#if you refuse to break the law to prevent that you are the problem and a bad person

[cosmichorrorsarestillnicerthanme]

meh why not. Honkai Star Rail X reader incorrect quotes when you have the time because I forgot you wrote for them.

I had a blast with this. Also, a special thanks to @tragedy-of-commons for reading these over.

Now! Your Wish Is My Command! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Natasha: You need to stop drinking so many energy drinks. Seele: You're one to talk. Natahsha: The last patient who refused to stop drinking energy supplements after I suggested it died. Seele: Oh no. Natasha: In a car crash. You: That sounds unrelated. Natasha: I’m the one who crashed it. Do not disobey me.

You: Why do you two like being out in the rain so much? Screwllum: I like splashing in the puddles and rain is just fun! Ruan Mei: I'm trying to get hit by lightning for my research.

Sparkle: I’ve been here in jail so long I think I’ve lost my mind. Sparkle: The days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months. Sparkle: How long have I been in here now? Almost a year? You: …This is Monopoly.

You and Asta: Madam Herta, help! We did a bad thing! Herta: Does it affect me? You and Asta: Not technically— Herta: Then suffer in silence.

You: Do you know a turtle's greatest weakness? Ruan Mei: How slow they are? You: No, their only weakness is that they can get stuck on their back. Ruan Mei: What if you taped two turtles together? They'd be unstoppable, correct? You: … Ruan Mei: … Ruan Mei: …I will be back shortly You: Ruan Mei, NO—

You: Died and came back as a cowboy, I call that reintarnation. Archeon: Laughs -Elsewhere- Boothill: I suddenly feel like strangling someone.

You: I need some help dealing with a problem, do you have any suggestions? Jingliu: Sword. You: Do you have any other suggestions? Jingliu: …Two swords.

You: Do you have any idea how many laws you're breaking on a daily basis? Silver Wolf: One? You: No. Silver Wolf: Two? You: No. Silver Wolf: …Is it one?

You: why are you following me? Kafka: because we’re dating now You: okay… what about the rest of you? Kafka: we’re a package deal Silver Wolf, walking next to the rest of the Stellaron hunters while burying her face in a game and Blade maneuvering her to avoid hazards like light poles: buy one idiot, get several free

You: Do you want to play 20 Questions? Firefly: Sure! You: What's your favorite color? Firefly, laser fucking focused: Triangle. Will you go out on a date with me?

Kafka: I love making short jokes about Wolfie. You: They go right over her head. Silver Wolf, standing on a step stool: Fuck you.

Blade, reading the note in the lunch packed for him by you and Kafka: the path to inner peace starts with four words Blade: not my fucking problem Blade: Narrows Eyes I think this one is for Firefly

Firefly, reading the note in the lunch packed for her by you and Kafka: Please, for the love of the Aeons, be good. We know your love language is acts of service. We also know your only skill is stabbing people. Firefly: Tilts Head To The Side I… believe this is for blade…

You: I love my personal space You point to the Silver Wolf latched onto your back You: this is Wolfie. Wolfie also loves my personal space.

You: Why are you smiling Blade? Blade: Am I not allowed to be happy? Kafka: Of course you are Bladie… It’s just that you being happy, usually means someone’s lost their life… or a limb.

Pom Pom: I typed "bitch" into my GPS and guess what? I'm in your driveway. The Express Crew, desperately trying to avoid spring cleaning after the last "Incident": … Pom Pom: Choo Choo motherfuckers, come out already.

Stelle, waving at the crew as she steps onto the express after being splattered by a small army of stings: hello. Himeko: i- Welt: we literally saw you die. Dan Heng: you died. March 7th: you're dead. Stelle, shrugging: death is a social construct.

You and Stelle: some fools be like “I play games to escape my responsibilities” then pick tank or healer Welt: In my greatest fantasies I am able to help people Dan Heng: In my fantasies I can prevent people from being hurt, even if it means I get hurt in their stead Himeko: In my fantasies I don’t have to know how to aim March 7th: In my fantasies I control who lives and who dies

You standing at the top of the stairs: What are y'all doing at the bottom of the staircase? Ruan Mei: I accidentally fell down. Herta: RUAN MEI PUSHED ME down the stairs because I refuse to pay HER part of our rent! Screwllum: Ruan Mei bet me fifty Credits that I couldn't reach the bottom of the stairs faster than she did falling down it, so I slid down the banister to get my money. Dr. Ratio: I don't know how I got here. One moment, I was sleeping in my bed, three floors up, and several galaxies away and then suddenly I was waking up here, just in time to get crushed by Screwllum.

You: Do you think different paints have different tastes? Ruan Mei: They do. Herta: …Why did you say that with such certainty?

Dr. Ratio, talking to You and Topaz: Well, whenever I’m about to do something, I think ‘would Aventurine do that?’ and if they would, I do not do that thing. You and Topaz: … Aventurine: I know I should be offended, but he's not wrong.

Silver Wolf talking about you: How do you feel about Them, Firefly? Firefly, vibrating at a frequency high enough to shatter a glass: I love Them a normal amount.

You and the Stellaron Hunters sitting in jail together You: So who should we call? Silver Wolf: I’d call Blade, but I feel safer in jail

You: When do you usually go to sleep? Blade: Whenever I collapse is entirely up to the Aeons. Kafka: My body will pass out when it's ready Kafka and Blade: high five You: angry staring (edited)

Firefly: Good News! The store had blueberry bagels! Bad news, the cream cheese died… or became more alive… It is the wrong amount of alive.

Tingyun, after being caught lying in bed with your shirt on: Since we're in a relationship now, your clothes are my clothes too. Don't ask me why I have your shirt on, this is our shirt. You: Fine, but when I come strutting in with your fuzzy socks I don't want to hear shit.

Yukong: Hey, random question, what are your favorite flowers? You: Peonies, why? Yukong: … You: Were you going to get me flowers? Yukong: … You: … Yukong, under her breath: It's a possibility…

Quingque: I owe you one. You: That’s ok. You can just date me and we’ll call it even.

Blade: walks in to see you and Firefly sitting on the couch facing away from each other. Blade: I know I will more than likely regret asking, but what's going on there? Firefly, gaming: They're having a fight. Blade, confused: Then why are they holding hands? Kafka, playing with her Cat: Fighting makes them sad.

Natasha: Why are there little handprints all over the wall? You, whispering to The Moles: Why are there little handprints all over the wall? The Moles: Because we have little hands. You: *Nods Sagely Before Turning To Natasha* You, with a smile: Its because The Moles have little hands

You, when Wildfire was just starting: Natasha, sweetie, the love of my life, all you have is a handful of impoverished shantytowns paying us protection money. We're basically slum lords.

Natasha: And what's the main rule we have? Julian: Don't dare The Leader Of The Moles, Dark Hook The Great to do stupid stuff. You: And why's that? Hook with her head stuck between two stair rails: Because I have no regard for my personal well being.

[blouisparadise]

There were some amazing bottom Louis fics posted or completed during the month of January. We really hope you enjoy this list and show these fics love. Happy reading!

1) Strawberry Cake | Teen & Up | 1,789 words

When Louis gets stuck in a bad situation at a bar, Harry steps in to help.

2) Intoxicated | Mature | 2,156 words

“Could, I-uh- get a drink, perhaps?” The stranger asks. Louis snaps back. Quickly closing his mouth and attempting to respond to the deep and surprisingly demanding voice. “Oh, I’m sorry but we are closed for the day” Louis responds. In all honesty he could have made the man a drink, but the lack of supplies Louis had thus far prevented him from offering anything but a half drunk bottle of beer. “But the door was open.” The person retrots. Inviting himself further into the establishment and seating himself down on one of the tables. Louis knits his eyebrows together out of confusion. He also stops admiring the man and feels annoyance building up instead. “Yes, the door was open, but my bar is still closed.” Louis replies. Annunciating the fact that he was in charge so his words could be taken more seriously by this customer that was turning from charming to sour.

3) I’ll Love You When The Oceans Dry, I’ll Love You When The Rivers Freeze | Explicit | 2,515 words

Harry and Louis are on vacation with their friends. Louis gets very drunk so Harry takes him back to his hotel room. He sees text exchanges about Louis liking some guy and he gets jealous so snoops more and realizes it is him. In the morning, Louis realizes that Harry snoops and secrets are revealed.

4) Powerless (And I Don't Care) | Explicit | 4,061 words

Everyone on tour calls each other daddy, don’t ask why. And Louis is so used to calling everyone “daddy” that, when he finally comes home, naturally he calls Harry that.

5) Now You Hang From My Lips | Explicit | 6,292 words

Louis gives him an appraising look—starting at the soles of his expensive shoes and ending at the top of his head. “Just a drink,” he answers, because he loves this part—the chase. He loves having someone hanging on his every word and if there’s one thing for sure he’ll make somebody work for it. If H isn’t down for that, if he gives up too easily then it wasn’t meant to be anyways. Because that’s the other half of it, Louis also wants someone who will put him in his place. “Well in that case, I’ve got room with a minibar. Why don’t you come upstairs with me and you can have whatever you want.” Bingo.

6) Mother In Law | Mature | 8,070 words

Harry has been watching Louis from afar for about a month, but he refuses to call himself a stalker. He just admires him, not following him like a creep. Until one day, Louis approaches him. They have sex. Harry finds out that Louis is rich and he feels insecure. He decides that he needs to let Louis go. The problem is Louis falls deeper.

7) Behind Smoke Stained Curtains | Explicit | 19,054 words

It was a particularly lonely night when Harry walked through his door with a flurry of snow. He was a little rough around the edges with a trucker hat pushed down over untamed long hair. He looked a little greasy, a shower definitely not in his recent past. His tan Carhartt work coat was smudged with dirt and oil and caked with grime, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. The scent was overwhelming as soon as he walked in, unmasked alpha from days on the road stewing in a cab of his own pheromones. Louis was sure it was so deep into the fabric of his coat that no amount of washing would ever truly remove the stench. The worlds align when Louis meets an alpha from the road with as many secrets as he holds himself.

8) Sunshine (You Temptress) | Explicit | 26,870 words

All it took was one idiotic dare, one boy, one night. He’s twenty eight years old, six months fresh out of possibly the worst break up you could ever imagine, and his Friday nights are spent fucking a nineteen year old stranger. He’s still not completely sure how it happened.

10) The Road Not Taken | Explicit | 35,285 words

Louis’ not paying attention as his phone unlocks, and he’s shocked when the thread opens and there’s only one message there from an unknown contact. I’m home. For a minute he assumes it’s got to be a wrong number, and before he can decide whether to just ignore it or send a response the three dots show up and then a second message. It’s Harry by the way. And finally a third right after that. Are you busy tonight?

11) You Could Be The One That I Love | Explicit | 39,797 words

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Niall waved off. “Now, let’s talk man to man to man. You two have had a crush on each other since uni. Now’s your chance to finally get something going. I could see the sparks and connection and attraction back then and I can still see it now, God damn it! You’re just denying fate at this point.” He looked impassioned, his blue eyes wide and imploring. Louis shook his head again and chuckled. “You can’t just snap your finger and expect us to, like, get it on.” “I’m not,” he reasoned. “I’m merely telling you to do something about it.”

12) Paradise Is Getting Closer | Mature | 52,685 words

Louis hated his life, which consisted only of death and destruction. Despite the lives he had saved and continued to save, a part of him couldn't feel satisfied. He had been the one who gave up a normal life and although he knew what was to come, the loneliness had never left him in all these years, not even for a second. He felt it in his heart every time he approached a target, he felt it in the few minutes before falling asleep in his dingy car or while he allowed himself a few hours of sleep before setting off again, and he felt it every time he closed that door behind him.

13) Don't Want No Other Shade Of Blue | Explicit | 58,638 words

Note: This fic is locked and can only be read by AO3 users.

“I know you’re putting on an act,” says Harry after a moment, and Louis scowls when he realises the prince is actually amused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” says Louis. “All I’ve heard over the past couple of years are rumours of Prince Louis’ kindness, and generosity, and oh, he’s so handsome I can barely pour his tea without shaking!” says Harry, putting on a silly, high-pitched voice for the last bit. Louis’ scowl deepens. “I would already know if you were just another selfish, bratty omega prince. You can’t fool me, darling, but I admire your efforts.” “As you said,” Louis grits out, “those are only rumours. I assure you, I’m a terrible person.”

14) Men Are Shit | Explicit | 77,728 words

Welcome to Louisland. Here you'll find fluffy socks, chaos and always enough alcohol to toast the fact that all men are shit.

15) You Were My Because | Explicit | 109,089 words

Note: Please remember to check tags for any trigger warnings.

Louis has battled the demons of his past for years now and has little hope of finding happiness for himself. Especially now that a school reunion is taking place and the memories of his school days are suddenly coming back with full force. But after rain always comes sunshine, in Louis’ case in the form of his old schoolmate Harry. A story about healing, friendship, finding trust and love.

Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.

You can find other monthly roundup fic rec lists here.

[redux-iterum]

Kinda had more time to articulate my thoughts, so here we go:

Do I think Bluestar made a very poor decision in neglecting her children, resulting in their deaths? Yes, and Goldenflower has every right to say, "I cannot forgive you for this, they were children, they did nothing wrong!"

HOWEVER, I do agree with Dissenting Anon that the Clan cultural beliefs/flaws/community overall play a more significant role in this "who's more at fault here" situation. To me, the vibe I got from TC was "we're mad at you for breaking the Code by having forbidden children, but also mad at you for neglecting said children." It's weird how the Clans react to these things...

I also find it interesting that Goldenflower says, "The outcry was awful. We were all angry at her...", which imo makes it seem like even she was upset about the affair? But I could just be misreading that.

Sorry if this was a bit incoherent, just had to speak on it a little more, I'm FASCINATED by all this, and I have a feeling Fireheart is going to try and change how the Clans view these kinds of things.

(Dissenting Anon)

The Clans are both the best and worst traits of cats heightened to an extreme. Cats are self-serving, pretentious, clever, well-spoken, loving, loyal and quick to recall a slight and act upon their initial reaction to it long after everyone else has forgotten that it happened. Put a bunch of unusually intelligent and community-driven cats together in one space and the generations will exaggerate all of these traits until their culture is unique among any others found in the world. All this to say that while the Clans have intensely positive and wonderful beliefs and traits that keep them together and helps them stay strong no matter what happens, they also are excellent at causing suffering through those same beliefs and traits.

Adding to this, they've developed a skill for doublethink that allows all of this to work together without anyone (native to the Clans) questioning it. Horoa catches all wraiths and monsters before they can cause any danger, but some still haunt the territories and will never go away. This cat did a very bad thing they're never allowed to forget, but we're never going to talk about it and we'll pretend it didn't happen. Kits are innocent and not responsible for their birth, but being a half-Clan cat or outsider is inherently shameful and you're automatically lesser than your Clanmates if your father is from outside of your community. So on and so forth.

The point of bringing this up is that I concur with you and the anon. The Clan-specific communities are absolutely the problem when it comes to situations like Bluestar's. The sad thing is that the rule of "no inter-Clan relationships" was developed to prevent suffering and loss, and in our two first examples in this series, suffering and loss is all they resulted in! And the Clans will never acknowledge that. It doesn't suit their fancies of who they are in their heads that they could be the problem. Bluestar is the one at fault, not us. We reacted appropriately. It's not our fault Bluestar was so scared of that reaction that she neglected her kits and they died without her love and care.

Breaking the law is a bad idea, but sometimes we ought to question whether that law was right in the first place. Too bad the Clans refuse to do that.

[izzythehutt]

Saul Wrong?

I have many controversial BrBa/BCS opinions, but the one that I always come back to is that Saul Goodman worked way better as a comic relief supporting character than as a protagonist of his own show.

I actually found him more likeable when he was an unapologetic sleazebag, it was when they tried to make me feel sorry for him in his own show that I lost sympathy. His pathological criminality brings out my inner Howard/Chuck, I guess. It's like....dude...why are you like this? And I don't necessarily feel like the show does a very good job of explaining it. At a young age he sees his father getting taken advantage of by conmen, and apparently accepts the (deeply morally cynical) attitude that the world is separated into hustlers (wolves) and marks (sheep.) His parents seem to have been totally normal people for whom he felt affection but no respect, because he can't stand rubes, and that's what they were. His brother Chuck is not a rube and is the family member whose affection and respect Jimmy seems to covet the most, though it's not clear whether he has any awareness that the very quality that makes his brother's esteem worth having (his commitment to an objective standard of morality—the fact that he can see through Jimmy's bullshit) is the one thing that prevents them from understanding one another.

Somehow the fact that Walt lived a (basically) normal life until his cancer diagnosis, and everything he does is predicated on his awareness of his own mortality, makes the character's moral fall from grace...more understandable to me? He obviously has a bunch of bottled up petty resentments and a sense of having wasted his potential, but I find his pathology way more coherent than Jimmy/Saul's. I think this is really because he was always the main character of a show, and Saul got a gigantic retconned deep backstory for the spin-off which, while enjoyable, was very obviously not the point of that character when he was created. BCS had to answer the question, "why would someone become like this?" but I wonder if there really is a particularly satisfying way to explain why a comic relief criminal lawyer would choose to work with a person like Walt.

I think BrBa did a better job of showing how Walt self-justifies his awful behavior (compartmentalization, projection, guilt) but Jimmy/Saul seems to have something missing (a sympathy chip? He's capable of feeling compassion for people he relates to, but no sense of seeing value in any abstract principle.) Why are you so obsessed with breaking the rules, dude? His brother is basically correct in their final conversation when he assesses Jimmy as behaving like a child who refuses to acknowledge the consequences of his actions beyond how they hurt him. Every moral consideration is made in terms of his subjective feelings. Him feeling entitled to a high-profile job at his brother's law firm when his brother had to bail him out of serious legal problems is really kind of insane.

Maybe the real problem for me is that Walt is obsessed with gaining respect and Jimmy is obsessed with being liked, and at the end of the day as a motivation for villainy in a man, I.....kind of find the latter more pathetic than the former.

[bugwolfsstuff]

I said i was gonna rant and by the gods im gonna rant

[This is not gonna make sense and more me shrieking at the gods cus Loki is my blorbo and i hate that Rick fucked up and made him abusive when the first book was litterally implying that he cares about his kids and making him sympathetic.]

Love how i completely forgot Heimdall was there too between reading this in school and getting home lmao. My phone guy is just that forgettable.

ALSO THATS WHY YOUR DOING THIS? THATS THE REASON YOUR GOING WITH RICK?

They got roasted too hard so theyre gonna kill two innocent kids, mulitate their corpses and use those corpses to chain their father while dripping acid on him?

It was (slightly) more understandable when it was cus Baldur (even tho hes probably happier with Hel anyways) died.

Cus like an eye for an eye.... (even tho that was much more than an eye, more like two eyes, a heart and a leg.)

Actually no scratch that killing Baldur technically was an eye for an eye if you think about it.

(Odin took three of Loki's kids, Loki took his son, his daughter in law and then the same son again when he refused to cry to bring him back. Thats also three. Thats one of the reasons i excuse Baldur dying)

I know Magnus probably either didn't realise what was going on here or if he did it didnt register in his brain the whole story. Which, fair enough, directly after this he listens to Kvasir getting cut up by a chainsaw (good, its clear if it weren't for him Loki, Narvi, Vali and Sigyn would've been probably fine) and then watches Alex get thrown out by his.....sperm donor. So what happens to Loki is not at the top of his concerns rn but i really hope he confronts Frey about it later. Cus Magnus has been shown to emphasize with Loki on this. AND THOSE WERE FUCKING CHILDREN! AND THEY WERE KILLED BECAUSE THEY WERE LOKI'S CHILDREN!

WHO ELSE ARE CHILDREN OF LOKI THAT HE CARES DEEPLY ABOUT?

SAMIRAH AND ALEX

Basically i want Magnus to yell at the gods the way Percy does. Because like Luke everything was probably WAS the gods fault.

And before you come at me with the whole 'prophecy has to happen' thing. Save your breath because most of you have no problem with blaming the gods when it came to luke in pjo and this is kinda similar.

Who was to say that Fenris, Hel and Jörmungandr would have caused ragnarok if the Aesir (mostly Odin) didnt take them from their home and seperate them?

Whos to say Loki would start Ragnarok if Odin didnt break their oath and take his children?

Or :

Let his mouth get sewn shut after he got everyone shit (Sif's new hair, Mjollnir, Draupnir, Gungnir, Skidbladnir and Gullinbursti) because suddenly oaths matter now, Odin.

Kill his innocent children (its not stated in myth or mcga how old Narvi and Vali were/are but the general consensus is that they were young), possibly made him watch said children get murdered (Sword of summer its stated by Loki that the gods watched in amusement as Vali disemboweled Narvi but that could be hyperbole) and had a snake drip acid onto his face.

If there was any good in Loki at any point (which there might be. He actually seems pretty chill in sword of summer) then its been snuffed out now.

Thanks Odin.

You signed your death warrant.

Whats that saying again?

He who tries to prevent fate is doomed to cause it?

Or something like that i cant remember the phrase.

I have more to say yet i cant quite articulate it. So im gonna end it here.

Also i am really in the mood for writing a oneshot of the day they caught Loki in Loki's—or maybe Sigyn's? Pov.

[hello-nichya-here]

Been a long time since I sent an ask but I'm hoping for your forgiveness xD

Anyway, I've been in a Stannis staning mood recently and remembered a theory.

Apparently the reason Stan is popular is because he serves as the replacement Ned Stark due to his strict adherence to honor, law and morality. Any thoughts?

I do see similarities but I've always felt them to be different people. They had respect for each other yes, but were never really friends.

Plus their flaws and shortcomings are different. Ned could have prevented the war by not telling Cersei but he was too merciful of a person for that. Stannis greatest mistakes and vile deeds came almost always when he compromised on his code.

I guess what Game of Thrones teaches is that both good and evil deeds, both selfish and selfless actions can have negative consequences. People don't act in isolation, the results always depend on how other people react.

While they both are characters that fully believe that "What's right is right", the are some key differences between them.

The first and most important one can summed up in an exchange that happened between Davos and Stannis:

"What is the life of one bastard boy against an entire kingdom?"

"Everything."

Ned covered up the truth about Jon being Lyanna's son with Rhaegar, spoke out against the plan to kill Daenerys (who was 14 and pregnant at the time), and refused to just let Cersei's children be executed despite knowing that they were bastards born of incest. All of that was because his honor and his idea of what's right says that protecting the weak and innocent is his obligation - especially if said weak and innocent are children.

Stannis meanwhile was fully ready to kill Dany and Viserys as children, nearly burned Edric Storm alive, and will 100% kill any of Cersei's bastards if he ever comes across them. That is because Stannis's morals are all about the good of the real and the rules of society.

This isn't always bad - he is sexist and racist, but won't allow his men to rape women of the free-folk because to become a rapist is to become a dishonarable man, and he won't tolerate that kind of shit.

But it also means that he is fully okay with Melisandre burning people alive because her God told her to and (more importantly) plenty of said people were enemies of his that were breaking the law by supporting other kings. Why would he have a problem with that? What's the difference between burning people in the name of Rhollor and stabbing a bunch of them to death in the name of the Seven/the king? War is war, and sacrifices have to be made.

Ned meanwhile will NOT accept that kind of thing. He has killed people before, and he WAS willing to let Cersei and her children be executed if she didn't run away with - but he still gave her the warning. He gave them a chance to survive. To end this conflict without anyone's death being necessary. Stannis meanwhile fucked off to prepare for war.

Another key difference between them is that Ned is much more forgiving in general, and especially with the people he cares about. He killed the guy who deserted the Night's Watch, but only because he did not believe his story about the White Walkers attacking them - if he had, the guy would have lived and not suffered any punishment. Ned was also not okay with cheating, excessive drinking, or people neglecting their responsibilities - but he was best friends with Robert, the guy who full on said "Hey, be my Hand, so you can do all the work for me while I eat, fuck and drink."

Can anyone even imagine Stannis Baratheon EVER letting someone get away with saying that kind of crap to him? For fuck's sake, Davos is his best friend AND smuggled food to Stannis in a siege in which he nearly died... and Stannis still cut off Davos's fingers as punishment for the crime of being a smuggler.

We also have the fact that, while Ned didn't really understand the Game Of Thrones. Like, at all. He legit thought Cersei wouldn't stab him in the back after he said "I know about the treason, incest, and I'm also gonna accuse you of murder." Stannis never made that kind of mistake. He despises the empty flattery and courtesies their society relies on, yes, but he always makes sure he has some card up his sleeve that allows him to get away with not enganging on that part of the game.

This also connects to another thing: Stannis changed, Ned did not. Ned Stark died because he could not addapt to the place he was at, not even long enough to just get enough time to go back to Winterfell and leave Robert holding his dick. Stannis meanwhile addmited that Davos and Jon Snow were right - just going "Fuck you, I'm the king, bow to me!" was not working, would likely never work, and if he wanted people to support him, he'd need to change tactics and help them with their problems instead of focusing just on his. He went from the king that even rejected, and who despised his subject, to "the king who cared." Quite the drastic change.

Finally, we also have ANOTHER way in which Stannis changed, and that ties into something he does NOT have in common with Ned: the way they handle being the second son.

Stannis went from sleeping with Melisandre just because it was necessary (both in the sense of "the red God wants it" and "It will kill your rival in a second"), to not so subtly bragging about the fact that she is his mistress and that she scares the fuck out of everyone but is his loyal servent.

This "sudden" change happened because, while Stannis never really asked to be king, he was always the unloved child. The one who was too difficult to deal with. The one who just needed to lighten up a little. The one who didn't have Robert and Renly's charisma. The king NOBODY wanted.

And then here comes Melisandre, telling the is the literal chosen one. The most important man in the whole world. The one who will save everyone and be seen as a legend forever and ever. And he buys into that pleasant lie because it validates all the anger, resentment and loneliness he felt all these years, and tells him "It was not your fault, you were right all along. Everyone else was the problem, not you"

Ned meanwhile, despite loving Catelyn and the life they had together, would often get all melancolic over the fact that he was not supposed to be the heir, the ruler of Winterfell. And when Robert comes in offering to give him MORE power, MORE responsibility, MORE of a great status, he fucking hates it. Unlike Stannis, Ned doesn't resent the time he spent in his brother's shadow as the "least important one." He seems to miss it and the safety it brought to him.

Which is why he often refused to play the game, unlike Stannis. Playing is the only way to have even a CHANCE of winning. And when you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.

[tobiasdrake]

So, my opinion on Wanda (if you don't mind hearing it)...

If we're going to condemn Wanda and say she needs to be punished for what she did, should we not hold characters like Tony Stark to the same standard for being such a huge part of the global war machine that directly caused a significant part of Wanda's own trauma, or for accidentally causing the Ultron incident due to his own trauma motivating him to try and protect the world through his obviously-a-bad-idea technology? What of Banner, who arguably could have prevented a lot of the damage the Hulk did if he just gave himself up to the military to be experimented on instead of fighting for his right to exist freely? Or Clint's Ronin phase after the Snap? Even Wanda volunteering to be experimented on by Hydra, she was a young traumatized person who was exploited, as is typical of military and terrorist organizations to do. She most certainly had agency in that decision and killing out of revenge isn't exactly good, let alone all the collateral, but if we argue that Wanda deserves punishment for the harm she has done, then is she also not justified in wanting to punish Stark and others complicit in the atrocities she's suffered where she and her family were the collateral?

And complicating matters is that due to her powers, Wanda having a breakdown has a greater impact than say, if I went a little crazy in my grief. Her simply lashing out has huge consequences because she has reality-warping abilities that are downright instinctual for her to use. It's kinda a problem a fantastical world of super-powered people would have to deal with. How do you deal with people in crisis who normally would have a small, undirected impact when they lash out, but now have to actively restrain themselves from causing massive damage with careless use of their laser eyes or magic? Two individuals could have the exact same character, the exact same reaction, and cause vastly different amounts of harm. If Wanda didn't have her powers, she simply would not have been capable of what she did.

(And, more practically, how do you implement our current carceral justice system on someone with powers without breaking several dozen human rights laws like with the RAFT? More than ever, crime reduction, rehabilitation and restorative justice would become the only practical way of dealing with the majority of powered individuals like Wanda long-term because A) restraining them is hard, and B) the most important goal, which is or should already true of most crime but especially when you're dealing with someone who could blow up a city, is to prevent them from re-offending which punitive justice is hardly good at)

Which is basically a long way of saying Wanda did some bad things, but punishing her when she clearly wants to just heal and not hurt people doesn't make much sense, especially in the more fantastical context of the MCU. I also find a lot of the people who want her to "face consequences" to be a little... strange about it? It's one thing to complain about a character being let off the hook for what they did with only a slap on the wrist and seeing them as given undeserved sympathy, but a lot of people seem to really want her to just suffer in a way they don't with other MCU characters who've done similar stuff.

Oh, absolutely, Tony has a lot to answer for that the franchise just lets him skate for. Civil War, the movie that pointedly refuses to talk about Johannesburg, also pointedly refuses to talk about Tony's culpability in making Ultron. It never comes up.

It condemns the Avengers for being too careless with collateral damage while fighting Ultron - A wildly hollow accusation for anyone who actually saw the third act of that film. It accuses them of destroying Sokovia through their careless disregard for civilian lives. But the fact that they, and specifically Tony and Hulk, made Ultron? Never comes up.

And I would be the last person to defend Clint's Ronin phase. The fact that he's a serial mass-murderer who gets to just retire to a happy family is something I find intensely bothersome, which greatly affected my enjoyment of him moving forward. That's going to come up when we get to Hawkeye.

[mariacallous]

Meduza: Russia's law enforcement crisis

Dear readers: You might be surprised to learn that Russia is suffering from a “critical shortage” of police officers. At least, that’s according to Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, who said a few weeks ago that 5,000 law enforcement employees had resigned in the previous month alone. This is despite the fact that the country has one of the world's highest rates of officers per capita and is supposed to add another 16,000 by 2026 in accordance with a decree Putin issued last year.

If Russia is a police state, this purported shortage of police has not given citizens a break. According to a new report from BBC News Russian, the lack of law enforcement personnel has led to a rise in police violence — a problem that’s long been endemic in Russian society. “Rather than finding evidence [for a crime], it’s easier to just drag the first person you see into the station and beat him until he takes the fall,” explained a former police major from Tomsk.

In many places, the officer deficit has also left Russians defenseless against their fellow citizens. According to the BBC’s sources, police are increasingly refusing to open criminal cases in response to reports from the public, telling citizens they simply don’t have enough resources.

The Russian authorities haven’t exactly helped themselves prevent this crisis. In the final months of 2021, shortly before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Interior Ministry purged its ranks, firing hundreds of police officers who had demonstrated an interest (by liking YouTube videos, for example) in the work of Alexey Navalny.

So what are Russia’s remaining cops doing with their time, if not investigating crimes? “Endlessly churning out offense reports against people for discrediting the army,” one officer told the BBC. Another source said citizens currently “love reporting any and all offenses related to the special military operation,” using the Kremlin’s official euphemism for the war. (The story of a parody app called My Denunciation that received hundreds of serious reports from users seeking to incriminate their neighbors would seem to confirm this claim.)

Add to all this the fact that, according to officers who spoke to the BBC, there hasn't been a substantial pay raise since 2011, and it’s a wonder anybody works for the Russian police at all — until you consider mobilization. Last September, after Putin announced the draft, the police attrition rate came to a halt when many officers realized that remaining on the force was their only way to avoid being sent to war. Multiple officers told the BBC that their superiors assured them: if they resigned, they would get a military summons the following day.

[veganfairie]

Heyo I am vegan 7 years and interested in aninmal right theory.

Any thoughts on The prey and predator debate? As a rule I never discuss this with carnists lol It relates to the question whether we should intervene in nature to save prey from the predators as it would stop suffering and death as we would want somebody to do if we where the victims (we would not want to die to feed a lion even even for the lions survival)

This debate is extremely interesting and at first feels radical I haven't made up my mind on it, I feel we can interfere on some level (wild life aid , breaking up crow fights etc ) I am not worried about violating natural law that is an appeal to nature fallacy but I would worry about militant policing of nature how this might effect wild life sovereignty (the book Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights takes this route) (I would also consider comparing it to how we do not police uncontacted tribes in some cases ) ,and the big one the environment which needs some balance for everyone and lastly there is the debate on when it is appropriate to impose our own moral code on animals outside our care , being vegan is about our actions but obviously we do need to consider other things that hurt animals just like we do with people.

I think ideally that we do have the obligation to try and find other solutions to this conundrum as there is much suffering in nature that can be solved I remember discussing with a scientist who refused to help chicks that got smashed by their parents and did not support others doing so as if nature was sacred to me that is just to far, obliviously we have enough problems dealing with how we effect animals more than they effect each other, but I think it is an interesting part of aninmal rights theory. .

Hello, thank you for sending me this, it is very fun/interesting to read and answer :)

I do have a bit of thoughts on this. Unfortunately I can't translate everything into english as well as I'd like but let's try~

It is a very complex i

I think preventing prey from dying a painful death sounds wonderful. I would love if we could do so, without causing other harm. But when I think about how this would go in practice, (or rather how I think it would go) I'm against it. The gazelle and lion are both equally worthy of happiness and life.

It would feel very wrong to interfere since I was never included here. It's not my right to police every other being. They shouldn't be punished just for being them. Every animal has their place and I don't want to take any away.

I also have a fear that inserting ourselves into a situation like this on a grand scale could be dangerous, when remembering every other way humankind has managed to damage the earth and it's creatures... 🥀

I really agree with you on what you have said! We can help the most by simply taking care of the earth, not littering, saving water, being plant based etc. We should also treat wounded animals and support and/or be part of good wildlife conservation projects and nice stuff like that! We can't change everything but changing what we can is everything 💗

[anthonybialy]

Killer Excuses

Mourning is tough when Bill of Rights-shredding fetishists are standing on caskets.  Gun control ghouls had to climb down quickly.  The story of the Nashville atrocity will disappear since the murderer wasn’t on the way to a Ron DeSantis rally.  Details once again ruin a perfectly-crafted story.

It’s so transphobic of the transgender murderer to have switched sides.  Let us remember the real casualties, namely imaginary sufferers of retaliatory onslaughts that never happen.  The community feels threatened about what hasn’t occurred in the inadvertent embodiment of believing feelings trump actuality.  Liberals who spent the days after September 11 expressing grief for those murdered in a terror strike against our nation by vainly looking for Muslims attacked as revenge underwent a soft reboot.  Fearing a backlash is nothing compared to the real lash.

Anyone genuinely interested in stopping crime is tired of the predictability.  A vile enemy of life itself receiving treatment for an emotional disorder is the least surprising update since noticing gun-free zones aren’t free of guns if dastards zone in.  Let’s say it together on 3, 2, 1: “If only there had been signs.”

Breaking gun laws is against the law.  It’s just like murder.  Very dedicated grievers are once again lecturing about the horrors of the all-time hellion rifle we call the AR-15 in lieu of condemnations of a diabolical trigger-puller.  Magical bullets fired from sentient monster machines climb stairs then traveling through wormholes.

Such frightening items exist and may be acquired by the wicked, which is the best reason to not make it virtually impossible for the virtuous to acquire them.  Even fiends weigh practical matters, as seen by how they choose targets with soft security. So, discourage potential assailants.  Showing how to stop future aggressions is the only contribution human trash piles make.

An unknown enemy is the trickiest to defeat.  The Second Amendment’s aspiring editors make the case against themselves by spewing patent nonsense about how they pretend firearms work.  Gun foes hate the devices so much that they refuse to learn about them.

The typically irrational legitimately make illegitimate blame.  Highlighting how the barbarity occurred in a Nashville Christian school while winking is how our helpfully unbiased media lets you know how much they think you should care.  Liberals shamelessly cite laws against mutilating perplexed children as a mitigating factor just after children were killed.  They sure don’t seem bothered that damning the NRA lets a mass murderer off the hook.  You’d think they might be upset the perpetrator didn’t obey their talking points.

To be fair, those who act like they’re the only ones who want to keep children safe. Fervent opponents of bearing arms are concerned to the extent that the deceased can be used to further political goals.  Both they and their policies are surely rational if they campaign using dead kids.  No, it’s not abortion.  The rate of guns used in murders will never match 100 percent.

Caring more about pronouns than victims reflects our very sane and caring modern age.  Is misgendering the murderer hateful? Or is using preferred pronouns transphobic since it implies the villain represents others from the group?  You may note none of such focus prevents future strikes against schools.

You would think the killer was the aggrieved party if you’ve come across profiles from self-righteously twisted activists who’ve infiltrated newsrooms.  Delicate debates about how to address the mass killer created a real-world problem with ignoring basic reality, namely identifying a suspect while indulging in delusions about same.  Fretting about respecting what a human demon wished to be called sums up 2023 perfectly in its way.

It’s not just befuddlement over what gender the fiend really was.  A patent unwillingness to diagnose people struggling with dysmorphia shows the harm caused by valuing self-esteem over science.  Lumping everyone together is unnecessary while noting what’s happening to individuals.  The spike in assaults since normalizing disorders is not to denigrate all those with psychological issues but rather focus on assistance.  Preventing those enduring internal turbulence from reaching out causes harm all around.  

Seeing transphobia framed as the worst consequence of murders should be shocking.  Then again, noticing an aggressively bumbling communist tyranny inflicted a pandemic led to being branded racist.  Anyone who cares about fighting mental illness would offer counseling instead of coddling.  Implements are claimed to be as at fault as your devotion to biology.  Liberals don’t know who to accuse.  We should have spent less time policing drag shows and more time monitoring things like, oh, threats to a Catholic school by a wholly unbalanced malefactor.

Democrats finally found a crime they oppose, and the transgender perpetrator ruined it.  The narrative is collateral damage.  Every single conservative would have been denounced if a Christian murdered a transgender person.  It turns out the reverse is also true.  The sense of confusion is consistent depending on the side.

[mimic-kry]

depression log 1 (ramblings of a spiraling lunatic)

i keep asking myself dumb questions.

did humanity forget that the brightest candle burns out the quickest? or the story of icarus? why are we so intent on getting to the end faster? nothing awaits there except…the end. why are we so concerned about money? about how to get literally everything faster? i refuse to think that we're that impatient and greedy as a whole, but…are we?

i suppose these are questions for god if there is one. and if there is one, when i meet him/her/it/them/whatever. i'm left to speculate, and nothing makes sense.

those at the top must be human. given that fantastical creatures don't exist, it means that only the most sociopathic, or least human, humans have accrued all the power in the world. and with that power, they've failed everyone. because how can one see the state of things and consider themselves successful?

the so called 'elites' (heretofore: leeches) of our society have seen themselves fit, and solely themselves, to take the reigns of our future. these disgusting leeches horde the limited resources of our world, and what have they achieved with them? do we truly believe that these few worthless brains are better than billions?

it's obvious that change is necessary. i'm personally not intelligent enough to know how, but i know what the end goal is: a fully sustainable global society. the question is obvious: how the fuck do we get there? regulated economies? more regulations on money? digging up more gold? socialism? anarchism? i sure as shit don't know.

the problem, at least in my view, is that we thought we could govern each other fairly when we're all just stranded on the same rock together. we should've just stuck with what worked: collaboration. yeah, things will slow down to a pace that's slower than what it is now, but they (the fucking leeches) HAVE to face the truth: our current pace is unsustainable. it will lead to our destruction. our balrog is climate change, and it will lay indiscriminate waste. once deaths from starvation start to rise, it'll be beyond too late. yet still they dig deeper, and with seemingly endless greed. for a CONCEPT. money. money itself is just a concept. it may buy you things, but in the end the piece of paper is just a representation of a stash of gold in a fucking fort.

our world is dying. as it always has been, but they've stuck a knife in her chest, and continue to drive it farther. to remove the knife and tend the wound will take immense time and effort. and global cooperation.

i don't know if we'll be able to achieve this in time. i don't know if humanity's extinction is on the horizon, but even more suffering and preventable deaths await us if we continue our current course.

i get the sinking feeling, however, that this is why they're (the fucking leeches) so interested in space travel. i fear that these soulless monsters knew what they were doing all along, and knowingly accelerated our planet's death, hoping to colonize other planets before having to face the music. to do it all over again. and possibly be lauded as "heroes" for "saving the human race".

i almost feel duty-bound to somehow rid our species of this threat. but i, like the many i fear for, am left powerless in an ever-spiraling situation.

truly this at least narrows the answers to the god thing: god is either not real, dead, or so ashamed of us that he left went for a pack of cigarettes. funny how even the most devout seem content with this. one would assume they'd be demanding we go look for god. or at least change our ways. maybe he'll come back. and forgives us. for the numerous species we extincted. and continue to extinct. right.

my heart breaks for our future. for all species rocketing towards extinction. for all those that will suffer in the coming decades. is this the source of state of depression?

instead of hoping that we'll have enough decades left to figure out terraforming (and, undoubtedly, space resource ownership laws), i'll hope that we go extinct before we're able to spread our cancerous ways to other planets. or, heavens AND the nine hells forbid, other sentient species.

they (god damned leeches) seem to be diseased in the mind, and okay with it. or perhaps our species isn't as homogenous as i once believed. or they've transcended evil as a concept and embraced being cancer. whatever the case, i hear my name and it's alcohol calling.

[pornaddictionsymptoms]

The 5 Stages of Pornography Addiction

If you're a therapist, then you've probably encountered clients with pornography addiction. Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach to treating this type of addiction, there are five general stages that most people go through. Knowing what these stages are can help you better understand and treat your clients. Stay tuned for my next post, where I will discuss each stage in more detail!

1. Denial:

Porn Addiction symptoms can be difficult to overcome, and denial is often a major obstacle in the journey to recovery. When someone is in denial about their addiction, they may be unwilling to admit that they have a problem and may refuse to seek help. Additionally, they may make excuses for their behaviors or downplay the seriousness of their addiction. Denial can prevent someone from getting the treatment they need and can ultimately lead to further health complications and even death. If you suspect that someone you know is struggling with an addiction, it is important to have a conversation with them about it. By breaking through the denial, you can help them take the first step towards recovery.

2. Bargaining

Addiction is a serious problem that can have profound consequences on both the addicts themselves and their loved ones. Addicts may find themselves engaging in risky behaviors in order to get their fix, which can lead to accidents, violence, and even death. In addition, addiction can tear families apart and lead to financial ruin. However, there is hope for those who are willing to seek treatment. Many addicts are able to overcome their addiction with the help of counseling, therapy, and 12-step programs. These resources can provide addicts with the support they need to make positive changes in their lives. For addicts who are struggling to break free from their addiction, reaching out for help is an important first step.

3. Anger

Addiction is a powerful force. It can take over someone's life, making them do things they never thought possible just to get their next fix. And it doesn't discriminate; addiction can affect anyone, no matter their age, gender, or background. While addiction may seem like a choice at first, it's anything but. Once someone is addicted, they are no longer in control of their own actions. They will do whatever it takes to get their next hit, even if it means lying, stealing, or breaking the law. This can lead to a lot of anger and resentment, both from the addict themselves and from those around them. Addiction is a disease that destroys lives and families. It's important to remember that addiction is not a choice, and those who are suffering from it need our compassion and understanding.

4. Depression

Addiction is characterized by an inability to control one's use of a substance or activity, despite negative consequences. This can lead to a wide range of problems, including financial difficulties, relationship problems, and health issues. Depression is a common co-occurring disorder in individuals with addiction. In fact, according to one study, nearly half of all individuals with addiction also suffer from depression. The two disorders can interact in a vicious cycle, with each exacerbating the other. For example, individuals who are depressed may turn to substance abuse as a way of self-medicating, which can then lead to further depression. Conversely, individuals with addiction may become depressed as a result of their drug use. Studies have shown that treating both depression and addiction can be more effective than treating either disorder alone. Therefore, it is important for individuals with addiction to be screened for depression and other mental health disorders.

5. Acceptance

Addiction is a serious problem that can have devastating consequences. It can cause financial ruin, destroy relationships, and lead to physical and mental health problems. Despite the seriousness of addiction, there is still a great deal of stigma surrounding it. Too often, addiction is seen as a character flaw or a moral failing. This stigma can make it difficult for people to seek help for their addiction, which only exacerbates the problem. It is important to remember that addiction is a disease, and one that should be treated with compassion and understanding. Only by breaking down the barriers of stigma can we hope to effectively address the issue of addiction.

Pornography addiction is a real thing, and if you're struggling with it, you're not alone. There is hope, though. In this post, we've outlined some steps that you can take to overcome your addiction to pornography. If you need more help than what we've provided here, don't hesitate to reach out for professional assistance. Recovery from pornography addiction is possible, and we want to help you get there.

[xaverie]

When the law is the tool by which people are being brutalized, it is immoral to tell them we cannot put an end to that brutalization because of the law.

When the system is the thing depriving people of their life and liberty, it is amoral to insist they can only ask for solutions that are allowed by the system.

Our government does not want what we want. If they did, they would give it to us.

And yes, we know how the system works. It’s literally what’s killing us. The way that it works is the problem. The fact that we have a Senate is the problem. The fact that so much power goes to unelected officials is the problem. The fact that Some voters have so much more power than others is the problem.  The fact that the people we did elect to help us do not have the power to help us is literally the problem.

Vote local. Run for city council. Find out who your DA is. Save your neighbor’s life. The Big Three branches deserve no credit, no sympathy, no understanding as institutions. Give them nothing but warnings, contempt, and the promise that we will use every tool in our grasp to reshape it into the society we deserve.

[thelonelyme]

♡ʏᴀɴᴅᴇʀᴇ ᴅᴏʀᴍ ʟᴇᴀᴅᴇʀs x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ [ʜᴇᴀᴅᴄᴀɴᴏɴs]1♡

.

𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞: ディズニー ツイステッドワンダーランド[Twisted Wonderland]

𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐨/𝐢: Riddle Rosehearts, Leona Kingscholar, Azul Ashengrotto.

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭: The yanderes finds out mc is now a fallen angel due to them.

𝐑𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭: Hello honey, this is my first time asking you but please listen to me.. What do you think the reaction of the yandere house leader's reaction to their lover who is an angel has now fallen and become a demon's. especially the reason why they become a fallen angel is because they want to continue to be with the leaders of the dormitory even though their God forbids them, and to the point of plucking out their wings. Pretty pleaseee 🥺🥺

𝐀𝐕𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐙𝐄: GN READER, Since there's more than five characters, I decided to divide the post into two parts, in this there will be only three, while in the other there will be the remaining four leaders. Although there will be yandere behaviors, mention of explicit self harm, misogyny, blasphemy and description of mutilation and implies of non-con.

-𝐑𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬-

For the young and promising scarlet-haired magician, your arrival could not have been described as less than a coming from hell. Probably your very first encounter would have been through the iconic duo of Ace and Deuce, which, breaking a slightly more relevant rule than the others, would have caused their execution.

Perhaps they had been secretly drinking coffee and Riddle was immediately informed by his beloved deputy dormitory, or perhaps Ace had categorically refused to feed the flamingos wearing a pink onesie after seeing Deuce. After all, they’ve only been in that crazy dorm for a week, and as much as they didn’t want to conflict with the hot-tempered boss, it was like they were attracting trouble. Unfortunately, because of the universal law, what happens to your friends is likely to fall on you, too.

Riddle had already had a bad day trying to straighten out the mistakes of some of his fellow dorm bosses and prevent every member of his perfect dorm from breaking one of his rules. And their stunt was the last straw that broke the pot of rage in the honor student’s head. At that moment he could just scream until his throat hurt, he could just end their idiocy once and for all with a series of spells, but no. The moment his mind recorded that there was another unknown person with them, it was enough to make him back from his rash thoughts. After all, he would never have wanted his reputation to be burned because of a foolish error of self-control.

At first, he wouldn’t even try to figure out who you were. He had enough problems to deal with and certainly a simple person could not have completely blown his priorities. He thought something like trying to socialize with too many people was pointless, especially with people who seemed to be less than promising.

But of course he heard about you. The student without magic who, despite lacking the basic requirements required for frequently attending a school of magic, somehow managed to be part of the regular students. And what left him even more suspicious was your immediate appointment as head dormitory for that dilapidated Onboro dorm. As far as he could possibly have known about you, you might have been a rich man’s kid so you could afford to go to a prestigious school and, what’s more, make yourself chief on the first day. He knew that crow only cared about money and reputation. As far as he knew, he knew nothing.

His annoyance would grow as you found friends in Deuce and Ace. And with your calm, kind presence combined with your sweet behavior, it wasn’t that hard not to have a bunch of guys who are just blessed by you. Your alone presence could calm the entire class, or dormitory in which you were, and any restless person could simply cry more for your words of comfort and so warm. You definitely had something otherworldly, as Ace jokingly described it as you were walking and lazing at the entrance of the gigantic maze of brambles without noticing the angry person watching you from afar.

For him you did not exist. A person so charitable, so benevolent, so... Perfect existed only in fairy tales where everyone lives happily ever after. In a world left in the hands of hatred and envy, such a person could not exist. I’m sure you were using your pretty face to have a bunch of simps hovering around. No one can be good without having anything else. Surely you’re hiding your deepest, most unpronounceable secrets no matter how despicable and disgusting they were. You weren’t possible, the whole world had constants, and being imperfect was normal for everyone.

And you were that variable.

The fact of your very existence was driving him crazy from the inside. There wasn’t a single moment when he couldn’t help but hear your laugh, even when he was alone. He couldn’t help emulating your little mannerisms, any more than he could completely ignore you.

After all, every God wants all of their beloved children to be happy.

As hard as it was to do the opposite, Riddle couldn’t help but want to remain independent of your angelic voice, from your adorable lips that at each movement only invited him to violate them over and over again until they were closed forever. It had to withstand your eyes, which reflected only warmth and comfort.

"It’s a trap Riddle, don’t you see?!"

You weren’t like his mother. Or like everyone in his family. And that made him frown more deeply. You weren’t normal. You didn’t yell at anyone who wronged you or did something wrong, you never punished anyone as they did all the others- no, you just smiled at them and gently, like a godsend, you started listing all the reasons why their actions were wrong. And as if that were not enough, you were able to find solutions to their irremediable and stupid damages! Don’t you understand how surreal it sounds? But it was precisely at those moments, in the moments when the crimson-haired boy did not readily turn to avoid you, that he ardently desired your comfort and warmth. He also wanted to be secretly devoured by the burning flames of your love. And as it was repeated that those two newbies good for nothing could do nothing but damage and that could only bring you to an end to say the least until proven otherwise were his eyes piercing your temple in moments where there was no one to see it.

He felt absolutely pathetic. Like a flower that in vain tries to color itself in a different way than all the others. He did not want to have your pity, from his overblot too many people who did not know anything about him had given him sad eyes and an empty excuse. He knew that no one was truly sorry for him, not even his closest friends, no one else besides himself knew what he had felt, no one cared what had brought him to his ways, no one had ever deigned to even try to understand him.

And then you showed up.

And honestly, he was definitely better off without you.

You were driving him crazy.

You weren’t possible, you weren’t normal.

Every person who ever saw you started calling you "angel". The first to start this ridiculous chain was that hunter in Pomefiore. Every single time he saw you, he would immediately approach your figure to call you with some pretty cheesy French nicknames."Comment allez-vous mon Ange? I only want what’s best for you, my dear." You couldn’t even suspect people like that Frenchman clearly stalking you? How could you trust every person you met so blindly? Even those sea sweepers who were scamming all the weaklings who were desperate enough to go to them? At first he didn’t think you would really get close to them, but surely he was wrong in the exact moment when he saw you on the arm with that freak who is Floyd, laughing as if there were no Riddle to say the least disgusted by your skit. And not only that, as a icing on the cake, even that other twin was now taking an interest in you. How could you possibly miss the people you date? The only logical explanation he could come up with was your innate stupidity. He couldn’t conceive all of this."Hey little Killy¹, how about you come with us later? I’m bored by myself" "Now, now, don’t scare the student this way Floyd. But, if I have to admit it, I’ll be glad you’re here, too, Angelfish." Or the two annoying first years with Ace who now no longer made cheeky jokes about you being an angel, preferring to use that nickname for sentimental moments alone. It made him sick to his stomach about it.. Or how Deuce was much more silent in your presence, always surrounded by fluttering invisible hearts. "A-h, of course, I’ll accompany you! Don’t worry, you’re safe with me!"

He couldn’t help but be captivated by you. But he wouldn’t admit that he was sick and obsessed with your abnormality. Every time he looked at you with a slight increase in his heart, it was just a little anxiety about the test he was supposed to take next. After all he had to prove to all that he was excellent in everything. Every time he had a slight twitch of his fingers when some filthy worm crawled by your side to touch you, it was only because of his severity. He cares about his dorm mates. Every time he blushed at the sight of your slightly more exposed thighs than usual, it was only because of the heat of the room. He was human, wasn’t he? And every time he ordered Trey to drug your lunch? It was to make you normal.

He was beginning to hate others much more than before. Hating others and you. You were definitely lying about who you were, maybe you were a magician so skilled that you could hide all traces of your magic so that you would appear weaker to others? Or perhaps you were one of those creatures created only to bring hatred and despair into the hearts and minds of those who did not want to be near you? Surely you were lying. And the most important rule of all was, "No one is allowed to lie to the Queen. This will be punished with immediate execution in front of all the people of the kingdom."

And finally now it was clear. You were not normal. That's why you were abnormal.

And if the others found out about you, you’d probably be feeling a lot worse than what you’re going through right now. Wouldn’t you want to be chained to a lab bed while they cut and tear apart your beautiful wings? Be thankful he hasn’t touched them yet. Don’t mind the collar around your neck. It’s just to make you stay. Otherwise you’ll fly away. And would you like to leave after leading a young man to his destruction? It is an even worse pain than your cries of pain.

You couldn’t come back now.

Now you can indulge in your escapes. You can do everything you want now. You were dirty. Impure. You could not categorically enter. And now you had fallen into the rabbit hole.

You should have known that if you took a rose, you’d soon be pierced by her thorns.

-𝐋𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐚 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐫-

Now, Leona- in very simple and basic terms- he wouldn’t give a shit about you. You should not blame anyone, the lion man is one of the most difficult people to attract because of his somewhat intimidating and egocentric personality.

The lion man usually spent his days doing much more important things than what a small and incapable herbivore would do. Leona would be forced to approach you and your group before there could be a struggle that could potentially end in some unwanted death. Honestly, the only thing he thought about his dorm mates was that those empty heads were just muscles and no brains, he found ridiculous the way they had always tried to attack someone who clearly was not a problem. He just didn’t think it was even important to think about you. After all, what could a weak herbivore do to a lion like him? Nothing, simple.

The only thing he could think about the first time he saw you was how weak you might seem. Compared to those loud idiots and that parrot with a cell phone, you didn’t seem to be able to defend yourself against anyone. His posture would reassemble so that he could look even bigger and more massive than before and he could almost feel a small shiver slip down his spine at the sight of your faltering expression. Surely you had never met such an intimidating being like him, you had never seen a strong and cunning man like him, in fact, you looked like someone who had never seen something slightly uglier than usual "they lived happily ever after".

He was ready to show you otherwise.

Your first encounter would have left him with a bitter taste, but nothing to worry about for a guy like him. At least he hoped you’d have the good sense to never return to his territory. I mean, who the hell would want to get into trouble with Leona Kingscholar, second prince of Afterglow Savannah and dorm chief of Savanaclaw? Exactly.

He didn’t really think you’d come back, this time even alone- he doesn't even care to mention that weird pet cat-, there. Most likely you had some kind of death wish, otherwise it doesn’t explain. He would just be more annoyed when he heard your voice talking calmly to that puppy Jack; and unfortunately the ledge on which he had decided to keep his well-deserved rest was close enough for your voice to reach his ears, causing them to contract several times, occasionally grunting and growling trying to make you understand to lower your tone. As you kept talking, all he could think about was how you two could be so annoying, and at the end of your little chat, He could not help but swirl his eyes to the heavens, thinking that your little conversation was closed, and whisper faintly before finally finding rest.

If you had stopped there, you would have spared yourself everything, but as a loyal subject, you are tested to redeem your destiny.

Tell him that he is your king, the one and only. Just tell him that he was the one who was essential to your existence.

Live for him, and only him.

Every single day you’d come back to his dorm room just to ask the freshman and the hyena if they were okay and if something happened to them. You must have been investigating the mysterious incidents, which clearly pissed him off.

He would have finally shown that giant lizard his place and his true king, and this victory would have been denied to him only for some stupid herbivores?

He wouldn't lose this time.

He would instruct those dorks in the dorm not to interact with anyone outside of their dormitory, but at the same time he would simply release Ruggie to injure the others of Diasomnia and company. It was the perfect plan because, as unlikely as it might seem, he could always pass for the kind and caring dorm-leader who cared about the health of his comrades and who for them well became a little more reserved, and then no one would ever leak anything. In the light of these reliefs, he spent his days resting under tall trees, allowing the lazy but intriguing lion to bask in the rays of the hot sun. The moment he heard your voice, he couldn’t believe your tenacity to want to bother him. Your sincere spheres shone with kindness as you knelt before him with a concerned expression on your face. " Are you feeling weak? I can call someone to take you to the infirmary if you feel sick."

Up to that point he was also willing to forget your presence and erase you from his life, but it seemed like you wanted to be a part of it by force.

And because he respected humans so much that he considered them his equals, he didn’t mind returning the favor.

You were a human no doubt, but one that smelled absolutely delicious, causing his tail to rustle and his ears to twitch. Your final meeting would have definitely been enough to trigger that instinct in Leona.

He loved the fact that you were so weak and small compared to his powerful figure, it gave him a sick confirmation that he was once again superior in something. He loved the way in a few minutes he could easily overpower you and finally make vanish once and for all that annoying gleam of hope in his eyes, he hated how you could be so hopeful in people, always stating that in every being there was always a part of justice, and defending even the indefensible after having created only damage. You reminded him too much of his happy, carefree, annoying nephew, and he didn’t like it.

And he wondered if you would forgive him after what he did to you.

He wondered what your limitations were.

Everyone has a certain threshold beyond which you no longer act rationally, and he wanted to be the cause of your breakup. He wanted to see how fast he could get you on the hook. To pretend not to hear you and not to react at all in your presence and to see you go mad with concern for him was divine.

Yeah, just focus on him.

It just seemed to him that little game of cat and mouse before the finally get to the main course. And this almost made him purr, he loved these foreplay, they made his catch even more delicious and tasty than it normally was.

He wanted to hear your sweet, warm voice tell him that he was the only living being who could hear your praise and your acts of docile submission, he wanted to possess you in every possible way, he wanted to have control over your soul, body and mind. He wanted you to never walk or fly again. He wanted to be your first and only person to go to to solve your relatively small problems. But apparently he needed his help to figure out your real place.

You reminded him of a tiny little crane, so beautiful but at the same time so easy to devour, so delicate but at the same time so damn stubborn. That was one of the traits he hated deeply about you. No matter how much he brutalized you over and over again a day, sharing his pleasure with all those beasts in his dorm room, all you did was forgive him and talk to him gently.

"I know you’re not really like that, Leona, I forgive you."

But you did not know that there was no point of return for your beast. By now he had been completely overwhelmed by his obsession with you. If he "wasn’t really like that," then guess what you should have seen was that he was, in fact, an even more cruel and charming demon than the one you learned to stand up to.

So he had kindly decided to prevent a possible escape in an even more effective way than those he had already adopted. He wanted to rant about your bloody body even more.

Yes, tell him how you hated him, tell him you missed your beautiful wings.

Tell him how much you hate him with every drop of your blood.

In the end, even angels can hate. Finally he managed to break you. But now you don't need to use your little mouth to scream, it's better if you kneel and start worshipping your new god.

Now drown in that sweet poison that you have for him.

-𝐀𝐳𝐮𝐥 𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨-

The clever, cunning and extremely charismatic silver-haired magician had never done anything else in his brilliant career as a model student and young entrepreneur besides helping all those poor souls who desperately needed help.

In the eyes of many, he was nothing but perfect: magnificent exterior appearance, impeccable marks and a charming language ability, not to mention the fact of having two large and threatening eels that always followed him, making it clear that any kind of problems that would result in a physical situation, it would not be him to have to worry about his health.

Helping people was what he did, every day, despite many in the school had been warned not to trust the young but already so analytical magician, who, as was expected from every excellent service, was always ready with a golden contract in his pockets. And when he felt for the first time that a new student without magic had started attending a school full of uncultivated barbarians, he couldn’t help but start taking an extra look at you.

But not him, for goodness sake! He was a very busy man, he had many clients a day to help with his abilities. Therefore he would have entrusted the task to his two business partners, knowing certainly that they would not disappoint him at all.

Which he was absolutely right about.

During the short period of time required to have all the information necessary and important to carry out his work, he would try to create a certain type of debt towards him. Maybe you lost the only pen you had? What a delightful coincidence! Just then he had one more, but everything came at a cost. And of course he had intentionally hidden that last part, answering your generous thanks with as many sweet words and saying that there was no problem, and that, on the contrary, you could have kept the pen with you for as long as you wanted.

Such a generous offer, isn’t it?

Obviously all those fairly repetitive coincidences would not have been done for nothing, no- he wanted first to lull you with sweet gestures and seemingly small and harmless favors in his room before drafting a contract with you. Simple and clean.

"So, dear, I’m sure you’re wondering why I asked you to meet me in the VIP room, and the answer will be immediately provided. Since I’ve noticed an obvious problem with subjects that require magical abilities, I wanted to give you a chance to decide if I could help you with your problems. Of course, you would get, not only that, many other advantages, like the protection of Jade and Floyd, the two people standing next to us, and a possible job in my restaurant, since I know that affording food in these conditions of yours can’t be that easy. Surely a student without magic like you would benefit enormously from a contract with me. All you have to do is just sign here your name and allow me to take care of your problems while you’re here at the NRC, and in return all I ask is that you get to know yourself better."

The only thing he didn’t expect was your imminent rejection, his gloved hand that was still in the air, while his large grin that characterized him and his bright eyes were sharpened for a second, before returning to their original position. Of course, to others Azul seemed perfect, but in the end, perfection is not something that the human being or tritons or faes can simply achieve. It can never be so. Perfection concerns only every Gods and theirs nearest creations. You could see through all his flattery, and in the end you managed not to get dragged into something you didn't want to do.

"I’m sorry, Azul-san, but I don’t think I want to make a contract right now. While my situation may not be the best, I think I can manage on my own. If you don’t mind now, I’ll leave so I don’t bother you again, goodbye."

Azul, with a movement of his hand, had to stop the swinging figure of Floyd before he could even utter a single word, deciding that with brute force he would not go anywhere with you. He did not want to tarnish those two impeccable years for ordering to mistreat an innocent young student, while it was different for those who had not respected his terms of contract.

Strangely, he had not considered your perspicacity and your possible instinct, which had left him at times puzzled and at times angry with you, for having ridiculed him resoundingly rejecting an opportunity that only on very few occasions are proposed, and with him, for not calculating that part of you, causing a flaw in his otherwise perfect plan. He couldn’t find a single moment when he was distracted from his original task, but maybe it was just your calm, sweet, and so charming, but at the same time so intriguing personality that accidentally led him to think that I was completely innocent, while instead you had an intellect like his.

He needed to find out more about this new side of you.

Until that time he had been accustomed to your usual I seemingly blessed by the seven. He swears that for a moment he also had the courage to imagine your figure in the other school by principles, and for some reason that thought made him feel weak at the knees, causing him to stagger for a moment. He hated feeling weak for you, he hated how he wanted with all his heart to hear all those praises, unfortunately addressed to that freshman Deuce for passing a test by Professor. Trein, addressed to him.

He was selfish, but all those years he was forced to hide and hide his talents, why shouldn’t he be now?

After all, he deserved to be after helping so many troubled souls.

He also deserved to be blessed by your coming, he wanted to be blessed by your presence.

Finally he had found someone like him, someone who was not as severe as Riddle but also not as obsessed with beauty as Vil, perspicacious as Leona and so trusting and kind but not as exacerbating as Kalim. In a way, you were the perfect definition of soul mate for the promising young man. In light of these rather strange thoughts, Azul could not help but continue and continue to deny all the obvious evidence of his infatuation. Something was wrong with him, he felt it. He felt that there was something in you that simply could not be compatible with him. Maybe the fact that you were a human being and he was a sea's creature? He didn’t believe that, he would just create a potion that could turn you into a mermaid forever, and he would stop even dwelling on it. He could not understand why he continued to have paranoia, which was disturbing him from the success of his contracts, and which was consuming him from within.

The days that passed turned into months, months in which Azul had radically changed his attitude towards you: he kept trying to remain indifferent to your actions, but every time he saw your kind smiles and when he saw the way your hand moved when I comforted your friends by hugging them, he felt warm and fuzzy inside as he admired you, unable to tear his gaze away from your praiseworthy figure. Unfortunately his loyal business partners were there and they knew him so well to notice the change inside him.

They always noticed everything.

And instead of stopping their dear friend’s collection of personal items, they only encouraged him, laughing and commenting crudely on how exhilarating it was to see the usual charismatic and bewitching dormitory head Octavinelle pining completely for the little prefect that he could never have for himself.

After all, doves do not breathe underwater.

Azul’s patience would be thinning more and more, leading him to several hysterics and moments of deep depression, all so that you were not with him.

What would he have to do to be even in your sight?

He would have done anything, cut all eight of those embarrassing tentacles and offered them to you in exchange for just a little peek. He didn’t understand why he wanted to be with you so badly in the first place, but maybe that wasn’t even the biggest problem at the time.

Maybe it was time to cage the wings of his adorable angelfish.

He was literally shocked and he was about to scowl at the bigger twin before he looked at the title of the big, heavy book that had slammed in front of him.

"That’s why you were so.. magnetic.."

"You're a creature born to love."

"Maybe you came down for him?"

"Maybe someone sent a wonderful being like you to love him?"

"You should have been! That’s why he couldn’t hate you!"

"But now, my loved angelfish, there’s no need to get so upset, we still have to draw up a contract dear~"

¹= KilliFish, according to Wikipedia, a killifish is any of various oviparous (egg-laying) cyprinodontiform fish. All together, there are 1,270 species of killifish. Many of the species rely on such a diapause, since the eggs would not survive more than a few weeks if entirely submerged in water. Most killies are small fish, from 2.5 to 5 centimetres, with the largest species growing to just under 15 centimetres. The word killifish is of uncertain origin, but is likely to have come from the Dutch kil for a kill.

Part one

Part two

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Powered wheelchairs and Right to Repair

Here’s a miserable story with a mostly happy ending, one that leaves us with work to do, sure, but also with clarity on what to do next and how to do it. It’s about Colorado’s HB22–1031, “Consumer Right To Repair Powered Wheelchairs,” which Governor Jared Polis signed into law last week:

https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb22-1031#:~:text=Concerning%20a%20requirement%20that%20a,repair%20the%20manufacturer%27s%20powered%20wheelchairs

Three million Americans rely on wheelchairs, and many of them use powered wheelchairs. A wheelchair is an amazing assistive device, one that can mean the difference between being stuck at home — or even in bed — and being able to work, go to school, shop, and see family and friends.

Even if you don’t use a powered wheelchair, it won’t surprise you to learn that they break. A lot. Anyone with a phone or a laptop — tech that travels with us out of the home, into the great and wild outdoors — knows that stuff you take with you into the world takes a lot of knocks.

But when it comes to powered wheelchairs, there are a lot of complicated — and frankly awful — structural factors that virtually guarantee that the chairs will get broken, and then getting them fixed is an incredible hassle. These structural factors are detailed in “Stranded,” the US Public Interest Research Group’s new report:

https://uspirgedfund.org/reports/usp/stranded

Stranded’s foundation is 141 interviews US wheelchair users about their experiences with wheelchairs, which informs its commercial and legal analysis of the structural problems that underpin those experiences.

The report explains how Medicare narrowly interprets its statutory duties, allowing it to exclude outdoor powered wheelchairs from its program. That means that the majority of Americans who rely on powered wheelchairs have to use indoor wheelchairs, even when outdoors.

No wonder that these chairs break. A lot. As Mark Schmeler from U Pitt told Markian Hawryluk from Kaiser Health News, “It’s like you’re outside walking around all day with your slippers on.”

https://khn.org/news/article/power-wheelchair-users-right-to-repair-law-no-easy-fix/

But it’s not just a problem of fragile indoor chairs in a rugged outdoor world. The chairs aren’t just indoor chairs, they’re bad indoor chairs. That’s down to Medicare’s policy of using nationwide low bidders to supply chairs, which produced a winner-take-all duopoly where two private equity-backed manufacturers dominate.

These two companies — Numotion and National Seating and Mobility — have presided over a decline in the quality and durability of chairs, which means that the chairs they make break more often. Because these are PE-backed rollups — companies that used private equity capital and debt leverage to buy all their competitors — they need very high margins to meet investor expectations and cover their debts. That has resulted in deep cuts to the companies’ service budgets.

Medicare also has a policy of not funding preventative maintenance and only replacing chairs every five years, which means that these fragile, undermaintained, badly made indoor chairs must last for half a decade. That’s why 93% of respondents to the PIRG survey reported broken chairs in the previous year.

But also, the duopoly — whose anticompetitive mergers were waved through by the FTC — refuses to invest in repair, which is why 62% of repairs take 4+ weeks, while 40% take 7+ weeks. That’s 7 weeks of being stuck in your home — or even in your bed — while you wait for a technician to get your chair running again. Many of the people interviewed for Stranded can’t wait, and continue to use broken chairs. Some of them were severely injured as a result.

Unsurprisingly, wheelchair users and their trusted technicians often end up fixing their own chairs. Fixing a flat tire — or even swapping the little skateboard wheel used to stabilize a chair with a heavy control unit and respirator — are not rocket science. Stranded quotes a wheelchair technician who works for the duopoly: “most repairs to wheelchairs are straightforward and don’t require specialized skills or training, just a familiarity with mechanical devices.”

But there are deep structural impediments to independent powered wheelchair repair, impediments that are familiar from other Right To Repair fights: parts, and DRM. As with mobile phones, tractors, cars, and appliances, parts for powered wheelchairs can be hard to source because the cartel that manufactures them refuses to make them available except to authorized technicians. As is the case with other repair monopolies — like Apple’s authorized independent repair program — technicians are not allowed to keep parts in inventory, which means that nearly every repair includes a lengthy delay while parts are ordered and shipped.

Beyond parts, there are the problems of Digital Rights Management (DRM) in the chairs’ electronics. As with GM cars, John Deere tractors, and Apple iPhones, access to these electronics is digitally restricted to authorized technicians with passwords and specialized hardware tokens. Under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), making tools to bypass these access controls is a felony carrying a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and a $500,000 fine:

https://doctorow.medium.com/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors-bc93f471b9c8

That means that wheelchair users and independent technicians can’t access the diagnostic information from their own chairs, and when they swap in new components, they can’t access the configuration tools to get them working, including changing a chair’s grip parameters after changing to all-weather tires.

Powered wheelchair users need routine access to these electronics, just to tweak the settings of their chairs. For example, a wheelchair user who gains ability and confidence might want to change the delay settings for their control unit. One of the interview subjects in Stranded compares bad delay settings to “driving with bungee cords.” Without access to their electronics, wheelchair users are at the mercy of the under-resourced, delay-prone official technicians, and at the mercy of Medicare’s willingness to authorize payment for tuning this setting.

Now, finally, we come to Colorado’s HB221031, the new right to repair wheelchair laws. Like the model R2R laws that a coalition of monopolistic manufacturers have defeated time and again, in states across America, the law requires manufacturers to supply parts, manuals, and unlock codes to chair owners and independent technicians.

https://doctorow.medium.com/apples-cement-overshoes-329856288d13

Many of the commentators quoted in the KHN story and in Stranded make the point that making it easier to fix wheelchairs won’t solve all the other problems — a monopolized chair manufacturing market, Medicare policies on preventative maintenance, outdoor chairs, and replacements, etc. They’re right.

But this law will make it easier for wheelchair users to repair the chairs they rely on. It will free them from endless bureaucratic nightmares, from enforced immobility, from isolation from work and school and family and friends. It will remove a burden — a burden that impairs wheelchair users and their families from advocating for the structural fixes we need.

Right to repair laws have been defeated again and again in statehouses across America, thanks to the solidarity of monopolists, who have formed seemingly unbeatable coalitions devoted to ripping off their customers and destroying the planet with infinite mountains of e-waste.

But, as this bill shows, the anti-repair axis can be defeated. In Massachusetts, Bay Staters overwhelmingly voted in an automotive right to repair laws in a 2020 ballot measure. In New York, the governor just signed an unprecedented right to repair electronics law. And in Colorado, we have the first successful right to repair wheelchairs law.

These successes tell us what we need to do next: replicate New York’s electronics repair law, Massachusetts’ automotive repair law, and Colorado’s wheelchair repair law in other states. Go from strength to strength, victory to victory, shattering the anti-repair axis by picking off its members, one at a time.

All of this will create the political will and the political space for realizing the promise of the FTC’s landmark “Nixing the Fix” report:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/07/pro-act-class-war/#we-fixit

And Biden’s excellent executive order on Right to Repair:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/10/unnixing-the-fix/#r2r-plus-plus

The anti-repair axis’s lies — that only they can perform safe and effective repairs — grow thinner every day. The true motivation — extracting monopoly rents — grows more undeniable. As ever, rights for people with disability redound to all of us.

It’s not that we’re all merely “temporarily able-bodied” (as Liz Henry once memorably put it to me), either. Just as curb-cuts help people with strollers and bikes and grocery buggies, just as subtitles help language learners and people in noisy environments, protecting people with disabilities protects us all. That’s why the activism of people with disabilities is activism that benefits us all.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/06/when-drm-comes-your-wheelchair

Image: Hugh D’Andrade for EFF https://www.eff.org/files/banner_library/wheelchair-drm-2b.png

CC BY US 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/

[Image ID: EFF's remix of the wheelchair/disabled logo. The wheelchair user has been flipped to face left; they are holding an outsized open-ended wrench which they are using to tighten their own wheelchair's wheel. Around them is a decorative orange and yellow concentric circle motif.]

[bemusedlybespectacled]

do you imagine the Public Pretender concept addressing the bigotry (esp. racism) in every step of the policing-judicial-incarceral system, or would it be more of a B99 situation where it ultimately functions as propaganda? (It seems like those sorts of comedic shows can't ever effectively bite - especially when they often rely on connections with the systems they represent - and any criticism winds up limited to one-off "moral lesson" episodes.)

I think the difference between B99 and any potential comedy about defense attorneys is that they're on fundamentally different sides of the system. Like, the problem with B99 isn't that it's a comedy. Law & Order isn't a comedy and it's definitely copaganda. Punch-up comedy pointing out flaws in the system through humor is definitely a thing.

What makes something copaganda is a bunch of underlying premises, like:

The job of a police officer is to investigate and stop crime.

Police officers generally try to do that job effectively. No police officer ever tells victims of crime that they can't help because something is a "civil matter," or that there's no point in investigating because they're not going to find the perpetrator, or that they personally can't prove that a specific person did a crime (even if there is evidence that a specific person did a crime) so they're not going to do anything about it.

Any impediments to policing, like needing a warrant or not being allowed to beat up suspects, are bad because they prevent the police from doing that job. Police should be allowed to use any means necessary to do their job effectively.

Any person who impedes a police officer in any way – including asking for a warrant, refusing to talk to police without a lawyer present, or just being a defense attorney – is either guilty of a crime or knowingly abetting in a crime for evil reasons.

That job is always more important than following silly rules like "4th Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures," and efforts to make police officers follow those rules are obstructive and annoying. Even if a police officer does do something bad, like torturing someone for information, it's always for the greater good.

The police are infallible. They rarely arrest innocent people, they never elicit false confessions, and a person is clearly and definitely guilty once they have been arrested (as opposed to after they've been convicted).

Now, some of these things, like "the police always try their best and don't give up," are understandable as narrative devices. It would be really boring for every episode of a procedural drama to be like:

Victim: Help, help, I'm being stalked by my ex-boyfriend! Officer: Aha, but how do you KNOW it's your ex-boyfriend? Victim: I have text messages from him saying, "I am going to kill you" with pictures of my house. Officer: But someone else could have stolen his phone, right? So we can't PROVE that he was the one who took those photos and sent those texts! Sorry, can't do anything, call us if you get actual proof. [chunk chunk]

Some of the premises work as narrative devices if your purpose is to have the cops be the protagonists. It makes sense to have your heroes be good and moral people doing good and moral things, and for things that prevent them from achieving their goals being portrayed as bad.

But they don't work if the cops are the antagonists, because now you're operating from the side where the cops are impeding your protagonist's goals. And this is especially true if we're talking criminal law, because then a lot of your plots are going to be something along the lines of, "Hooray, we kept this damning evidence out because the police got it by breaking into the house without a warrant!"

Now, mostly what I'm envisioning is a comedy, and frankly, a lot of day-to-day stuff in my job is funny in a kind of absurdist/dark way. Like, "can you believe this guy threw a condom at his lawyer" or "so this guy is accusing my client of sacrificing their child to the Illuminati" or "I gave my client extremely clear instructions at 4:30 PM and then got a phone call at 9 AM that morning that started with, 'BB, I fucked up' because she had immediately done the exact thing I told her not to do and had been arrested for it." This is the Parks & Rec "the sign said not to drink the sprinkler water" vibe that I mentioned in that post.

But if you have any sort of recurring antagonists, like the Vulture or Wuntch in B99, then you can definitely show bigotry in the system by using the character as shorthand for it, and you don't even need to get that allegorical. Have Steve the Prosecutor or Kellyanne the Cop and just have them repeat some of the things I've heard from actual prosecutors and cops. And then you don't even need to do some kind of after-school special moral at the end: just have Kellyanne make a joke about beating up a homeless man and then have our protagonist look at the camera like they're in The Office.