#Sequel Bubble

[soapver4]

Reborn Rawlsian

Sequel Bubble: Chaebol fiend 1-1 learns that his cruel son 1-1-1 has been reborn as a not only unnumbered but also unidentifiable underdog in his re-reseized conglomerate's vast network of stakeholders: employees, contractors, sub-contractors, vendors along the supply chain, small-time investors, retail customers, pollution sufferers, fellow taxpayers, public benefits recipients, etc. Nightmares of his underlings executing an accordingly uniformed or rags-draped version of his child on a desolate, roaring seaside cliff, the way an employee was killed under the instructions of someone in his family (spoiler-free description), recur until 1-1 successfully protects everyone in that stakeholder group.

Maximin and the Veil of Ignorance are two cornerstones of modern philosopher John Rawls' Original Position, from which he advocated deliberating among approaches to social justice. Found also in game theory, maximin refers to the highest value among the lowest possible outcomes, as its name suggests. Rawls argued that any social and economic inequalities must exist only if they lead us to a society which worst-off members fare better than the worst-off members of all other possible societies.*

The Veil of Ignorance is similarly common sense that has not translated to common reality. It says that decision makers in the above deliberation are to assume that they know nothing particular about themselves, such as their strengths, assets or specific interests.^ They only know broad facts applicable to most people like the need for income and opportunity.^ The possibility of being the worst-off person in any resulting society should then motivate each decision maker to secure the maximin.

The natural question to ask is how to ensure decision makers live up to those ideals. Could possibility, as opposed to significant probability, be enough of a motivator even if one were willing to turn a blind eye to adverse consequences for her relatively privileged, actual tribe? The most disadvantaged people do not necessarily constitute the lowest yet broadest stratum of a pyramid. They could be individuals suffering rare, exceptionally debilitating diseases, for instance. Compounding the matter is the tendency for the different components of the deliberation and feedback processes to lie in different parties: Systematic insights into differing justice approaches are concentrated among intellectuals; the power to distribute social goods lies in economic and political elites, not all of whom care to be intellectuals; the richest wealth of granular knowledge about the suffering of the worst-off members of society probably lies in themselves.

For public pressure and monitoring to effectively push decision makers into the Original Position, there must be adequate sharing of facts and sentiments among the three groups. Voices in support of the worst off need meme power, whether in the form of compelling logic pitches or emotional appeal, to compensate for disadvantage in numbers in any non-pyramidal society. That is where arts can structure medical, financial and sociopolitical access for the better, saving lives and dignity with nary a stethoscope.

There is one other solution. Near the end of the last episode, 1-1 lies in exhaustion on the copper-hued sands of a valley in Nallıhan, where shady plans were carried out in Reborn Rich, after rescuing his son for good. The poignant portrait shots are intercut with extensive flashbacks to tribulations the duo has undergone at the hands of selfish, uncooperative fellow power holders. But before long, the smooth talker springs up with a wicked glint in his eyes. 1-1 rises to the seat of national president on the strength of his now-impressive civil reform records and galvanizes support (don't ask about his extortionary tactics) for a new bill that mandates all capable people of working age to take a gap month every year in the most miserable sectors in the country, unless they already work or live in any of the sectors. The economic impact on existing workers in those sectors will have to be ascertained, however. And 1-1 may well get voted out of office by the next term. For now, nevertheless, he shall have his own revenge.

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*Rawls, J. (2001) Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 59-60.

^Rawls, J. (1999) A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 11, 53-54.

[ariadne-mouse]

For the "I wish you would write a fic where…" I don't know if this counts because it's not a new fic, but:

"Was? Essek? I thought you were out of town?"

Caleb wakes up with obsidian flakes of a'a in his hair and and no memory of the last few years. His very-new boyfriend has adopted his cat, there's a court case for his attemped murder, and he might have been a ghost?

A followup to The Fire Kept Closest, from Caleb's POV, filling in the timejump to the epilogue.

Thank you for the ask! It took me a minute to get to this ask game, but here we are. I am not writing exactly to the prompt, but I hope you like this 830-word slice of post-fic Volcaleb nonetheless!

-

"I would like to go, I think."

Essek paused where he had just gathered a scoop of cat kibble. The awaiting dish lay on the floor, empty. "Are you sure?"

"Ja," Caleb answered. He folded the local newspaper he had been reading in half, the headline visible: Corporate Clash: Cerberus takes the stand. "I know it's best my situation stays out of the spotlight, at least for now, but I want him to see me. To see my face, and know that I know." His expression darkened. "I want him to sweat."

At Essek's feet, Frumpkin yowled his impatience, unaware of corporations, or bureaucracy, or indeed the significance of newspapers beyond the fact that they were sometimes fun to sit on.

"Calm down, calm down," Essek tutted, and gave the beast his meal. He smoothed a hand down Frumpkin's back, thinking. "I'll go with you, if you really want to go."

Caleb smiled grimly. "Danke. I would like that. But I have an idea, also - you can help."

-

Vence Nuthaleus cleaned up well in a suit, and he knew it. It was unfortunate that the volcano on Rumblecusp had popped its top as soon as it had, but he was still safely ensconced in respectability - and more importantly, plausible deniability. Research was only as good as records available, and his land use recommendation report had been scientifically sound with the data from the island's active seismometer network.

It didn't even alarm him that he was playing a kind of mutually assured destruction game with Cerberus. They wanted to publicly shed him as a "bad actor", especially convenient given his contractor status - but if they did, he'd reveal they had been the ones to disconnect the last seismometer. He had enough leverage in writing to make the accusation compelling, and they knew it. The thing they might most want to pin on him... well, they didn't have any evidence of that. All told, it was in Cerberus's best interest to protect him. And so he wore his most approachable suit, and a polite smile, and answered questions as earnestly as he could when he was on the stand. Mardoon Estate only wanted money, after all, and Cerberus certainly had plenty of that. Vence didn't need to be scapegoat for it all to work out eventually.

The courtroom around him was full for the spectacle. The door creaked open every so often as the gawkers and media came and went, like bees buzzing on a hive. He sometimes saw familiar faces from the island: Dr. Vilya, Beauregard, Thelyss. Today the last of these was sitting in one of the back rows by himself, glaring at Vence like he always did when he was there. Too bad; being a stuck-up trust fund baby wouldn't help Thelyss here.

It was some minutes before Vence's attention was drawn by a spot in the standing room in the back that had not moved at all for some time. Even as his mouth answered the current question on autopilot, his eyes were drawn to look at the vacuum of stillness.

A dead man was looking back at him.

Vence's words curdled in his throat, choking his breath.

He was there. Caleb Widogast was there, standing among the throng.

"Mr. Nuthaleus?" prompted the examiner.

"I... I..."

The ghost - it could only be a ghost - stared at him with those eerie blue eyes, unblinking. He was dressed like he had been, for a hike on the mountain. There was even a lightweight heatsuit half-zipped and tied around his waist.

He looked exactly like he had when he had died. When--

Vence couldn't pull his gaze away. "Could- could you repeat the question?"

The examiner repeated it, and again Vence did not hear.

Nearby, Thelyss was standing up. He favored Vence with a last look of contempt before making for the double doors. The crowd parted to let him pass, but Widogast did not move. And Thelyss... walked right past him, like he wasn't there.

A chill rolled down Vence's spine and his breathing came faster. He could hear a ringing noise, his vision was narrowing.

With effort, he turned a smile to the judge. "I'm sorry, I think I need a moment."

When he turned back, Caleb Widogast was gone.

-

Outside in the hallway, Essek leaned on the wall next to Caleb, who sat heavily on a bench. The heat suit was stuffed back into a bag.

"Feel any better?"

A muscle in Caleb's face twitched, and his hand balled in a fist. "A little. I don't know. Seeing him-" His breath left him in a gust. "It was harder than I expected."

Essek touched his shoulder and gave it a squeeze.  "Come, then. Let's go. We can learn what happened later. Frumpkin is waiting for you at home."

This last tactic was always a surefire way to bring a little smile back to Caleb's face, and it proved to be so now.

“Ja,” Caleb agreed, straightening up.  “Let’s go home.”

[rowanthestrange]

Arc Of Infinity is also good because you can see where it rewired young Moffat’s brain. When you see Nyssa, for once a lone companion matching the Doctor in wits. When you see her choices resembling Clara’s. When you see the Gallifrey mirror that is a fancy building with a crypt winding away beneath it. The surprisingly blatant gay subtext. You just know he and Rusty have discussed this one at length.

[aces-to-apples]

I'm gonna be real, so little of previous games have actually mattered in any way beyond flavor text that I literally could not give less of a shit about this whole debacle. Like it's such a non-issue to me. Idk what games y'all have been playing for 15 years but truly this is the norm. Barely anything carried over from Origins to Hawke and all pretty minor shit, and I genuinely cannot think of anything beyond flavor text carrying over to Inquisition. Oh you could customize Hawke and they can answer a few vague questions with vague bullshit? Cool, presumably that's what the Inquisitor will give us. Like idk guys but I think maybe building up your expectations for a decade has had a detrimental effect on what should be reasonable expectations for a video game that's truly been in development hell for like eight years and wants to be functionably playable to brand new players without alienating them.

[mashmouths]

[riahsringtone]

INSIDE OUT THOUGHT BUBBLES HAS A NEW LOADING SCREEN omggmggg i really hope the new emotions r playable

[ace-n-mooch-daily]

Today's Ace is OH GOD ACE WATCH OUT

[croy-on-a-working-vacation]

Got advice from fellow passengers after my first try making the Halcyon’s bubble grilled cheese—I needed to add cheese on the bottom and top layers of the batter to get the crispy, crunchy crust I missed from the ship. It’s perfect now 😭💖

[rabbit-ina-trenchcoat]

does anyone know if theyre gonna be able to release major grom: the game to american audiences in any way or uhh pirating

[selfiesforalgernon]

Just watched Valerian and The City of A Thousand Planets, or as I like to call it Valerian and the thousand things pussy'll make a motherfucker do including go against the economy (nah I loved it it was a good movie the critics put out a hit on my boy my beautiful boy Luc Besson)

[shironezuninja]

Pagers exploding in innocent people’s faces. How humans have fallen to get my blood boiling.

[soapver4]

Ink Botanicals Academies for Sleepy Immortals

Sequel + 📺-Social Sciences Hybrid Bubble: A virtuoso bamboo painter in ancient China ascends to an idyllic heaven as a deity after his politically troubled time on Earth. Alas, the light, ethereal pastel robes and saintly, detached mannerisms of the immortals of various ranks belie the corruption and hoarding also rife among them. Clenching his fists in renewed determination, the painter proceeds to campaign for the widespread establishment of what he believes is the antidote: bamboo painting academies. Bamboo plants, he reasons, are evergreen, resilient and unadorned. Tracing their simple yet dignified leaves and stems would cultivate rectitude in immortals. A few immortals, however, roll their eyes at that prescription.

"What made you think what worked for you would work for most immortals, if any? Did you even get the cause-effect relationship correct? And if your bamboo passion did work on you, it might be because you were a good guy to start with and strove to make yourself an even better person through whatever you chose to see in bamboo. A lump of wood could have been your teacher too!"

Others chime in from their self-playing flute music picnics and languid wine parties.

"Look at how many demented politicians dabble in art. Tsk, tsk."

(That would be why they rather travel inside art than parade art.)

"Hey, we can't rule out the possibility! Our motherland doesn't have high artistic and moral regard for bamboo for nothing. Maybe if enough randomly selected people take up bamboo leaves painting and we compare them against their peers with the same traits and backgrounds, we can see that the pursuit more likely than not improves the average person."

"You guys can experiment with panda grub. I'll place my bets on something more emotive: human food. My academies shall paint tangerine plants. The bright, cheery colors of their fruit stimulate your appetite for warmth and positivity. No more selfish officials and lazy bystanders!"

More immortals roll their eyes.

"Make that the bitter, dark brown herb, tuber fleeceflower. A school of thought cannot have genuine, lasting effects if it turns a blind eye to reality. And integrity needs grit."

"Bittergourd."

"Spinach."

"Oh, come on, life is not all bleakness and despair. Try litchi trees. The flesh under the rosy peel is translucent and juicy. Just the wellspring of inspiration for transparency and earnestness of character!"

And so the squabbling immortals set up a system whereby painters assessed to be skilled in depicting any of those plants get to teach in academies for that plant and others are randomly selected and sorted into the various academies as learners.

We talk about dramas as thought experiments, but here's where it would be awesome to try the reverse. Test out these art classes in the real world to guide the ending of the sequel. Evidence-based dramas need to be a genre too.

Meanwhile, heaven is a colorful, leafy quasi-paradise full of scrolls and intermingling scents of ink and fruit and where the busy sounds of brushes and rustling long sleeves are heard from outside every other pavilion and hall. It's just not quite heavenly for genuinely congenitally hyperactive and clumsy immortals.

Check out the alt text of all images.

[hazelcephalopod]

Main thoughts on The Acolyte based on the first 5 episodes.

Seeing a different era of the Republic and Jedi has been neat.

Sol asked Mae pretending to be Osha where her sister was. That and other little things about how he’s behaving with her and looking at her make me suspect he either suspects she may in fact be Mae, or outright know she’s Mae and is playing along to try to get her to the ship easier and maybe get more info, possibly even gain some trust or something with her.

Not to brag too much. But when Qimir first showed up I thought he'd be doing some drunken master shit or something. And I feel I wasn’t far off. Also. Gotta be honest he did look great doing all his crimes.

The force witch coven was cool.

Im really curious where the Qimir stuff goes. He says he has no name but the Jedi would call him sith. Now that can be interpreted a couple ways. Personally? It could be a lie for a few reasons, but considering how confident he was and his stated desire -freedom- I’m inclined to believe him. I admit though, I think it’s more interesting if he’s not Sith but instead just something else or something new.

…speaking of which. I do like digging into more of the Jedi beliefs and potential misdeed. There’s layers of complexity to their practices for sure, but they’ve always been a little bit pushy about their beliefs and practices. They are the only -or maybe one of very few- recognized force using organizations in the Republic, and I think that has some ramifications that are being explored here. They are light users, quasi-monastics, and still a religious organization with political ties. When you look at it together, Anakin being the balance of the force makes sense, even all the main movies show the force is dark and light and both will always exist. The Jedi try to reject the dark completely oftentimes, which is not balanced. The Jedi often act as absolutist and for lack of a better word supremacistic, and certainly it seems like this is a period where that is in full force. I mean, we will see what happened exactly with the witches -which may not have been officially sanctioned but still indicates the presence of a certain attitude towards force users other than jedi.

Also related to above -tbh we needed a paragraph break. Qimir brings up a good point about freedom -even if he’s also probably evil, again we’ll see I guess. However again my point: limiting the force strictly is never going to work long term.

That said. I really enjoy Star Wars when it is willing to interrogate the idea that the dark side is always evil. And this series has, poked at it a little. I’d love to see it poke more. (Tbh the oppositional duelism of the force is a bit simplistic, and I find the ideas that the force is just the force, an undivided energy that has been dogmatically perceived through a dualistic lens for millennia by most of the galaxy but isn’t actually more interesting.)

[crayonurchin]

It's another May and another MCM ComicCon!

Soaps and Dragons is returning with yet more D&D and Critical Role inspired soaps!

And a few new treats I've been working on in the depths of the bubble pits...

See you next weekend!

[s0ftand0nly]

she’s so cute

[trooperst-3v3]

Have full range of motion again, thanks to the chiropractor in medbay.

Protip: When visiting the chiropractor, do not hide large amounts of bubble wrap in the joints of your armor. Sure, it makes ~*hilarious*~ popping sounds whenever he makes an adjustment, but it really freaks out the folks waiting behind you for their turn.

Oops.