume. You’re nearly done with it, just a few more of the short stories left. You’ll have to ask Violet for a recommendation next time you see her.

—————————

“That was a pretty good speech back there,” you say quietly, slowly getting settled into bed. Your legs are aching from the stairs — you haven’t climbed them in months, and haven’t had any rider’s duties to keep your strength, either. At least Brennan had mended what he could, and your back is no longer aching from the weight of carrying Aoife 24/7.

Brennan just smiles. “My father said something like that to me when Mira was born. I was about their age, too.”

“How did you take it?”

“Pretty well, I think. I don’t really remember.”

“Then it can’t have been that bad, I suppose.”

“No,” he agrees. “It wasn’t.”

[dragonnarrative-writes]

Generative AI Is Bad For Your Creative Brain

In the wake of early announcing that their blog will no longer be posting fanfiction, I wanted to offer a different perspective than the ones I’ve been seeing in the argument against the use of AI in fandom spaces. Often, I’m seeing the arguments that the use of generative AI or Large Language Models (LLMs) make creative expression more accessible. Certainly, putting a prompt into a chat box and refining the output as desired is faster than writing a 5000 word fanfiction or learning to draw digitally or traditionally. But I would argue that the use of chat bots and generative AI actually limits - and ultimately reduces - one’s ability to enjoy creativity.

Creativity, defined by the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus, is the ability to produce or use original and unusual ideas. By definition, the use of generative AI discourages the brain from engaging with thoughts creatively. ChatGPT, character bots, and other generative AI products have to be trained on already existing text. In order to produce something “usable,” LLMs analyzes patterns within text to organize information into what the computer has been trained to identify as “desirable” outputs. These outputs are not always accurate due to the fact that computers don’t “think” the way that human brains do. They don’t create. They take the most common and refined data points and combine them according to predetermined templates to assemble a product. In the case of chat bots that are fed writing samples from authors, the product is not original - it’s a mishmash of the writings that were fed into the system.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is a therapy modality developed by Marsha M. Linehan based on the understanding that growth comes when we accept that we are doing our best and we can work to better ourselves further. Within this modality, a few core concepts are explored, but for this argument I want to focus on Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation. Mindfulness, put simply, is awareness of the information our senses are telling us about the present moment. Emotion regulation is our ability to identify, understand, validate, and control our reaction to the emotions that result from changes in our environment. One of the skills taught within emotion regulation is Building Mastery - putting forth effort into an activity or skill in order to experience the pleasure that comes with seeing the fruits of your labor. These are by no means the only mechanisms of growth or skill development, however, I believe that mindfulness, emotion regulation, and building mastery are a large part of the core of creativity. When someone uses generative AI to imitate fanfiction, roleplay, fanart, etc., the core experience of creative expression is undermined.

Creating engages the body. As a writer who uses pen and paper as well as word processors while drafting, I had to learn how my body best engages with my process. The ideal pen and paper, the fact that I need glasses to work on my computer, the height of the table all factor into how I create. I don’t use audio recordings or transcriptions because that’s not a skill I’ve cultivated, but other authors use those tools as a way to assist their creative process. I can’t speak with any authority to the experience of visual artists, but my understanding is that the feedback and feel of their physical tools, the programs they use, and many other factors are not just part of how they learned their craft, they are essential to their art.

Generative AI invites users to bypass mindfully engaging with the physical act of creating. Part of becoming a person who creates from the vision in one’s head is the physical act of practicing. How did I learn to write? By sitting down and making myself write, over and over, word after word. I had to learn the rhythms of my body, and to listen when pain tells me to stop. I do not consider myself a visual artist - I have not put in the hours to learn to consistently combine line and color and form to show the world the idea in my head.

But I could.

Learning a new skill is possible. But one must be able to regulate one’s unpleasant emotions to be able to get there. The emotion that gets in the way of most people starting their creative journey is anxiety. Instead of a focus on “fear,” I like to define this emotion as “unpleasant anticipation.” In Atlas of the Heart, Brene Brown identifies anxiety as both a trait (a long term characteristic) and a state (a temporary condition). That is, we can be naturally predisposed to be impacted by anxiety, and experience unpleasant anticipation in response to an event. And the action drive associated with anxiety is to avoid the unpleasant stimulus.

Starting a new project, developing a new skill, and leaning into a creative endevor can inspire and cause people to react to anxiety. There is an unpleasant anticipation of things not turning out exactly correctly, of being judged negatively, of being unnoticed or even ignored. There is a lot less anxiety to be had in submitting a prompt to a machine than to look at a blank page and possibly make what could be a mistake. Unfortunately, the more something is avoided, the more anxiety is generated when it comes up again. Using generative AI doesn’t encourage starting a new project and learning a new skill - in fact, it makes the prospect more distressing to the mind, and encourages further avoidance of developing a personal creative process.

One of the best ways to reduce anxiety about a task, according to DBT, is for a person to do that task. Opposite action is a method of reducing the intensity of an emotion by going against its action urge. The action urge of anxiety is to avoid, and so opposite action encourages someone to approach the thing they are anxious about. This doesn’t mean that everyone who has anxiety about creating should make themselves write a 50k word fanfiction as their first project. But in order to reduce anxiety about dealing with a blank page, one must face and engage with a blank page. Even a single sentence fragment, two lines intersecting, an unintentional drop of ink means the page is no longer blank. If those are still difficult to approach a prompt, tutorial, or guided exercise can be used to reinforce the understanding that a blank page can be changed, slowly but surely by your own hand.

(As an aside, I would discourage the use of AI prompt generators - these often use prompts that were already created by a real person without credit. Prompt blogs and posts exist right here on tumblr, as well as imagines and headcannons that people often label “free to a good home.” These prompts can also often be specific to fandom, style, mood, etc., if you’re looking for something specific.)

In the current social media and content consumption culture, it’s easy to feel like the first attempt should be a perfect final product. But creating isn’t just about the final product. It’s about the process. Bo Burnam’s Inside is phenomenal, but I think the outtakes are just as important. We didn’t get That Funny Feeling and How the World Works and All Eyes on Me because Bo Burnham woke up and decided to write songs in the same day. We got them because he’s been been developing and honing his craft, as well as learning about himself as a person and artist, since he was a teenager. Building mastery in any skill takes time, and it’s often slow.

Slow is an important word, when it comes to creating. The fact that skill takes time to develop and a final piece of art takes time regardless of skill is it’s own source of anxiety. Compared to @sentientcave, who writes about 2k words per day, I’m very slow. And for all the time it takes me, my writing isn’t perfect - I find typos after posting and sometimes my phrasing is awkward. But my writing is better than it was, and my confidence is much higher. I can sit and write for longer and longer periods, my projects are more diverse, I’m sharing them with people, even before the final edits are done. And I only learned how to do this because I took the time to push through the discomfort of not being as fast or as skilled as I want to be in order to learn what works for me and what doesn’t.

Building mastery - getting better at a skill over time so that you can see your own progress - isn’t just about getting better. It’s about feeling better about your abilities. Confidence, excitement, and pride are important emotions to associate with our own actions. It teaches us that we are capable of making ourselves feel better by engaging with our creativity, a confidence that can be generalized to other activities.

Generative AI doesn’t encourage its users to try new things, to make mistakes, and to see what works. It doesn’t reward new accomplishments to encourage the building of new skills by connecting to old ones. The reward centers of the brain have nothing to respond to to associate with the action of the user. There is a short term input-reward pathway, but it’s only associated with using the AI prompter. It’s designed to encourage the user to come back over and over again, not develop the skill to think and create for themselves.

I don’t know that anyone will change their minds after reading this. It’s imperfect, and I’ve summarized concepts that can take months or years to learn. But I can say that I learned something from the process of writing it. I see some of the flaws, and I can see how my essay writing has changed over the years. This might have been faster to plug into AI as a prompt, but I can see how much more confidence I have in my own voice and opinions. And that’s not something chatGPT can ever replicate.

[wtftaylr]

I MAKE MY TRIMPHANT RETURN with a bunch of outfits. I'm very happy they're finally done!! Click for higher quality!

A few notes under the cut bc i did not work on this since October to not yap about my thought process /silly (i say with peace and love)

Bounty Hunter's Duster: Her first love. She liked being able to shoot that guy right in front of Gomorrah on behalf of Francine Garret. She was loathe to part with the cool hat, but anything for Francine fr.

Daniel Sadie's Outfit: Sadie is the founder of the He-Man Daniel Hater's Club (most of the companions are part of it despite not knowing who Daniel is. It's difficult to get anything more than a sneer and, "a fucking asshole," from Sadie when asked, but for some reason we trust Sadie's opinion). Anyway, despite Daniel being Daniel, we like his outfit. I like to think she stole it off his back in the night before leaving Zion.

Dr. Mobius' Scrubs (+ Glasses): Something she wears a lot post-game while researching the Tunnelers. I just love this outfit. Also the glasses are, through some miracle, her exact prescription. She's never seen clearer.

Vera's Outfit Redux: I redesigned Vera's Outfit bc Sadie would not be caught dead with a giant flower on her hip, respectfully. I referenced a few of Marilyn Monroe's dresses! The jewelry is designed after the Tops logos, gifted by Benny. Sadie doesn't wear much jewelry but, unfortunately, she likes Benny enough to make an exception.

Courier's Duster + Wasteland Designs: Sadie sews and assembles clothing! Expanded on here, but tldr: she's 5'0" so she has to adjust a lot of things to fit her. The only outfit that's ever fit her without her needing to adjust it was the Courier's Duster that Ulysses made for her. She was both surprised and just a little creeped out. Anyway, she'll take parts and pieces from some outfits and combine them together, as seen in the last two designs.

She also made the other two New Vegas outfits from scratch, using fabric and clothing she found throughout New Vegas. A lot of clothing from the Ultra Luxe conspicuously went missing, but don't worry about it. If you tell on her she'll tell you on Benny (not the biggest threat in the world but if you piss off Benny, you piss off Sadie by extension so... not worth it.)

[mariacallous]

The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months.

Under any circumstances, a migration of this size and scale would be a massive undertaking, experts tell WIRED, but the expedited deadline runs the risk of obstructing payments to the more than 65 million people in the US currently receiving Social Security benefits.

“Of course, one of the big risks is not underpayment or overpayment per se; [it’s also] not paying someone at all and not knowing about it. The invisible errors and omissions,” an SSA technologist tells WIRED.

The Social Security Administration did not immediately reply to WIRED’s request for comment.

SSA has been under increasing scrutiny from president Donald Trump’s administration. In February, Musk took aim at SSA, falsely claiming that the agency was rife with fraud. Specifically, Musk pointed to data he allegedly pulled from the system that showed 150-year-olds in the US were receiving benefits, something that isn’t actually happening. Over the last few weeks, following significant cuts to the agency by DOGE, SSA has suffered frequent website crashes and long wait times over the phone, The Washington Post reported this week.

This proposed migration isn’t the first time SSA has tried to move away from COBOL: In 2017, SSA announced a plan to receive hundreds of millions in funding to replace its core systems. The agency predicted that it would take around five years to modernize these systems. Because of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the agency pivoted away from this work to focus on more public-facing projects.

Like many legacy government IT systems, SSA systems contain code written in COBOL, a programming language created in part in the 1950s by computing pioneer Grace Hopper. The Defense Department essentially pressured private industry to use COBOL soon after its creation, spurring widespread adoption and making it one of the most widely used languages for mainframes, or computer systems that process and store large amounts of data quickly, by the 1970s. (At least one DOD-related website praising Hopper's accomplishments is no longer active, likely following the Trump administration’s DEI purge of military acknowledgements.)

As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found. In fact, SSA’s core programmatic systems and architecture haven’t been “substantially” updated since the 1980s when the agency developed its own database system called MADAM, or the Master Data Access Method, which was written in COBOL and Assembler, according to SSA’s 2017 modernization plan.

SSA’s core “logic” is also written largely in COBOL. This is the code that issues social security numbers, manages payments, and even calculates the total amount beneficiaries should receive for different services, a former senior SSA technologist who worked in the office of the chief information officer says. Even minor changes could result in cascading failures across programs.

“If you weren't worried about a whole bunch of people not getting benefits or getting the wrong benefits, or getting the wrong entitlements, or having to wait ages, then sure go ahead,” says Dan Hon, principal of Very Little Gravitas, a technology strategy consultancy that helps government modernize services, about completing such a migration in a short timeframe.

It’s unclear when exactly the code migration would start. A recent document circulated amongst SSA staff laying out the agency’s priorities through May does not mention it, instead naming other priorities like terminating “non-essential contracts” and adopting artificial intelligence to “augment” administrative and technical writing.

Earlier this month, WIRED reported that at least 10 DOGE operatives were currently working within SSA, including a number of young and inexperienced engineers like Luke Farritor and Ethan Shaotran. At the time, sources told WIRED that the DOGE operatives would focus on how people identify themselves to access their benefits online.

Sources within SSA expect the project to begin in earnest once DOGE identifies and marks remaining beneficiaries as deceased and connecting disparate agency databases. In a Thursday morning court filing, an affidavit from SSA acting administrator Leland Dudek said that at least two DOGE operatives are currently working on a project formally called the “Are You Alive Project,” targeting what these operatives believe to be improper payments and fraud within the agency’s system by calling individual beneficiaries. The agency is currently battling for sweeping access to SSA’s systems in court to finish this work. (Again, 150-year-olds are not collecting social security benefits. That specific age was likely a quirk of COBOL. It doesn’t include a date type, so dates are often coded to a specific reference point—May 20, 1875, the date of an international standards-setting conference held in Paris, known as the Convention du Mètre.)

In order to migrate all COBOL code into a more modern language within a few months, DOGE would likely need to employ some form of generative artificial intelligence to help translate the millions of lines of code, sources tell WIRED. “DOGE thinks if they can say they got rid of all the COBOL in months, then their way is the right way, and we all just suck for not breaking shit,” says the SSA technologist.

DOGE would also need to develop tests to ensure the new system’s outputs match the previous one. It would be difficult to resolve all of the possible edge cases over the course of several years, let alone months, adds the SSA technologist.

“This is an environment that is held together with bail wire and duct tape,” the former senior SSA technologist working in the office of the chief information officer tells WIRED. “The leaders need to understand that they’re dealing with a house of cards or Jenga. If they start pulling pieces out, which they’ve already stated they’re doing, things can break.”

[mylovesstuffs]

all our love 💌 ot13 x reader.

A quick assembly of some things I now realize, thanks to thirteen boys who call each other family—and have somehow made space for me in that orbit; my bd special:

✦ › comfort, mutual devotion, extremely mild angst only if you squint, “i’m sorry i couldn’t do more,” but this is everything i have. a headcanon, notes and letter sort (???) from carat, me to svt (and back). inspired by All My Love by SEVENTEEN.

A/N: i’ve always wanted to flip my interpretation of aml and write a storyline/plot from both perspectives. i didn’t quite manage that but maybe one day, there’ll be an ot13 fic that does. prompt courtesy of myself… and the tears i shed at 2am. this timeline kinda follows my own personal timeline of knowing them, loving them, staying with them. this format is new for me. the emoji dividers were lovingly stolen [10000% inspired/copied; they were ia when I texted but ily, love/ I got permission] from kae @studioeisa , who inspires in ways they probably don’t know. the note/journal style might be theirs too 😭 but it's definitely from somewhere bc it's a picture inside my brain. i’m pretending it’s an homage. also, thanks to J @cheers-to-you-th for dropping the most reflective title of my idea and this post. Mutual. Soft. Full-circle. thanks to @trustmypoison for the paragraph format instead suggestion!

i dislocated my foot and highly terrorized a few veins in the process, which meant this wasn’t written under ideal circumstances. had no tab or laptop while visiting my mother’s hometown, so this was made entirely on my phone. rewritten and reformatted three times, minimum (again and again) because apparently i like pain. anyway. hbd to me. i made this with all the love i have left.

April 08, 2025 at 17:13

I realize that love doesn’t always shout. That sometimes it sounds like "Did you eat?" or "Text me when you get home."

I realize that absence doesn’t make you less part of something beautiful.

I realize that some people are a home, even if you haven’t seen them in weeks.

That honesty is love.

That patience is love.

That waiting is love.

That respect is love.

That friendship can be louder than romance. Softer, too—but not lesser.

That some goodbyes are temporary, even if they don't feel like it.

That it’s okay to miss versions of people that don’t exist anymore.

That you can outgrow places but still carry the people in your pockets.

That care doesn’t have to be earned. It’s a currency you give freely.

And that it’s not always about the people you find, but the ones who find you first and stay.

October 01, 2024 at 14:30

Starting to Love Them

You were just another fan at first, but as you listened to their songs, you began to see not just their talent, but the raw emotions and passion they put into everything.

You saw the vulnerability in their eyes, the dedication in their voices, and you couldn’t help but fall in love with them. Their love felt real, even through the screen.

This is where the connection starts. The realization that they are human, just like us. Their smiles, their voices, their personalities — they made you feel understood.

October 05, 2024 at 22:04

Loving Them

As time passed, your love for them grew deeper. It wasn’t just their music anymore. It was about how they made you feel — seen, heard, and appreciated.

Every word, every lyric, every note felt like it was meant for you, for us. They’ve been there for you, comforting you when you felt like no one else would, filling your heart with warmth when you were cold.

You want to thank them, for everything they've done, for all the times they’ve been the source of your strength. But no matter how many times you say "thank you," it never feels enough.

December 13, 2024 at 15:01

Apologizing to Them

But then, as you hear their words in All My Love, you realize something: they feel like they’re not doing enough for you, for Carats.

They feel like they’re only giving you a small amount of love, but we, as fans, feel the same way.

We wish we could do more for them. We wish we could reach through the screen, wrap them in our arms, and tell them that they are enough. That their love has changed our lives. That their songs have healed us in ways they may never fully know.

“We’re sorry too,” you would say.

Sorry that we can’t be there for them every time they need us, sorry that we can’t always protect them from the hurt they feel. But we love them deeply, and we will always support them, just as they’ve done for us.

December 14, 2024 at 03:17

The Love Between Us

The beauty of this connection — this bond between idols and fans — is that it’s unconditional.

They may feel helpless when they see us struggle, but we are the ones who should be grateful.

Their love and care for us go beyond what we could ask for.

Every lyric, every smile, every performance is a testament to the fact that they give all of themselves, even when they think it’s not enough.

And we, as fans, feel the same way — even when we feel like we can’t do enough for them, we love them with everything we have.

Just like All My Love says, "it's alright, it's okay." Their love is more than enough, and we are here to remind them of that, always.

December 29, 2024 at 04:58

do/watch together before 2025:

◯ Jeonghan in one million won [AHHHHRDRCTCYFRYR]

⬤ “I know how the mafia thinks”

◯ INSIDE SEVENTEEN 'in-complete' dance practice behind #2 [Svt being no. dino fanboy, verify.]

◯ Kyeom’s very serious acting in that coin ep

⬤ check in on Hoshi’s tiger agenda

◯ rewatch Kidult stage [mandatory group crying?]

⬤ ask Cheol if he finished shooting cook scoups — weverse

⬤ ask Dino what song he’s dancing to lately — weverse

February 14, 2025 at 01:13

Bias wrecking:

Cheol - ✓✓ [he was too sexy, but then went back to being cute]

Joshua - ✓✓✓✓✓ [surprised?]

Mingyu - ✓✓✓ [blame svt for making him so reliable and turning me on]

Kwan - ✓✓ [yeah]

Everyone else - somewhere between “I was on my way to wreak” and “you're just avoiding”

March 05, 2025 at 20:05

Sappy shit (unedited):

Sometimes I think about telling them what I feel.

About how I carry them in everything I do.

How I measure time by memories we made.

How they’ve changed the shape of what I thought love was supposed to look like, and I remember: maybe I don’t have to say anything at all.

Maybe they already know.

April 08, 2025 at 00:00

Romantic? Love?

It’s not always romantic.

But it’s always love.

To SEVENTEEN,

I never expected to feel so connected to a group of people I’d never met, but somehow, from the very first time I heard their voices, their music reached into my soul. It wasn’t just the songs anymore — it was them. I fell in love with them, not just as idols, but as real people, struggling, striving, and living just like us.

But then I realized, they’re apologizing to us, as if their love isn’t enough. And it hit me: I feel the same way. I wish I could do more for them, I wish I could protect them from all the pain and exhaustion they must feel. I wish I could take their burdens away. But I can’t. All I can do is send them love, support, and gratitude. So, I want to say: I’m sorry too. Sorry that I can’t always be there when they need me, but I’ll always be here for them, cheering them on, loving them.

And to them, I want to say: Your love is more than enough. You don’t have to apologize. You’ve already saved so many lives with your music, your presence and just by being yourself. Your love is overflowing, and it reaches farther than you could ever imagine. You’ve made a difference in my life, and I know you’ve done the same for so many others.

Thank you for everything. And it’s alright, it’s okay. We’ll always be here, just like you’ve always been here for us.

- Celeste <3

—★

“i think of you when the sky looks like a peach

— and i think of you when the world feels heavy

i hold you quietly, and i hope you know

— we feel that, too”

[historical-fashion-polls]

help me find memes for a phd term paper?

hello my darlings! 💕

as you know, I try to keep personal posts very much to a minimum on this blog and focus instead on just posting polls and occasional other historical fashion related things, but I was wondering if you might be willing to keep a lookout for some specific memes as you scroll on tumblr!

I'm currently in a seminar on the 19th century body, and I'm putting together the concept for a term paper around modern visual uses of the victorian body, thus the need for memes! ☺️

have you seen those memes that are like a detail of a painting with a languishing woman (or sometimes many details of many languishing women) with text over it like "me on an average sunday evening" or "me after one small inconvenience?" those are precisely what I'm looking for!

essentially, the exact context/text/meaning of the meme doesn't really matter, but if you see a meme with an image of a languishing woman that appears to come from a painting, I would love to know about it! (no need to id the painting or anything, or even know if it's from the proper era, that's something I'll be doing as part of the process of assembling images for this project, so no worries at all about that!)

no need to go on the hunt for these (unless you want to), but if you happen to see them as you scroll through tumblr, I would be immensely grateful if you would drop me a link! I apologize since I know my ask box is still closed for the moment, but feel free to dm me! or if you'd prefer to leave it anonymously in my ask box, you are also more than welcome to head over to one of my other blogs @ourstaturestouchtheskies or @almost-a-loneliness and send an ask there! 🥰🥰

again, this is truly only if you happen to see these and feel moved to send them over! this will have no effect on the blog whatsoever, it's just something that I'm doing as part of my coursework and I thought you all might have seen some of these in your tumblr scrollings!

I'll conclude with a huge thank you to everyone who helped me ID a mushroom last time! that paper ended up focusing on reality and unreality in the fairy painting from that post, and it turns out that period sources on the believed properties of the mushroom provided for some fantastic analysis!! ☺️💕

sending you all so much love always,

the curator 🪶