#op reality hacking

[romerona]

Ethera Operation!!

You're the government’s best hacker, but that doesn’t mean you were prepared to be thrown into a fighter jet.

Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Awkward!Hacker! FemReader

Part I

This was never supposed to happen. Your role in this operation was simple—deliver the program, ensure it reached the right hands, and let the professionals handle the breaching.

And then, of course, reality decided to light that plan on fire.

The program—codenamed Ethera—was yours. You built it from scratch with encryption so advanced that even the most elite cyber operatives couldn’t crack it without your input. A next-generation adaptive, self-learning decryption software, an intrusion system designed to override and manipulate high-security military networks, Ethera was intended to be both a weapon and a shield, capable of infiltrating enemy systems while protecting your own from counterattacks in real-time. A ghost in the machine. A digital predator. A weapon in the form of pure code. If it fell into the wrong hands, it could disable fleets, and ground aircraft, and turn classified intelligence into an open book. Governments would kill for it. Nations could fall because of it.

Not that you ever meant to, of course. It started as a little experimental security measure program, something to protect high-level data from cyberattacks, not become the ultimate hacking tool. But innovation has a funny way of attracting the wrong kind of attention, and before you knew it, Ethera had become one, if not the most classified, high-risk program in modern times. Tier One asset or so the Secret Service called it.

It was too powerful, too dangerous—so secret that only a select few even knew of its existence, and even fewer could comprehend how it worked.

And therein lay the problem. You were the only person who could properly operate it.

Which was so unfair.

Because it wasn’t supposed to be your problem. You were just the creator, the brain behind the code, the one who spent way too many sleepless nights debugging this monstrosity. Your job was supposed to end at development. But no. Now, because of some bureaucratic nonsense and the fact that no one else could run it without accidentally bricking an entire system, you had been promoted—scratch that, forcibly conscripted—into field duty.

And your mission? To install it in an enemy satellite.

A literal, orbiting, high-security, military-grade satellite, may you add.

God. Why? Why was your country always at war with others? Why couldn’t world leaders just, you know, go to therapy like normal people? Why did everything have to escalate to international cyber warfare?

Which is how you ended up here.

At Top Gun. The last place in the world you wanted to be.

You weren’t built for this. You thrive in sipping coffee in a cosy little office and handling cyber threats from a safe, grounded location. You weren’t meant to be standing in the halls of an elite fighter pilot training program, surrounded by the best aviators in the world—people who thought breaking the sound barrier was a casual Wednesday.

It wasn’t the high-tech cyberwarfare department of the Pentagon, nor some dimly lit black ops facility where hackers in hoodies clacked away at keyboards. No. It was Top Gun. A place where pilots use G-forces like a personal amusement park ride.

You weren’t a soldier, you weren’t a spy, you got queasy in elevators, you got dizzy when you stood too fast, hell, you weren’t even good at keeping your phone screen from cracking.

... And now you were sweating.

You swallowed hard as Admiral Solomon "Warlock" Bates led you through the halls of the naval base, your heels clacking on the polished floors as you wiped your forehead. You're nervous, too damn nervous and this damned weather did not help.

"Relax, Miss," Warlock muttered in that calm, authoritative way of his. "They're just pilots."

Just pilots.

Right. And a nuclear warhead was just a firework.

And now, somehow, you were supposed to explain—loosely explain, because God help you, the full details were above even their clearance level—how Ethera, your elegant, lethal, unstoppable digital masterpiece, was about to be injected into an enemy satellite as part of a classified mission.

This was going to be a disaster.

You had barely made it through the doors of the briefing room when you felt it—every single eye in the room locking onto you.

It wasn’t just the number of them that got you, it was the intensity. These were Top Gun pilots, the best of the best, and they radiated the kind of confidence you could only dream of having. Meanwhile, you felt like a stray kitten wandering into a lion’s den.

Your hands tightened around the tablet clutched to your chest. It was your lifeline, holding every critical detail of Ethera, the program that had dragged you into this utterly ridiculous situation. If you could’ve melted into the walls, you absolutely would have. But there was no escaping this.

You just had to keep it together long enough to survive this briefing.

So, you inhaled deeply, squared your shoulders, and forced your heels forward, trying to project confidence—chin up, back straight, eyes locked onto Vice Admiral Beau "Cyclone" Simpson, who you’d been introduced to earlier that day.

And then, of course, you dropped the damn tablet.

Not a graceful drop. Not the kind of gentle slip where you could scoop it back up and act like nothing happened. No, this was a full-on, physics-defying fumble. The tablet flipped out of your arms, ricocheted off your knee, and skidded across the floor to the feet of one of the pilots.

Silence.

Pure, excruciating silence.

You didn’t even have the nerve to look up right away, too busy contemplating whether it was physically possible to disintegrate on command. But when you finally did glance up—because, you know, social convention demanded it—you were met with a sight that somehow made this entire disaster worse.

Because the person crouching down to pick up your poor, abused tablet was freaking hot.

Tall, broad-shouldered, with a head of golden curls that practically begged to be tousled by the wind, and, oh, yeah—a moustache that somehow worked way too well on him.

He turned the tablet over in his hands, inspecting it with an amused little smirk before handing it over to you. "You, uh… need this?"

Oh, great. His voice is hot too.

You grabbed it back, praying he couldn't see how your hands were shaking. “Nope. Just thought I’d test gravity real quick.”

A few chuckles rippled through the room, and his smirk deepened like he was enjoying this way too much. You, on the other hand, wanted to launch yourself into the sun.

With what little dignity you had left, you forced a quick, tight-lipped smile at him before turning on your heel and continuing forward, clutching your tablet like it was a life raft in the middle of the worst social shipwreck imaginable.

At the front of the room, Vice Admiral Beau Cyclone Simpson stood with the kind of posture that said he had zero time for nonsense, waiting for the room to settle. You barely had time to take a deep breath before his voice cut through the air.

“Alright, listen up.” His tone was crisp, commanding, and impossible to ignore. “This is Dr Y/N L/N. Everything she is about to tell you is highly classified. What you hear in this briefing does not leave this room. Understood?”

A chorus of nods. "Yes, sir."

You barely resisted the urge to physically cringe as every pilot in the room turned to stare at you—some with confusion, others with barely concealed amusement, and a few with the sharp assessing glances of people who had no clue what they were supposed to do with you.

You cleared your throat, squared your shoulders, and did your best to channel even an ounce of the confidence you usually had when you were coding at 3 AM in a secure, pilot-free lab���where the only judgment you faced was from coffee cups and the occasional system error.

As you reached the podium, you forced what you hoped was a composed smile. “Uh… hi, nice to meet you all.”

Solid. Real professional.

You glanced up just long enough to take in the mix of expressions in the room—some mildly interested, some unreadable, and one particular moustached pilot who still had the faintest trace of amusement on his face.

Nope. Not looking at him.

You exhaled slowly, centering yourself. Stay focused. Stay professional. You weren’t just here because of Ethera—you were Ethera. The only one who truly understood it. The only one who could execute this mission.

With another tap on your tablet, the slide shifted to a blacked-out, redacted briefing—only the necessary information was visible. A sleek 3D-rendered model of the enemy satellite appeared on the screen, rotating slowly. Most of its details were blurred or omitted entirely.

“This is Blackstar, a highly classified enemy satellite that has been operating in a low-Earth orbit over restricted airspace.” Your voice remained even, and steady, but the weight of what you were revealing sent a shiver down your spine. “Its existence has remained off the radar—literally and figuratively—until recently, when intelligence confirmed that it has been intercepting our encrypted communications, rerouting information, altering intelligence, and in some cases—fabricating entire communications.”

Someone exhaled sharply. Another shifted in their seat.

“So they’re feeding us bad intel?” one of them with big glasses and blonde hair asked, voice sceptical but sharp.

“That’s the theory,” you confirmed. “And given how quickly our ops have been compromised recently, it’s working.”

You tapped again, shifting to the next slide. The silent infiltration diagram appeared—an intricate web of glowing red lines showing Etherea’s integration process, slowly wrapping around the satellite’s systems like a virus embedding itself into a host.

“This is where Ethera comes in,” you said, shifting to a slide that displayed a cascading string of code, flickering across the screen. “Unlike traditional cyberweapons, Ethera doesn’t just break into a system. It integrates—restructuring security protocols as if it was always meant to be there. It’s undetectable, untraceable, and once inside, it grants us complete control of the Blackstar and won’t even register it as a breach.”

“So we’re not just hacking it," The only female pilot of the team said, arms crossed as she studied the data. “We’re hijacking it.”

“Exactly,” You nodded with a grin.

You switched to the next slide—a detailed radar map displaying the satellite’s location over international waters.

“This is the target area,” you continued after a deep breath. “It’s flying low-altitude reconnaissance patterns, which means it’s using ground relays for some of its communication. That gives us a small window to infiltrate and shut it down.”

The next slide appeared—a pair of unidentified fighter aircraft, patrolling the vicinity.

“And this is the problem,” you said grimly. “This satellite isn’t unguarded.”

A murmur rippled through the room as the pilots took in the fifth-generation stealth fighters displayed on the screen.

“We don’t know who they belong to,” you admitted. “What we do know is that they’re operating with highly classified tech—possibly experimental—and have been seen running defence patterns around the satellite’s flight path.”

Cyclone stepped forward then, arms crossed, his voice sharp and authoritative. “Which means your job is twofold. You will escort Dr L/N’s aircraft to the infiltration zone, ensuring Ethera is successfully deployed. If we are engaged, your priority remains protecting the package and ensuring a safe return.”

Oh, fantastic, you could not only feel your heartbeat in your toes, you were now officially the package.

You cleared your throat, tapping the screen again. Ethera’s interface expanded, displaying a cascade of sleek code.

“Once I’m in range,” you continued, “Ethera will lock onto the satellite’s frequency and begin infiltration. From that point, it’ll take approximately fifty-eight seconds to bypass security and assume control."

Silence settled over the room like a thick cloud, the weight of their stares pressing down on you. You could feel them analyzing, calculating, probably questioning who in their right mind thought putting you—a hacker, a tech specialist, someone whose idea of adrenaline was passing cars on the highway—into a fighter jet was a good idea.

Finally, one of the pilots—tall, broad-shouldered, blonde, and very clearly one of the cocky ones—tilted his head, arms crossed over his chest in a way that screamed too much confidence.

“So, let me get this straight.” His voice was smooth, and confident, with just the right amount of teasing. “You, Doctor—our very classified, very important tech specialist—have to be in the air, in a plane, during a mission that has a high probability of turning into a dogfight… just so you can press a button?”

Your stomach twisted at the mention of being airborne.

“Well…” You gulped, very much aware of how absolutely insane this sounded when put like that. “It’s… more than just that, but, yeah, essentially.”

A slow grin spread across his face, far too entertained by your predicament.

“Oh,” he drawled, “this is gonna be fun.”

Before you could fully process how much you already hated this, Cyclone—who had been watching the exchange with his signature unamused glare—stepped forward, cutting through the tension with his sharp, no-nonsense voice.

“This is a classified operation,” he stated, sharp and authoritative. “Not a joyride.”

The blonde’s smirk faded slightly as he straightened, and the rest of the pilots quickly fell in line.

Silence lingered for a moment longer before Vice Admiral Beau Cyclone Simpson let out a slow breath and straightened. His sharp gaze swept over the room before he nodded once.

“All right. That’s enough.” His tone was firm, the kind that left no room for argument. “We’ve got work to do. The mission will take place in a few weeks' time, once we’ve run full assessments, completed necessary preparations, and designated a lead for this operation.”

There was a slight shift in the room. Some of the pilots exchanged glances, the weight of the upcoming mission finally settling in. Others, mainly the cocky ones, looked as though they were already imagining themselves in the cockpit.

“Dismissed,” Cyclone finished.

The pilots stood, murmuring amongst themselves as they filed out of the room, the blonde one still wearing a smug grin as he passed you making you frown and turn away, your gaze then briefly met the eyes of the moustached pilot.

You hadn’t meant to look, but the moment your eyes connected, something flickered in his expression. Amusement? Curiosity? You weren’t sure, and frankly, you didn’t want to know.

So you did the only logical thing and immediately looked away and turned to gather your things. You needed to get out of here, to find some space to breathe before your brain short-circuited from stress—

“Doctor, Stay for a moment.”

You tightened your grip on your tablet and turned back to Cyclone, who was watching you with that unreadable, vaguely disapproving expression that all high-ranking officers seemed to have perfected. “Uh… yes, sir?”

Once the last pilot was out the door, Cyclone exhaled sharply and crossed his arms.

“You realize,” he said, “that you’re going to have to actually fly, correct?”

You swallowed. “I—well, technically, I’ll just be a passenger.”

His stare didn’t waver.

“Doctor,” he said, tone flat, “I’ve read your file. I know you requested to be driven here instead of taking a military transport plane. You also took a ferry across the bay instead of a helicopter. And I know that you chose to work remotely for three years to avoid getting on a plane.”

You felt heat rise to your cheeks. “That… could mean anything.”

“It means you do not like flying, am I correct?”

Your fingers tightened around the tablet as you tried to find a way—any way—out of this. “Sir, with all due respect, I don’t need to fly the plane. I just need to be in it long enough to deploy Ethera—”

Cyclone cut you off with a sharp look. “And what happens if something goes wrong, Doctor? If the aircraft takes damage? If you have to eject mid-flight? If you lose comms and have to rely on emergency protocols?”

You swallowed hard, your stomach twisting at the very thought of ejecting from a jet.

Cyclone sighed, rubbing his temple as if this entire conversation was giving him a migraine. “We cannot afford to have you panicking mid-mission. If this is going to work, you need to be prepared. That’s why, starting next week you will train with the pilots on aerial procedures and undergoing mandatory training in our flight simulation program.”

Your stomach dropped. “I—wait, what? That’s not necessary—”

“It’s absolutely necessary,” Cyclone cut in, his tone sharp. “If you can’t handle a simulated flight, you become a liability—not just to yourself, but to the pilots escorting you. And in case I need to remind you, Doctor, this mission is classified at the highest level. If you panic mid-air, it won’t just be your life at risk. It’ll be theirs. And it’ll be national security at stake.”

You inhaled sharply. No pressure. None at all.

Cyclone watched you for a moment before speaking again, his tone slightly softer but still firm. “You’re the only one who can do this, Doctor. That means you need to be ready.”

You exhaled slowly, pressing your lips together before nodding stiffly. “Understood, sir.”

Cyclone gave a small nod of approval. “Good. Dismissed.”

You turned and walked out, shoulders tense, fully aware that in three days' time, you were going to be strapped into a high-speed, fighter jet. And knowing your luck?

You were definitely going to puke.

Part 2???

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I'm curious about your thoughts about the OB cards. Personally I was REALLY hoping they weren't actually gonna happen because they overblots are supposed to be like super strong and they can't really do that without breaking the game because most things would be too easy or balancing it out which would make everything too hard for people who don't have the cards. So they’ll probably be weaker and it’s just a personal pet peeve of mine when strong bosses are weaker when they’re playable.

Also I know the characters that do overblot are like coming to terms with that or something (I would assume anyways I play on the English server) but it rubs me the wrong way that they're making cards of what's literally the characters trauma incarnated into really strong versions of themselves. Like maybe I'm overthinking it but even with everything with the Vil in book 7 I still think it's weird to let the form he takes from having a mental breakdown after almost killing someone be playable??? Though most people don’t seem to agree with this so maybe I am overthinking it lol

[Referencing this news!]

While I understand the frustration with watering down what are meant to be powerful people in canon and/or balancing new battle content around the more recent cards, power creep nothing new for these types of mobile gacha games, or even for Twst itself. For example, Malleus is canonically one of the top 5 strongest mages in all of Twisted Wonderland, but it's not as though all of the Malleus cards are OP to reflect this lore. As another example, events will often grant an item drop boost or a status buff to the limited time banner characters as a means of incentivizing you to pull for them. I find this particular egregious for the recently introduced Arcane Combat Drills/Magic Assault Practice events, which feature progressively arduous battle maps and are made easier if you happen to pull the featured staff SSR. The devs cannot just drop an OP character that will break the game (even if they would canonically) to maintain balance and keep the game fun for players. I honestly don't think power creep is a huge issue with Twst. It happens, certainly--but it's not as bad as other games I've seen. Cards now considered "old" are still considered good today (Dorm Uniform Trey is still a great healer, it took several years for someone else to topple Dorm Uniform Riddle in terms of highest attack stat; even then, Riddle is excellent for offense, etc.). Older cards also introduced new buffs and debuffs which enhance battle complexity and potential strategies. For example, there was previously NO way to stop the enemies from healing... until Dorm Uniform Vil was introduced. He was the first card to have Curse, which applies a debuff that prevents the enemies from healing for a set number of turns. Since then, other similar additions have been made to tweak combat.

This is a spoiler for EN only players (though it sounds like you saw the Malleus OB card preview/JP server content, so I'll assume it's safe to spoil you), but the OB forms end up being framed differently (more heroically) later in book 7. It's not a clear-cut case of Twst glamourizing poor mental health and trying to sell it to us. Overblots are, of course, initially presented as the characters' trauma made manifest, at their lowest points and succumbing to their inner darkness--and they still are. However, in the dream world of book 7 (plus some hacks + cheat tool support from Idia), the OB boys are able to assume their OB forms and use these to combat Malleus. The OB forms are referred to as the "strongest versions of themselves", and they even portray the shift from their normal forms to OB sort of like magical girl transformations. In this case, their lowest points ultimately become moments of triumph, as they all manage to confront that "darkness", embrace it, and then tame that power for themselves. (To be clear: they can't OB at will in reality or control their own OBs in reality; it's only possible in the confines of the dreamspace.) The narrative around the OBs is retooled to be empowering and a symbol of how far each of them has come rather than staying static as something to be ashamed of. The idea seems to be promoting acceptance of the past but also learning to grow from it. I don't see an issue with this. Even without this particular context, I don't think I would see an issue? Many of the characters have done very questionable things even outside of OB (Leona tries to sand Ruggie, Riddle attacks Ace with rose trees in an attempt to literally behead him, Vil tries to poison Neige, etc.), but there aren't protests about those character variants (Dorm Uniforms, School Uniforms, etc.) being playable. Twst is a game centering on Disney villains, so there's for sure going to be dubious actions being carried out and dubious morals on display.

I hope this helps to ease your worries or at least provides you with a different perspective ^^

[greenbubblefactory]

Matchup for @a-kind-pandemic-disaster

Congratulations you have a match with..

Idia Shroud !

★At first glance, you and Idia might seem like an odd pairing,him, a socially anxious shut-in with an aversion to anything remotely resembling human interaction, and you, a quiet but motherly presence who’s patient to a fault. But in reality? You two fit together almost too well, like characters in a slow-burn romance visual novel that he swears he totally hasn’t been imagining in his head.

★The first time he meets you, Idia is convinced you’re a background character from an eerie, gothic-themed otome game. Your aesthetic dark academia meets pastel goth completely captivates him, though he’s far too awkward to say so outright. Instead, he just stares a little too long before quickly hiding behind his tablet, sending Ortho out to do most of the talking while he tries to figure out how to interact with someone who looks that cool. He might even mumble something like, “Ugh, why does this feel like the setup to a tragic romance route? If this were an anime, I’d be doomed.”

★Despite his initial hesitance, Idia is drawn to your presence, partially because you’re not overly pushy and partially because he can sense that you, too, prefer quieter spaces. You don’t force him to step too far outside his comfort zone, and that alone makes you one of the safest people he’s ever met. And then there’s the moment he learns that you’re a writer. A horror and romance writer.

★At that point, Idia is both intrigued and horrified. On one hand, he’s deeply impressed,your ability to weave eerie, unsettling narratives is the kind of thing that could rival top-tier visual novel scripts. On the other hand, he’s paranoid.What if you write villains that are way too attractive? WHAT IF YOU BASE YOUR CHARACTERS ON REAL PEOPLE?? He panics for a full three hours before Ortho convinces him to just ask you about it like a normal person.

★When he finally works up the courage, Idia is surprised by how easily he can talk to you about horror. Despite being a total scaredy-cat when it comes to jumpscares, he’s the type who will stay up until 4 AM deep-diving into horror game lore, and now? Now he has someone to rant to about his theories. He even starts reading your work in secret, claiming he’s just skimming it, but then sending you random messages at 2 AM like:

★"Okay, so first of all, how dare you write such an insanely good plot twist? And second of all, if I have nightmares, you’re dealing with them."

★And then there’s gaming. Idia practically malfunctions when he finds out you love gaming as much as he does. He’s usually too anxious to play with people in real life, but with you? It’s different. You don’t judge him when he gets too competitive, you’re patient when he rambles about obscure mechanics, and you’re just as content as he is to spend hours co-op grinding. He low-key starts treating gaming sessions with you like dates, even though he’s too embarrassed to admit it. If you ever make a slideshow game specifically for him, that’s it. That’s the moment he realizes he’s completely and utterly doomed. He keeps every single one of them, even the goofy ones, and will occasionally replay them when he misses you.

★Idia also relates to your struggles in a way that most people wouldn’t. As someone who’s also neurodivergent, he understands the exhaustion that comes from masking, the way overworking can become a coping mechanism, and how easy it is to trust the wrong people. He tries not to be obvious about it, but he’ll start looking out for you in small ways reminding you to take breaks, hacking into NRC’s system to lighten your workload (not that he’d ever admit it), and casually “forgetting” to log off when he knows you’re up late with insomnia, just so you won’t feel alone.

★Your relationship is built on mutual understanding. He doesn’t force you to socialize more than you’re comfortable with, and you don’t pressure him to step too far outside his bubble. But at the same time, you help each other grow. You remind him that it’s okay to take small steps toward the outside world, and in return, he teaches you the beauty of existing in your own little space without guilt.

★And if anyone ever tries to take advantage of your kindness? Oh, they better be ready. Idia may not be the type to fight people outright, but he will ruin them digitally. He may not always know how to express his affection verbally, but his actions whether it’s tweaking an algorithm to make sure you never get bad gacha pulls or programming a custom AI to read you horror stories late at night speak volumes.

★To everyone else, he might just be NRC’s most reclusive, gaming-obsessed shut-in. But to you? He’s your favorite co-op partner, your biggest (secret) fan, and the one person who truly gets you.

★Idia is your chaotic, nerdy gremlin who understands your struggles and shows his love through digital devotion and quiet companionship.

English is not my first language so I'm sorry if there are any spelling mistakes!

[buds-and-baubles]

the origins of apollo and midnighter

for anyone out there who has wanted to know what their original backstories were before dc had changed it to apollo being a kid who was abducted by aliens and midnighter being a kid who was kidnapped by henry bendix and the gardener, both of them experimented on to receive their powers, you've come to the right place! let's get right into it. (spoilers for stormwatch vol.2 issues #4-6)

apollo and m were described as former U.S soldiers who served on a superhuman black ops team created by weatherman henry bendix called stormwatch zero, which is a subdivision of stormwatch. stormwatch for the record is a united nations created "crisis intervention unit". stormwatch zero was so secret that the rest of stormwatch didn't know it existed.

apollo served as the leader of stormwatch zero, which are very much influenced by the justice league if you take a look at the team roster. they were described before this as "normal humans" who were bioengineered/built as superhuman. odd wording at the end, right? also what happened to their teammates? why have them labeled rogue?

we are first introduced to the team all naked, told to get on their uniforms. apollo expressed confusion at not knowing where they were, which isn't answered. m doesn't get why bendix is leaving them in the dark, which bendix replied that it's a "proving mission" in which he defined the parameters.

now why would they not know where they are or wake up naked, i wonder? what does he mean by proving mission? is there a catch to their powers? yes.

uniforms given out and code names assigned, you no longer have your names nor exist (also questionable if they had a choice). most of his phrasing sounds.. weird. it's weird.

this strike team was sent off on their first mission to go to a mysterious facility in the desert to steal information and cripple illegal development committed by a 'rogue state'. in reality, bendix sent them to steal a bio-reactor extrapolated from alien (daemonite) technology that served as a benign advance in medical technology made by americans.

however, the bio-reactor defended itself by annihilating everyone but apollo and midnighter. when they tried to teleport away, they couldn't. bendix deactivated their portal devices and left them for dead for failing their mission. the worst part? it was rigged against them.

apollo and m managed to escape from the facility and learn of bendix's treachery. rather than fight, they decide (or really have no choice but) to stay quiet and anonymously went on to fight for a better world under the radar. they're in hiding for five years in various places, the last being them living on the streets of san francisco.

after this point is when the stormwatch plot kicked off where they discover weapons which use human brains in their design. these guns are connected to a utopia-like place called nevada garden. stormwatch was already looking not just into the two of them but also this garden, and caught them before they could go after the garden by trapping them on stormwatch's space tower. they learn here that bendix was killed by another member of stormwatch and after some convincing on the grounds of fighting for a better world, they help.

the garden is destroyed with their assistance, and when asked what they want, apollo and m answer with this; "when we took on our codenames and uniforms, our real names and lives were deleted. we want them back." the new weatherman named jackson king said he would instead give them comfortable and protected new lives away from stormwatch as best as he could manage.

here's a thought of mine that's bugging me: bendix was a proven lying madman who hacked the nsa and had to be killed by one of his own. he could've lied about apollo and midnighter's origins. nobody could disagree with him.

you could argue their origin for being young adult soldiers is true and just destroyed by bendix very well, or.. worse. i've seen some people suspect them to be kidnapped and experimented on as kids to then go through training as soldiers. i have another thought that a fanfiction i read brought on; modified cloned human dna from petri-dishes grown to adulthood. why?

they have no 'real' name, apollo and midnighter are their names. they were described as being bioengineered or built by bendix. they woke up confused and naked. they were given their uniforms and codenames, their old lives and names deleted. but what if they never had old lives or names?

what if they were grown to adulthood with their abilities created and underwent training? you could also say they were clone children who grew up and trained as soldiers. however, i'm more inclined to believe the first option due to the naked panel.

if you've read for jay nakamura, you'll have recognized the name henry bendix. he is who experimented on jay, who was a child. who's to say he didn't do this back in wildstorm? he could've kidnapped children or made clones.

so in the end, we'll never know the whole truth of their origins. they'll never remember because the memory wipe, there's no files about their old lives or names, and bendix would never tell whether dead or alive. they don't know how old they are, what their birthday is, nothing. they could've been born adults who never even had a chance to be a child.

thanks for listening in! i know it's a lot but once i started, i couldn't stop. this fucks with me though. could apollo and m really be clones made to be superhuman like superboy?

[atopvisenyashill]

Hey how come all the costumes in the final couple seasons of got were just black leather with pointy shoulders and chains

the real answer is that michele clapton is a hack and fraud who hates me, personally.

but there's probably a few reasons. i think irl, people associate black, leather, and wide shoulders with power, intimidation, more serious energy so to visually signal that sansa, cersei, dany, etc are now Power Players they have to put them in those costumes. michele clapton especially really loved using black leather and chains to signify Someone Is Being Serious - she has that interview where she talked specifically about Cersei and Dany wanting to be taken seriously by shying away from colors, using "chains of intent", and emulating the men who had the greatest affect on them ie Tywin and Viserys. You can really see when you look at Michele's interviews that she's bringing her own view of things into the costumes, which, yeah that's how it works (there's like a joke that Bear McCreary, for example, uses his partner as a singer in all of his soundtracks purely because he just wants to hear her sing lol) but I do think you really see the limits of her creativity there too. She has this idea that extravagance = unseriousness which is incredibly at odds with the way George has built up his world - I mean, Aegon IV was out here wearing like a 9 pound crown, and Daeron II wore it as well specifically to show how serious he is about being King. Roose wears all pink! The Tyrells are always awash in color, hell the Lannisters are always awash in color. The only person it makes sense to shy away from color is Dany - I imagine it was just easier for Viserys to find black leather to wear and buy that still showed his house colors than something red so that's why he leaned on it, and it would make sense that Dany is trying to emulate the only other Targaryen she knew by dressing the way he did when she feels like she's finally stepping into her role as The True Queen of Westeros. For Cersei, Sansa, even Arya, I think it's deeply silly that she took that similar approach.

Like, I do think some of her choices were okay - I love that she usually has Dany wearing trousers of some sort underneath her dresses because she felt like she always needed to prepare to run away, for example. I love Cersei's coronation dress, if not the ugly crown. I liked her dedication to making sure the Sons of the Harpy masks looked handmade and not factory produced. I love that Arya outfit in the last season, and I liked the attention to detail there when it comes to the coat looking slashed by Arya herself to make it fit her in the way she wants it to. I think where Michele consistently fails is a) the idea that the North is somehow less interested in fashion when the reality is that the North simply has different taste in fashion because they have a vastly different climate than most of the other kingdoms (similar to Dorne) and b) she tends to conflate feminimity and androgyny with weakness or silliness and masculinity with strength. It's not to say that you shouldn't think about the ways in which We As A Culture define power when designing a costume but just uncritically regurgitating "man = strong, woman = weak" sartorial work is lazy beyond belief. Jany Temime is leagues better, like even with some of my criticism of her work, I think she just has a much deeper understanding of color work, silhouette, and the way character informs style.

(people through a FIT in the tags of that post i linked tho even tho the op was Literally just making a gifset showing the costume change? no it's problematic to say "dany is trying to be taken seriously by emulating her brother" even though...that's literally exactly what she's doing. once again, targ nation are babies, sorry for my hater rant here but that post is one of the most annoying pile ons in this fandom to me).

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 5/21/2024

get a load of this cat

listening

one of my favorite bands, Joywave, dropped a new album last week! it is not my favorite album of theirs but so it goes. perhaps it needs more time to grow on me. Sleepytime Fantasy kicks off my favorite section of the album. video game enchanted ice cave dream sequence music.

i must stay true to my own rules for this series (not a rec series, genuinely what i've been into the most this week) and the song that's been on loop all week is a genshin impact character's theme music (punchy wolf-coded ice cop who is the duke of the prison he. runs? administers? don't worry about it). unfortunately a bop. the character music lately has been a lot more modern and experimental than i expected? this one has a police siren drop

-

reading

thank you mackintosh.

i really, really enjoyed Trouble And Her Friends by Melissa Scott (LAMBDA award winner 1995)! @delta-orionis and i frequently ask ourselves "what if neuromancer was good?" and this scratches that itch for me. it is often difficult for me to take neuromancer's protagonist henry seriously, but this book features a pair of extremely practical dykes. it opens on the passing of a new american law criminalizing big swathes of online activity, passed despite a presidential veto. description from amazon

Less than a hundred years from now, the forces of law and order crack down on the world of the computer nets. The hip, noir adventurers who get by on wit, bravado, and drugs, and haunt the virtual worlds of the Shadows of cyberspace, are up against the encroachments of civilization. It's time to adapt or die. India Carless, alias Trouble, got out ahead of the feds and settled down to run a small network for an artist's co-op. Now someone has taken her name and begun to use it for criminal hacking. So Trouble returns. Once the fastest gun on the electronic frontier, she had tried to retire-but has been called out for one last fight. And it's a killer.

this startled me by how fun and competent it is! i tried reading one of the author's books last year (Dreamships) and had a miserable time with the pacing and flow of information. there are echoes of the pacing issues i had with the last book-- this is a nearly four hundred page hardcover, we have a lot of Next Locations to go to, and we are going to take our fucking time getting there. a road trip book, rather than a destination book. Scott has gotten way way better at fleshing out those locations— an artists' co-op has their skylights set to amber to hide the wear and tear on everything in their central hangout space when the feds show up. i also connected with the inciting incident way more-- someone stealing a female hacker’s name and style is instantly relatable. i am riding shotgun with Trouble. i am ready to throw down with her.

it's a very physical book in many ways, bc it has three brief sex scenes, is very concerned with sensuality in both senses of the word, and overall it's like the background in an anime that’s full of dials and buttons and little blinky lights. written in 1994, fascjnating how much concepts of VR and sensory inputs have not changed, but everyone still has the equivalent of an enormous old school desktop and giant CRT monitors set up. everyone is constantly lugging around so much physical tech. the stuff that makes you better at hacking in the net is quick reactions to VR sensations, the only way to get that cutting edge sensation is to get a physical chip or “worm” in your head, and the only people who do that are the core outcasts and freaks of the internet (the gays, the women, the people of color, the all three, presumably the furries as well). from that day to this…

there's an interesting contrast between Trouble and her old partner Cerise stalking the virtual reality bazaars/being queens of the BBS undergrounds, and the danger they feel and face when moving about in the real world. some reviewers are very cranky about how negotiations on and offline feel the same but i did not feel this particular quibble. communication is communication. it is known both on and offline that they're 1) women and 2) lesbians. they're in less physical danger online but slurs can still happen no matter where they are. also, i am well used to the necessity of having to posture and peacock and be kind of a bitch to establish myself in order to get anything done in coding/hardware scenes, which is something i don't think any of the male reviewers of the day ever had to think about.

some cowboy shit goes down at the end that had me hooting and hollering, and Scott handled the hacking scenes in an interesting way-- a sort of abstracted duel? terrific "fight" scenes. very interesting at how she will move things around in order to treat scenes in ways she's good at-- like establishing very grounded locations that feel real, physical sensations, and fight scenes-- instead of just kind of slogging through a very surface level high-overview travelogue like in her last book. ive been stuck on a fic chapter for like four years and this is making me think about doing it the fun way instead of the way i thought it should be done. this may be obvious but i am an amateur and more importantly an idiot.

this was a $6/1 book special last year at one of my favorite thrift stores, a religious shop with the absolute worst vibes in the greater houston area but some of the best stuff

-

watching

Five Dolls For An August Moon (1970, dir. Brava). sometimes you see a cool title on kanopy and you don't have a better way to kill an hour and a half. plus it had some guys i know from cowboys. tw for a suicide's body in the first fucking ten seconds of the trailer, which is a weird trailer choice bc u don't actually see most of the murders in the movie.

ive watched a fuck of a lot of spaghetti westerns so i feel i am somewhat qualified to tell you this is one of the worst dubs ive ever seen. the lines actors are quarter-heartedly delivering do not always make a lot of sense and only occasionally match the subtitles. i am assuming this is the original dub, bc kino lorber generally does a pretty okay job restoring things?

this is not a good movie (extremely troubled production, director swap three days before filming, made on a shoestring budget, the actors mostly wore their own clothes, etc). it is not very good at maintaining tension, because it is a film that first and foremost Looks. beautiful fucking sets, beautifully decorated. the exterior is a matte painting, a sort of frothy dream-bubble of sixties architecture. most of the interiors are apparently a real house. incredible experimental burbling soundtrack full of Weird Sounds.

sorry about the tubi interface and our old friend the activate windows logo.

there are so many fun directorial flourishes and staging, but it does get a little wrapped up in itself. this made me think of The Secret of NIMH, a beautifully animated talking-animal film that gave me nightmares as a child, where the animation tricks and sparkles and moving parts sort of all get in each other's way to produce something less than the sum of its parts. this sort of happens here. i'm going to yoink this from a review:

Bava’s eye for exquisite compositions is equally evident. One scene in particular stands out in this regard: The filmmaker shoots an otherwise humdrum fistfight through wooden latticework that breaks the action up into an abstracted mosaic effect. The fight culminates with a table being upended, which in turn unleashes a myriad crystal spheres. The camera follows along as the spheres tumble and cascade down a spiral staircase and roll across a tiled floor before plopping like so many bath bubbles into a tub. The scene concludes with the revelation of a recently deceased character caught in what you’d have to call a tableau morte. It’s a dazzlingly orchestrated sequence, easily on par with more famous Bava set pieces.

it's gorgeous! there's also So Much going on. another lovely bit of business: as each person dies they get wrapped in plastic sheeting and put in the walkin freezer. next to slabs of beef. not a subtle film, and i don't mean it as a diss, bc where's the fuckin fun in that?

-

playing

i have not been doing much of anything here except listen to podcasts and work toward the two-thousand-fish-caught achievement in genshin. impatiently waiting for Clorinde to be released in several weeks. that one button needs a raise. it is So funny to see genshin characters with fucking guns. very sword and pike based societies so far

-

making

every time i have tried to make one of these samplers for Me it's gone horribly wrong or been somehow destroyed so i'm making this one for my brother's upcoming birthday, bc he will have off-campus housing next academic year, in an attempt to peacefully do some fucking cross stitch and get something out at the end of it. pattern here on etsy

[sonicasura]

Crossover idea!

TFP Megs and Op get stuck in the digital circus. Even better, they look the same, just human sized. And I'd imagine they'd integrate better into it due to their techno biology, and maybe even remember everything. Just a concerned Optimus fretting over everyone while Megatron goes on a tirade around the circus until Caine puts him in the time out corner.

Jax absolutely antagonizes Megatron to no end as Optimus pretty stops any bullying attempts on Gangle.

This is definitely MECH's latest scheme. It was by sheer accident that the organization stumbled upon the computer containing The Amazing Digital Circus program. At first they thought was a normal program until one of their members got their mind trapped inside.

Now Caine isn't the type to approve of 'hostile users/intelopers' in his circus. He purposely separated them from our main cast and dealt with these obvious intruders. (Part of Caine's programming is to protect other users alongside the entire reality from malicious hackers.)

Optimus and Megatron were investigating a mysterious signal by themselves. Both bump into each other but are unable to attack when an unknown frequency knocks them out. MECH hooked up their minds to the circus so they can experiment on their bodies without interference.

Too bad Soundwave and Ratchet had been down their location before any damage could be done(like with Breakdown.) Both sides are forced into a truce as they need to work together if anyone wants to save their respective leader. Megatron and Optimus wake up confused at first until Pomni finds them.

Neither bot had expect the massive bomb the jester would drop on them. They obviously argue about what to do since their weapons don't work here and there more people stuck in this program. Pomni is the only person who knows that Optimus and Megatron's true identities. (Megs threatened her.)

To everyone else, they are 'Dig'(D-16/Megatron) and Orion(Optimus.) Caine is suspicious as their code feels funny but thinks it is a glitch. Jax too however he ain't gonna pry unless either bored or needs to be addressed.

Meanwhile both factions try their best to make contact with them. Even if it means hacking a certain NPC.

[bright-eyed]

I can’t stand the nature documentaries narrated by obama cuz he’s always like “we must band together to protect our oceans” and I’m like you were the most powerful man on the planet for 8 years and what did you do as the most powerful man on the planet, meaningfully? Bomb arabs? Shut the fuck up.

I’m sure he gives a shit in an abstract sense, but when it comes down to putting up an actual fight for radical change that is centered around ecological values, these people are fucking hacks. They have no idea how we got here and have no idea how to change it, might not even want to change it because they benefit from the world continuing to exist as it is, because that is a world in which they have power.

They are completely at a loss on how to fight reactionaries (who want to drag us all kicking and screaming into ecological dystopia), and it’s partly because they act like the solution is always to join hands around the campfire, rather than to hold powerful people who are responsible for this profound harm and pillage and mass murder to account and punish them if necessary, to redistribute wealth and resources equitably across people and nations, to change or even just talk about the political and economic structures that inevitably lead to environmental destruction, and for america and the west to either give up power or have its hegemony destroyed.

I’m glad more individual people care about the environment and it’s not like I don’t think that’s important (I think that’s necessary), but it bothers me so much when people, especially those with the most power, frame the climate crisis as a matter of personal responsibility. If getting more people to care was the way to solve environment issues, then state of the environment would have drastically improved by now. In reality, those who care the most (including experts and the institutions they work for) are being intentionally shut out of politics by conservatives and reactionaries, and our power as individuals is not equivalent to how much we care. Caring more is only part of the solution if it gets more people to act in radical opposition to the establishment, fascists, and the rich and powerful.

And not to harp too much on it, but Obama and the centrist ilk are not fucking interested in that solution and never will be. The second people start talking about real change, they run to the NYT to write op-eds about how the insane, out-of-touch, woke left college students are saying that America Is Bad — which is unspeakable because America Is Good, and if we give it full throttle to do whatever it wants without limits or repercussions, then obviously only good things will happen (which is an absolutely absurd thing to believe).

Obama worked in US politics for decades. He watched, from the front row, how the reactionary leanings at the root of the Republican party completely overtook it. He’s been at the brunt of their fervor, he’s seen the corruption, the doxxing, the hypocrisy, the cynicism, the death and rape threats against Democrats, the actual murder and disappearing of leftists, and he’s still talking about compromise. This absolute naivety, this willingness to entertain the Other Side, even when they’re clearly morally and factually wrong and operating in bad faith, is the rot at the heart of our political discourse. When will we learn? Fascists don’t compromise. They take and pillage and burn, they dismantle democratic institutions and throw political prisoners down deep dark pits and tank economies, and when they’re left in the rubble of all that they have destroyed, they whine like toddlers who broke their own toys and point fingers because it’s all they know how to do. These people are the most morally bankrupt shitheads on the planet. They’re not gonna wake up one day and decide the environment matters. They can’t see past the blood in their eyes.

Reactionaries aren’t entirely responsible for the state of the environment and the world (they couldn’t have accomplished what they’ve done without the endorsement of centrists and the naivety of liberals), but they must be defeated in order for anything to change. We can’t hash it out with them. Any ground you give them is lost. The only thing that will solve the climate crisis, or endless genocide, or famine, or poverty, or the loss of civil liberties, is to fucking annihilate these people politically and lock them out of politics for fucking forever, hopefully, because they cannot be allowed any sort of power, ever. Fucking obviously. And this is all to say that I hate when Obama literally the guy most famous for not living up to hardly any of his campaign promises tells me about how we gotta save the planet… bro.

[realityshifter138]

Love letter and soft laundry

Soft laundry

My comfort items would have to be this black bag I often have with me or my staff (it matches Jack's but has vines on it)

I can summon both of these items any time, and the bag is connected to me in many different realities as well as many many other shifters (please script it in your DRs too!) it's a black leather cross body bag and anything you put in it appears in everyone who owns one's bag, they're all connected, if one person takes an item out a duplicate is made so that everyone else can still access it! This also makes it so that there's an infinite amount of anything you put in it! (Did someone say infinite money hack?)

Going to be real tho, lately it's kinda just been a bottle of whatever I've got in my fridge.

Love letter

Things my friends associate with me:

Jack: flowers, art, occasionally memes or friendship necklaces, the Harry Potter series, matt lipstick (especially the taste of it), guyliner

Jakie: her home planet, her brothers, just all sorts of things in her day to day life. She's thankful for the fact I made it possible

Meliphea (my sister): she has a few photos of me in her house/cave! She associates me with chaos and too sweet things for the most part

Jake: he associates me with his home as well, after all, I built their planet myself (it's tiny) and honestly they may resent me for it now, it has to feel like a prison at times. He also associates me with the death of his brother though, he probably hates me now that I think about it....

Pitch (honorary mention): violence, the taste of blood, recently the taste of vodka, and some bad decisions, duality and shifting (recently found out the Pitch of this world is a shifter too and that's part of why he's so OPed 🤦 (if anyone here shifts to a reality where you're Pitch Black and every few years try to take over the world: get therapy instead, I keep having to save that world)

I actually don't deeply consider any of them my friends right now... All of them have reason to not want to talk to me, most have reason to hate me right now.... But hey, at least I'm getting a chance to help that reality be better right? Trying to make new friends there, which is part of why I keep going back, and I am going to try to repair my relationship with Jack, so, yeah, sorry this wasn't as happy as you might have hoped lol, my DR is sorta....a mess right now...but like, that's temporary, and very very soon I'm fixing it, I just have to make everyone hate me a little bit more for a little bit longer THEN I get to fix everything. (Long story on what's going on with that lol)

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

First up its not Superman. While he is a powerful character, there are beings out there that can beat him, its just we keep pitting him against Goku who gets demolished by him.

In all seriousness its either Spongebob Squarepants or Popeye, the reason being is down to one word; Toon Force. This basically makes characters immune to all lethal damage as long as its funny. In addition both of these characters survive existence erasure on mutilple levels.

But I will have to give this one to Popeye since his existence negating feet is stronger then Spongebob's and there's a reason he was able to defeat Satama who is literally designed to be as OP as the whole point of the character is he can defeat anything in one punch so the comic is about how he copes with life.

Of course if you allow joke characters then both Chuck Norris and Segata Sanshiro, as their battle never ended, its just existence ended before it. But since it makes the fight very unfair, most people when arguing who's the strongest ignores them.

In conclusion, you often have to look at comic or characters with Toon Force as its the most impressive feats but if you want to say who's flat out the strongest; its Chuck Norris and Segata Sanshiro. End of story.

Honourable mentions are Sun Wukong who is several layers of immortal and The Doctor due to how insane the cosmology of the franchise is. Seriously I'm pretty sure every season of Doctor Who has some reality erasing threat in it which the Doctor just laughs off.

//Popeye seems to be the general consensus, and yeah, honestly, that's actually valid.

//For me personally, I would say that besides Popeye, the following are strong contenders:

Sun Wukong

Galactus

Doctor Who

Bill Cipher

Discord

Raven

Phoenix

Thor

Archie Sonic (Yes, I know that Archie Sonic lost the fight against Wally West, but that's primarily because Wally out-hacked Sonic, not overpowered him)

The Mask

//You know, this genuinely makes me wonder just how the hell Wile.E Coyote Vs Tom Cat is gonna go, because BOTH of them can use Toon Force. Honestly, I'd hate for it to end the same way that Courage Vs Scooby ended because that episode was so good and I don't need a repeat of it.

-Mod

[capyphoenix]

I also saw that post because I follow that blog too but idk, that blog screams hypocrisy for me lately. At one point they were ruthless about criticizing MG but the next day they would be like "we know nothing about her so we shouldn't take everything with a grain of salt". At one point they criticized a lot about MG showing too much about mini MG, yet the next day they said "MG can choose whatever she wants to post about mini MG" type of shit. Hypocrisy much? Just like Max lately.//

Same thing happened in the Evans fandom. His wife is basically a younger version of MG and was very dislike. And suddenly the blogs who exposed her lies made a full 180 and became her biggest fan. It's speculated that his wife might have paid some of the blogs off to support her. I wouldn't be surprised I this is what MG is now doing. Another similarity I see to the Evans situation are the tarot blogs that suddenly post a bunch of supportive "readings" for the partner and trash the guy. I saw a few new "readings" portraying MG as a good innocent partner but Max as irresponsible and incapable of anything when in reality he's the one paying for every stupid shit MG does.

If you ever see this on my blog rest assured I've been hacked and this is not written by me 10000%.

And i know the blogs you talk about that were invited to the comic cons and got a photo op with Chris.

[regallibellbright]

A minor issue with RORD is that Shiki and Rhyme's abilities are better-defined than the boys', to the point where I worry Shiki and Rhyme are going to come off as OP compared to Beat and Neku once they really get a grasp on what they can do. Part of this is that neither of the boys has as strong a grasp on what they're going to do with their life as Shiki (owner of a successful fashion brand) or Rhyme (new dream is to hack reality, and discovering they can do that literally has only encouraged them,) and therefore their powers are less settled.

Part of this I'm alleviating by just saying, fuck it. If Beat believes hard enough, he can fit five people on that skateboard and this is one of his explicit powers. They are going to scream the entire time (except Beat) but they will fit on it. Do not question how this would fuck with the center of balance of the board. They need to get somewhere, and this is working.

It still doesn't solve the Neku problem, but the games themselves do a good enough job establishing Neku as OP for a regular Player so I'm less worried about that.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The NYTimes double standard on display, again

On Tuesday, the New York Times published a list of twenty-one questions that it would like Kamala Harris to answer about her policies. Ah, at last! The Times is covering substance! Good for the Times! I hurriedly scanned the Times for its twenty-one questions about policy that the Times would like Donald Trump to answer.

Of course, I searched in vain for a parallel set of questions that Times would like Trump to answer. No such list was to be found. Sad. Pathetic. Shameful.

Several readers commented on my post yesterday and urged me to stop criticizing the Times. Their reasons ranged from “Don’t give the Times more attention,” “I ignore those stories,” and “The stories aren’t as bad as the headlines.”

Here’s why the Times’ continued use of misleading headlines and unfair bias against Kamala Harris matter: The Times publishing empire is the world’s largest media outlet (combining all Times properties). What the Times emphasizes quickly spreads through social media and other mainstream media outlets. Rightly or wrongly, the Times has a disproportionate impact on the media narrative each day.

Tens (hundreds?) of millions who don’t read the Times are exposed to its headlines through secondary sources. When a guest essayist pens a bad-faith op-ed titled, “Trump can win on character,” tens of millions of people believe that the New York Times believes Trump's character is superior to Kamala Harris’s.

The fact that the Times’ misleading editorial practices do not fool some readers does not mean that millions of others are not misled by those same practices. The Times should be better—but it chooses not to be. It deserves the criticism that I and others heap upon it.

My criticisms of Tom Lowry’s article yesterday about Trump “winning on character” were mild compared to those leveled by other authors. I highly recommend Tom Nichols’ superb essay in The Atlantic, The conservatives who sold their souls for Trump.

Nichols uses Lowry’s “Trump can win on character” essay as a frame to explain how far the original “anti-Trump” conservatives have fallen. Nichols writes,

But principles are sometimes burdensome things; that’s part of what makes them principles. The behavior of the anti-anti-Trumpers continues to be an inexcusable betrayal of the values they once claimed to hold. Many of them spoke, even passionately, against Trump—and then they shuffled into line. And for what? One more federal judge? A few billion more dollars in the account of a donor?

It’s one thing to sell your soul cheaply. It’s another to keep taking out second and third mortgages on it until all that’s left is debt and shame.

I also recommend Jonathan V. Last’s brilliant essay The Bulwark, Why Did the New York Times Let Itself Be Used as a Mule?

Last writes, in part,

Lowry’s essay isn’t aimed at Times readers. He is not explaining reality. His op-ed does not add any value for the NYT audience. The piece is little more than a memo to the Trump campaign. Lowry thinks he has an insight into how Trump could attack Harris, but because no one at the campaign cares what Rich has to say, he convinced the Times op-ed page to mule his ideas directly to Trump. Why would America’s paper of record consent to be used like this by a conservative sad-sack?

So, the next time the Times gets the brilliant idea to publish twenty-one hard-hitting questions for Kamala Harris, will anyone on the newsroom or editorial staff have the self-awareness, humility, or integrity to say, “Why aren’t we subjecting Trump to the same scrutiny?” I doubt that will ever happen, but a person can dream.

Oh, and by the way, remember when the NYTimes published details of DNC emails stolen by Russian hackers? Well, the NYTimes has had possession of Trump campaign internal emails since August 11 (or thereabouts) but hasn’t published a single confidential detail. I believe that news organizations should not publish hacked or stolen materials. But wouldn’t it be nice if the NYTimes explained why it was appropriate to publish details of DNC hacked emails but not publish details from hacked emails from the Trump campaign?

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[pesterloglog]

Karkat Vantas, Meenah Peixes, Sollux Captor, Lob 4, Ter 2

Page 621-625

KARKAT: ALRIGHT, COMPANIES 1 THROUGH 3 ARE IN PLACE.

KARKAT: 4 THROUGH 6 ARE EN ROUTE.

KARKAT: ... DRONE FLEET IS FINALLY LOOKING READY TO DEPLOY, THANK FUCK.

MEENAH: hey karkat

KARKAT: INFOSEC MANAGED TO FEND OFF ANOTHER CROCKERCORP HACK BUT THEY PROBABLY GOT ACCESS TO SOME LIMITED INTEL, WE SHOULD KEEP THAT IN MIND.

MEENAH: karkat

KARKAT: SECURITY BACK AT THE COMPOUND IS GIVING THE ALL-CLEAR; DOESN'T LOOK LIKE JANE HAS DESIGNS ON HQ. SINGLE-MINDED AS ALWAYS.

MEENAH: KARKAT

KARKAT: WHAT.

MEENAH: krillax

KARKAT: NOT REALLY AN IDEAL TIME FOR THAT, ON ACCOUNT OF THE FACT THAT WE'RE PROBABLY HOURS AWAY FROM THE MOST CRITICAL ARMED ENGAGEMENT THE REBELLION IS LIKELY TO SEE.

MEENAH: it hasnt been an ideel time for like 6 sweeps

MEENAH: you need to take a breatht-stroke

KARKAT: ... HAHAHA, WHAT?

MEENAH: you know what i mean

MEENAH: youve been runnin yourshellf into the fuckin dirt for ages

MEENAH: take a you moment

KARKAT: MEENAH, THIS IS THE WORST POSSIBLE TIME TO TAKE A ME MOMENT.

MEENAH: actually in like a day or so were either gonna be tridentumphant and busy as fuck or dead in the water so its like the best possible time all fins considered

MEENAH: youve been out on field ops for like a week

MEENAH: maybe i wanna chat with my buoy toy for a lil bit

KARKAT: YEAH, ALRIGHT.

KARKAT: I DUNNO, FUCK. UH... HOW ARE YOU DOING?

MEENAH: how are *you* doin

KARKAT: PRETTY FUCKING STRESSED!

KARKAT: TRYING TO LINE UP THE DOWNFALL OF A NIGH-IMMORTAL TYRANT AND CAPITALIZE ON WHAT MIGHT BE THE ONE SHOT WE'VE GOT AT DEFINITIVELY STICKING IT TO HER WHILE SHE'S GREEDILY OVEREXTENDED, WRANGLE THE REST OF THOSE SIDELINING DO-NOTHING FUCKING IDIOTS INTO ACTION, AND PLAN FOR WHAT HAPPENS NEXT ON LIKE THREE HOURS OF SLEEP.

KARKAT: ALSO THIS COVERT-OPS SUIT IS TIGHT AS ALL FUCK.

MEENAH: well if its any consolation that may be rough for you but its a pretty great time to be your rear admire-all 38)

KARKAT: MUCH OBLIGED.

KARKAT: ...

KARKAT: SERIOUSLY, MEENAH, I APPRECIATE IT.

KARKAT: IT'S BEEN KIND OF A ROUGH...

KARKAT: DECADE AND A HALF?

KARKAT: BUT THROUGH ALL THE SLOG AND THE SHITTY TIMES AND THE UNCERTAINTY YOU'VE REMAINED REMARKABLY COMMITTED TO THIS.

KARKAT: HELPED ME TURN THIS ABSTRACT, FRUSTRATED DREAM INTO A FUNCTIONING FUCKING REALITY.

KARKAT: YOU NEVER WAVERED.

KARKAT: YOU NEVER FLAKED.

KARKAT: YOU STUCK BY ME.

MEENAH: not like dave huh

KARKAT: WOW, STRAIGHT TO THE POINT.

MEENAH: i mean hey i figured youd wanna glub about it

MEENAH: conchsiderin

KARKAT: SO YOU HEARD THE NEWS?

MEENAH: yeah i mighta been listenin in on your converseation myshellf

MEENAH: along with like half the comms team

MEENAH: you left your mic on

KARKAT: UN

KARKAT: FUCKING

KARKAT: BELIEVABLE.

MEENAH: its all good

MEENAH: actually pretty much everyone ate it up there was like gasps and cheers and occasional applause and shit

MEENAH: not shore if youre aware of this but it turns out people fuckin love you

KARKAT: WELL COLOR ME GLAD MY OPERATIVES FOUND IT INSPIRING THAT I TOOK CRITICAL TIME OUT OF MY MISSION TO PREVENT THE ENTIRE PLANET FROM BACKSLIDING INTO STAGNANT CONFECTIONARY FASCISM TO YELL AT A HAPLESS DIVORCEE.

KARKAT: ANYWAY.

KARKAT: YES.

KARKAT: NOT LIKE DAVE.

MEENAH: how you feelin about that

KARKAT: I DON'T KNOW.

KARKAT: I THINK MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, JUST FUCKING...

KARKAT: DISAPPOINTED.

KARKAT: EXHAUSTINGLY, FRUITLESSLY DISAPPOINTED.

KARKAT: WE USED TO SPEND SO MUCH TIME TOGETHER TALKING ABOUT HOW TO FIX SHIT, YOU KNOW?

KARKAT: SPITBALLING ALL THIS FRIVOLOUS AND/OR GRAVELY SERIOUS CONJECTURE ABOUT WHAT TO FUCKING *DO* WITH OURSELVES AND THE WORLD.

KARKAT: AND THEN AS SOON AS IT STARTS REALLY MATTERING, AS SOON AS IT BECOMES CLEAR IT'S TIME TO DO *SOMETHING*, HE JUST WILTS.

KARKAT: THEN HE SPENDS YEARS MILLING FECKLESSLY AROUND IN THAT DOMESTIC TORTURE LABYRINTH OF A RELATIONSHIP

KARKAT: *MARRIES INTO IT*

KARKAT: AND SUBSEQUENTLY DECIDES THAT NOW'S THE BEST TIME TO PLAY SPIES, PRESUMABLY SO HE CAN CONTINUE TO AVOID HAVING MISERABLE MATRIMONIAL PROCREATIVE SEX.

KARKAT: ONLY FOR JADE TO FOLLOW HIM INTO THE CAUSE!

KARKAT: WHICH, YOU KNOW, WAS OBJECTIVELY A PRETTY BIG BOON TO THE REBELLION.

KARKAT: GOOD FOR MORALE, AND OBVIOUSLY THEY WERE INCREDIBLE FIELD AGENTS.

KARKAT: BUT FUCK WAS IT A SAVAGE PAIN IN THE CHUTE.

KARKAT: DO YOU REMEMBER THE PERIOD EARLY ON WHERE I HAD TO ASSIGN ANOTHER CLERK TO MISSION CONTROL WHOSE SOLE PURPOSE WAS TO MANAGE THE TWO OF THEM SO THEY KEPT THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY UNTIL THEY FIGURED OUT HOW TO BE EVEN THE SCANTEST APPROXIMATION OF NORMAL AROUND ME?

KARKAT: THE FACT THAT IT WAS NECESSARY AT ALL IS STILL FUCKING APPALLING.

KARKAT: AND THEN FINALLY, *FINALLY*, WE GET HIM SITUATED, HE'S ACTUALLY MANAGING TO CONTRIBUTE TO SOMETHING MEANINGFUL AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN WHO EVEN KNOWS HOW LONG.

KARKAT: AND HE JUST FUCKS OFF AND

KARKAT: AND DIES.

KARKAT: HE JUST CALLS IT THERE.

KARKAT: SO

KARKAT: DISAPPOINTED.

KARKAT: DISAPPOINTED IS HOW I'M FEELING ABOUT THAT.

KARKAT: BUT-

KARKAT: FUCKING- HOLD ON, I NEED TO TAKE THIS.

KARKAT: *WHAT*.

SOLLUX: finally he picks up.

SOLLUX: hey man.

KARKAT: DON'T FUCKING "HEY MAN" ME.

KARKAT: I'M KIND OF IN THE MIDDLE OF POURING MY PUSHER OUT HERE.

KARKAT: TO SAY NOTHING OF THE FACT THAT I'M ALSO WAGING A WAR FOR THE FATE OF OUR PLANET.

SOLLUX: yeah i can tell.

SOLLUX: there's like a bazillion m0oks swarming ar0und my crib and none 0f the grubereats dudes are accepting orders right n0w.

SOLLUX: probably 0n account 0f your inc0nvenient ass war.

SOLLUX: could y0u pick me something up?

SOLLUX: i'm assuming you're 0n your way.

KARKAT: YOU'RE SUCH A CHUTEHEAD, MAN.

KARKAT: JUST POSTED UP IN YOUR GAMER HOLE DOING WHO THE FUCK KNOWS WHAT WHILE THE REST OF US ARE OUT HERE GRINDING OUR GLOBES TRYING TO FIX SOMETHING.

KARKAT: MAYBE YOU'D GIVE MORE OF A FUCK ABOUT THE REPRODUCTIVE FUTURE OF OUR SPECIES IF ARADIA WAS EVER ACTUALLY THERE LONG ENOUGH FOR YOU TO GET SOME.

MEENAH: ohhh snapper

KARKAT: ANYWAY YEAH I CAN PROBABLY SWING THAT.

KARKAT: ...

KARKAT: ...

KARKAT: FUCKING HELLO?

SOLLUX: sorry i was gaming.

KARKAT: SHOCKER!

KARKAT: BETTER GET BACK TO IT, THEN, DON'T LET ME KEEP YOU.

KARKAT: I'LL JUST BE OUT HERE FREEDOM FIGHTING AND DEPLETING JANE'S GROUND FORCES SO SHE WON'T HAVE ENOUGH MANPOWER TO STORM THE METEOR AND PUT A SPOON THROUGH YOUR SPINE, OH AND ALSO FERRYING YOU YOUR FUCKING FAST FOOD, I GUESS!

KARKAT: GOOD LUCK!

KARKAT: HOPE YOU GET A HIGH SCORE!

SOLLUX: yeah im kinda in the z0ne right now.

KARKAT: AWESOME.

SOLLUX: hey kk

KARKAT: WHAT.

SOLLUX: are we still friends?

KARKAT: OBVIOUSLY, DIPSHIT!

KARKAT: STAY SAFE, ALRIGHT?

KARKAT: ...

KARKAT: ...

KARKAT: DUDE!

SOLLUX: s0rry im still gaming.

KARKAT: BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SOLLUX: alrighty bro g0od talk.

KARKAT: SORRY ABOUT THAT.

KARKAT: AS I WAS SAYING.

KARKAT: YEAH, I'M DISAPPOINTED ABOUT HOW EVERYTHING WITH DAVE WENT DOWN.

KARKAT: BUT TODAY NEEDS TO BE BIGGER THAN THAT.

KARKAT: IT'S NOT PRODUCTIVE FOR ME TO SIT HERE AND WALLOW ABOUT WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN AND WHAT MORE I COULD HAVE DONE FOR ONE PERSON WHEN NOW, MORE THAN EVER, I NEED TO FOCUS ON WHAT COULD BE AND WHO'S WITH ME NOW.

KARKAT: WHO I'M DOING ALL OF THIS FOR.

KARKAT: WE'VE BUILT SOMETHING AMAZING TOGETHER, AND IF WE CAN HOLD ON JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER IT'LL HAVE BEEN INCALCULABLY WORTH EVERY OUNCE OF STRUGGLE.

KARKAT: LET'S MAKE IT THROUGH TODAY.

KARKAT: WE MAKE IT THROUGH TODAY, AND WE TAKE TOMORROW INTO OUR OWN HANDS.

KARKAT: AND WE NEVER LET IT GO.

LOB 4: Well said, sir!

KARKAT: WHAT THE FUCK.

KARKAT: HOW LONG HAVE YOU ALL BEEN LISTENING?

TER 2: Pretty much since the beginning, sir!

MEENAH: lmao

KARKAT: OKAY.

KARKAT: THEN I HOPE YOU'RE ALL FEELING SUFFICIENTLY FUCKING MOTIVATED, BECAUSE IT'S A LONG WAY TO GO UNTIL TOMORROW!

KARKAT: COMMANDERS HARLEY, MARYAM, AND LALONDE ARE INBOUND, AND NOT LONG AFTER THEY GET HERE THINGS ARE GOING TO GET BATSHIT STUPID!

KARKAT: BUT THINGS HAVE BEEN BATSHIT STUPID FOR A LONG, LONG FUCKING TIME,

KARKAT: SO LET'S DRAG THAT IMPERIOUS CORPORATE BITCH DOWN FROM HER AIRSHIP AND REINTRODUCE A LITTLE NORMALCY!

LOBsTERs: SIR, YES SIR!

KARKAT: MEENAH! ANYTHING TO ADD?

MEENAH: lets get this bread

LOBsTERs: MA'AM, YES MA'AM!

MEENAH: alrighty maggots you heard the boss

MEENAH: target fuckin acquired

[taehyungfirst]

https://www.tumblr.com/taehyungfirst/746874420759609344/httpswwwtumblrcomtaehyungfirst74686293004643

Different anon than OP, but until y’all start policing the shit that’s in your subsection of the fandom, generalising is what you’ll get, anon.

Y’all have this same army mentality of defending your group than defending the men you stan, cause tell me how someone telling you a reality they witnessed has you saying all that, but nothing about how a lot of taekookers invalidated a whole ass award that Tae won just because JK didn’t win something?

Tae consistently gets the short end of the stick in y’alls shipping and that is reality, I’ve seen taekookers say they’re gonna slap Tae and they wish Tae died after the dating rumour and get away with it by saying they got hacked LMAO and y’all defended them, but god forbid a Tae biased taekooker say one of them has company support and the other doesn’t (a fact btw), cause you’re running them off the app. Y’all had a whole account with 8k followers say Tae is a queerbaiter if he isn’t dating JK, not if he isn’t dating A MAN, but if he isn’t dating JK specifically, and defended her when Tae biased called her out.

Same army mentality of assuming someone is a Tae solo if they defend him, cause what of what anon said implied they were a solo? They just said what they witnessed within the fandom. Enough of the “curate your timeline”, this stuff is out there even if you refuse to see it.

Y’all always sound like the “not all men” people, it’s not all men, but it’s usually a man, just like it’s not all taekookers, but it’s usually a taekooker that sets Tae up for hate with jikookers and then refuses to delete tweets by saying “taekookers need to be united, we’re telling the truth about x member doing this, just because it gets Tae a huge amount of hate, it doesn’t matter 🤷”.

Sorry admin for the rant!

Hi!

The thing is I really wasn’t generalizing and I don’t understand why prev anon thought I would be referring to those who supports them both and cheer them both equally. My problem is people being hypocrites, because an award won by Tae is not a fraud if Jk doesn’t win it. You should respect the artistry of the other part of your ship too, shouldn’t this be the norm?

And I have seen tkkers feeling betrayed by Tae, wishing him the worst for the rumor when he was going through a major privacy breach with a whole stalker overseas.

I will call out that type of behavior like I’ve done with everyone, I am not generalizing, I am telling you there’s a minority who really should stop being shady.

[aggravateddurian]

Okay but imagine: AU where Scott Pilgrim and Cyberpunk are in the same universe with Judy dating V (Scott and Ramona's greatx7 granddaughter) as she faces off against her seven evil ex girlfriends consisting of Joanne Koch, Angelica Whelan, Alena Xenakis, Song So Mi, Rita Wheeler, Michiko Arasaka and Hanako Arasaka. Like imagine Judy talking about it to Evelyn then So Mi just bursts through the bar on a Chimera saying "MS. ALVAREZ!"

Hang on: FemV x Hanako? Rosalind will hear about this, and she'll be bringing a Carrier Strike Group with her!

On a serious note: Judy Alvarez vs Night City is an intriguing concept, but one that I need to smack with my patented AggravatedDurian Bullshit (patent pending) Fanfiction technology. I only use this when there's a silly little idea I want to explore (like Adam Santa). I say this because I have a similar idea in my Chorus AU but I want to keep these ideas separate.

One thing. I'd imagine Judy's talking to Panam or someone who would be alive around the time V is dating Judy.

Joanne Koch would go down easy. She's a corpo snake who will get others to fight for her. Imagine having to play a shooter game where the boss is invincible while there are mooks on the battlefield. Or, she uses that Biotechnica corpo science to become the cyber-she-hulk and gives our protagonist a run for her money.

Keeping with the gamey vibe of Scott Pilgrim, Songbird is capable of hacking reality to an extent. She can mod in abilities, or backup in fights, such as spawning in a Cerberus to distract Judy. I'm talking spawning in bullshit like Valgus gunships and AVs full of Black Ops troops.

Alex is dangerous in and of herself, and would likely use her FIA training and technology to run rings around our favourite Mox.

Michiko is the founder of Danger Gal. She's a respectable threat.

Hanako's not really a fighter. She'll be the easiest opponent in my opinion, she'll probably get Oda to fight for her.

Fighting Rita will definitely be heated because they're both part of the Mox, and Rita will try to

Angelica is one of the scariest, because she could probably talk V into loving her again. She leads the Animals because of her sheer charisma, meaning she has fuckin' magic speech skills if she can keep them in line.

I have one request, and that is that we replace one of these characters with Rosalind Myers. Probably Joanne Koch. Myers is strong enough to knock V on her arse, is a retired Marine and fought a battle for survival across Dogtown in high heels.