#to see how communities transfer over here from reddit

[too-attached-to-fiction]

so if redditors are coming here does this mean that someone's gonna make an AITA submission account that blows up overnight

[paradisetemporarilymisplaced]

So I was being a basic bitch the other day and listening to my true crime podcasts when it occurred to me just how suspicious Nile’s “death” would look to everyone not in the Guard, leading me to a train of thought that, 2200 words later, absolutely got away from me but I can’t let go so I’m inflicting it on all of you!

To set the stage, we know the movie takes place over approximately a week. Here’s what happens to Nile from the military’s point of view:

She dies is very seriously injured

She heals without a scratch

Just before she’s supposed to be shipped out to Germany, she vanishes, leaving two men concussed (and presumably reporting being knocked out by a woman with short hair wearing civilian clothes)

She goes AWOL for several days

They get word from the CIA that she is to be reported killed in action (details unclear)

So, at the beginning of this very weird week, the USMC has to tell Nile’s family of her death critical injury. What her family was told depends on how long she was dead – a Google search tells me that family will be notified in person within 8 hours of a soldier’s death, but we don’t know how long her first death lasted. For an injury, however, they’d get a phone call to notify them and the unit would arrange for them to visit as soon as the soldier is transferred out of a combat zone. Like I remember when I was in high school, a guy from my church who was a Marine was really seriously injured in a helicopter crash in Iraq and from what I could tell, his parents were told immediately and were flown out to Germany to see him, so it stands to reason that Nile’s family would have been informed relatively quickly after her throat was slashed, one way or another.

And then, she goes AWOL. Her family would be notified while the USMC tried to figure out where she went, not least because the military would want to know if she’s contacted them. (And it’s possible that her family may have been on the way to Germany to see her since we know that’s where she was supposed to go!) So for several days:

Nile’s mom and brother have no idea where she is

They know she was seriously injured and most certainly should not have been moving around on her own

They can’t get a hold of her

The military can’t tell them anything

And the next thing they know for sure is that she was “killed in action.” After being injured and vanishing into thin air. And they presumably cannot produce her body or any concrete evidence of her death. In any case, something sketchy is going on, so they’re like. SMELLS LIKE A MILITARY COVERUP.

In a surprise to probably no one, there is a well-documented legacy of mysterious US military deaths, particularly of women of color (TW for sexual assault in these links). The cases of LaVena Johnson and Vanessa Guillenin particular have made national news because of their families’ persistence in seeking justice. Likewise, Nile is a Black woman, and her mom and brother are most certainly hypercognizant of (a) state violence against Black people and (b) these high-profile cases of suspicious military deaths. So her family are seriously side-eyeing the situation, knowing that (a) the military has a serious incentive (and a documented history) of covering up things that make them look bad and (b) nothing about Nile’s disappearance and supposed death are adding up.

And Andy’s right. Nile does come from warriors. And you know who else does? Her brother.

Don’t get me wrong. Nile’s mom would absolutely not back down. She’d know something was up and want to get to the bottom of it. But based on what I know about Gen X parents (mine), they’re not the most technologically savvy. Like they can use the internet, but they didn’t grow up with it the way we young millennials and Gen Z did. So Nile’s brother takes the lead. And what do zillennials do best?

Social media.

Nile’s brother starts going hard on any site he can, trying to get the word out to see if anyone knows what happened to his sister. He starts a Reddit thread. He starts a Facebook group. He reaches out to the media and true crime bloggers and podcasters à la Sarah Turney, getting loud and being a general nuisance in hopes of getting some answers. He gets his friends and Nile’s friends involved. Maybe eventually Dizzy, Jay, and others from Nile’s unit hear about it and reach out, telling him what they saw and how weird it all was. He’s drumming up interest, and soon “Nile Freeman” becomes a household name (at least among the true crime fans).

Copley is, of course, trying his best, but at this point there is just so much that it’s impossible for him to scrub everything. Sure, he can erase new footage of Nile and the Guard, but what can he do about Reddit threads and podcast episodes that are speculating something weird has happened? Maybe he could hack the sites and shut those things down, but honestly, that’s the last thing he’d want to do, because that only adds weight to the theory that Nile’s disappearance is a military coverup. So eventually he has to tell Andy what’s going on.

Andy, obviously, does not take the news well. However, she is also completely computer illiterate, because that’s Booker’s job and he’s the only one who ever bothered to learn what the internet is in any meaningful way. (She probably calls Booker for advice, and for the record, I think Booker would have no qualms about shutting down conspiracy threads, tinhats be damned, but Copley is too concerned about the consequences. He’s ex-CIA for crying out loud, he knows how it’ll look if they scrub every mention of Nile’s name from the internet.) Maybe she confers with Joe and Nicky but, let’s be honest, they’d be equally unhelpful. So at this point, she knows they have to bring in Nile.

But the thing about Nile is that she, too, knows how to use the internet (duh). Aside from her being a young millennial/digital native, we know from the cave scene where she’s giving Booker suggestions on how to track Copley that she clearly is even more computer savvy than the average person. And for that reason she almost definitely took over the day-to-day tech stuff after Booker’s exile. So I think it would be foolish to expect her to be unaware of what’s happening. She’s not contacting her family or posting on the message boards or anything, but she knows what’s up. So Copley and the team probably sit her down to “break the news,” but we know the girl does not have a poker face (see: literally shooting herself in the foot and not being able to play it cool whatsoever) and cracks immediately, telling them she’s seen everything about her case – she’s not interacting with any of it, she certainly didn’t instigate anything, but she knows. (And she is so goddamn proud of her brother.)

At this point, I’d like to pause and consider Nile’s role in the overall narrative of this movie. She’s set up as a foil to Andy, obviously, but she’s also a foil to Booker. Booker, who, like Andy, is a serious pessimist, but who, unlike Andy, still has very fresh memories and trauma associated with being the new kid, which have destroyed him. In his mind (and Andy’s), if Nile communicates with her family, she’ll become just like him in a century or two – bitter, alone, and stuck with her grief and memories of watching her family die and knowing they died resenting her. It’s a small sample size, but this is the only experience they have to go off of.

But it doesn’t have to be like that.

There’s been a lot of discussion of TOG being a fundamentally queer movie – a group of people brought together because of something inherent about themselves that is different, that must be hidden, that causes others to hate, fear, and reject them. Booker’s backstory is the archetypal traumatic “coming out” story – his family learns who he is, hate him for it, and attempt to cast him out of their lives. He’s stuck with his trauma, his pain, his loss, and it consumes him.

But what if Nile’s family would be the opposite? What if her “coming out” to them as immortal is met with acceptance, love, celebration? What if her family is just overjoyed to have her back, and they don’t care what the circumstances are? I'm reminded of this incredible post from @shitty-old-guard-deaths a while back, where Nile’s mother hits Booker with a frying pan because “my baby let me believe she was dead for FIVE YEARS based on your bad advice???” (which may or may not have inspired this whole tangent). Nile takes the advice of someone who did the same thing she wants to do because she doesn’t want to risk her family’s rejection. She wants the good memories with her family and is afraid that showing them her true self will bring her unbearable pain, forever replacing those memories. But, with high risk comes high reward.

Anyway. Nile and the team are trying to come up with a plan for how to handle this whole thing, but she’s not really participating because she’s too afraid to hope. Until finally, quickly, so she doesn’t lose her nerve, she suggests she reach out to them, knowing that, realistically, that’s the only solution before things snowball even further out of control. The team is shocked, but realize that she has a point. They decide that Copley should actually be the first point of contact, posing as a US government official to talk with them and test the waters.

So Copley goes to Nile’s family’s house to talk with her mom and brother. They’re probably distrustful and apprehensive, but nonetheless secretly ecstatic that their work has paid off. They talk and review all of the information that they’ve collected, including testimonials from the people on Nile’s base and recent sightings (along with photos) of Nile (with the same three people) over the last few years that people have sent them but they haven’t posted publicly. At this point, Copley’s like, yeah this is about to blow up, we gotta put our cards on the table. He convinces them to come with him to some safe house/black site/whatever he can get that is technologically impenetrable (I’m picturing them in like, an interrogation room at a police station kind of deal), takes their phones, locks the doors, and brings in Nile.

What follows is the most delightful reunion scene of all time, bringing Joe, Nicky, and even Andy to tears as they watch and listen from outside the room. With Copley’s help, Nile tells her mom and brother about her immortality and what’s been going on since she died (within reason, of course), and they are thrilled. They don’t understand why (because no one does) but they don’t question it and they see it as a gift from God – she’s been resurrected, she will live, and she has a purpose. Her mother and brother are so happy to see her again and are willing to agree with pretty much anything to stay in her life as long as they can.

So. They set up some complicated agreement (they bring in the other three for support/intimidation as needed) setting the terms of their relationship. They swear Nile’s family to secrecy, maybe bringing up the lab to show how high the stakes are, and they readily agree. They come up with some cover story for Nile’s brother to share on the message boards (maybe that the government has opened an investigation but because it’s an open case he has to shut it all down? Tells people to direct their tips somewhere else? Something to that effect). There’s still speculation, of course, but without Nile’s brother at the helm providing the energy, the hype dies down as news stories are wont to do without any movement. And Nile’s family goes to work for the team. The experience has taught them that Copley can’t possibly do everything himself, especially when it comes to social media, so Nile’s brother takes the lead on the day-to-day tracking/social media while Copley and her mom focus on finding jobs and scrubbing their traces afterward.

So there you have it: Nile gets to integrate her biological family into her found family and spend the rest of their lives with them as it should be, Copley gets some badly needed help managing the reality of social media, the team finally has a positive narrative surrounding outsiders Knowing About Them AND about interacting with people from their previous life, and the audience gets the happy ending to this very lovely and very queer story to counteract the pain associated with Booker’s family.

Plus, you know, I’m a sucker for both a good government conspiracy theory and for Nile getting every good thing she deserves.

[kcatta-wodahs]

MC Who Does Not Fear Death x OM! Demon Brothers

Or maiming, or apparently any other consequences. You’ve walked into this situation with absolutely no filter and no fear. Time to tear down every structure of Devildom society.

Lucifer

You look at him with a withering stare when he tries to intimidate you into behaving.

“I was summoned out of my trashy apartment to this place, where literally anyone could snap me like a twig on accident. I’m just working on the assumption that I’m already dead.”

He sternly looks at you. “You’re under my protection during your time here. No harm will come to you.”

You snort derisively, which visibly irritates him. “Don’t worry about it. I won’t come back to haunt you if it happens.”

As you continue through your life in Devildom he keeps calling you out for meddling and all that, like usual, and he HATES that you literally *do not care* when he threatens you.

Like HE knows that he wouldn’t hurt Diavolo’s transfer student but YOU are supposed to be AFRAID of him dammit.

His frustration at this ends up turning into a form of respect. You’re about the only person who will stand up to him, and tbh like you’re so fucking fragile but you’ll yell at him all day? That takes guts. Annoying guts. But you’ve got guts.

But also STOP IT. He has enough stress in his life and now he’s constantly terrified that you’ve decided it’s a great idea to adopt a baby balrog

Which you did once. He’s just afraid that “Flamin Hot Cheeto” is going to come back since you somehow managed to imprint on it.

despite the fact that the BABY could easily tear your arms off on accident

Not to mention he gets the flack for EVERY SINGLE ONE of these following stories. You stress him out so much. Please. Please, stop. 

He’s almost to the point of begging. The Avatar of Pride is three steps away from either locking you away for the rest of the year or begging on his knees for you to calm down. 

 But you know you’d find a way out if he locked you up so no worries. It’ll be a good challenge.

Mammon

“Well you WON’T be dead because it’s my job to protect you! Are you doubting the Great Mammon?!”

Stupid human. Yeah, you’re fragile and weak, but that’s why HE’S your bodyguard now, and there’s no way in hell (lol) that he would let you die on his watch.

Lucifer would kill him.

You welcome the challenge, and he thinks it’s funny at first but quickly becomes a flustered mother hen.

“NO, we are NOT going out to Madam Scream’s at 3am! Do ya know what kinda CREEPS are out there at 3am?!”

And you sneak out the fucking window.

He has had more heart attacks in the past week than he has had in the last 100 years of life.

He starts agreeing to your ridiculous adventures JUST because then he can actually keep an eye on you. 

He adores the chaos of the laugh that bursts from you every time you narrowly escape death. 

He HATES how often you have to NARROWLY ESCAPE DEATH. So he will never tell you.

He almost doesn’t have time for his own shenanigans anymore, because all his time is taken up by trying to make sure you stay alive.

And you’ve figured out that if you turn *any* of your ideas into a money-making one, he will join you whole-heartedly.

So you bribe him because what’s money to you anymore anyway?

Leviathan

I mean he doesn’t leave his room much, so tbh he probably just gets texts from you that make him want to scream.

‘hey uh levi say if someone were to hypothetically be stuck in a succubus’ devil basement to become an unwilling sacrifice to asmo what would that person, hypothetically, do?’

‘probably die’ is usually all he sends back

You always come back, because he always sends a text to the other brothers. In that case Asmo came to rescue you himself and scold the succubus.

You become the friend that he makes funny throwing-shade reddit posts about. (Devvit? Devil reddit? Eh??)

‘Levi so this has nothing to do with anything but is there a cure for a dangerously potent ‘always win at rock-paper-scissors' curse? Asking for a friend’

‘Friend is being held hostage tho so maybe be quick about a response’

He didn’t even know that kind of curse existed. None of them did. What the fuck did you do.

How did you get taken captive by playing rock paper scissors?

He doesn’t know. Nobody does. He expects the play-by-play so he can recommend it as a new anime to his favorite producers. 

Somehow your chaotic plans end up with stories almost as great as TSL. 

Beelzebub

He physically carries you around.

He’s like “fuck this you can’t get into trouble if I’m holding you.”

If Beel’s on MC watching duty, he’s almost the only one who is successful, just because you physically cannot get away. 

But at the same time, he is very easily bribed. 

So yes, he’ll go to Madam Scream’s with you at 3am. Sounds like fun.

But he is very protective after losing someone he cares about (who you remind him of so much….) so he keeps you close when you’re out and about too.

If you start getting into a fight with some other demon he literally just takes the fight for you and wins with no trouble at all.

You like having Beel with you.

Especially finding street festivals! You’re in a whole new world and there’s a MILLION things to try. Beel is more than happy to try them with you.

But that leads to arguments about whether deadly creatures to humans are still deadly when dead. 

“No, you can’t eat that it’s on fire. I know even small fires hurt humans. I’ll eat it for you.”

“That hot sauce makes every demon I know cry. You really shouldn’t buy a bottle. Please. No, don’t try it. No, that’s too much for one-- oh. Oh no.”

He forgives you as long as you don’t actually get hurt and you give him your leftovers.

Asmodeus

“If I get wrinkles because of you I promise you will never hear the end of it. I will curse you forever.”

He swears on every single one of his lovers that you have started giving him grey hairs.

GREY HAIRS, MC.

Why can’t you just settle down and let them all take care of you? You don’t have to prove anything to the other demons!

But you will. You’re living in Devildom now, and by everything unholy, you are going to live that life to its fullest extent.

He was thrilled at first when you were all for joining him at his nightclubs and parties. Now he hides every party’s date from you.

That time you almost threw yourself off a balcony to try and emulate a very drunk demon’s newest dance move.

“I need to stay TRENDY, Asmo!! I’ll be fine!!”

Ever since learning Demonus doesn’t affect humans you have challenged every single stuck-up tough boy to a drinking contest.

And every single time you win, Asmo has had to *narrowly* save you from being killed by said demon.

And you just say “he deserved it” every time.

And like, yeah okay, he probably did but YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE.

Somehow, you manage to out-party Asmo.

dON’T TELL THE OTHERS but he lives for the times when you practically fall asleep on his shoulder while coming home from a rager. You may not get drunk, but when you’re sleepy, you’re so affectionate and something in his heart melts.

Satan

At first, Satan was all for the rebellious “life life with no restraints” thought process you explained to him.

I mean, he didn’t like the assumption that he and his brothers couldn’t control themselves to not accidentally kill you, but also… fair.

But he didn’t realize that this mindset followed through for EVERY demon in ANY place.

Including RAD, where old and wizened demons were *really* not used to being contradicted

Which led to you “accidentally insulting” your 5000 year old Human Studies professor by giving them a pop quiz on current memes (which they failed).

And left Satan as the one who had to make sure that said professor didn’t kill you. 

And the thing is, this keeps happening.

You’ve written all over the school’s library books, pointing out every error.

You *continue* to argue with the demons who threaten to kill you when you say silly things like “No, Solomon did not learn his sorcery at Hogwarts because Hogwarts isn’t REAL.”

(Solomon, meanwhile, refutes you vehemently and seems to grow three inches taller every time you glare at him.)

Satan assures you that he values knowledge and truth and all that, but could you maybe find a less dangerous way to push it?

No can do, Satan, because you already had plans with Mammon to use a curse that writes the history of the actual Sorceric Academy that Solomon attended like 400 years all over the desks in Human Studies. It’s activated by anyone saying “Hogwarts”. 

No, no, Satan, it’s brilliant, because you can’t do magic. It can’t be you who did it.

Satan, no don’t tell Lucifer.

I thought you hated him. Satan, wait. 

You are the only person in the history of ever who convinces him to come to Lucifer for intervention. You wear that badge with pride and also deep, deep, bitter sadness. 

Belphegor

Like, through the plot your willingness to be a thorn in anyone’s side just to get more information really works for Belphie.

He’s like all I gotta do is ask? Sweet. Yeah. Go, human.

But then when he’s all big and threatening and “im gonna kill you” and you just kind of look at him and nod like “yeah, this checks out.” 

Frankly, that’s rude, MC. 

And then he keeps threatening to kill you and it doesn’t even PHASE you like. You just keep listening to him rant and going “OH i think i get it now”

He liked that you were always looking for more information when he was the one pushing you around, but now?

No. Human, he is going to KILL you here, STOP ASKING QUESTIONS.

And then you do the time-travel bit, and see that he *literally has killed you in one timeline* and you just like

Shrug it off and keep talking about Lilith???????

Tbh what probably stopped him from doing it again is just that you’re fucking insane, MC 

“MC, you literally just saw yourself dead in Mammon’s arms”

You wave your hand vaguely in his direction and say, “Yeah okay, but can we talk about the lack of communication in this household because it is tearing this family apart.”

What the fuck MC

When he’s back to normal, tbh he loves that side of you. He loves getting into shit when he’s not sleeping. He will 100% encourage you and be there to make sure that you *don’t* actually die again.

He’s the only one who doesn’t actually try to stop you. Who knew he was so into chaos.

But if you try to drag him to a plan when he should be sleeping he will be like Beel and literally just hold you down while he naps dammit. You brought this on yourself. He needs sleep.

[jackoshadows]

Stark Sibling reunions.

So there was some discussion on this in another forum and I thought I would jot down some of my long rambling speculations on which siblings will meet up and reunite first in the next book.

Jon and Rickon

Up north, I think there is a very strong chance that Jon and Rickon will be the first Starks to meet each other again. GRRM has stressed a couple of times that he has important things planned for Rickon, Davos has gone to Skagos to fetch him, Rickon has the backing of the most powerful Northern house in Manderly and in Bran’s absence, Rickon is Lord of Winterfell.

We know that GRRM is writing Rickon for the next book. He has mentioned how his Osha is becoming more similar to Natalie Tena’s version on the show. He has outright stated that Rickon will be in the next book. And how the books are different to the show because Rickon is still alive in the books.

Now, two things about the battle against the Boltons:

1. There will be a different Stark Vs Boltons battle in the next book. We have this note from GRRM:

Speaking of which: Martin leaves a little note for the producers when writing about Ramsay’s flesh-eating hounds, whom we see hunting down a girl for sport.

[N.B. A note for future reference. A season or two down the line Ramsay’s pack of wolfhounds are going to be sent against the Stark direwolves, so we should build up the dogs as much as possible in this and subsequent episodes.]

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/12/game-of-thrones-george-rr-martin-last-script-the-lion-and-the-rose

Notice the plural - as in direwolves, not direwolf. And the only two Starks with direwolves currently in the North are Jon and Rickon. We may see Jon come down from the Wall with a Wildling army and the North rallying behind Rickon and they combine forces to attack the Boltons. If Stannis is still alive and has an army at this point, it could be that everyone else joins him in battle.

Rickon could travel to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea which is closest to Skagos, or White Harbor or to Stannis’ camp. Either way, Jon and Rickon are now the closest siblings and have maximum potential to reunite since their plots look to be colliding soon as well.

2. Theon will be important to the resolution of the Bolton storyline.

What inspired him to create Ramsay Snow? GRRM said, and I quote, that he needed something “to bite Theon in the ass”. Ramsay was created for Theon’s storyline, and he is first presented as a prisoner and a servant and then rises to a high position while Theon becomes his prisoner and servant.

https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/6uwfb0/spoilers_extended_notestranslation_of_grrm_qa_in/

Theon is currently with Stannis who is preparing for battle against the Boltons. I doubt his story ends there - without meeting up again with either Bran or Jon. We know Bran is trying to communicate with Theon through the Weirwoods and Theon feels an immense guilt for what he did to Bran and Rickon. Jon and Theon have a lot of parallels and some of the same identity issues.

It’s possible therefore that Theon survives the battle of Ice with Stannis Vs Boltons to meet up with Jon and Rickon for the later battle of the bastards.

Arya

Lets examine Arya’s travel options from Braavos:

1. There’s plot and route that can take her to the North via Justin Massey and Jeyne Poole. The prevailing speculation being that once Massey lands in Braavos along with Jeyne, the real Arya meets up with fake Arya and decides to leave behind the FM and travel to the wall to take down some mutineers.

I think that plotwise for Arya’s character this makes sense. She has pretty much finished her FM training - time for plot progression and for her to move on to the North and get mixed up in both the political shenanigans and the army of the dead plot.

And if she does go North, she will finally reunite with Jon Snow - something she’s been trying to do since book one.

But there are some issues with Justin Massey getting to Braavos. In the first place, winter and storms have come to the North making travel hard. And in the second, Massey needs Stannis’ ships at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea to travel to Braavos - those ships are currently being overwhelmed by both storms and wights at Hardhome. So without transport, it’s hard to see how Massey gets to Braavos and Jeyne meets Arya.

It’s also possible that Arya just hears about what is happening in the North, gets on a ship and sails to White Harbor. She could meet up with Rickon and Jon that way.

But if Arya is not going North, where will she go to?

Travel-wise it would be easier for her to sail to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea or the port at White Harbor - traveling for a single person is always easy and Arya is an old hand at this.

But there is also speculation that Arya will travel to the Riverlands and meet up with her mother, Lady Stoneheart and the Brotherhood without Banners again. I am not fond of this theory, since in my opinion it will be once again a retread of her Riverlands story in books 2/3.  She’s done with that part of Westeros. Yes, she did see her dead mother be dragged out of the water and a resolution and closure with her mother would be nice, but I am not sure how Arya in the Riverlands will progress the plot.

So if Arya does manage to reach the Riverlands and Lady Stoneheart, is there a sibling that she will meet up with?

Sansa

Let’s take a look at Sansa.

Sansa is busy in the Eyrie, embroiled in LF’s plot to snare Harry the Heir. Winter has come to the Vale and it’s pretty much snowed in. So it may very well be Sansa’s plot is limited to the game playing and political goings on in the Vale. If Sansa does indeed step outside the Vale, the logical place that she can travel to is the Riverlands.

I have often seen it argued (By a certain section of fans) that Arya’s story is in the Riverlands because she is just as revenge obsessed as Lady Stoneheart and her story is about giving up revenge while Sansa will travel North and reunite with Jon and win battles and become Lady of Winterfell.  But in actuality, Sansa is far closer to the Riverlands (Much closer and easier for Sansa to get to the Riverlands than Arya) and has actual plot reasons to be there.

What plot reasons? So a recent thread on asoiaf reddit brought up a 2012 comment from GRRM on Littlefinger:

That said, back in 2002, here's what a fan recounted with George:

Who is over lord of the Riverlands? (Since the Freys have Riverrun yet Littlefinger was named Lord Paramount). George says that Littlefinger is the Lord of the Riverlands but that he is going to run into trouble. I commented that Littlefinger is really powerful now that he has the Riverlands and supposed control of the Eyrie. GRRM laughed and said that I need to remember that for all his power Littlefinger has no army. (I thought that was interesting). GRRM also commented that (I forget which Frey, Emmon?) the Frey given Riverrun really wants to be Lord of the Riverlands and has dreams of having his father be his vassel. (I thought that was interesting also)

https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/itw5wd/spoilers_extended_a_deeper_look_at_three/

So it looks like Littlefinger is going to run into trouble in the Riverlands - where LadyStoneheart and the brotherhood  have set up their base - and it looks like the Freys want control. All LF needs to assert his authority is a Vale army. The Lannisters are pretty much done in the Riverlands, the Blackfish is still around and Edmure is a prisoner.

LF could get support in the Riverlands with Sansa - a Tully. Remember LF, his vale army and Sansa being responsible for defeating the Boltons and avenging the red wedding on the show? What if we get LF, Sansa and his vale army taking on and getting rid of Walder Frey, avenging the Red Wedding and winning favor in the Riverlands and the North that way?

I suspect that Lady Stoneheart is a part of the Vale/LF plot in the books and that’s why it disappeared on the show with the rest of the Vale while D&D combined plots and transferred LF and Sansa to the North to take on the Boltons.

I think a LF/Lady Stoneheart confrontation will be very interesting and possible - given their history and given LF’s current infatuation with Sansa. We have this from GRRM:

 My Littlefinger would have never turned Sansa over to Ramsay. Never. He’s obsessed with her. Half the time he thinks she’s the daughter he never had—that he wishes he had, if he’d married Catelyn. And half the time he thinks she is Catelyn, and he wants her for himself. He’s not going to give her to somebody who would do bad things to her. That’s going to be very different in the books.

LF, Sansa and Lady Stoneheart meeting again is almost certain in my opinion.

So if Arya is heading down south to the Riverlands for closure with her mother and if Sansa is heading there with LF to help solve his Riverland issues, is it possible for them to meet up? Will we get a Sansa-Arya reunion in the Riverlands? Remember, GRRM has assured us that these two will meet again and have ‘deep issues to work out’. Maybe this happens in the Riverlands with Sansa and Arya and Lady Stoneheart?

Anyways, if Sansa is uniting with a sibling it’s most probably going to be Arya. Everyone else is far up North and currently Arya is the only sibling truly free to move around to any destination. Will Sansa go North? Hell No.

Jonsa Stans think that Sansa is somehow going to travel all alone, all the way from the Eyrie to the Wall in harsh snowstorms.

Which, lol. By the time Sansa gets there, the books will probably be over and everyone would be chilling in Winterfell.

No army is currently getting North with the snowstorms. The Vale doesn’t even have a fleet to sail to White harbor from the Sisters. Littlefinger would have to hire a fleet from Essos and from Dany’s predicaments there we know how hard this is. After sailing to White Harbor, the Vale army would then have to march 400 miles to Winterfell in harsh snows that have stalled Stannis’ army and covered the walls of Winterfell.

Can Sansa, by herself, escape, catch a ship and sail from the Sisters to White Harbor? Possible, if she can get down the Eyrie, get to the Sisters and get a ride aboard a ship. I can’t see Sansa doing al; this. Plus, I still think with LF in the Vale and Riverlands, there is still a lot of plot for her down south. Plus, LF likely will clash with Varys as well:

Littlefinger and Varys are adversaries, both know a lot about the others' plans, so they're at a stalemate. LF knows more about Varys's motives than Varys does about LF

https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/5g7vef/spoilers_extended_grrms_second_talk_at_the/

---------------------------------------------

So  we have Jon and Rickon reuniting in the North and Arya and Sansa maybe reuniting in the South if Arya travels to the Riverlands instead of the North.

As for Bran? I think he will be busy exploring the Lands of Always Winter and learning more about the Others in the next book. No reunions for him yet. I think he will meet up with his siblings in the last book.

[bridger-2021]

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[nickblaine]

season 3 script summaries (nick)

first of all - special thanks to reddit user cablab123 and @dystopiandramaqueen​​ for making phonecalls to the writer’s guild that resulted in them getting the season 3 scripts from the studios this soon 💖 we have these because of you!

just to clarify, these notes are about nick scenes only. am i biased? yes. will i go back and read the rest? i don’t know. i didn’t like this season, so i don’t have much energy for it. but i did read the other cut scenes which i will summarize in another post later. this one is about nick.

reminder that anything i put in quotes is direct phrasing from the scripts. however there are copyright laws in place, which is why i can't provide copies or photos. edited to add: because i’ve seen some doubts about my authenticity, click here for proof.

i do accept questions, but i will only respond if i have an answer. i may come back and respond eventually if i find the answer on a future library trip.

possible spoiler warning: there are 2 cut scenes in here which may or may not be considered spoilery if they use them in season 4. the cut scene from 3x12 in particular could be a big indicator of what’s to come next season.

finally - please do not share this post without my permission, and thank you in advance for respecting my wishes.

3x01

nick has fred trapped in the room. after serena says, “we should give her more time to get away,” and leaves, fred turns to nick and accuses him of having so little respect for their family that he would involve them in his crimes. nick straight up tells fred, “I did it for her. For June.” it says fred knew this but hearing it shakes him up. this is the catalyst for their open disdain for each other from now on.  

there was more to nick & june’s argument that we didn’t see, which showed june regretting staying in gilead. after she says “don’t you think i know that?” she breaks down and admits: “I fucked up. I fucked it all up. I should’ve gone. I’m a fucking idiot. But I couldn’t leave her here, I couldn’t leave her behind.” nick feels deep sympathy for her after this confession, and they let go of their anger and share an embrace. i’m real mad this got cut, it showed a lot of june’s vulnerable side.  

after the house fire, nick is leaving and: “June searches for something to say. Goodbye? I’m sorry?” but she can’t because they’re in public. originally he said “Take care” and she settled on “Bless you.” (personally, i think i like the onscreen version better.)

3x03

there was lots of nick “finding this exchange excruciating” during the commander meeting at the lawrence house. he just wanted to help june the whole time joseph is tormenting her. they are “desperate to communicate” throughout this scene. also, joseph was carefully observing nick, june and fred the whole time. they never explain why, but june seems to think he’s just amused by it all.  

when nick came back to visit that night, he and beth share a sweet moment at the back door. nick asks her if she’s okay. beth tells him she’s scared shitless. he comforts her with a hug, during which she jokes, “You look ridiculous in that get-up,” and nick says, “I know.” (i love beth and nick’s friendship... i wish they didn’t throw away the opportunity to show it this season.)  

when nick goes upstairs, his and june’s conversation was written to be a lot less cold than it is in the final cut. june immediately goes to nick for comfort when he comes to her room. “She needs him desperately. She needs his help.” but the news of his deployment shakes her. they are both described as infuriated by their situation, and “drowning in their own futility.” when june opens the door and invites nick back in, they share a kiss and “wrap themselves around each other. For the last time.” 😭 then june closes* and locks the door (to juxtapose her old bedroom with the door that never locked.)   *still disappointed by that closed door? see here!  

3x05

in luke’s tape, june is scripted to say, “You met him. He helped me to survive. I was in love with him." the description of luke’s emotions here say he feels stunned as well as “relief that Nichole isn’t the product of rape... and yet, June found love. She moved on.”  

3x06

when nick and june reunite in DC... nick was spicy during that prayer scene 🔥 june could feel him trying not to look at her. and this line killed me: “His fingers trail, just barely, over June’s hip. Across her bare fingers. On June, feeling his hand.”  

nick and june’s kiss in the snow did not have much description. just lots of natural chemistry on max and lizzie’s part. also, they were supposed to share one more kiss after nick agreed to meet with the swiss. speaking of...  

NICK. MET. WITH. THE. SWISS. people can stop claiming he ditched his daughter now. the script makes it clear. nick walks into the room with mattias and meets lena and sofia before the scene cuts. we don’t get to see what they talk about, but he tried to do the right thing for holly per june’s wishes, against his better judgement.  

no further explanation for why the swiss don’t want to work with nick. when lena tells june she can’t work with nick, all it says is that june’s “association with Nick has left her somehow tainted.”  

june feels “betrayed” by learning that nick was a soldier in the crusade, and continues to throughout the season. though the script never explains why she feels so betrayed by something that she has done herself (killing innocent people under orders) or why she is so quick to believe serena joy when she is familiar with her manipulation. her thoughts in that scene are described as she is “absorbing the fact that Nick was a terrorist.” take that as you will. however, the following scenes clarify exactly what he did...

THE TRAIN SCENE: there’s a very important line describing how nick really feels about being a commander: “The troops salute him. Nick returns the salute, hating all the choices that led him here.”  

immediately following that line is a cut NICK FLASHBACK! here’s the summary: nick was in DC during the coup. he was on guard duty. yep, big bad terrorist war criminal nick blaine was a glorified security guard. in this scene, nick and a young soldier named trevor are guarding an empty basement stairwell in the capitol building during the coup. trevor is complaining that they are “mall cops” while “everyone gets to actually do something,” meanwhile nick is described as “looking sick.” then there is an explosion in the stairwell, followed by a brief shootout where trevor is killed. nick shoots back “out of instinct” and it’s revealed he’s killed a capitol security guard and a bureaucrat.

immediately after the flashback is the cut shot of nick (above) looking sadly out the window, remembering those choices that led him here.  

it’s worth noting that the flashback scene contrasts starkly with serena’s words just prior, which were scripted as: “He served Gilead. He believed in something greater than himself. He was a soldier in the crusade. We wouldn’t be here without him.” so it seems pretty clear they are setting this up to be misjudgment on june’s part.  

the shot of nick looking sadly out the window was supposed to be followed by a parallel shot of june looking sadly out the window of the winslow house, reflecting on her meeting with nick the night before. 😢  

3x10

just wanted to note here that despite june feeling “betrayed” by nick since 3x06, when fred suggests transferring her to DC she actually considers it could be a good idea because she would be “closer to Nichole. And maybe even Nick.” so he is not absent from her thoughts.  

3x12

warning: the following scene may be spoilery for season 4??

thank god, we were right about a cut scene in this episode. there was exactly one (1) nick in chicago scene, and it took place immediately after luke punches fred. and just like max said, it confirms nick has been one step ahead all along.

in this scene, nick is observing the war in chicago and talking with his “lead commander” (pictured in the promo still above.) the lead commander tells him that they are being transferred to lake huron to put pressure on toronto in lieu of waterford’s capture and winslow going missing.

nick - hiding his shock at this news - carefully presses for more info. the lead commander doesn’t have anymore to say about waterford, but he laments the fact that this means he’s not going to get his weekend leave and that his daughter will be disappointed. his daughter’s name? agnes. that’s right, the big reveal of this scene is that nick is now working directly under commander mackenzie, and it is no coincidence. the scene ends on nick, “watching [mackenzie] walk away, wheels already turning.”

guys... this means NICK IS GOING AFTER HANNAH!

this must be what max was referring to when he said that everyone is in an interesting position for season 4 in this interview. so much for him being irrelevant to june’s story just because he’s a dude, i guess. 🤷‍♀️

there was also a whole bombing action sequence in this scene including fighter jets, it sounded very extra and VFX-intensive. nick and commander mackenzie are watching it all go down from a distance while they talk.

i can’t say for sure why these scenes were cut, but the producers served up 3 different sets of excuses, some of which don’t line up with what was written (e.g. “strictly june’s perspective” ...sure 🙄) so it’s safe to say that whatever led to them cutting these scenes out, we will probably never know for sure. but i do know they were filmed and the decision was made post-production, we have evidence of that.  

additional observations:

there is still no real explanation for why or how nick got promoted to commander, and i don’t think they ever will. it appears to me that it was just another contrived plot point so they have a reason to send a low-status driver into war.  

while i am glad they softened the extent of nick’s involvement in the coup, it also makes it harder to understand why he said he was “due” a promotion to commander when his contributions to gilead are so relatively insignificant. again, we may never know.  

there were several cut voiceovers of june praying to god throughout the season, and despite calling holly mainly by “nichole” in dialogue, she only referred to her as holly in her prayers. so her real name is still holly. i will die on this hill.  

commander mackenzie mentions to nick that the move has been hard on hannah but the script does not clarify where they have moved to. hannah and mrs. mackenzie are presumably far from the great lakes region because nick’s response is, “May God bring you home to her soon.”  

can we talk about how nick has an active plan for hannah? and how he never gave up on his promise from 2x03? and that while june has lost all hope of seeing her daughter again, she has no idea how close nick is? and that this is sounding a lot like one of my fics? hire me already bruce. these are things i think about A Lot  

lake huron means nick is going back home to MICHIGAN so rebel commander blaine is back on the menu boys  

nick in the script is - as always - a bit more rough and forward than what we see onscreen. max has a talent for softening nick’s interactions with june and showing respect with his body language, while maintaining the intensity between them. i also cannot praise enough how much he makes out of little to no script direction and minimal dialogue.  

that sweet, sweet vindication of confirming yet again that nick is worth a lot more than viewers (and june) give him credit for. i only hope his value in this story isn’t realized too late.  

(gif credit: @splitscreen​, @outlassed​ & me)

[forestwater87]

Your library info is incredibly cool and helpful but I have a bit of a specific question. I kinda did badly in college and continue to do badly (less than 3.0 gpa) and have been completing it very slowly. I failed a few classes due to not doing the work while unmedicated. But archival work is one of the few things I can see myself loving to do. Do I have a chance for grad school, or even getting into it?

I’m sorry you’ve had that experience! That really stinks, and I’m impressed that you’re still working so hard to get past that with everything you’ve gone through. It says a lot about your character and work ethic (which can work to your advantage; see #1 below). 

I have to admit, I’m not positive how helpful I can be; I’m very bad at most things, but my one talent seems to be getting good grades, so I don’t have personal experience with maneuvering academic struggles. I’m also not an admissions rep, though I do work in a (community) college so maybe I’m a little more familiar than the average joe? And I did work for our grad school’s library/archives department, though I wasn’t exactly privy to their acceptance decisions because I was a glorified secretary, but . . . well, who knows? Take all of this with a grain of salt, because I’m a big dum-dum, but maybe something here will be helpful. 

Or maybe someone super smart will rb this with a ton of useful info. That’s the dream!

Also, a lot of this is coming from a Princeton Review article about literally this topic, if you want a less personal and meandering version of the below tips.

TL;DR Forest’s Non-Expert Recommendations for Grad School Without the Best GPA:

Acknowledge it in your communications with the school, and maybe even your application. They’re going to see those grades anyway, so it’s not like more context is a bad thing.

Take more classes, especially ones related to archives and records administration, and nail those.

Kick the GRE’s ass and give a really good application overall.

Experience! Related experience!!! 

Get to know the school you’re interested in -- and make sure they know you.

1. I’ll admit, based on a quick glance through some of the archival programs in the U.S., it does look like a 3.0 GPA is just about the baseline for admittance, which isn’t the best news. (Unless you manage to get a 3.0 by the time you graduate, in which case you’re pretty much good for most schools.) My suggestion there would be, whether or not you can bump your grades up with current and future classes, sharing some info -- to your level of comfort -- about your situation in your cover letter/application: acknowledge the grades issue, explain the reason, and illustrate how you’ve improved since then. Even if your final GPA isn’t all that high, it’ll prime the admissions folks to look at it with the understanding that you had a handicap. Your grades are a story over time, and I imagine if you can show improvement and draw their attention to that via a cover/recommendation letter(s), that could be really useful.

2. Obviously, the easiest answer -- to say, not to do! -- is just “get your grades up.” Which is . . . not terribly helpful. The good news there is that the more classes you ace the better your average will be, so if you can afford (literally, in time, money, or spoons) to take some extra courses, you can drag that score up. Especially if you focus on courses related to archives -- English, History, Political Science, Public Administration, Computer Science, Data Analysis, etc. -- and blast those to smithereens, it looks like it won’t necessarily matter as much if you didn’t nail, say, calculus or physics. 

3. That above linked post is . . . well, yes, it’s from Reddit, but it does seem pretty good overall. Another recommendation it mentions is to do really well on the GRE; I talked a little bit about the GRE in my last post, and you can get tons of practice tests and other study material on their site; when I took the test back in 2015, you got the study material for free when you signed up to take the exam, but I’m not sure what the situation is there nowadays. That test is a big bucket of not-fun, but I can almost guarantee any program you look at will want it. In addition to being required in most programs, a really impressive score can encourage admissions folks to overlook your grades. (Note: this is basically true for any part of your application. If your resume, cover letter, recommendations, test scores, etc. are particularly banging, it can overcome deficiencies in other areas.)

4. Girl (or boy, or both, or none of the above), if you can volunteer, intern, or work somewhere relevant, not only do have an awesome potential reference in your supervisor/coworkers, but it looks REALLY GOOD on an application. Obviously now’s not a great time for this, considering the whole pandemic thing, but as stuff starts to open take a look at museums, historical societies, and libraries in your area. See if anyone needs help. The more experience you have, the more you’ll have to talk about in your cover letter, the more you’ll have to make your resume stand out, and the more you’ll be prepared for the actual program and life beyond. I cannot recommend getting some volunteer experience (or paid work, if you can swing it) highly enough.

5. Like most of what’s available, this is a bit dependent on your spoons, time, and maybe even money, but the sooner you can develop a relationship with the folks in the archives school/department you’re interested in, the better. Email them with literally this question; they’ll have a much more informed and specific-to-their-program answer for you, and might have some good advice. Schedule a tour (again, prioritizing your safety and those around you). Ask for an interview with the department head or a faculty member. Call with your questions. Ask about classes you might be able to take outside of the actual program to improve your chances of acceptance. We had students in our program who took a certain number of credits as a non-degree student, and then transferred into the program on the strength of those earlier classes; they were usually people whose grades or test scores weren’t up to snuff, so they could get a start while preparing to apply to the degree program. And in general, if the people deciding whether or not you get to go to school there know your name, your face, and your story, your application is going to get a lot more -- and more generous -- consideration than if they don’t know you from a hole in the ground. If nothing else, you’ll get a lot more useable information than I can possibly give you, and you’ll learn more about the program and the field to better make a game plan for your future.

I hope some of this is helpful! I wish I could say you don’t have a bit of an uphill battle because a pretty significant weight is put on GPA. It’s understandable to an extent -- they want to make sure you’ll be able to handle the courseload before you start -- but it poses an extra challenge for people who are already in difficult circumstances. Definitely make sure you talk to your advisor and the academic folks at your current school as well; there’s a chance that they’ll have some advice or even access to some resources you weren’t aware of that’ll make your current grade situation improve.

Good luck! It sounds like this could be a great path for you, and even if you have to take a bit of a roundabout way to get there, that additional experience and time will help you be more prepared for just about anything ANY grad school program or job could throw at you. I believe in you, and I’m here if you need to ask, chat, or vent.

[nintendocaffeine]

Nintendo WIP

Taglist: @nintendo @niantic - @nele3299 - @hoodie-art

Nintendo is a so-called game company, but a game company wouldn't overlook such trivial details that are a huge impact on not only their games but their players. It's almost like they want to make all of their 'fans' or just people who could care less about them themselves and only play certain games not want to come back for any sequels or prequels to their games. It's like they didn't even bother to think about this mess until a bunch of people finally open their mouths about it, but that is a hard task. Even if I get no one's attention I want to make some points that at least everyone in the community can agree on.

Animal Crossing

People have either been playing animal crossing for years or only joined with the recently made New Horizons along with me.  But in the most recent games, there have been a few things that are too blaring to overlook. It's almost like Nintendo wants to watch players suffer, which if the players suffer, the company suffers greatly too.

So the aspect is to have a bunch of villagers on your island and do a bunch of DIY's that look like 5-minute-crafts came up with how to make things. But I digress, for the most part, it does make some logical sense. But when you need to craft over ten packs of fish bait, it gets more than annoying. Or need to craft maybe four or ten chairs or benches or something seasonal. to have a perfect seasonal island for a month before switching it up again. It would be more than lovely to have the option to pick more than one. I know if you mash A a bunch it goes faster but that doesn't exactly make too much of a difference if you're making a bunch of the same item. Not only that but if you're buying maybe 10+ nook miles tickets, let's say you have 40,000 Nook Points,  You can get twenty whole NMT, but pressing A and waiting, doing that twenty or more times depending on how many points you have? It's unbearable and not even finding the villager you want after hopping island to island and waiting hours and mashing A for the amount you want or need.

It shouldn't be hard to program in a counter. You make updates for all the wrong things, I feel.

Like the update to Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, needing a certain camera lens to play a game that actually doesn't require a camera lens like that? Nintendo had an update in November of last year where they cut more than half of their player base. Their phone needed a gyroscope camera, not even phones bought last year could run the game, apparently. I was one of the players affected. I spend actual money on that game. For what? Cosmetics I can't even see anymore? Can't even use? After a month of nothing I had to uninstall, I was told that I should wait but I just didn't have the storage anymore. Sadly. I went back to see the reviews, most people left even if they could still play it because they couldn't play with their friends or couldn't play period.

I want to point out Pokemon Go!

Pokemon Go uses a camera feature for their 3D Pokemon models, which is amazing! But why does that work and yet Pocket camp doesn't? Well, technically Nintendo doesn't own Pokemon Go, Niantic does. Niantic uses different software than Nintendo itself, that and they're two different apps, they were made very differently. But then why does the camera have to be a gyroscope for Pocket Camp and not Pokemon Go? Pokemon GO uses it's AR feature more than Pocket camp! This is true, but the camera feature isn't even needed with Pokemon Go either, it's optional. So then why is Pocket Camp different? Well, Google told app developers that all apps needed to be 64bit by next year. But what does 64bit have to do with a camera lens? The gyroscope lens is implemented in all 64bit phones, that's the difference. Pokemon Go might update soon too but for now, people with a 32bit phone can play it and use its AR features. But I don't know why Nintendo would conform to Google's rules, as Nintendo is its own company and if it's still getting money... Google takes a percentage of money from players as tax for the service, so both Nintendo and Google are taking a hit. I really don't get their thought process here, people are canceling their subscriptions and spending less on their games, people on Reddit and in Google reviews are both saying the same thing.

Oh, but this is where I talk about Pokemon Go now.

Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go is an amazing game that Nintendo can't touch. Until they wormed their way in with Pokemon Go Eevee/Pikachu. Soon you'll be able to transfer Pokemon from go onto your switch games! But... they can't return back to your phone. Here's the thing I want to do, if I have a two-star Pokemon in Pokemon Go and transfer it to make it a three-star with vitamins then I should be able to then send it back into Pokemon Go and dominate. But that's the thing. I can't. We don't even know if they way to make it go two ways or if it'll forever be a one-way transfer only.

I love how Niantic added Jessy and James even though Jessy as a 3d model looks... strange. I wonder if they'll add Butch and Cassidy, since they were also semi-part of the lore, they mainly just competed with Jessy and James. But this is just a thought I wanted out there. I want more diversity, honestly. But it would take a long time to implement, but I think it would be cute to see how it is implemented. It could be an event type deal and I'd still be happy just to even see them.

I want to congratulate them for finally putting in Kalos starters! I've been wanting a FenFen (Fennekin.)

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers

Okay, so I've played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time and Darkness, and let me tell you the anime for it was amazing too. I wanted more. There was a 3Ds version, hated it. Circles... I gave up and restarted twice and haven't touched it for so long since it just.. wasn't as good as the original. I've been meaning to play Sky but one thing at a time. There has been a lot of people talking about the starters, and boy oh boy I'm on the bandwagon late. I was curious about the personality quiz but seeing everyone say want starter is best with what partner and seeing how everyone said 'Don't be Totodile and Mudkip!' or 'Don't be Eevee and Skitty!' it just made me confused since you... technically couldn't have two of the same type of starters. What in the heck were those people thinking? But that isn't entirely a point. The point is starters. In the switch version of Mystery Dungeon, there are some things I just cannot say. The starter selection of awful. What happened to the Unova starters? You added Cubone but not Riolu? Where did you put my baby shinx?

The starters were pretty meh, they could have added more in my opinion. The screen surely could handle it. Also, the animations for the starters weren't even special or fantastic so it wouldn't have been that hard. I hate the walking animation for Eevee. I picture for Mudkip and Skitty it's not much better.

I've played it for three days and was so disappointed. First off, my partner, an AI? I had to literally kill him for my starter could get back to the same level. Thanks, blast seeds. But if I am being honest in found it to be so funny. Not only that but in said Dungeons, on any floor the boss could just be there and without warning. You could have explored the entire floor and it just appears randomly, or might not even be there. Hate that.

Also, there are no party rooms. I miss the party rooms. The party rooms are rooms that randomly fill up with Pokemon either if you hit a tile for the party room, somehow get the room by being dropped there with or without your partner (and co), or if you enter it from a path. I barely ever get past them but it would be a good experience. Also, you can only have yourself, your partner, and whatever one Pokemon you want with you. In previous games, you could have two addons. What happened to that?

Not to mention that in the story, you suddenly are exiled and after beating two birbs you then fight, Ninetails covers for you and says it isn't you, and then everything is suddenly.. just okay? All fine and dandy? So many people wanted to literally kill you over a rumor. If you died once you would lose 5,000 P and items. Um, excuse you. At the end of the journey, I gathered a little over 5,000 P because I'm a money-hungry person who wants to open all of the camps. But again, I know we'd have to go and find Ninetails and figure out the story but that.. wasn't the way to do it. You get past maybe six dungeons and are hit with that suddenly. I would get it if it was mid-game and they suddenly found out the secret and everyone was like 'you were so nice, what happened?' 'Why was it you?' 'You lied to all of us' and it broke my heart, that just upset me. None of them even let the starter explain, and even if they did the option was literally only dots. Also, why was my partner so supportive? They're just so baby and it's killing me. That's just my take on what they could have improved on.

If you want to add on, add your own, or say anything, feel free below or to message me so we can talk about this more. Thanks for the read, lets hope this gets covered on some youtube channel for 'controversy' or just to be agreed on.

[zeroxz21]

[WP] You're the most powerful villian in the world. Formerly. Now you run a bar, that works as a neutral zone for heros and Villians alike. One day, a hotshot hero tries to arrest you.

A short story I wrote based on this writing prompt, submitted on reddit by u/zxcxdr:

So first of all, I accomplished what no other villain or hero has ever done, before or since.  

I Won. And by Won, I mean there was nowhere up for me to go. I dominated the world uncontested.  

  How did I get there? Well, it started small. I was among one of the first, you know, except I didn't know it to start with. One of the first superpowered humans. Even *my* scientists still aren't sure what started the cascade of births of humans that exhibited supernatural phenomena. My power, I eventually realised, was that of mental suggestion, control, and manipulation. I had unwittingly climbed my way up through the education system and into being the owner of multiple successful business enterprises, before I figured out how it had come to be that I had accomplished this. Not through my skill and intelligence alone, but because I had coerced those around me into following my will without even realising until then.  

That first ‘hero’, back when they were totally unrestrained vigilantes, had decided that I had too much of a monopoly, and decided it must be wrong somehow. They came to stop me. They found me, and though they were not an especially strong superhuman by many of the standards we now find, it was more than a match for the ordinary man that was me. I was not incompetent in martial arts but it didn’t do much against someone who could feasibly tackle a rhino in hand-to-hand combat. I was swiftly levelled, bones broken, bleeding from cuts and gashes their blows inflicted. I was messed up, my life beginning to flash before my eyes. They loomed over me, ready to finish me off, this self proclaimed executor of justice. I closed my eyes, willing desperately that they’d just leave me alone, let me live, please!... and they did. I peeked out of my blackened eyes, just to see them turn and walk away. Totally inexplicably. It was then that I figured out exactly what gift I had.  

I curbed myself for a time, so as to avoid drawing further unwanted attention, as I learned to harness my powers more deliberately. Everything now made sense, fell into place. I could do anything with this. So I did.  

My empire grew, eventually expanding beyond my birth country into others. My profits I collected entirely for myself, other than what investment was needed to expand my business fronts. I used much of them to hire many learned people in order to do research for me, and me alone. Biology, genetics, engineering, physics. I wasn't sure what I needed them for yet, or how big I would grow. I just knew that I wanted to be bigger. My power was to control, to dominate, after all. It was… only natural, that I exerted that power as far as I could.  

I briefly considered using the fruits of my research to further enhance my business, but then realised I was doing just fine increasing my monopolies without them. All the better that I save the results of that research myself, to ensure I was always several steps ahead of the rest of the world; weapons and defense tech, medicine, computing, so on.  

I increasingly tangled with heroes and villains of various stripes. Heroes who disrupted my more illicit machinations, villains who saw me as a threat to their own plans of domination. This was very rarely directly with me, of course, but with some subdivision somewhere several steps down the chain of command; I had learned from that first brush to keep myself better hidden, allowing others to be the face of things, even behind the scenes. By now I had amassed hordes of paid mercenaries, assassins, my new robotics division, and other superpowered people I had brought under my personal manipulations, in order to counteract any interference. I was absolutely untouchable.  

It took nearly a century before the governments and public at large realised just how much my empire had begun to infiltrate and control the world. One particularly devious heroine managed to connect the dots in secret, somehow beneath my notice, and outed to the world how all these businesses were, behind the scenes, all feeding their profits, and being controlled by, a singular source. It was a scandal that shook the world, the anti-monopoly laws many countries had having been long, long broken.  

It was especially damning for them as they knew not how to respond. I simply owned everything. Food production and dispersion, communication services, military research, utilities production, construction, banks… so much of what society at large relied upon to function was connected, at the top, to myself. My personal identity and existence remained hidden, so no one knew what they were all collaborating for, not even the higher ups that operated for each of these factions knew, just had a strange urge to do certain things, send supplies off to who knows where, transfer funds into a nameless back account. All easily hidden as I owned and operated all these things myself, and controlled everyone involved at a higher level. No one who knew would call me out.  

For me, much had changed. In secret, knowing this would happen eventually, I had been building myself up. I had a top of the range facility hidden in the middle of the ocean in a politically neutral zone, with little marine life to draw ships to it, seeing as the currents were not favourable. And I say top of the range, well it was more than that, seeing as top of the range would be the height of what is available on the public market.  

I had carefully held back the technological advance of society, everything being over five decades behind where it would be if I hadn’t deliberately drip fed out new advancements.

So, where was I all this time? Hidden in my top secret facility. A small island, purely of my design, I had spent a decade in the past building up the foundations. My own personally designed ecosystem kept the island naturally functioning, enhancing long term stability. The facility itself, totally secure from any and all detection by ‘modern’ top military tech of any nation, immune to any conceivable attack. And further than that, resistant to all known and documented superpowers out there. Laser vision, temperature manipulation, pyrokinesis, raw enhanced strength - nothing would get through the advanced materials and defensive technology my cabal of enthralled scientists had been devising.  

And if that wasn’t enough, I myself was all but untouchable too. My biological and cybernetic divisions had enhanced my body, infusing me with powers taken from the heroes and villains over the years that had unwittingly crossed me, new abilities and enhancements on top of that they had devised. I was as close to immortality as was feasible to achieve. I certainly wasn’t ageing, hence all these extraordinarily long term plans by the standard of any other villain who sought ‘world domination’. They were foolish to me.  

Yes, you may notice I haven’t mentioned them much. Heroes, villains. They were there, but all just part of a much larger framework. If it wasn’t for me, they may have been much more significant. But, supposed villains were as much as problem as a hero finding me out were, so I ensured they were stopped before they got out of hand. As such, heroes never rose up to be the executors of justice they probably would have done, because significant foes that needed that kind of response never truly existed. Back then, to me, they were all just the superhumans. Just another aspect to worry about.  

So it was that I broadcast publicly for the first time. I told everyone of who I was, what I had been up to all these years (not in any real detail, of course). I told them of my powers, my control of the world, and my personal supremacy as an individual being. All would kneel before me at my command, all would do as I bid of them. No one would resist.  

Naturally, those in governmental positions who were not being manipulated against it, all took this as an act of war. Many of the stronger world powers immediately launched large scale assaults on my facility, easy to triangulate with such a large broadcast. Many superhumans of all stripes also joined the charge. Nuclear warheads, missiles, bombs, even some advanced laser weaponry, was fired upon me, the might of nations focused on a single point, as well as fire, lightening, strange energies and brute force hurled at my fortress by the superhumans themselves.  

My facility’s highest recorded energy expenditure during the prolonged, month long assault was 23.7% of maximum output.  

Having exhausted themselves of so many resources, I sent out my own, entirely robotic and unmanned ‘military’ to forcefully seize control of any and all places that had defied me; I might have controlled much of the business side of the world, but the people themselves, the politics and governments, had been difficult to fully control, only influence and hold back from achieving too much undesired progress. It was an easy, simple coup.  

The world was mine, none would ever again raise a hand against me. Me long, long plan was finished. I went to my station, ready to make my second broadcast. I would tell them all to…  

What was I going to tell them all to do?  

I sat down then in the chair before the cameras and microphones, slumping. It had been pure instinct and human nature to be the top of the food chain, to be safe and uncontested, to be the fittest in the survival of the fittest. But now that I was here, completely and utterly with no resistance or further efforts to secure and maintain my position really needed… why was I here? I had never really thought what would be done beyond this point, merely that there was a drive to be in this position.  

I could tell the world to do anything. To kneel, bend a knee to my power. But this was the pathetic folly of monarchs and tyrants past; the forceful submission of people didn’t really have much meaning for me. I didn’t really care. But what else was there to do? Just let them carry on? I could have stayed here, quiet and safe, without enforcing my will over the world. But then, that was what I was good, it was my power that had started off all these things. It had to mean something.  

So I thought about things. What did I want to do with them, the world? Moreso, what did I want to do with me? What did my life mean?... what did theirs? Everyone else?  

I listened to what the world was doing. Apathy reigned. Resigned to their fate with no choice at all, productivity of the world was declining. Motivation to continue producing, creating, living, was beginning to decline, and had been since my announcement. It had taken a steeper turn again since my forces had been sent out. Birth rates plummeted, as did the marriages, the kindling of new relationships, even divorces and splits.  

I sat on the moon, watching the planet for myself. I spent some time there, watching it turn. I watched the lives people lived, listened to their pleas to one another. I don’t know when exactly I realised what the truth was, that free will was important above all. For life has no meaning if you cannot, in some small way, control your own fate, have some say in it. This is at least one of the meanings of life, for I would not dare so arrogantly claim to have divined the one true meaning of it.  

I still didn’t know what I wanted for myself, but at least, for the world at large, I knew what needed to be done. No matter whether my intentions would have been good or evil, right or wrong, anything other than what I was to do would be appropriate.  

It was two and a half months when the second of my worldwide broadcasts went out. I breathed in a sigh, put on the mask, and appeared before the world, and told them:  

That they were free. That I would withdraw any and all of my forces. That I would relinquish control of all people, to do as they wished, for themselves. That humanity would be truly free for the first time in over a century, since my dominion had begun. I told them I would remain here, just in case to prevent true calamities, but that otherwise their fate was now their own.  

Switching off the broadcast, I broke down, completely and utterly, weeping ugly tears as for the first in one hundred and seventeen years, 4 months and 12 days, I pulled in my power to control the will of others.  

I don’t know how long I was out cold on the floor for, exactly. I had not realised the pressure it had been having on me, years of building up endurance and resistance allowing my stranglehold to grow impossibly vast. I couldn’t rest yet though; I needed to check on my facilities. All my scientists, researchers and their families (some no local here into the third generation of being my thralls) had just been freed.  

I went to them, seeing into their rest chambers before I entered for myself. I wretched as I saw the expressions on their faces, far deeper than mere confusion as those I controlled elsewhere may have felt. I wasn’t sure I could live with myself, but then, suicide was simply not acceptable; after what I had done to the world, the least I could do was safeguard it from destroying itself. If those nuclear weapons had been trained anywhere but here…  

I entered, then, and called the attention of all those who lived here with me. For me, really. No one had ever really been… with me. It was strange, how I could watch the world and how people lived, had my scientists study the depths of human psychology and social need - and not apply it to myself. I had no friends or family to speak of.  

Having seen the broadcast themselves, I reiterated it to them personally, and what it meant for them: they were free to do as they wished. If they wanted to go anywhere, I would take them, do whatever they needed to be set up safe and secure away from here, and out amongst the nations. I also offered a home for those that wished to stay, and further their studies here, as I explained that I would remain on watch for the world to try to prevent the worst of potential consequences, either from the people to each other, or an unseen natural calamity. Remaining ahead of the militaries of the world would be prudent. I told them they did not have to make an immediate decision, but to let me know of their wishes by the end of the week, preferably.  

I spent the week isolated while I waited for answers, trying and failing to determine what my own purpose and desires might be. I left the isolation at the end of the week, nervous as to what messages had been left for me.  

It shook me to my core to find that I didn’t even have any.  

I went out and spoke to them, then, not as their ruler, but as a compatriot. I was amazed at their kindness and generosity towards me. I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve it. My psychologist team laughed off the explanation that I had actually enacted effectively the results of their research into my home for, such that they were all kept happy even on finding out they had been under my thrall for so long.  

So I asked them, if they would be so kind, what about me? Unfortunately, they couldn’t decide for me. That would have to be something I found for myself.  

There was plenty to do, don’t get me wrong, but one finds one needs a drive to truly thrive. I watched the happenings of the world for clues. Most hobbies I had indulged in at some point, but nothing like that was really enough.  

A curious development over the coming months was the marked rise in superhumans having influence on society. Often at odds with one another, marked heroes and villains arose. Villains threw their weight around, trying to bend society to their will and under them, as heroes rose to meet them in battle, both physical and ideological. The right and wrong of the matter was rarely clear in such engagements, a far cry from the cheap fictional heroes that had provided entertainment for many over the years.  

Large factions formed, self proclaimed Lords of Evil, Bearers of Light and so on had increasing social, and eventually political, influence. They were beginning to drive the turn of society.  

But so their powers grew. Able to exercise them to their totality, villains I might see from the past that could turn the wind cold, were now able to chill entire towns. A mighty hero who lifted a car to save a child was now able to grapple with a mountain avalanche. I was concerned things were getting out of hand, excessive loss of life and environmental damage may occur. I was not sure what to do with this; I had my concerns, but I was also unwilling to interfere. Especially so now that the only way to stop this sort of thing was personal intervention with individuals, which was far more meddling than merely blocking some wayward missiles or asteroids would be, which was the sort of thing I’d had in mind.  

As I watched the increasingly ridiculous scope of clashes unfold, tens of superpowered men and women crashing into one another like forces of nature, from many factions founded all over the world, I wondered if things could be settled with talking. Some tried it and usually bore the brunt of a violent, energetically charged response from the opposition, hero/villain relations now being reduced to attacking one another on principle, so deep had the hatred become over the years.  They all had so much pent up emotion and energy, always needing to exert it somehow, the barest excuse. Always fearful of the opposition, true rest was rarely coming to them, either. They were all trapped in a cycle of constant escalation.  

One day when I was relaxing a bit, I was watching a rather old film of fictional heroes and villains clashing (at the time the fictional beings had looked impressive, now paling against the excesses of modern superhumanity’s capabilities) over something or other, when an idea hit me. I watched them broker a moot, which fell apart, but it lasted a while. I wondered if it could have gotten somewhere if tempers had been held more in check? Then the idea struck me. These people needed some sort of no man’s land, where they could rest, maybe talk things out if they fancied it, even. A true neutral zone. Something that no nation on Earth could hope to provide.  

But maybe I could.  

I discussed the suggestion at length with my scientists from various departments, but preeminently the psychologists. I noticed hidden smiles from others as I talked enthusiastically about my plans and what could be done. I eventually realised they were happy for me, seeing I had found some sort of purpose. I smiled back.  

The place needed to be well designed, able to bear the brunt of their outbursts. But ultimately, I would be responsible for managing it; my many enhancements and stolen powers meant I was more than a match for any who dared break the peace. An overseer of sorts, like I always had been. Just now, it would be used for maintain a neutrality and allow the wills of others their freedom to be expressed, not to throttle it. The physicists and advanced materials teams designed the functional underlay of it all. But the atmosphere and visuals were also important.  

After much study, argument, and discussion, the decided ideal setting for a neutral, restful zone was… a bar, strangely enough. It would function as a bed and breakfast setting, with beds freely available, but the main draw was the large bar area. Visually designed to mimic a classic English bar, dark coloured wood and leather seating throughout, this had been decided to be the best setting to encourage a relaxed atmosphere in the patrons. When construction was complete, I raised an eyebrow, but couldn’t help myself grinning in pleasure at the sight of it. Compared to what I had been used to, it was pretty twee and mundane, but then, maybe what was the appeal. I couldn’t help but appreciate it. I profusely thanked everyone for their help, and we had a party that night, the bar all to ourselves this one night.  

The day of opening had arrived. The set up was perfect, if I did say so myself: my - our - island home was politically neutral from all nations due to its location, and would be readily accessible once I launched the warp in locations which I’d quietly been setting up in the world at large. The bar itself was time dilated, so that those entering and leaving always found it approximate to the time zone of where they had arrived from, so patrons from around the world would all be experiencing the evening bar simultaneously.  

I excitedly put out a new broadcast advertising ourselves, though less intrusive to the population of course. Freely available to all superhumans, faction affiliated or otherwise, our traditional bar would serve as a safe haven when you needed a break from the wears and tears of a newly free world at odds with itself. Verbal sparring was the limit of the altercations that would be permitted.  

The Bar, so it was called, had its inaugural opening evening at 6pm that night. Bewildered and unsure, a few heroes and villains from all corners of the world began to pop in through the warp system. Some were in costume, others in casual dress. They all shifted uncomfortably, speaking little to one another. I decided to break the ice.  

“First drink’s on the house!” I declared loudly, drawing all eyes to me as I swiftly littered the bar with glasses and pitchers, filled with all sorts of ales, beers and wines. Of course, anything anyone asked for could be procured, but I figured they were a bit shy for that. “Of course, all your future drinks will be too, but come on anyway, help yourself!”  

Some of the nervous guests drew near. The first I recognised as Cascademan, wearing his trademark suit of multiple blue hues. He eyed a tall, thin glass of sparkling white, before taking it and touching it to his lips. He gave me a shy nod before backing away.  

In my excitement, I’d all but forgotten my own reputation amongst them all. Now was not the time to crumble, however. I needed to remain strong and confident. What else could a bar owner be? I was the only one here; I had not wanted to risk any of my friends getting injured until we could be sure of their safety. I had to keep the mood lifted, and if necessary, keep order. Naturally, that was when the shouting began.  

The members of two rival factions had gotten into a shouting match, the length and breadth of their rage and insults escalating rapidly. I sighed irritatedly and loudly, hoping to get their attention. The threat was lost on them.  

Magma-Eye was spearheading for his side against Chaoschick (the names sounded a bit silly to me, but it was heavily determined by the publicity angle). Heroes, villains, all the same to me; they often thought it held real weight, but so often villains and heroes argued amongst themselves that to me the distinction was a bit meaningless.  

I made my way through the bar (literally) towards them, others stepping back as I closed in on them. Chaoschick was first to lose her rag, her bizarre energy coursing through her body as she visibly channelled it into her fist. Everyone nearby cowered as she thrust it forwards, expecting to be blasted across the room.  

With a casual wave of my hand, all her energy dissipated into the air. She crumpled to the ground, gasping for breath, the wind taken out her.  

“No. Fighting.” I said, calmly, sure to infuse it with the air of a threat not yet made real. Eyes widened as they looked at me with a mixture of awe and fear.  

“Just… come get some drinks. Chill, relax, chat, whatever. That’s what this place is for!” I told them, cheerfully, before making my way back to the other side of the bar and loudly making some mixers.  

That seemed to break the ice, a couple of more interested looking supers coming closer.

“What you makin’ there?” Whip-Wild asked me.  

“A little number I devised; base of pineapple juice, a shot of tequila, some lemon and lime juice, and the tiniest, teeniest pinch, of liquid nitrogen!” Supers were generally hardier than the average human, even before any wild powers they might possess were part of the equation.  

I finished shaking the drink together, pouring it smoothly into a steel goblet. Mist drifted over the sides as I did so. “Haven’t named it, yet.” I pushed the drink towards him.  

He took it, eyeing it curiously, before putting down a swig. He grimaced at the powerful flavour, before regaining his composure.  

“That there sure is some strong stuff. Thanks, pardner!” He exclaimed excitedly. I grinned, pleased. Nothing like a good, stiff drink for people to commiserate over. “Hey, Steelskin! Come ‘ere, try summa this!”

I cheerfully mixed up and set out more of the drinks all over the bar as the patrons made their way up to the bar, each finding their own drinks and bringing their friends over.  

Magma-Eye and Chaoschick had been left alone awkwardly, their allies having ditched them for making a scene. A pair of drinks made their way into their unwitting hands. They looked at me in confusion, as I just grinned knowingly at them from my behind the bar position.  

They looked at each other, nervously laughing as they both took a sip of their drinks. Chaos smiled appreciatively as Magma inspected it.  

“Uh…” Magma asked, awkwardly. Not really sure how to interact with his arch nemesis outside of a spirited pummelling. “You, uh, like that, then?”  

“Yeah, I do…” They looked around the room in silence. “This is pretty weird, huh?” Chaos said.

Magma nodded. “We did both come here, I guess. We could, um… grab a table?”

“I’m game if you are.” She challenged him, sauntering towards the nearest empty table, sliding into the booth seat.  

I watched as he followed her and sat opposite. Glancing around the room, they seemed to be mingling a bit. Mostly people with more shared interests were keeping to themselves, but it was early days yet. Maybe the tempests around the world would calm a bit, now…  

  It’s been fifty seven years since that night. The Bar is still going strong, more popular than ever. Society is still divisive at times, and likely will be forever to some extent; people will always differ in opinion, and supers will always fight it out, either individually or on behalf of their country or faction.  

But I remain here. Serving drinks and keeping the peace. And I’ve never been happier with my place in the world. I’d like to think in some small way, I’ve atoned for all that I did. I still don’t know, of those who come in here, who’s right and who’s wrong. Maybe no one ever will objectively discover that truth, if it even exists. All I can do is ensure the worst never befalls us all, and maybe just keep things out there just a bit calmer.  

  ~~~  

  The darkness was beginning to lift. Where was I, I wondered… the fog began to lift. I could feel the heavy leather seat supporting my body, and noticed a small table before me. The bustle and bustle of The Bar began to enter my ears. Then everything that just happened came back to me.  

“Ooohh…” I moaned as I felt my head throb. My memories were a total mess; those weren’t mine. Uurgh…  

“I told you to cut it out.” I heavy voice boomed before me. My voice? No, those weird memories… oh. I remember what happened now, I think.  

I stood up, ready to attack the evil MaesterMind before me, before my head swam heavily and I fell back into my seat.  

He shook his head. “Just… stop. Think for a minute. What did I just show you?”  

I couldn’t help but listen. I sat a moment as I woke up properly, remembering everything I’d just dreamed.  

Wow… that was a lot to take in. I groaned as I sunk my head forward into my palm, elbow rested on the table.  

MaesterMind turned and headed back behind his bar, whipping up a quick drink before coming back to me. He put the fizzy picture down in front of me. I took it and downed it.  

“...I hate doing that.” He said.  

“Sorry you had to.” I said. “I just heard things, I guess, and-”  

He raised a hand. “Don’t worry about it.” I turned his head to another commotion elsewhere. He sighed irritatedly. “Shout if you need anything else.” He put on a bit of a forced smile and headed for the commotion.  

As he left, my head thunked onto the table. How could I have been so stupid, trying to arrest freaking MaesterMind. What even for? I waved a hand to get the attention of a passing waitress. She smiled cheerily upon seeing me and approached.  

“Oh, hello Ma’am. I don’t recognise you, are you new here, Miss…?”  

“Jenny-Justice. Can I get something stiff, please?”  

“Yeah, not surprised after the ol’ Maester did that to ya. I know just the thing for ya, girly.” She swiftly headed to the bar.  

Oh, you are a fool, Jenny, I thought to myself...

___

If you read through all this, thank you. Hope it entertained you somehow. Spent long enough writing this that I wanted to put it out somewhere, seeing as it got no response at all on r/WritingPrompts: I guess I took too long writing it and now it’s among many other, probably great takes on this prompt that aren’t among the quicker responses that got upvoted to the top of the comments. It’s just a silly short story, but either way.

[morlock-holmes]

This anonymous article from the Washingtonian, (Which is apparently... a magazine? Of some sort?) “What Happened After My 13-Year-Old Son Joined the Alt-Right “ was being reblogged on my dash a few times and looking at some of the notes a lot of people were calling it propaganda without saying which side they thought it was propaganda for.

I think a LOT of people were so swayed by the “One Concerned Mom Speaks Out!” tone of the thing that they kind of missed the actual narrative.

I mean... If anything it’s kind of propaganda in favor of the alt-right, isn’t it?

Here’s how the author of the piece sums up the inciting incident in the story:

One morning during first period, a male friend of Sam’s [The author’s son] mentioned a meme whose suggestive name was an inside joke between the two of them. Sam laughed. A girl at the table overheard their private conversation, misconstrued it as a sexual reference, and reported it as sexual harassment. Sam’s guidance counselor pulled him out of his next class and accused him of “breaking the law.” Before long, he was in the office of a male administrator who informed him that the exchange was “illegal,” hinted that the police were coming, and delivered him into the custody of the school’s resource officer. At the administrator’s instruction, that man ushered Sam into an empty room, handed him a blank sheet of paper, and instructed him to write a “statement of guilt.”

No one called me as this unfolded, even though Sam cried for about six hours straight as staff members parked him in vacant offices to keep him away from other students. When he stepped off the bus that afternoon and I asked why his eyes were so swollen, he informed me that he would probably be suspended, but possibly also expelled and arrested.

Later there’s more, but basically the school authorities double down, Sam’s parents decided that if the authorities were that cruel and insane Sam needed to be in another school, and so they transferred him. Sam then starts getting into 4chan and reddit alt-right communities, who explain that what happened to him happened because of feminism gone crazy.

So, as a slight aside I have always thought since I was in high school myself that this kind of zero-tolerance, authoritarian crap is particularly cruel to inflict on growing children. A boy Sam’s age is trying to differentiate himself, see himself as an individual, and the authorities come in and go, “It doesn’t matter what you think, it doesn’t matter why you did what you did, we will never care about that, we see you as a type and there is nothing you can do to convince us otherwise.”

This message would be incredibly dispiriting to anybody, but particularly to children.

Contrast, meanwhile, his experience on Reddit:

Soon Sam stopped trying to convince me to join his brave new world. He was so active on his favorite subreddit that the other group leaders, unaware that he was 13, appointed him a moderator. Among his new online besties, this was a huge honor and a boost to his cratered self-esteem. He loved Reddit and its unceasing conversations about the nuances of memes—he seemed in love with the whole enterprise, as if it were an adolescent crush. 

...

Eventually, Sam had to give up moderating for the most practical of reasons: Eighth grade ended and he was packing for sleep-away camp. He would be offline for a month and would need other mods to cover for him. To ask for help, he had to out himself as a kid.

Sam and I both laughed about the absurdity of the situation, though he admitted he was nervous he’d be exiled from moderating. I asked him to read me the responses to his message. They were all of the “Dude, you’ve got to be kidding me” variety—one of their most sophisticated and reliable colleagues was a middle-schooler heading off to Jewish summer camp!

Later, it was my turn to be surprised: They all contributed to a going-away gift for Sam and mailed an emoji-themed fidget-spinner to his bunk address.

Faced with new information that Sam has broken the rules, his school imediately brands him a predator, threatens to arrest and expel him, and responds with undisguised hate.

Faced with new information about who Sam is, his alt-right buddies are shocked, but then reiterate that they still care about him and value the contributions he has made to their community, and get together to express that to Sam.

I’d like to make a little list of what Sam gets from the alt-right in the narrative:

A group of people who have shown that they will support and value him, even if they find out new things about him.

People who listen and care about what he has to say

An explanation of what, exactly, happened to him and why.

Ideas about how he can protect himself and others from having that happen again in the future.

Allies and support for enacting those ideas.

His parents, by his Mother’s own admission in the article, were only able to provide fumbling efforts to provide protection from that particular school’s administration. His parents and their politics were totally ready to say that taking all that stuff about cucks seriously was pretty weird and dumb, his mother is totally ready to counter any statistics his alt-right buddies might have, but is completely and utterly unequipped to provide any of the other stuff I listed up there. There’s a moment where Sam explains to her what he and his friends think happened:

Sam pledged fealty to the idea of men’s rights because, as he said, his former administrator had privileged girls’ words and experiences over boys’, and that’s how all of his troubles had started in the first place. I’d never in my life backed the “masculinist” cause or imagined that men needed protecting—yet I couldn’t help but agree with Sam’s analysis.

The mother’s politics didn’t actually equip her with an alternate explanation of what happened; rather, she has to concede that his explanation makes sense, and having conceded that has no idea what to do with herself.

In fact, as the article ends she is only vaguely starting to come to grips with the fact that Sam needed the kinds of support I listed above:

“All I wanted was for people to take me seriously,” [Sam] repeated matter-of-factly. “They treated me like a rational human being, and they never laughed at me. I saw the way you and Dad looked at each other and tried not to smile when I said something. I could hear you both in your room at night, laughing at me.”

I struggled for a moment because I wanted to tell him that wasn’t true. But I couldn’t deny his accusation. Behind closed doors, when my husband and I thought our children were asleep, we had often vented to each other about Sam’s off-the-wall proclamations and the bizarre situation we found ourselves in.

So I told Sam simply that I was sorry for making him feel bad.

I still think about his words a lot, especially when alt-right figures headline the news. But mostly, I wonder how I could have tried so hard to parent Sam through this crisis and yet tripped up on something as basic as not making my own kid feel small.

By the end of the article Sam is disenchanted with the Alt-right through, well, it’s not totally clear. The author of the article, by the end, seems to understand that Sam needed at least some of the things I outlined up there, but it’s not clear to me if she views the fact that her own politics were completely unable to provide them as an actual problem.

In fact, it’s not clear to me what she believes her politics are actually for. I know, I know, it’s not a philosophical article, but the question of “How much power do public school administrators have over their charges and what can parents do to counter them” is a nakedly, inarguably political question; after all, it’s about how a state-run institution should be run. And rather then turning to her own left-wing beliefs to contextualize and fight this decision, her solution is that her family has enough money to put Sam in another school.

Now, I’m not criticizing this decision, I think it was probably difficult, even brave. But it’s noticeable that her left-wing, non-culty politics don’t seem to have much to offer the next Sam, a Sam whose parents might not have private school tuition sitting around in their bank accounts. 

In fact, she seems to regard the fact that Sam’s alt-right buddies were able to offer up compelling narratives and give him hope of implementing a solution and reasserting his self-worth as, well, cheating. Isn’t that cult-like behavior? Politics aren’t actually supposed to help the Sams of the world contextualize the things that happen in their lives, and when they do, it’s awfully sinister.

This seems to be part of something that has heavily infected the American left. It’s a kind of unspoken philosophy that says, “Politics is for solving major problems, the rest should be handled elsewhere.”

Even when a question overtly connected to Mom’s politics crops up in their life, her politics have literally nothing practical to offer any of them. Her left-wing politics are correct it doesn’t matter if they’re helpful.

This is what I keep trying to get at when I say people are missing the point with Jordan Peterson. Yeah, a lot of what he says sounds factually rickety to me as well, but, well, when I spend every day wondering why I can’t seem to get my life together, simultaneously dreading it AND feeling like there’s no point in trying to change, how does having a more correct view of lobster biology help me out with that?

I mean, I’m not saying it can’t, I’m saying people won’t even connect the two. Look at the reviews of 12 rules and people will usually grudgingly admit that his self-help advice might be useful, but really, it will tend to rile up exactly the wrong kind of person, and anyway, what does any of this have to do with politics?

This is what I keep trying to get at about effective altruism, as well. It’s not that it’s wrong, it’s that by its very nature it will never be about providing me, personally, with any help, because it’s focused on stopping rogue AIs and mailing out malaria nets, fine causes but notice that, while Rationalists see “How can I stop a super-intelligent AI from destroying us” as a solvable problem “How do I make the kind of friends who will spontaneously check on me if I sound like I’m sick?” is completely insolvable.

To the extent that my existing faculties haven’t already made it happen, unfortunately there are no clarifying frameworks or advice better than, “Well, it’s hard.”

Rationalists are better about this than generic leftists but I also feel like that’s a low bar. Answers to the question “What can I do to concretely improve my life, and, for that matter, why should I even bother, what’s the point?” are becoming ever more disconnected from left-wing thought, and most of the concrete attempts to answer these questions are coming from the right.

I actually don’t think this is good, incidentally.

[rgr-pop]

LONG POST AIRING GRIEVANCES ABOUT DUMB SHIT IN BEAUTY COMMUNITY!! 

oh my GOD. okay, so, small youtuber who is climbing. beloved by many small youtubers because she is a regular girl and very nice and FROM UPSTATE NEW YORK and has social justice interests, she also posts a lot of drama content and some people (including me tbh) really like the way she kind of ~~democratizes drama content. don’t @ me it’s whatever. reddit HATES her because her mother buys her a lot of makeup for her birthday (literally) and she is not into self-punishing no-buys which is the only thing people like right now very coincidentally (going on a no-buy is apparently how you end landfills).

this youtuber is fat and not conventionally pretty--I really hate even saying the latter because it is objectively not true and also an evil thing to say even nicely, but for example she is always talking about how she doesn’t really care that her lips are small and is not interested in overdrawing or “fixing” them, and getting flamed for it. in the community (the respectable arm of it, which is the rddt, where we are ostensibly not allowed to be like “she looks terrible”), where there is smoke there is fire, and “not skilled at makeup” + maybe some nebulous complaints about whininess = she is a fat girl, end her. (”rude” = black youtuber too much power, end her.)

i’m talking about sm*key gl*w whose name is hannah, hannah #1, i think it is interesting to contrast her with the other hannah that i talk about sometimes--i try not to talk about her too much because we sort of teechnically have real world social connections and, also, i just feel bad for her. i feel desperately bad for hannah #2, because she is in her thirties having lived in art communities and global urban centers but for the first time in her life having to reckon with things like--”it is not appropriate to talk about calories at dinner, etc.” that is the second hannah, and while she is sweet and interesting to many in the small youtube community precisely because she is very alien to them (has mfa), it’s very difficult to watch, and sometimes i think she is the most “toxic” youtuber i follow. she is not an originator in any way, but she found herself in the center of a so-called anticonsumerist movement in small beautube that is kind of taking over, which is related to but not exactly minimalism--you have probably heard me talk about this already, at length. a good example of this is that second hannah recently said in a video that she was thinking of doing a shopping “fast.” i don’t know how she became this person, and how she held onto this kind of personality in spite of being in lots of communities that i am also in or have friends in where i know that if you talked this way about dieting etc. at a social event, someone would probably softly scold you. she somehow insulated herself from this kind of learning, i don’t know, then she threw herself into beautube where a woman who maybe sort of likes art and writes poetry and has heard of “fair trade” before is an absolute anomaly, but that community--like literally, where people do liposuction and skinny teas!--has only encouraged this absolutely unreal nasty and BAD behavior. etc. i have a lot of feelings about this.

so first hannah is a fat girl who is not rich--we will get to that!--but spends her money primarily on makeup. people HATE her. second hannah is thin, possibly rich in family origin (i think she is) but basically your average working artist in life. she frames her so-called overconsumption not even precisely as an addiction but specifically as a lack of willpower that she also struggles with when it comes to sometimes eating sugar (really). both of these hannahs consume and talk about quite a lot of luxury makeup--second hannah is very openly committed to luxury purchase as part of her self-conception. second hannah sometimes goes on “shopping diets” though, so people praise her! it is evil. 

above is the shit i hate day in and day out but the points below will have more to do with the screencap +...upstate new york, i guess. henceforth we are only talking about first hannah.

so this girl is from some kind of small town around rochester or syracuse--something up there. iirc she goes to a suny school i had never heard of (i looked it up and it is a “suny comprehensive college,” though i can’t remember if she transferred out of this school to a bigger school. but, as many of you know, sunys are cheap as hell and should be protected at all costs, this school costs well under half what my state school did, for residents anyway.) she is in her mid-twenties and not graduated yet, due to struggles she has had (and spoken openly about) as well as having gone to community college. they LOVE to bring up how she is too old to be a college student! she’s like...idk 24 or something. she is going to school to be a social worker in one of those accelerated programs, which she has found quite difficult (again, spoken openly about this) and which also requires, as many of you know!, lots of extra work, unpaid and paid. she said somewhere that she does not have student loans, but i don’t know if her parents paid for her college or just shouldered loans, or if she paid for it, or if it is all financial aid. (”not having student loans” is something that enrages people, ESPECIALLY when someone doesn’t have loans because they got need-based aid.) again, she probably had some financial catastrophes due to school failures (speaking from experience here), but: sunys is cheap as hell and there are a million reasons why someone could go to one and not be struggling with loans!

where was i...her parents. watching this has fascinated me! her dad was a school teacher and her mom is a social worker--absolutely public servant middle class. i thiiink (could be wrong) that her father retired already and ended up retiring from a principalship, so they were probably extremely comfortable by the time she was in college, but they are definitionally middle class. the biggest controversy around this youtuber is that for birthdays and christmas her mother goes fucking insane--probably spent two to four hundred dollars on her for her birthday. she talks about this all the time: her mother and her are very close and their hobby is shopping. people treat this like the bougiest fucking thing on earth and it is ba nanas. straight up, this girl has probably never even HEARD of anthropologie. listen, i can’t afford to live like her either but i recognize poor shopping when i see it. working class people like to blow their money on bullshit and to take issue with that is demonstrably racist and classist! i will not hear this conversation over again in 2019. for example, hannah made a video about her “high end bag” collection, in which she said she got a bcbg bag on sale for like $30 but had never heard of the brand before. she had once been gifted a kate spade bag and her DREAM was to purchase one on her own. she buys coach at the local coach outlet, which is a regional attraction. THIS GIRL IS NOT BOUGIE! THEY ARE JUST MAD THAT SHE OWNS CLOTHES AND IS ALSO FAT! she did a closet tour where she talked about how she has like 50 crop tops, they were ALL like forever 21. they are just mad about fat girl in crop tops. there is nothing to see here! does she have too much shit, and shop too much? sure. welcome to flyover country you dumb bitches. that is what I think about that!

so, she definitely makes money on youtube, but mostly enough to sustain youtube and makeup buying (possibly some savings? unsure. i know she said this in a video but i forget.) she has lived with this boyfriend of hers for a number of years and they are building a life together that doesn’t immediately include marriage, probably largely for financial reasons. i get the sense that his jobs pay a lot of their bills, but he just finished getting a teaching MA of some kind (i think he is a math teacher? i already forgot) and is entering the regular teaching job market. based on some of the following i think his parents might be wealthier than hers but i think they might also be teachers. as you can see in the screenshot above, people are enraged at this girl for apparently being a gold digger for getting a house with him before they are married! 

people are SO pissed that she was “able to buy a house” at age 25, but they did not watch the video! in which she said that they had been dealing with the death of her bf’s step grandpa all year, and the family had decided that they should take over the step grandpa’s house. (step grandpa’s family does sound “richer” because, according to her, this house had been owned by a GREAT grandparent and paid off decades ago.) her descriptions of this house are confusing to me because she keeps referring to it as both “old” and “from the eighties,”; I think it is an actually old house that had not been “updated” since the eighties. seems like the family did not “gift” it to them as much as sign it over to them in exchange for them being the ones to take out the renovation loans, which allegedly she said are $50k. unclear to me if she and her bf got approved for that loan--probably not, I think it was taken out in the family’s name. ($50k is too much to put into a house in rochester imooo but I am reserving my judgment there! rochester has a very flyover housing economy, much like ours, but with a much higher end, I think?)

so anyway, these vultures are sociopaths. “ Who gives someone a house no matter how much they like them? That seems wild to me” ...p-parents? dead grandparents? is your will gonna be like “my kid has to buy their OWN house like i did!” who are these people

YES SOMETIMES YOU STOP NEEDING YOUR HOUSE, WHEN YOU DIE

anyway I’m done. I just thought this thing would be of interest in particular to the upstate new yorkers. the whole condition of the indebted working-middle class is just like inconceivable to people who consume only ideologically pure content by wealthy west coast whites all day long 

[yellowfang89]

It’s wild how much has happened and changed since 2010, and now going into 2020. I was going to put in a "read more" out of courtesy but for some fuck ass reason, when I came in to edit it, Tumblr isn't giving me that option and the code ain't working and now I'm slightly buzzed so what the fuck ever you can just keep scrolling if you don't care lol.

January 2010- Obsessed with Legend of the Seeker. Wrapped up finishing playing Pokemon Diamond- my first pokemon game on recommendation of my best friend at the time. My last semester of community college started.

March/April 2010- got acceptance letter to the local state college I planned on transferring to. Best friend didn’t get any notice on whether she got accepted or not, but got an acceptance letter from another college about an hour away, and decided to go there instead. After making this decision, she finally got the acceptance letter from the local state college. But she still ended up going to the hour away one. Also, I turned 21 and had my first margarita.

May 2010- Graduated community college with an AA in art. God, I remember when I used to love art.

At some point I ended up officially leaving Myspace for Facebook, kicking and screaming, because everyone had ditched Myspace for it. I hated Facebook but got used to it.

August 2010- went on a two week cruise to Alaska. Came back and started new college afterwards. Had no friends and was lonely, though kept in close touch with best friend over Facebook. Got new Macbook.

September 2010- Finally found myself in a new friend group. Saw a beautiful boy on lightrail I wanted to talk to, but had no courage to. Realized that this kind of shit was probably why I didn’t have a boyfriend, and I wanted a boyfriend for the sole reason of not feeling like a loser for never having one.

October 2010- Saw same beauty, gathered up the nerve and talked to him. Turned out he also went to my school. We started seeing each other regularly on there and things started taking off. 

November 2010- Started hanging out with him regularly, got my first kiss from him. Became an official couple.

2011- Can’t remember what months and for what, because things start blending in together. But

- Beloved cat of five years died.

- Lost my virginity

- Didn’t have much money in bank account and stressed out over it. Couldn’t get a job to rectify the situation cuz no experience.

- Started feeling guilty over the smallest things like asking to borrow a piece of paper from someone. Mentally acknowledging this was weird but also shrugging it off. 

- Lost my appetite and had food problems overall- despite always having “food problems.” Never wanted to eat.

- Distinctly remember my stomach rumbling in class and thinking, “good maybe i’ll starve to death!”

2012- Shit blended in together again this year, and for every year here on out.

- Came to the realization one day when walking to the bus that I literally would not care if someone came at me with a gun because I just… didn’t want to exist anymore. Saw nothing wrong with this.

- The thought “things would be better if I was dead” came to my brain out of nowhere. I briefly wondered if this counted as a “suicidal thought.”

-Decided to Google shit like suicidal thoughts, went down a rabbit hole that made me suspect I had depression. It explained things that I thought were off but didn’t care enough to do anything about.

- Eventually saw a counselor at school about this.

- Got a hamster. Hamster died this same year.

- Got a volunteer position at a library scanning old yearbooks onto a computer so I could have some sort of “work experience” to get a job.

- Boyfriend had got me Pokemon Heartgold earlier. I started trying to “collect them all” because why not.

- I switched from using an ethernet chord to WiFi and it changed my life. Especially since I was able to go on the GTS in Pokemon and trade, though it was fucky cuz you could only trade Pokemon you’ve already seen back then.

- Ended up getting Pokemon Black, and it introduced GTS Negotiations which allowed me to match with other trainers and trade Pokemon live. Due to this, I managed to obtain every Pokemon I couldn’t get in my other games. Except event legendaries, unfortunately. I consider this one of my greatest accomplishments and keep up with this to this day.

- Considered switching my major from Graphic Design to Digital Media because I liked my Digital Media class a lot more than my Design classes. And made that switch.

- I decided to minor in psychology because I had already taken a few psych classes for GE credits so why tf not.

- Towards the end, got a “student” job at that same library doing the same thing except with artwork instead of yearbooks. Finally had money. Depression starting to lift? But job was only a 4-8 hour a week deal so not that much money in the long run.

2013-

- Discovered demisexuality via a comment on Reddit. It described me pretty damn well. Weight lifted off shoulders I didn’t even realize was there. Things made sense omg.

- Joined Tumblr.

- Best friend came over for what turned out being the last time. She was moving to Arizona.

- Got a second job working at the tech company my Dad worked at, helping out the customer service rep.

- Slowly found myself drifting apart from friend. Depression still present. Made things hard but tbh she never contacted me either. I got the impression she was mad at me given she unfollowed me on Tumblr without explanation.

- Since not a lot of work to be done helping the csr, I ended up helping our our shipping guy and became his backup. Eventually the purchaser left on maternity leave and I took her place, eventually becoming the main purchaser because they moved her to accounts receivable.

- Decided that my depression was making me a piece of shit friend so I decided to contact best friend to see how things were, only to get a cryptic, passive aggressive, two-word response back. Ended up just dropping it and figured she’d eventually come around and tell me what was wrong. She never did…

2014

- Depression on and off due to the stress of going to work and going to school. At this point I hated all art and wanted nothing to do with any of it and only went to school for the piece of paper saying I graduated college.

- I think this was when I started calling myself gray ace instead of demi because why the hell not and I’ve only been sexually attracted to one person anyway. Possibly still demiromantic though- to this day I’m still unsure tbh.

- Boyfriend taught me to drive. I got my license. I got my first car.

December 2014- I graduated college. It cured my depression. Unfortunately, it was replaced with carpal tunnel. 

2015

- Carpal tunnel still full force. All I could do was read.

- I caught up on all the books I’ve wanted to read. Eventually came across Warrior Cats. Thought it was stupid for the first 50 pages, but then became addicted. Lost interest when I had to wait several months for the next arc to come out.

- The year I got into wrestling. I shipped Rolleigns so fuckin’ hard.

- Undertale came out and became one of my favorite games of all time.

- Find out brother is addicted to painkillers which is why he had been acting like such an ass.

- Dumped Facebook.

- Driver at the company I worked at quit. Company wants me to be “temporary” driver on top of purchasing, shipping, and assisting the customer service rep.

- Got into writing and wrote a book and continued writing off and on from then to now.

2016/2017/2018? I can’t even keep track anymore.

- Pokemon Go came out and I finally got a smart phone because of it.

- Brother gets girlfriend and then gets married after only being together a year. Brother seems to have gotten better.

- They started having marital problems almost immediately. My brother turned out being an alcoholic and fuck knows if he’s still doing drugs or not he says he’s not but he’s also a chronic liar. A lot of drama happens that I don’t want to get into. They are now divorced- after two years of marriage. 

- Got new laptop cuz Macbook got too old, although it still works.

- The company I had been working at, which had always been a shit company with no money, starts going down the shitter more than it already was.

September 2017- customer service rep quits and I have to do her job on top of purchasing, shipping, and driving. Mental breakdowns become common. Depression worse than it had ever been in my life. 

January 2018- get a 45 cent raise because minimum wage went up meaning I was now making minimum wage doing all the bullshit I was doing.

May 2018- Get new job doing ONLY shipping for a few extra bucks more an hour. Depression cured.

2019

- Got in a car accident (not my fault). Car totaled. Replaced it with a 2018 car so it’s all good.

- Experienced my first flat tire half a year later.

- Still get random bouts of depression.

- Still with same boy from 2010. Would love to move in together but fuck if I know when that’ll happen. 

- Still wondering wtf happened with my (ex) best friend and am still trying to get over it. Am considering the possibility that it was probably my depressed ass not talking to her at all for like 4 months. Unfortunately I have no way of contacting her to try and make peace because we both dumped Facebook.

- Got back into Warrior Cats.

- Dad got new girlfriend. Parents finally working on getting the divorce they wanted to get 20+ years ago but never did cuz neither one wanted to spend money on it.

- Briefly considered taking up drawing again but my skills have tanked significantly because I haven’t drawn since graduating college. Plus I’m lazy. 

- Obsessed with The Witcher.

So much has changed throughout this decade and fuck if I know how next decade is gonna turn out for me but I sure hope it's a better one.

Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night!

[airoasis]

Why I Choose Bitcoin Cash

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/why-i-choose-bitcoin-cash/

Why I Choose Bitcoin Cash

I prefer a Peer to see digital money over the whole lot. Correct now the first-class form of this comes in the form of Bitcoin cash, which holds the ticker BCH on virtually all exchanges. My title is Collin Enstad, i’ve lived in the USA my entire lifestyles. I am a freelance director / cinematographer / steadicam operator. I first heard about Bitcoin in 2013 in the course of its bubble, the place it peaked at $1200. I consider my first purchase was once around $one hundred fifty however I only bought a bit bit, as much as I might find the money for being a broke school pupil. I made some cash and purchased matters with it, like this bizarre digicam rig. Of course part of the adoption of bitcoin is brought about via men and women speculating trying to generate income off of it. But i noticed I had actual utility, I could use it as money. An investment that’s liquid as hell. Excellent. I requested an harmless query in late 2015 on the uncensored bitcoin subreddit, /r/btc: ELI5: Why achieve this many individuals insist on a small block size?. I got first-rate answers, similar to Blockstreams function in taking up the progress, how Peter Todd remains to be seeking to these days to kill 0-affirmation transactions, and how the Core devs have been proscribing the bottom layer to push a 2nd one that they claimed would be even higher than the actual blockchain.All of these aspects nonetheless maintain proper to nowadays. I even respect a number of the names within the thread from again then with persons I still speak to in these days. I even had some put up calling out theymos, the king of censorship, round this time. How things have no longer transformed. The extra I dig up the more obvious the manipulation of public opinion. Once more, this was once in 2015 this was all being called out, 4 years ago. Thats close to 1/2 of bitcoins lifetime. Crypto is really just politics, but on a time scale which appears hundreds and hundreds of times faster.I was once continuously a huge blocker. 1MB is tiny. Its less knowledge than a 2d of this video. It gave the impression a majority of the community back in 2015 was once for bigger blocks too. How a small crew of Core developers took over and sabotaged the bitcoin experiment with never-ending small blocks will be rather the exciting case be taught in historical past class. Im nonetheless seeking to utterly wrap my head around how Gavin, the character Satoshi entrusted with the keys to the bitcoin code, used to be pushed out and ostracized for looking the logical answer, higher blocks.Its a narrative that takes a long time to tell, and entails a false Satoshi. Im currently engaged on a feature size documentary about the shitshow that’s bitcoins history. The real down and dirty bitcoin politics, no longer some loud mouth troll showing up on tv spouting nonsense. So the fork happened in August 2017 and the large block version, Bitcoin cash, didn’t win over the hearts and minds of traders. Instantaneous ridicule from the Core persons ensued, as used to be par for the path. Bcash is trash was once their mantra, in an try to rip the word bitcoin out of its name. Now take into account, theymos fairly ramped up his censorship on /r/bitcoin in 2015. Reddit used to be THE spot to talk bitcoin, and theymos actions make him, individually, the only greatest affect on this whole Scaling warfare. Go to any publish from again then about theymos increasing moderation and appear at how many individuals vehemently adverse it.One of bitcoins most important residences is censorship-resistance, however apparently whenever you go away the protocol layer you additionally abandon all of its ethos. When your methods hotel to silencing the opposition you understand your arguments aren’t on stable floor. If they were, they might let all of the dissent come their approach and evaporate before them in the face of truth. However no. The block and ban buttons are used as a type of religious piety. This itself was once a tremendous red flag that some thing used to be wrong with Bitcoin. As a latest concrete instance of manipulation, My ultra-modern video criticizing the lightning community was once the top put up on /r/btc, except every week historic news story broke in regards to the Twitter CEO, Jack, purchasing a hardware pockets all of a sudden unseated it. This Jack story was once in a antagonistic sub and it won the highest spot in an hour. Mods deleted the submit shortly after. The account had a history of vote botting. Proof Of Social Media. Par for the course for those against peer to peer money. And this this is the place I just get angry.BTC does no longer work as a trustworthy form of money, but its still pushed on unsuspecting noobs, many who now go to the bcash sunday service. These social media influencers have 10s of hundreds of thousands of followers that they preach the nice word to absolutely this many folks wouldnt listen to any person who was just basically unsuitable! This market is immature and albeit, just dumb. I really awoke to all of this when instantly I was paying $1 for a transaction rate in early 2017. This isn’t what I signed up for. My money will have to not disappear every time I need to move it. When Bitcoin cash forked, I was all in, actually with my nonetheless tiny stash and figuratively from an ideological standpoint. Does this provide me investment bias? Almost always, however again, Im now not talking tremendous cash right here.Irregardless, I do my research and its the one coin i can confidently put my cash in. I do know what it is trying to do is the reason bitcoin was created in the first place, which is what once more? Oh yeah, to offer each person in the world an possibility to be their own bank. To give humans the potential to transact with anyone in the world with out the necessity of a 3rd celebration, even if they make not up to $2 a day. That is bitcoin. I kept diving deeper into the rabbit hole. Undoubtedly each person couldnt be this deluded however they were. Advocating for the shrewd factor of raising the blocksize and how BCH is a reliable variation of Bitcoin on social media has been tiring. I dont know the way a few of these trolls are so lively and simply hostile.I grew up with the web, part of the primary iteration that had social media for his or her whole middle and excessive institution experience. However these bitcoin guys man, the most poisonous i have ever seen. You have to have thick epidermis when you even believe about having impartial idea in crypto. Its sad. I haven’t any doubt there are individuals whose full-time job it is to sow up disagreement and strife within people who want to see Bitcoin be the arena money. Theres even proof of In November of 2017 I made a industrial for BCH with the support of the Bitcoin money association. It used to be a excessive high-quality industrial in a barber store which showed bitcoin getting used as cash. Response from the group was once nice, and i located myself in Tokyo a pair months later shooting the Satoshis vision convention, where a few of the Bitcoin cash group attended.I interviewed lots of the prime leaders in BCH for the period of that point interval for my documentary together with Craig Wright. This man appeared to come out of nowhere and was once a large suggest of Bitcoin cash. He had charisma, unquestionably, even when his Satoshi claims have been iffy. I consider the BCH neighborhood sided with him on account that he was once so anti-core. An enemy of an enemy is your buddy. And on the grounds that this buddy was very aggressive and outspoken in the direction of the purpose, many were inclined to let his shadiness slide.However very quickly after this convention actual bitcoin devs, who in reality work on and comprehend the bitcoin protocol, began calling him out on his lies. It was once rough to confess youd been duped, but right here we all are. Then, of direction he forked off into his possess coin months later, and his fraud lives on. Then comes the altcoin arguments. For those who dont like BTC so much simply use nano? Dash is the real peer to see cash! Lol noob do you even cardano? Well, considering BCH has the identical transaction historical past relationship again to the genesis block in 2009, one could argue the distribution of the coin is more decentralized than any of the altcoins, due to the fact that it has been around the longest.Im a strong believer in Proof of work as well. Even though BCH has a lot less hashpower than BTC, it has been shown how a gigantic portion of hash would transfer to BCH in safeguard of a malicious actor, like we noticed within the hashwar. The miners like Bitcoin money, however they generally follow gains, and this means mining BTC and BCH on the same price as the fee ratio between them. Now that BCH is free from its former crippled blocksize, most things the altcoins can do, BCH would enforce itself. Even things just like the lightning community would work muchhhh higher on Bitcoin cash as a result of the small charges to open and shut channels. Bitcoin was once intended to be the one crypto that ruled all of them, absorbing the quality altcoin facets. Vitalik Buterin found out this was no longer the case to any extent further, and he ran off to make Ethereum in 2015 after a lot combating with the Core devs. So right here I to find myself, in March 2019, nonetheless a supporter of Bitcoin cash. That you may believe the creative and grassroots power of individuals who just wish to construct. I hear the Bitcoin OGs say its the same spirit that bitcoin had it in its early days.Persons that CARE about making bitcoin exceptional again. And of path, the small blocks made building apps problematic for devs, because the excessive charges and sluggish confirmations might disable some functions who relied on inexpensive and speedy transactions. Full blocks rationale unreliability. And if youre a dev and need to construct an app, why within the hell would you use a base protocol that can instantly price $50 for a single use. If BCH stops being the excellent type of P2P money, make no mistake, i’d drop aid. Im no longer a blind follower and am at all times watching to mission my beliefs. Tokens, Decentralized handles, Badger wallet, suggestions.Cash, CashShuffle, Satoshidice the record goes on. So many of those projects are simply now hitting the Bitcoin cash market, and wallets are looking to catch up and implement these elements as speedy as they may be able to.Its nonetheless early in Bitcoin Cashs development existence, and the power within the community is the equal one I felt once I first received into it, vibrant, filled with hope for a greater future, and now with an added tenacity to make certain that no dangerous actors can once once more spoil the imaginative and prescient of Peer to look cash for the complete world. .

[batterymonster2021]

Why I Choose Bitcoin Cash

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/why-i-choose-bitcoin-cash/

Why I Choose Bitcoin Cash

I prefer a Peer to see digital money over the whole lot. Correct now the first-class form of this comes in the form of Bitcoin cash, which holds the ticker BCH on virtually all exchanges. My title is Collin Enstad, i’ve lived in the USA my entire lifestyles. I am a freelance director / cinematographer / steadicam operator. I first heard about Bitcoin in 2013 in the course of its bubble, the place it peaked at $1200. I consider my first purchase was once around $one hundred fifty however I only bought a bit bit, as much as I might find the money for being a broke school pupil. I made some cash and purchased matters with it, like this bizarre digicam rig. Of course part of the adoption of bitcoin is brought about via men and women speculating trying to generate income off of it. But i noticed I had actual utility, I could use it as money. An investment that’s liquid as hell. Excellent. I requested an harmless query in late 2015 on the uncensored bitcoin subreddit, /r/btc: ELI5: Why achieve this many individuals insist on a small block size?. I got first-rate answers, similar to Blockstreams function in taking up the progress, how Peter Todd remains to be seeking to these days to kill 0-affirmation transactions, and how the Core devs have been proscribing the bottom layer to push a 2nd one that they claimed would be even higher than the actual blockchain.All of these aspects nonetheless maintain proper to nowadays. I even respect a number of the names within the thread from again then with persons I still speak to in these days. I even had some put up calling out theymos, the king of censorship, round this time. How things have no longer transformed. The extra I dig up the more obvious the manipulation of public opinion. Once more, this was once in 2015 this was all being called out, 4 years ago. Thats close to 1/2 of bitcoins lifetime. Crypto is really just politics, but on a time scale which appears hundreds and hundreds of times faster.I was once continuously a huge blocker. 1MB is tiny. Its less knowledge than a 2d of this video. It gave the impression a majority of the community back in 2015 was once for bigger blocks too. How a small crew of Core developers took over and sabotaged the bitcoin experiment with never-ending small blocks will be rather the exciting case be taught in historical past class. Im nonetheless seeking to utterly wrap my head around how Gavin, the character Satoshi entrusted with the keys to the bitcoin code, used to be pushed out and ostracized for looking the logical answer, higher blocks.Its a narrative that takes a long time to tell, and entails a false Satoshi. Im currently engaged on a feature size documentary about the shitshow that’s bitcoins history. The real down and dirty bitcoin politics, no longer some loud mouth troll showing up on tv spouting nonsense. So the fork happened in August 2017 and the large block version, Bitcoin cash, didn’t win over the hearts and minds of traders. Instantaneous ridicule from the Core persons ensued, as used to be par for the path. Bcash is trash was once their mantra, in an try to rip the word bitcoin out of its name. Now take into account, theymos fairly ramped up his censorship on /r/bitcoin in 2015. Reddit used to be THE spot to talk bitcoin, and theymos actions make him, individually, the only greatest affect on this whole Scaling warfare. Go to any publish from again then about theymos increasing moderation and appear at how many individuals vehemently adverse it.One of bitcoins most important residences is censorship-resistance, however apparently whenever you go away the protocol layer you additionally abandon all of its ethos. When your methods hotel to silencing the opposition you understand your arguments aren’t on stable floor. If they were, they might let all of the dissent come their approach and evaporate before them in the face of truth. However no. The block and ban buttons are used as a type of religious piety. This itself was once a tremendous red flag that some thing used to be wrong with Bitcoin. As a latest concrete instance of manipulation, My ultra-modern video criticizing the lightning community was once the top put up on /r/btc, except every week historic news story broke in regards to the Twitter CEO, Jack, purchasing a hardware pockets all of a sudden unseated it. This Jack story was once in a antagonistic sub and it won the highest spot in an hour. Mods deleted the submit shortly after. The account had a history of vote botting. Proof Of Social Media. Par for the course for those against peer to peer money. And this this is the place I just get angry.BTC does no longer work as a trustworthy form of money, but its still pushed on unsuspecting noobs, many who now go to the bcash sunday service. These social media influencers have 10s of hundreds of thousands of followers that they preach the nice word to absolutely this many folks wouldnt listen to any person who was just basically unsuitable! This market is immature and albeit, just dumb. I really awoke to all of this when instantly I was paying $1 for a transaction rate in early 2017. This isn’t what I signed up for. My money will have to not disappear every time I need to move it. When Bitcoin cash forked, I was all in, actually with my nonetheless tiny stash and figuratively from an ideological standpoint. Does this provide me investment bias? Almost always, however again, Im now not talking tremendous cash right here.Irregardless, I do my research and its the one coin i can confidently put my cash in. I do know what it is trying to do is the reason bitcoin was created in the first place, which is what once more? Oh yeah, to offer each person in the world an possibility to be their own bank. To give humans the potential to transact with anyone in the world with out the necessity of a 3rd celebration, even if they make not up to $2 a day. That is bitcoin. I kept diving deeper into the rabbit hole. Undoubtedly each person couldnt be this deluded however they were. Advocating for the shrewd factor of raising the blocksize and how BCH is a reliable variation of Bitcoin on social media has been tiring. I dont know the way a few of these trolls are so lively and simply hostile.I grew up with the web, part of the primary iteration that had social media for his or her whole middle and excessive institution experience. However these bitcoin guys man, the most poisonous i have ever seen. You have to have thick epidermis when you even believe about having impartial idea in crypto. Its sad. I haven’t any doubt there are individuals whose full-time job it is to sow up disagreement and strife within people who want to see Bitcoin be the arena money. Theres even proof of In November of 2017 I made a industrial for BCH with the support of the Bitcoin money association. It used to be a excessive high-quality industrial in a barber store which showed bitcoin getting used as cash. Response from the group was once nice, and i located myself in Tokyo a pair months later shooting the Satoshis vision convention, where a few of the Bitcoin cash group attended.I interviewed lots of the prime leaders in BCH for the period of that point interval for my documentary together with Craig Wright. This man appeared to come out of nowhere and was once a large suggest of Bitcoin cash. He had charisma, unquestionably, even when his Satoshi claims have been iffy. I consider the BCH neighborhood sided with him on account that he was once so anti-core. An enemy of an enemy is your buddy. And on the grounds that this buddy was very aggressive and outspoken in the direction of the purpose, many were inclined to let his shadiness slide.However very quickly after this convention actual bitcoin devs, who in reality work on and comprehend the bitcoin protocol, began calling him out on his lies. It was once rough to confess youd been duped, but right here we all are. Then, of direction he forked off into his possess coin months later, and his fraud lives on. Then comes the altcoin arguments. For those who dont like BTC so much simply use nano? Dash is the real peer to see cash! Lol noob do you even cardano? Well, considering BCH has the identical transaction historical past relationship again to the genesis block in 2009, one could argue the distribution of the coin is more decentralized than any of the altcoins, due to the fact that it has been around the longest.Im a strong believer in Proof of work as well. Even though BCH has a lot less hashpower than BTC, it has been shown how a gigantic portion of hash would transfer to BCH in safeguard of a malicious actor, like we noticed within the hashwar. The miners like Bitcoin money, however they generally follow gains, and this means mining BTC and BCH on the same price as the fee ratio between them. Now that BCH is free from its former crippled blocksize, most things the altcoins can do, BCH would enforce itself. Even things just like the lightning community would work muchhhh higher on Bitcoin cash as a result of the small charges to open and shut channels. Bitcoin was once intended to be the one crypto that ruled all of them, absorbing the quality altcoin facets. Vitalik Buterin found out this was no longer the case to any extent further, and he ran off to make Ethereum in 2015 after a lot combating with the Core devs. So right here I to find myself, in March 2019, nonetheless a supporter of Bitcoin cash. That you may believe the creative and grassroots power of individuals who just wish to construct. I hear the Bitcoin OGs say its the same spirit that bitcoin had it in its early days.Persons that CARE about making bitcoin exceptional again. And of path, the small blocks made building apps problematic for devs, because the excessive charges and sluggish confirmations might disable some functions who relied on inexpensive and speedy transactions. Full blocks rationale unreliability. And if youre a dev and need to construct an app, why within the hell would you use a base protocol that can instantly price $50 for a single use. If BCH stops being the excellent type of P2P money, make no mistake, i’d drop aid. Im no longer a blind follower and am at all times watching to mission my beliefs. Tokens, Decentralized handles, Badger wallet, suggestions.Cash, CashShuffle, Satoshidice the record goes on. So many of those projects are simply now hitting the Bitcoin cash market, and wallets are looking to catch up and implement these elements as speedy as they may be able to.Its nonetheless early in Bitcoin Cashs development existence, and the power within the community is the equal one I felt once I first received into it, vibrant, filled with hope for a greater future, and now with an added tenacity to make certain that no dangerous actors can once once more spoil the imaginative and prescient of Peer to look cash for the complete world. .

[placesthatchangedpeople]

A former resident about Eating Recovery Center

Hi! I'm new here. I've procrastinated for ages wrt joining reddit because I generally don't like it very much, but some communities speak to me. This is one of them.

The place I was sent to wasn't as bad as some of what I see here, I think because it was (purportedly) single-issue, rather than "treating" all kinds of teen trouble. They were hand in hand with wilderness camps and boarding schools, though. Their marketing directors - the people who gussy up the website and advertise their 97% parent satisfaction rate - were trained by, and have past experience at, CRC Health. They run Aspen education programs, and a whole bunch of other ones. They regularly sent kids off to wilderness camps or schools after they finished with ERC. It was like the "next step".

The place that I was was called Eating Recovery Center (ERC) and it's located in Denver, CO, although they have off-shoot locations in Texas, California, and more. They do have an adult treatment center as well, but I believe it is less abusive.

The child and adolescent inpatient and residential facility is awful, but incredibly popular. They've spread to something like ten states, luring families in with their garbage website. The whole thing is written like "Parents, you're so stressed, and it's because your child is a Gigantic Problem. We know how hard it is to have horrible kids. Please, send them to us, and we'll rehabilitate them while you get to relax and connect with the fun parts of life, which you haven't been able to do with your lil problem child over here." It's marketing genius. Whenever a kid says "hey, this is abusive", not only do they say that the kid is a dirty liar who just wants to leave, they actually say that this is proof that it's working. Like, "Your child has been taken prisoner by their Evil Disorder. As we cure your child from the Disorder, the Disorder gets scared and lashes out. Your true child is waiting underneath, and they're very excited to be healing. The more that your child fights our program, the closer to recovery they are. Claiming that we are abusive is, in fact, a sign of recovery." That's a summary, but you get the gist. It's like a god damned exorcism.

I was a patient there in 2013, in September. I wasn't there for long, because I made a fuss about their abuse, and I was 18 and they knew they couldn't fully shut me up, so they transferred me to a lower level of care. They did, however, convince my parents (who, to their credit, were just desperate and didn't want me to die; they've since acknowledged that they fucked up) that if I signed myself out of treatment, I should not be allowed home, and should be left to live on the street. The idea, I think, was that this would "shock" me into getting better. Yet they (the RTC staff) also told me that they didn't care if I was any better when I left so long as I followed their rules in the meantime. But, details. So.

They were emotionally and psychologically abusive, as well as neglectful and I'd say perhaps physically. Psychiatrically, too. The shittiest thing they did, in my opinion, was lock my twelve year old friend in isolation for 14 hours as punishment for exercising (I do not know how much she'd been exercising, but since this place considers standing up from a seated position to be 'excessive movement', it was probably nothing - standing up without permission was considered an infraction). She wasn't allowed so much as access to a bathroom, and wound up defecating on herself. Staff didn't see this as a problem. They told her it was her fault, and that she needed to make better choices.

The threat of isolation as a punishment for ignoring behavior warnings (three "redirections" and you're punished) was always there, and this room was called the "quiet room", if I remember correctly. During my stay there, there was one patient who was eleven years old and had some sort of developmental disability, and they kept him in isolation for what I think was days. I remember that he regularly wound up in there and that we could often hear him crying and screaming. How therapeutic /s

Patients were given NG (nasal gastric) tubes if they refused a meal. I had an NG tube put in, which didn't bother me very much, but it made my nose run like no other and made it really hard to swallow solid food. It wouldn't stop dripping during nighttime snack, but we weren't allowed Kleenex or napkins. I asked a staff member for a napkin due to literally not being able to stop the deluge of snot from my nostrils, right, and she kept refusing and said she wouldn't help me until I finished my snack. I kept asking and eventually, she gave me a really bitchy look and threw the napkins at my face. This isn't particularly abusive, I think, because napkins don't hurt, but that's just not the kind of behavior that should be shown by somebody working in a treatment facility. The staff would regularly scream at kids who didn't finish snacks or meals.

I, along with several of the kids, regularly didn't finish meals. And by regularly, I mean over the course of my first day or two, so not much of a precident, imo. This issue was brought up after dinner, when the group gathered for a post-meal check-in. Patients were encouraged to name the patients who were not finishing meals, explain how said patient was bothersome to them, and then the staff would shame the patients who were named, and ask the other patients to help come up with an appropriate "response" (punishment). The staff decided that we should be made to sit at a separate table, in a separate room, during meal times, and not be permitted to speak to each other, nor communicate in any other way. If we made prolonged eye contact or started giggling, we were reprimanded. Talking at meal times was one of the ways that patients coped with having to eat large meals, and it kept morale up, and they took it away as a punishment. It certainly doesn't make anyone eat better. When we had downtime, we were closely monitored so that we never discussed our grievances re: the program, with each other. We managed to anyway, by whispering and speaking as quickly as possible, by writing notes which we then had to dispose of (since they went through all of our belongings and journals, and withheld these things whenever they arbitrarily deemed them inappropriate - my journal was confiscated because I wasn't displaying the proper mindset). But staff were always looming, and it was stressful.

I don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure that I wasn't allowed contact with my parents for the first three days of my stay. I could be conflating it with some other hospital or center, but I don't think so. All parents of patients were encouraged to stay in the Denver area for as long as possible, and my parents rented a condo (while also forking out some $30,000 per month) and came in for family therapy a couple of times a week. Family therapy consisted of my "therapist" (she was licensed, but I've no clue how) encouraging my parents to complain about me, and when I said that I didn't like something my parents had done, she just said, "well, I don't think they're doing that. That's not what I see at all. Maybe you should change your behavior/perception/etc." She gave me these ridiculous assignments a few times each week, and I never completed them, because they were stupid and I was on Mission: Get Myself Kicked Out of Here, but I found the way she handled this to be a red flag. She was /so/ disappointed that I hadn't done the assignments, and looked at me all sad, and said "[name], that hurts me. It hurts me when you ignore these things that I've worked so hard on for you. I want to help you. This is hurtful, can you see that?" The fact that she was so manipulative without a single qualm really worries me, because the majority of the patients were younger and less defiant than I was, and bought into all of the brainwashing and manipulation that these people touted.

The majority of them came from abusive homes, but the RTC's whole philosophy is that mental illness treatment has been centered on parental flaws for too long, that parents are perfect, and that kids are bitchy little problems for no good reason. This is a tempting philosophy both for parents like mine who aren't abusive and don't want to be told that they are, and for abusive parents who want to be validated and excused.

Everyone there was deprived of sleep (I used to fall asleep on the concrete floors), water (only one cup with meals), and the right to use the bathroom when we needed to. Staff actually bragged about having had patients pee on the floor before, like this was some kind of accomplishment, not letting children pee.

The psychiatrists would keep children on medications that the children complained about, things that didn't help, and I was personally fine with my meds but I had friends who were being kept on awful medications. They eventually just started doing that thing where they move the pills to that little pocket between their teeth and cheek, swallow the water, pass the "swallowed pills" check, and then spit them out.

Somehow, at one point, the staff got it into their heads that I wasn't changing my underwear every day. I have no clue how this happened, but they implemented a policy where I had to show them my clothes each day so that they could "make sure" I was changing all of them. Like, what? That doesn't even make sense to me, because wtf, but it was just really degrading. This might be slightly TMI, but when I was on my period (and I have endometriosis, so it's really heavy and makes me nearly pass out/vomit when I'm not on 'round the clock birth control), they still wouldn't let me use the bathroom except on Their Schedule. I had to beg to be allowed to use it, and they got so mad at me. Like, sorry? I can't actually do anything about this?? That was really degrading too. As if I wanted to tell a whole bunch of hostile, abusive near-strangers that I'd bled through my clothes again, damn.

I don't remember ever having a phone call. I saw my parents on weekends for an hour, but there wasn't much communication. When they kicked me out of residential and put me in partial hospitalization (a ten-hour-a-day every day outpatient program in a nearby building, also run by them - it was a "step down" thing), they told my parents to never let me have my cell phone for longer than thirty minutes, and to watch me (and its screen) the entire time I had it. To go through all of my electronics and journals to make sure I was Doing It Right. They told my parents that withholding everything I enjoy until I recovered was completely reasonable, and that it was okay (even good) to kick me out on to the street if I was noncompliant. Hilariously, I'd nearly been sold into sex trafficking not two months before I went to ERC, when I was 17, and I'm like, y'all, if you'd kicked me out I'm absolutely sure I would have been trafficked for real. Like, damn, talk about a bad idea. The whole reason I developed the eating disorder, self harm, suicidal behavior etc was because I was sexually abused as a kid, but we weren't ever allowed to discuss anything of any real import in therapy groups, and anyway, I was just A Problem Child, not traumatized /s

To this day, I still can't handle the word "manipulative". I use it very occasionally myself, but for the most part, seeing it used to describe anyone just makes me bristle. Even genuinely manipulative people. I just can't handle it. I was branded as manipulative so many times just for hurting and wanting real help.

I know that most other patients there went through worse things than I did, but I don't know the extent at all. It seemed like the younger the kid, the worse the abuse. Some of the young kids were able to quickly adapt and become The Perfect Patient, but those who didn't, got it bad.

I'm glad that I was relatively lucky (a three month stay, a somewhat less abusive center, being older). But all of these places just piss me off so much. The general public knows nothing about it. I've lurked on this subreddit before and finally decided to bite the bullet and post on it. I know my RTC experience wasn't anywhere close to as bad as it gets, but it still screwed me up for a long time. Luckily, I'm 100% mentally healthy and happy these days, but it took a lot of work and was only ever made worse by ERC and abusive therapists like them.

[mytearsrricochet]

hey kiddos I've been seeing so many people posting about them starting college this upcoming school year and 1. congratulations 2. I have some things I'd like to share about college experiences in general, though I realize they may not pertain to everyone’s college experience, but if I can help at least a few people I'm good! so here is Hannah’s Declassified Freshman Year of College Survival Guide, sorted by the kind of advice I'm gonna give. It’s a lot.

Additionally, if you want more info on anything on this list, message or DM me and I'll be happy to talk more about something or elaborate. It’s an extensive but not an exhaustive list.

Finances/Scholarships/Loans/What’s Usually included in your tuition

if you get a refund from scholarships or loans, don’t spend it unless it’s for educational expenses!!! that’s what it’s for, not for a shopping spree. I learned that the hard way! it’s usually decent amount of money (~$2000 or so is the usual at my school) so don’t go crazy over it

scholarships aren’t just available for your first year. you can reapply for a lot of them even after you first year, as long as it is noted that the scholarship is not just for incoming freshmen students.

FAFSA opens up October 1 every year. file it before February 1 to receive priority awards! you can file afterwards, but you are unlikely to receive a good grant/loan/other award after priority deadline. yes, you still have to fill out FAFSA after freshman year. you fill it out between October and February every year that you request aid in college. if you have a renewable scholarship, it is imperative that you continue to submit your FAFSA.

schools can also use FAFSA to give you an award from the school, which could be a donor, fund, or institutional scholarship. so you may not get anything from the government such as a pell grant, but you can still get something from the school.

just about every school I looked at during my own admissions process had some sort of financial coaching. if you don’t trust yourself with money and finances, such as with your refund or your personal finances, consider meeting with them. this is usually included in your tuition. 

your university sends out a detailed receipt of what is included in your tuition. it’s important to look over these costs, as you will be paying for lots of services that you may not even know about. most universities include campus gyms, campus-sponsored organizations, and sometimes local transportation (such as public buses) in your tuition, so take advantage of what you are paying for.

Academics/Major

most of you will NOT be going directly into your major. I had no idea pre-major was a thing until college. it may not be like this everywhere, and it is often just for specific majors, but for most people your first and probably second year of college you are in a pre-major. you apply for your actual major sometime during second year most likely, and you have to be accepted to the major in order to graduate with it.

you’re allowed to change your major!!! I did within my first few months, and I promise you, you will feel better if you’re doubting your major and you just change it. 

make sure to transfer any AP/dual credit courses from high school. most schools will make you manually transfer them, like they don’t accept them simply from your high school transcripts. you will have to contact the school you got college credit from / send them your AP test scores by yourself. literally ANY kind of credit helps! it may not count for pre-major or GE credit, but it can count for an open credit, which just gives you hours towards your graduation. you usually need a specific amount of hours to graduate, so getting any of them while you can is helpful.

look at RateMyProfessors and Reddit to get ideas of which classes you should take if you have a choice, like a GE credit. something may sound interesting to you, but honestly if people online say it’s a really challenging class, don’t take it in case it screws up your GPA. GE credits mean nothing but the fact that they’re GE credits. you have to take them, and they don’t benefit your major whatsoever (in a direct way at least), so honestly, save yourself the imminent failure and stress over a stupid course and take the easy ones that are recommended via those websites/older students.

in your freshman year, make a 4 year plan. I've had one since I changed my major and it has every class I intend to take on it along with the requirement it satisfies and how many credit hours it is. I also have back-ups in case the classes are full when I schedule for them. this is very helpful when it comes to scheduling, as you will not have to scramble to figure out the classes you need in time.

that 8 am class might seem like nbd, but be honest with yourself. if you don’t wake up before noon on the weekends, you’re probably not going to like waking up at 7 every day. plan your class times realistically.

that also goes for night classes. don’t take a 3 hour lab at 7 pm if you know you’re going to skip it to sleep or hang out with friends!

form study groups in your classes if you can manage it!!! people aren’t going to think you’re weird if you approach them and ask if they want to study with you or if you want a group to get together for the final.

utilize your library/libraries on campus. they are very quiet and can be very helpful when you need to focus.

don’t study in your dorm room. condition yourself to see your dorm as a place to relax, sleep, and socialize, so that you come back to your room feeling more refreshed and peaceful. if you study in your room, you can condition yourself to view it as an academic place, which may cause anxiety.

if you change your major later in the game, or you know you can’t graduate “on time” (which usually means within 4 years or 8 semesters), it’s ok to take more semesters of college. you are not a failure or degenerate. lots of people do it, and you are not out of the ordinary if you choose to or need to do so in order to graduate with the degree you want.

keep in mind any professional school you may want to attend post-undergrad. this can be med school, law school, or other graduate programs. some of these schools have certain requirements that you need to fulfill during undergrad. be aware of these requirements so that you can get into your continuing school of choice.

honors or scholars programs don’t mean much in the outside world, but if you have the chance and the time, consider doing them. they can be very rewarding personally, but if it’s going to put more stress than necessary on you, it’s okay not to join one.

Personal/Social Life in College

some of you will have a difficult time adjusting to college. it is an extremely different environment if you live on campus or otherwise don’t live at home anymore, so be prepared for a bit of a culture shock. there’s nothing you can really do about it, it’s just something you have to settle into. and I promise you will eventually.

and some of you will adjust to college life with no trouble at all, even if it’s a different experience than you’re used to, and that’s ok! you’re not weird. I had no transitional period and I'm totally fine.

it’s ok to miss home, but they recommend at least 6 weeks before you visit home again. I don’t really know why, but that’s a number my university stressed a lot in orientation and other places. and it honestly helps. 4-6 weeks away from home and basically forcing yourself to be homesick until you adjust helps!

you will probably sign up for a lot of clubs/organizations within your first weeks and receive a bunch of emails and attend 0-2 meetings throughout the year. that’s ok. but try to get involved with at least one thing because involvement is really helpful for your resume.

so, everything in college is for your resume. absolutely everything.

not necessarily your freshman year, but sometime in college try for a leadership position in something. it’ll help lots of skills like leadership, organizational, communication, and more!

I know you want your free time, and you can have it, but get a job if you can!!!!

GET A JOB ON CAMPUS IF YOU CAN HELP IT!!! you can use it if you qualify for work-study, or if there are positions open for regular jobs without work-study, you can get that too! they will plan around your schedule and are very understanding of anything that arises due to school or other stuff.

most schools are tobacco-free campuses. I know juuls are all the rage, but be careful with them.

fake IDs....yeah. you’ll probably get one freshman year if you enjoy partying and want more than just frat parties. but be careful with them, truly honestly. possession of a false ID can carry heavy charges and fines and can put you in a position to lose your scholarships or have other scary punishments. if you have a fake ID that doesn’t have your face or name, that can be considered identity theft, which can be even more detrimental. just...be careful.

check your school’s counseling or wellness coaching services if you feel as though you need therapy or general life tips.

Academic Materials/Textbooks/Etc Tips

amazon marketplace has a bunch of really amazing deals on renting and buying textbooks! your school will probably have some sort of bookstore on campus and/or nearby that will ask $100 for a textbook, but I've rented from amazon for as little as $9. all you have to do is send it back the time they ask you, which they give you plenty of time to do so. you can also purchase new or used books for a discounted price.

chegg is like $15/month, but if you can get some friends to go in it with you, it’s a great resource. you can order textbooks, see problems completely solved step-by-step, and receive other academic resources.

Wolfram-alpha is a good site that helps you solve math problems! I'm not sure what difficulty level it goes to, but anything helps with college math.

if you want to go into a professional school (grad school, med school, law school, etc) oftentimes older students will sell or give books for free that help you study for entry exams, such as the MCAT or LSAT. be aware when you are looking, and these people might be involved in the same orgs that you are!

Greek Life

be careful when it comes to greek life. they can be very dangerous if you wander into or join the wrong chapter.

they can also be super rewarding! I myself am in a sorority. I chose it based on the kind of women that were already in the sorority, in the morals that they presented during recruitment.

if you want to join greek life, sororities typically have formal recruitment, where you visit every house. there are lots of rounds with specific things discussed at each one. fraternities generally have a rather informal recruitment, where the men choose which fraternities to go to, and they can get bids rather informally.

sororities also do informal recruitment, which is basically like frats: you choose which sorority to go to, and they may or may not offer you a bid. it’s a very laidback process, as opposed to formal recruitment, which is very rigid and scheduled.

there is a hype around frat parties in modern shows and movies, which can sometimes hold true. but, sometimes not. it’s important that you know where you’re going rather than wander around your school’s greek row and hope you stumble upon a party. the one time my friends and I did that, one of my friends was raped, and we didn’t know where we were. we found out later, and had we known what that party was, based off of what we had previously heard about that frat, we never would have gone in.

greek rank sites are not really trustworthy. the only people who rank greek life are those who are too passionate about it. passion can be a good thing, but greek life is supposed to be a family and community where everyone involved is like a brother and sister to each other. unfortunately, competition does happen, but it’s best not to feed into it.

attend philanthropy events even if you’re not involved in greek life! it helps raise money for the chapter’s philanthropy, and they’re usually so much fun!

check your school’s alcohol policy regarding frat parties. for example, my school only allows beer and wine at frat parties. liquor is strictly prohibited. of course, frats don’t always follow those rules, but if you’re caught there with liquor, the frat might not be the only one that gets in trouble.

do not let people haze you!!!! there are chapters that haze, though it is far more popular among frats, but there are also chapters that do not. always join the chapters that do not. you should never put your well-being below some greek kids on a power trip.