#so I'll judge on case to case basis

[tenok]

Well I won't say that Aziraphale was horrified at thought of kiling a child, he was mostly sitting there arguing that he shouldn't be the one doing the killing (he does cleary dislike the idea), which is a little different (and btw I rewatched that scene for this and wow, first of all how cinematografically great first season are, it hits hard, and second it's a small thing but him immediatly jumping from "I don't want to do the kiling" to "what if we go to his party and prevent hound from happening" — that's such a great moment usually overlooked, but it's on par with "I will try to talk with higher ups" and his other desisions in the way how he never gives up and always tries to think of several other possibilities, even when Crowley already lost hope. Just, chef kiss), and while he dislikes it and was willing to find his way around this, as soon as he set his mind on this track and up to the moment of shooting he was working fast and clever on finding his way to kill this child without much remorse. In no way I say this as a way to critisize him, no, I actually think it' great example of how he deals with using violence: he will try to find the other way, but if there's no other options? He will use it, will use it cleverly, and he won't be sorry much. That's just part of his tool chest, not his favorite, but not something he swears off forever. And it's sexy of him.

But other than that I think it's a matter of perspectives. I don't like overly sweet, soft and innocent portrayal of Aziraphale that you can usually find in fics that's more kind to Aziraphale, I think that he's much more deep and has a better understanding of the world that people gave him credit for and he's much more in peace with some darker thing in himself and others. I also think his softness can be a shield hiding this things not only from others but from him too: like in kilind Adam example, when he doesn't want to think of killing a child, he immediatly jumps to "maybe I can do tricks as a magician :)" which doesn't mean that kiling a child still doesn't a possibility he still considered, that he doesn't still think about it on more deep level, accepting and getting ready, but on surface level? He's into his silly mode. The same with looking for a clues in season two: he's so eager to play detective so he can stop thinking about Gabriel, heavens and hell for a second and calm down. I'm not saying that he isn't naturally sweet and easy to get exited person, but I do think that calm, collected person person aware of horrors and his capability of using violence as much of beauty of the world and his capability to find joy in every litte thing is much more correct portrayal of him than "always cheery and never willing to hurt anyone and being bastard only in sense that sometimes he says something jokingly sexual to Crowley" I usually see.

Now, sorry, I completely derailed post that was about Azirahale trowing fists lol

And about describing him as masculine, I kinda understand what you mean and yes him going into fights can be example of this I'm sure, but I'll say that it's more complex. See, first and foremost, the global problem is that fandom as a whole for now favours Crowley, so all povs, deep reflection and other cool things usually go to him (the quality if this reflection is another thing, god save us from character's haters and character's protectors). And any thing that can be actually deep and meaningfull would be botched if written without considering what's inside character's head, be this fighting/violence/masculitinity/etc! And another thing is that while yes Aziraphale is feminie, he's actually really, really masculine too. He does. It's pretty significant thing. Like, we saw Crowley passing as women a least once, two if you counting Golgotha, and Aziraphale always passed as man. Queer man, gay man. He's not feminie per se, he's utilizing his masculinity in feminie way. He's not wearing a skirt (although I'm sure he can and would if he will consider it proper [the same with violence lol]), he wear a pastel suit. He keeps his hair fluffy, but not long. He does his manicure, he also goes to specifically male's barber to pay him for treatment of his hair and non-existent beard (I suppose, since he's used "barber" and not "hairdresser" but it can also be translation thing). His mannerisms are not women's, it's a gay man thing (or neurodivergence thing). And people... they actually don't know what to do with healthy, non-conventional masculinity and how to explore it. They can play with queering the gender, putting Crowley in skirts and make up and changing pronouns on a whim, they can do one of them or both womens, but people stuck on making masculinity interesting and specifically queer masculinity not… cringe, I suppose? Like, to write Aziraphale beng his *pansy* self and not making this a bad sitcom episode can be challenging, and also some people probably avoid this without even thinking because it can feel disrespectful to write character this way. So it's kinds interesting that people make Crowley this *cool rebellious genderqueer punk* but rarely explore this side of Aziraphale at all.

There's other thing in play, like people loving dichotomies so if Crowley more feminie than Aziraphale should be more masculine, or people just wanting a trope with strong daddy ravaging helpless twink (you can find the same with top!Crowley and bottom!Aziraphale, but less after season two, much less /unfortunate sigh/). But, anyway, I'm derailing again and my point was that Aziraphale's fighting is just a part of bigger... I don't want to call it issue? It's not that deep you know. Fandom shift?

Anyway thank's for listening to me rambling! In conclusion, Aziraphale should be allowed to beat people up when he feels like this, but he should be granted with big pretty flowr crown immediatly later, because he's a softie and we love him for that

Look I think I said it before somewhere but I need to talk about it again.

Aziraphale (in the show - his characterization differs in the book and I’m talking about show Aziraphale here) is a soft character. He started out as a soldier and he made the conscious decision to give the sword away to someone who would use it for protection, instead of keeping it to fight (leaving out the whole thing about War owning it later on cause that’s a different topic and definitely wasn’t what Aziraphale had in mind when giving away the sword). He also makes a conscious decision to look and act as non-threatening as possible, instead deciding to look soft and huggable and gay as hell a tree full of monkeys on nitrogen oxide. We don’t see him fighting anybody even when he gets the sword back - he just holds it and swings it around a little, he doesn’t even lift it when they face Satan (I think. I’d have to go back and watch again but I’m fairly sure he just stands in the background behind Adam with the tip of the sword facing the ground).

We know, or at least suspect from the scene where he fixes the hole in the wall that he’s physically strong and we know he’s still technically a soldier in Heavens eyes (Gabriel going „you’re a lean mean fighting machine“ and him having and possibly leading a platoon in Heaven) but he fully rejects that position in episode five to go back to Earth. He doesn’t want to be a soldier at all. He’s still a protector, we see this in season two with Jimbriel (he literally says „I said I would protect you and I will), but even THEN he doesn’t physically fight the demons entering the bookshop (he lights the circle but it’s Maggie and Nina throwing fire extinguishers and encyclopedias).

I know we as the fandom love badass Aziraphale. I love badass Aziraphale as well. I take a little bit of an issue with how him actually being badass is portrayed in fanfic sometimes because a lot of trying to make him physically fight demons comes across as trying to make him more masculine, more fit, less the campy, soft, kind character that he is and it annoys me. (A part of that is also how people try to make him more like Crowley, which I don’t like the undertones of either but that’s a whole different topic.) Both because I don’t like the implication that to make him badass you have to change that part of his character and because we’ve seen him being badass in the show already and it was either a) trying to protect humans/Crowley/Jimbriel, which involved a lot more threatening that him actually throwing hands or on one occasion b) him being bitchy (Furfur pronouncing his name wrong). It was him being kind and caring about people and their lives! And possibly their reading skills.

And I know there’s a lot of hope for more badass Aziraphale in season three, because hell yeah, Heaven getting obliterated from the inside? Absolutely. But when we get to see BAMF Aziraphale in season three (because I don’t doubt we will, in some form or other) I’d much rather see him be badass by outsmarting Heaven (magic tricks anybody?) and getting away with it or threatening the Metatron or whatever than by punching somebody in the face. And IF he does have to use physical violence, then I want there to be a reason for it and I want it to be portrayed as a bad thing. Like I want I to be the absolutely lowest point of the character because we know how much he detests doing it and he hates having to do it anyways.

In that case also want it to end with the Metatron dead in a ditch.

[detective-pancake]

Hey, so I don't want to be that guy, but when are we going to acknowledge that Akechi was right?

No, I obviously don't mean about the things he was very clearly wrong about. I'm referring to the things he says in interviews about the Phantom Thieves. I hate how many people switch up after playing through his betrayal who previously agreed with his views, because nothing he said is wrong and nothing he did changes that fact. He speaks in the TV Station on the objective facts that he should know about, and with or without the context of his form of justice those facts stay true. It's a fallacy to claim that his form of justice being universally less approved of makes the Phantom Thieves better by comparison, or discredits anything he said. I don't think the Phantom Thieves are evil, or that they should necessarily be imprisoned, but I do think that they are not morally sound. They're kids. Prior to his betrayal I think he served his purpose well, but it's easy to disregard the validity of his words when you find out that he's a murderer. With the knowledge he SHOULD have had (and that many DID have), everything he says is true. And honestly? It still can be true for basically the entire plot of the game. Mishima's confidant tests the thieves in that way. They could have changed the hearts of anyone who's not a persona user, for any personal reason. It's a slippery slope.

I'll use these three options as an example for why he's right:

"They're justice itself" is just subjective and incorrect, because justice as a concept is individualized and given how each Phantom Thief has different reasons for being one it's ridiculous for even them to say. Their first target was before they even formed a group, and Ann was ready to kill Kamoshida. The others were not even going to step in, and they were going to respect her choice either way. All the members are so different, so this is an insane claim to make.

"They're necessary" is wrong because to say they are necessary is pretty disingenuous to all "justice" that has ever happened BEFORE they existed. I don't believe that the Thieves were a necessity per say, and personally I think their actions can only be judged on a case by case basis. Some Mementos targets for example have issues that stem beyond what they have done. Now they have their desires stolen but still have the issue that pushed them to immortality in the first place, plus a shitton of guilty baggage. The Thieves only help with the atonement, but not the push. How many of those people didn't just go right back to their past behaviors? How many of them got worse in other ways? Think about Futaba, she felt so guilty for something she thought she did, she formed a palace to condemn herself to die alone. To claim the Thieves are necessary to reform society implies that their method is the most effective, and I think that's a lot to claim for something they don't understand.

"They do more than the cops" I almost agree with. Legally the police in Japan in this game anyway (yes I'm aware it extends to reality in many ways, but I'm referring to just the game right now) are corrupt and flawed for the most part, but the thing I don't agree with is that this makes the Thieves a better alternative. They're not. For the same reason Yoshizawa says later, the Thieves can only do so much as vigilantes, and to imply that society should rely on these faceless nameless flawed people to fix society is not any better than what they have now. Especially with the method being unknown, potentially unsafe, and easily exploitable. I cannot be the only one who if the Phantom Thieves were real, would be extremely alarmed by the prospect of a group of vigilantes "changing hearts" right? It's so vague, and the pattern is dystopian. At least police methods are familiar

What I'm saying is that they're kids, and it's kind of insane that this game places Akechi as the narrative foil for the Thieves in their message and then makes it so easy to disregard because "he's an assassin so how could he know anything about justice". The Thieves don't either, and Ann was nearly a murderer. If the bar is "don't commit murder when you're infiltrating someone's mind" then it's far too low. I wouldn't trust a group of adults with this power to reform society, even less a group of teenage vigilantes. I'm 19, and I find this odd. And Strikers frames them as even more righteous, and it bugs me even more in that game. At least Royal has the third semester to give a bit more nuance to how big of a responsibility Ren was given, but that's also very frequently misinterpreted.

I love this game, and I love this fandom, and I have thoughts that get weird and ranty. I apologize, but I hope you all found this as interesting as I did.

[starseungs]

of fishes and chocolate muffins. ksm.

kim seungmin x gn!reader — working the morning shift at a cafe on weekdays isn't really the best, entertainment wise. still, eavesdropping on your customers wasn't something you did on a daily basis. it just so happened that two of your regulars had something in store for you today.

GENRE/S — fluff, humor, a pinch of angst, cafe/coffee shop au, writer!seungmin (barely mentioned) • 1.2k words

WARNING/S — profanity for humor, seungmin is pretty down in the dumps for most of this, part 2 of this fic but a different y/n, mentions of unrequited love

( ✒️ ) happy birthday to @seungiepaws !! here's your request for a part 2 of universe lovie, i know i said i'll do a drabble as a gift but it ended up a little longer so you're getting a whole fic mwah <3 i hope you like it

2024 ⓒ starseungs on tumblr. do not steal, repost, or edit.

The small bell perched on top of the cafe’s entrance door chimed softly at the arrival of a new customer. Your well-rehearsed greetings immediately followed, words racing out of your lips before you could even think twice. It really didn’t matter whether you meant them or not. As long as the guest felt welcomed, then that meant you were already doing your job well.

You doubt any of them ever even acknowledged your efforts, anyway. That was just how the world worked on a normal Monday morning—everyone running on autopilot until the seemingly brainless hoard of zombies got their lethal dose of caffeine or sugar and started acting like proper functioning members of society for the rest of the day. Then, the cycle repeats.

As an “all-rounder” cafe employee (as you liked to call yourself), this was just another day in the bigger scale of the year. Not too important, nor was it a particularly boring day. That simply wasn’t possible if you were working at a cafe, or really, just working in general.

“You’re always here, dude.” An exasperated voice groans from the window booth next to the serving counter. You recognized his face right away as one of your regulars who looked like a hamster. “At this point, you need to pay this place rent.”

The man he was talking to rolled his eyes with a scoff, even though his fingers never stopped typing on his laptop’s keyboard. “I’m a paying customer. Objectively, I’m already giving them money to stay here.”

You couldn’t help but silently snort at the guy’s comeback. He wasn’t entirely wrong, after all. This cafe’s prices already took into account the amenities they could use here. So technically speaking, as long as customers bought something from the cafe’s menu, they could stay for as long as they want until the establishment closes. That’s not usually the case, though. Most people still had places to be and other things to do other than have a staycation on some random cafe seat.

Note that you said “most” instead of “all”. Of course, there were always bound to be those who, for the lack of a better description—overstayed their welcome. 

And one of them is that chestnut-haired male who was currently getting berated by his friend.

“Seungmin, seriously!” The other guy, who you finally remembered being named Jisung from his previous orders, exclaimed in concern. “You can’t just stay here all day, every day. I know you’re trying to get over your roommate, but at least make use of your rent?” Jisung almost pleads.

You really didn’t mean to eavesdrop on their conversation, as the topic seemed awfully private, but what exactly could you do from the close proximity of the counter and their booth? It’s not like you were judging the two of them. There was no harm intended, and you were sure you’d still go about your day as usual with or without this newly obtained knowledge from strangers.

Seungmin sighed. “I don’t think you want me to be cooped up in my room writing either, so what do you really want to achieve?” His hands finally parted ways from his keyboard for the first time in about an hour. “Jisung, you know being alone in the apartment is only going to remind me of how my roommate is out there with their boyfriend being all happy and enjoying life while I’m over here writing sappy fictional love stories because I don’t have one of my own.”

“Oh, but you do.” Jisung huffs. “It’s just the unrequited kind.”

“Haha, very funny.”

“Just saying,” he comments. “I’m gonna let you sulk all you want as part of your healing process, but you really shouldn’t be sacrificing yourself just for the thought of them. You deserve better, Min.”

If you could only agree out loud, then you already would’ve. Unfortunately, that meant revealing the fact that you’ve been secretly listening in to the personal conversations of your customers, and you weren’t completely sure if that was even legal for you to do so. Still, what are they going to do? Charge you for having ears?

“I don’t know,” Seungmin mutters. “I’ll manage it eventually.” And to this, Jisung only frowns.

Now, you were just as frustrated as Jisung was. Seungmin is an attractive guy—you were one hundred percent certain that he could get anyone head-over-heels for him if he wanted. And yet, here he was, a monotone mess over unrequited love? Whoever that roommate is, they had severely failed to see the vision since if that was you, best believe you weren’t letting him go just like that. 

Seungmin had honestly caught your eye ever since the moment he started going to this cafe. To put things into perspective, you were practically all smiles for the rest of the day every time he came to order something in the mornings before his daily schedule. When he started staying for whole days, it was only a matter of time before you ended up shooting your shot, even if you barely knew anything about him. Heck, the most you even knew about him was that he liked the chocolate muffins the most here!

A plate of chocolate muffin was heavily plopped down on the two men’s table, startling them due to the sudden act. They exchanged confused glances before Jisung cleared his throat to speak. “Uh—we didn’t order that.”

“It’s on the house.” You pursed your lips.

“What?” Seungmin asks, dumbfounded. You knew he was going to ask for a reason until he saw the look on your face while staring at him. His expression quickly shifted to one of mortification. “Were—were you eavesdropping on us?”

You clicked your tongue. How were you finding his reaction to that so cute? “Look, I didn’t mean to,” you explain. “See that counter? Just how far do you think my station is to your booth for me not to hear a single thing?” Seungmin only grumbles—probably to hide his embarrassment.

“Alright, sure. Whatever,” he says. “I still don’t need that muffin.”

Your eye twitched involuntarily. All of a sudden, you were already leaning on their table with narrowed eyes pointed at the laptop-facing man. “Okay, listen here, you soggy rained-on puppy.” You could have sworn you heard Jisung choke. “This is gonna sound really shitty of me, but there are plenty more fish in the sea. The same goes for your experiences in life. Trust me, you’re not even close to losing those opportunities yet. Unless you’re trying to live like a saint, that is. So grow some balls after your little pity party.”

“That was,” Seungmin exhales shakily. “Vaguely threatening. But somehow I’m not as offended as I thought I would be, so—uh, thanks?” He taps lightly on the plastic cup of his drink, looking away awkwardly.

You lifted yourself off the table and crossed your arms. “My name is Y/N. I work here every morning on the weekdays.” 

“Right,” he hums, still not glancing your way and instead facing the baked good you dropped by their tabletop. “So, is this muffin really free?”

All you let yourself give him was a nonchalant shrug. “Yeah. Just call me whenever or something. Congratulations on hooking a new fish,” you said without shame before walking away back to your station.

If you only looked back for a moment, you would’ve seen Jisung gasping for air from laughter with an incredibly red faced Seungmin blanking out as he held a serious staring contest with his muffin.

You could only hope that cheered him up a bit.

MASTERTAG ━ STATUS: OPEN — ASK OR COMMENT 🫶

@fairyki @hysgf @euncsace @comet-falls @starlostseungmin @ameliesaysshoo @hyunverse @wnbnny @xocandyy @minluvly @moon0fthenight @estellaluna @hanjsquokka @starlostastronaut @minsueng @l3visbby @myjisung

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Tech monopolists use their market power to invade your privacy

On SEPTEMBER 24th, I'll be speaking IN PERSON at the BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY!

It's easy to greet the FTC's new report on social media privacy, which concludes that tech giants have terrible privacy practices with a resounding "duh," but that would be a grave mistake.

Much to the disappointment of autocrats and would-be autocrats, administrative agencies like the FTC can't just make rules up. In order to enact policies, regulators have to do their homework: for example, they can do "market studies," which go beyond anything you'd get out of an MBA or Master of Public Policy program, thanks to the agency's legal authority to force companies to reveal their confidential business information.

Market studies are fabulous in their own right. The UK Competition and Markets Authority has a fantastic research group called the Digital Markets Unit that has published some of the most fascinating deep dives into how parts of the tech industry actually function, 400+ page bangers that pierce the Shield of Boringness that tech firms use to hide their operations. I recommend their ad-tech study:

https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/online-platforms-and-digital-advertising-market-study

In and of themselves, good market studies are powerful things. They expose workings. They inform debate. When they're undertaken by wealthy, powerful countries, they provide enforcement roadmaps for smaller, poorer nations who are being tormented in the same way, by the same companies, that the regulator studied.

But market studies are really just curtain-raisers. After a regulator establishes the facts about a market, they can intervene. They can propose new regulations, and they can impose "conduct remedies" (punishments that restrict corporate behavior) on companies that are cheating.

Now, the stolen, corrupt, illegitimate, extremist, bullshit Supreme Court just made regulation a lot harder. In a case called Loper Bright, SCOTUS killed the longstanding principle of "Chevron deference," which basically meant that when an agency said it had built a factual case to support a regulation, courts should assume they're not lying:

https://jacobin.com/2024/07/scotus-decisions-chevron-immunity-loper

The death of Chevron Deference means that many important regulations – past, present and future – are going to get dragged in front of a judge, most likely one of those Texas MAGA mouth-breathers in the Fifth Circuit, to be neutered or killed. But even so, regulators still have options – they can still impose conduct remedies, which are unaffected by the sabotage of Chevron Deference.

Pre-Loper, post-Loper, and today, the careful, thorough investigation of the facts of how markets operate is the prelude to doing things about how those markets operate. Facts matter. They matter even if there's a change in government, because once the facts are in the public domain, other governments can use them as the basis for action.

Which is why, when the FTC uses its powers to compel disclosures from the largest tech companies in the world, and then assesses those disclosures and concludes that these companies engage in "vast surveillance," in ways that the users don't realize and that these companies "fail to adequately protect users, that matters.

What's more, the Commission concludes that "data abuses can fuel market dominance, and market dominance can, in turn, further enable data abuses and practices that harm consumers." In other words: tech monopolists spy on us in order to achieve and maintain their monopolies, and then they spy on us some more, and that hurts us.

So if you're wondering what kind of action this report is teeing up, I think we can safely say that the FTC believes that there's evidence that the unregulated, rampant practices of the commercial surveillance industry are illegal. First, because commercial surveillance harms us as "consumers." "Consumer welfare" is the one rubric for enforcement that the right-wing economists who hijacked antitrust law in the Reagan era left intact, and here we have the Commission giving us evidence that surveillance hurts us, and that it comes about as a result of monopoly, and that the more companies spy, the stronger their monopolies become.

But the Commission also tees up another kind of enforcement: Section 5, the long (long!) neglected power of the agency to punish companies for "unfair and deceptive methods of competition," a very broad power indeed:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

In the study, the Commission shows – pretty convincingly! – that the commercial surveillance sector routinely tricks people who have no idea how their data is being used. Most people don't understand, for example, that the platforms use all kinds of inducements to get web publishers to embed tracking pixels, fonts, analytics beacons, etc that send user-data back to the Big Tech databases, where it's merged with data from your direct interactions with the company. Likewise, most people don't understand the shadowy data-broker industry, which sells Big Tech gigantic amounts of data harvested by your credit card company, by Bluetooth and wifi monitoring devices on streets and in stores, and by your car. Data-brokers buy this data from anyone who claims to have it, including people who are probably lying, like Nissan, who claims that it has records of the smells inside drivers' cars, as well as those drivers' sex-lives:

https://nypost.com/2023/09/06/nissan-kia-collect-data-about-drivers-sexual-activity/

Or Cox Communications, which claims that it is secretly recording and transcribing the conversations we have in range of the mics on our speakers, phones, and other IoT devices:

https://www.404media.co/heres-the-pitch-deck-for-active-listening-ad-targeting/

(If there's a kernel of truth to Cox's bullshit, my guess it's that they've convinced some of the sleazier "smart TV" companies to secretly turn on their mics, then inflated this into a marketdroid's wet-dream of "we have logged every word uttered by Americans and can use it to target ads.)

Notwithstanding the rampant fraud inside the data brokerage industry, there's no question that some of the data they offer for sale is real, that it's intimate and sensitive, and that the people it's harvested from never consented to its collection. How do you opt out of public facial recognition cameras? "Just don't have a face" isn't a realistic opt-out policy.

And if the public is being deceived about the collection of this data, they're even more in the dark about the way it's used – merged with on-platform usage data and data from apps and the web, then analyzed for the purposes of drawing "inferences" about you and your traits.

What's more, the companies have chaotic, bullshit internal processes for handling your data, which also rise to the level of "deceptive and unfair" conduct. For example, if you send these companies a deletion request for your data, they'll tell you they deleted the data, but actually, they keep it, after "de-identifying" it.

De-identification is a highly theoretical way of sanitizing data by removing the "personally identifiers" from it. In practice, most de-identified data can be quickly re-identified, and nearly all de-identified data can eventually be re-identified:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/08/the-fire-of-orodruin/#are-we-the-baddies

Breaches, re-identification, and weaponization are extraordinarily hard to prevent. In general, we should operate on the assumption that any data that's collected will probably leak, and any data that's retained will almost certainly leak someday. To have even a hope of preventing this, companies have to treat data with enormous care, maintaining detailed logs and conducting regular audits. But the Commission found that the biggest tech companies are extraordinarily sloppy, to the point where "they often could not even identify all the data points they collected or all of the third parties they shared that data with."

This has serious implications for consumer privacy, obviously, but there's also a big national security dimension. Given the recent panic at the prospect that the Chinese government is using Tiktok to spy on Americans, it's pretty amazing that American commercial surveillance has escaped serious Congressional scrutiny.

After all, it would be a simple matter to use the tech platforms targeting systems to identify and push ads (including ads linking to malicious sites) to Congressional staffers ("under-40s with Political Science college degrees within one mile of Congress") or, say, NORAD personnel ("Air Force enlistees within one mile of Cheyenne Mountain").

Those targeting parameters should be enough to worry Congress, but there's a whole universe of potential characteristics that can be selected, hence the Commission's conclusion that "profound threats to users can occur when targeting occurs based on sensitive categories."

The FTC's findings about the dangers of all this data are timely, given the current wrangle over another antitrust case. In August, a federal court found that Google is a monopolist in search, and that the company used its data lakes to secure and maintain its monopoly.

This kicked off widespread demands for the court to order Google to share its data with competitors in order to erase that competitive advantage. Holy moly is this a bad idea – as the FTC study shows, the data that Google stole from us all is incredibly toxic. Arguing that we can fix the Google problem by sharing that data far and wide is like proposing that we can "solve" the fact that only some countries have nuclear warheads by "democratizing" access to planet-busting bombs:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/07/revealed-preferences/#extinguish-v-improve

To address the competitive advantage Google achieved by engaging in the reckless, harmful conduct detailed in this FTC report, we should delete all that data. Sure, that may seem inconceivable, but come on, surely the right amount of toxic, nonconsensually harvested data on the public that should be retained by corporations is zero:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/19/just-stop-putting-that-up-your-ass/#harm-reduction

Some people argue that we don't need to share out the data that Google never should have been allowed to collect – it's enough to share out the "inferences" that Google drew from that data, and from other data its other tentacles (Youtube, Android, etc) shoved into its gaping maw, as well as the oceans of data-broker slurry it stirred into the mix.

But as the report finds, the most unethical, least consensual data was "personal information that these systems infer, that was purchased from third parties, or that was derived from users’ and non-users’ activities off of the platform." We gotta delete that, too. Especially that.

A major focus of the report is the way that the platforms handled children's data. Platforms have special obligations when it comes to kids' data, because while Congress has failed to act on consumer privacy, they did bestir themselves to enact a children's privacy law. In 2000, Congress passed the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which puts strict limits on the collection, retention and processing of data on kids under 13.

Now, there are two ways to think about COPPA. One view is, "if you're not certain that everyone in your data-set is over 13, you shouldn't be collecting or processing their data at all." Another is, "In order to ensure that everyone whose data you're collecting and processing is over 13, you should collect a gigantic amount of data on all of them, including the under-13s, in order to be sure that not collecting under-13s' data." That second approach would be ironically self-defeating, obviously, though it's one that's gaining traction around the world and in state legislatures, as "age verification" laws find legislative support.

The platforms, meanwhile, found a third, even stupider approach: rather than collecting nothing because they can't verify ages, or collecting everything to verify ages, they collect everything, but make you click a box that says, "I'm over 13":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/09/how-to-make-a-child-safe-tiktok/

It will not surprise you to learn that many children under 13 have figured out that they can click the "I'm over 13" box and go on their merry way. It won't surprise you, but apparently, it will surprise the hell out of the platforms, who claimed that they had zero underage users on the basis that everyone has to click the "I'm over 13" box to get an account on the service.

By failing to pass comprehensive privacy legislation for 36 years (and counting), Congress delegated privacy protection to self-regulation by the companies themselves. They've been marking their own homework, and now, thanks to the FTC's power to compel disclosures, we can say for certain that the platforms cheat.

No surprise that the FTC's top recommendation is for Congress to pass a new privacy law. But they've got other, eminently sensible recommendations, like requiring the companies to do a better job of protecting their users' data: collect less, store less, delete it after use, stop combining data from their various lines of business, and stop sharing data with third parties.

Remember, the FTC has broad powers to order "conduct remedies" like this, and these are largely unaffected by the Supreme Court's "Chevron deference" decision in Loper-Bright.

The FTC says that privacy policies should be "clear, simple, and easily understood," and says that ad-targeting should be severely restricted. They want clearer consent for data inferences (including AI), and that companies should monitor their own processes with regular, stringent audits.

They also have recommendations for competition regulators – remember, the Biden administration has a "whole of government" antitrust approach that asks every agency to use its power to break up corporate concentration:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

They say that competition enforcers factor in the privacy implications of proposed mergers, and think about how promoting privacy could also promote competition (in other words, if Google's stolen data helped it secure a monopoly, then making them delete that data will weaken their market power).

I understand the reflex to greet a report like this with cheap cynicism, but that's a mistake. There's a difference between "everybody knows" that tech is screwing us on privacy, and "a federal agency has concluded" that this is true. These market studies make a difference – if you doubt it, consider for a moment that Cigna is suing the FTC for releasing a landmark market study showing how its Express Scripts division has used its monopoly power to jack up the price of prescription drugs:

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/express-scripts-files-suit-against-ftc-demands-retraction-report-pbm-industry

Big business is shit-scared of this kind of research by federal agencies – if they think this threatens their power, why shouldn't we take them at their word?

This report is a milestone, and – as with the UK Competition and Markets Authority reports – it's a banger. Even after Loper-Bright, this report can form the factual foundation for muscular conduct remedies that will limit what the largest tech companies can do.

But without privacy law, the data brokerages that feed the tech giants will be largely unaffected. True, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is doing some good work at the margins here:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

But we need to do more than curb the worst excesses of the largest data-brokers. We need to kill this sector, and to do that, Congress has to act:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

The paperback edition of The Lost Cause, my nationally bestselling, hopeful solarpunk novel is out this month!

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/20/water-also-wet/#marking-their-own-homework

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

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

[fight-nights-at-freddys]

@maknaasfalti

first of all, being this condescending and mean isn't gonna change anyone's minds. you're being an ass.

just because the content gets taken down, doesn't mean it violates copyright law. you know that as well as i do. that's why so many sites take down things that are falsely DMCA'd, and they get put back up later. they act first, ask questions later. that's how most sites operate.

that's not how boundaries work. you set boundaries FOR YOURSELF. once you start telling other people what to do and how to do it, you start making RULES.

this has nothing to do with being proship, really, but it has everything to do with keath falsely copyright striking people due to their personal distaste or disgust for what other people do.

also saying "kill yourself" over pinecest (re: fiction) isn't cute! nor is your blatant xenophobia of rural americans!

NOW let me outline why it would be a false copyright strike!

(i'll also @silly-lil-bimbo for this section)

once again, we go back to THE ACTUAL LAW (17 U.S. Code § 107) which clearly states it that the factors considered when referring to copyright and fair use are as follows:

the purpose and character of the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes,

the nature of the copyrighted work,

the amount of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, and

the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

also note the fact the work is unpublished does not bar itself from a finding of fair use.

the fact is, it's entirely on a case-by-case basis, as a lot of this is subjective and completely depends on the judge presiding over the case. HOWEVER, fanfiction is very likely to count as "transformative", due to the nature OF fanfiction. there's a reason AO3 is still up and the entire site hasn't been removed for copyright infringement.

in the case of yaelokre, specifically the nsfw works, they're only taking the characters and some elements of the story, but they're not appropriating the entirety of the work, making profit off of it, detracting from the potential market value of the original work, or claiming it as their own, which is NECESSARY to prove it is an infringement of copyright.

regardless of all that, the fact remains it is shitty to try and strike down what fanfiction writers/fanartists do just because YOU PERSONALLY do not like what fans do with your characters. keath made their characters public, now they have to deal with the consequences of that, or remove their characters from public eye. very simple.

at this point, i hope people DON'T make fanfic/fanart for yaelokre lest they get a cease and desist, because who knows what keath/the people working with them will determine as "inappropriate, offensive, or misinfo".

[ceterisparibus116]

Initial thoughts.

I am continuing to absolutely adore Cherry.

Matt @ the cop: "I'll see ya in court!" Gosh, I love him.

Matt's leading objection was lame.

NOT MATT SNARKING AT THE COP BEING BAD AT FIGHTING DURING HIS CROSS-EXAMINATION THAT WAS HILARIOUS.

I am so excited to see Matt encounter this cop again. And, I hope, again and again and again.

I'm glad to hear they at least tried to prep Nicky Torres because you have to be prepared for a witness like that to recant. I wish they'd prepared a better plan B for when Torres recanted because you have to see that coming.

"Both of you. In my chambers. Now." The way my stomach clenched aaaaaaaaaaaa.

Cracking up at both the prosecutor and the judge being annoyed at Matt for his moral superiority. And Matt was so smug. Gosh, I love him.

Matt and the prosecutor arguing to each other instead of to the judge. Lol.

I was wondering why the judge wouldn't just declare a mistrial but yeah. Cat's out of the bag. Then I wondered if Matt wanted a mistrial. But explaining Hector's character works too.

"I didn't mean to disrespect the Court, Your Honor." I wanna dissect that line to death.

TRAFFIC COURT.

"It's the right thing to do."

Matt and Hector talking about vigilantism and Matt's talking about himself but it's like his reflection is talking right back at him.

I think they interspersed the closing argument with witness examination. Presumably all those police reports were entered into evidence when the defense subpoenaed those particular police officers? I wonder how they got around the hearsay objection. Maybe the officers lied and had to be impeached with their own reports. That would've been fascinating. Maybe I'll write that.

I audibly cracked up when the jury forepereson was the oldest white male. Yep. That's always the case.

Foggy.

Matt and Heather. That was such a sweet moment. And I love that her words were the basis of the episode title.

I wonder if the DA would've brought charges against Hector for other actions taken as the White Tiger, had Fisk not intervened?

Speaking of Fisk. I'm honestly so proud of Vanessa. Yeah Queen, maintain your criminal empire! We love to see it.

Oh. And that is not Frank.

Anyway.

I dunno, everyone, but it really felt like this episode was written by people who love Matt Murdock as a character.

[moonsglare]

hello! could i ask for vampire fem reader with arlecchino pretty please with cherry on top... and the reader is like calm. very very calm in every situation and doesn't talk a lot.

anndd i am especially curious about if reader would drink arle's blood as i am confused if she's human or not... something like this doesn't even matter if it's sfw or nsfw i just really want to read how the dynamic would play off.

this is quite a specific ask, so i hope i'll be able to answer in the way you're looking for, but if i miss the mark i sincerely apologise. in any case, if we're going with a completely barebones arlecchino x vampire!reader (as in still in genshin, no AU), i think arle would like you a lot. that may sound like a given, but your calm demeanor as well as the fact that you're technically 'cursed' too would give you both quite a strong basis for connection, i feel.

arle wouldn't judge you for your curse, that'd be hypocritical. and she doesn't fear you, either. of course, she will draw a line when it comes to the children. if your abilities ever are a source of potential harm for the children, she will not hesitate to do what needs to be done. other than that, i think she has a neutral opinion on your vampirism. arlecchino's a character all about challenging fate, after all. this world may have cursed you in this way, but will you let that write your fate? or will you change it with your own hands? she eagerly awaits the answer you give her.

as for feeding from her... i think she'd be fine with it. the two of you probably have a schedule of sorts so that feeding times don't clash with when she needs to actively work. she doesn't really have an issue with you wanting to drink her blood specifically; the only concern she really has is if her blood is at all nutritious or even tastes good to you on account of her curse.

a few bonus fast and loose hcs:

arlecchino probably runs hot due to her curse, and since you run cold on account of being, well, a vampire, cuddling is very fun and very comfortable for you both.

she'd never admit it but part of her very much enjoys the feeding part of your relationship. it's a small comfort to her to know that her blood, cursed as it is, can be a form of sustainment.

arlecchino isn't above having you use any of your vampiric abilities to further her goals and that of the house's. she even finds the way you handle... situations attractive. what can she say, she likes an independent woman.

if the sun gets too much for you, arlecchino arranges for most of her traveling to be done at night instead. her means of transport, be it carriage or boat, always have tinted windows.

when it comes to being in the presence of other harbingers, arlecchino is very protective of you, especially when it comes to dottore. he's no doubt approached arle before, asking if he can 'study' you, and arle told him to fuck right off.

[seeyouonsaturn]

Commissions Post

My cat needs her pills, plus I really want more Prowl content. Unexpected expenses keep showing up to punch me in the face. Do you have coin for me?

🪻 I'm posting these on this blog, but unfortunately I am Not Good at drawing mech, unless I have an exact reference. So basically, I can redraw a character in the exact pose of the ref you send me, but that's about it. Headshots are probably fine though!

🪻 I DO love drawing cats! Cats are my specialty, and animals (mostly cat-like ones) in general are up there too, both feral and anthro. I would love to draw your fursonas or pets, or whatever else you have!

🪻 Also I LOVE selfships and oc x canon! Give them to me!

Prices

I'm keeping my prices rather loose because I don't have the slightest idea how to price things. They're mostly PWYW with a minimum.

🪻 Headshot

12€+

🪻 Halfbody

19€+

🪻 Fullbody

29€+

🪻 Reference Sheet

33€ - 60€+ depending on what you want on it!

🪻 Fursuit Badge

15€ - 30€ depending on what you want on it!

🪻 Additional Characters

+75% of the original price as a general rule

May change on a case-by-case basis depending on size, complexity and visibility

*feral cats are -5€ because I love drawing them!

*I may charge more for particularly complex characters

Examples!

Had to make them into collages because of tumblr mobile's image limit

🪻 Payment will be via Paypal

🪻 DMs can be via tumblr or discord – you'll only have to dm me here to ask for my discord handle, as I'd rather not make it public.

🪻 Turnaround time is a week maximum, but more than likely will be no more than a day or two in most cases. I'll do my best to communicate if something delays me.

🪻 You can dm me with what you'd like (provide as many details and references as possible, please spam me with details and references). Then I'll tell you what the price would be. If you agree to it, I will start sketching! Once you approve of the sketch, you'll pay me, and I will then continue your drawing.

🪻 My art is exclusively traditional – done on paper with colored pencils. I can not provide digital art. Once you approve of the final product, it will be scanned and can be sent to you via tumblr, discord, or e-mail. I'm also happy to mail the physical drawing, if the buyer pays for shipping!

-> regarding fursuit badges, I can also laminate! However I do not have access to products such as shiny foil etc, so if you'd like your badge laminated a certain way, you'll have to do it yourself. I'll normal-laminate for free though, I have a lot of those foil pouches. So, so many. I'm drowning in those things.

-> I can write your socials on the back for free, however if you'd like more than that, there'll be an extra fee. Just talk to me about it!

🪻 I'm going to do my best to send as many WIPs as I can to ensure you get what you want! I'm also happy to do as many revisions as necessary – I want you to be happy with the outcome! However, please keep in mind that, since this is traditional art, after I begin lining and coloring, there's only so much in terms of changes I can do.

🪻 No refunds unless you have a valid reason for needing to cancel. Amount of money refunded will depend on how much work has been completed.

🪻 Once you pay and get your art, it's yours to do with as you please. I only ask that you credit me if you post it and don't claim it as your own.

🪻 Will Draw

I'm best at cats/animals/furries, but I can do humans decently enough and I'm willing to attempt other things as long as you're okay with the results not being 100%! [Remember you can always change your mind if you dislike the initial sketch, no hard feelings!]

Any character! Your pets! Fursuit badges! Your favorite ship, any ship! Selfships very much included!

I'll draw pretty much whatever you want as long as you pay me! I don't care. I don't judge. Money's money. You want your favorite character buying wonderbread? Say no more fam. I gotchu.

However I am very inexperienced at straight-up nsf.w. I'm happy to do it, but I can't guarantee great results.

🪻 Won't Draw

Complex mech. I'm so sorry. Yes I'm a Transformers fan. I suffer too. Maybe some day.

Detailed backgrounds

saliva/sweat/e.meto content as a whole. Sorry, but i have severe e.metophobia so that's an absolute no.

Excessive gore – I actually do not mind it at all, I'm just very bad at it

Real people (yourself in for example a selfship context is of course fine! I just won't draw anyone that hasn't consented to being drawn)

Hateful ideologies, offensive content. I decide what this means

H/rry Potter. I am very transgender.

TfA!Prowl ship content. As you can see by looking at my blog, we're married and I'm nonsharing.

Unsure if I'll be able to do what you want? You can always ask! I'm judgement-free and the absolute worst thing I'll say is no.

🪻 I reserve the right to reject commissions at any point and for any reason

[light-wolf]

Some scattered Switch 2 thoughts:

It's releasing much sooner than I expected, at about the price that I expected, but ughhhhhh that game price increase fucking sucks. That genuinely killed a lot of my hype.

The thing is mostly just a bigger, more powerful Switch, which is what I wanted, so that's cool! Mouse functionality is interesting even though I doubt I'd use it a lot. Nothing too surprising tbh.

I'm most likely never touching that chat button unless it's by accident. Like, ever. Just not my thing.

Charging money for that tech demo/tutorial thing is the most Nintendo thing ever and it's both hilarious and incredibly sad. This manages to be even more egregious than 1-2-Switch.

Free upgrades to Switch 1 games is cool! Some games will really appreciate it (looking at you, Pokémon Scarlet & Violet). I hope the list isn't limited to what they already showed and they have more upgrades coming in the future.

Paid upgrades is obviously less cool but at least these seem to include extra content so I'm looking at them as if they were DLC. I'll be judging these on a case-by-case basis, with the price obviously being a big factor. At least BotW and TotK are free for NSO members, so that might be a good excuse to revisit them. And hey, in any case, this beats rereleasing the same game at full price like we saw with all those Wii U ports. I'll take it.

GameCube games! Yipee! Genuinely so hyped for this, I have sooooo much nostalgia for these games and this will make them much more accessible. Sad that this probably means Wind Waker HD will remain in Wii U hell for the time being though.

Mario Kart World looks genuinely really fucking cool. Interestingly this is the first time a Mario Kart game is a launch title. Nintendo probably saw the sales of 8 Deluxe and said "yeah, we need this Day 1" and I honestly can't blame them. xd

NEW 3D DONKEY KONG HOLY SHIT. I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING. AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, MY BOY IS BACK!!! Seriously I'm so hyped for this! I'm still a bit weirded out by DK's new design, but it's growing on me. He's so expressive! I can't wait to see more of this.

New Hyrule Warriors! Yay! I... still haven't played Age of Calamity, lol. But still, this is cool! Even though I would've preferred another Nintendo series to get the Warriors treatment rather than Zelda for the third time, I'm not complaining.

Kirby Air Riders! Never played the original Air Ride so I have no attachment to it, but I know it's a beloved title, and I'm happy to see Sakurai back for this. I guess this means no new Smash for a while, but it's fine, I can keep playing Ultimate for years.

Lots of third party support in general, which is nice to see. I recently got a PS5 so this isn't as relevant to me as it would've been a while ago (I can just play those games there), but seeing stuff like FFVII Remake is still really cool.

Nintendo-exclusive Bloodborne spiritual successor wasn't on my bingo card. These games aren't really my thing and this one seems to be focused on multiplayer so I'm even less interested, but still really funny to see. There was a cool rat person in the trailer though, I liked that.

Really surprised by no new 3D Mario. I thought we'd be seeing that for sure, with how long it's been since Odyssey. I guess DK Bananza is kinda taking that spot, so I'm not complaining! Give my boy the spotlight he deserves! Mario will come eventually.

Overall the console looks nice even if there's nothing incredibly surprising. While I'm really hyped about Mario Kart and DK, those aren't games I need to play on Day 1, so I'll probably wait. Especially considering that I just got a PS5. I also still have no idea how the pricing situation will be here in Chile. So... yeah, we'll have to wait and see. Lots of things to consider still.

Anyway. Decent first impressions with some ugly parts and some nice surprises. As a lifelong Nintendo fanboy I know I'll get a Switch 2 eventually, but I'm in no hurry. Probably. Still, a new console launch is an exciting time, and I'm glad we're finally getting concrete info on the damn thing after years of rumors, leaks and speculation, lol.

What did you all think?

[austinslounge]

Hey! I'm relatively new to the Austin fandom, and first of all, I just wanted to say you really opened my eyes about the Kaia situation, so thanks! Second of all, I wanted to know your opinion on something: judging by his sister's follows on instagram, and his grandmother (I think it's his grandmother)'s posts on Facebook, Austin seems to have been raised in a conservative family. I know it's none of my business and that "stalking" his family like this can come off as disrespectful, but the thing is: as a leftist, I try to be very mindful of the people I dedicate my time and attention to. Austin never discussed his political views publicly, right? Do you think this is maybe because he is afraid of a certain backlash he might receive if he "came out" as a conservative/republican? I really avoid putting famous people on pedestals and idealizing them too much, and I know some people think it's stupid to care about artists' political views, but I'd still be kinda disappointed if I found out his values are so different from mine. Anyways, thanks for reading, and have a nice day!

Hey girlie! 👋

Welcome to my blog! 🥰❤️ Also, welcome to the Austin Butler fandom. 💕 It's good to see some new fans on here.

I'll be honest, I don't usually like getting into political topics or views here on my blog. But since your ask seemed genuine, I'll try to give you my honest opinion.

Take a seat 💺

Honestly? I think you should just take Austin for face value and not worry about what political party he might (or might not) belong to. As far as I'm aware, he's never really mentioned any real political views, and hasn't even identified himself with any specific political party. (Someone can correct me if I'm wrong)

I think one of the reasons why our country is so divided right now is because people have stopped seeing people as individuals, and they just see people as from one party vs from another party. 🥴 Personally? I don't think that's really fair.

I prefer to base my opinions about someone on a case by case individual basis. I have met some wonderful people from all various walks of life and different political views. I think it's also good to keep in mind that even people inside of a political party may not always agree with everything the party believes or represents.

Going back to Austin --

I choose to look at who Austin the man is, and everything that I've seen of him so far over all these years have been nothing but positive. I see how he treats both men and women. I watch how he treats people from various diverse backgrounds. I saw how he boldly spoke out about racism and "White Privilege" during the murder of African-American George Floyd back in 2020. I have also paid close attention to how he talks to others, how respectful he is of everyone, and how he doesn't treat anyone differently (not even his fans) no matter their position in life.

I have seen how he gave a homeless man food in the streets, how gentlemanly he is with women (i.e. opening up car doors, helping older women up on stage, etc.), and how kindly he speaks of everyone (don't think I've heard him speak badly about anyone tbh). I've also seen how gracious and loving he is to his fans. Friends of mine who have met him in person have echoed the same thoughts that he really is a sweetheart to everyone and how wonderful it was to meet him. I've also heard how everyone in Hollywood who meets and works with him describes him as being very "kind".

I've even looked at his old tweets and Tumblr posts! You can even find his old tweets and Tumblr posts online from when he was a teenager to a young adult, and all of them are so wholesome and adorable. 🥰 While some celebrities are out here getting canceled for their old scandalous Tweets from years ago, with Austin, even as a young guy, you never found him saying anything misogynistic, racist, fat-phobic, mean, or just plain rude online. He's usually always been very positive.

All of these things combined go on to paint the picture of a man who really truly is just genuine, kind, down to earth, and good-hearted. 💕 🥹

I know some people might not feel the same way that I do, and I know that Austin isn't perfect, but based on what I've seen of Austin, he really does seem like just a good guy.

I don't really follow closely what celebrity family members post or who they follow, but I think it's very important to realize that just because your family member has a particular view, it doesn't necessarily mean that you have that same exact view also.

Just something to think about! 😊

[cenorii]

Theory about Chris and Wesker (RE9) [UPDATED]

Hey Tumblr, today I brought you two crazy theories. I promise you that my theories will be very interesting and will make you think about something.

Alive Wesker, BOW Chris. Actual until re9 release!

This is an updated theory, I have supplemented and edited it!

I kept them inside my head for a long time, but coming of RE9 pushes me to release these theories outside. I really love Chriskers, so these two theories are directly related to them. This is not AU, but my assumptions about the canon. I would like to warn you that English is not my native language, so there may be errors in the text, excuse me for that.

Theory about Chris

What could be his immediate future?

We already know that in Shadows of Rose (DLC for RE8) the year is 2037 and at this point Chris is still alive. So it's safe to say that after the events of RE9, which will take place in 2021, he will still be alive. He will not die, contrary to fan theories.

At the very end of RE8, Chris discovers a BSAA soldier who turns out to be a bioweapon (I'll write BOW in the future). Enraged by this brazenness, Chris goes to their headquarters to sort it all out. This will probably be the main idea behind RE9.

Below is a concept of this BOW:

I can assume that this is not an single specimen, and that all the other BSAA soldiers involved in the "village operation" look identical. That is, they are clones.

Cloning BOW is a common thing in their world, clones of Sergei Vladimir were used to develop a strain of the T-virus back in 1992, and created even earlier, so it's no surprise that someone in 2021 used the cloning method.

These BOW soldiers have a consciousness and "upbringing" close to human, because they use weapons and transportation. And judging by their calm facial expressions, they don't show aggression. They can act coherently as a team, which suggests that these BOW are not a brainless herd of armed Majini (RE5), or J'avo (RE6). Their brains must be very advanced and almost unaffected by mutations.

But now let's remember that there was already a project that aimed to create the perfect soldier with an evolved brain. That was Project Tyrant.

I brought up the topic that these BOW soldiers are clones. But whose? Some person with genes suitable for the virus should be taken as a basis. But who could be the donor in this case and have we had any information about this? I have an answer to that question.

This is Chris Redfield. At first, the similarities are barely obvious, but take a closer look at the facial features. The shape of the nose, lips, wrinkles around the eyes, a mole under the eye.

And now look at the gait. This pose is identical to the typical walking of any Tyrant.

BSAA, without his knowledge, used his DNA to create these BOW soldiers.

We can say that this BOW weapon is the most advanced version of the Tyrant, because it is indistinguishable from a human, has high intelligence and is well controlled. And it is also easily disposed of, because after the death of BOW, the soldier did not mutate into a Super Tyrant.

It may not be a Tyrant, but some new project. But the data on the Tyrant clearly formed its basis.

There are legitimate questions - why Chris? Who needs it?

Answer to question 1: Chris is a soldier with a lot of experience and the ability to survive in the most dangerous situations. He is psychologically prepared for anything. If by happy coincidence such a person is genetically suited to be the new version of BOW, then this can be exploited, for it saves "real" human lives in military operations. But that doesn't excuse the BSAA, for they took his DNA without authorization.

Answer to question 2: to guess who needs it, you just need to know Chris's environment. For whom is Chris "one of the best men"? For whom is Chris the only equal opponent? Who does Chris mean so much to that this person would want to subdue him?

I think you've already guessed.

Albert Wesker.

But you ask the logical question, "how could Wesker pull this off if he died in 2009?"

The answer is, he didn't. The theory of how he survived will be below, but for now I'll tell you his motives.

After the defeat, which came hard due to his injuries and overdose of the virus, Wesker decided to poison Chris's life. His own life was wiped out in that volcano, the results of all his research and experiments gone to waste. All of Wesker's plans are ruined by this man, as many times before, he is humiliated and revenge boils in him.

Somehow he has infiltrated the heart of BSAA, of those Chris trusted. Into Chris's "home." And he poisoned that home with a biological weapon. There may well have been some other reason for this, perhaps he had a new plan and "poisoning Chris's life" was just a nice addition to that plan, but not the main goal.

Here is a variant of the main goal:

New Mold was created by The Connections, an organization that partnered with H.C.F. back in 2000. H.C.F. is a unit that Wesker once led. It's unknown if he was involved in the creation of the Mold, but it's safe to assume he was aware of it. This could be the reason BOW were sent BSAA soldiers into the village in RE8 to destroy everything The Connections had a hand in. Perhaps Wesker just wanted to get rid of anything "useless" that might get in his way in the future. A distant future. Because it's been 12 years since his "death" and he's 61 years old himself.

But why is Mold "useless" to him, you ask? Weskers in "Project W" were raised according to Spencer's ideals, so in many ways they think like him, because the upbringing was sufficiently obsessive. And here's what Spencer himself thought of Mold:

Mold is useless to Spencer, so is useless to any of the Weskers who share his thinking.

There's no denying the possibility that Wesker may have been thinking about turning Chris into something for a long time, since he was highly successful as a soldier. He likes to "rate" Chris during their encounters. What if he was evaluating Chris to weigh the pros and cons if he suddenly decided to create something based on him? A BOW based on him? It's also possible that Wesker always spared Chris because he thought he would use him in the future. Other reasons are just excuses.

I can only decipher these Wesker facial expressions as "hmm, not bad"

I assume that in RE9 Chris will meet Wesker. But not the way he remembers him.

I forgot to mention that behind the scenes, Wesker was working on experimental weapons. He had studied various tactics to fight against the BOW and felt that weapons of mass destruction were not always effective, so he favored compact pieces that could be used by experienced fighters. It's unclear why Wesker even considered such a thing if he didn't intend to sell these developments. It's also unclear why he was working on it if his ultimate goal was a "perfect world" with no place for guns and wars. Did he come up with it… just because he could? In any case, after his death, these designs were confiscated by the reconstituted Umbrella Co. (Blue Umbrella) and after being reconstituted, distributed these weapons to various places like the BSAA.

Given the Chris cloning moment, doesn't it seem suspicious that the suddenly revived Umbrella is in the process of recreating Wesker's designs? I get that this weapon is very useful, but then why did they name it after Wesker if he's a "disgrace" to society and a criminal? He, in theory, deserves no mention, even on his designs. But someone in management has respect for him, so allowed the name to remain.

It's also odd that BSAA have taken up cloning, it's more likely the new Umbrella is the originator of this idea, or their executive (leader) who respects Wesker and his designs. Perhaps cloning Chris is one of his designs too?

I mean… literally - it's a clone of Chris with a Wesker gun. This is a very strange coincidence.

Theory about Wesker 1. Why isn't he dead?

Let's start simple, RE5 had enough budget to show the ignition effects, we could see them on the enemies set on fire. And RE5 also had enough budget to show colorfully directed cutscenes.

However, with the franchise's most famous character, we saw neither of these at the moment of his death. Wesker was waist-deep in lava, but not burning, and was also defeated without any cutscenes. A strange attitude with such popularity?

His death was not shown, a basic but not the main fact that makes me sure he survived.

All we can see are the missiles that fly past his head, failing to hit their target, they fall into the lava behind him. If you slow down the video, it's noticeable that for some reason the model of Wesker's head just disappears and the missiles fly right through. This is not done to show that he lost his head, because otherwise the missiles would have exploded in the area around his face. However, the missiles flew behind him. It's a trivial budget saving to not draw the moment of impact. But the question is, why save money in such an important scene for lore?

Character deaths aren't shown only when they want them back. If a character dies permanently, their death is always detailed and elaborate.

Capcom could have done this to avoid expending the effort and expense for a colorful scene that ends up being just a trickery for us, so that there would be a realistic opportunity to re-engage Wesker as an main character in the future.

 And now pay attention to how Alex Wesker's death was shown:

Her death is final, that's why it's so detailed. Her current consciousness is now in another new body (Natalia), so it's not a pity to get rid of the old one.

Now let's talk about burning. The reason Wesker doesn't have a fire effect in Volcano could mean that his clothes are fireproof. Which, by the way, could be true, because on his concept art it says the material should be able to withstand shrapnel and other little shards. Its appearance and properties are reminiscent of modern carbon fiber, which can withstand about 300-370°C in air, while the temperature of lava in a volcano is from 1000°C to 1200°C. This means that his clothes could not ignite, because carbon fiber only oxidizes from high heat. This material could also be Kevlar, which has a temperature limit of 480°C, at which point it begins to decompose.

However, not only his clothes could have partially saved him from the high temperature, Wesker himself is resistant to it, which cannot be said about the Uroboros, for whom fire is a weak point. Therefore, it is logical to assume that the virus vaporized from his body from the high ambient temperature.

But let's get to the point, the fact that Wesker was flooded with lava after the explosion of missiles does not mean that he died, because it is worth paying attention to the fact that he was already set on fire. It certainly doesn't compare to lava, but it does give us some indication that he has fire resistance.

Judging by this point, Wesker can be set on fire, but those burns don't harm him. He also doesn't care about the fire and explosions around him.

He also just needs to shake the fire off himself, which doesn't do any damage.

There is a hint that he survived. I think few people have heard about Umbrella Corps. This failed shooter, seemingly having nothing important for the Resident Evil universe, gave us quite important information. Now I will tell you about it in detail. But keep in mind that this game is canon. The protagonist here is a certain 3A-7.

 The actions of this game take place first in 2012-2013 (single-player mode), and then in 2016 (multiplayer mode). That is, AFTER the events of RE6.

 In 2012-2013, according to the plot, information appears about a certain "man from the high ranks in the organization", who arrived to observe the experiment. In the course of the plot, notes about this person are supplemented with information that "this mysterious boss" was present during the events of RE4 and survived them. And as we know, only two men survived RE4 – Leon and Wesker.

After that, one of the acting characters becomes very interested in "this mysterious man", because "this mysterious man" seems trying to make a show of his own strength. This person finds it suspicious and wants to find DNA data about this "mysterious boss". He even wonders, "Who is this guy? Why is everyone afraid of him?".

I think after that it becomes obvious about "what a terrifying and mysterious person" we are talking about. About Wesker.

While playing in multiplayer mode, there is a chance to catch Wesker's phrase at the end of the match. They are different and there are quite a lot of them.

Here is an example:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe7LEaA7em8

 At the end of the game, it says that there are "plans" for the main character of this game. By the way, the main character is voiced by D. C. Douglas, same with Wesker. Wesker watched the experiment on his clone? Sounds interesting, unless, of course, he is a clone himself.

So now it's time for my theories on how Umbrella Corps can be explained:

3A-7 is a clone of Wesker, who trivially doesn't know about it and is an ordinary person with a meager set of memories. But he has retained the skills of the original, making him a high survivor. And the powerful man who kept 3A-7's DNA secret is the original Wesker. He placed his clone in this experiment to quickly test it in real danger, and after success he took it back to realize plans unknown to us. In favor of this theory is the fact that in multiplayer, Douglas' tone is a copy of Wesker's, even though he voiced 3A-7 differently. Capcom wouldn't have hired Douglas to voice two characters at once if their voices weren't potentially important to the lore. The fact that no one recognized Wesker could suggest that his appearance was badly damaged after the volcano, or he changed a lot with the onset of old age, but 3A-7 is probably a copy of his youthful appearance, so he's hiding it.

3A-7 is a clone of Wesker, but after 3A-7 was taken away at the end of his story, he rose through the ranks of the organization and it is his lines that we hear in the multiplayer, because they are said several years after the events of the game. So these are not the phrases of the original Wesker, but of the changed 3A-7 from the future. The original Wesker is presumably dead, but in that case I can't speculate who the influential person who was interested in 3A-7 might be, if not him. Nikolai Zinoviev, who survived RE3? The real Hunk? It could be anyone with cold-blooded cruelty and strange goals. Also, the question remains, who created 3A-7? If it was Wesker himself, he would have used it for his plans long ago, and if it was an abandoned project, it would have been scrapped. It was done by someone outside who needs Wesker's skills badly, just like Chris' skills, which is the reason the RE8 BSAA created a BOW based on him. Ah, I wish someone would get Chris and Wesker clones to work as a team…

So, let's keep going.

One more important thing - if Wesker had died, he would have been seriously mutated. Think of all the characters who have ever had a virus injected into their body. Upon death or when seriously injured, those characters mutated uncontrollably. The same thing happened to Alex Wesker and to Carla Radames. If Wesker died in a volcano, some creature would crawled out of there. Remember when Nemesis was dissolved in acid and then turned into a huge mess. Lava might be as good a vehicle for mutations as acid is for Nemesis. If Wesker didn't mutate, that's another confirmation that he's not dead.

There is a theory that Wesker didn't become a huge monster due to his body adapting to any virus. But I can argue… I believe that after the injection his condition was unstable + a huge amount of Uroboros in his body. All of this should have set the stage for mutation, but the mutation never happened.

Theory about Wesker 2

Now it's time for real madness. In RE5 in vulcano, we killed a Wesker clone. In general, throughout the game in RE5, we fought with his clone. We could meet the real Wesker only in the DLC "Lost in Nightmares". And now I will explain why.

 The events of "Lost in Nightmares" take place in 2006, 2 years before the events of RE5. In this DLC, we have the opportunity to fight Wesker, who poses a great threat. One of his blows is able to throw the player into the wall and stun, and he also has several different ways to kill the player. He's constantly trying to kill us. Instead of walking, he moves exclusively with the help of "blink". This is the most ordinary Wesker, as dangerous and unpredictable as ever.

Then we meet Wesker in 2009 during the RE5 events. This famous scene, which gave us the quote "seven minutes", must be the most harmless confrontation with him. A child's fight. Here Wesker, to put it mildly, lost his strength. He prefers to follow us instead of "blink". He trying to "show off" in front of Chris and Sheva. It is very easy to deceive him, and his blows do not cause much damage. Instead of throwing the player into the wall and stunning him, Wesker's blow pushes him away only a few meters. At the same time, here he does not have an attack that can kill the player. Is he playing with us? Alright.

Finally we meet Wesker in our last fight with him (before the volcano). He shouldn't be playing with us here, he's serious. But he's no different from Wesker from the last fight... he just doesn't have any "showing off" animations. But he is still weak and does not carry danger. He had an attack that Wesker had from "Lost in Nightmares", capable of piercing and thereby killing a player with a full health indicator. But otherwise he is not dangerous. I don't feel threatened by this Wesker, even though this is the LAST fight with him! This is his LAST chance to shine in front of Chris! But instead of being as cool as in "Lost in Nightmares", he's just a weak. Walking simulator.

 How much Wesker from 2006 differs from himself from 2009 makes you think. Let's think deeper.

 When Wesker kills Spencer, he mimics the old man. It may seem that he really wanted to become a God, but if you don't think about RE5, it really can be mistaken for an ordinary mimicry. Wesker wanted to humiliate him at any cost, because the most important and unpleasant secret of his life had just been revealed to him – he was fabricated. This Wesker is real and he falls off a cliff with Jill and saves her.

During the experiments on Jill, he starts working on some related project and realizes that it will take a very long time. Therefore, he creates his own clone (or maybe even several) to replace himself. And he also "hands" his clone a wild Jill with P30 in the blood, after all, the Wesker clone is clearly weaker than the original and he needs "support". Of course, the Wesker clone does not know that he is a clone, and continues to develop the idea of "becoming a God." He's a defective clone, and that's why he's so paranoid about this idea. In the end, this "clone" loses his mind and becomes fixated on the idea of "becoming a God" and everything that he had from the real Wesker in character simply evaporates. He becomes a laughing stock, macaroni monster.

And eventually Chris and Sheva kill him, ridding the world of a useless Wesker clone while the real one is alive and just hiding somewhere.

Think for yourself which theory about Wesker seems more plausible to you, anything can happen in this fandom. I really want to know WHO made BOW Chris and WHY.

Thanks for reading this madness, it will become irrelevant after the release of RE9 and RE5R, but I'm still proud of the information I've gathered. What if some of this guessed the canon? We'll find out in the future.

[detective-pancake]

Hey, so I don't want to be that guy, but when are we going to acknowledge that Akechi was right?

No, I obviously don't mean about the things he was very clearly wrong about. I'm referring to the things he says in interviews about the Phantom Thieves. I hate how many people switch up after playing through his betrayal who previously agreed with his views, because nothing he said is wrong and nothing he did changes that fact. He speaks in the TV Station on the objective facts that he should know about, and with or without the context of his form of justice those facts stay true. It's a fallacy to claim that his form of justice being universally less approved of makes the Phantom Thieves better by comparison, or discredits anything he said. I don't think the Phantom Thieves are evil, or that they should necessarily be imprisoned, but I do think that they are not morally sound. They're kids. Prior to his betrayal I think he served his purpose well, but it's easy to disregard the validity of his words when you find out that he's a murderer. With the knowledge he SHOULD have had (and that many DID have), everything he says is true. And honestly? It still can be true for basically the entire plot of the game. Mishima's confidant tests the thieves in that way. They could have changed the hearts of anyone who's not a persona user, for any personal reason. It's a slippery slope.

I'll use these three options as an example for why he's right:

"They're justice itself" is just subjective and incorrect, because justice as a concept is individualized and given how each Phantom Thief has different reasons for being one it's ridiculous for even them to say. Their first target was before they even formed a group, and Ann was ready to kill Kamoshida. The others were not even going to step in, and they were going to respect her choice either way. All the members are so different, so this is an insane claim to make.

"They're necessary" is wrong because to say they are necessary is pretty disingenuous to all "justice" that has ever happened BEFORE they existed. I don't believe that the Thieves were a necessity per say, and personally I think their actions can only be judged on a case by case basis. Some Mementos targets for example have issues that stem beyond what they have done. Now they have their desires stolen but still have the issue that pushed them to immortality in the first place, plus a shitton of guilty baggage. The Thieves only help with the atonement, but not the push. How many of those people didn't just go right back to their past behaviors? How many of them got worse in other ways? Think about Futaba, she felt so guilty for something she thought she did, she formed a palace to condemn herself to die alone. To claim the Thieves are necessary to reform society implies that their method is the most effective, and I think that's a lot to claim for something they don't understand.

"They do more than the cops" I almost agree with. Legally the police in Japan in this game anyway (yes I'm aware it extends to reality in many ways, but I'm referring to just the game right now) are corrupt and flawed for the most part, but the thing I don't agree with is that this makes the Thieves a better alternative. They're not. For the same reason Yoshizawa says later, the Thieves can only do so much as vigilantes, and to imply that society should rely on these faceless nameless flawed people to fix society is not any better than what they have now. Especially with the method being unknown, potentially unsafe, and easily exploitable. I cannot be the only one who if the Phantom Thieves were real, would be extremely alarmed by the prospect of a group of vigilantes "changing hearts" right? It's so vague, and the pattern is dystopian. At least police methods are familiar

What I'm saying is that they're kids, and it's kind of insane that this game places Akechi as the narrative foil for the Thieves in their message and then makes it so easy to disregard because "he's an assassin so how could he know anything about justice". The Thieves don't either, and Ann was nearly a murderer. If the bar is "don't commit murder when you're infiltrating someone's mind" then it's far too low. I wouldn't trust a group of adults with this power to reform society, even less a group of teenage vigilantes. I'm 19, and I find this odd. And Strikers frames them as even more righteous, and it bugs me even more in that game. At least Royal has the third semester to give a bit more nuance to how big of a responsibility Ren was given, but that's also very frequently misinterpreted.

I love this game, and I love this fandom, and I have thoughts that get weird and ranty. I apologize, but I hope you all found this as interesting as I did.

[criminal-sen]

Hey so I was gonna try to make this into a bigger deal but like. Haha I have no idea how to even go about making a 'big deal' on here so what's the point. Anyway:

Hi hello, my name is Sen and I'm a trans guy who needs money for top surgery (my top surgery plans are on hiatus bc im terrified about the future and don't wanna spend my savings) for life bc life is expensive! I've had to reduce my hours at work bc my body is a mess, so every dollar helps<3 So let me make you an art! I will draw just about anything, including nsfw! Stuff I won't draw is

Sexual depictions of minors

Bigoted shit

Huh that's a pretty short list isn't it? Its almost as if the guy who writes dark fic and is obsessed with the Absolute Worst Babygirl might have very few reservations! (I also might turn something down bc it squicks me out and/or I don't think I'll be able to draw it. If it's the former, I'll be polite about it; i am absolutely not here to judge anyone)

Pricing will be discussed on a case by case basis but my bottom line is 25 USD for a pen and ink-style portrait like this guy

Color/more of character's body/background will make that price go up. I prefer to just draw one character per art (it'll stay cheaper too) but if you want 2 or more guys, let's discuss! Payment can be thru PayPal or cashapp!

(Yeagh my 'portfolio' is 99.9% Mayuri but hey, what can u do) anyway dm me if youre interested! And please help and spread this around by reblogging! Thank you!💙💜💕

[egg-emperor]

I think if there wasn't such a stigma and negative connotation applied to fetishes, where people act like they're inherently predatory and that those that have them have no respect for people or their boundaries when it comes anyone that can potentially fulfill said fetish, then accusations of things being fetishes even in cases where they aren't wouldn't matter

Like I do have a bunch of fetishes and they're not just preferences that influence what I'm attracted to, they're fetish status and I think that's fine. I'm not ashamed and I'm very chill about everyone else's too because I don't react or judge based on disgust factor and I know they're not inherently immoral to have, no matter what they are. It doesn't rule or control how you act and embracing them doesn't inhibit you from being good to others and not involving people who don't want to be involved

I know that I have certain ones where people will assume it says something about my morals and whether I'll respect people/be sensible around things that can appeal to and fulfill them (Example: body type) but I know it's not true for myself and many others. It does stop me from being as open as I'd like to be about them to the point I'm always on the fence with promoting one of my other blogs but I'm not ashamed, I just don't want drama from close-minded people

Most people have fetishes, I feel like it's very rare not to yet 98% of people aren't just going around dehumanizing anyone that could potentially entertain them and being inappropriate with people who didn't consent just on the basis of having them. And you don't just pick them and you can't choose to just switch them off, when it comes to people having issues with certain kinds existing at all lol. You can only choose how you go about it and whether you'll respect people's boundaries and not physically bring them into it if they don't agree to it

My fetishes do seep into concepts I create a lot and if too explicit and obvious they go on the appropriate blogs or the appropriate tags. I'm using a character to fulfill it who happens to fit the bill very well. And if someone accuses me of dehumanizing real life people, despite not even seeing how I can be respectful and sensible around those who could potentially entertain them, then I think they're just silly and it doesn't bother me. Fetishes aren't inherently predatory and dehumanizing and people are still capable of respecting real people and keeping things fantasy/only physically involving people when they consent

And it's because of this that when I see someone go "Um this person fetishized XYZ they're a bad person", it doesn't matter to me and I don't need them to insist that it isn't one for it to be okay. I understand that sometimes it isn't and someone is being wrongfully accused but I think that would be met much less negatively if it hadn't been so stigmatized. So instead I'm like "Alright, so what if it is a fetish for them?" if I can see that they're clearly sensible and respectful and safe and sane and consensual about it Idc. Go be free and get your rocks off however you want then, that's awesome I support you

[allykatsart]

It's other anon and yes yes yes, please more about Peccantum and his life! I know authors often don't think their OCs are interesting for audience, but I'm pretty sure there's plenty of people here, who'd like to know more abt him;

Also I'm bad at coming with specific questions, since I'm interested in literally any info lol, may be more about his day-to-day life in the Hotel, if that's not too broad? Like, what he does while working, like, his duties etc, do he sometimes leave Hotel to go to the city for smth, where he spends most of his free time when alone (except for working on paranoid theories abt Alastor) and when with others (except science fun with Pentious), how his room looks, may be what group activities (like those trust exercises was in ep 3) likes/dislikes? (i think this is already too much lol, srry in advance, ofc any amount of ifo would be cool ^^" )

(also, want to add that I really like his design - he's cute, but also obviously a serious and kinda tragic character even if only judge by appearance)

Who is Peccantum?

💜❤️❤️💜❤️❤️❤️💜❤️💜❤️❤️❤️ thank youuuuuuuuu!!!!! I love my boi dearly and I'm happy to answer questions about him!

Tbh I am a little hesitant to post stuff on him. It feels incredibly self indulgent and I always worry I'll not be respectful to the canon characters. I've been really surprised at the reaction to him though! Usually you only get like 10 likes max when posting OC stuff. Thanks for all the love tho! 💜

There's a lot here so I'ma take it point by point below!

Peccantum's Duties

Peccantum is the bellhop, but it's more of a title than anything. Mostly he helps out with whatever is asked of him. He helps out Nifty with cleaning when she can't reach spots. He makes sure Fat Nuggets gets fed when Angel is in the studio for hours on end. He cleans up the bar for Husk when the former overlord is uh.... Not functioning and unable to.

Peccantum has also taken it upon himself to do most of the grocery shopping. The hotel crew takes turns cooking, but Peccantum really enjoys when it is his turn. Cooking is one of the few skills outside of magic that he's proud of!

Other than that, he's basically another set of hands to help wherever needed!

Peccantum's Room

For his hard work, and because his shitty, piss stained apartment is on the other side of the Pentagram, Peccantum has a room in the hotel! Technically this makes him a guest, but he always claims that he just works for Alastor, and Alastor wants him on call.

His room in the hotel is nice. Better than the crap studio apartment that he was barely able to afford. Yes, there's bugs, but after a few months Peccantum has his room looking nice. He even starts collecting bits of furniture that others have discarded, and personalizes it with enchantments. Slowly, the space starts to feel like it's 'his'.

The ceiling looks like outer space, a foggy mist of an incantation dotted with white stars and galaxies. Constalations shift and weave themselves in and out of existence. Golden suns burn bright until they turn red and swallow planets whole. When he has trouble sleeping, Peccantum will spend hours getting lost in that night sky...

One wall is covered in a red, plush curtain. Specifically, it's his 'Stalker wall' and Peccantum tries to hide it, just in case a certain Radio Demon comes into his room. When he's very stressed, Peccantum will fling the curtains wide open and start obsessively reorganizing his 'evidence'.

The City

Peccantum goes to the city for three things. To get groceries, to run an errand, or go visit his old neighborhood. Not any old friends, the closest thing he had to a friend was the cafe owner he stole a recipe from, but the area does remind him of when he first allowed himself to be free. It's where he had the first taste of independence. It's nice to revisit when things are getting a bit too much.

Grocery shopping is always an interesting experience. Sure, on a month to month basis, Peccantum can be sure to go to the market at least once, but Alastor will sneak some uh... Suggestions onto the list that Peccantum has to go out of his way for. There have definitely been a visit or two to Rosie's to pick up an order for the Radio Demon.

The Activities

Peccantum doesn't like to participate in the hotel's trust exercises. He's technically only working there for Alastor, so there's no need for him to participate, right? Not wanting to hurt Charlie's feelings, he ducks out before they begin most of the time. (If Charlie catches him and asks him to stay, though, he has no choice in the matter. Polite requests from her are a weakness of his.)

That's not to say he doesn't bond with the other residents though, he just does it in his own way. With Pentious he's quick to befriend with curiosity and genuine interest. With Husk, he slowly forms a co-worker type of relationship. Angel gets a bit more suspicion, but after episode 4 Peccantum would be willing to be a bit more open with the spider. Nifty gets herself into a lot of trouble, and Peccantum and the others keep having to get her out of it.

It's slow going, but the hotel crew slowly learns to trust Peccantum.

Free Time

Peccantum really isn't used to having free time. He worked his ass off to survive for those seven years, doing what he had to do. But now that his safety is secure and he's got time on his hands... He's kind of lost. Alastor hasn't told him what to do in that time so... He's unsure.

Peccantum finds things though. He practices magic, he makes things with Pentious, he reads. After a month or two, he ends up taking an interest in an old radio he finds, and listens to the Radio Demon's broadcasts. For evidence, of course! (Partially because he actually enjoys the music lol)

And sometimes... He uses that free time to further his own goals.

[vickyvicarious]

Hi! So I'm working on a Dracula story of my own and I need help finding the character descriptions for the Crew. I know Jonathan gets white hair from shock at one point, but everything else is fuzzy. I think Lucy's a blonde and I seem to remember Van Helsing being described with red hair too, but I'm not sure if those things are actually in the book or a product of the adaptations.

Yeah, I can try to help you out. Honestly, most characters don't get very detailed descriptions, but I'll see what I can find... I'm going to be summing up what physical descriptions we know of, followed by an example quote for each characteristic in bullet points beneath.

I only looked in detail up to where we are now/a few specific scenes I remember from later on. I can add more if I notice it, but I think this covers the physical descriptors pretty well, since as far as I recall we don't get much new stuff later on.

Jonathan Harker: Has a young-looking face. His hair is brown until 3 October, when it turns white. Likely clean-shaven most of the time, since he's upset by his shaving mirror getting broken. At least used to have a 'quiet dignity'. Looks clever and full of energy (when not ill), but also quiet and business-like, so probably not a very tall or super muscular manly man.

5 May - "He is a young man, full of energy and talent in his own way, and of a very faithful disposition. He is discreet and silent, and has grown into manhood in my service."

8 May - "It is very annoying, for I do not see how I am to shave, unless in my watch-case or the bottom of the shaving-pot, which is fortunately of metal."

24 August - "I found my dear one, oh, so thin and pale and weak-looking. All the resolution has gone out of his dear eyes, and that quiet dignity which I told you was in his face has vanished."

30 September - "He is uncommonly clever, if one can judge from his face, and full of energy. [...] After reading his account of it I was prepared to meet a good specimen of manhood, but hardly the quiet, business-like gentleman who came here to-day."

3 October - "Harker was still and quiet; but over his face, as the awful narrative went on, came a grey look which deepened and deepened in the morning light, till when the first red streak of the coming dawn shot up, the flesh stood darkly out against the whitening hair. [...] Last night he was a frank, happy-looking man, with strong, youthful face, full of energy, and with dark brown hair. To-day he is a drawn, haggard old man, whose white hair matches well with the hollow burning eyes and grief-written lines of his face. His energy is still intact; in fact, he is like a living flame."

Mina Harker nee Murray: Very little physical description here. According to Jack she looks dainty and sweet and pretty. Her hair is beautiful. Temporarily has a scar on her forehead. Her teeth maybe start getting sharper when she's turning into a vampire.

29 September - "a sweet-faced, dainty-looking girl stepped up to me, and, after a quick glance, said: "Dr. Seward, is it not?" [...] She looked sweetly pretty, but very sad, and her eyes were flushed with crying."

3 October - "As he had placed the Wafer on Mina's forehead, it had seared it—had burned into the flesh as though it had been a piece of white-hot metal. [...] Pulling her beautiful hair over her face, as the leper of old his mantle,"

5 October - "Her teeth are some sharper, and at times her eyes are more hard."

Lucy Westenra: Definitely pretty, probably in an 'innocent/sweet' looking way based on other peoples' comments. Based on Mina's tracking of her health/color even early on, it seems like she might look pale/anemic on a semi-regular basis even before being bitten. Either pudgy when healthy, or too thin when ill, since her getting fat is mentioned as a positive sign of improving health. Wrinkles her face adorably at times. Super voluptuous as a vampire, and her presumably-blond (sunny) hair is now described as dark. Possibly red eyes as a vampire? Though Jack doesn't mention her eyes looking different when she was sleeping and van Helsing lifted her eyelids to look at them, so maybe not. 19 years old (maybe twenty when she died).

24 May - "Here am I, who shall be twenty in September,"

24 July - "Lucy met me at the station, looking sweeter and lovelier than ever,"

27 July - "Lucy frets at the postponement of seeing him, but it does not touch her looks; she is a trifle stouter, and her cheeks are a lovely rose-pink. She has lost that anæmic look which she had."

30 August - "I have an appetite like a cormorant, am full of life, and sleep well. You will be glad to know that I have quite given up walking in my sleep. I think I have not stirred out of my bed for a week, that is when I once got into it at night. Arthur says I am getting fat."

20 September - "He had even brushed Lucy's hair, so that it lay on the pillow in its usual sunny ripples."

29 September - "a ray of moonlight fell upon the masses of driving clouds and showed in startling prominence a dark-haired woman, dressed in the cerements of the grave. [...] Lucy's eyes in form and colour; but Lucy's eyes unclean and full of hell-fire, instead of the pure, gentle orbs we knew."

Arthur Holmwood: Tall, handsome, curly hair. ...That's it, that's all we've got. Jack thinks he's very manly. He does have a resemblance to Van Helsing's dead son, so he might look at least a little similar to the professor as well.

9 May - "I hear rumours, and especially of a tall, handsome, curly-haired man???"

7 September - "When first the Professor's eye had lit upon him he had been angry at his interruption at such a time; but now, as he took in his stalwart proportions and recognised the strong young manhood which seemed to emanate from him, his eyes gleamed."

22 September - "My heart bleed for that poor boy—that dear boy, so of the age of mine own boy had I been so blessed that he live, and with his hair and eyes the same."

Jack Seward: Handsome, good forehead, strong jaw. Common consensus usually gives him glasses and dark hair although neither is mentioned in the book. We have a canon age for him (29), unlike almost everyone else. Lucy says he's resolute and calm and imperturbable, but the way others react to him tends to disprove that since several other characters seem to be able to read him pretty well.

11 May - "He is an excellent parti, being handsome, well off, and of good birth. He is a doctor and really clever. Just fancy! He is only nine-and-twenty, and he has an immense lunatic asylum all under his own care. Mr. Holmwood introduced him to me, and he called here to see us, and often comes now. I think he is one of the most resolute men I ever saw, and yet the most calm. He seems absolutely imperturbable. I can fancy what a wonderful power he must have over his patients. He has a curious habit of looking one straight in the face, as if trying to read one's thoughts."

24 May - "I told you of him, Dr. John Seward, the lunatic-asylum man, with the strong jaw and the good forehead."

Quincey Morris: Looks young apparently. Sadly never once described as wearing a cowboy hat. Presumably handsome since Lucy talks up how charming he is, and Jack talks up how manly he is, but it's possible that's mostly force of personality.

24 May - "He is such a nice fellow, an American from Texas, and he looks so young and so fresh that it seems almost impossible that he has been to so many places and has had such adventures.

Abraham van Helsing: Tan/brown skin. Red hair, stocky frame. Clean shaven, high forehead. Blue eyes. Square chin, large mouth and nose, bushy eyebrows. Old, but it's unclear exactly how old.

20 August - "Very shortly after she opened her eyes in all their softness, and putting out her poor, pale, thin hand, took Van Helsing's great brown one; drawing it to her, she kissed it."

25 September - "a man of medium weight, strongly built, with his shoulders set back over a broad, deep chest and a neck well balanced on the trunk as the head is on the neck. The poise of the head strikes one at once as indicative of thought and power; the head is noble, well-sized, broad, and large behind the ears. The face, clean-shaven, shows a hard, square chin, a large, resolute, mobile mouth, a good-sized nose, rather straight, but with quick, sensitive nostrils, that seem to broaden as the big, bushy brows come down and the mouth tightens. The forehead is broad and fine, rising at first almost straight and then sloping back above two bumps or ridges wide apart; such a forehead that the reddish hair cannot possibly tumble over it, but falls naturally back and to the sides. Big, dark blue eyes are set widely apart, and are quick and tender or stern with the man's moods."

26 September - "It was so funny to hear my wife called "Madam Mina" by this kindly, strong-faced old man."

...and I know you didn't ask for him specifically, but just for completeness...

Count Dracula: Tall, thin, long mustache, bushy eyebrows, very pale, red lips, sharp teeth, hairy palms, dressed in black. He has a high forehead, a hooked nose, pointy ears, and red eyes. White hair at the start, which goes to grey and eventually black as he gets younger in appearance. No beard in Transylvania but he's sporting one in London. Bad breath, sleeps with his eyes open. His charming or suave smile is mentioned multiple times during Jonathan's stay. Shovel scar on his forehead after 30 June.

5 May - "Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere. [...] His face was a strong—a very strong—aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor. Hitherto I had noticed the backs of his hands as they lay on his knees in the firelight, and they had seemed rather white and fine; but seeing them now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rather coarse—broad, with squat fingers. Strange to say, there were hairs in the centre of the palm. The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point. As the Count leaned over me and his hands touched me, I could not repress a shudder. It may have been that his breath was rank, but a horrible feeling of nausea came over me, which, do what I would, I could not conceal."

30 June - "There lay the Count, but looking as if his youth had been half renewed, for the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey; the cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath; the mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran over the chin and neck. Even the deep, burning eyes seemed set amongst swollen flesh, for the lids and pouches underneath were bloated."

18 September - "a tall, thin chap, with a 'ook nose and a pointed beard, with a few white hairs runnin' through it. He had a 'ard, cold look and red eyes,"

22 September - "a tall, thin man, with a beaky nose and black moustache and pointed beard, who was also observing the pretty girl. [...] His face was not a good face; it was hard, and cruel, and sensual, and his big white teeth, that looked all the whiter because his lips were so red, were pointed like an animal's."

3 October - "a tall, thin man, all in black. I knew him at once from the description of the others. The waxen face; the high aquiline nose, on which the light fell in a thin white line; the parted red lips, with the sharp white teeth showing between; and the red eyes that I had seemed to see in the sunset on the windows of St. Mary's Church at Whitby. I knew, too, the red scar on his forehead where Jonathan had struck him."