#Specifically the 'profit later ' model.

[drumlincountry]

If the entire internet went dark tomorrow, what would you lose? What would you lose that you can't afford to lose? How do you save it?

[togglesbloggle]

Why do you think tumblr will die in only a few years?

Answer with jargon: a strong correlation between recent economic shifts and chaotic choices by major tech companies is most easily explained if the 'traditional' social media platforms of 2005-2020 are mostly a zero-interest rate phenomenon.

Longer answer, with less jargon: Even though Musk's takeover is making all the headlines recently, the last year has in fact seen major shakeups at many social media platforms, so Twitter is actually part of a trend. Almost inevitably, these are cases of social media companies trying to find a way to squeeze more money out of their userbase (Reddit), cut costs dramatically (Twitter), or both. This marks a sudden departure from a much more relaxed attitude towards revenue in the Pictures Of Cats industry, where the focus was historically more on expanding the userbase to a global scale and then counting on world domination to sort of <????> and then the company would become profitable eventually.

We joke, correctly, that Tumblr has never been profitable. But the entire structure of ad-supported content curation between human users is deeply suspect as a business model; IIRC Twitter was never profitable either, and Facebook has been juicing its numbers in very shenanigany ways. Discord was actually making money on net last I checked, at least a bit, so they're not all completely in the hole. But even if you take the accounting figures at face value, none of these companies has anything like the amount of money that their cultural prominence would suggest. Instead, they're heavily fueled by investment dollars, money given by super-rich people and institutions in the expectation that fueling the growth of the company now will pay off with interest later.

So what changed?

I'm not an expert here, but I'll do my best to muddle through. The American Federal Reserve has one mandate that dominates all others (sometimes called the 'dual mandate'), and one primary tool that it uses to enforce that mandate. The goal is to maintain low (but nonzero) rates of inflation and unemployment, which in their models are deeply interlinked phenomena. The tool is 'rate hikes', or more specifically, tweaking the mandatory rate of interest that banks charge one another when making loans.

As a particular consequence of this, hiking the rate also means that bonds start paying out much better. When the rate hike goes through, that affects people who let the government borrow their personal cash- that is, people who buy bonds- as well as institutions like banks that lend to one another. A rate hike means that you, personally, can make a little extra money by letting the government borrow it for a while. The federal government of the US is a rock-solid low-risk choice for this kind of moneymaking scheme, so the federal interest rate sort of defines the 'number to beat'; to attract investors, a company has to give those investors money at a better percentage than whatever the feds are offering. Particularly since a company is a lot more likely to go out of business than the state!

To wrap this back around to the Pictures Of Cats industry: the higher the rate hike, the better your company needs to be doing (or the less risky it needs to be as an option) to attract big investment dollars. Very high rates make it very hard to convince people to invest in business activity rather than the government itself, and very low rates put moonshots and big dreams on the table, investment-wise, in a way that wouldn't otherwise be possible. Social media companies were one of these big dreams.

In the great financial crisis of 2008, the Fed took the dramatic step of reducing their rate to zero, trying to juice the economy back to life. And ever since then, they've kept it there. This has produced an unprecedented amount of funding for very crazy stuff; it's part of what has allowed so many weird new tech companies (Uber, streaming services, etc.) to get so much money, so quickly, and use that to grow to massive size without a clear model of how they're ever going to make money. This state of affairs kept going for quite a while, with no clear stopping point; that zero-interest environment has been one of the shadowy forces in the background that shaped fundamental contours and limits in how our Very Online World has grown and developed. Until COVID.

Or rather, the bounce back from COVID: we suddenly saw a massive spike in inflation and an incredibly strong labor market, as employees quit in record numbers, negotiated higher salaries, and found better work, and at the same time supply chain issues and other economy stuff caused prices to climb dramatically. Recall the Fed's 'dual mandate', to control the employment rate and inflation. This was, basically, kicking them right in the jooblies. They responded in kind, finally finally raising their rates for the first time in 15 years. For some of the people reading this, it'll be the first significant shift in their entire adult lives.

The goal, as I understand it, is to fight inflation by reducing the amount of outside investment into private companies, forcing them to hire fewer people and pay smaller salaries, ultimately drawing money out of the working economy and driving prices back down by lowering demand for everything. You get paid less, so you eat out less, and buy at cheaper restaurants when you do, so restaurants have to compete harder by lowering their prices; seems pretty dodgy to me as a theory, but it's the theory. And the first part will almost certainly work- companies are going to see less investment.

For social media companies that are still paying most of their salaries with investor dollars instead of revenues, this is especially catastrophic. Without outside investment, they're just a massive pile of expenses waiting to happen, huge yearly costs in developer salaries and server fees. This is why, all of a sudden, every social media company is suddenly making bonkers decisions. They're noticing that nobody wants to give them any more money! So they're trying to figure out how to live a lot more cheaply, to actually somehow for reals turn their giant userbases in to some kind of actual revenue stream, or both.

Tumblr is kind of the ur-example of this kind of thing, supporting a very large userbase with no coherent plan whatsoever to start paying its staff with our dollars instead of investors' dollars. When interest rates were low and Scrooge McDuck had nowhere else to hide his pile of gold coins, a crazy kid with a dream was the best alternative available to him. But now, unless something changes, he's going to notice he can just buy bonds instead, and that crazy kid can go take a hike.

That's why I think Tumblr is living on borrowed time, though I don't know how much. Like all cartoons, the economy doesn't really fall off a cliff until somebody looks down and notices they've been standing on thin air this whole time. But they always fall eventually; that's the gag.

[lol-jackles]

You do know that FBBC are still heavily producing and distributing beer, right? Before you start patting yourself on the back that the original brewery/land is being sold, you might want to get clued into the fact that distribution has been expanded to San Antonio and recently to Houston. The company and brand are positioning themselves to expand further. Don't think they will go back to the cute craft brewery, but as you have pointed out, craft breweries are not that profitable. Looks like they are going for a stronger business model.

You go on about the whole YANA thing. I have never understood why a select few in the fandom actually became jealous about a charity? Seems so small minded and petty. Regardless, YANA still exists and continues to do good things.

Yes I know about their distribution, I'm the one who pointed out 5 years ago all those bottling and canning equipment and the end products weren't for the taproom customers but meant for distribution because the Ackles were trying to go big because they want to make actual profit despite originally claiming that they would only sell beer at the brewery (X).

What did you think the $1000 membership package was about?  To get SPN fans to regularly go to FBBC to keep it afloat so they can keep making beer on site and then ship off site. Quite a turnaround when Gino cast dispersion toward SPN fans and said there will be no beer named after a "corny tv show" (X)

According to Gino, they plan to resume producing their own beer again once they find a location in Austin.

After they bought these top on the line brewing equipment and are now selling. That sounds like a "stronger business model" to you?

Surely you don't think the Ackles are going to sell off all the brewery equipment only to turn around and buy new equipment for the alleged 2nd location?  At best they should just open a small scale taproom and put Gino in there as the glorified bar tender.

Do you know people who had their beer made by somebody else?  I have. They have to pay for everything, or make compromises.  There is no in between. A specific yeast strain the contractors don't use?  Then you're going to have to pay for that, and the labor to keep it going, or do it yourself.  Oh wait, they can't because they closed down FBBC.

Breweries don't close because they'll make more money from contract breweries, if that's the case then why open your own brewery in the first place?

Let me break it down using another real life example:

If parents have a couple of kids going to the same college and overlap each other, instead of paying dorm fees or renting an apartment, they would buy a townhouse for their child/ren and rent out rooms to other students, which pays for the mortgage.  Then when the last child graduates, they sell the house for a profit.

See the difference between owning a brewery that doubles as a contract brewery (your house) vs paying everything to a contract brewery (college)?

What's going on is there is a saturation of craft breweries.  It's like in the late 90s when there was a huge surge in openings of comic shops.  Every collector dreamed of running his own place and thought a love for the product was enough to be successful. The market became saturated.  A couple years later, the trend reversed and it seemed another shop was closing every other week. The difference in making it or not largely rested on whether the owner had the skill set to run a business. Foresight. Customer relations. General business principles. And of course, the ones who had adequate funding. The market decided who made it and who didn’t.

That's what is going on in the current beer industry.  The hobbyists who thought they could be successful because they loved brewing but lacked the skill set to run a business are beginning to fall.

LOL nobody is jealous of YANA, people continue to be amused by it because of how badly it was executed and then failed. If YANA still exist and continues to do good thing, it's only because Jared bailed it out after both Misha and Jensen abandoned the public promise as mentioned here and here.

I remember back in my day a craft beer was “hey there’s a beer that’s $3.50 a bottle instead of $2 and it’s way better!”

Nowadays it’s “this craft beer is sourced with water collected from the Himalayas by free range howler monkeys and filtered through the wings of butterflies.  Oh and we can’t bother to be original so it’s an IPA loaded with hops.  $8 please”.

[illuminatedquill]

Sabine Wren

The Stars Are Not Wanted Now

Story Summary: A collection of one-shot POVs from the people in Sabine Wren’s life detailing her grief over Ezra’s absence, focused around a special item she wears in his memory.

Author's Note: These one-shots are not necessarily in chronological order.

Ryder Azadi

The fireworks burst overhead, lighting up the night sky of Lothal in explosions of red, green, purple, yellow - any color you could think of, it was made available for the night's festivities.

In Capital City, the streets were jam packed with crowds and music and, of course, vendors looking to make a decent profit from the joyous citizens. Azadi, Governor of Lothal, was certain that some of those vendors would be selling their wares at exorbitant prices but he was willing to relax his scrutiny for tonight.

After all, the Empire had been defeated. The Emperor had seemingly perished, along with his top enforcer, the fearsome Darth Vader; both were onboard the second Death Star when the Rebel fleet had destroyed it over Endor.

He knew that the Empire was fracturing rapidly without its top leadership but that the war ahead would still stretch into the years to come. Rumors were already spreading that some of the more ambitious Admirals and Imperial Moffs were already lining up to take command.

No, Azadi knew better. The war was not over. Not until the Empire had been driven from every planet in the known galaxy and completely eradicated.

But, for now, he would enjoy the celebrations. Let the people have their moment to be joyful at what had been gained.

However, he would could not join them. All he could think of is what had been lost.

Into the late night, he found himself at the Wall of Heroes - and realized he was not the only one not partaking in the festivities.

Sabine Wren was there. Sitting on the edge of the platform, a small cup of caf in her hands, gazing out over the Capital City. She struck him as a lonely figure in that moment; her eyes, sharp as always, took in everything but saw nothing.

"Sabine," he called out.

She turned around and gave him a small smile. "Hey, Ryder."

"Mind if I join you?" he asked.

She patted the space next to her. "Be my guest."

Ryder walked over and sat down with a huff. Overhead, the night sky erupted into a flash of vermillion sparks, taking the shape of a krayt dragon. The crowd below cheered at the pyrotechnic display.

"Not bad," Sabine remarked. "You've been saving up the budget for this one, Ryder."

Ryder reached into his cloak and took out a flask. Unscrewing the top, he took a quick sip, savoring the alcohol's warmth as it slid down his throat. "Yup. I knew this day would come. Wanted to make sure we had something else to blow up other than Imperials."

Sabine grinned at his comment. "What brings you here?" she asked. "Shouldn't you be somewhere important, making a big speech?"

Ryder snorted. "Not tonight. There will be speeches later. Tonight . . . tonight, I just want to remember."

The young woman went quiet next to him. Another firework - this one composed of sapphire sparks and taking the shape of an X-Wing - burst into life.

Ryder glanced at Sabine and saw her looking down at the chronometer strapped to her wrist. It was an old, battered model. The numbers on it were frozen, stuck to a specific time and date.

His eyes widened in recognition at the time and date.

The Battle of Lothal. When Thrawn disappeared into the Unknown Regions, alongside Ezra Bridger, Sabine's closest friend.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "I know what you mean."

"Your chronometer," he observed. "Is that the one Ezra gave you for your birthday?"

She took a sip of her caf but he caught the pained look in her eyes. "Yes," she said tonelessly.

"It's broken," he pointed out.

"I know," she replied, shrugging.

"Do you need it fixed?" Azadi found it hard to believe that Sabine Wren, child prodigy, couldn't figure out how to fix a broken chronometer. He suspected there was another reason why it hadn't been repaired. "I know a specialist in the city."

"No," she responded flatly. "It can't be fixed."

Sabine stood up abruptly. Ryder looked at her, feeling worried. "Sabine, I - "

"Good night, Ryder," she said. She departed without another word.

He watched her go, a lonely figure in the night. After a time, he looked back to the celebration, watching another firework - this time a sunburst orange, resolving into the New Republic symbol - go off.

Ryder took another sip of his drink.

For some, he thought, the war wasn't over.

No. No, for those like Sabine - it was just beginning.

Hera Syndulla

Hera Syndulla, General of the New Republic, watched her son skip happily up the boarding ramp into the Ghost.

She wrapped him in a big hug, feeling the warmth of him -

And something else. Narrowing her eyes, she slipped a hand into his jacket and pulled out a tiny blaster.

"Hey!" Jacen Syndulla protested. "That's mine."

"Unbelievable," Hera groaned. "Sabine gave you a blaster?"

"No, of course not," Jacen replied smugly. "I borrowed it from her."

Hera crossed her arms and snorted. "More like she let you take it. I'm holding onto this, kiddo."

Jacen pouted. Hera, laughing at his expression, ruffled his hair fondly. "Alright, I'll think about it. Let's get you strapped in, okay?"

"Okay," he said, dashing to the cockpit. Once secured firmly into his co-pilot's chair, Hera eased the freighter out of the hangar bay and keyed in the coordinates for home.

"How was your time with Sabine? She show you anything cool?" Hera asked, as the ship jumped into lightspeed.

"Yeah! She showed me some of the lightsaber forms Ahsoka showed her. It was totally wizard. I even got to try on her jetpack."

Chopper whomped an incredulous response from beside him. "Well, no," Jacen retorted. "I obviously didn't get to actually turn it on. Aunt Sabine's not that crazy."

"Good," said Hera in relief, feeling her eye twitches begin to subside.

"Oh - but there was this one weird thing, though," said Jacen, his excitement fading. Hera looked at him, frowning at his sudden pensiveness.

"What is Jacen? Did something happen?"

Jacen scratched at the back of his head, thinking. "It's her chronometer. I noticed it was broken."

Hera felt her heart twist. Sabine's still wearing it. After all this time.

"Let me guess," she said. "You offered to fix it for her."

"Yeah," he said. "And she got . . . kind of mad at me. Snatched it from my hands."

Hera leaned back in her chair and sighed. "Yeah, that tracks for Sabine."

Jacen blinked at her, worried. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No," Hera replied firmly. "No, you didn't. The chronometer is important to Sabine. It's a gift from Ezra."

Jacen's eyes widened at the mention of Ezra's name. He loved hearing about Ezra Bridger, the Jedi who saved Lothal.

"Oh, wow. So it's really special, then."

You have no idea. I don't think Sabine knows either. "Yup," said Hera.

Jacen frowned. "So why doesn't she fix it then? If it's so important to her."

Hera grimaced. "That's . . . complicated, kiddo. I don't know where to start with explaining that."

Her son smiled serenely and said, "Why don't you start from the beginning?"

Chopper twittered in amusement. Hera chuckled at the joke before sobering. "Right, of course. Well . . . you remember how I told you about when your Dad died? How I felt afterwards?"

Jacen nodded. "Yeah. You felt like everything had stopped."

"That's right," Hera said, fighting back the surge of emotions. Kanan's death was long receded into the past but the edges of that wound still prickled whenever she thought of him still. "I felt like time had stopped for me."

Understanding dawned in her son's face. "Oh, I get it. Aunt Sabine feels the same way about Ezra."

"Yeah. It took a long time for me to get past your Dad's death. I struggled with it."

Jacen reached out and patted his mother's knee affectionately. "I think you did a good job, Mom. You're pretty strong."

She smiled warmly at him. "Thanks, kid. A lot of that strength came from having you come into my life. You've got the best of me and your Dad in you."

"I helped you get past Dad's death?" asked Jacen.

Hera shook her head. "Not exactly. I'll always miss your Dad, you know? It's just having you there made his passing easier to bear. You have a part of him in you."

He thought it over. "So what will help Aunt Sabine? What will let her fix the chronometer?"

Hera looked out from the Ghost's canopy and into the streaming star lines of hyperspace.

"Not a what, kiddo," she murmured. "But a who."

Ahsoka Tano

"Late again," chided Ahsoka Tano to her Padawan, Sabine Wren. "That's the third time this week." She was standing in a hangar bay within Lothal's Capital City, waiting to pick up Sabine for another round of field training.

Sabine, out of breath from sprinting to make it on time, huffed out an apology. "Lost track of time. Sorry."

"It's that blasted chronometer of hers," remarked Huyang. "It confounds me why she simply does not have it repaired or replaced."

Sabine gave the droid an annoyed look. "Can it, Huyang. No one asked for your opinion."

Ahsoka frowned. "Your chronometer is broken?"

She watched her Padawan reach over and tug a sleeve over the old time piece in a reflexive motion. "Yes," Sabine replied. "I haven't had the time to repair it."

"Haven't had the time to repair it? Or you just don't want to?" asked Ahsoka pointedly.

Sabine glared at her and brushed past into the open hatch of the T-6 shuttle. "What does it matter?" she asked, walking inside.

Ahsoka sighed and walked after her. "It matters a great deal. Something trivial like this shouldn't be an issue for a Jedi."

Her words struck a nerve. Sabine stopped in the cabin and whirled around.

"It's not trivial," she snarled. "Not to me."

Ahsoka folded her arms. "This is about Ezra again. Isn't it."

Her Padawan flushed, but Ahsoka's comment had headed off the anger rising within Sabine; she could sense it deflating rapidly like a punctured balloon.

"I do believe that is a yes, Lady Tano," observed Huyang dryly.

"Huyang," Ahsoka interjected before Sabine could fire back, "Please prepare the shuttle for take-off. I'll join you in the cockpit shortly."

"As you wish," replied the droid. Sabine glared at him as he went.

Ahsoka gestured at the central area inside the shuttle, complete with circular benches wrapped around a table used for dining and communication. "Have a seat, Sabine."

Sabine huffed out an aggravated breath and did so. Ahsoka followed and sat next to her.

"May I see the chronometer?" she asked. Sabine grimaced and rolled up her sleeve.

It was an older model, from a line famous for its longevity and durability. Ahsoka recognized the time and date that it was stuck on.

"It's a good piece," commented Ahsoka. "Reliable."

"Yeah," replied Sabine quietly. "Until it wasn't."

"Why haven't you fixed it yet, Sabine?" asked Ahsoka.

Sabine looked away and muttered, "It doesn't feel right to fix it. I can't explain it, okay? It just . . . it just doesn't feel right. At least for now."

Ahsoka sighed. "As a Jedi, your mind needs to be clear in order to make the right decision. You can't have this kind of emotional baggage clogging up your thoughts."

"Well, I'm not a Jedi yet," Sabine countered. "And Ezra isn't emotional baggage to me."

"Continuing to hold onto him will slow your progress, hinder your ability to fully grasp your potential. Ezra wouldn't want that for you. He would want you to move on," Ahsoka urged.

"Move on?" Sabine asked sharply.

Ahsoka grimaced but plowed on, determined. "Move on with your life," she said.

Sabine stared at Ahsoka. "Ezra is my life," she said quietly. "There will be no moving on. Not without him. Are we clear?"

Ahsoka opened her mouth to respond but Sabine was already standing up to head to her room.

She watched her Padawan tug the sleeve down over the chronometer with it's frozen time as she entered; the door slid shut and she was alone in the cabin.

Ahsoka hung her head and let out a frustrated breath. Sabine, as always, wouldn't listen to her.

There was only one person who could fix the chronometer for her; only one who could make time move again for her.

And he was long gone.

Sabine Wren & Ezra Bridger

Stretching with a loud yawn, Sabine walked out of the Noti hut she had been sleeping in to find Ezra sitting on a rock, hunched over a crate. On top of the crate were some of her equipment; he had some tools out and was looking over one of her blasters.

Smiling, she walked over to him. "That's my job," she called out to him.

Ezra looked up from his work and grinned at her. "Shouldn't have been sleeping on the job, then. Huh."

Sabine sat down next to him. "We ready to move out?" she asked.

Ezra nodded. "Just finished about thirty minutes ago. Hope you don't mind, but I was tuning up your gear while you slept."

"I appreciate that," said Sabine. "Anything broken?"

"Not really. You've been keeping them in good shape, I see."

Sabine arched an eyebrow at him. "I'm a Mandalorian, Ezra. Of course I keep my weapons in top condition."

He laughed. Sabine felt her heart do a little flip at the sound and, for not the first - or last - time that day, she realized that Ezra was actually here. He was alive. He was safe.

He was real.

"Right, right. Of course. But - ", and with a comedic wiggle of his eyebrows, he produced her chronometer. "I did notice that this was broken."

Sabine felt her stomach drop. "Oh," she replied casually - or at least she hoped it sounded casual. "Yeah. I forgot about that."

He put on a face of mock outrage. "You forgot about my birthday present to you? What else did you forget about me, I wonder?"

"Nothing!" Sabine said quickly. "I would never forget, I just - "

Something in her face must have given away her feelings because Ezra held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Whoa, easy there. I was just joking, Sabine."

Flushed with embarrassment, Sabine looked away. "I would never forget anything about you, Ezra Bridger."

He didn't say anything for a long moment. Then, quietly: "I noticed the time it was frozen on."

"Yeah," said Sabine. She turned to look at him but didn't elaborate further.

He reached out and held her hand. "Hera told me once that life only moves forward."

Ezra slipped the chronometer onto her wrist gently. Sabine saw that it was repaired, the time no longer stuck.

She blinked rapidly at a sudden onset of tears. Ezra just smiled at her, still holding her hand affectionately.

"Easier said than done, huh," he said. His smile turned sad; his piercing blue eyes were watery with their own unshed tears.

Sabine squeezed his hand. "Yeah, it is."

For a long few seconds, they just sat there, gazing at each other. Seeing each other.

The moment was interrupted by a Noti, speaking to Ezra in its native tongue. He replied back in the affirmative.

"Time to go?" she asked.

He nodded. "Time to go. They're ready." He stood up and brushed at his legs. Sabine did the same, discreetly wiping at her face.

She glanced down at her newly repaired chronometer; the time was moving stubbornly forward now.

Not stuck anymore, she thought.

"Hey, looks like I fixed it pretty good," said Ezra.

Sabine looked up at her friend. "Yeah," she said softly. "Looks like you did."

Inspired by this poem:

[probablyasocialecologist]

In a fiery speech yesterday announcing that SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, would be going on strike, national president Fran Drescher put the blame squarely on the studios. “We are being victimized by a very greedy entity. I am shocked by the way the people we have been in business with are treating us,” she said. “How they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right while giving millions to CEOs. It’s disgusting, shame on them.” But Drescher also specifically pointed to how technology was being used against actors and other workers in the industry. “The entire business model has been changed by streaming, digital, AI,” she told reporters. In a later interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she expanded on those points. “Human beings in all different walks of life are being replaced by robots. And what happens here, the eyes of the world and certainly labor in this country is looking at. It’s really important that we put barricades around artificial intelligence, because it’s going to put people out of work.” “The digital age is cannibalizing us,” Drescher declared.

[...]

The digital transition hasn’t been primarily about efficiency or cost-savings in Hollywood, but about further shifting power from labor to corporate executives. The strike by actors and writers isn’t just about getting a little bit more from profitable entertainment and streaming companies, but to fight back against the ongoing effort to turn their professions into yet another gig economy where few workers have any stability and the corporate overlords have all the leverage. Solidarity with actors and writers! Their victory is essential not just to protect workers in their industry, but also to halt a further degradation in the quality of film and television by multinational companies that only care about the bottom line.

[yan-lorkai]

What if there is no therapist and therapy in the twisted wonderland and Yuu becomes the first therapist of the wonderland. The next generation will remember and know them as the father/mother of therapy. (and the magicalless person from another world who also is a friend of a lot of really famous people)

So I imagine Yuu creating the first psychological branch to exist in Twist lol. Many psychology studies were previously considered pseudo-sciences until they started doing research and tests, later becoming proven and used. In fact, I did a year and a half of psychology but I didn't feel like that area was for me, so I changed my major.

I imagine Yuu could use a specific branch like, for example, behaviorism/gestalt/psychoanalysis. Or, mix them all into one, trying and trying to see what works. Because they have no powers, only prior knowledge of their world, then helping others and founding a school of psychology would be both beneficial and profitable for them in the long run

Yoo their famous friends could also be their patrons 🤔🤔

I can totally see Vil funding their school because, as a model and a very loved one, he is very prone to overwork himself and he is a perfeccionist at that. So yeah, he know the importance of a healthy mind

Leona as well. Maybe with enough therapy, he'll finally realize how bad and unfair his life was and how depressed he truly is. My poor little meow meow ;^;

Kalim, Cater and Malleus too. And Trey could talk about Yuu to his customers, speciakly the ones he realize that are feeling a little down or are unsure about their vocation

Overall, I feel that Yuu's psychology would skyrock after they graduate. For sure, they'll be loved for their benevolent heart and how they created something that help so many people

[oneknightstand-if]

Hi! I've been going through the current demo, and I've always picked the changeling option simply because all the other backstories tended to squick me out. I saw people talking about the knife scene though, which looked funny, so decided to do a short playthrough of the serial killer backstory. I was a little confused when I actually read through it, as our murders are specifically defined as being for revenge and don't necessarily fall under the typical idea of what's considered a serial killer (which usually involves more ambiguous motives such as sexual predation or thrill seeking). I ended up looking this up, but the internet could not give me a proper answer lmao. The best definition I could find for this would be multiple accounts of revenge homicide. The definition you use in the IF is correct based on the US Law and legal definition I could find. But all the additional info I could find only discussed typical serial killer cases with the murdered victims not being known to the killer. I wanted to ask if this is why you ended up defining the background this way and what you might have come up with during your own research regarding this! (This entire thing has actually started to drive me crazy, I didn't realize the black hole of definitions of murder would come back to haunt me. Why don't we have a word for multiple counts of revenge murder?!? I would consider this to fall under a kind of vigilantism but I couldn't find the word that corresponded to this type of murder.)

Yeah, the Changeling MC is definitely the most "did no wrong" (at least as far as the secret is concerned) version of the MC's background.

So... the game is using the term serial killer (instead of the more technically correct "serial murderer") since that is probably by far the most well known term by the reader that applies to that particular MC. It also nicely telegraphs the tone of the murders - stalking over an extended amount of time in varying locations.

What you mentioned about sexual predation and such is called "classic" serial murder by criminologists, but that isn't the only type nor are there any actual intent/motive mentioned in its working definition. The "thrill-seeking" type also tends to converge with "spree killings" and there are other motives as well such as profit (capital murder) and revenge (revenge homicide).

If there's some more esoteric legal jargon (or some convoluted criminology-based model) that refers to a crime that is both serial murder and revenge homicide, I didn't find.

I didn't dig too much deeper because that's not a term that the MC would probably even be using since none of them are lawyers. The closest would be the detective MC (who is neither a criminologist nor assigned to homicide division) and they'd be using the National Institute of Justice's definition which is what is referenced in the game. (You'll get a bit more on that from the detective MC once the serial killer subplot goes into high gear later on).

I mostly go by the official documentation of the FBI (since serial killer MC's crimes are interstate, they're the ones who'd be coming after them) which is also readily available.

And the FBI's quote here is...

"Over the past twenty years, law enforcement and experts from a number of varying disciplines have attempted to identify specific motivations for serial murderers and to apply those motivations to different typologies developed for classifying serial murderers. "Most typologies are too cumbersome to be utilized by law enforcement during an active serial murder investigation, and they may not be helpful in identifying an offender."

[imabiscuitinthousandworlds]

hey can u tell me abt ball point pen history

OH BOY DO I EVER!!!

The first patent for ballpoint pens was granted in 1888. Specifically on the 30th of October, to one John J Loud. It was supposed to be able to write on coarser surfaces that a fountain pen could not.

However, this very first version of a ballpoint pen sucked balls. It was not a design that could not write on paper. At all. Also, the ink tended to either leak (in summer) or freeze (in winter) Mind, I only have one specific source on this model right now but. There's a reason they were yet to be used for a long time. Over the next couple decades, a few people tried to chime in with suggestions for improvement but Loud kept a tight wrap on those patents.

No profit was made from Loud's original version of a ballpoint pen. But, you know, technically it still existed.

Now, early 20th century. Enter László Biró, a newspaper editor who was frustrated about all the smudging ink from fountain pens and his dentist brother-with-chemical-knowledge György. Biró (already seeing the resemblance to some slang here) watched newspapers being printed and dry very, very quickly and went "actually, You Know What".

What they figured out was that to use ink that dries fast in a pen, you need a pen that prevents the ink from drying fast inside of said pen. Therefore, they spent Quite A While figuring out a mechanism to allow inkflow while preventing it from drying and clogging up inside. 1938, they filed for a British patent.

1941, the Biró brothers left Hungary due to its support of Hitler (based) and eventually settled in Argentina, where they founded/developed a new brand of ballpoint pens with their friend Juan Jorge Meyne and filed a new, better patent in 1943.

Now this is where things get messy and my sources differ sliiightly but considerably enough to be confusing.

One the one hand, you have two companies, Eversharp Co and Eberhard Faber Co teaming up to license this Birome pen in the USA.

Around the same time, a bit later, some American fuckhead, also known as Milton Reynolds gets a hold of a Biró pen and gets a whiff of sales money immediately. He goes back to the US and starts his own company. This is Absolutely Not A Copyright Infringement since he's selling an altered copy only loosely based on those Birome pens. Definitely. Absolutely.

I mean, to be fair, it was in fact different enough to count as its own brand. And it skipped and leaked and did not live up to user expectations. But neither did Eversharp/Faber's pens, and both companies were constantly caught up in their beef that both companies went down like a lead balloon.

Eventually, Parker Pens got out the first proper design that, you know, actually worked as intended (and was, I think, actually licensed to Birome pens), and a little later Bich, then shortened to Bic, made a design that actually offered quite some precision. This was around the 1940s/1950s when ballpoint pens now finally, actually, permanently came in use (Bic around the 60s I believe) and I love them.

Keep in mind, though, I only used three sources, one of those Wikipedia, and picked through slight contradictions to figure out what makes sense and is the most likely, so take this with a grain of salt.

For the initial purposes of my research, however, this was more than sufficient. (I needed to know if I could have a character in the 30s click a pen. Since they were still pretty much not in use back then, she got to twirl a pencil instead. It was one tiny sentence.)

Thank you for asking! It's my favourite piece of niche knowledge to whip out at random and the only one I can support with dates and names, though I did have to read up on my bookmarked pages. I am waiting for the day when I finally play powerpoint karaoke and get the topic of ballpoint pens. Please let this happen, it would be so funny. Uno uno (<- prayer of my friend group).

[do-you-have-a-flag]

(genuine question) Would you mind explaining what the problem is with selling human bones? I'd never really thought about it before your fact check on that airbnb disinfo post started circulating and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I could see it being a matter of respect or consent in general, commodifying bodies of POC specifically, but I don't know anything about the industry, where these bones come from, or what the major ethical issues are. I don't really understand what's different there vs. what I consider generally accepted disturbance of human remains like in archaeology.

Oh sure, keep in mind that I am not an expert! and I'm talking about a western capitalist context for the treatment of human remains and therefore don't have any say in (for example) cultures where the treatment of the dead is different, i have not education or right to comment on that.

to repost what i later replied to the post with:

actually i'm not done, the following are about a different bone seller from the last couple years but it goes over the ethical issues around sourcing human remains

the short version is: historically and in the modern day much of the human bone trade comes from exploitation of slaves and people in lower castes and so on to the point where even if it is a retired medical model or something inherited it is most likely to be remains acquired without consent of the deceased or their families. Repatriation where possible is the most ethical solution. We do not live in the ideal world where every human skull on the market is like that guy who donated his body to science and became yorick in Hamlet for the royal shakespeare comany. acknowledging the long history of grave robbing, racism, and exploitation in the medical industry and coming to grips with the same disregard of autonomy in death and disrespect in the modern bone trade is all i'm trying to draw attention to.

use artificial replicas in your decor! or try to find animal remains that are sold from roadkill and other natural causes! you can be macabre without [gestures vaguely at the above]

so in a context of people selling human remains to use as decor for profit, that in itself would be less of a morally weird thing to do if the deceased had in any way intended that for their remains (theoretically i'm sure some people would find the concept very cool) but that's just not the reality of these remains. It is very difficult to legally chose how you wish your body to be handled after death if it diverges from the norm, I would point to ask a mortician's video about human composting to show how recent (december 2022) something like that was legalised.

The reality is it is not a market with ethical procurement, the closest it gets is being a primarily second hand market. But the sourcing issue still remains

and the topic of when something goes from archaeology to tampering with the dead is a controversial one but if you want my opinion on that then i would point precedents like the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or to this news story

To be clear, i am not anti archaeology or against a celebratory fascination with the morbid. I am very much for demystifying the process of death. But i think that there is too much pain and exploitation and dehumanisation and objectification and commodification of people throughout history and into the modern day. We do not have the ideal reality of all human remains in circulation being willing donations. I am personally for an active process of removing remains from a commercial market, identifying their origins, and repatriation and burial where possible.

obviously exploitation will always happen, legally or not, but while i may personally feel like personhood ceases post mortem i also believe in the autonomy of the living over their own remains (whatever that might mean) and that people don't deserve to see their ancestors and kin commodified in death.

and remember that legally and widely accepted things are not always ethical.

[acody]

Surveillance In Internet Business Models

A new trend in the internet is offering free services, most of the time all you need is an account. These services they offer cost money to run. From the servers, to employees, to security on your products. So the big question is how do companies make money off of these? The answer is surveillance and gathering data of their customers. Not known to many, your data is often sold and used for targeted marketing. In "The Internet's Original Sin" Ethan says that internet businesses have resulted to this business model and I couldn't agree more. Every time you sign up for an account you usually put in your name, phone number, and even home address when ordering products. This information isn't forgotten and often stored by the business for later use. This can be effective in marketing specific interests of that person or being sold to a company that has products that will better fit the individual. Especially with the internet, everything leaves a trace and business have found a way to turn free information into a profitable business model. I think it is important for everyone to watch what information they will freely put out on the internet. Once it is on there, there is no getting rid of it. Don't put important information into non-trusted sites and always double check you are clicking a safe link.

Sources: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/08/advertising-is-the-internets-original-sin/376041/

https://vimeo.com/102717446

[madseance]

You know... it used to annoy me, too, when people would find the bit in a website's TOS granting them basically free rein to display and store your content blah blah blah, and freak out about it. Because yeah, that's apparently the standard language they all use to mean "you're giving us the right to display what you post".

But now, with all the A.I. shit going on, the mass scraping of visual art and writing to train models for A.I. applications without permission, credit, or compensation? The way it's justified as “well, if you post stuff online, it's fair game” and “you gave up your right to control your work when you posted it publicly”? Absolutely fuck that being the “standard” language.

I don't care what you, personally, think of the legality of it. We demonstrably have created a culture in which artwork is treated as free fodder for anyone else to exploit and profit from. And anything that continues to encourage this idea of “blanket permission to do whatever we want with your posted work” needs changed. Websites can be fucking specific about what exactly I'm giving them the right to do, instead of couching it in vague legal jargon that can be creatively re-interpreted later. And we should demand that of them.

[sylwanin-was-right]

I know people say the humans of the RDA seem too cartoonishly evil (Quaritch's "shoot that animal over there" line gives this some merit, for example 💀), but if you know like 4 things the American government and CIA has done and kept secret from the public (then fully admitted to later), and how ruthless and exploitive capitalist oligarchs can be against the environment and people, the RDA's evils arent really that far off from reality.

Billionaires and corperations hoard wealth from the masses and are proven to exploit class power dynamics to create monopolies, exploit the poor, kill and suppress worker resistance, and fund massive psy-ops in support of their companies. Capitalism and neo-liberalism erode the morals of those who hoard and perpetually seek out capital because it takes a lack of morality to protect the needs of capital, which is why a dollar is worth more than clean water, air, and even human beings.

Companies fund hits on activists and use police power to violently suppress protests and protect assets to increase profits. CEOs of massive companies and their shareholders openly admit to knowing the environmental destruction of things like plastic and oil, yet open, saturate, and dominate markets to churn out products made from such things (including combustion engine cars and everything plastic) and expand slavery dependent business models to cut costs on production and maximize profits. Monolpolies shape whole economies and structure them to perpetuate production of destuctive, non-renewable products globally.

These neoliberal and capitalist operations of the real world are represented by the RDA's monopoly on unobitanium, a resource Earth relies upon entirely for energy because of market monopolies against alternatives. Its also shown by Earth itself becoming uninhabitable and polluted by consumerism, war, and resource disallocation, and the RDA's exploitaton of benevolent sciences, like xenoanthropology and xenobiology, to open markets for lucrative resources and help preserve the human resources against the Na'vi in diplomatic relations (Grace Augustines school, RDA biologists and lìnguists, etc). Cameron included The Cove inspired scenes of whale hunting and black market trade in AWOW as a specific example of the venture capitalist cruelty and morbidity of whaling, dolphin hunting, and other ocean industries known to cause ecological decay and destruction, which went along his theme of climate change and protecting the oceans.

As for governments, I saw one comment in the Avatar Discord asking how masses of people can be mislead about the violence and failures of such a massively expensive, resource expending project like Pandoran colonization since the visual dictionary revealed that the RDA has been endorsed/funded by several national governments, and all I could think was the blood soaked foerign policy of the U$ federal government and its CIA adjacent NGOs for the past 100 years in the global south, and the CIA's/FBI's ubiquitous and violently successful counter-revolutionary campaigns, psy-ops, and class war operations on domestic soil (like COINTELPRO, "war on drugs", & white supremacist, anti-communist propaganda).

I think its a shame Cameron's "humans vs Na'vi" oversimplified writing overshadows the very accurate portrayal of how reprehensible and morally depraved capitalists/neoliberal governments, companies, and militaries are. Its understandable that a human audience would sympathize with human colonizers trying to seek out ways to keep human life on Earth on life support. And its also understandable for humans to put their species first, since I dont think its necessarily anthropocentric to do so. But Cameron is very explicit in the films about who and what is the enemy and I dont think he means to portray non-humans as "good" and humans as "bad" and indefinitely corrupted.

Although his knowledge and commentary on colonialism, capitalism and imperialosm are very rudimentary (what can you really expect from a rich old white amerikan man lmao), Avatar opens up important conversations about such themes and challenges the audience to ultimately source the root problems on exploitive and destructive systems and ideologies, while supporting actions that would hold those who perpetuate such systems accountabile for their roles in violence and greed. The story isnt about misanthropy but about human accountability, alternatives, and rehabilitation.

Avatar isnt the only story or franchise to expose and criticize the ideologies that led the humans to unsustainable economies, mass destruction, and suppression of alternatives on Earth, and intergalactic search to keep the broken same system going. There are fare earlier and better fictional and non-fictional works exploring these pressing issues told by colonized and Indigenous people that Avatar fans should definitely seek out. Avatar is a palatable yet accessible fictional introduction on conversations many are in the dark about concerning the evils of capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism and the "cartoonishly evil" agents that perpetuate and protect it irl.

[incarnateirony]

Ok, I know this is showing my ignorance, but how does Nexstar get digital profit? I understand same day views and 3+/7+. Is digital just any views on the CW app following the 7 days? If so, how do they get profit, is it still from advertisers? Do they show their digital results, or is that just for their private use? Are you saying that HBO Max's international numbers for TW indicate what the CW app is getting in the US? Why do you think TW ep8 came back at only 363K vs the almost 550K it was doing? Thought ep. 8 was the best so far. imo. Sorry to bug you, but i really want to understand. Also, the fact that they are double airing TW is something I haven't seen before?

The basic thing is that the app still is owned by nexstar. By the way I'm using voice to text so forgive any weird typos that happened. But that said, for a few years now even before they took over the CW has bundled their live ad packages with their digital ad packages. Basically and they sell the space of the show together as a bundle. When you are buying live ad space for the winchester's, you are also buying digital ad space on the Winchester's which is then targeted closer to the specific demographics or regions you are looking to hit with your package.

Digital still uses 18 to 49 in that sense. Or in any service that still uses classic advertising rather than subscription models. The HBO Max numbers are OUSA. The digital views of American viewership is at large flowing through the CW app and that bundled advertisement space.

The reason we are getting a double viewing which you are correct is not normal, is because we are basically being set up as the future franchise both for WB and for nexStars CW. Because again I need you to look at those numbers from HBO and understand that the US market is actually the highest audience, and that is where the network is actually pulling its profit from hand over fist. The reruns still pull close to what other shows like Walker were averaging most of the season with new content. And it raised the 9:00 p.m. slot by 50% for the live. Meaning they are raising the value of Tuesday over all while setting a strong branding image for the future and ensuring attention is hit to capitalize on cycling viewership between themselves and HBO. This is part of the plan nexstar has to become a profitable Network in the next couple years

If you go back into my blog since the dawn of time long before anybody tried to hop on the trend bus to talk about ratings, you will see that every year there tends to be declined in the later half of a season. There are limits to this and things that can influence this such as heavy targeted marketing but at the end of the day it doesn't matter. They also knew that the legacy characters would be on the back end of the season and start amping up viewership that way as well. It's all a really well coordinated launch that benefits both Warner Brothers and nexstar

[pikidotexe-ask]

Friendly reminder that this series is not yet rated. This may change with time! No, this is not shit posting, it is basically an alternate universe fan fiction, however there will be bloopers.

This blog provides upload notifications and behind the scenes lore and headcannons. MMD Credits ALL posts: ~https://www.deviantart.com/search/deviations?q=edit+jjinomu+model ~https://www.deviantart.com/venussempai/gallery/44479842/mikumikudance *Nothing MMD inherently belongs to me. On this blog and my channel I edited some TDA models for non-profit personal use for the specific reason of making this series, please contact me if you have questions or require a donation for this reason. I do not make models from scratch, further credits are in the links, as well as the author's other downloadable works. I also have ZERO intention of sharing my MMD edits nor do I ever intend to use them for R18 situations. Please understand I do not have a deep understanding of the history of MMD, I am blindly experimenting, so I would appreciate if you go easy on me about how things are done and how I can help you. Thank you. Disclaimers for ALL posts: I am primarily a writer and talkloid tuner and focus on nostalgia. I legally own copies of my voice banks, V4 Editor, SynthV Pro, the tuning work, the raw bass and electric violin sounds, the story writing itself, its Japanese, English, and later Italian translations. I position and edit other people's MMD models to help portray some events and use stock images and any other sounds from Pixabay simply because I do not draw or do my own voice work anymore thanks to A.I.. I create my videos with CaptCut for free and use a legal copy of RPG Maker VX Ace for the subtitles. Most of this is freeware and creativity. That said, if there is something I have done that unintentionally offends you through my work, tell me directly and I will be civil and take things down as necessary. Anyone can collect these things and do what I am doing, please do not be afraid to start yourselves, this is done for fun and purely therapeutic purposes outside of my full time job. A Patreon for my .vsqx and .svp files and other completely original works will be started soon if you wish to support me personally. Some of the song lyrics or files may contain R18 content or explicit themes, therefore I do not accept subscribers under the age of 18. This will apply to some episodes on my channel, I will set an age limit to certain episodes depending on the subject matter. If I am under any suspicion that you will blatantly mock or disrespect me or share explicit materials to minors then I will not sell to you. That said, I do understand 1,000% enforcement is unreasonable, people will undoubtedly pirate tuning files anyway, so my works that I own will have a high paywall and require credit upon use. Once it's out there, it's out there, the internet will outlive me and I honestly just care for respect while I'm still breathing. Nothing is copyrighted as of yet but that may happen in the future. Please note that I take suggestions into consideration but I have no interest to collaborate.

Contact me here on Tumblr, or via my email which can be found on my About page on my YouTube channel. I no longer accept Discord friend requests for the sake of my mental health and terminal health condition. I was and still am incessantly harassed by people so they could try to steal my content and then "cancel" me when I asked to be left alone. It's been almost 3 years and I am over it. Do not send anybody hate. Do not start drama. If you do not like anything, then you have every right to leave. In the meantime, keep calm and ship Piko x Miki.

ASK BOX OPEN!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

𝑪̲̅𝒉̲̅𝒂̲̅𝒓̲̅𝒂̲̅𝒄̲̅𝒕̲̅𝒆̲̅𝒓̲̅ 𝑳̲̅𝒐̲̅𝒓̲̅𝒆̲̅

*Main Characters*

🎙️フカセ [​Fᴜᴋᴀsᴇ]

🤡Mɪᴋɪ's ʀᴇʙᴇʟʟɪᴏᴜs ᴀᴅᴏᴘᴛᴇᴅ sᴏɴ

•Pʟᴀʏs ɢᴜɪᴛᴀʀ﹠ʙᴀss

•Hᴀᴛᴇs ᴏᴡɴɪɴɢ ᴛᴏᴏ ᴍᴀɴʏ ɪᴛᴇᴍs, ᴘᴜᴛs ᴏᴛʜᴇʀs ꜰɪʀsᴛ

•ジョーカーデレ "ᴊᴏᴋᴇʀ⁻ᴅᴇʀᴇ"：Cʜᴀᴏᴛɪᴄ ᴇxᴛᴇʀɪᴏʀ, ᴄᴀʟᴄᴜʟᴀᴛɪɴɢ ʏᴇᴛ ɢᴇɴᴛʟᴇ ɪɴᴛᴇʀɪᴏʀ

•Age: 21

💬 Jᴀᴘᴀɴᴇsᴇ ɴᴀᴛɪᴠᴇ, Eɴɢʟɪsʜ ꜰʟᴜᴇɴᴛ

🎙️フラワ（花）[V⁻Fʟᴏᴡᴇʀ​]

🎻Vɪᴏʟɪɴɪsᴛ ﹠ᴍᴇᴛᴀʟ ᴠᴏᴄᴀʟɪsᴛ

•Mɪᴋɪ's ʙᴀss student﹠Fᴜᴋᴀsᴇ's ᴄʟᴀssᴍᴀᴛᴇ

•Vᴇʀʏ ᴍɪsᴜɴᴅᴇʀsᴛᴏᴏᴅ﹔ sʜᴇ ɪs ɪɴʜᴇʀᴇɴᴛʟʏ ᴘᴀssɪᴏɴᴀᴛᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ɴᴀᴍᴇs ʜᴇʀ ᴘʟᴀɴᴛs ᴀꜰᴛᴇʀ ʜᴇʀ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅs

•クーデレ "ᴋᴜᴜᴅᴇʀᴇ"：ᴄᴏᴏʟ ᴇxᴛᴇʀɪᴏʀ, ɢᴇɴᴛʟᴇ ɪɴᴛᴇʀɪᴏʀ

•Age: 20

💬 ​Jᴀᴘᴀɴᴇsᴇ ɴᴀᴛɪᴠᴇ, ʟᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ Eɴɢʟɪsʜ

🎙️(𝚂𝙵-𝙰𝟸開発コード) ミキ [​Mɪᴋɪ​]

🍒​Cʏʙᴏʀɢ ʙᴀssɪsᴛ

•Sᴘᴀᴄᴇsʜɪᴘ ᴘɪʟᴏᴛ, ᴇʟɪᴛᴇ ᴄʟᴀss ᴅʀɪᴠᴇʀ, sᴄɪ⁻ꜰɪ ᴘɪɴ⁻ᴜᴘ ᴍᴏᴅᴇʟ

•Sᴛᴀɢᴇ ꜰʀɪɢʜᴛ ᴀꜰꜰᴇᴄᴛs ʜᴇʀ ᴘɪᴛᴄʜ ᴀᴛ ꜰɪʀsᴛ, ᴀ ʀᴏᴍᴀɴᴛɪᴄ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴀ sᴛʀᴏɴɢ ᴍᴀᴛᴇʀɴᴀʟ ɪɴsᴛɪɴᴄᴛ

•Lᴏᴠᴇs ᴄʜᴇʀʀɪᴇs, ᴀʟᴘᴀᴄᴀs, ᴜᴘʟɪꜰᴛɪɴɢ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀs

•Age: 23

💬 ​Jᴀᴘᴀɴᴇsᴇ ɴᴀᴛɪᴠᴇ, ᴘᴏᴏʀ Eɴɢʟɪsʜ

🎙️(𝙺𝚂𝚁𝚆-𝟷開発コード) 歌手音ピコ [Uᴛᴀᴛᴀɴᴇ Pɪᴋᴏ​]

🍛​Cʏʙᴏʀɢ ɢᴜɪᴛᴀʀɪsᴛ

•Sᴘᴀᴄᴇsʜɪᴘ Nᴀᴠɪɢᴀᴛᴏʀ, CʏʙᴇʀSᴇᴄᴜʀɪᴛʏ Gᴜᴀʀᴅ, ᴄᴏᴅɪɴɢ ᴘʀᴏꜰᴇssᴏʀ

•Hᴀs ᴀ ᴅᴜᴀʟ ᴠᴏᴄᴀʟ ʀᴀɴɢᴇ, sᴏᴍᴇᴛɪᴍᴇs sɪɴɢs ᴍᴇᴛᴀʟ

•Cʜᴇᴇᴋʏ sᴇɴsᴇ ᴏꜰ ʜᴜᴍᴏᴜʀ, Oꜰᴛᴇɴ sʟᴇᴇᴘʏ, ꜰᴏᴏᴅ, sᴇxʏ ᴡᴏᴍᴇɴ, ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏɢs ᴀʀᴇ ʜɪs ᴡᴇᴀᴋɴᴇssᴇs

•Age: 24

💬Jᴀᴘᴀɴᴇsᴇ ɴᴀᴛɪᴠᴇ, ᴠᴇʀʏ ɢᴏᴏᴅ Eɴɢʟɪsʜ

🎙️オリバー [Oʟɪᴠᴇʀ​]

🐤Pɪᴋᴏ's ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ᴀᴅᴏᴘᴛᴇᴅ sᴏɴ

•Pᴇᴀᴄᴇꜰᴜʟ ᴜɴʟᴇss ᴀɴɢᴇʀᴇᴅ, ʜᴀᴛᴇs ᴡᴇᴀʀɪɴɢ sʜᴏᴇs, ʟᴏᴠᴇs ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴄᴏᴅᴅʟᴇᴅ

•Hᴀs ᴀ ʏᴇʟʟᴏᴡ ʙɪʀᴅ ɴᴀᴍᴇᴅ Jᴀᴍᴇs

•​Sʟɪɢʜᴛʟʏ ᴄʟᴜᴍsʏ, ᴅᴏᴇs ʜɪs ʙᴇsᴛ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ʙᴇʜᴀᴠᴇ

•Age: 13

💬 Eɴɢʟɪsʜ ɴᴀᴛɪᴠᴇ, ᴘᴏᴏʀ Jᴀᴘᴀɴᴇsᴇ

Note: ﹡Vᴏᴄᴀʟᴏɪᴅs ᴀʀᴇ ᴀᴅᴠᴀɴᴄᴇᴅ ᴀɴᴅʀᴏɪᴅs ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ sᴏᴜʟs ᴡʜᴏ ʟɪᴠᴇ ɪɴᴅᴇꜰɪɴɪᴛᴇʟʏ.

﹡Cʏʙᴏʀɢs ᴀʀᴇ ʜᴜᴍᴀɴs ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴄᴏɴsᴇɴᴛᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ɪɴsᴛᴀʟʟ ᴠᴀʀɪᴏᴜs ᴀᴅᴠᴀɴᴄᴇᴅ ᴛᴇᴄʜɴᴏʟᴏɢɪᴄᴀʟ ᴜᴘɢʀᴀᴅᴇs ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ʙᴏᴅɪᴇs. Tʜɪs ɪɴᴄʟᴜᴅᴇs ᴀɴ ᴇxᴛᴇɴᴅᴇᴅ ʟɪꜰᴇsᴘᴀɴ, ᴛʜᴇʀᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ ᴀʀᴇ ᴀʟᴍᴏsᴛ ɪᴅᴇɴᴛɪᴄᴀʟ ᴛᴏ ᴀɴᴅʀᴏɪᴅs.

>Japanese post will be made upon request.

Happy tuning!

[canmom]

Hi! Question about the Baru Cormorant series for you! Any chance you could expand on Barhu finally discovering that the blood of Empire of gold? (Or do you do that in your analysis series? Maybe I missed it) It doesn't seem like a realization many other 'dystopic'-ish works address.

hiii! always glad to talk Baru, but I admit I'm a little confused about the question. guessing like, the blood of Empire is gold? implicit in the metaphor of bleeding Falcrest by siphoning its circulating wealth out through Baru's trading concern? but I think it's pretty likely I misunderstood you!

anyway I talked about Baru's grand plan in Butchering an Empire - that's where I went and learned about the history of John Law in France, which was a bold new financial scheme that collapsed on itself when it turned out that colonising Louisiana wasn't as immediately profitable as expected, and the British 'South Sea Bubble', which was an elaborate insider trading scam around slave trading. what I said there was that while those were both financial disasters for their host empires, and may have checked their ambitions to expand and even laid some seeds that affected the later French revolution, they clearly weren't fatal. when the financial system broke, the governments tore it up and made a new one, because the collective fiction of money was no longer serving their interests. call it a blood transfusion if you want.

but Baru aspires to more than that - not merely to pop a speculative bubble but to usurp the actual flow of goods so the Oriati Mbo can cut Falcrest out of the equation by force. in that case the analogy is like uhh... you're a vampire and you drain someone's blood before having a boxing match with them?? anyway would that work? maybe! then I go into a long aside about denazification and its limits as an analogy for what might happen afterwards, because destroying a financial system and political structure doesn't put an end to ideologies and social relations and such.

so I'm not sure how far that answers what you were asking about. i can take some guesses like circulatory system : body :: economy : empire. we could be more specific e.g. money is the universal equivalent which allows the capitalist optimisation process to quickly redirect its efforts, at least in theory. is the circulatory system analogous? it circulates oxygen and glucose, which we could liken to fungible raw materials like yards of linen (;p), and ig you could say like, when part of the body demands oxygen and glucose (a muscle in the leg when you're running), blood flow increases to match, so that's kind of a similar function: directing resources to where they are in demand. and by this analogy disrupting a financial system is like... an artery getting clogged, resulting in getting tired more easily. i can see it being a productive analogy as they go.

i actually don't know how the body directs blood flow too much. i assume something unconscious in the brain controls heart rate? but what about how capillaries open and close to help manage temperature, is that determined more locally? would be interesting to look up.

anyway, as i understand, part of the theme of book 4 is going to be deflating this whole idea of baru's that one sufficiently clever person can have such an outsized influence on historical events. but also it sounds like the redrafting process is pretty brutal even by seth's standards lol, so i don't really know where it's gonna go.

anyway, i agree that the economic angle of Baru and its ability to make that immediately engaging does a lot to help the setting of baru feel solid, and thus its model of colonialism in a bottle feel meaningful. it uses it to greater effect than for example the stories of Daniel Abraham that I've read, which use economics for flavour...

...but at the same time it's still a shell game, like all fantasy. I am certain that Seth didn't work things out in spreadsheets behind the scenes, because it's not about simulation, nor should it be. it's an exciting, dramatic story that dresses itself in the exciting parts of the history of economics. because it's a story about the worldview of someone indoctrinated to view the world in that light, as a huge deterministic machine, that she needs to solve.

no idea if that's a proper to your question, anon. lmk!

[dyrewrites]

Pale Blood - Extra Snip for those who can't see the mature one >.>

Bellacara Pri, blood-starved and pacing in her glittering mansion–floating in the light-rich skies of Upper Dolor, shrouded in gold and the protections of well-paid witches–had enough of her board's nonsense. Their sloth and cowardice cost another deal, another avenue within which to search the city’s vile depths for the carriers–the bearers of her blood and future–and she was livid. In her meeting with them, she told them as much. Her rage shook the windows and sent grown men, ancient fangs every one, scurrying from the room.

Hours later and she still fumed, still raged–though silent –at their failure. That rage rippled through the mask of her near slate-dark face and it cracked, breaking the lie of skin and warmth to reveal the gaping maw it hid.

Bellacara Pri was quick to recover, to hide her truth and still the whispers that flowed unbidden from those secret lips—but it was too late, I had seen her, seen It and heard Its haggard voice.

Oh yes, I see you, foul beast. It has been stretched and tired years, ages, eons–who could know–but I see you now. I found you and I will have what you've taken, the life that you tore from m-no! No! Where is It?...where…am I?–Right, the fang at the head of Bellacorp, a corporation ingrained so thoroughly in the goings-on of the city that even its CEO is unaware of all they do.

And she was smiling.

Bellacara Pri was smiling, slow and sharp into the mirror of her towering windows. Her face had regrown, the supple flesh of her false skin smoothed by the Wyld blood of her fang body, and she tested it. She caressed it and, as the hunger pangs beat against the lining of her starved veins, she raked her nails through it. And the blood that dripped, that slithered too thick down her dark cheeks, did not burn in the deep red it should have. It shimmered and shined as bright and gold as the walls she glared at–as bright and gold as only one creature’s blood could shine and in that moment, or in this, the ache of not knowing which beat against my skull as loud and rough as the hunger that beat against her veins.

“Lyssa!” Bellacara Pri wailed into her netlink, to the assistant ever-waiting on the other line. “Where is my blood, Lyssa?”

“It will arrive at half-lid, Mistress.” The assistant replied, in a tone clipped curt and void of worry. “In an hour’s time and not a second later, or I fetch you the slumlord’s head; as instructed.”

Bellacara Pri huffed, she turned and glared out her windows, at her city and she growled, “If it isn’t, I trade his blood for your meat.”

Lyssa tapped her netlink, banishing the still-growling voice of her Mistress and sighed into her hands. She had worked under Bellacara Pri for the last fifteen years, and though the CEO had never been terribly kind, she had once been considerate of her board members and her underlings–and of Lyssa.

Sometime during the last five years that changed. Madam Pri had grown colder, shorter, and had begun to direct funds and manpower to blood research. Which Lyssa didn’t understand; blood was blood. The facility in the slums, that the corporation built and funded, handled all the blood–drawing, study and delivery of all conceivable types of blood, even the creation of new variants for differing effects and flavor. If Madam Pri craved faeblood at dusk on Visday, she could have it in less than ten minutes.

Funneling more credits into blood research made no sense. There simply hadn’t been a need for it, especially with the troubles of the company’s profits to consider. Their primary product–drones, specifically security drones–had become obsolete. Crime had all but been abolished by their last models, and no one needed to buy new security systems. Even netlinks, which they’d successfully made invaluable to every citizen–nothing in the city could be done without one–were showing diminishing returns.

They needed fresh ideas, not fresh blood.

 Lyssa sighed again. The notices flashing in front of her forced her attention to the growing instability of the board of directors. Complaints flooded her netlink’s lens, all conduct-related, all bemoaning the actions of their CEO. Bellacara Pri had made a mess in their last meeting–as she had in every meeting that quarter–but it was Lyssa who had to clean it up–as she would every meeting until her Mistress found whatever it was she sought in the blood she kept wasting the company’s time and credits to chase.

With a steady breath–or two, or three–Lyssa composed herself and called up a projected screen. She tapped her netlink and welcomed the first rage-red face onto it. Then, sweetening her tone with the syrup of professionalism and well-trained complaisance, Lyssa greeted the first of many board members she would that evening.

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