#iOS 11 first look

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Your car spies on you and rats you out to insurance companies

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TOMORROW (Mar 13) in SAN FRANCISCO with ROBIN SLOAN, then Toronto, NYC, Anaheim, and more!

Another characteristically brilliant Kashmir Hill story for The New York Times reveals another characteristically terrible fact about modern life: your car secretly records fine-grained telemetry about your driving and sells it to data-brokers, who sell it to insurers, who use it as a pretext to gouge you on premiums:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/technology/carmakers-driver-tracking-insurance.html

Almost every car manufacturer does this: Hyundai, Nissan, Ford, Chrysler, etc etc:

https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2020/09/09/ford-state-farm-ford-metromile-honda-verisk-among-insurer-oem-telematics-connections/

This is true whether you own or lease the car, and it's separate from the "black box" your insurer might have offered to you in exchange for a discount on your premiums. In other words, even if you say no to the insurer's carrot – a surveillance-based discount – they've got a stick in reserve: buying your nonconsensually harvested data on the open market.

I've always hated that saying, "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product," the reason being that it posits decent treatment as a customer reward program, like the little ramekin warm nuts first class passengers get before takeoff. Companies don't treat you well when you pay them. Companies treat you well when they fear the consequences of treating you badly.

Take Apple. The company offers Ios users a one-tap opt-out from commercial surveillance, and more than 96% of users opted out. Presumably, the other 4% were either confused or on Facebook's payroll. Apple – and its army of cultists – insist that this proves that our world's woes can be traced to cheapskate "consumers" who expected to get something for nothing by using advertising-supported products.

But here's the kicker: right after Apple blocked all its rivals from spying on its customers, it began secretly spying on those customers! Apple has a rival surveillance ad network, and even if you opt out of commercial surveillance on your Iphone, Apple still secretly spies on you and uses the data to target you for ads:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Even if you're paying for the product, you're still the product – provided the company can get away with treating you as the product. Apple can absolutely get away with treating you as the product, because it lacks the historical constraints that prevented Apple – and other companies – from treating you as the product.

As I described in my McLuhan lecture on enshittification, tech firms can be constrained by four forces:

I. Competition

II. Regulation

III. Self-help

IV. Labor

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

When companies have real competitors – when a sector is composed of dozens or hundreds of roughly evenly matched firms – they have to worry that a maltreated customer might move to a rival. 40 years of antitrust neglect means that corporations were able to buy their way to dominance with predatory mergers and pricing, producing today's inbred, Habsburg capitalism. Apple and Google are a mobile duopoly, Google is a search monopoly, etc. It's not just tech! Every sector looks like this:

https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/learn/monopoly-by-the-numbers

Eliminating competition doesn't just deprive customers of alternatives, it also empowers corporations. Liberated from "wasteful competition," companies in concentrated industries can extract massive profits. Think of how both Apple and Google have "competitively" arrived at the same 30% app tax on app sales and transactions, a rate that's more than 1,000% higher than the transaction fees extracted by the (bloated, price-gouging) credit-card sector:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/07/curatorial-vig/#app-tax

But cartels' power goes beyond the size of their warchest. The real source of a cartel's power is the ease with which a small number of companies can arrive at – and stick to – a common lobbying position. That's where "regulatory capture" comes in: the mobile duopoly has an easier time of capturing its regulators because two companies have an easy time agreeing on how to spend their app-tax billions:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

Apple – and Google, and Facebook, and your car company – can violate your privacy because they aren't constrained regulation, just as Uber can violate its drivers' labor rights and Amazon can violate your consumer rights. The tech cartels have captured their regulators and convinced them that the law doesn't apply if it's being broken via an app:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/18/cursed-are-the-sausagemakers/#how-the-parties-get-to-yes

In other words, Apple can spy on you because it's allowed to spy on you. America's last consumer privacy law was passed in 1988, and it bans video-store clerks from leaking your VHS rental history. Congress has taken no action on consumer privacy since the Reagan years:

https://www.eff.org/tags/video-privacy-protection-act

But tech has some special enshittification-resistant characteristics. The most important of these is interoperability: the fact that computers are universal digital machines that can run any program. HP can design a printer that rejects third-party ink and charge $10,000/gallon for its own colored water, but someone else can write a program that lets you jailbreak your printer so that it accepts any ink cartridge:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Tech companies that contemplated enshittifying their products always had to watch over their shoulders for a rival that might offer a disenshittification tool and use that as a wedge between the company and its customers. If you make your website's ads 20% more obnoxious in anticipation of a 2% increase in gross margins, you have to consider the possibility that 40% of your users will google "how do I block ads?" Because the revenue from a user who blocks ads doesn't stay at 100% of the current levels – it drops to zero, forever (no user ever googles "how do I stop blocking ads?").

The majority of web users are running an ad-blocker:

https://doc.searls.com/2023/11/11/how-is-the-worlds-biggest-boycott-doing/

Web operators made them an offer ("free website in exchange for unlimited surveillance and unfettered intrusions") and they made a counteroffer ("how about 'nah'?"):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah

Here's the thing: reverse-engineering an app – or any other IP-encumbered technology – is a legal minefield. Just decompiling an app exposes you to felony prosecution: a five year sentence and a $500k fine for violating Section 1201 of the DMCA. But it's not just the DMCA – modern products are surrounded with high-tech tripwires that allow companies to invoke IP law to prevent competitors from augmenting, recongifuring or adapting their products. When a business says it has "IP," it means that it has arranged its legal affairs to allow it to invoke the power of the state to control its customers, critics and competitors:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

An "app" is just a web-page skinned in enough IP to make it a crime to add an ad-blocker to it. This is what Jay Freeman calls "felony contempt of business model" and it's everywhere. When companies don't have to worry about users deploying self-help measures to disenshittify their products, they are freed from the constraint that prevents them indulging the impulse to shift value from their customers to themselves.

Apple owes its existence to interoperability – its ability to clone Microsoft Office's file formats for Pages, Numbers and Keynote, which saved the company in the early 2000s – and ever since, it has devoted its existence to making sure no one ever does to Apple what Apple did to Microsoft:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

Regulatory capture cuts both ways: it's not just about powerful corporations being free to flout the law, it's also about their ability to enlist the law to punish competitors that might constrain their plans for exploiting their workers, customers, suppliers or other stakeholders.

The final historical constraint on tech companies was their own workers. Tech has very low union-density, but that's in part because individual tech workers enjoyed so much bargaining power due to their scarcity. This is why their bosses pampered them with whimsical campuses filled with gourmet cafeterias, fancy gyms and free massages: it allowed tech companies to convince tech workers to work like government mules by flattering them that they were partners on a mission to bring the world to its digital future:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/10/the-proletarianization-of-tech-workers/

For tech bosses, this gambit worked well, but failed badly. On the one hand, they were able to get otherwise powerful workers to consent to being "extremely hardcore" by invoking Fobazi Ettarh's spirit of "vocational awe":

https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/

On the other hand, when you motivate your workers by appealing to their sense of mission, the downside is that they feel a sense of mission. That means that when you demand that a tech worker enshittifies something they missed their mother's funeral to deliver, they will experience a profound sense of moral injury and refuse, and that worker's bargaining power means that they can make it stick.

Or at least, it did. In this era of mass tech layoffs, when Google can fire 12,000 workers after a $80b stock buyback that would have paid their wages for the next 27 years, tech workers are learning that the answer to "I won't do this and you can't make me" is "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out" (AKA "sharpen your blades boys"):

https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/29/elon-musk-texts-discovery-twitter/

With competition, regulation, self-help and labor cleared away, tech firms – and firms that have wrapped their products around the pluripotently malleable core of digital tech, including automotive makers – are no longer constrained from enshittifying their products.

And that's why your car manufacturer has chosen to spy on you and sell your private information to data-brokers and anyone else who wants it. Not because you didn't pay for the product, so you're the product. It's because they can get away with it.

Cars are enshittified. The dozens of chips that auto makers have shoveled into their car design are only incidentally related to delivering a better product. The primary use for those chips is autoenshittification – access to legal strictures ("IP") that allows them to block modifications and repairs that would interfere with the unfettered abuse of their own customers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

The fact that it's a felony to reverse-engineer and modify a car's software opens the floodgates to all kinds of shitty scams. Remember when Bay Staters were voting on a ballot measure to impose right-to-repair obligations on automakers in Massachusetts? The only reason they needed to have the law intervene to make right-to-repair viable is that Big Car has figured out that if it encrypts its diagnostic messages, it can felonize third-party diagnosis of a car, because decrypting the messages violates the DMCA:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/drm-cars-will-drive-consumers-crazy

Big Car figured out that VIN locking – DRM for engine components and subassemblies – can felonize the production and the installation of third-party spare parts:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

The fact that you can't legally modify your car means that automakers can go back to their pre-2008 ways, when they transformed themselves into unregulated banks that incidentally manufactured the cars they sold subprime loans for. Subprime auto loans – over $1t worth! – absolutely relies on the fact that borrowers' cars can be remotely controlled by lenders. Miss a payment and your car's stereo turns itself on and blares threatening messages at top volume, which you can't turn off. Break the lease agreement that says you won't drive your car over the county line and it will immobilize itself. Try to change any of this software and you'll commit a felony under Section 1201 of the DMCA:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/02/innovation-unlocks-markets/#digital-arm-breakers

Tesla, naturally, has the most advanced anti-features. Long before BMW tried to rent you your seat-heater and Mercedes tried to sell you a monthly subscription to your accelerator pedal, Teslas were demon-haunted nightmare cars. Miss a Tesla payment and the car will immobilize itself and lock you out until the repo man arrives, then it will blare its horn and back itself out of its parking spot. If you "buy" the right to fully charge your car's battery or use the features it came with, you don't own them – they're repossessed when your car changes hands, meaning you get less money on the used market because your car's next owner has to buy these features all over again:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world

And all this DRM allows your car maker to install spyware that you're not allowed to remove. They really tipped their hand on this when the R2R ballot measure was steaming towards an 80% victory, with wall-to-wall scare ads that revealed that your car collects so much information about you that allowing third parties to access it could lead to your murder (no, really!):

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

That's why your car spies on you. Because it can. Because the company that made it lacks constraint, be it market-based, legal, technological or its own workforce's ethics.

One common critique of my enshittification hypothesis is that this is "kind of sensible and normal" because "there’s something off in the consumer mindset that we’ve come to believe that the internet should provide us with amazing products, which bring us joy and happiness and we spend hours of the day on, and should ask nothing back in return":

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-to-have-great-conversations/

What this criticism misses is that this isn't the companies bargaining to shift some value from us to them. Enshittification happens when a company can seize all that value, without having to bargain, exploiting law and technology and market power over buyers and sellers to unilaterally alter the way the products and services we rely on work.

A company that doesn't have to fear competitors, regulators, jailbreaking or workers' refusal to enshittify its products doesn't have to bargain, it can take. It's the first lesson they teach you in the Darth Vader MBA: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

Your car spying on you isn't down to your belief that your carmaker "should provide you with amazing products, which brings your joy and happiness you spend hours of the day on, and should ask nothing back in return." It's not because you didn't pay for the product, so now you're the product. It's because they can get away with it.

The consequences of this spying go much further than mere insurance premium hikes, too. Car telemetry sits at the top of the funnel that the unbelievably sleazy data broker industry uses to collect and sell our data. These are the same companies that sell the fact that you visited an abortion clinic to marketers, bounty hunters, advertisers, or vengeful family members pretending to be one of those:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/07/safegraph-spies-and-lies/#theres-no-i-in-uterus

Decades of pro-monopoly policy led to widespread regulatory capture. Corporate cartels use the monopoly profits they extract from us to pay for regulatory inaction, allowing them to extract more profits.

But when it comes to privacy, that period of unchecked corporate power might be coming to an end. The lack of privacy regulation is at the root of so many problems that a pro-privacy movement has an unstoppable constituency working in its favor.

At EFF, we call this "privacy first." Whether you're worried about grifters targeting vulnerable people with conspiracy theories, or teens being targeted with media that harms their mental health, or Americans being spied on by foreign governments, or cops using commercial surveillance data to round up protesters, or your car selling your data to insurance companies, passing that long-overdue privacy legislation would turn off the taps for the data powering all these harms:

https://www.eff.org/wp/privacy-first-better-way-address-online-harms

Traditional economics fails because it thinks about markets without thinking about power. Monopolies lead to more than market power: they produce regulatory capture, power over workers, and state capture, which felonizes competition through IP law. The story that our problems stem from the fact that we just don't spend enough money, or buy the wrong products, only makes sense if you willfully ignore the power that corporations exert over our lives. It's nice to think that you can shop your way out of a monopoly, because that's a lot easier than voting your way out of a monopoly, but no matter how many times you vote with your wallet, the cartels that control the market will always win:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/#apor-locksmith

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

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/2024/03/12/market-failure/#car-wars

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

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

[outsideheadvjd]

As a recent member of the community, I see that, like me, there are many beginners who don't know where to start regarding the myths and birth etc. of the gods, and that's why I decided to make this post. The book above is The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition (English Edition), by Robert Graves and it covers basically everything!: From the creation of the world to Odysseus' journey home. It talks about the births of the gods, their deeds and some heroes. I bought the Portuguese version because I'm Brazilian and it has helped me a lot, so maybe it will help you too. If you are interested, here is the summary of the entire contents of the book (I hope you find something interesting or that you were looking for information :>):

1. THE PELASGIAN CREATION MYTH

2. THE HOMERIC AND ORPHIC CREATION MYTHS

3. THE OLYMPIAN CREATION MYTH

4. TWO PHILOSOPHICAL CREATION MYTHS

5. THE FIVE AGES OF MAN

6. THE CASTRATION OF URANUS

7. THE DETHRONEMENT OF CRONUS

8. THE BIRTH OF ATHENE

9. ZEUS AND METIS

10. THE FATES

11. THE BIRTH OF APHRODITE

12. HERA AND HER CHILDREN

13. ZEUS AND HERA

14. BIRTHS OF HERMES, APOLLO, ARTEMIS, AND DIONYSUS

15. THE BIRTH OF EROS

16. POSEIDON’S NATURE AND DEEDS

17. HERMES’S NATURE AND DEEDS

18. APHRODITE’S NATURE AND DEEDS

19. ARES’S NATURE AND DEEDS

20. HESTIA’S NATURE AND DEEDS

21. APOLLO’S NATURE AND DEEDS

22. ARTEMIS’S NATURE AND DEEDS

23. HEPHAESTUS’S NATURE AND DEEDS

24. DEMETER’S NATURE AND DEEDS

25. ATHENE’S NATURE AND DEEDS

26. PAN’S NATURE AND DEEDS

27. DIONYSUS’S NATURE AND DEEDS

28. ORPHEUS

29. GANYMEDES

30. ZAGREUS

31. THE GODS OF THE UNDERWORLD

32. TYCHE AND NEMESIS

33. THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA

34. THE CHILDREN OF ECHIDNE

35. THE GIANTS’ REVOLT

36. TYPHON

37. THE ALOEIDS

38. DEUCALION’S FLOOD

39. ATLAS AND PROMETHEUS

40. EOS

41. ORION

42. HELIUS

43. THE SONS OF HELLEN

44. ION

45. ALCYONE AND CEYX

46. TEREUS

47. ERECHTHEUS AND EUMOLPUS

48. BOREAS

49. ALOPE

50. ASCLEPIUS

51. THE ORACLES

52. THE ALPHABET

53. THE DACTYLS

54. THE TELCHINES

55. THE EMPUSAE

56. IO

57. PHORONEUS

58. EUROPE AND CADMUS

59. CADMUS AND HARMONIA

60. BELUS AND THE DANAIDS

61. LAMIA

62. LEDA

63. IXION

64. ENDYMION

65. PYGMALION AND GALATEA

66. AEACUS

67. SISYPHUS

68. SALMONEUS AND TYRO

69. ALCESTIS

70. ATHAMAS

71. THE MARES OF GLAUCUS

72. MELAMPUS

73. PERSEUS

74. THE RIVAL TWINS

75. BELLEROPHON

76. ANTIOPE

77. NIOBE

78. CAENIS AND CAENEUS

79. ERIGONE

80. THE CALYDONIAN BOAR

81. TELAMON AND PELEUS

82. ARISTAEUS

83. MIDAS

84. CLEOBIS AND BITON

85. NARCISSUS

86. PHYLLIS AND CARYA

87. ARION

88. MINOS AND HIS BROTHERS

89. THE LOVES OF MINOS

90. THE CHILDREN OF PASIPHAË

91. SCYLLA AND NISUS

92. DAEDALUS AND TALOS

93. CATREUS AND ALTHAEMENES

94. THE SONS OF PANDION

95. THE BIRTH OF THESEUS

96. THE LABOURS OF THESEUS

97. THESEUS AND MEDEA

98. THESEUS IN CRETE

99. THE FEDERALIZATION OF ATTICA

100. THESEUS AND THE AMAZONS

101. PHAEDRA AND HIPPOLYTUS

102. LAPITHS AND CENTAURS

103. THESEUS IN TARTARUS

104. THE DEATH OF THESEUS

105. OEDIPUS

106. THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES

107. THE EPIGONI

108. TANTALUS

109. PELOPS AND OENOMAUS

110. THE CHILDREN OF PELOPS

111. ATREUS AND THYESTES

112. AGAMEMNON AND CLYTAEMNESTRA

113. THE VENGEANCE OF ORESTES

114. THE TRIAL OF ORESTES

115. THE PACIFICATION OF THE ERINNYES

116. IPHIGENEIA AMONG THE TAURIANS

117. THE REIGN OF ORESTES

118. THE BIRTH OF HERACLES

119. THE YOUTH OF HERACLES

120. THE DAUGHTERS OF THESPIUS

121. ERGINUS

122. THE MADNESS OF HERACLES

123. THE FIRST LABOUR: THE NEMEAN LION

124. THE SECOND LABOUR: THE LERNAEAN HYDRA

125. THE THIRD LABOUR: THE CERYNEIAN HIND

126. THE FOURTH LABOUR: THE ERYMANTHIAN BOAR

127. THE FIFTH LABOUR: THE STABLES OF AUGEIAS

128. THE SIXTH LABOUR: THE STYMPHALIAN BIRDS

129. THE SEVENTH LABOUR: THE CRETAN BULL

130. THE EIGHTH LABOUR: THE MARES OF DIOMEDES

131. THE NINTH LABOUR: HIPPOLYTE’S GIRDLE

132. THE TENTH LABOUR: THE CATTLE OF GERYON

133. THE ELEVENTH LABOUR: THE APPLES OF THE HESPERIDES

134. THE TWELFTH LABOUR: THE CAPTURE OF CERBERUS

135. THE MURDER OF IPHITUS

136. OMPHALE

137. HESIONE

138. THE CONQUEST OF ELIS

139. THE CAPTURE OF PYLUS

140. THE SONS OF HIPPOCOÖN

141. AUGE

142. DEIANEIRA

143. HERACLES IN TRACHIS

144. IOLE

145. THE APOTHEOSIS OF HERACLES

146. THE CHILDREN OF HERACLES

147. LINUS

148. THE ARGONAUTS ASSEMBLE

149. THE LEMNIAN WOMEN AND KING CYZICUS

150. HYLAS, AMYCUS AND PHINEUS

151. FROM THE SYMPLEGADES TO COLCHIS

152. THE SEIZURE OF THE FLEECE

153. THE MURDER OF APSYRTUS

154. THE ARGO RETURNS TO GREECE

155. THE DEATH OF PELIAS

156. MEDEA AT EPHYRA

157. MEDEA IN EXILE

158. THE FOUNDATION OF TROY

159. PARIS AND HELEN

160. THE FIRST GATHERING AT AULIS

161. THE SECOND GATHERING AT AULIS

162. NINE YEARS OF WAR

163. THE WRATH OF ACHILLES

164. THE DEATH OF ACHILLES

165. THE MADNESS OF AJAX

166. THE ORACLES OF TROY

167. THE WOODEN HORSE

168. THE SACK OF TROY

169. THE RETURNS

170. ODYSSEUS’S WANDERINGS

171. ODYSSEUS’S HOMECOMING

Remembering that this book is not ritualistic and is not necessarily religious, so you will not find much this type of information.

[yeaimsafiya]

CHAPTER ONE back from rehab

SYNOPSIS the beginning of a teenage girl named y/n who is fresh out of rehab but doesn't intend to stay clean.

FROM THE WRITER AHH IM SORRY IM LATE GUYS!! This is the first chapter I'm ever writing, I took some inspo from episode 1 but I'm going to have to cut each episode into fourths because I really don't want to spend a whole week trying to finish a whole episode and school work. But I hope you guys really enjoy this chapter as much as I did - Love you guys, Sapiyah <3

WARNINGS Lots of unnecessary writing, female! reader, mentions of drugs and drinking, strong sexual content, nudity, violence, adult content, adult language, scenes might be uncomfortable for some, some scenes might include mentions of mental illness'

SERIES EUPHORIA

CHARACTERS INCLUDED members of the bakusquad & dekusquad, big three(?), some characters of class 1A

NOTES MDNI! Ageless blogs will be blocked or removed.

Readers discretion is advised

Suddenly, the whole world goes dark and nothing else matters except the person standing in front of you.

You were once happy. Content.

Sloshing and swimming around your own private, primordial pool; Then one day, for reasons beyond your control, you were continuously and repeatedly crushed...

Over..and over.. again by the cervix of your mother, M/n.

You put up a good fight, but eventually lost, for the first time, but not the last.

You were born 3 days after 9/11, your mother and father spent two days in the hospital, holding you under the soft glow of the television, watching those towers fall over and over again, until the feeling of grief gave away to numbness.

And then, without warning, a middle-class childhood in the American suburbs.

|

You were sitting at the dinner table with your mother, M/n, and Father, F/n. But it appeared something else had gotten your attention, a set of numerous lights above the dinner table, in which you wanted to count.

"Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen.."

" What are you looking at y/n?"

"..."

"What are you doing? ..Y-y/n look at me."

"One, two, three, .."

"What are you doing Y/n?"

*cries*

|

"Id say she's suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder..."

Its not like you were physically abused..

"...attention deficit disorder..."

..Or had some type of clean water storage..

"..general anxiety disorder.."

..Or was molested by a family member.

"..and possibly bipolar disorder. But she's a little bit too young to tell."

So, explain this shit to me.

|

"Honey, it's just the way your brain was hardwired; Plenty of great, intelligent, funny, interesting and creative people have struggled with the same things you struggle with."

"Like who?"

"Vincent Van Gogh, Sylvia Plath, and even Brittney Spears, your favorite!"

You haven't remembered much from the ages of eight to twelve. Just that the world moved fast, and your mind moved slow.

"Does anyone have an idea of what a perception might be?"

And every now and then, if you focused on the way you breathed...

You'd die.

"Slow down, just breathe"

Until every second of the day, you'd find yourself trying to outrun your anxiety.

"What's wrong Y/n?"

..And quite frankly..

"I'm just fucking exhausted"

|

Coming down to the kitchen, you could hear the small talk between your mother and younger sister, S/N.

"You said the doctor was in our network. How can he suddenly be out of network?"

"I can't afford it."

"Did you see that video of the girl who got acid thrown at her face?"

"What? No.."

"It's pretty fucked up.."

"Mom do you know where the tampons are?"

"In my bathroom, right under the sink."

And at one point, you'd make a choice of who you are and what you want.

"Alright Gia, let's go"

"Why do the co-payments cost $300?"

"Y/n did you eat breakfast?"

".."

"What's with the glasses?"

"What glasses?"

You just happened to show up one day, without a map or a compass..

"Attention students, we need to lockdown."

..Or to be honest, anyone capable of giving on iota of good fucking advice.

And I know it all seems sad but guess what? You did not build this system up, nor fuck it up yourself.

But then it happens. That moment where your breath starts to slow. And every time you breathe, you breathe out all the oxygen you have.

Then everything stops: Your heart, your lungs, then finally, your brain. And everything you feel, you wish, and want to forget, it all just sinks.

And then suddenly... you give it air again, give it life again.

You remember the first time it happened, where you were so scared you wanted to call 911. Go to the hospital and be kept alive by machines and apple juice. But you didn't want to look like an idiot, and you didn't want to fuck up everyone else's night.

And now overtime, that's all you've wanted.. those two seconds of nothingness.

You spent a good portion of summer before junior year in rehab. God granted you the serenity to accept things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

"Y/N," your sister yelled from afar, greeting you after your long leave. You smiled, and whilst running up to her, tried to continue the conversation with your younger sibling.

"Hey, Come here!"

"How are you?"

"Good, I missed you."

"I missed you too."

"Look at you, are you growing?"

"No."

Looking over, you see your mother standing by your family car.

"Hey," you yelled out to her, only to receive a small smile from her.

And with that. you knew it was your time to go.

|

"I'm very happy for you Y/n. You're about to start a brand-new chapter," Your mother says while driving you and your sister to school. You looked at her with a smile, then turned your attention back to the car window.

You had no intentions of staying clean. And yet, Jirou just moved into town.

"There's some new girl in town that I think you'll be friends with," Shoto said, with you standing beside him in his store.

"Who?"

"Shit, I don't know. She came in looking all punk rock and shit; So I'm thinking to myself, like, 'look like somebody Y/n would be friends with'."

Which was sort of a dead-on observation for Shoto, who's not normally revolving in the same direction as planet earth.

"So how long have you been back?" He asked.

"About five days."

"And how are you feeling?"

"I mean, ever since I gave my life over to my lord and savior Jesus Christ, things have been, like, really good."

"Word? That's what's up," You chuckled at his snarky remark, giving him a small smile.

"I'm fucking with you," you said whilst laughing, "It was a joke."

"Shit, hey, I don't judge," he defended, hands raising to just above his chest.

"But for real, is Deku in the back?"

"Are you serious?" Shoto questioned, seeming very disappointed in you.

"What, you think cause' I went to rehab I stayed clean?"

"I mean, ain't that the point?" he asks.

"Yeah, well, the world is coming to an end, and I haven't even graduated high school yet."

You gave Shoto one more smile before going to Deku, whilst Shoto stared at you the entire way there; There was a hint of sadness in his eyes, but since you were too busy looking for Deku, you didn't see.

You opened one of the doors of the refrigerators, leading you right to him with a bowl of fruit loops,"I thought your ass was dead," he said one he saw your appearance.

"And I thought you had Asperger's till I realized your just a prick," you barked back.

"This a fickle industry, y'all come and go. I'm just trying to stack my cash, pay off our mortgage," he said while pulling out a bunch of plastic bags out of a microwave.

"So what the fuck do you want?" You gave him a knowing look before he handed you needed.

"You sure you don't want to try something new?" He asks you.

"Like what?"

"2C-T-2, 2C-T-7, and 5-MeO-DIPT."

"I'm sorry I have no fucking idea of what you just said."

"It doesn't matter," he stated, "but this shit, is fucking lit."

"What is it?"

"N-diisopropyl-5-methoxytryptamine. It's a fast-acting psychedelic."

Got some similarities to LSD, but with, like, key differences. Not as visual as shit, but definitely a sense distorter.

"What's wrong?" That same dark purple hair girl questioned.

"I'm just so happy," you responded back.

"I don't know, this shits been going off in Tampa, and mad people like to fuck with this," Deku continued on with his descriptions with the drug.

"Okay. Yeah, why not."

"That'll be 120."

"Oh uh, Shoto said he'd spot me."

"Shoto doesn't spot nobody."

"Yeah, well, it's a post-rehab discount, so you should ask him."

"I will go ask him, cause' I know your full of shit."

Those were the last words he said before you walked out. Those were the last words you heard before you saw the same two boys in freshman year.

Bakugo and Kirishima.

TAGLIST: (send an ask or reply to add or remove) @urinejaeger, @saturxnn, @lv9su, @minnipe, @flamgosstuff, @lilrockzstar, @actfsgxcv, @lovebuggyboo, @russochild19, @iits-lexie, @mendez5657, @animatronicrat, @thirstygorl, @scrittynotfound, @pleaseleavemebelol, @thymebread, @cocojellie, @vxnanaaa-blog, @tn-johnson, @knotatwink, @hpttstears, @blackcatluna, @queennb-123, @nndntahg

All work is subject to copyright by © yeaimsapiyah as of 2024.

Do not steal, use or reupload my work without given permission or my consent. If so, you will either be blocked, removed, or reported.

[zahri-melitor]

DC Pride 2022:

I didn't particularly like the Damian and Jon story (not in the least because I generally don't get much from the way they're characterised in stories together), but it did crystallise a few things for me about why I find "it's a Pride parade!" stories so unutterably dull.

I'm not going to go into the 'is Pride a riot' debate that I know was everywhere when this issue came out, but I think the thing is...the art never actually LOOKS like a parade to me, as it doesn't hit the right notes.

Where are the Dykes on Bikes at the head of it. Where are the old people who founded this. The history OF the parade is encapsulated in the shape of the parade itself. It's always too young, too sanitised and too twee.

The Nubia and Io story just reminds me I really want to read all the Nubia stuff (I'll get there!)

Connor's story is that awkward line of 'we need you to come out' and 'coming out stories are so formulaic'. Connor, definitely throw that letter in the bin. You absolutely don't actually want to send a letter to your mother about the specific details of what you do and don't want to do with other people physically. The awkwardness in your memory of what you said will never ever go away.

Alysia Yeoh's story is clearly not contemporary (probably mid Batgirl 2016 I think?) because Babs isn't using the Clock Tower when this issue came out. It's...nice. Adult. Slightly tired.

The Jackson Hyde story is cute. I feel it's making Xebel a lot calmer and friendlier than it's usually portrayed but I haven't read enough Aquaman to be definite on that. Hang out with your boyfriend, Jackson!

The Jo Mullein story I need to come back to after I've actually read Far Sector but felt fun.

The Ray Terrill story...is extremely funny if you have actually read Ray and Dinah's 1990s interactions.

What's calculated to make Ray run off to help immediately? Dinah calling for back up!

Dinah. Dinah. Behaving like this is how you had that massive fight with Ollie where he thought you were cheating on him with Ray thirty years ago. (Do it again, it's very funny to me)

Ray: nobody has every shown me affection before Dinah: acts like a human being Ray: dedicates his entire diary to being aimed at Dinah

ANYWAY. Story is fine, the bonus by reading it through a 90s lens is amazing.

The Kate Kane story just being Jacob Kane being proud of Kate made me laugh (I don't actually think you're that supportive, Jacob, but I'm glad you think you are trying to be in your mind). On the other hand it's sweet to frame something through a proud parent.

Tim's story: I laughed realising they'd given this to Travis Moore. They clearly wanted it to be pretty. Nice that they went to Fair Day.

More seriously though: this is very in tune with Tim having other moments of self discovery (To the Father I Never Knew, the first Father's Day with Bruce). Very similar internal monologue.

As I say annually, the Harley/Ivy story is unnecessary. This should be in their own titles.

(Sorry Earth-11, I do not care about you)

And then we get to the only story in the ENTIRE ISSUE with any real grit to it (Kevin Conroy's autobiographical piece) and they slap an advisory warning on the front.

And look, I get why, but also it's so...hmm...we should be able to acknowledge more complicated stories and common narratives without having to warn people. We don't put warnings like that on the front of Lobo (well, aside from the comic being titled 'Lobo'). It should be possible to acknowledge the joys of identity while still reflecting on the past. It's not even anything more than a single slur a bunch of times plus period homophobia and the AIDS crisis. It's not shocking? or surprising? or unexpected?

DC Pride Tim Drake Special #1:

Okay so this is UL reprints plus one new story?

I think the most disappointing thing about the Steph story is that the characterisation doesn't really ring true to any of the characters involved? Steph is allowed to be jealous. Tim's allowed to be avoiding her and shouldn't be getting nagged by everyone to talk to her (especially given the preceding stories and the DC Pride story make it clear Tim and Bernard have been dating for months). It's a cute fantasy but it doesn't feel realistic for the failure points of the personalities of any of the characters involved (Tim, Steph, Conner or Bart), and Cass is once again just used as an adjunct to Steph, rather than someone who has her own independent relationship with Tim.

The art is cute, I even think Tim and Steph did need to clear the air on page, but...it could have used some more grit? Depth? Possibility of things going wrong or people feeling hurt? Less of an ideal fantasy that worked perfectly?

[ariel-seagull-wings]

ANTÔNIO CARLOS GOMES

@princesssarisa @themousefromfantasyland @obufalo @the-blue-fairie @tamisdava2 @moonbeamlightning

Antônio Carlos Gomes was born in Campinas on 11 July, 1836, and from an early age, he showed an interest in music, encouraged by his father, Manuel José Gomes, who was also a musician. As a young man, he divided his time between working as a tailor and studying music. 

At the age of 15, he began composing waltzes, polkas, and quadrilles. By the time he turned 18, he had gained recognition with the composition of his first mass, the Missa de São Sebastião.

This work, that he dedicated to his father, was imbued with mysticism.

In 1857, he released A Cayumba, one of the first classical pieces to incorporate rhythms from African dances into the structure of a ballroom polka.

When he was still young, he moved to Rio de Janeiro to study at the Imperial Conservatory of Music, where he was mentored by renowned masters such as Francisco Manuel da Silva, the composer of the Brazilian National Anthem.

In 1861, he premiered his first major work, A Noite do Castelo, at the Lyrico Fluminense Theater, based on the work of Antônio Feliciano de Castilho.

Carlos Gomes was acclaimed by an enthusiastic crowd, and Emperor Dom Pedro II, also impressed by the young composer’s success, honored him with the Imperial Order of the Rose.

Carlos Gomes’s talent quickly captivated the court. In 1863, he presented his second opera, Joana de Flandres, with a libretto by Salvador de Mendonça, which also achieved great success.

In recognition of his talent, he was selected to receive a scholarship to study in Europe, funded by the National Lyric Opera Company as part of a contract with the Imperial Government.

It is said that Dom Pedro II would have preferred Carlos Gomes to study in Germany, where the maestro, Richard Wagner was prominent, but the Empress, Dona Teresa Cristina, a Neapolitan, suggested Italy instead.

Under Pedro II’s patronage, he was admitted to the Milan Conservatory, where, in 1866, he graduated as a master and composer, earning the highest praise from critics and professors alike.

He lived in Milan, but he never forgot Brazil. He was looking for inspiration for a work that would firmly establish his reputation when one afternoon in 1867, while walking through Piazza del Duomo, he heard a boy shouting, “Il Guarany! Il Guarany! Storia interessante dei selvaggi del Brasile!” 

The poor Italian translation of José de Alencar’s novel piqued the maestro’s interest and at that moment, the idea for his most famous work was born.

The libretto, in Italian, was written by Antonio Scalvini and Carlo D’Ormeville. The opera is important as it was the first Brazilian opera to be acclaimed outside Brazil. 

O Guarani is revered for its rich orchestration, inspired melodies, and integration of elements of Brazilian Indigenous music, solidifying its reputation as a unique work in the operatic repertoire.

The opera followed a contemporary trend in Europe of curiosity about foreign peoples and customs.

O Guarani premiered at Teatro Alla Scala in Milan in 1870. Giuseppe Verdi, who had been an inspiration to the young Carlos Gomes, is said to have remarked that evening: “Questo giovane comincia dove finisco io!” (“This young man begins where I leave off!”). Its overture was later used as the theme for the radio program A Voz do Brasil.

After the end of the Monarchy, the government of the newly established Republic offered Carlos Gomes the sum of 20,000 réis to compose a new national anthem. However, the maestro refused out of respect for the deposed emperor, his friend and patron, who was in exile at that time.

In April 1896, already gravely ill, Carlos Gomes returned to Brazil and took up the role of director at the Carlos Gomes Conservatory in Belém do Pará. He passed away shortly afterwards, on 16 September.

The maestro is the patron of seat number 15 at the Brazilian Academy of Music and his name was inscribed in the Livro dos Heróis e Heroínas da Pátria on 26 December, 2017.

Carlos Gomes’s legacy was recognized by UNESCO in 2017 when his work was included in the International Register of the Memory of the World (MOW) Program. For all these reasons, Carlos Gomes is one of the most honored musicians in Brazil. 

In 1959, at the suggestion of the baritone, Paulo Fortes, a proposal was put forward to place a statue of Brazilian composer Carlos Gomes in front of the Rio do Janeiro Municipal Theater, replacing the statue of Frédéric Chopin, which had been placed there in 1939.

The monument was intended to mark the beginning of the 1960 national opera season. The statue was unveiled on 16 January, 1960 and was funded by the Secretariat of Transportation and Public Works of the Federal District and installed by the engineer, Elsa Osborne.

The monument is a replica of a statue created by Rodolfo Bernardelli and installed in Largo do Carmo in Campinas, the maestro’s hometown. Bernardelli depicted Carlos Gomes at the end of a performance, signaling the orchestra to be silent for the audience to applaud.

Interestingly, inside the Municipal Theater, there is a bronze bust of Carlos Gomes, also sculpted by Bernardelli.

It is in the hall leading to the first-floor seating area. There is another bust in his honor on Paquetá Island, as well as a theater named after him located in Praça Tiradentes.

The location of Carlos Gomes’s statue in Cinelândia, an iconic center of cultural life in Rio de Janeiro, emphasizes the impact of his work, the significance of his contribution to Brazilian culture, and his recognition both in Brazil and abroad.

[arcielee]

Interview With a Writer

It is that blessed time when the wonderful and talented Miss Maggie, @inthedayswhenlandswerefew, gives us some behind-the-scenes insight to her latest brilliant narration. [Feel free to check out the Spotify playlist of all the songs mentioned and let me know if I forgot one!]

Here is masterlist to my Interview With a Writer series and the other talented individuals who allow me to continue this self-indulgent series! 💜 Picture(s) source.

Name: inthedayswhenlandswerefew

Story: 1968

Paring: modern Aemond Targaryen x female!reader, modern Aegon Targaryen x female!reader

Warnings: 18+ mature themes. Be mindful of chapter warnings.

Where did the idea for 1968 come from?

I am a high school social studies teacher by trade, and my absolute favorite class to teach is American History. The 1960s and 70s were actually one of my weak spots when I got my first teaching job back in 2020, so I ended up researching a lot about that period of time and got absolutely obsessed with it. In my American History class, I spend a whole lesson on JUST 1968, because so many important events happened in that year that are emblematic of broader trends and tensions.

One day I was re-reading one of my favorite books, The Other Mrs. Kennedy by Jerry Oppenheimer, which is specifically about Bobby Kennedy’s wife Ethel, but also gives a lot of insight into the Kennedy family generally and what it was like to live through that era. The idea of using this setting as a fic AU occurred to me, and I ruminated on it for a few weeks while finishing up Napoleonville.

Eventually, I had a revelation of the ending of 1968 (true to my usual pattern), and then knew I’d have to write the fic! I was actually really worried about all the political and historical details being too boring and/or confusing (especially for non-U.S. readers), so I was relieved that so many people gave it a chance. 🥰

Honestly, it was brilliant with the similarities to the Kennedys and Targaryens in the story. Were there any historical cameos in 1968 that you enjoyed channeling? Or perhaps struggled with?

I find LBJ super fascinating, and I feel that because of the Vietnam War he really doesn’t get a fair assessment when people look back on his presidency. His work for civil rights and the Great Society (SNAP, Medicaid, Head Start, Job Corps, PBS, etc.) was truly revolutionary, and as someone who grew up in poverty and benefitted from a lot of those programs, I don’t think LBJ’s contributions get the recognition and praise they deserve. I perceive him as a haunted sort of figure, and I really enjoyed his cameos. (To be clear, he was also super problematic and bizarre personally, and I don’t mean to excuse any of that 😂).

As for someone who was difficult to write about…honestly, the George Wallace research I did was super depressing, so while he was necessary to include, I didn’t really enjoy working on those parts!

Was there anything in specific that inspired your Reader portrayal?

Io is a bit of a composite sketch. Ethel Kennedy was known as doggedly committed to her husband’s career above all else (despite eventually being the mother of 11 children!!), and I think that inspired Io’s single-minded determination to help Aemond win the election in the first few chapters. Ethel was traditional in the sense that her husband was the center of her world and made all the important decisions, as was expected of women of her social class in that time period. But Io is also a manifestation of the counterculture of the late-60s. She is young, educated, genuinely progressive politically, and likes to party. She tries to reconcile the expectations of her family/time period and her actual personality by intentionally choosing a husband with whom she can have an equal partnership making the world a better place. And…we all know how that worked out.

[Photo Ethel and Bobby Kennedy, m. 1950]

Can you explain your interpretation of Aegon? How does he compare and contrast to Aemond? What drives them? Why are they the way that they are?

In 1968, Aegon is 40 years old, and so his role in the Targaryen political dynasty is very well-established: once his family realized he couldn’t be weaponized for their purposes, he was largely disposed of, and lives this aimless, uninspired, self-loathing sort of existence. He does have some genuine love for his family—missing Daeron and feeling guilt over him being sent to Vietnam, a vague sort of fondness for Mimi and the kids, distress when Aemond is shot in Palm Beach, an apology of sorts to Alicent by performing “Mama Tried” at her birthday party—but Aegon exists on the periphery, and he knows this, and while he doesn’t want to be a politician the rejection still stings.

At first, he perceives Io as yet another person who makes him feel inadequate and unloved; and in fairness, she is cruel to him, in fact more so than Aegon is to Io in return. It is noteworthy that in Chapter 1, she viciously criticizes Aegon in front of everyone in the waiting room (“if someone had to get killed tonight it should have been you”), but he doesn’t return fire until they are alone (the infamous cow comment), and even then he seems to regret it immediately.

Aegon, fundamentally, is more sad than mean. When in Chapters 2 and 3 Io abruptly reveals herself to be someone who is vulnerable, wounded, abandoned, and kind of a hippie lowkey, Aegon begins to perceive her differently, and she becomes an opportunity for him to be truly understood, protected, and loved for the first time in his life.

I think we would all describe Aemond as ambitious and ruthless, determined to prove that he is the best to compensate for deep, lifelong insecurities. He is a progressive politically because he sees a path to build a winning coalition, and perhaps in small part because of the whole Greeks-being-despised immigrants thing. But in 1968 there is a sense that you never fully understand who he is as a person. This is intentional! 1968 is Io’s story, and she never gets to see the whole Aemond. She sees parts of the picture, but never the full image. As awful as he is to Io, there is also a side of Aemond that truly (even if in an…unorthodox way 😂) loves Alys and their child, and there are clues that Alys understands him like no one else can (that Ouija board message… 👀). He’s by no means a good guy, but he is multifaceted. I think the stress of the presidency, and his long separation from Alys, ends up softening Aemond a bit, hence him defending Io’s reputation and ultimately letting her go.

Did anything inspire your other OCs? Specifically "The Ones Who Married In" club?

I didn’t sit down and plan what sorts of characters would be in the “The Ones Who Married In” club. I was possessed by these random visions of them: a perpetually drunk Mimi, a perhaps not too bright but very sweet Fosco, and Malibu Barbie but make her Polish Ludwika, and I was thinking: “These people are ridiculous, this will never work!” But then when I thought about it more, I realized that Mimi, Fosco, Ludwika, and Io all serve strategic roles to help advance Aemond’s career, and so it would make sense that Otto and Aemond cobbled them together and shoved them into the family portraits. I ended up really loving them, but they weren’t a big part of my original outline for 1968. 🙂

How would Io rate them based on her friendship with each of them?

Fosco is definitely #1; they connect on an emotional level that is deep but also largely unspoken. Ludwika is a close #2; she’s Io’s shopping buddy but also witty, supportive, and very feminist in her own way. And then Mimi is a distant #3. Io pities Mimi and feels loyalty to her as a fellow Targaryen, and goes out of her way to try to protect Mimi from her own self-destructive tendencies. But Io, as a collected and self-reliant person, also has difficulty understanding and dealing with someone as messy as Mimi. And of course, once Io realizes she is super into Aegon, that creates some one-sided resentment of Mimi!

Do you have a feeling of what happened after chapter 12? What is the ending you vaguely see with Aegon and Io? What about Aemond and Alys?

Where I end a fic is really the last clear image I see of the characters, so I sadly don’t have a lot of specifics to offer. What I do feel is that Io and Aegon have children of their own (like, several children, maybe even 5+ children) and Aegon is present for their early years in a way he wasn’t able to be for his kids with Mimi. Io is a stepmom to Aegon’s OG kids and has a good relationship with them, but she’s only really close with Cosmo.

I also sense that Aemond has basically no contact with Io or Aegon, which makes sense considering his abuse of Io and the lifelong fury Aegon would therefore have towards him. Aemond is happy with Alys and their son (as happy as someone like him is capable of being); he does the ex-president thing and settles into a largely ceremonial role and advises Democratic politicians, although he is not very friendly with President Reagan.

And then my wild theory is that a Daeron/John McCain ticket ends up winning the 2000 election and the War On Terror plays out completely differently!

And finally... 1968 seemed to pour from you like a fever dream. Does this mean something else might be coming to continue the Maggie's Suffering Sunday tradition?

1968 did seem to fly by, despite it being a longer fic at 12 chapters! I do have something planned for this Sunday... 😉 All I can say for now is that it is very weird, totally unexpected, and tonally a mashup of Comet Donati and When The World Is Crashing Down.

Does that seem impossible?? Think again 😏 I will be reblogging hints until Sunday! I hope you enjoy this new journey 🥰🐍

[omegasomeone]

Magical Wilted

Part 1: Calipto - Eucalyptus

Chapter 1: Seeds

Today was supposed to be the day. I had everything planned out, to the last minute detail. This day was supposed to be perfect. We would meet up at the park we used to play in. we would then go watch the remake of the first Magical Astra movie as it used to be our favourite movie. then we’d stop by my place to play some Extreme Fam Bash before eating at the restaurant near our old school. But of course, after ten minutes waiting on a bench, a call. “Sorry, the meal I ate yesterday didn't sit right with me, I won't be able to come.. Let’s do this another time, OK?”

despair. rage. disgust. sadness. the perfect day meeting with an old friend that i hadn't seen in almost half of my life was ruined. Just like that. welp, fun's already dead and buried at this point, guess I'll try and at least be productive! that'll show 'em!

Oh, yeah, the name's Calipto, by the way. Hi, the person I'm making up in my head so that I can narrate my life! imagining you helps me think, so, hi, and welcome to my head!

Heading home with newfound.. determination? Spite? I didn't know which one exactly, but with at least one of them, I found myself in front of an arcade. Thinking about how weird it was that i had never noticed it, and that it hadn't closed down yet, I let curiosity -and nostalgia- get the best of me. inside were a crane game, an old Sing Sing Revolt! cabinet and a few racing games, as well as a gashapon that seemed to have figurines from a show i used to watch as a kid but couldn't remember the name of. nobody was at the counter, as if i wasn't supposed to be there, as if it was already past closing time, when it was only 3 PM.

Suddenly, one of the plushies in the crane game caught my attention. it looked like a pastel blue frog, with what seemed like cat eyes and whiskers, and wings of uneven size. it was.. kind of endearing in a weird way? like how you see a caterpillar eating a leaf and can't help but tell it “you can do it, little guy!”

I decided to get it, hoping my crane machine skills weren't too rusty after at least half a decade of not exercising them, and managed to make it mine in only three tries. Looking at it from up close and holding it in my own hands, it looked surprisingly well made. No sign of stitches, the fabric felt really high quality (and really fluffy!) and the stuffing used made it really squishable. I really didn't understand how such a high quality plushie ended up in a crane game instead of directly for sale.

Well, that wasn't my problem, and i really was lucky it got there so i could get it. it seemed like everything else needed arcade specific tokens to play, so i went straight to my place. I reheated some leftover pizza in the microwave, sat in front of the TV then turned it on.

“The search for Io Viola is still on; the 11 year-old girl was last seen at her school in northern Lillac City monday morning, when she asked her teacher to go to the bathroom. If you see her or have information that could help find her, please go to the neareat police station to give your testimony.

Still in Lillac City, three monsters attacked the town hall. Fortunately, Rose Magical managed to hold them all off until every civilian had fled the area then managed to kill the beasts. an eyewitness asked to talk about the fight: ‘Violet Magical wasn't there! She wasn't there! And Rose's petals are withered! Last time a Magical's outfit did that, she tried to destroy the world! I'm sure Rose killed Violet! HE'S GONNA COME FOR US ALL! WE'RE DOO-’”

“Yeeyup, that's enough of that for today. Man I’m so tired.. so much for being productive,” I thought to myself, “I’ll just go to bed early. Studies can wait.” I fell asleep around 5PM, and woke up at 6, more than half a day later, even though my phone was in another room, and I always sleep through it anyway. I made myself a hot chocolate, grabbed a banana, and sat on the couch next to the plushie. I enjoyed my breakfast before putting my laptop in my courier bag and- crap! my teeth! I hurried in the bathroom to clean them before heading out. before closing the door, I said: “have a nice day!”, just to... talk to the plushie, I guess? Hey, don't judge me, I’m sure you’ve done something like this before! I hear a faint voice telling me to the same.. NOOOOOOO, someone heard me! this is so embarrassing, I wanna go straight to bed and not leave it for at least two years!

I -for once- caught my bus and arrived at my college on time. The class started; I had had 13 hours of sleep yesterday, I'd keep awake for all the lesson! I could do it! I just had to keep focused and I wouldn't... fall asleep... in class... just... focus...

Next ->

[vangold]

Yay, I've caught up again :D So with Day 11 we finally reach the King in Yellow - logical that he and his play of the same name lend themselves to #Poetry here, eh? I guess it's been obvious so far that Hastur and the Yellow King are my personal favourites in the Cthulhu Mythos - closely followed only by Cthulhu himself, the Mi-Go and Nyarlathotep, but nevertheless the three of them don't come close enough to his Yellowness. So of course I was particularly looking forward to this #Prompt ^^ And don't worry. It's just a play. The first act may seem a bit daunting due to the lengthiness of a Wagnerian opera, but the second act will enlighten you =)

Creeptober-Promptlist by @creep-tober

--- Wanna support your humble artist?

---

| Deviant Art | Ko-Fi | Patreon | Instagram | Bluesky | YouTube | Cara | IO |

[talonabraxas]

Sunday, January 28 Tonight let’s check in with Uranus in the constellation Aries, which it shares with the mighty planet Jupiter. The latter planet stands out as the brightest point of light high in the south an hour after sunset. Let’s start with it first: Jupiter shines at magnitude –2.4 and is a treat to view through a telescope. Its disk stretches 40″ across and is flanked by its four largest moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. For most of the night, Europa and Ganymede sit to the west, while Callisto and Io lie east of the planet. But Io is closing in on Jupiter’s eastern limb; it crosses onto the cloud tops around 8:45 P.M. EST to begin a transit. It isn’t joined by its shadow for more than an hour, the round blot appearing just after 10 P.M. EST, when Io is more than halfway across the disk. Io slips away to the west just before 11 P.M. EST, while its shadow continues to cross for another 80 minutes or so. Those on the East Coast will likely lose sight of the planet before the shadow transit can end. To spot Uranus, look about 12.1° east of Jupiter, or about half the distance between the gas giant and the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus. Uranus is magnitude 5.7, roughly the limit for naked-eye observing. You’ll need a very dark observing site to spot it; regardless, it will be easy to pick up in binoculars or any telescope. The ice giant’s disk is just 4″ across and will look like a grayish, “flat” star. Now that the planet has reached its stationary point, it will begin moving eastward, or prograde, with respect to the more distant background stars. Sunrise: 7:12 A.M. Sunset: 5:14 P.M. Moonrise: 8:11 P.M. Moonset: 8:57 A.M. Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (92%) Sun & Uranus Talon Abraxas

[danman007]

I should elaborate on my reasoning for why I would prefer M to be a man in IO Interactive’s 007 First Light.

Let’s look at Dame Judi Dench as M in the movies, as she was the first female M. Her casting as M in GoldenEye (1995), opposite a debuting Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, represents the passage of time: the end of the Cold War and the new world birthed from it. During the Brosnan era, Bond is a man in his 40s and a tenured agent of the Secret Service with a great deal of experience. Whenever M criticized Bond’s actions, it never felt like she was dressing down a schoolboy. They spoke to each other as two individuals on equal footing.

In the Craig era, Dench played M as a relic of the Cold War. She frustratingly says, “Christ, I miss the Cold War!” as she deals with a post-9/11 world under constant surveillance. She views Bond as a surrogate son. Bond recognizes this in Quantum of Solace (2008):

Bond: He (Dominic Greene) tried to kill a friend of mine.

Camille: A woman?

Bond: Yes. But it’s not what you think.

Camille: Your mother?

Bond: She likes to think so.

In Skyfall (2012), she is a stand-in for the Queen. The SIS Building is Buckingham Palace under attack. The villain, Silva, taunts her with a message showing M’s face wearing the SIS Building as a crown. Bond is a loyal knight, and you can view him as the good son and Silva as the bad son. Bond, once again a man in his 40s, has great admiration and respect for her. “You did your duty,” he says. She also emphasizes her respect for Bond: “I did call you ‘an exemplar of British fortitude.’”

Dench as M in the Brosnan era represented the New World, and in the Craig era, she represented the Old World—a personification of the nation (the United Kingdom). Skyfall (2012) was her swan song, which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film series and Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. The film also saw the introduction of a new M, Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes). This transition seemed to update classic Bond for a new age for the time.

Now while we await the next Bond movie a new age for Bond begins in the video game sphere. Could it potentially influence the future of Bond in film?

In the new Bond game, 007 First Light, Bond is a young man in his 20s (he is 26 in the game). This marks a potentially refreshing take on Ian Fleming’s super-spy.

Bond is now a brash young man. A brash young man needs guidance, and that guidance can come from his father or a surrogate father figure/mentor. A young man’s anger and frustrations can be understood by the experiences of his father. The old man was once a young man.

What would young men think if they were to see Bond (a young Bond) scolded by a woman?

Imagine a young man in his 20s or adolescence playing this game and seeing the avatar (Bond, a male fantasy figure) that expresses his masculine desires and dreams being reprimanded by a woman. It could feel like a rebuke of his male identity.

The ending of No Time to Die (2021) can be interpreted as such, with the masculine figure of Bond standing on top of the island as torrential missiles rain down on him. Bond, a male fantasy figure that gives expression to masculine dreams and desires, is wiped out.

I think we need to make content for men that allows for a healthier expression of masculinity, just as women should have content that caters to them.

Men and women need their own outlets that express their innate desires and dreams.

Sometimes okay to make content for men that might upset some women. Though that might not be intention.

“Bond is not a hero, nor is he depicted as being very likable or admirable. He is a Secret Service Agent. He’s not a bad man, but he is ruthless and self-indulgent. He enjoys the fight—he also enjoys the prizes. In fiction, people used to have blood in their veins. Nowadays, they have pond water. My books are just out of step. But then so are all the people who read them.”

“I didn’t intend for Bond to be likable. He’s a blunt instrument in the hands of the government. He’s got vices and few perceptible virtues.” — Ian Fleming, Creator of James Bond 007

To be fair, this new female M in 007 First Light so far doesn’t disapprove of Bond’s brashness and insubordination. She finds these qualities make him a perfect candidate for the Double-O program.

There does seem to be a mentor-like figure in the game’s story, a new character named John Greenway. We first see him in the trailer mentioning some of Bond’s reckless actions and insubordination to M while discussing his candidacy for the Double-O program.

It looks like Bond will be spending part of the game’s narrative under his guidance. Maybe a father-son dynamic will emerge.

M and Greenway seem to split authorial duties with M providing mission objectives and targets and Greenway providing guidance. Wouldn't it be better if the roles were combined into one?

Wouldn't a father-son dynamic between Bond and M be beneficial for this new era of Bond in the gaming sphere?

Could he, like Gareth Mallory in Skyfall, become the new M?

We'll have to wait till the game is release to see how the game's overall narrative pans out.

[inthedayswhenlandswerefew]

bestie which are some of your all time favourite scenes you’ve written so far? like the type your re-read and go like damn this one ate

Oh this is such a wonderful question!!! So in general I think it is difficult as an artist to look at your own work and really like it, but there are a few scenes that stand out to me personally...

The Aemond...um...encounter in Chapter 9 of WTWICD 😅

2. The Winnemucca situation in Martyrs in Chapter 11...you know the one... 😞

3. Most of the flashbacks in Cannibals

5. When Aegon takes Io out on the sailboat at the end of Chapter 6 in 1968

6. I go back and reread the beginning of Napoleonville a lot, like the first half of Chapter 1? The vibes are soooooo summer in the Deep South 🥰

7. The fight sequence between Ivy and Daemon at the end of NICIY

[blackbloodedisabel]

also. elaborate

hi so. obviously 15 years ago the only people who knew about Isther/the monster controller theory (this is my pet name for it it WON'T be called this in the fr thing) are Alsinth and Io's father. Alsinth has two children (Calen and Anemone) and Io's father has one daughter and you'll never guess who it is. let's preface this by saying that mermaids have a much shorter lifespan than humans and are usually dead by 60 of some kind of age-related illness. anyway.

Io's father gets ill when Io is about 12(?) I'm not 100% yet. he's dying so he tells her about Isther and the monster controller theory but makes her promise not to tell anyone (his anger has mellowed out in the 11 years since his wife's death. Io's has not and also she blames his death on the stress of searching for the monster controllerrrr). so Io just sits and seethes and. becomes increasingly bitter insecure and unreasonable.

Alsinth gets ill probably about 3 years before the story begins and 2 years after Io's father so like. when Ane is 13. She tells Calen but makes him promise to just leave it. DON'T open the big cave DON'T even do anything it's fine okay just leave it.

Okay. near the end of part 1 Iolanthe is going to join with the main group to look for the Book when Isther has her 1st big tantrum and uses her Chorus. Iolanthe recognises the Chorus (screechy, warbling etc) as what her father described the monster controller theory. she needs no proof whatsoever she just leaps to conclusions. she immediately leaves out of shock/anger but then starts kinda plotting and follows the group to the library where she takes Isther back to the city centre and they have the "where are you from" "big cave" "oh girl I think you might be controlling the monsters" and at first Isther doesn't believe her but then she does more Chorus shouting and then the first monster attack happens then both her and Iolanthe are like oh shit!! the controllerrrrrr and then the manipulation starts lol. yk the rest.

[iowriteswords]

Io's Writing List, June 2024

1. When Pinioned Birds Take Flight - finished, last few chapters posting on AO3 over next few weeks

(Their dad is dead. Their brother is gone. All three of them are fugitives. Is now a good time to adopt two zombie children? No. Will that stop them? No.)

2. Untitled BATB retelling - in progress, currently being shared for free on Patreon

(He's not looking for a way out of the curse. He's just trying to help the girl he found crying in the woods. The curse protects him; he doesn't want it broken. But he does want Mira to love him, and he can't have one without the other.)

3. Take Off Your Happy Face - in  progress, will start posting on AO3 in the fall

(With Batman and the Joker dead, Harley takes Robin and runs. She doesn't know how to be a mother; she barely knows how to be an adult. But she's all he has, so she'll have to figure it out.)

4. When the War Ends - in progress, will be published in 2025 or 2026

(Nine years ago, Eloise's lover betrayed her, launching their kingdom into a three way war. Now, Eloise has been kidnapped, and her captor has offered a way to end the war. But can she trust the future of her country to a man who's hurt her so much?)

5. Ozma: the Boy Queen - in progress, earlier drafts of first 2 parts on AO3

("Rescued" from his mother and unwillingly restored to his original form, Tip is made queen of Oz. Unable to return to his old life or his old body, he--she?--works with what he has. At least Dorothy is cool.)

6. Talon!Cass - in progress, title pending

(Sandra Woosan takes in her daughter from an alternate universe. She has zero experience with children. Her daughter is a zombified assassin who can't speak or understand any language Sandra knows. What could possibly go wrong?)

7. Talon!Steph - in progress, title pending

(A Talonized Stephanie Brown joins Oracle, Huntress, and Black Canary in New Gotham. Set in the world of the 2002 Birds of Prey TV show.)

8. Talon!Carrie - in progress, title pending

(Martha's baby is dead, and her sanity is shaky at best. Thomas is seriously considering a future in vigilante justice. Alfred only took this job as a favor to his father, and he thought he would be managing a household, not babysitting adults. A brainwashed teenager can't possibly improve this situation, but, well. She's here now.)

9. The Talon and the Clown - in progress, title pending

(Duela and Talon are home with their parents. Owlman is dead, and Gotham is healing. But Talon's been through twenty years of brainwashing and torture, and recovery isn't easy.)

10. The Sun and the Moon - upcoming

(Siri sells herself to a talking bear to save her starving family. When she learns that her best friend and fellow prisoner Mikkel is actually the bear in another form, she wants to be angry, but she'll have to rescue him from his evil troll stepmother before she can yell at him.)

11. Flightless Birds part 4 - upcoming, title pending

(A speedster and an alien arrive. A junior superhero team forms. Secret identities are revealed. Tim and Jason reconnect with their families.)

12. Silence - upcoming/in progress

(Unexpectedly deprived of fins and gills, a mermaid learns to be human.)

[satoshi-mochida]

Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road - Heroes Showcase 2025: Release Date & Final Specs Presentation set for April 11 - Gematsu

LEVEL-5 will host the Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road “Heroes Showcase 2025: Release Date & Final Specs Presentation” on April 11, the company announced. You will be able to watch it on YouTube with English and Traditional Chinese subtitles.

The broadcast will feature the latest updates on Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, including the release date and a full reveal of the game’s final content, such as its gameplay systems.

Further information, including the exact time the broadcast will air, will be announced at a later date.

LEVEL-5 also announced the launch of the “Five-Star Workshop Devlog,” where it will share updates on its upcoming games. The Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road Development Blog will be integrated into the Five-Star Workshop Devlog going forward. The first posts on the blog covers both FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time and Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road.

In the Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road blog, LEVEL-5 clarified that the release date “might slip just a tiny bit [past June 2025] due to the ripple effects of FANTASY LIFE i.” Nonetheless, it says, “But rest assured, we believe the final date will be one that players can look forward to.”

Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road will be available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, PC via Steam, iOS, and Android.

[arctic-space-penguin]

The Ultimate Apple 'Character Card'

(will be updated)

---

General Info:

Name: Apple Age: 10 (show/post-show) and 12 (movie) Best Friends: Leo, Donnie, Splinter, Root, Kin Friends: Mikey, Raph, April, Cass, Jr, Draxum Relationship(s): N/A Family: Moon, Blaze, Root, Kin, Ivory Loves: sunflower seeds, playing hide and seek, watching National Geographic (after Donnie installs a TV in her home ofc) Likes: helping her family Dislikes: when Root eats all the sunflower seeds without her, fights between siblings

This or That Questions:

1. Playlists or podcasts? A: Doesn't know what either is 2. Shoes or slippers? A: Slippers 3. Pork or beef? A: Neither 4. Swimming pool or beach? A: Pool 5. Fruits or vegetables? A: Fruits 6. Cats or dogs? A: Preferably neither, they both hate her 7. Summer or winter? A: Winter 8. Salt or pepper? A: Pepper 9. Cash or cards? A: Cards 10. Cookies or chips? A: Cookies 11. Soda or juice? A: Juice 12. Farm or city? A: Farm 13. Text or call? A: Text 14. New phone or new clothes? A: Clothes 15. Black or white? A: White 16. Driver or passenger? A: Passenger 17. Laptop or tablet? A: Tablet 18. Comedy or Horror? A: Comedy 19. Beer or wine? A: Neither 20. Dine in or dine out? A: Dine out 21. Movies or TV shows? A: Movies 22. iOS or Android? A: iOS 23. Waffles or pancakes? A: Pancakes 24. Rain or snow? A: Snow 25. Love or money? A: No need for either, but money 26. Ice or fire? A: Ice 27. Curly or straight? A: Straight 28. Oranges or apples? A: Apples 29. Sweet or salty? A: Sweet 30. Trucks or cars? A: Doesn't know what either is 31. Lunch or dinner? A: Dinner 32. Weekends or weekdays? A: Weekends 33. Pizza or pasta? A: Pizza 34. Friends or family? A: Family 35. Boys or girls? A: She lives with both, so both 36. Fiction or non-fiction? A: Fiction 37. Skiing or snowboarding? A: Skiing 38. Red wine or white wine? A: Neither, Moon and Blaze would kill her if they found out 39. Singing in the shower or singing in the car? A: Shower, she doesn't know what a car is 40. Organized or messy? A: Organized chaos

Vine that represents her:

(bc she technically never fucking learned how to read 😃😃)

Summary: (Up to end of movie)

Before Apple became a mutant, she and Root were the lowest in the orphanage totem pole. When they were mutated and cast out, they found refuge in a secluded part of the sewers where Moon found them. Apple and Root lived with the wolf for a few months before siblings Kin and Ivory came along, the latter in bad shape. Then some months after that, Blaze entered the picture and was deemed 'leader' by everyone later on (the last to join was Pigeon Pete... let's just say he and Donnie do not get along). Apple started to get tired of living in the sewers after some years, but that didn't last long when Moon brings back a certain very sick looking mutant softshell turtle (post-show). Apple and Root are the first to try to make friends with him. Soon enough though, Donnie's brothers come searching for him and he has to go home, but not without promising to come back. When the invasion strikes, the group/family of six leave their now overrun home to lay low in the Hidden City. As soon as it was over, they made their way back to the surface where Moon was called to help aid in the turtle's healing process, bringing Apple along with her.

Good Future Summary:

Apple resolved to find some way to help her family and friends after observing the long healing, and knew that would be learning how to do what Moon and Donnie did well. They agreed to help her learn. She got the hang of it easily, eventually able to hold down the fort when they're off getting supplies or whatnot.

Bad Future Summary:

This was a test for her, for lack of a better description. Apple got to use her heightened, adapted healing skills more, which she loved, and sometimes did on-the-field things because of her speed. But she was still young. One particularly difficult battle mission later, and she blamed herself for the loss of Blaze, Ivory, and Raph. She was told to choose a select few to teach what she knew to later, in case something were to happen, which was really possible at any time. Barely any were interested, but she taught them anyway. Apple ends up dying a year before Casey Jr was sent into the past.

Voice Claim:

(couldn't find the perfect video with just her voice lol, but the photo should be linked with the video)

[adultswim2021]

Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole #1: “LBJFK” | August 16, 2010 - 12:30AM | S01E08

This episode begins with one of the rudest acts a person can do: having sex with the bullet hole in the brain of the guy you just had murdered. LBJ does “it” with JFK (it means have s*x) and then declares that he’s taking the corpse to Frankenstein’s funny house of weird guys. He wants to look like JFK so he can have sex with the bullet holes found between the legs of a gorgeous dame. He does this, but then he gets himself bitten by Lawrence while in werewolf mode. So the ending is a montage of Werewolf stuff happening like LBJ biting Marilyn Monroe and stuff. 

I didn’t really like this episode, but I can highlight jokes I respect, like “blink”, and Spencer Tracey’s unusually attractive forehead, and the “How to punch up a montage” book. But this one had a lot of “ummm… okaaaayy” jokes in it. I mean, LBJ might have literally said it exactly once in the entire episode, but some other jokes felt like “ummm… okaaaayy” style of jokes. Like, the high five bit. I’m considering that an “ummm… okaaaayy” joke. 

This is supposedly the first episode of the series in a more “proper” watch order. It doesn’t feel THAT much like a “first episode,” but there is some continuity that places it earlier rather than later. Mother Theresa is seen waiting to see Frankenstein and she is the subject of episode #2, which didn’t air.

Most of this episode didn’t make me laugh. I don’t think I really like this show that much! The design still irks me. Also wearing thin on me is the IO Perry music, which only sometimes suits the show. No offense to her, it is just mostly not my thing.

EPHEMERA CORNER:

I don’t wanna do EPHEMERA CORNER right now! Are you nuts?

Sorry I haven’t been regular. I had a hard drive failure that wasn’t disastrous, but required me to spend a few days getting some files back. Then I got addicted to not doing the blog, because I have a big TV and I had some very important gaming to do. Putting random bumpers in the EPHEMERA thing was sort of a pain in the ass, so I’m only gonna do it sometimes now. Okay?

MAIL BAG:

Actual scott facts: It's pretty widely rumored that the Scott Pilgrim short was made as a pilot for a potential TV adaptation of the comics,  but never picked up because the movie bombed in theaters. There eventually was a one-and-done miniseries made for Netflix, with the entire movie cast reprising their roles even, but it differed in plot greatly from both the comics and the movie. The short is the most faithful adaptation to da OG comics by a mile (it's shot-for-shot a snippet of volume 2).

Hey thanks for this, I should have figured it out myself. Just spitballing here, but I think they should use AI to make every comic book be animation, and the American tax payers should pay for it. They can even figure bots into the budget who comment on the videos and say they’re good, and they can also buy bots to watch it for us. And then maybe the bots could kill me

As cool as it is to have a show on TV say "9/11 was an inside job" as much as you could probably get away with in 2010 (you can tell he tried to veil it), I do agree that a tepid 24 spoof is probably not the best note to end your show on. Also, the fourth season was pretty infamously bad, not TERRIBLE but horrifyingly mediocre. Best way I can describe the quality is like jumping straight from golden age Simpsons to Season 26 Simpsons, with no slow, gradual decline in between.

I’m very scared of it, almost like if there was monsters on the show doing big scares at the camera. Please don’t tell me they put monsters in the show as well. I am stopping the blog immediately if a monster scares me on that show. 

So...Gregg Turkington is alive. It was all a goof for his Oscar Special. Yeah, okay. Weird stuff. Anyhoozle what are you liking on adult swim these days.

Is he alive? I assumed he was dead because I don’t pay for the new stuff. This is sort of an aside, but: Isn’t it weird that Tim hasn’t let that one guy who does the On Cinema Timeline just have a free thing to watch the new stuff? I heard that on facebook. I mean, he was basically like “I don’t wanna pay for it”, and I don’t think he specifically asked Tim for a free thing, but he clearly never got gifted one. Anyway, I don’t watch Adult Swim nowadays, I heard it’s all kids cartoons now

RIP George Lowe. I know you like making fun of Gregg Turkington on here but George really did die. I hope this blog does something nice and tasteful for once for him. He kind of was the original adult of adult swim, doncha think?

A tremendously important guy to me and my family (I had a few kids during the hiatus, so life goes on as they say). But yes, absolutely RIP to that perfect bitch. I am a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t do a proper post, but we can’t all be Lowtax.

Maybe this question is too soon or too grim but I'm gonna ask it anyway because you don't seem like a guy who respects the sanctity of life anyway with your weird ass opinions. Now that Clay and George are gone and Andy Merrill is on his way out (doing a podcast with MC Chris is basically a terminal illness) if they were the reboot of Space Ghost who would be good names to voice the four main characters. Zorak and Moltar can be seperate people. And dont say Jellystone. I fucking hate Jellystone.

I already did a really great AI joke earlier, so I’ll just say no one.

A long time ago I found a really horrible fan-made Space Ghost CGI cartoon and it ended with an earnest plea for Cartoon Network to let him (it’s probably a GUY let’s face it) head it up. It was post Clay’s death. Seemed like a very bad thing to do, and it pissed me off. I certainly do NOT think they should reboot Coast to Coast! FUCK YOU BITCH