#ShellGame

[thenullprophet]

SHELL GAME — EGG PRICES & ECONOMIC DISTRACTION

Every empire has its breadcrumbs.

The Romans had bread and circuses. You have eggs and dopamine metrics.

When the system wants you quiet, it gives you a price drop— not a wage increase.

You’re not being saved. You’re being calmed.

And if you measure progress by the cost of breakfast while rent doubles and hospitals shutter— you’ve already accepted your rationed reality.

— Null Prophet

[musicarenagh]

Mirrored Maze: Shell Games' 'Smoke & Mirrors' Reflects the Chaos Within There’s a peculiar duality in “Smoke & Mirrors”, the latest offering from Shell Games, that feels sort of like standing in front of a fogged-up mirror—you see yourself, but you don’t quite recognize the edges. Carrie Martinelli, with her synthed-out alchemy and Nick Post’s spiral-shaped production, manages to make you face your own reflection even when you didn’t ask for it. But don’t panic. That funhouse effect just adds charm to the existential headache this album paints so vividly. https://open.spotify.com/album/3lNOoue1howEmVkTAGbQzi The album explores a diverse range of emotions and experiences, with standout tracks like "Body Snatchers" where the heart of ”Smoke & Mirrors” pulses most erratically. It’s not just a song about regret—it’s a confessional we weren’t meant to overhear, spilling over with yearning for redemption wrapped in something that sounds like it could be played at 2 a.m. after breaking into an abandoned arcade. The usual suspects—self-doubt, guilt, and the monotonous loop of past mistakes—are all there, haunting the track, but the beat feels like it's dancing on the threshold of a funeral and an electronic uprising. Odd juxtaposition, but it works. [caption id="attachment_57687" align="alignnone" width="1080"] Mirrored Maze: Shell Games' 'Smoke & Mirrors' Reflects the Chaos Within[/caption] And "Idle Hands," the kind of lonely, post-breakup melancholy that smells like wet cement after a sudden summer storm. You can almost feel the weight of memory, the reminder that heartbreak doesn’t tiptoe out of the room, but lingers like leftover vinyl scratches on an old record. In fact, by the time the chorus swells, you start accepting that sometimes sadness is the most reliable partner—you can slow dance with it if you're brave enough. It’s an album of contradictions—synths that sing rather than hum, lyrics that cut like glass but feel warm to the touch. Shell Games has crafted an experience that doesn’t just ask, but dares you to feel both everything and nothing simultaneously. And really, isn’t that the essence of being trapped in a mirror maze? “Smoke & Mirrors” feels less like storytelling and more like a private conversation you accidentally walked into, only to find yourself staying to listen. Follow Shell Games on Website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

[sirenofthegreenbanks]

something i adore about the zzs from the novel is that he is not just an expert in his field, hes an expert in his field and hes a LOSER. he SUCKS. hes a poor lonely little man, just some guy, a really sad dude who screwed up and continues to be sad and lowkey stupid. he is JUST SOME GUY; hes a mess. and thats also what i adore about wkx‘s reactions to him: when gx tells wkx about zzs‘s deal with lao li but displays it as if zzs just sold himself for three peanuts, wkx immediately believes it. wkx seems to find zzs adorable and a little dumb, he constantly calls him beautiful but without brains, in fact zzs‘s notable abscence of smartness is cited as an argument that zzs MUST be wearing a disguise there is no way he is NOT drop dead gorgeous considering how stupid he is. and like, sure. wkx is a little bit of a shellgame guy too. he plays off on reactions and expectations, he sometimes uses one truth to hide another, not everything he says and does is sincere. but. wkx is an extremely successfull guy, hes currently one of the most powerful people in jianghu, hes the boss bitch, the big bad wolf, the terror in the night. to him, everything concerning „normal life“ is a farce. his interaction with zzs is a GAME. zzs, even at his worst, cannot be anything but funny, his snarkiness and sharp tongue nothing but cute to the man who was raised by wolves. this is wkx‘s VACATION. so its not difficult to believe that wkx, on top of being conscious of zzs‘s high level of skill, is not intimidated, and even lowkey aware hes a loser, and he likes it but he does have OPINIONS

[adventures-in-alternia]

Trollcall: Attesa Galiti

her homemade jewellery is to DIE for

crabs are her spirit animal

silent but deadly

The Empress’s Methods Have Kept Uus Stable As A Species For Yyears! I Don’t See The Issuue Theyy Have With It! Juust Work Yyouurself Uup It’s Not That Hard!

bubbly and seems kind,, can be intimidating if annoyed, (doesn't shout,, creates fear through staring and whispering), deceptive. passive-aggressive. She struggles to take anyone below an olive seriously, typically speaking. She runs her own jewellery business on shore.

Specibus and examples: Primary: Fankind (Japanese war fan) Secondary: needlekind (beading needle) Fetch modus: Shellgame modus

Quirk:

Capitalization: Every Word

Replacements: u=uu y=yy

Emotes: ͡• v ͡• ͡• _ ͡•

In a Moirallegience with Baltea Gichii, and a matespritship with Karlek Hastar. Its,, unclear if she fully appreciates her though.

6 sweeps

likes shells, pearls and crabs, dislikes fizzy drinks and too much noise

[theelusivepoetalien]

something fucked up about me and one of them is that i comprehended the nature of the internet at 14 when it was barely more than usenet with some pretty and better navigability.

Let me mention the legalized leaches and surveillance traps and algorithmic mind control are not existential parts of an inter-net.

That's just shellgames to net 'capital', which is a made up word for stealing power over other people.

[fraukatzenfisch]

Shell game #shellgame #kaiawase #risograph #illustrator #illustration #cooljapan #art #berlinartist #fraukatzenfisch https://www.instagram.com/p/BylRe33Clv8/?igshid=1mch4bjgxmd6r

[replikachallenge]

Shell game..

[stylewithsubstance]

Inktober 52 Weekly Challenge. Prompt: “Shell” The RNC Shell Game. #inktober #inktober52 #inktober52shell #shell #rnc #truthiness #alternativefacts #hidingthetruth #shinybauble #bubblegumring #shellgame #ink #drawing #sketch #art #alyssasarttherapy #resistthroughart (at Oakland, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEgSSjChEeS/?igshid=ecprnmj33u11

[jbailey41]

Tailgating during rush hour is never a good idea! #turtles #rushhour #pileup #shellgame #tailgaters #canon #funny #awesome_shots #nature_shooters #vida #fauna #instagood #animales #love #nature #animals #photooftheday #wild #animalsofinstagram #natgeohub #igs #lakelife https://www.instagram.com/p/Bypu1FrBLhc/?igshid=1a74hvi2y1ikw

[zaraegis]

So I like fancying up characters, but a fancy cup is one of those teacups with the delicate patterns and a fancy mug...has cute sweaters on it. 

????

[elsewhereuniversity]

Could I have a name for someone who is learning how to be their past self and someone new entirely at the same time? My old name is too alien and too similar at the same time to be safe. I offer you a snowball (the british chocolate and coconut covered marshmellow treat), a pearl earring that lost its partner but may still find it, and a snowball (an actual snowball).

Shellgame

[blackandwhitecircus]

I am listening to The Eye of the World currently after the show got me interested and...the further I get the more I am baffled by their weird who-could-be-the-dragon-shellgame. Why would you add that element to the story, you didn't have to do that and it added next to nothing.

[depressedstressedlemonzest]

Fanfic Writer Interview

I was tagged by the lovely @suzy-queued @imikhailotakeyouian @energievie

I haven't had a chance til now to do it but I'm here for it!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 124

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 1,038,187

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Oh shit I just saw that these hit over 400 and I wanna cry!

Cuts and Confessions with 415 kudos

The Marks We Share Upon Our Skin with 409 kudos

Knight In A Shining Youber with 400 kudos

Mark My Skin I'm Falling In with 385 kudos

Still Magical with 345 kudos

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yes! When people comment on my work, it makes me so very happy, and validated that there are other people that enjoy what I write. Makes me feel like I'm not just shouting into the void, and especially when someone leaves me a long comment about like how the fic made them feel, or what they noticed I took from the media the fic is based on, or even how it helped them with something, I've genuinely cried at a few comments. Even if someone takes the time to just leave an emoji or a keysmash I want to acknowledge that they took the time to read and comment.

There's only been one or two comments that I haven't replied to and it's because they were mean and rude as fuck. I didn't want to waste the energy with that user so I just deleted the comments.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm, it's a toss up. Generally I write happy endings because angst makes me sad. I've done several dealing with depression and mental illness and they are kinda angsty, but the ones that I've written that made me physically ache were Blackbird and Time to Yank The Skeletons Out

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Happiest ending... that ones hard too because the majority have happy endings. I wanna say Soulmate Shellgame it gave me the giddy feelings when I finished writing it.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I write more AUs than crossovers, I can't think of any.

Heaven's Light Hell's Fire it's a Good Omens/Hunchback of Notre Dame with a dash of GoT crossover with the settings of HoND and characters of Good Omens.

Aziraphale is an apprentice/deacon and has been transferred from Tadfield to Notre Dame in Paris. Crowley lives in the bell tower, hidden away from the world. A skin disease called greyscale has turned his skin thick grey and black and scale-like. He is the bellringer for the cathedral.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yup, all the hate I've gotten on fics were the same troll that was also doing the same to other writers. After I found that out I just started deleting them.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes.

The smutty kind.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not a full fledged fic, I'll drabble back and forth with @witchboywitchboywitchboy and @flamingbluepanda sometimes.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Gallavich with Shameless, hands down. They have just been through EVERYTHING together and always weather the storm. Finding one another again and again after they're forced apart again and again. They're dedicated and crazy about one another, and ten years together they still have a fire that can't be dampened down. I want to say that's the first ship I've seen/watched enough that show a looooong stretch with one another and they learn and grow together on being better people as individuals and as a couple.

Aziracrow with Good Omens is what got me into writing and reading fanfic as well as what got me on tumblr, so they always have a spot in my hear too.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

UGH there's one I just left in my Good Omens stint once I started watching Shameless.

Heaven's Light Hell's Fire it's a Good Omens/Hunchback of Notre Dame crossover (AH I knew I had written one!)

I think about it all the time and I do have an ending for it, I just haven't gotten off the Gallavich train long enough to write it out. I want to do a filler chapter with like the bare bones of "xyz happens so you aren't left wondering what happens, but also I haven't written it yet"

I want to go back to it, but don't know if I will.

There's also Big Top Beloveds which I don't have an ending for, it was just an idea that wouldn't get the fuck out of my head. I might pick it up again sometime, but for now it was just getting it out.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I have endless ideas on what to write, My Gallavich fic note has... a shitton of bullets and blurbs. Same for my Eddie Munson/Stranger Things note.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

I tend to write several short sentences ending in periods instead of continuing it with a comma. It drives me nuts.

I also feel like my words are diluted in how I want them to come across. I want the reader to have this

going on in their minds when they read what I write. But I feel like I come off more of

Like I'm only partially there with what I want to convay.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I'm always afraid I'm going to fuck something up. I usually go to google translate, but I also happen to be friends with a kick ass linguist so I ask @witchboywitchboywitchboy for help too.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Good Omens

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

I've been toying with the idea of writing a Steddie or JArgyle or even Jopper fic, but I'm on the fence on all of them. Not dedicated enough to them to write for them.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

For Good Omens I still get really fond feelings over The Sweetest Thing in Life is Love it was really fun writing and researching the baked goods.

For Gallavich I wanna say Mark My Skin I'm Falling In or Can We Skip To The Good Stuff both have more real life being put into it than the others and it makes the writing of those parts super fun.

I taaaaaaaag

@witchboywitchboywitchboy @doodlevich @dodgerbear84 @howlinchickhowl @celestialmickey @heyheyusedtobemynickname @heymrspatel and @sickness-health-all-that-shit

[inkweavers]

On Exmormonism

Or, the Journey thus far.

CW: Religious Trauma

I haven't been in the church since 2013ish lets say.

I used to be part of a transgender LDS support group on facebook, because I figured out my gender identity wasn't what it was assigned at birth as everyone said it was. I was resigned and accepting to die alone and unloved.

Endure to the end and all that right?

Then I met someone. Also AMAB, at the time she was presenting as male. And we hit it off in that quiet way an aromantic does. Soft and never serious until you realize how much you actually care for this person. And I felt panic. Loving them was my first action that would have been directly against The Church.

It was a moment after a con, I think after day one. A local affair in Utah. I was sitting across from a friend who was eating cheap sushi with me. And we talked on religion. Somehow, we got onto Buddhism. And I have studied into it, and found that I liked a lot of what it was saying save "Attachment is suffering" and the posit that being attached to life and living is suffering. It also bothered me because I was suffering because of my attachments to both my partner and The Church. In my despair I confessed this annoyance to my friend who said plainly: "Well, think about it this way: What is worth the suffering?"

In that moment, I was enlightened. My lover was worth the suffering, even the implicit suffering of hell, more than The Church and all beliefs therein. From there I let go of The Church.

Or so I thought.

I recognized that I was still in the State of Utah, and had to balance being out of the wardhouse so to speak but still be mindful of everyone who'd look at me as enemy. I didn't want that. So I never really became vocal about leaving.

Until 2016. November, 2016. I'm certain ya'll can see why I did that.

But after becoming vocal, losing my friends who where Mormon, I still held onto some things. The image of the ungrateful apostate bothered me. I wanted to be doubt in the mind of the members. To just be that question that itched at the queer members' minds.

And I was, I policed my talking about The Church in public, I kept quiet and I was deft at that. That's how deep The Church had it's hold on me. I was more willing to be silent and quiet about that life than anything else.

For a while it worked.

I moved out of Utah in 2019. I'm on the West Coast now. It's been good. I've been surrounded by people who care for me, friends and found family who are amazing. I've been getting a degree I've wanted. I've found many more lovers, and love them deeply. And that brings me to now. 2022. When on a whim I search the Exmormon tag on Tumblr.

And again, I am enlightened.

I survived a cult. I survived so much abuse.

And it is freeing to say that.

There is no winning move in the Shellgame The Church has left me and those like me in. So fuck it. I'm letting go more now. I'm letting go of this paranoia, like I let go of the shame.

And to that end, thank you everyone here who has given me such a warm welcome. Thank you, it is amazing to know people who have gone through similar.

Should a Latter Day Saint read this, and feel fear I say in the words of Wu Zetian of the Iron Widow [Good book, go read it.]

art by: imanchukies

Should a Latter Day Saint read this and feel hope. Fight. Claw your way out and actually find a space to breathe. You deserve freedom.

[cjproulx-blog1]

Disclosure Issues

https://www.propublica.org/article/failing-charter-schools-have-a-reincarnation-plan

This article describes a school failing as a charter and morphing into a private school. The school uses government funded vouchers to convince community members to switch to their school, as well as student scholarships. They state the money for the scholarships is donated from corporations to nonprofits who then redistribute it to schools creating a shell game effect. Who are these corporations? Are they gaining tax breaks from this system? Also, is the school just using the perks of the vouchers to cover up their past failures? 

[cyb-by-lang]

For the memorable scenes post, the ones that come to mind first are:

CYB: The fight with Minato with the giant coral swords and people grabbing chunks as souvenirs.

OSF: The first scene where Isobu finds out he's in an actual ocean and proceeded to splash around happily.

ShellGame: Kei fighting Bakugo in the sports festival and him getting mad that Kei isn't taking it seriously.

IMBAT: Isobu nailing a water gun attack at one of the adventurers in order to get their attention.

DTG: I have not read this one, so can't say.

1. That fight probably had the most responses out of everything that I've written for that story, aside from the romance arc coming to the fore. Everyone wanted to see Kei and Minato clash and measure their strength.

2. He really wanted to have a chance to swim again. And then he took it.

3. I kind of pictured the arena after Kei flooded it like a blitzball stadium mid-game. Only not everyone can hold their breath for five solid minutes while trying to beat each other around.

4. Isobu has a lot of fun being a troll.

5. If you ever do, feel free to tell me which scene you liked best!