#expect it's just them vs technology

[boonjur]

Logurt game night

[ceaselesswatchersspecialboy]

Viktor being an antagonistic figure towards both Piltover and Zaun is a poor writing decision for a number of reasons, some more obvious than others.

Of course, Arcane was never going to be a one to one of League lore, that much is clear from season one, but there was still a lot established that felt as though it would still lead to the character established in the games, Viktor especially.

Season one focuses heavily on his deteriorating relationship with Jayce, and his conflicting feelings towards Piltover, most obvious in both his terminal illness, and Piltover wanting to use his creation against Zaun, when his intentions had always been to use Hextech to help Zaun. Even though his lore is different, we can still see how Viktor would make the choices he does, and how choice is deeply important to his character as well.

‘There is always a choice.’ Is a line that sticks out to me, especially given the context it’s displayed in, with Viktor choosing to disarm Jinx’s bomb and thus choose to live.

The minute you take away Viktor’s choice and grey morality, you completely push aside everything about him that was established in season one, which is unfortunately what season two does.

Part of me thinks that the reason this was done is because to have Viktor question Piltover further, to have him present for Cait’s rise and the gassing of the Undercity and growing brutality towards its people, would mean that it would have to be acknowledged deeper, and that there would have to be actual consequences. Viktor’s arc cannot centre around the conflict of Zaun vs Piltover anymore, because to do so would mean actually addressing the horrifically inhumane acts of Piltover, and the centuries of oppression in a way that justified Zaun’s violence and anger.

Viktor’s arc cannot centre around him choosing to become the Machine Herald, because that would mean acknowledging that he has a right to be resentful and hurt, that the fact he was dying was caused directly by Piltover.

Viktor had to be removed from the main narrative until the end, which lost so much of his character and what made him interesting in the first place.

And back to my initial point as I fear I’ve strayed from it. Viktor simply doesn’t work as this all-powerful antagonistic force that brings the cities together, because it erases the fact he’s a Zaunite from the narrative, and here his people are, dying in enforcer uniforms because of him. Viktor’s actions don’t feel like a choice here.

Another issue with him as this force is that magic doesn’t work as the main threat in Arcane, as I feel like a key part of season one was how Jayce and Viktor adapted magic into technology, and how humans wielded it, and the double-edged sword of technological advancement: healing vs violence.

Again, Viktor’s character and conflict is erased by centring him around magic.

Another less obvious point I think is both finale’s centre around the actions of a singular Zaunite. Jinx destroys the council, which causes them to backtrack on peace, as the action of one person from the Undercity in their eyes is the action of them all, as that’s what they expect from them. It’s similar with Viktor, except, because he has help from Noxus, it’s seen more as an outside threat, and so the show again doesn’t have to address how Piltover actually feels about Zaun.

If it was just Viktor attacking, he’d be the same as Jinx.

Not sure if I’ve worded that last bit as well as I did the rest, but I hope it does make sense.

All in all it just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, and I think Viktor should have had a season long arc of him becoming the Machine Herald — I really do.

[arkaiveofurown]

More Than a Page in a Comic Book

Pairing: Trafalgar Law x Reader

Law has always admired the comic book Sora vs. Germa 66. When he sees Reiju Vinsmoke, the poison pink warrior of the North Blue, he blushes. Now, you’re left wondering if his heart still belongs to the real world… or if you were ever the one who had it to begin with.

Word Count: ~1,500 words

tags: fluff, jealousy, comfort

my masterlist here ♡

——

The town was busy, the streets filled with traders and pirates alike. The Heart Pirates had docked for supplies, but you noticed Law was acting differently today. He was unusually quiet, his usual composure lost somewhere in the air.

As you walked beside him, your gaze caught a familiar figure in the distance. Standing by a market stall, talking to some of the locals, was none other than Reiju Vinsmoke. You recognized her instantly from her unique beauty and the cold yet commanding presence she carried. But what caught your attention wasn’t just her—it was the way Law’s expression shifted when he saw her.

Law, the man who rarely showed his emotions, was blushing. Not a casual flush, but a full-on, genuine blush that spread across his face. You blinked, not believing what you were seeing. His eyes widened slightly, and for a moment, he simply stood there, frozen.

“Law?” you asked, taking a step toward him.

He snapped out of his trance and immediately turned away, his face still tinged pink. “What is it?” His voice was cool, but the flush on his cheeks betrayed his attempt at nonchalance.

You couldn’t hide the growing confusion in your chest. “You seemed… a little distracted,” you said, your voice quieter than you intended. “Are you okay?”

Law rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I’m fine.” His gaze flickered to Reiju once more, who was still chatting animatedly with a few nearby pirates. “It’s just… Germa 66, you know?”

Your eyebrows furrowed in surprise. “Germa 66?”

Law’s eyes twinkled for just a moment as he spoke. “I’ve always admired them. Especially Reiju. She’s… impressive, to say the least.”

You didn’t expect him to say that. Law, the usually composed and distant captain of the Heart Pirates, was fanboying over Reiju Vinsmoke?

For a brief moment, a strange feeling washed over you—something you couldn’t quite place. It wasn’t just surprise; there was a sting of jealousy underneath. Was he really that interested in her?

⸻

The sun had dipped low by the time you found Law again, this time leaning quietly against the rail of the Polar Tang’s upper deck. The gentle rocking of the ship and the ocean breeze were soothing, but your thoughts weren’t calm—not yet.

You stood beside him, both of you staring out at the sea. The silence stretched, familiar and not uncomfortable… but it carried weight tonight.

“Law,” you said, voice light but careful, trying to sound casual. “You know, I’ve been thinking.”

He raised an eyebrow, intrigued but guarded. “About what?”

“You seemed a little too interested in Reiju yesterday,” you said with a smirk. “Fanboying over Germa 66 like you did… I didn’t expect that from you.”

Law’s expression remained unreadable, but there was a subtle shift in his eyes. He walked toward you, a small smirk tugging at his lips. “What? You jealous?”

You looked up at him, trying to keep your composure. “Me? Jealous? No. I’m just… curious.”

“Curious, huh?” Law leaned in slightly, his voice low. “Curious about what, exactly?”

You crossed your arms, meeting his gaze with a challenging look. “About why you’re acting like a giddy schoolboy when you see Reiju.”

Law’s brow twitched slightly. “Tch. I was surprised, not… infatuated.”

You glanced at him from the corner of your eye. “You blushed.”

A pause. He didn’t deny it.

“I’ve been reading about Germa 66 since I was a kid,” he said plainly, finally turning his gaze to you. “I respected the technology. Their power. I never expected to see her in person.”

“Right,” you murmured. “Just surprised.”

Another silence.

Then, out of nowhere, he spoke again. “But I didn’t blush when I met you.”

Your brow furrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’ve gotten used to you,” he said simply. “From the start, you’ve been here. And you’re not some childhood fantasy or some distant name in a book. You’re… real.”

That caught you off guard.

“I notice everything you do,” he continued, voice steady but quieter now. “The way you bite your lip when you’re thinking. How you always finish your tea even if it’s cold. You talk too much when you’re nervous. And you have this ridiculous habit of walking in sync with me even when you pretend you’re not.”

You swallowed, throat tightening. “That’s oddly specific.”

“It’s not odd. I like it,” he said. Then after a beat: “I like you.”

Your chest swelled, both from the words and the sincerity in his tone. This wasn’t a line. It wasn’t some half-hearted reassurance.

You blinked at him. “Really?”

“Would I say it if I didn’t mean it?” he asked dryly, then shook his head. “Look. I might’ve admired Reiju for what she represents. But I admire you for who you are.”

Warmth spread through your body at those words—more powerful than anything else he could’ve said.

You smirked a little, nudging his arm. “You’re not just saying that because I didn’t punch you for blushing earlier?”

Law gave a soft scoff. “Please. If I were scared of you, I wouldn’t have kissed you already.”

You raised a brow. “Oh? So you’re confident now?”

He looked at you sideways, the faintest twitch of a smirk on his lips. “I’m always confident. Just not always verbal.”

You turned toward him fully. “Then tell me one more thing.”

“What?”

“If you had to pick between Reiju’s poison lips or mine…?”

He rolled his eyes. “You. Without hesitation.”

You grinned. “Even if mine come with sass?”

“Especially because they come with sass,” he muttered, leaning in. “Now shut up and let me prove it.”

And he did—with a kiss far more honest and intense than before. Not rushed, not uncertain—just right. When he pulled back, the red flush on his cheeks was unmistakable this time.

“You’re blushing again,” you teased.

“Shut up,” he muttered, turning away.

“Don’t worry,” you whispered, nudging his side. “I won’t tell Reiju.”

“I swear,” he growled under his breath, “I will Room you into the sea.”

You only laughed—and this time, he didn’t stop you.

[endearing-dalliance]

the way the Arcane team romanticize the undercity disgusts me

Especially in the new art book, they talk about how Zaun and Piltover really aren’t as different as they first seem, as they are both heavily invested in technology. Zaun is a bastion of flamboyant body modification and innovative technology. They describe it as a refuge for outcasts who are looking for a home, where people are free from Piltover’s rigid rules and politics. A communal place with a thrilling sense that anything is possible. The Firelights are described as a group uses the freedom granted by Piltover not caring about them to find beauty and innovation. People are particularly interested in recycling technology and resources because "nothing is precious and everything can always be made better". Bc obviously that's why poor people fix stuff. They are definitely able to easily replace stuff at any time, but they want to strive for perfection...

In the same breath, they describe Zaun as being oppressed, crushed by Piltover, addicted to Shimmer, having “some issues with the mob”, dangerous, volatile. They talk about how if it was better, people like Jinx and Ekko could use their skills for good. This is the same place that’s a refuge for innovative, flamboyantly augmented outcasts to be able to make wonderful technology?

Notable mention: "we had to design a prison, and that was tricky because Piltover is supposed to be a city of progress - do they really put people in prisons? Maybe only people from the Undercity, and maybe they put them really far away" like seriously does nobody realize how fucked up that is? Your issue with it is the difficulty in designing the prison?

Like have any of these people ever actually met someone who lives in an irl place like Zaun? Heard of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? Opened any book or video on heavily polluted urban areas?

On top of that, the undercity is filled with negative stereotypes. Many of the characters are “bad” in some way, whether that be missing body parts, mentally damaged, filthy, an addict. Their food is tentacles, a drooling animal head, and a dish that looks very much like slugs in mud sauce (vs Piltover’s “normal” sandwich). Many of the people are all dressed punk/goth/sexy and look “dangerous”. This season, I expected them to address those stereotypes and show how Zaun has equal value to Piltover. That those differences don’t make people hateable or disgusting or deserving of their misery. Instead, we got “actions have consequences” theme and a dying man who suffered from chronic pain and mobility issues his entire life being told that his imperfections make him beautiful. (She-Ra did that line already and did it much better.) Because using tech/magic to fix his leg and spine strip him of his humanity.

The team have said they were specifically inspired by the current political climate in the US, specifically the two-party system within one nation divided and unable to reason with each other. But that is an entirely different and incompatible concept. Zaun literally doesn’t get a vote, and that kind of lack of political representation is literally why America rebelled against England. Its not as simple as them just talking it out or getting a single vote. And for me it explains why the conflict fizzled out in season 2 and felt so unresolved. I was expecting independence, which is the only solution to colonial oppression, but the creators gave us a fix for the political party problem they thought they were showing. We only got to see the Piltie’s viewpoint of Zaun, and it was unflattering specifically in the ways that are in real life associated classism, body shaming, and cultural shaming. They were never redeemed or validated, and almost everyone repeatedly proved the Pilties were right about them all along. In season 2, all the bad guys were Zaunites (Jinx, Viktor, Skye, Vanwick, Singed kind of) aided by a foreign power also trying to use them, and the solution was for them not to be part of their world anymore. They were too broken, too evil, too violent to remain. And for the rest, their only use was to die protecting the Pilties from one of their own people (whose autonomy wasn't even respected by his own partner and became his own worst nightmare). Instead of it being this glorious, Marvelesque fight where everyone bands together against one common enemy, it’s just another situation in which they are brutally exploited.

And I would genuinely be OK with all of this as some sort of tragic story that ended terribly for everyone and there was no real solution or progress, just more bloodshed. A tale of caution.

But the creators have been very clear that they feel that this is an appropriate ending to the story and the individual characters’ stories. Specifically, they are pushing this idea that the finale was to show the characters facing the consequences of their actions. But the characters themselves aren’t the problem, it’s the society that they are living in that basically corrupted everything it touched. Mel and the council manipulated and pressured Jayce and Viktor into making weapons instead of technology that was designed to help people, while also ignoring Viktor’s steadily worsening health problems that *they caused*. Vi and Jinx were repeatedly traumatized, orphaned, and weaponized. Cait literally got away with being a dictator, but even she was manipulated by someone who was only ever able to establish power by taking advantage of the situation. Singed (OG Piltie) literally committed war crimes and got everything he wanted. And according to the creators, everyone got what they deserved. Piltover received no punishment or retribution for their oppression. The undercity got no apology or redemption/validation. Piltover got no significant consequences. They’re still in power, still rich, still have Hextech, still oppressing the undercity. And I guess that's what they deserve.

What a load of absolute horseshit. I had a lot of expectations for season 2, but "the arcane team are actually Pilties in the worst way possible" was absolutely not one of them. I'm genuinely devastated.

[kybelles]

NOTES FROM PACAT’S LATEST M&G

(FEB 1, 2025, SYDNEY)

Akielos Research: She joked that her main historical research question was "what era had the hottest weather/clothes?" leading her to choose ancient Greece for Akielos. She discovered historians haven’t figured out if ancient Greeks wore underwear—deciding Damen must for practical reasons, like preventing chafing while riding.

Vere’s Setting: She was fascinated by late medieval France and chose "Laurent" for the name, so he had to be French. Akielos and Vere were inspired by various historical settings but don’t strictly adhere to realism. They are pastiches of many different places. She had to avoid certain anachronisms, like naval technology, to keep the world-building consistent.

Capri’s Origins & Writing Journey: She started writing Capri on LiveJournal without expecting it to be published, and wasn’t concerned with being politically correct or censoring herself. Having grown up with a violent childhood, fantasy offered her an escape. The final books are almost identical to what she posted online, except for a few name changes (e.g., Rabat became Vere, Margaret became Jokaste).

Writing for Comics & Paragons: She found writing a hero like Superman much harder than villains, as heroes require deep moral consistency—something harder for her because morality is complex and subjective. She believes paragons are essential in literature because they are aspirational figures who show us what good can look like, something missing in the current trend of grimdark and anti-heroes. Her favorite paragons are Wonder Woman followed by Superman.

Romance & Fantasy: As a kid, she resented love interests in stories because she just wanted to read about horses. Despite writing romantasy, she doesn’t read much of it because a lot feels derivative (like Twilight or ACOTAR). She’s critical of the genre’s lack of evolution beyond common tropes—essentially bodice-ripper romance, but with fantastical elements added, and wonders what will come next once readers have exhausted these clichés.

Queer Representation: She’s excited about the current "golden age" of queer publishing, noting how things have changed since her early career, when publishers wouldn't even depict the content of Capri on the cover. However, she’s frustrated that many queer stories still center on sex. She’d love to see stories where a queer character just exists (e.g., a queer detective), without their sexuality being the plot's main focus.

Capri's Writing Process: Capri was originally meant to be one book, but the characters’ deep hatred and evolving relationship required more time to develop into pure love without feeling forced. She intentionally crafted Laurent and Damen as opposites, with each possessing qualities the other lacked. This made them complementary and drew them together, reflecting the “opposites attract” dynamic, where their differences ultimately made them perfect soulmates for each other.

Romantasy vs. Fantasy: She defines romantasy as a subgenre where the romance is so central that the fantasy plot wouldn’t exist without it, whereas in traditional fantasy, the hero's journey can stand alone. Even though she writes romantasy, she doesn’t fully love the genre because it can lack depth beyond the romance.

Book Recommendations & Influences: She enjoys books like American Psycho (a critique of capitalism), The Alexander Trilogy by Mary Renault, Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, The Bell by Iris Murdoch, The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, and everything by Dorothy Dunnett.

[sillyandquiteawkward]

sillys (not so) lil info dump about how to be a human being. smiles

htbahb is an album from glass animals, of which notably, all the songs align with different people's lives, perspectives, and feelings, also of which are shown on the (various) album covers. so the easiest way to go thru the story is song by song. but i will show you the album art so you can get a gist of things before we go into details.

these are just some of the various album covers for htbahb, theres a bunch of them, but we dont need to see all of them to see the different lives of our characters.

1, Life Itself

this is our main character for life itself. you can call him a bit of a nerd if youd like. apparently his name is chuck rogers. they dont all have names.

hes an inventor, loves ray guns and strange technology, but as noted in his song, feels like he was raised with expectations hell never be able to achieve. his father as a child said he would be a superstar, but nowadays, he cant get a job and he lives with his mom. hes struggling with finding himself and his place in society and hes doing drugs and feeling like hes absolute rock bottom with everyone being against him. he feels alone and attacked and retreats back into his car or grandmothers basement and keeps folding back into himself.

in the music video for life itself, hes only seen in a few scenes, leading the charge against [popular st] with a smoke bomb as [mamas gun] watches knowingly from the sidelines as perhaps the real leader behind the assault. they seems to be accomplices with each other, as they ride in the car together and seem to be specifically looking for [youth].

2. Youth

now the main character for youth is tricky, it seems like we have two characters for youth, the small child, and assumedly, his mother the waitress. i think i like the interpretation that the mother is the main character for this song, and the child represents the album as a whole. alternatively i also like the idea that the child is youth, and his mother represents [premade sandwiches]. but for the most part, they are just both the characters for youth.

youth is a mother talking about her child, and to her child, almost in a detached sort of way as if they arent able to see each other. a mother speaking her hopes and dreams to her child. somehow these two have been separated when the child was young, perhaps through giving up to adoption, or hinted in the music video, abduction. she wishes best for the child, urges them to feel their mother at their side, and notes that theyve got her eyes. she lists off her wishes for them to be happy and have friends, and be silly. this perhaps is for the best, that they can be happy even without her. i particularly like in this song, the wordplay makes it sound like the singer is counting one, two, three, four, five, when they are singing other words like boy, to, free, funny, and fly respectively.

in the music video for youth, the child is seen almost haunting the mother as she works as a waiter, appearing in several locations playing and running around as she remains dutiful to her job. they briefly sit looking at each other in the same hotel room he had been taken to in life itself's music video.

3. Season 2 Episode 3

this is the main character for season 2 ep 3 and i think one of the cool changes between album covers, as we see a fully done up girl all put together with her make up on, and in the other, someone a bit more silly with her makeup removed. this might be the way she sees herself vs how other people see her.

the song is the lament of a boyfriend to his girlfriend, who seems to be glued to the couch, watching shows, getting high, not changing her clothes, and eating day old leftover food and most notably, mayonnaise straight from the jar. at the beginning of the song, the two of them are high together, however he soon sobers and realizes she refuses to get sober along with him. he tries to convince her that their relationship wont work if she keeps being like this and doesnt try, but she wants him back the way he was (high as well) and views him as a nag. she still makes him happy, but sometimes she makes him sad to see how she lives. even after an acceptance from the boyfriend that she wont change and will never be vertical and golden like he wants and that the relationship will never work out, the song ends hinting that hes picked up getting high with her again due to her calling him a killjoy and wearing him down.

in the music video we watch the girl splay out on the sofa, surrounded by her mess watching tv and doing nothing. halfway into the video, we are brought into the game she plays, as she battles [life itself] [cane shuga] and [the other side of paradise], all of which are men who could possibly be the boyfriend figure.

4. Pork Soda

this is our main character for everyones favorite pork soda. hes an older man, who for the most part seems pretty happy. wonder if hes harboring some long lost feelings or something.

the song opens with a street performance unintelligible to a normal listener, its like passing by a conversation, you are only able to hear bits and pieces of the spoken words. once the song starts you hear a story about this guy's girl who used to be fun and adventurous and would take him along with her. in the same breathe hes begging to go back to the days they were happy together. it seems like they fell out of love, or are in a struggling relationship bereft of communication or the passion it once had. shes only happy when theyre having sex together, and just looking at each other causes him heartache. the song talks about pineapples in my head, and being brain dead, as well as other references to diminishing mental facilities, that perhaps in their age, theyd forgotten about each other.

the music video gives us probably the most clear story line, as we see the wife prepare a meal before sending it through a dumbwaiter into the basement for the husband. there he sits alone, watching tv. up above the wife plays with their dog, imagining the dog is the younger version of her husband. all of her time is dedicated to the dog, and all of his time is dedicated to the tv. they have forgotten they love each other and live in the same house, but live in separate worlds. only after the dog destroys his tv and the husband destroys the floor above him and under her feet, do they finally get back together as he catches her as she falls, surprised and exhilarated for the first time in forever. and things seem to be better as they finally occupy the same room together again.

5. Mama's Gun

This is the main character for mamas gun. shes a victim of the perception of her mental illness. i think this is my fav song of the album.

during the song, the woman initially admits that she took her gun and made her husband go to neverland. however she also says she loved him a lot and he was perfect. through bits and pieces of the lyrics you can come to the conclusion that she has some sort of psychosis, or perhaps schizophrenia in particular as she notes many different voices and figures talking to her. the song references dr swango, a doctor who killed his patients, however he insists to her that him and all the other voices in her head are too from neverland, and that she was a murderer just like him. is she really guilty of murder? what really happened? the flute played during various instrumental parts of the song is a sample from the carpenter's mr. guder, a song about a man who does what hes supposed to in society and his job and gets nothing from it. karen carpenter herself was a victim of her own mental illness and they say that theres a specific purpose for the sample chosen. once the lyrics pick back up, the voices again pipe up and tell her she was a murderer, even the voice who had never spoken says so, so he must be telling the truth right? during the final bit of the song, it seems like her husbands voice joins into her collection of voices, as he bears a cheshire smile and asks her to lay with him once again, and that hes waiting for her. in the end, its unclear what happened with her and her husband, as she goes back and forth saying she was violent, she was doing nothing. this song was inspired by a story they heard of a woman going into a drug induced black out for a month and reappearing in another state with no memory, and the lingering fear that shes done something terrible wrong, and never being able to have the closure of knowing what happened.

theres no music video for this song, but we see her appear in life itself. she and [life itself] drive to the hotel where [poplar st] is holding [youth] captive and attempt to break into the room hes in.

6. Cane Shuga

this is our main character for cane shuga. hes exactly how he seems, a rich white guy who is, of course, using that cane shuga all day everyday.

cane shuga presents a dialogue from two parties, two people in a relationship. the singer promises he wont do coke anymore, that he wont be a john doe in the hospital. the chorus however is the high he rides on, where he thinks hes hot shit, hes 007 james bond, hes as powerful as kim jong, with a popped collar as he looks into the glare of the mirror and hypes himself up after using in the bathroom at work. hes untouchable. the second chorus is his partner, giving up on him, their love has burned up, just like his drugs. theres a humorous line of putting their foot down saying ive had quite enough, but corrects themself and sarcastically says or lack there of, that they arent being given anything anymore by him. regardless, their verses and conversation is short. the chorus of his high is the main focus of the song, and repeat over and over as the days continue.

[cane shuga] appears in season 2 ep 3's music video as [season 2 episode 3]'s potential lover. their stories do seem to entangle, they both are drug users dealing with partners who want to stop using. some people say that he is her partner, that he stops using for her, but falls back into the habit. however this doesnt exactly line up with her song, as she doesnt want him to stop. i think its part of that unreliable narrator theme weve seen in previous songs. people have different experiences with each other and get different messages due to the issue of communication. im not exactly on board with these two being together, but i do understand where people are coming from with this take.

7. [Premade Sandwiches]

this is a spoken word interlude, sped up and pitched down. there doesnt seem to be a character paired with this song, and on cd this song is simply a bonus track hidden behind cane shuga. on first listening its very difficult to catch what is being said, but over and over the speaker is talking about standing in line for various things. this song discusses mindless over consumption of drugs, of buzz words, of natural foods for your dog, watches, new clothes made to look old, the junk drawer filled with phones you dont use, with pens that dont work, with random shit you never needed just piling up. people stand in line and they dont even know why.

8. The Other Side Of Paradise

this is our main character for the other side. hes gonna be a basketball player and make it big babyeee.

so its a bit unclear and vague in the lyrics, but it seems our narrator and the basketball player used to be close friends. he even seems to be in love with the basketball player, calling him my love. but the basketball player leaves their home in new orleans to go chase his dreams out west and make it big, leaving our narrator's side. he told the narrator not to worry but after phone calls, it seems like basketball boy got a girlfriend. hes gloating to the narrator, hes got a girlfriend now, hes got a gold camaro, hes made it big, meanwhile our narrator is at the payphone hearing all this and his world turns in slow motion. no longer is the basketball player his baby blue anymore. hes moved on, hell never have another chance to love his friend. hes so angry and hurt, but he balls up his fist almost in a fight or flight reaction, and settles for the ghost of his love. hed always hoped for a paradise where they could be together but it seems like fate had other plans. he laments the basketball player for ditching them, saying here in new orleans people dont leave and ditch their lady (him). he wants to be loved and pampered by him, not her. heres where the vagueness comes back, the narrator seems to be so distraught that he rather kills himself, or finds that his body looks wrong, perhaps that hes not a girl that couldve been loved by the basketball player.

he only ever appears in the music video for season 2 ep 3 as one of the bosses [season 2 episode 3] defeats, claiming ball is life. there is a music video that was recently released for this song, however it does not depict the basketball player.

9. Take a Slice

this is our main character for take a slice, hes a bit of a slut but he makes it work :) the spoken intro to this song is the real recording the band took while talking to a male fortune teller, so the sausage candle is rather real or a lie from the fortune teller.

take a slice regales the story of a young man who finds pleasures in the sultry sexual aspects of life. hes sucking on cigarettes in a way freud would roll in his grave, hes painted his nails dark, has piercings, hes asking for another slice of cherry pie, cherries being a symbol for all things sex and lust. hes smitten with the idea of being a prize to be sought after, and after trying sex work for the first time, realizes this is the job for him. hes going to fuck his way through college, and sleep during class dreaming of you. wink. hes rolling in the dough, hes got a gold car, hes maybe dabbling in drugs too, and hes filthy and he loves it.

10. Poplar St

ms moore is the main character of poplar st, and shes a cougar, and not the good kind.

a young boy lives a typical suburban life. hes got bandaids on his knees and hes climbing trees. but one day, he sees mrs moore and mr keats have sex. immediately this drags him out of his childhood, hes such a man now that he knows what sex is. this is the first step of her grasp around him. as he gets a bit older, his mother calls her prosti-tits and looks down upon her. but the boy looks up to ms moore, despite his mothers words. mrs moore sees his desperation and pulls him into her clutches. theres a very specific voice crack when her teeth sink in deep and the note hes singing falls flat. this bit of pain expressed is highly contrasted with the chorus coming back in, the boy once again considers himself a real man, a true romantic, this is what all men dream of, isnt it? but there are dead flowers in the sand, hinting that these roses arent just romantic. the next bridge plays and interesting word switch up. it starts out with her begging him for more as she sits in her underwear, and then switches to him begging her for more in his underwear. theyve both wasted their days, but when it comes to his youth and her age, the only one wasting their childhood is him. the song concludes with mrs moore calling him up collect (so he has to pay for the phone call, not her) one day and breaking up with him. and then it all gets pulled out from under him and hes just a boy again. this tells the sad tale of how men and boys' sexual assault and grooming often is pushed to the side because they think this is how things are supposed to go, that they are supposed to have sex and to be used and abused from a woman is supposed to be an achievement. but really all it is, is abuse that leaves him feeling terrible.

11. Agnes

this is agnes :) i think it was mentioned at some point that he takes pictures of people when they arent looking, so to me, i like to think hes the one capturing everyone pictured in this album. bear witness to other humans.

the song starts out where the singer is appearing to try and comfort agnes. how did it get this bad, agnes used to just take pills and smoke a little, somethings changed perhaps. the singer notes agnes is just going through the motions every day, numb, and nervous, but hes swelling with emotion all the same. here the singer laments he wants to hold agnes like hes mine. theres a longing sadness in the lyrics. the next verse confirms the worst, while agnes was perhaps a genius when it came to the romantic, he was a deeply depressed and lonely person. he started to rely on the drugs and the alcohol he used to use recreationally, just to live a normal life. and he ultimately commited suicide. the singer wonders where the agnes he used to know went. however the singer reconsiders, and accepts that agnes did his best, life must feel so unbearably long when its soaked in sadness, living a false life filled with depression. so it goes, the singer thinks, but cant help but to feel lost. the only thing he can think of is agnes, perhaps considering all the art agnes made, all the photos he took of other people, perhaps just thinking about his friend in any aspect. grief is funny like that. on the vinyl record, this song's last seconds repeat over and over until you stop the machine from playing, like a lingering memory you cant stop thinking about.

the agnes music video is much different than the others, as it focuses on the singer, dave bayley as he sits in a centrifuge and attempts to sing the song. this causes a very physical reaction and he struggles to even lift his hand, by the end of it hes sweating profusely and unable to catch his breath, but he persists and continues singing. he mentions this was a mere fraction of what someone going through depression could feel like. during the music video as well, he appears to be looking across from a mannequin, perhaps the stand in for himself once hes put himself in agnes' shoes.

thanks for reading if you did i love being insane. all of these are my personal thoughts on the album, and might not exactly match up with your interpretation, but i have tried to keep to what we believe is what glass animals had in mind for the album and these characters.

[cyjammy]

Vox and Alastor’s Dynamic is so FUN

Hazbin Hotel Season 1 Episode 2 Spoilers ahead!

I have to talk about Vox and Alastor’s “rivalry”. I love how Alastor just couldn’t care less, he’s witty, he’s emotionless and that makes him all the more powerful.

Well, not emotionless since he does express outward disgust towards anything digital, but the fact he can keep himself composed because he knows he is the shit and that’s what makes him my absolute favorite.

That showed through in the pilot and the show didn’t fail to deliver. I love how he’s handled. Viv’s characterization is wonderful.

Most fics I have read with Alastor have shown him as vunerable despite the story never alluding to that and it’s such a breath of fresh air to have canon content of Alastor being his authentic self.

My god do I love a character that’s strong and not swayed by emotion, but they can be handled well too. I.E. VOX oh my god. Every fanon had him pegged down as the victim to Val’s wrath, but he’s the mastermind behind the scenes. A complete subversion of everyone’s expectations. And that’s for another post I’m about to go crazy on, but I digress.

Vox is a man up in his ivory electronic tower with villainous intentions, but he falls short because of emotion!

Handling Velvet’s demands to get Val together? A quick pep talk with himself and he’s got it.

Addressing unforeseen circumstances with concerned sinners? Easy.

But Alastor?

He sees RED. He let Valentino have it when he even thought about going on a rampage over a sinner under his thumb.

When it comes to Alastor, Vox goes on a hate campaign and makes a fool of himself.

Meanwhile, Alastor was minding his business, and Vox couldn’t deal with that.

So much so he causes a blackout in the Wrath ring!

Why? Because of his rejection sensitivity.

He is this all powerful overlord with companions in his rule and when he asks someone of similar station to become his equal he gets rejected.

It’s unheard of for him. He cannot fathom it.

Because that makes Alastor a factor he cannot control.

Val says that Alastor “almost beat him”. Val may not have witnessed that fight and Vox spun it around to claim he came out on top.

But if he did, he definitely wouldn’t let Alastor get away.

Valentino and Vox have known each other for a long time, as shown in a photo in the background in the episode.

So either this spat began before they had met and Vox lied or Valentino witnessed it. I'm excited to see which way that goes.

In terms of influence, Alastor seems to win that battle. Vox is in charge of electrical currents and anything in the digital space.

Alastor is so far removed from that Vox has no influence over him. He refuses to be involved with new technology.

But with Vox having an army of sinners under his wing through subliminal messaging, he had security and power.

With Alastor’s return he brings CHARISMA and he’s doing it SO FUCKING WELL.

This is not a battle, it’s a slaughter, and Alastor is WINNING. With television there are so many ways to captivate a viewer but with radio all the host has is their voice and personality. It all has to be shown in a medium that doesn’t have many options for uniqueness.

Alastor defends himself with grace. He throws out compliments to his fellow overlords while still having it be a slight to the man who began the fight.

THE Vs ARE PREENING AT HIS PRAISE. THIS MAN IS GOATED.

It's night and day, but that's probably because Valentino and Velvet are tired of Vox's shit. I love this parallel so much!

Vox needed to be the person he was with Valentino at all times if this is a battle he wants to win, but he’s so bitter he will never see that.

He’s stubborn and that’s his main flaw.

And I fucking love it.

Alastor knows what he’s thinking and how to avoid it.

Always a step ahead. And their duet showcases that perfectly.

Alastor uses his opponent’s power against them, seeing the slanderous TV campaign and immediately going on air.

He does that in the pilot as well and seeing that this has become a habit for him is so fun to see.

Alastor is not to be messed with and I feel like people decided to gloss over that. But it’s so in your face you cannot deny it.

Alastor is TERRIFYING with a chilling deposition that will give you nightmares if you dare cross him.

Give him the respect he fucking deserves.

And the music and the visuals of the song — A whole fucking masterpiece.

I’m in love with their dynamic so far and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

So far Vox is the obsessed fanatic that couldn’t handle rejection.

There has to be more than that.

[lexosaurus]

here's a reference for people writing school-aged disabled characters in the US and are confused whether their character would be receiving a 504 vs IEP vs BIP:

✨ 504 documents center around accommodations only (including medical). accommodations allow the student different access to the curriculum in some way while still upholding them to the same standards of learning. for example, a student might have accommodations for 50% extra time on tests/quizzes, reference or formula sheets for math tests, sentence starters for english class, assistive technology like text to speech/speech to text, tests given in a low-stimulus location, etc.

✨ IEP documents, while they almost always do grant accommodations, also must include modifications which change the actual content of the class in some way. common examples of curriculum modifications could be a reduction in the material for classwork and homework, separate and reduced tests, a difference in expectation for output (for example, on a project, a student may be graded based on a different rubric or based on effort vs correctness), placement in a skills development/learning center/resource class, etc. IEPs may also grant services to the student like speech and OT.

✨ IEPs also may include a BIP, or a behavioral intervention plan (BIPs can technically exist independently from an IEP though that's rare). a BIP is used to provide strategies for harmful and/or destructive behaviors. BIPs are granted after a long data-collection process, so in my experience they are very individualized. examples could include the use of a 5-point scale, lots of walks to cool off when the student is feeling dysregulated or when prompted to by the teacher, breaks with preferred activities after completing x amount of nonpreferred tasks, a goal chart to track progress, a safety plan, etc.

So, in short:

Character is being held to the same standard of material but just needs changes in how the material is presented or accessed? 504

Character is behind held to a reduced or otherwise altered standard of material or requires additional support with alternate learning environments, smaller class sizes, and more staff? IEP

Character's disability is manifesting behaviorally and is causing them to engage in dangerous, harmful, or destructive behaviors (like getting into fights with students or destroying school property)? BIP

(again, IEPs can include all 3).

[is-dracula-daily-today]

may we hear about the stage play?

Ok so disclaimer before I start whining, I recognise that adaptations cannot be perfect 1:1 representations of books because that just won't work.

Also local theatre are doing the best they can, they looked like they had fun, genuinely good for them for putting on a whole play. Dracula, Van Helsing and Renfield were particularly good, and the crew of the Demeter gradually being taken was cool.

But having read Dracula a few times now (and caring about it more than I would have expected, in large part thanks to the Dracula Daily community), here are the changes I wasn't on board with.

Most of Jonathan's time in the castle was cut. He arrived, had one scene about solicitor business when Dracula said to write that he was staying another month, and then that was it until Mina got a letter that he was in a convent hospital. There was a flashback scene in the second act with the three creepy ladies eating the baby and him realising he was about to be eaten himself so he needed to escape. I guess it was for time but we just didn't get any of the build-up of dread.

Arthur's father, Lucy's mother and Mr Hawkins were all cut. Again, I can kind of see why as it streamlines some plotlines etc but it reduces the amount of stress and loss the gang are dealing with on top of Dracula.

Jack and Quincy were individually friends with Arthur but only met each other at the start of the play? And neither of them proposed to Lucy - it was mentioned later that Jack was in love with her but Quincy barely even interacted with her.

None of the modern technology that helps the heroes get the edge over Dracula - shorthand, telegrams, phonographs, trains - were mentioned, so the whole theme of Old vs New was lost. (also so many of the lovely quirks of the characters! no Mina being a massive nerd about railway timetables!)

It was a bit... confusing? Like who was in Whitby and who was in London at which points, what was going in the big final showdown... I could follow but the people I was with who hadn't read it were a bit baffled at times.

Last point going under a readmore, spoiler warning for the epilogue

They changed the epilogue to be a real downer! The frame of the play was Van Helsing telling us the story three years later, at which point: no mention of little Quincy, Mina still wakes screaming and won't tell Jonathan what she dreams about, Jack has buried himself in work, and Arthur has withdrawn from society. Uhhh cool. ok.

[assortedvillainvault]

Hello! Can I request Starscream with a reader who loves video games, especially older "retro" ones please?

Anon you have waited so long, please accept this humble word train of inconveivale proportions, becuase this went from 'haha Screamy vs tetris' to 'holy shit I can't stop typing-'

Starscream x RetroGamer!Reader

HA!

Such primitive, meagre entertainment. How can you engage in something barely even fit for newsparks??

Yeah, Starscream is waving his ‘technological-race superiority’ around again. You’ve long since learned to roll your eyes, tune him out and turn the tinny volume on your console to maximum just to annoy him.

For all that he snorts and rolls his optics and waxes lyrical about how his games were played in high-speed roulette 5D stratospheric-chess - or whatever - you don’t fail to smugly notice how his wings twitch in time with the music. (Don’t bring it up or he’ll screech about how he can’t get the bouncy little tunes out of his head at 3am. It’s not worth your eardrums.)

And when he DOES pay attention, he’s the kind to aggressively backseat drive.

What’s worse, is that after breathing down your neck and screeching at you to “Jump HIGHER-” (Mario Bros is a relationship tester), he’ll cluck his tongue and smarmily coo at your game over screen until you finally snap and shove the comparatively tiny controller in his face.

The affronted shock lasts a millisecond before he huffs and says such childish little things are beneath him. Obviously.

Your petty revenge is to chat obnoxiously loud to Knockout and spread a rumour on the Nemesis that the Mighty Commander Starscream is too outdated to try anything new, clearly, I mean he’s just so old-

- much screeching shouting and scratched paintjobs later, you find out that he’s simply downloaded the games into his brain and fully intended to not breathe a word to you about it apparently until you died. Prideful bastard.

He HAD intended to tell you, but only after he had gotten an impossibly high score to beat so he could rub it in your cute squishy face.

In a beautifully ironic twist of fate, being as advanced as cybertronians are, the highly simple nature of most retro games actually renders them incompatible, like trying to run a floppy disk through a hadron collider. So while yes Star can play tetris on his break, he cannot simply blitz the levels as expected and call it a day, because the old games have such simple parameters in comparison to how he usually operates.

So he has to actually play.

With no instructions because of course this high strung high maintenance metal bird could not possibly deign to ask you how to play first. That would be demeaning. And he won’t google it either.

You can sit in smug, satisfied peace as you watch him slowly tick through several layers of frustration: wings twitching, claws tapping, optics whizzing to focus on platforms and little 8 bit enemies you can’t see.

But Starscream is still the Second in Command of the Decepticons. And the Decepticons have very stringent security measures.

Soundwave fucking manifesting outside your window one evening was enough to have you pray to every god you’ve ever heard of. Inscrutable, all knowing fucking Soundwave. You regret every conversation you’ve ever had on the Nemesis, oh god your house is probably bugged-

His face screen flickers to life. You blink, as a live stream of the Nemesis command deck appears.

You have, by dint of hanging around too much and a few close encounters with the Autobots, seen cybertronians on the battlefield before. It is nothing compared to the later levels of Pacman on the Nemesis bridge at 1 am.

Soundwaves inscrutable smiley face emoji pings your phone, almong with a simple, translated glyph.

“More? :)”

PS-

Soundwave is Pacman god. Knockout has a soft spot for the Mario games. Starscream fucking loves Galaxian and will die before he ever tells you this. Shockwave, logically, finds Tetris soothing.

Megatron plays pong on his throne sometimes when his usual brooding gives way to inevitable drug induced boredom. It spaces his eyes out to either side nearly completely. Starscream has screenshots of his gormless mug taped to his hab wall to shoot on occasion.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The reverse-centaur apocalypse is upon us

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

In thinking about the relationship between tech and labor, one of the most useful conceptual frameworks is "centaurs" vs "reverse-centaurs":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/17/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs/

A centaur is someone whose work is supercharged by automation: you are a human head atop the tireless body of a machine that lets you get more done than you could ever do on your own.

A reverse-centaur is someone who is harnessed to the machine, reduced to a mere peripheral for a cruelly tireless robotic overlord that directs you to do the work that it can't, at a robotic pace, until your body and mind are smashed.

Bosses love being centaurs. While workplace monitoring is as old as Taylorism – the "scientific management" of the previous century that saw labcoated frauds dictating the fine movements of working people in a kabuki of "efficiency" – the lockdowns saw an explosion of bossware, the digital tools that let bosses monitor employees to a degree and at a scale that far outstrips the capacity of any unassisted human being.

Armed with bossware, your boss becomes a centaur, able to monitor you down to your keystrokes, the movements of your eyes, even the ambient sound around you. It was this technology that transformed "work from home" into "live at work." But bossware doesn't just let your boss spy on you – it lets your boss control you. \

It turns you into a reverse-centaur.

"Data At Work" is a research project from Cracked Labs that dives deep into the use of surveillance and control technology in a variety of workplaces – including workers' own cars and homes:

https://crackedlabs.org/en/data-work

It consists of a series of papers that take deep dives into different vendors' bossware products, exploring how they are advertised, how they are used, and (crucially) how they make workers feel. There are also sections on how these interact with EU labor laws (the project is underwritten by the Austrian Arbeiterkammer), with the occasional aside about how weak US labor laws are.

The latest report in the series comes from Wolfie Christl, digging into Microsoft's "Dynamics 365," a suite of mobile apps designed to exert control over "field workers" – repair technicians, security guards, cleaners, and home help for ill, elderly and disabled people:

https://crackedlabs.org/dl/CrackedLabs_Christl_MobileWork.pdf

It's…not good. Microsoft advises its customers to use its products to track workers' location every "60 to 300 seconds." Workers are given tasks broken down into subtasks, each with its own expected time to completion. Workers are expected to use the app every time they arrive at a site, begin or complete a task or subtask, or start or end a break.

For bosses, all of this turns into a dashboard that shows how each worker is performing from instant to instant, whether they are meeting time targets, and whether they are spending more time on a task than the client's billing rate will pay for. Each work order has a clock showing elapsed seconds since it was issued.

For workers, the system generates new schedules with new work orders all day long, refreshing your work schedule as frequently as twice per hour. Bosses can flag workers as available for jobs that fall outside their territories and/or working hours, and the system will assign workers to jobs that require them to work in their off hours and travel long distances to do so.

Each task and subtask has a target time based on "AI" predictions. These are classic examples of Goodhart's Law: "any metric eventually becomes a target." The average time that workers take becomes the maximum time that a worker is allowed to take. Some jobs are easy, and can be completed in less time than assigned. When this happens, the average time to do a job shrinks, and the time allotted for normal (or difficult) jobs contracts.

Bosses get stack-ranks of workers showing which workers closed the most tickets, worked the fastest, spent the least time idle between jobs, and, of course, whether the client gave them five stars. Workers know it, creating an impossible bind: to do the job well, in a friendly fashion, the worker has to take time to talk with the client, understand their needs, and do the job. Anything less will generate unfavorable reports from clients. But doing this will blow through time quotas, which produces bad reports from the bossware. Heads you lose, tails the boss wins.

Predictably, Microsoft has shoveled "AI" into every corner of this product. Bosses don't just get charts showing them which workers are "underperforming" – they also get summaries of all the narrative aspects of the workers' reports (e.g. "My client was in severe pain so I took extra time to make her comfortable before leaving"), filled with the usual hallucinations and other botshit.

No boss could exert this kind of fine-grained, soul-destroying control over any workforce, much less a workforce that is out in the field all day, without Microsoft's automation tools. Armed with Dynamics 365, a boss becomes a true centaur, capable of superhuman feats of labor abuse.

And when workers are subjected to Dynamics 365, they become true reverse-centaurs, driven by "digital whips" to work at a pace that outstrips the long-term capacity of their minds and bodies to bear it. The enthnographic parts of the report veer between chilling and heartbreaking.

Microsoft strenuously objects to this characterization, insisting that their tool (which they advise bosses to use to check on workers' location every 60-300 seconds) is not a "surveillance" tool, it's a "coordination" tool. They say that all the AI in the tool is "Responsible AI," which is doubtless a great comfort to workers.

In Microsoft's (mild) defense, they are not unique. Other reports in the series show how retail workers and hotel housekeepers are subjected to "despot on demand" services provided by Oracle:

https://crackedlabs.org/en/data-work/publications/retail-hospitality

Call centers, are even worse. After all, most of this stuff started with call centers:

https://crackedlabs.org/en/data-work/publications/callcenter

I've written about Arise, a predatory "work from home" company that targets Black women to pay the company to work for it (they also have to pay if they quit!). Of course, they can be fired at will:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/29/impunity-corrodes/#arise-ye-prisoners

There's also a report about Celonis, a giant German company no one has ever heard of, which gathers a truly nightmarish quantity of information about white-collar workers' activities, subjecting them to AI phrenology to judge their "emotional quality" as well as other metrics:

https://crackedlabs.org/en/data-work/publications/processmining-algomanage

As Celonis shows, this stuff is coming for all of us. I've dubbed this process "the shitty technology adoption curve": the terrible things we do to prisoners, asylum seekers and people in mental institutions today gets repackaged tomorrow for students, parolees, Uber drivers and blue-collar workers. Then it works its way up the privilege gradient, until we're all being turned into reverse-centaurs under the "digital whip" of a centaur boss:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/25/the-peoples-amazon/#clippys-revenge

In mediating between asshole bosses and the workers they destroy, these bossware technologies do more than automate: they also insulate. Thanks to bossware, your boss doesn't have to look you in the eye (or come within range of your fists) to check in on you every 60 seconds and tell you that you've taken 11 seconds too long on a task. I recently learned a useful term for this: an "accountability sink," as described by Dan Davies in his new book, The Unaccountability Machine, which is high on my (very long) list of books to read:

https://profilebooks.com/work/the-unaccountability-machine/

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/02/despotism-on-demand/#virtual-whips

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[kingstarkingslay]

MARAUDERS ERA YOUTUBE CAPTIONS

If the Marauders/Skittles had YouTube channels back at Hogwarts

The Marauders

How to Ruin Snape's Day Without Really Trying (Spoiler: It’s Way Too Easy)

“Why put in effort when you can just exist?”

#SnapeHatesUs #PrankMasters #MarauderMischief #SnivellusSucks

How to Get Caught by McGonagall and Still Look Innocent

“If you look confused enough, she might just believe it.”

#McGonagallVsMarauders #InnocentButNotReally #CaughtButStillCool #MarauderLuck

Cursed Broomstick Races: Who Will Win? Spoiler: Not Remus

“Remus: "I didn’t know this was a speed competition!"”

#BroomstickRaces #RemusFails #MarauderCompetitions #WizardingRacing

The Ultimate Marauder’s Map Tour

“A guide to sneaking around Hogwarts without getting caught. We’re basically professionals.”

#MarauderMap #SecretPassages #HogwartsHacks

The Marauders Try Muggle Technology: Expect Chaos

“We had no idea what we were doing. But Sirius thought phones were hilarious.”

#MuggleFail #MagicVsTech #MarauderConfusion

How to Befriend a Ghost (And Why You Probably Shouldn’t)

“This week, we invited Nearly Headless Nick for tea. The conversation went… well, horribly.”

#GhostAdventures #MarauderMagic #HauntingHilarity

We Tried to Have a Serious Conversation… It Didn’t Go Well

“Sirius tried to be profound. James interrupted with a bad pun. Remus tried to leave.”

#MarauderConfessions #NoSeriousTalkAllowed #SiriusHasAHeart

Sirius vs. James: Who’s the Better Wizard?

“Spoiler: Remus is the real winner. But let’s watch them argue for hours first.”

#BattleOfTheWizards #JamesVsSirius #WhoReignsSupreme

Hogwarts Night Out: Where to Sneak, How to Sneak, Why You Shouldn’t Sneak

“But we’re definitely going to sneak anyway. Watch us.”

#NighttimeAdventures #SneakyMarauders #ProfessorTensions

[felixcloud6288]

Dungeon Meshi Adventurer's Bible World Part 2

Tall-Men, Half-Foots, Elves, and Dwarfs.

Tall-men

Tall-man details are about what you'd expect to read in a D&D style-world. They're the most populous race and don't tend to be capable all-around rather than having one particular skill they are notable at.

The long-lived races feel threatened by their explosive reproductive rates. Tinfoil hat time, but maybe they let the Tall-men have control of major dungeon areas as a way to gaslight them and make them submissive to the long-lived races. They're given a valuable piece of land without knowing it's a ticking bomb, and when the bomb goes off, the elves, dwarfs, and gnomes blame them for it going off and use that to justify keeping their secrets about magic away from the short-lived races. If they could fight on the same level of knowledge and power, Tall-men could easily drive the long-lived races to extinction by pure manpower.

Oh. This has something I've been wanting to know. Tall-men can have viable children with ogres and Half-foots.

Laios is slightly taller than average (185 cm vs 180 cm). Falin is exactly average height (170 cm). Izutsumi is below average height (150 cm vs 170 cm), but she might still have room to grow.

According to Namari, Tall-men's special talent is singing and dancing. And Laios gets upset that he's not good at either. Let's not forget that he sang the mermaid song. And the Tall-man talent for singing and dancing could translate into any sort of ability that involves sound and movement, like using a fighting style that requires both hands or impersonating a dog. Laios and Izutsumi are the only ones in the party who regularly use both hands when fighting.

That bit with Senshi at the end is because he has the same issue as Laios at being bad at what his race is known for.

Half-foots

Surprised how little of the world Half-foots exist in. They live in the central part of the eastern continent, a peninsula in the north part of the Western Continent, and a small area in the southern continent. I bet Laios didn't know what a Half-foot was before he arrived at the Island.

And the negative stereotypes surrounding Half-foots mostly has to do with how they usually keep to themselves and the ones who set out to the larger world are the ambitious types.

A Half-foot's given name combines their first name, a last name, and their father's first name. So Chilchuck Tims's full name is understood as Chil, son of Tim, from the Chuck family. And only people close to them get to call them by their first name only. Laios has called him "Chil" several times. And similarly, Kuro calls Mikbell "Mik".

Chilchuck is quite tall for a half-foot (110 cm vs 100 cm).

Half-foot is an elf term, supposedly. They found their footprints and called them "half-foot" because their footprints were half the size of a Tall-man's. Some of the other names include "goblin" and "imp". Goblin was one of the monsters from Laios's book in chapter 2. It might be the same situation as trolls where it was a name for the half-foots that gradually shifted into its own mythical monster. The humans who came up with goblins probably wandered near a half-foot settlement and were attacked by lookouts.

Elves

The elf's description says war broke out between elves and dwarfs over excessive development of science and magic technologies. Could it just be the natural consequence of two empires that grew powerful and fought each other to expand? Or could something similar to what I theorized under the Tall-man section have happened? What if the elves decided to attack the dwarfs because they feared the dwarfs' technological advances would usurp the dominance the elves had with their magic?

It also says dungeons were created because of the war. In chapter 87, we see the moment the demon was locked away in a dungeon, and it seems like it was more like a literal castle dungeon rather than anything like the modern dungeons. It was just a dark space that the demon wasn't allowed to leave.

I've been considering this for a while but don't have any good evidence to support it, but I think the ancient war and the demon destroying the world are connected. Like maybe the actual triggers for the war were various tribes fighting to gain control of that one proto-dungeon to have the demon's power. And each tribe that controlled the demon would wish for characteristics that resulted in the various races.

Then they discovered they could move the demon to other places or have it exist in multiple areas at once by a loophole of the original dungeon entrapment. So they spread themselves wherever they could to construct dungeons to gain access and control of the demon.

The dungeon lord who wished for the world's destruction seemed to be a dwarf. Perhaps he was tired of all the violence and bloodshed and decided that the only way to stop it was to wipe out humanity.

Marcille is tall for an elf. She's exactly half-way between the average height of an elf and Tall-man (160 cm vs 150 cm vs 170 cm). The age of maturity for elves is 80. By elf standards, Marcille really was forced to grow up faster than she should have. And this also means Pattadol is barely considered an adult. She's the equivalent of a 19-year-old high school graduate being given a managerial role over people who've been working there for several years.

Most of the elves live in the Central Continents with one group along the east peninsula coast of the Eastern Continent and another along the coast at the lower west side of the Western Continent. The settlement in the Eastern Continent is probably where Marcille's mother comes from. It's also close to Izganda so there have probably been some minor conflicts and racial tensions there. The Western Continent settlement gave me a colossal "Hmmm..." moment cause that's where I speculated a potential lost kingdom dungeon might be located.

The bible says elf Senshi looked exactly like a character from the Daltian Clan. I think that means he would be one of the most beautiful elves by even elf standards. Does this mean he's also exceedingly handsome by dwarf standards? And the bible also says all elves are beautiful by modern beauty standards, but I'd like to know what would be considered an ugly elf by elf standards.

At some point, Fleki became one of my favorite characters and I love every moment with her. I'd want nothing to do with her in real life, but she's a fun character in-story. Case in point, I like seeing her get on everyone's case about them being insensitive to the other races (though she might just be trying to get under their skin or use it to act like she's morally superior), but the closest real-life comparison is acting like you're not allowed to use queer as a descriptive.

But she was the most shocked when Mithrun casually called Tall-men and half-foots "inferior races" so she might at least genuinely want to be respectful but also be a bit overzealous.

Dwarfs

The dwarf details imply that dwarfs and dungeons are closely connected. It could just be that the definition of "dungeon" has a heavy overlap with mines. The guy from chapter 87 who wished for his tribe to be immortal looks like a dwarf. I assume dwarfs are generally more responsible for making and expanding dungeons and maybe they wished to rebuild their bodies to be well suited to doing so. The demon wouldn't complain to have more space it can move either.

Presumably, organizations like the Canaries and Dungeon Keepers appeared after the Ancient War and they're both tasked with ensuring a dungeon can never expand to catastrophic levels and the demon within cannot escape. But they took different approaches to how they operate. The elves created a central organization responsible for maintaining dungeons under its jurisdiction and that organization can overrule any local governments in order to operate. The dwarfs instead lets individual tribes manage the dungeons and requires them to adhere to strict rules and traditions regarding the dungeon to the point they will excommunicate anyone who breaks the rules.

Senshi is roughly middle-aged by dwarf standards and he's slightly taller than average (140 cm vs 135 cm). The age of maturity is 40, so he was still a boy when Gillan's squad was wiped out in the dungeon. He'd be roughly equivalent to a 16 year-old when that happened.

Dwarfs are far more spread out than elves. They have settlements all around the Eastern and Southern Continents and there's also a settlement on the south-western peninsula in the Western Continent. It's probably a consequence of how dwarf society is so heavily insular. If you decide to leave the tribe, you can't move to another one; you have to make your own. So dwarfs are highly incentivized to spread out.

Dwarfs and gnomes can have viable children. So that confirms that question I had when I read Totan's bio.

The bible also addresses dwarfs getting teleportation sickness. It has nothing to do with mana but rather it's because teleportation messes with the semicircular canals in their ears. I know they give feedback about movement and orientation (You get motion-sick because your semicircular canals detect the movement from the vehicle you're in that your eyes do not) but I can't find any particular details about if they also assist with determining direction.

Various animals that engage in migration such as whales, salmon, and birds can sense the earth's magnetic field and use that for guidance. Dwarfs probably have that same ability and the sudden directional shift from teleporting just makes them horribly ill.

Wait, dwarf women do grow facial hair? But they shave it off? I could have had a beautifully bearded Namari but I'm denied that because of some arbitrary beauty standards!?

back

[mylittleredgirl]

today i'm thinking about b5 worldbuilding choices that seem like they were deliberately chosen to differentiate it from star trek. (this is a joyful statement, by the way, They Both Look Nice.gif)

i'm not talking about hyperspace/jumpgate technology, which is way too structurally load-bearing to think of as just Not Warp Drive.

it's more the small-ticket differences, like earthforce using american measurements (when the real life american military uses the metric system), and the sometimes conspicuous absence of the sci-fi technologies that are most iconically identified with star trek: transporters, replicators, all-purpose tricorders... and phasers with a stun setting, which is where things get kinda fucked up.

the sci-fi gun filling the phaser niche on b5 is the PPG. it's also a bloodless energy weapon, but it only has one setting, which is at least as deadly as a modern gun (i say "at least" because of how often someone is "killed instantly" with a single shot). officers are not armed with a less-lethal option.

in season one, it's routinely emphasized that no one except earth force personnel can have weapons of any kind on the station. the ban is pretty hardcore. not even religious ceremonial knives are allowed, there are active scans of everything coming on board, and security has the right to check for weapons even in the "foreign soil" of ambassadorial quarters.

there are a quarter of a million people here on any given day, mostly civilians, many of them aliens. there's a backdrop of petty crime, mostly theft and fistfights. occasionally someone gets stabbed with a homemade shank. security has Shit To Do! people to arrest, and so on. but the total weapons ban means that in the vast majority of cases, anyone that security can expect to encounter, especially inside the station (vs. the customs area) will be unarmed.

and this all seems like a recipe for disaster. a human in uniform killing an unarmed alien bystander (or a suspected petty criminal who hasn't been charged with anything) is going to be a problem for the Don't Start Wars With Aliens station!! of course the initial peace train derails mid-series, but at the beginning, sinclair is really holding on to the goal of peace by his fingernails. you would think that both he and earthgov (who Really want to keep earth out of war) would prefer that the random dumbasses in security carry a non-lethal option as a first-line weapon, even if they are also armed with a backup PPG... which implies that the humans in the b5 universe just never bothered to work on this technology.

meanwhile, in the real world, police tasers came into use in 1993, at the exact same time as b5 started. the idea that cops should have a way to subdue someone resisting arrest without shooting them was a pressing concern in the national conversation... so somehow it ends up being worse than just picking american riot cops off the street and sticking them in space. to us at home, especially in the 2020's, it fits in with the rest of the "hey, don't you and the good guys think this is kinda fucked up?" stuff, but it's not treated that way, because the good guys don't notice it at all (that's honestly a theme with law enforcement issues in b5 in general, but that's another post).

which is why i wonder if it was a Not Like Star Trek choice early on to avoid "set phasers to stun," and it just never came up again.

[clonefandomevents]

Trans Clone Week 2024 Prompts!

Prompts are here! We have three prompts, a quote prompt, an image prompt and a battalion prompt for the first 6 days! Choose one, choose them all! Day 7 is a free day, anything you like or a prompt you couldn't decide between for an earlier day.

Day 1- July 14th:

Kamino Guard-

-Cadets

-Gender Affirming Technology

-Snuggling

-"For my part, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream." Vincent Van Goh

('Becoming' banner by Jasper Alexander- https://www.tumblr.com/sunshineprincejeremyknox/744761034799202304?source=share)

Day 2- July 15th:

212th-

-Trans Commander

-Gender Affirming Dirty Talk

-Intimacy

-"Will I be something? Am I something? And the answer comes: You already are. You always were. And you still have time to be." Anis Mojgani, from “Here I Am”, Songs from Under the River: A Collection of Poetry

(A State of Mind by Robert W. Chambers- https://images.app.goo.gl/7BF1f723M5GKoGJDA)

Day 3- July 16th:

501st-

-Clone Gender Expression vs Other's Expectations

-Vod'e Cultural Gender Markers

-Tattoos

-"God has given you one face, and you make yourself another." - Shakespeare

(Barbie and Ken- https://images.app.goo.gl/4LEZ424od96RffeY7)

Day 4- July 17th:

104th-

-During Wartime

-Trans4Trans

-Hair Braiding

-"Invigorated by the possibility of reinventing my own body. The meaning was mine, as long as I was with those who had the vision and vocabulary to understand my creation." -Nick Krieger

(https://www.tumblr.com/sunshineprincejeremyknox/722124686135361536?source=share)

Day 5-July 18th:

Coruscant Guard-

-A Senator/Natborn Finds Out

-Internalized Transphobia

-Nightclubs(79's)

-"Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known." -Chuck Palahniuk

(https://www.tumblr.com/sunshineprincejeremyknox/742328449316880384?source=share)

Day 6- July 19th:

Original Units-

-After the War

-Gender Euphoria

-Community

-“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.” -Margaret Mead

(https://www.tumblr.com/sunshineprincejeremyknox/722349367302012929?source=share)

Day 7-July 20th:

Free Day!! Create any and everything for your favorite clones!

[c-is-for-circinate]

MCU Rewatch #2: IRON MAN 2 (2010)

General impressions: Kind of a hot mess but fun though?

This movie did not suck and I did not hate watching it. Still, kind of a mess in places for reasons that weren't entirely its fault.

I think maybe the single biggest thing that fucked this film over is the difficulty of making a movie about the evils of the military-industrial complex while taking money from the US military. It worked in the first Iron Man, because Tony started that movie as such a complete unwitting villain of an international arms dealer that moving away from that at all was clear heroic improvement. Here, we've already achieved that -- so how do we continue on the path without undercutting ourself?

The main question this movie asks is whether I'd prefer this hyper-capable superweapon suit be in the possession of the US Military at large, or one libertarian billionaire with the self-preservation and thrill-seeking tendencies of a Kennedy. Unfortunately, the answer to that question is a vehement NO PLEASE, and that's not really an option. So we're left with questions that get brought up (who can we trust with this technology, and why?), and no good answers, because the movie got them big US Armed Forces millions and therefore can't just say 'nobody'.

The Hero: Well, Tony Stark remains the single best thing about this film, so there's that at least.

There's a great line of continuity here with the first movie. We've already seen that Tony is over-the-top, prone to too far and too fast and too much. In the original movie, we get to see that channeled towards trying to improve the world -- but now that the goal isn't as clear as "stop these specific guys from destroying this one specific town" or "don't die", there's really nowhere to point it. Add on the fact that he's dying, and Tony is a powderkeg of disastrous impulses and flashy self-destruction. It makes sense. It's hard to watch sometimes, but it's also fun to watch, in a cool movie explosions sort of way, and it manages to resolve messily enough to feel earned but also hopeful. RDJ does a great job with Tony's over-the-top disaster self, but also his quieter moments, especially watching back video of his dad. It's good acting for a film with this many explosions.

The Villain: Painfully forgettable, unfortunately.

Look, it's not like 'son of a guy who worked with Howard Stark, working to ensure his father's legacy' doesn't have potential here. There's room for Tony to see himself in both Ivan Vanko and Justin Hammer. It's just never actually realized. We don't get to delve into comparing the complexities of fathers' legacies, and neither of these two people really have anything to do with the true conflict of this movie, IE Tony vs himself.

Tony himself is sort of the other villain of this movie, with his self-sabotage and his desperation. The emotional conflict here has nothing to do with the actual bad guys and everything to do with him. Unfortunately, in a superhero movie, while IM2 gets points for having that level of internal conflict it really is important for the external conflict to reflect those themes back, which it Does Not.

The Ensemble: Unfortunately underused, except for Rhodey.

Sadly, Pepper got shafted here. Most of her attempts to help went weird (WHY are you charging onto the racetrack like that, what is even happening), and there was a little more shrieking and running than I'd hope/expect from the lady who found and then accompanied the SHIELD guys so skillfully in IM1. For someone who's been promoted to Fortune 500 CEO, you'd think she'd be more...active? competent? Sigh. Still, Pepper's always fun.

Natasha felt weird after a decade of knowing her through other things. Scarlett Johanssen was about 25 when this was filmed and she looks like a baby. I don't know how to square that with Natalia Romanova, Red Room veteran and SHIELD convert who changed sides long enough ago that she's respected and trusted in the organization by now.

Rhodey though...it's interesting. I think it's very clear that Rhodey loves Tony, and is doing his best to be the best friend he can to him. I just don't think that Rhodey, fundamentally, is a very good friend for him. He's a colonel who works in weapons development. He is always, always, no matter what, going to have those priorities and exigencies pulling on him. He values what the US Military stands for. And that's a complicated and in many ways deeply unfortunate perspective for Tony to be dealing with, in these circumstances.

The Plot: Oh no, Iron Man 2. Oh no.

Look I'm not saying it doesn't, for the most part, work. There's just a lot of Applied Phlebotinum in this one. Tony synthesized a new element in his basement based on a secret his dad built into a model city in the 1950s? Like, just sit with that one for two seconds and then tell me hey what the fuck. (I do not think these filmmakers know how the periodic table works.)

Like, the actual events stacked up more or less ok, but because the villains were boring and detached from the actual emotional core of the movie, they just kind of...hung there. It didn't hold together well, unfortunately, although I am sure there's worse to come.

The Franchise: Well, this didn't kill the MCU, so there's that.

I need to write that post about the promises made by IM1, but the two biggest things that this movie attempts to follow up on are the consequences of a world with open superhero identities, and the problems with the military-industrial complex. I already talked about how the failed attempt to deal with that second theme is the root of a lot of this movie's issues, but I think the open superhero identities thing is one of the movie's big strengths.

We get to see a lot of fallout from Tony coming out as Iron Man! There's no superhero secret identity hunt; there are Congressional committees, and there's federal agents setting spies and putting him on house arrest, and there are real-world copycats. Rather than these things all being Tony's Problem Alone, these impacts feel very tied into the entire world. There's no weird isolation of Superhero Problems. Venko is Tony's problem because he's trying to kill Tony specifically, and using tech only Tony can understand to do it. I think this was well done! (I'm glad something was.)

VERDICT: A Flawed-But-Fun 5/10

I don't think this counts as an objectively good movie, but I think it was a fine popcorn flick. (And I know it gets worse. Of course it does.) 50% seems just about right.