#world's offline population

[spacelazarwolf]

apparently a bunch of ppl on social media are trying to call for a boycott of rick riordan because of this statement in a blog post:

Becky and I are just back from a busy weekend with events at the Boston Book Festival and New York Comic-Con.

Before I get into that, however, some words to acknowledge the ongoing horrors in Israel and Gaza. As many of you may know, I am no longer on social media. My accounts post only updates on my books and related projects. I do not read posts, reply to posts, or share my thoughts about world events on those forums. That doesn’t mean I don’t have strong feelings and reactions. It means I am offline as completely as possible, except for the occasional blog post like this one.

I will say this: Over the last eighteen years, I have received many fan letters from young readers, both Israeli and Palestinian, who often told me that my books helped them escape the fear, grief and anxiety they were dealing with at the time. Some had lost family members to violence. Some were writing while in the distance they could hear explosions, gunfire, and the launching of rockets. They used my books as a way to escape into another world, where the monsters were fictional, and where demigods usually saved the day. While I am always glad that my books can help young readers find joy during difficult times, my heart breaks every time I hear about the things they have to deal with. I am grief-stricken by the horrific events now unfolding, especially because I know that they are part of a long historic pattern that has been robbing too many children of their childhood and perpetuating hatred for far too long.

I am also quite aware that when anyone, myself included, tries to speak about this issue, the reader is waiting to pounce, thinking, “Yes, but whose side are you on?” That is exactly the wrong question. If there are two sides to this issue, those sides are not Palestinian/Israeli or Muslim/Jewish. The two sides are humanitarian and dehumanizing. Dehumanizing has a long evil history. It is appealing and easy to buy into, because humans are tribal animals. We are hardwired to think in terms of ‘us’ versus ‘them.’ We are the real humans, the good guys, the ones with God on our side. Those other people are evil monsters who don’t deserve empathy. Hate mongers have thrived on dehumanizing for as long as there have been humans. It provides them with a purpose, a way to rally support, power, and scapegoats. It is easy to point to atrocities committed by our enemies, while justifying or minimizing the atrocities committed by ourselves or our allies.

Humanitarianism is a much harder sell. It requires us to empathize, to see other groups of people as equally deserving of dignity and quality of life. It requires not always putting ourselves and our needs first. But in the long run, humanitarianism is our only hope. If violence could end violence, if we could put an end to “those other people” once and for all, human history would read very differently than it does.

So yes, I am appalled by the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians. I am appalled by the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Both things can be true. Both things must be true. My thoughts are with all the people who have died, who have lost loved ones, who have had their worlds and their lives shattered, especially the children. More death and violence will not break this cycle, which has been going on for generations. There is no military solution. Even since I first wrote the post, only twenty-four hours ago, the Israeli government’s brutal retaliation against the entire population of Gaza has reached genocidal proportions. This is not only an atrocity. It is folly. Answering misery with misery only creates more fertile ground for extremism, dehumanizing the “other side,” letting hate mongers thrive, stay in power, and reduce us all to our most monstrous impulses. The only real solution is treating each other like equally worthy human beings, and negotiating a peace that allows all parties a chance to live in security and dignity, with hopes for a future that does not include bombs and rockets and gunfire. This means security and support for Israel, yes. It also means a secure Palestine which is allowed to get the international aid and recognition it needs to build a viable state.

Do I think that will happen? Unfortunately, no. Humans are simply too selfish, too ready to blame “the other” for all their problems, too ready to dehumanize, though I also believe, perhaps paradoxically, that most people just want to live their lives in peace and have a chance for their children to have a brighter future. The problem is when we don’t allow other people to have those same hopes and dreams — when it becomes a false choice of us versus them.

What can I do? I will continue to write books that I hope will give young readers some joy. I will resist the urge to demonize entire groups of people. I will call for less violence, not more violence. And when asked whose side I am on, I will tell you I am on the side of humanitarianism.

So with that said, I return to the world of books . . .

honestly, if you have a problem with this statement, it’s probably because he’s talking about you. this is exactly what legitimate activists (as in not just random westerners who share social media posts but on-the-ground activists who are doing real work) have been saying for decades. and i think all this really speaks to just how disconnected a lot of westerners who claim to be pro palestinian are from those activists.

if you can’t read a statement that says “i am on the side of humanitarianism and less violence” without immediately jumping to cancel them, you are the problem being discussed in the above statement.

[covid-safer-hotties]

The US Government Is Shutting Down A Key Covid Website

Tomorrow the US government agency responsible for biomedical and public health research, The National Institutes of Health, will shut down its Covid-19 ‘special populations’ website.

This site hosts a huge amount of information about how to treat covid and long covid in the immunocompromised and in people with HIV, cancer and similar immune supressing conditions - so-called ‘special populations.’

The site is going totally offline.

It’s a shameful dereliction of duty by the NIH which, behind Harvard, is the second largest publisher of biomedical research papers in the world. Doctors and clinicians all over the world use the NIH site for advice and treatment ideas.

And it’s going offline during a massive summer surge of covid infections in the US, a surge that is now topping 1.3 million infections per day. (One of whom was Anthony Fauci, who was infected for the third time last week). A surge killing 750 people a week in the US. Many of whom will be precisely the type of people this website is intended to help clinicians treat.

It’s a scandal.

The message it sends to vulnerable people could hardly be clearer - when it comes to covid, there’s nothing else we can do for you. Sorry. That’s it. We’re done.

It’s so terrifying.

It also sends a terrible signal to the medical community about where we are with covid

and will be materially damaging in efforts to treat vulnerable people, both in the acute stage of the disease and those with long covid.

The move to shut the page down is premised on an entirely false assumption: that we already know everything we’ll ever know about how to manage covid so there’s no point keeping a live web resource because they’ll never be anything to update it with ever again.

This is simply not true. While we know a lot about treating covid four years in, we absolutely do not know everything, not by a long stretch. As evidenced by the hundreds still dying every week in summer 2024. And as for long covid, we know very little about how to treat it. For a start, there is no agreed treatment plan. Absolutely none. But apparently we also know so much about this disease we can start shutting down online resources dedicated to it.

Please imagine for a second if a Trump administration rather than a Biden-Harris administration was doing this.

There would be an outcry.

But this move has so far been greeted by media silence.

It is left to a few disability activists and the covid aware to shout into the social media void.

Not that this is a surprise. This is how it has been for the last two years at least, guided by the business as usual, vax-and-forget strategy. More people have died of covid under the Biden-Harris administration than died under Trump. Despite having vaccines since 2021. You’d never know it by mainstream media coverage.

Some people have written to the director of the NIH, Monica Bertagnolli, and asked them to keep the advice live and up-to-date. If you want to do this her email address is:

monica.bertagnolli@nih.gov

Long Covid Action has archived the site here

Maybe if enough people write to her and enough noise is made the decision will be reversed. Worth a try.

Overall it’s just another grim episode in the handling of the pandemic by the current US administration, an administration who, we should never forget, won power in large part due to the outrage at Trump’s handling of the first nine months of covid.

Solidarity to everyone still trying to protect themselves and their communities from covid against all the odds.

At least we can keep fighting for each other.

[dflogerzi]

Hello friends. Okay, I spent some time offline, and did speak in length to a dear friend in England today. I think I understand a few things more. Firstly... there are no rules. And this is my timeline, and I get to change it as I see fit. When I first came to Tumblr it was for one purpose, I kid you not. I knew that Meghan Markle was in her supposed first pregnancy... and I knew it was a lie. I have carried a baby, I know how it works, and she was in my opinion lying. This timeframe coincided with my recent awakening of world events and falling down other rabbit holes.

I was gung-ho on both. And I must say, the world events thing did not serve me well on social media. I have never found it beneficial to argue with others about things we do not agree with. And so a few months into my profile building here on Tumblr and connecting I set my own rules on what it is I am here for. And trust me... the people I have connected with mean so much to me. Now then... I do follow some who I only give out likes to and more private conversations. You know who you are. So for the record I am going to be clear of who I am.

I served under Ronald Reagan while in the Navy. I was always more on the conservative side, although I used to joke that as a Californian, I was sitting on the wall in between and fell over to the right. I used to think a lot of liberal policies sounded good on paper, but that in reality they did not work very well. That has been proven to be true in my estimation. But let me be clear. I do not think the Republican view as it stands today is working out either in a bulk of cases, especially in Washington D.C. Our government is seriously compromised within both parties, and I am also speaking of all branches. Neither party is what it once was, and if you are not aware of what the Global agenda is for the common person I cannot help you. And it is not my place in life to even attempt it. We all journey as we do.

I then found my feet here. My goals were to talk of things I am interested in, loved all my life, and to find some fun in my days. When I stick to that... I thrive. But I am finding that as many more are awakening to the fact that our world is slipping away... we are all talking more. And the planned divisiveness is impacting all of us.

It is going to get worse. No matter what your stand is. And I completely believe this summer is going to get rough in the US. Very rough.

So what did I decide? Well... I want to be here. If I drift off, which was surprisingly easy this week, I do not get to enjoy dishing on all things royal, art, history, travel, spiritual life, pets, and the love I have for friends I have made here.

I may veer off to world events. I am no longer affiliated with any political party. I do not believe there are many in places of power who have our best interests at heart. When the WEF says that population control is a main agenda, I believe them. I have done my studying and digging... and I understand. History is repeating itself, but there is no one who will be landing on a shore in Normandy to save our world any longer.

I am not going to try to influence a single soul here. Nope. I just want to vent a bit on how dumb and ridiculous Harry is, how narcissistic I find Meghan, how much I admire Anne, and my hopes for Catherine's full recovery. I also want to read your posts on cute furry creatures, other lands and travels, inward journeys, art, and whatever else it is in life the day brings. But I admit that I may slip, and I go off on a world event. I apologize for it now. Just scroll on by if you would.

I had a tough time since last summer. I did. But that is what life can bring. And hopefully we grow. And in the end it will be what we take with us. Many changes do come on life's paths.

Love to friends. Thanks for listening. Going to just post this mess, warts and all.

[survivingcapitalism]

Hate on the rise

Recent statistics indicate that religiously motivated hate crimes are on the rise in Canada. There has been a 67 per cent increase in police-reported hate crimes from 2020 to 2021, with a specific rise in hate crimes against Muslim (71 per cent) and Jewish (47 per cent) Canadians.

Canada has the fourth-largest Jewish community in the world, with a population of over 390,000, and a Muslim population of around two million people. In recent years, there have been violent attacks against Muslim Canadians such as the killing of the Afzaal family in London, Ont., the mosque attack that killed six Muslims during prayers in Québec, and violent attacks against hijab-wearing Muslim women in Alberta.

Jewish Canadians have been attacked through a variety of hate crimes including vandalism and graffiti, online and offline racist propaganda and bomb threats to Jewish schools and community centres.

[date-a-jew-suggestions]

looked at the notes for the post you reblogged "A brief History of Mizrahi Jews in Arabic countries and Their expulsion" and was a little sickened by all the comments saying "see this is why we need Israel cause you fuckers are forgetting Jewish history." genuine question because it's something i grapple with myself every day as a jew. but how can we convince others in our community that our suffering is not the Most Special, the Most Noble, that our suffering does not give us the right to exact the same thing on another population of people? I feel like talking to other jews sometimes, both online and offline, they genuinely don't understand that other people can experience hardship, and they say things that make me think they've grown up being taught we're the only people in the whole world who have ever suffered?? sorry if this got a little rambly i just... needed to get my thoughts out ig

Sorry this has been sitting in my inbox for a while, but you brought up an interesting point. I think it’s a problem within most marginalized communities. Because of the hardships we have faced, sometimes we are overly defensive of our in-group, and we dismiss, downplay, or even excuse injustices happening to other communities. Like for example, think how many times you’ve seen white gay people talk over people of color because they seem to think that homophobia is the “truest” form of oppression, and that talking about racism “distracts from the real problems.”

Jews are not exempt from falling victim to this mentality. Jews are just people, and people can be wrong, or cruel, or immoral. In every community there are going to be bad people, and people who are willing to look the other way. It’s a fact of life.

However, I do not believe that the burden is on you to “fix” the Jewish community. Obviously it’s good to try to bring people over where you can, but you are never going to convince every Jew to be ideologically perfect. There will always be people in every community who say or do bad things. You should not feel guilty about this, because you are only responsible for your own actions. Do not internalize the idea that Jews are a monolith, you are not responsible for the actions of other Jews.

As Jews we should be proud that our community has a long tradition of activism and standing up to injustice, and we are often at the forefront of social progress. That is an intrinsic value of our teachings, whether or not each individual Jew abides by that. And many, many Jews around the world ARE speaking up about the atrocities committed by the Israeli government. Many are also having their hearts and minds changed because of how much publicity there’s been around Palestine recently, and how a lot of previous misinformation about Israel is being challenged.

I hope this made sense and wasn’t too rambly, but basically just. Don’t put the weight of other people’s actions on your own shoulders

[crying-fantasies]

Fertility

Masterlist

Back in the day, as in centuries of centuries before Earth's base condensed galactic powder took form, cybertronians could "reproduce", if it could be called like that.

It was normal to have sparks ignited after the carrier's made contact with the sire's, it could be done during interface or not, it was so normal and so easy to do that various contraceptives were used, and the variety and usage of any of those depended heavily in the mechs alt mode or root mode, having in mind that even size and specific requirements should be discussed before choosing one.

Numbers were the last worry for the early days of the civilization, as it only took a certain time to get a spark to finish, as long as the carrier had the necessary materials to forge the new spark inside, sometimes, if the materials weren't enough or present at the moment, a sire could step up to do the job of providing transfluid, which is rich in basic materials for the new spark's building protoform, if the sire wasn't near then any other could give materials to keep the growth, creating what was once referred as medical intercourse when interfacing was in reality a requirement for a couple or group expecting a new spark and giving all the possible transfluid for the carrier, worst came to worst the protoform would take on consuming the carrier's gestational tank.

It starts little, like a literal speck of light that grows from the carrier's spark, hard to see and even harder to detect, it takes some time for the carrier to even know of the new flicker, when the time or size is enough the new spark will separate, orbiting around it's carrier's for magnetic bounds to keep it growing, stability is crucial at this point.

Once the new spark is ready they fall to the mid section of the carrier, where all the nutritious material and the sentio metallico are, if one puts a hand or servo over this area after the presence of the new spark you know, because it is warm since the melter inside the carrier started the process.

Now here comes the most dueling part, keep the carrier in optimal condition and in no need for sentio metallico, with little frames such as minis, load-bearers, cassettes and so on you've have less problems here while big war frames struggle to keep the forge active, if the sentio metallico wasn't enough during this stage there has been reports of emerged protoforms that just melt in the hands of their carrier, the birth metal not being enough to keep a form for the new spark and just falling apart, if a blacksmith is near there could be hope, albeit almost minimal.

The carrier's protoform expands to give place to the frame in construction, some even choosing to change their plating around it to be more comfortable and let loose some tension, this practice was recommended for carriers with sire's bigger than them, once the process is done and the melter has stopped it's work the protoform will emerge, going through the carrier body to the outside world (like the Marvel Transformers comic) because Primus, how could a valve get so extended to give life, most organics really do suffer in that matter.

Once the protoform is out, depending if everything is fine, it takes some time for it to really sink and cool down, it's highly encouraged for both creators to hold the protoform, keep it warm for as long as it needs to, being to first ones to see the optics, the intake, the face, in a few hours even an alt mode! If the carrier had problems or the protoform was weak then the frame easily creates a cocoon made of sentio metallico with a film like exterior, making it easy to put the protoform in energon and let it absorb all that it's needed (like with a 7 months baby).

But those were the old days, ancient datapads show that the last mechs with working gestational tanks were casually offlined just during the start of rise in power of the Functionalism, giving the idea to the population that "only Primus below could give life through Vector Sigma", some believe they used the fact that there were less carrier around and that most part of the population did indeed come from Vector Sigma, there was never enough proof of the Senate at the time to be responsible for the strange cases where the carriers died in absurd ways.

And of course, there was no immediate proof that what Nova Prime and they did to Vector Sigma (continuous coding manipulation to get mechs with a pre-order alt mode) was the reason for it to finally give up and stop it's own melter.

Nowadays there is no mech or femme with a working gestational tank (or GT) online in Cybertron, while in some colonies, whom separated from Cybertron long before the creation of the Functionalism Politic Organization (or FPO) and the start of the Functionist era in Iacon, you can still see them.

Eukaris is the first one where carriers are, in reality, quite respected and normal to see with their own sparklings running around, totally different to even the actual Cybertron where there is still some bad opinion of carriers (mostly based of, well, the FPO), a mech or femme with their whole set of spike and GT in Eukaris is highly praised, believed to help Chela bring life and ease the Titan's worry for it's people, assuring that the line of beast morphers would continue; in a similar fashion carriers in Caminus are sacred, specially the ones that get a new spark to completion as sadly as it is, it wasn't strange for camiens to only raise a horrific 10% of all their emerged protoforms and all their hot spot ones, as in of the whole group only 10% make it to completion, given the low quantity and quality of resources available it all falls on the carrier to complete the process while the couples or groups praying to Solus Prime, to Caminus and all that they believe for the life they are trying to receive, but if all fails the lost sparks are mourned for several stellar solar cycles while the ones that make it are cherished, some mourn and some celebrate in silence, that's the way things were in Caminus before Cybertron extended help with the resources.

Next one, Velocitron, while there are carriers in there in reality the fact of carrying isn't exactly that good but not bad either, being a society where speed is everything one has to think very hard and plan when it's best to get sparked, since carrying in a Velocitronian race is totally dangerous and the bot can't and will not risk their future new spark for it, not even mention the actual taboo of weight gained during the carrying and the whole idea of velocitronians that you've to be as thinner as possible to be the faster, but that idea has been partially dismissed after the Cybertronian, Blurr, showed off his speed while being a little bit chunky (at least for Velocitron's standard), many velocitronians are curious what would come if they interacted with cybertronians again, would there be chances of having the coding for fast sparklings? Heavy velocitronians seem to like Cybertron a little bit more due to finally be received normally by their slow alt modes, in that way, cybertronians are quite more optic catching when thinking about a possible conjunx and co-creator, and while many would just expect Navitas to produce more sparklings, well, he'll not always give high speed influenced ones so they do prefer to carry than having to mentor a- ugh, a heavy weight one.

In Carcer you can't only get a sparkling just because you want or because of oops, rations are tracked and counted to the minimal detail, there is only so much to keep all the bots on board the Titan to keep their "prisoner" in check, the total control of this facts makes it impossible to have new sparks, but if for some reason one or more bots were to be offlined then Elita would give permission to create new soldiers just like her predecessors did before her, of course those do come only from the crew, if at least one spark ignites from Carcer's hot spot it will be put up to trial if they keep it or not because Carcer's descendants are in reality Vigilem's, the reason being that while any new spark it's pure Vigilem's coding sure wasn't, so the protoform must pass a simple ritual "efficiency, security and truth", if the sparkling shows that it can keep the way as all the others then they will raise them like any of their own, to protect Carcer's integrity even with it's own spark and frame, if not, it's parts will be used anyway to fix the starship, just sooner than later, and a fragment of it's spark protector will be put in memento, to remember why they always need to move and keep going, use everything they can to never stop, to prevent their prisoner from ever scaping, no matter the cost.

As for how all of them react to humans and their strange organic way of reproduction, well, there are different comments about it.

[alette-stars]

Over 240,000 words, 45+ chapters, written over 4 and a half years. Blood, Water is complete. 

This post is long overdue. I finished the fic over 6 months ago (can you believe it?!) and I’ve been caught up in things offline, to put it lightly. But on the 5th (!) anniversary of the posting of the first chapter, i thought there was no better time than to, finally, put this out.

I really couldn’t have finished this work without all the love and support i received while it was being posted. I know we like to say to write for yourself, not the crowd, but god that support really motivated me and brought so much happiness to my life. And i hope i was able to return some of that to you, through my work. 

Well you’ve all waited long enough. Let’s get started!

The inspiration of fic title is given in the fic summary. Blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. Although this quote is attributed as the full version of the common adage blood is thicker than water, it actually isn’t! It was coined later, though i don’t know by whom. (i actually didn’t know this when i first wrote the fic, but i stand by the quote—it’s great and very fitting)

I think i came up with the title like minutes before i posted the first chapter. I ended up posting it impulsively, kind of. I knew it was gonna be a big project but i wasn’t thinking about my other ongoing fics at the moment, i was so excited and i just had to start sharing this one

The entirety of the fic was written in a Google Doc titled Vampire 8. 

Seonghwa’s favorite kaomoji (as referenced in Chapter 11) is (❁´◡`❁)

All the prominent vampires in this have ‘unsexy’ ages, and that’s on purpose. I wanted to do something different from the typical centuries-old vampires. So, instead, at roughly 200 years Seonghwa is the oldest, while Mingi would still be a young man if he hadn’t been turned

Don’t ask about the progression of time in this fic. It went on so long (i wrote this over literal years) i genuinely forgot

I like to write other idols into my fics, and this one is no exception. Most prominent would be VIXX (current and ex members) as the coven essentially in charge of the vampire world, but there’s also Monsta X’s Minhyuk, whose conversation with Yeosang was brought up in Chapter 22. 

All our main coven’s makers were named after famous Korean actors and actresses. Ji Sung for Wooyoung and Yeosang, Nam Ji Hyun for Jongho, and of course Kim Tae Hee for Seonghwa. Mingi’s maker is never referred to by name but her name is Nara, after Jang Na Ra. 

Author has a cameo in Chapter 6! Cashier staring shamelessly at Seonghwa in his full vampiric glory :’) 

Seonghwa’s real-life fits were often used as inspiration, but one was straight-up duplicated. This was of course the teal turtleneck + mushroom hair combo from the amusement park date in Chapter 13.

I did do a little color theming for some characters, but nothing too strong. We have red for Hongjoong, turquoise/teal for Seonghwa, purple for San, and gold for Yeosang. 

Another theme i love for all my writing is space. Seonghwa and his planet/star comparison is probably the most obvious. Personally, i have a lot of fondness for the framing of Wooyoung and Yeosang as the sun and moon, and then the addition of San as the Earth. 

There have been some questions about the systemic issues in world of Blood, Water that i’ve kind of avoided answering because i wanted to focus on the immediate, personal story. But basically vampires are an open secret in the world that the government continues to staunchly deny. The vampire population has historically been very, very small. Vampire society, as a whole, didn’t exist until recently. Around 20 years ago, the government decided to crack down and eliminate the vampire ‘issue’ once and for all, leading to the hunting days that cost many vampires their lives—including Yeosang and Wooyoung’s maker, Jisung. When the regime changed, the new government stopped the state-operated vampire hunting. The blood den/club business that had always operated on a small scale—accessible only to the most connected/wealthy vampires—grew and even regular vampires (and humans) could get in. This reduced the ‘mugging’ operations less well-off vampires had to resort to, but bred new problems. Increased vampire-human interactions resulted in more turnings. By the start of the Blood, Water timeline, vampire population has started to outpace the blood available at the blood dens. Vampires of a certain level of society, like Seonghwa, are strongly advised not to turn any more new vampires, because soon the problem might get too big to hide. 

Technically there is no vampire leader, although the authority everyone defers to is Hakyeon and his coven. But, as Hakyeon himself would say, they’re not a government—they’re businessmen. Anything they do—keeping the surrounding areas safe, putting down dangerous vampires, providing blood and feeders for newborns and adults—is to keep their business running smoothly. Vampire society is officially lawless so, yes, if Wooyoung wanted he could kill another vampire. 

In the 4 and a half years from conception to completion of Blood, Water, a lot of things changed. My initial conceptualization of Yeosang was as a cold, dangerous individual, one that you might think would actually hurt San. Early on i decided to go for a tragic angle, so his sensitive, selfless nature came through.

Another change that got made very, very late was Yunho and Mingi’s ending. Don’t shoot me, but i initially plotted a different, sadder ending for them. After Yunho almost dies at the big house by newborn San, Mingi gets too into his head about Yunho’s safety and they break up. They uh don’t get back together. Yunho leaves Seoul for a better opportunity (a job, possibly a dance position—one of those things Mingi could never be a part of). It’d be kind of hinted that they’d get back together, but in the future, after Mingi’s worked through more of his vampirism issues and his anxieties. Obviously this isn’t what ended up happening, but, damn, it almost did. I decided not to do this because things were getting too heavy at the end there haha.

Finally, a not-insignificant part of Blood, Water was the chapter graphics that accompanied every chapter release on Twitter. It wouldn’t have been possible without all the wonderful stock image available for use online. A full list of resources:

Chapter 1 - people partying inside room by Pim Myten

Chapter 2 - Street Night Light on pixabay

Chapter 3 - Silhouette Photography of Trees by Jesse Bowser

Chapter 4 - Orchid Flower Blossom by anncapictures 

Chapter 5 - This was a composite of two images that i think i accidentally deleted from my laptop and i cannot for the life of me find anywhere online. I’ll update this if i ever find them, i am so sorry for my carelessness omfg

Chapter 6 - Jewelry Boxes Red Blue by furud

Chapter 7 - Silver and black laptop computer by Jay Wennington

Chapter 8 - Painting Abstract Background by mondschwinge

Chapter 9 - Bridge Night Architecture by nqcoc9

Chapter 10 - Full Moon Night Sky by Pexels

Chapter 11 - Sunset clouds background from the National Park Service

Chapter 12 - Fully made by yours truly

Chapter 13 - Ferris Wheel Night Shot by CloudyBird

Chapter 14 - Amaryllis Flower White Open by Sponchia

Chapter 15 - half filled wine glass beside half empty clear pint glass by Sérgio Alves Santos

Chapter 16 - Glass Piece Broken by qimono

Chapter 17 - Macarons Dessert Food by TheoCrazzolara

Chapter 18 - white pillows by Anastasia Mezenina

Chapter 19 - Daniel von Appen on unsplash. I believe the original image has been deleted

Chapter 20 - Cfl Spiral Lamp by Public Domain Pictures

Chapter 21 - a red and blue painting of a building by Jr Korpa

Chapter 22 - Red rose in dark room by Ben Decoster

Chapter 23 - Cakes Strawberry Sweetness by Alexas_Fotos

Chapter 24 - Nature Fire Flames by StockSnap

Chapter 25 - Milky way by Ivana Cajina

Chapter 26 - Sunset branches silhouette by lovexxpeace

Chapter 27 - Lightning Thunderstorm Night by anvel

Chapter 28 - Chandelier Glass by Tedd

Chapter 29 - Splatter, Blood, Paint by Clker-free-vector-images

Chapter 30 - Clear glass wine by Luke Besley

Chapter 31 - white cushion on bed near brown wooden nightstand by Annie Spratt

Chapter 32 - Blood Moon on a Dark Sky by Roberto Nickson

Chapter 33 - Red Light Behind a Door by Jamal Yahyayev

Chapter 34 - Flower White Wilt Black by bmartinseattle

Chapter 35 - Brown wooden bed frame with red bed sheet by Janko Ferlič

Chapter 36 - An Open Red Flush Door by Kei Scampa

Chapter 37 - two arcade cabinets by Ben Neale

Chapter 38 - Gambling Chance Luck by Ogutier

Chapter 39 - time lapse photography of cars during nighttime by Roman

Chapter 40 - Vine Plant Sprout by ngyuenbuihoai

Chapter 41 - Gold Pocket Watch by John

Chapter 42 - red and yellow thread in needle by amirali mirhashemian

Chapter 43 - Red hibiscus flower photo by Kai Oberhäuser

Chapter 44 - Node Red Knot by moritz320

Chapter 45 - Lighted Brown Bridge by Burst

Chapter 46 - Brown wooden framed glass window by Tim Rüßmann

Chapter 47 - the same as Chapter 1, people partying inside room by Pim Myten

You can find all the edited images in the Twitter thread. 

Fun fact: all the images follow the red/black/white color scheme, with one very glaring exception: Chapter 22 (and to a lesser extent Chapter 25) 

If you have any further questions (which i didn't cover in this super long post...) you can reach out to me on Twitter or retrospring!

Well, we’ve done it. We’re at the end of this post. Pretty long-winded but i figured if we could power through 240k words of the fic, we can survive a few paragraphs of my rambling. Thank you all again, so, so much, for all the love and support you’ve given my work. I really could never have done it without you. It was an honor and a blessing to go on this journey with you, and i wouldn’t give it up for anything. 

So what’s next? Keen readers might’ve noticed Blood, Water is part of a series, titled Ties of Blood and Silver. I do have plans for a direct sequel. Yes, our vampire boys will be back! With new challenges, new angst, and even new relationships. I’m organizing shit in my real life so it won’t be starting immediately, but you can all look forward to it! Until then, thank you, i love you, and see you all around ♡

[five-rivers]

Anyone Anywhere Anytime

Turns out I still have some Gen Rex brainworms to expunge.

AO3

.

Anyone Anywhere Anytime

(Or, five times someone close to Rex became an EVO, plus one.)

.

The first rule of the war was that anyone could become an EVO.  Anything, too, but making sure people knew it could happen to people was a higher priority than strict accuracy.  It could happen to a stranger.  It could happen to a celebrity.  It could happen to a poor man.  It could happen to a rich man.  It could happen to the kid down the street.  It could happen to your best friend.  It could happen to your partner.  It could happen to you.  

Anyone.  

No one was safe.  

The second rule was that EVOs could show up anywhere.  The Amazon Rainforest?  Check.  The Sahara Desert?  Check.  The middle of the ocean?  Check.  Antarctica?  Check.  The middle of Mexico City?  Check.  Kyiv?  Check.  Highway during rush hour?  Check.  The middle of a corporate office?  Check.  High security military facilities?  Check.  Wherever there was life, there were EVOS.

Anywhere.  

Nowhere was safe.  

The third rule was that EVOs could be created at any time.  Sometimes you’d get a warning, a split second before the day’s unluckiest person, pet, or petri dish got an unwanted upgrade courtesy of the pervasive nanite plague.  Day or night, dusk or dawn, it didn’t matter.  Asleep in bed, on top of the world, down in the dumps, stressed, relaxed, whatever.  No one knew what the trigger was.  There might not even be a trigger.  So it paid to always stay on your toes.  Always vigilant.  

Anytime.  

No time was safe.  

Anyone could become an EVO, anywhere, at any time.  

.

#1: Six

.

Rex was not a fan of baseline hand-to-hand lessons.  Like, okay, it was cool to be able to do some of this stuff, but, honestly, whenever he got into a fight, he’d be using his builds, so it felt sort of… unnecessary.  Especially compared to more practical practice.

Six raised an eyebrow so that it arched above the top edge of his sunglasses.  “Are you going to tell that to Van Kleiss when he manages to drain your nanites again?” he asked.  

“Uh, no.  I don’t really chat with Van Kleiss when I’m fighting him.”

A second eyebrow joined the first.  

“Okay, okay, but that’s banter.  That’s different.  We’re not, like, actually talking.”

“I see,” said Six, before aiming a punch directly at Rex’s face.  

“Ack!” said Rex, barely dodging it.  It was definitely a ‘training speed’ punch, telegraphed way more than Six usually would.   “Six!  I wasn’t ready!”  A common complaint of Rex’s during training.  

“Someone who attacks you while your nanites are offline won’t wait until you’re ready, either.”  An equally common response from Six.  It was a whole song and dance.  Routine, really.  Their own form of banter.  

Rex knew Six loved it.  Probably.  Possibly?  Okay, it was sometimes hard to figure out if Six loved anything, or even if he liked anything, but one time Rex held off on the banter and Six walked him down to Holiday’s lab for a full body checkup, so that was something, right?

Anyway, they continued lightly sparring for a few minutes before Six put him into a serious hold.  “Alright,” he said, “today, we’re going to work on breaking–”

Six went silent, his body stiffening and going still.  

“Uh,” said Rex, “Six?  You okay?”  He reached up behind him, or tried to– Six’s hold was still solid and really did its job of making sure Rex couldn’t grab or hit Six.  “Is this supposed to be some kind of ‘figure it out on your own’ thing?  What’s going on?”

He didn’t get a response from Six.  He did, however, get a response from his nanites.  

{alert: t102-INITIAL activation of b6066-ZETA detected in range. query: action.}  

“Oh, crap,” said Rex, flailing.  b6066-ZETA was the batch number for the primary population of nanites in Six– A fact he’d thought hilarious when he’d first managed to find out.  He didn’t know what t102-INITIAL meant, but then, he’d never been in close physical contact with someone who was going EVO.

{alert: t103-CASCADE activation of b6066-ZETA detected in range. query: action.}

{command: abort activation.} Rex sent back.  

{error:} said the nanites, because of course Rex would miss step one under these circumstances, {not connected. alert: t103-CASCADE activation of b6066-ZETA and b5534-ALEP detected in range.  alert: t102-INITIAL activation of b6002-THETA detected in range. query: action.}

Rex didn’t need direct skin-to-skin contact with an EVO to be able to cure it.  He did, after all, wear gloves, and he could work through an EVO’s clothing, if necessary.  

But he did have to make a connection, he did have to send his nanotechnology into the target, at last at first, to take over and deactivate the other nanites.  And he hadn't done that yet.  Normally invisible dermal nanite colonies lit up and moved as Rex forced them into action.  

{command: abort activation.} 

{processing…}

"Okay, okay," said Rex, more than half his attention on minding the connection.  "It's processing.  Not everything is instant, right?"

{processing…}

“Just… just hang in there, okay?  Six?”

{processing…}

Rex didn’t know what he’d do if Six was incurable.  Six was… He was the first person Rex had really met. The first person whose name he knew.  The person who’d been with him the whole time, who had protected him in the ruins of Mexico City, and later from people like Dr. Fell.  He was the one who taught Rex to survive, who was still teaching him how to survive.  

Rex didn’t know what he’d do, if he lost Six.  

{alert: command aborted by secadmin-SIX. query: action.}

“What?” gasped Rex, affronted.  “Admin?  Since when is Six an admin?  Who decided that?”

{admin_history: priadmin-REX (priloc: b4739-BETA, locus: hsapiens1-REX) designated user-SIX (priloc: b6066–ZETA, locus: hsapiens2036606606-SIX) secadmin on–}

Six spasmed and pushed Rex away, practically throwing him across the room and breaking the connection Rex had to the nanites in Six.  Rex rolled, ironically making use of some of the first things Six had ever taught him, and bounced back to his feet just in time to watch as Six’s nanites took over.  

Limbs and fingers lengthened.  Skin went shiny, green and scaled.  Six made a terrible, terrible sound.   

“I-It’s going to be okay,” said Rex.  Because it had to be.  This was just… this had to be because it was in the middle of an activation, not because Six was incurable.  Once it ran its course, and Rex was able to make contact again, it would be fine.  Six would be fine.  And then Rex could sit down and figure out what priadmin, secadmin, and locus meant, as well as why his nanites decided to be so talkative today.  

{help_info: topadmin, priadmin, secadmin, and user are the four access levels designated on standard nanOS.}

The last three fingers on each of Six’s hands lengthened further, and fused together, forming long swords not unlike his magna blades.  A long tail grew from the base of his spine, stabilizing his center of gravity.

“Also, please don’t go crazy, because I really, really don’t want to fight you like this.”

{help_info: a locus is an integrated biomechanical entity formed of all nanites within or controlled by a biological organism and that biological organism. individual loci are designated by–}

Rex dodged out of the way as one of those swords came down at him.  Great!  Six was crazy.  This was bad, bad, bad, bad.  

He called up his nanites into his smack hands and deflected the next blow, pushing forward even as he winced against the sound it made.  Six flipped over his hand, or tried to.  He got clear of Rex, yes, but he fumbled both the flip itself, and the landing.  Rex had never seen Six fumble anything before.  

Except footballs and basketballs.  But Rex was pretty sure that was on purpose.  

(A magna blade through a ball was a clear message, after all.)

But it made sense that Six would fumble now.  Nanites themselves could only control so much, after all, and still relied on their hosts’ brains for a lot of things.  Six wasn’t used to his new body plan.  So, fumbling.  

Rex lunged for Six again, this time managing to grab his tail, but Six stabbed one of his swords right through one of the tendon-like cables that controlled the grip of his smack hands, and his hand flew open, letting Six escape, bounce off one of the walls, and hit Rex’s back, just over the shoulders.  Rex hit the ground again, but not for long.  His boogie pack pushed Six off before he could do any damage, and man that was close.  

Six skirted Rex’s counterattack, and almost managed to get Rex in the same hold he’d been in just minutes ago, but that was fine.  Contact was contact.  Rex was not going to be picky.  Not today.  

{alert: contact made with locus-hsapiens2036606606-SIX. query: action.}

{command: shutdown. command: extract activated nanites.}

{processing…} 

"Come on, Six, let me do this, please."

{processing…}

"Because I don't know what I'd do without you."

{processing…}

"Also, your sword fingers are getting way closer to my face than I thought they would and it's really freaking me out!"

{waiting… alert: command accepted, extraction initiated.}

Rex sighed in relief as he felt Six’s frame change behind him and the extra weight of Six’s extracted activated nanites settled inside him.  Six’s grip on him loosened, and Six himself tilted back until they were lying flat on the floor.  

“Six?” said Rex.  

“Yes, Rex?”

“Just checking.”  What, exactly, he was checking went unsaid.  “Just don’t do that to me again, okay?”

Six patted Rex’s shoulder and made no promises either way.

.

.

.

#2: Caesar

.

"It isn't that simple," said Caesar, glaring up at the over-bright and too-high screen.  If he didn’t already hate White for how he was treating his little brother (“It doesn’t matter how many dubious long-lost relatives crawl out of the woodwork, he isn’t leaving Providence.”) he might hate him for how he’d arranged things so that he’d be able to, quite literally, look down on everyone.  

“Explain,” ordered White.  

“I shouldn’t have to,” said Caesar, eyes flicking briefly to the doctor who’d joined them just a moment ago.  Dr. Holiday, he thought her name was.  “I know I’m not the only scientist from the project who survived the nanite event.”  Rylander, Meechum, and Van Kleiss, at least, had to still be around.  “You should already know the answers to these questions.  Is this some sort of test?”

“Humor us,” said Dr. Holiday, clicking a pen and resting the tip against a notepad.  “You might have a unique perspective on the question, especially in regards to Rex.”

Caesar sighed roughly.  In regards to Rex.  Yes.  Yes, he supposed he did, but he’d really rather spend this time in a lab, trying to get the last kinks out of Rex’s programming before… before.  

But these people wouldn’t let him do that until he gave them what they wanted.

“Fine,” he said, blinking back a touch of dizziness.  A side effect of near light speed trave?  “There are several roadblocks to the goal of ‘curing everyone.’  The first is that not all nanites are the same.  By the time the nanite event happened, there were hundreds of different sub-projects.  The nanite project as a whole had hundreds of the best scientists money could buy, and it ran for over a decade.  There was even a major programming fork in the early days, so there’s the possibility that there are two different operating systems at play, in addition to different models of nanite with different programs.  Some of those programs were meant to run on humans.  Most of them weren’t.  Some of them weren’t meant to interface with biological entities at all.  And the more recent batches were designed with limited self-programming capability, so that they could interface better with individual hosts.  There is no one size fits all solution.  Even if you’re talking about Rex, his nanites just aren’t going to be able to communicate with all other nanites.”

“What about the Omega nanite?” asked Dr. Holiday.  “Isn’t that supposed to be a master control?”

“Eh, well, there are master controls and then there are master controls.  In theory, he can use it to talk to all the other nanites, in practice–”

“What about kill codes?  Emergency stops?” asked White, leaning forward.  

“That’s the second problem.  There might have been emergency shutdown codes, or emergency self-destruct codes, but only a few people ever had access to them.  Top admins.  We wanted to put these things into people.  ¿Lo entiendes?  We didn’t want just anyone to be able to mess with them.  Which loops back to the other part.  Even with a master control, if it’s changing someone’s body, it needs user permission.”

White scoffed.  “Yeah, and you’ve really done a stellar job with that.”

Caesar made a face but didn’t dispute the point.  Things had gone very wrong.  “I think that might be the main stumbling block for Rex.  That wasn’t implemented yet in everything, but if it was tagged as complete and for humans, there’s that limit there.  Also, if the onboard AI has any integration troubles, getting permission would also be problematic.  No communication, no permission.”  

“Wait– Onboard AI?” Dr. Holiday asked, looking interested.  

“Later, Holiday,” said White.  “What are the other problems?”

“Frankly?  Admin levels and programming tools.  It’s my understanding that most of the original project equipment was lost in the event, and if you had anyone with top admin permissions, this would be a very different conversation.”

“What is your admin level?” asked Holiday.  

“I have primary admin permissions,” said Caesar, “with a few special permissions on the computer in my lab.”  He jerked his head in its general direction.  “But most of my access - my primary location - was from my computer in Abysus.  I don’t know if I can replicate that from a secondary.  And there’s not a chance I’d be recognized if I ‘went EVO.’  I don’t have a registered locus in the system.  Although, I suppose Rex might be able to promote me to secadmin if… but that’s behind a partition… he was ten!  Of course we put it behind a partition…”  We being Caesar and his parents.  His parents who were…

“Great.  Whatever.  I’ll leave the technobabble to the nerds.  Salazar.  Don’t forget.  I’m watching you.”  The screen flicked out.  

Holiday stepped forward.  “Let me show you to your lab space,” she said.  “I think we do have a lot to talk about.”

“Actually, if it’s all the same to you…  From my perspective, my day started with the nanite event, the death of my parents, and time travel.  I’d like to take a moment to… catch up with current events.”

“Oh,” said Holiday, softly.  “I hadn’t–  Of course.  But you should still know where the labs are.”

Caesar managed a weak smile.  While it was true he was unsettled by recent-to-him events, he was mostly saying this to get Holiday out of his hair.  She was probably expecting him to break down, now, but Caesar had never been much of one for emotional affect…  Although he’d been expecting something more from the deaths of his parents…  His principal emotions at the moment were continuing hatred for White Knight and… worry for Rex.  

This was not a good environment for him, he was sure.  It already wasn’t a good environment for Caesar, and he’d been here, what, five hours?  And Caesar wasn’t being used as a hostage, a weapon, or an experiment.  

Yet.  There was always tomorrow.  

They walked down a series of impersonal hallways.  There were more signs of life here than near White Knight’s ‘meeting room,’ but it was still quiet, which Caesar was grateful for.  He was developing an unusually sharp headache.

“Communal labs,” said Holiday, opening a door to reveal another hallway, this one inhabited by a pair of scientists trying to get an optics table through a doorway.  “You haven’t been assigned work space yet, but the intake paperwork should be ready by tomorrow.”

“This can’t be all of your labs.”

“No,” said Holiday.  “Of course not.  But this is what you’ve been cleared to access, so far.  You’ll also be assigned a small private lab, for sensitive work, and you will have limited access to some of the spaces we have for Rex.”

“To study Rex, you mean.”  

Holiday shut the door and continued to walk down the hallway.  “I don’t like it either,” she said.  “But things could be… worse.”

“How so?”

Holiday hesitated.  “I’m not in charge of all the scientists here,” she said, finally, “and before I was in my current position, I was treated like a glorified intern.  My predecessor…”  She seemed to make a decision.  “He tried to kill Rex.  There are still too many people who think like him.  But outside of Providence, it’s worse.  EVOs, even the human-passing ones, legally aren’t human and can be killed with no legal repercussions.”

“You can’t be serious,” said Caesar.  Even if everything was as bad as she and White said, human-based EVOs should be treated like people with a disease, not dangerous animals.  

“I wish I wasn’t,” said Holiday.  “Rex has been…”  She pressed her lips together in a firm line as she input a key code for the next door.  “He’s been assaulted, more than once.  He wasn’t seriously injured, his nanites let him shrug off most things, but it’s not… You can’t live freely in a world that doesn’t consider you human.”  She swallowed and then waved a hand at the room.  “This is the principle programming and sim lab.”

“Ah,” said Caesar, taking note of technology that, at least on the surface, was decidedly behind what was in his pod lab.  

“Next stop, general quarters.”

They didn’t talk again until they reached a much narrower hallway with a lot more traffic.  

“Shift change,” explained Holiday.  She stopped in front of one of the doors.  “This is your room.  You should be able to use your ID card to open it.”

The room was, in fact, a small studio apartment.  Not huge, but fully furnished with a small kitchen and full bathroom.  There was a desk with a computer set up on one side, next to a fake window.  

“The computer should let you access the public internet, but you’ll have to wait for credentials to access Providence’s databases.  That should still let you catch up with current events.”  

“Right,” said Caesar.  “Thank you, Dr. Holiday.”

“Oh, one more thing.”  Holiday reached into her pocket and pulled out an old model clamshell phone.  “In this line of work, you get used to carrying a few burners.  It has Rex’s number already on it.”  She handed it to him.  

“Thank you,” said Caesar, almost dropping it as he took it, unclear on what, exactly, she wanted him to do with it.

“Just… be careful, Caesar.”  She turned away and walked back down the hallway.  

Caesar let out a puff of air.  She could at least call him Dr. Salazar… Although that would have him looking over his shoulder for his father… and might be a little strange considering what appeared to be her relationship with his brother.  

Life was, as always, unfairly complicated.  

He shook his head and went into the room, closing and locking the door behind him.  Although, considering that the locks were electronic, he suspected that anyone with ‘clearance’ could get in.  He looked at the computer and sighed.  Best to get started.  

He sat down and shook a slight tremor - probably caused by lack of sleep and adrenaline - out of his hands.  Time to see what the nanites had been doing over the past six years.  

.

There was… a lot.

A horrifying lot.  

Although, to be fair, most of the horror on Caesar’s part came from watching his little brother fight what looked like giant monsters.  Although, that was also somewhat impressive, because their parents absolutely had not programmed Rex’s nanites with giant swords, saws, guns, or VTOL equipment, which indicated that the self programming abilities of Rex’s nanites were far more versatile than intended… or they’d figured out how to ‘steal’ programming from other nanites, he wasn’t sure yet.  In any case, the emergent behavior were fascinating, and–

Caesar hissed as his hand spasmed.  That wasn’t normal.  Had he strained something earlier, or…

It occurred to him, then, that after so long, most people with a propensity for ‘going EVO’ already had, with the rate of new incidents currently being relatively low compared to what had happened right after the event.  But for Caesar, the event had only just happened.  

He swallowed and clicked through to a website discussing the symptoms of ‘nanite infection.’

Much of it he had already been aware of, including positives like the elimination of several common diseases, reduced rates of infection, faster healing for minor injuries… Those were the things nanites were supposed to do, after all.  Negative side effects other than ‘going EVO’ were surprisingly few and far between, other than nasty interactions with strong magnetic fields.  

He scrolled down.  

… most cases nanite activation is spontaneous, with no prior warning or indicators.  However, some individuals report precursor symptoms.  Research is ongoing, and it is currently unclear if these reports are reliable, and, if reliable, if they are caused by nanite activation.  Some demographics, notably hispanic males under the age of thirty and East Asian women between the ages of twenty-five and forty, report these precursor symptoms at a higher rate…

Of course.  Those demographics lined up nicely with the original test subjects.  The nanites had been adjusted based on their data, so it made sense that sufficiently similar people would interact with the nanites differently than the general population.  

Caesar also fit those demographics.  

He scrolled further.  

… commonly reported precursor symptoms include headaches, dizziness, excessive sweating, muscle spasms, unusual muscle soreness, tremors, sore throat, sore eyes, unusual hunger or thirst, difficulty focusing, transient aphasia, nausea, seizures, general malaise and anxiety, feelings of doom…

Caesar was very much not experiencing all of those symptoms.  However…

He licked his lips and glanced at the phone Holiday had given him.  Surely, it wouldn’t hurt.  He picked up the phone and dialed the only saved number.  

“Aló, habla Rex!  What’s up, Doc?”  

Was that the sound of Mario Kart in the background?  Did Rex cope with terrifying experiences like his body producing a machine that trapped him in a tiny airless bubble by playing Mario Kart?  Whatever, not important.  

“Ah, actually, Rex, this is Caesar.”

The sound of the game stopped and there was a rustling sound.  “Uh,” said Rex, “hi… bro?  What’s, uh.  How are– How are things?”

“It’s,” said Caesar, no longer sure what to say.  He could have worked himself up over nothing, and Rex… with his amnesia, he was probably expecting Caesar to give him some kind of full-life rundown, which Caesar wasn’t sure he’d ever really be up for.  He swallowed.  “I was wondering if you would like to…”  What was Rex even allowed to do, here?  He wasn’t sure.  

“Sneak out together?” asked Rex, brightly.  Caesar could almost envision a wagging puppy dog tail.  

“Yes, that,” said Caesar, forcing a smile.  He’d read that facial expressions made enough of difference to the average voice that people could tell whether or not you were smiling over the phone.  He inhaled to continue, maybe to elaborate on what, exactly, they could sneak out to do, but the bottom of his stomach fell away and he–

.

Caesar inhaled sharply as a white tile ceiling came into focus, along with a face.  He blinked a few times.  “Doctor… Holiday?”

“Yes,” she said.  “How do you feel, Caesar?”

“I–”  How did he feel?  “Fine.”

The familiar-unfamiliar face of his not-so-little-anymore brother leaned into his field of view.  A few rapidly dimming lines of light lay scattered over his skin and clothing.  “You’ve still got all your memories and stuff, right?”

“I… think so,” said Caesar, levering himself into a sitting position and looking around the room, which wasn’t any different from how it had been when he first walked in.  “What happened?  I had called you, and then…”

“You went EVO,” said Rex, nervously, picking at the seams on his gloves.

“Ah,” said Caesar, who hadn’t considered what it would be like for Rex to hear that over the phone.  “I was under the impression that something like that would result in more collateral damage.”

“Oh, yeah, because of the stuff on the news?”  Rex shook his head, the last of the nanite-lights going out as he did so.  “Nah, man, the news only shows the violent ones, or the flashy, powerful ones.  A lot of EVOs don’t do much of anything unless you mess with them.  You were pretty chill.”

“Right,” said Caesar, because what else could he say to that?  “I’m glad I was… chill.  I suppose I’m due for a medical checkup?”

“Standard procedure,” said Holiday.  “You, too, Rex.”

“Aw, man, do I have to?  I was actually beating Bobo this time.”

“Caesar’s nanites might be different from what you’re used to, due to his proximity to the event,” said Holiday.  

“She’s right,” said Caesar.  He might as well get some good will from backing her up on this.  And, besides, it might be a little easier to talk to his little brother if they were both… getting medical scans… and…

Okay, that was a terrible idea, actually.  But it wasn’t as if Caesar had any better ones.  

“Ugh, fine,” said Rex, crossing his arms.  The intonation was almost exactly the same as the last time their mother made him go to the doctor before his accident.  

Caesar smiled, and this time it was almost genuine.  

.

.

.

#3: Bobo

.

The emergency lights blared overhead as armed Providence agents streamed into the room.  The monkey rolled on the floor, laughing, as the probably-a-teenager-but-only-probably threw anything he could grab at him.  

“I can’t believe you fell for that!” howled Bobo.  

“I can’t believe you did that!” countered Rex, whose eyes were suspiciously glassy.  “I was really worried!”

“I’m already an EVO, kid!  Can’t EVO me twice!”

Six sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.  It had only been two months since he’d found Rex in the rubble of Mexico City, and every day was another massive headache.  One that could only be rivaled by the headache he got wondering what would have happened to Rex if he hadn’t intervened.  

“Shut it down,” he said.  “False alarm.”

“You thought I was going EVO!  Ha!  That’s one for the books!”

“You suck so much!”

Yeah.  This was going to be a long day.

.

.

.

#4: Holiday

.

Beverly was getting her last exit check up before she was released from Providence’s care when it happened.  She was watching Rebecca type something on her computer, something about slight anemia, her face visible only in profile, when she saw it.  Color, curling up out of the collar of her sister’s lab coat, vibrant and striking against the overwhelming white and pale gray of the room.  

For a moment, she thought it might just be the shirt Rebecca was wearing underneath the coat, but then it moved, it spread, feathering out over the curve of her jaw and her cheek, dyeing her eye with stripes of bright gold and adding points to her ears.  The color - no, the fur - crept out from the ends of her sleeves, covering the backs of her hands and fingers.  

Beverly couldn’t breathe.  She couldn’t move.  She couldn’t– She couldn’t– This couldn’t be happening.  Not to Rebecca.  Not her sister.  Not when Beverly had just realized she’d missed years of her life as an insane spider-monster.  

Not when Beverly was the only one here, with no way to protect herself.  

But Rebecca kept typing away at the computer, only looking away when one of the machines began to beep at her.  

“Bev, are you feeling okay?  Your heart rate just spiked.”

“I’m–” gasped Beverly.  “Becca, you–  Your skin!”  

Rebecca blinked her (too large, too bright) eyes at Beverly, then looked down at her hands.  “Oh!” she said, then fell silent for a long minute.  “Oh.  That’s–  Huh.”  She turned her hands over.  “That’s…  Huh.”

“What do I–” said Beverly.  “I don’t–”  Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.  “What do I do?”

“Just, uh,” said Rebecca, sounding stunned and bemused.  “This hasn’t happened before, obviously.”  She paused.  “There’s a procedure.”  She reached for the phone on her desk, slowly.  “I never thought I’d have to use it to report myself, and maybe that’s a little hubristic of me…”

“Why?” asked Beverly, still shaken.  

Rebecca glanced at Beverly.  “I didn’t think I’d retain my intelligence.”  The subtext was clear.  She didn’t think that she would keep hers, because Beverly didn’t.  She pressed a button on the phone.  “Hello?  This is Dr. Rebecca Holiday in examination room three-thirteen.  I’m reporting an EVO– No, you don’t need– It’s me.  Yes, that’s correct.  I have gone EVO.  Yes.  I appear to be, yes.  I understand the procedure.  I will stand by, thank you.”  She put the phone down with a click.  “Alright, they should be here soon…  Bev.  Beverly.  Are you alright?”

“Why are you asking me that?” asked Beverly, twisting her hands together.  “You’re the one who– who–”

“Well,” said Rebecca, examining her nails, which looked longer than usual, “I seem to be.  Fine.  Mostly.  I’m… unlikely to lose my job over this.  Variagation isn’t progressive, generally speaking.  Assuming this is already complete, and that’s likely, I won’t get any worse.  I’m just, ah.  Processing.”

“Processing,” repeated Beverly.  “Becca, what if you aren’t– What if you’re not curable?”  Rex was great and all, but Beverly hadn’t been curable.  

“Then I’d have to deal with that,” said Rebecca, who was still way too calm for the situation.  “There’s already precedent for EVOs working with Providence.  I’ll be fine.  Promise.”  She smiled.  “Ow.”

“What?  What is it?” asked Beverly, not moving from the examination table.  

“Change to my tooth structure…  Still don’t know why so many EVOs are adapted to be more combative…”  She fell to muttering about random science stuff, which was typical Rebecca, but still.  

The door slammed open and Rex slid in, followed shortly thereafter by Six (who Rebecca was maybe sort of dating - it was really unclear), and a dozen Providence agents.  Who had guns.  Guns that were being pointed at Rebecca.  

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!  Come on, guys, it’s like you don’t work with multiple totally awesome EVOs every day,” said Rex, walking between the agents and Rebecca with ease, Six following him after pointedly pushing down one of the agents’ guns.  “So, uh, how’re you doing, Doc?”

“Fine,” said Rebecca.  “Just a bit… surprised.”

“Uh huh,” said Rex.  “Want me to, uh.  Work my magic?”  He held up his hands and waved them back and forth slightly.  A thin blue line flashed across one of his palms, as if his nanites were eager to be used.  

“Actually, if it’s all the same to everyone,” said Rebecca, “I think I’d like to run some tests on myself, first.  We have limited data on early nanite behavior in EVOs who retain their intelligence.  Limited data on EVOs who retain their intelligence all around, actually.”

“And what are we?” asked Bobo, shouldering his way past the agents.  “Chopped liver?”

“You,” said Rebecca, “are a different case altogether.  And you know it.”

“Ah, so Rex is chopped liver.  Got it.”

“Hey!”

“Rex is one data point.  It’s always good to have more.”

“Absolutely,” said Rex.  “So… does that mean you’re going to come join me in the training salle?  See if you’ve got any special abilities?  Maybe take a shot at some of the guys in the Petting Zoo?”

Six pushed up his glasses.  “If you intend on staying like this for any period of time, it would be tactically sound to assess your combat abilities.”

Rebecca smiled again, and her teeth really were sharp.  Heck.  

“Alright, alright, but I’ll need to do my tests first, in my main lab…  Beverly, I’m really sorry, but I think it might be better to reschedule the rest of your checkup.  We’ve.  We’ve both had a scare.”

“Yeah,” said Beverly, who still felt like a strong breeze might blow her over.  “I think.  Yeah.”

“Okay.  Six, could you…?”

Six looked like he wanted to object.  “Yeah, I’ll see her out.”

“Thanks,” said Rebecca.  She and Rex left, followed by the other agents.

Beverly hadn’t moved at all.  

“Come on,” said Six.  “Let’s go.”

“R-right,” Beverly said, sliding off the examination table.  Her legs almost buckled, but she managed to stay upright, and a few breaths made her feel a lot better.  Which meant that it was time for deflection.  She looked up at Six.  “If you’re just going along with this because you’re one of those guys with a catgirl obsession, I’m going to kill you.”  She didn’t know how.  Six was, like, a ninja.  But she’d figure it out.

“Noted.”

.

.

.

#5: Noah

.

“You would be wise to consider delaying your celebration for the moment, Rex.  You’re about to have your hands quite full.”

Rex crossed his arms, smirking, because it was hard to take him seriously when he’d just been taken out by Noah driving a forklift.  Heh.  Forklift certification, Van Kleiss’s true weakness.  “Oh, really, and how do you figure that?”

But Van Kleiss just smirked again and lunged forward, his arm longer than it should have been.  He made contact with Noah’s chest, and the nanites activated all at once in a flash of yellow-orange light.  

Oh, jeez, of course Noah would be a big one.  And not particularly bright.  Crap.  

.

Why were Providence agents so trigger-happy, darn it?  Rex was right there.

.

At least he was closer to the destructive end of the spectrum than the violent end, but would it kill him to stop running around and give Rex an easier time?

.

Sometimes, Rex really hated how his biometrics worked.  And also Van Kleiss.  He really hated Van Kleiss.

Which was why hitting the guy with a train was so satisfying.

.

Watching EVO Noah almost rip the guy’s arm off was even more satisfying.  Maybe Van Kleiss’s real secret weakness was just blond teenagers or something.  What a loser.

.

“Oh my gosh,” said Noah, watching the TV through his fingers.  “I did that?  I did that?”

“Yep,” said Rex, tossing back some popcorn.  

“That’s so cool.  Wish I could actually remember, though…”

“Eh,” said Rex.  “I like you better this way, anyway.”

.

.

.

+1: Rex

.

(He could hear his parents arguing.  He couldn’t tell what they were arguing about.  He couldn’t open his eyes, or move, or even think all that much.  It was like when he woke up early in the morning, but was actually still asleep, still dozing, but deeper.  Darker, somehow.)

(Something was very wrong.)

(There were more people talking than just his parents.  Caesar, of course.  Of course his brother was there.  But so were other people.  Scientists.  Their names slipped from Rex’s mind even as he thought of them, but they were there.)

(Why were they there?)

(It was suddenly very important to him that he wake up.  Vital.  Something was going to happen.  He needed to be awake.)

(Why couldn’t he wake up?)

(The voices in the other room fell silent one by one, until it was only his father talking, his tone grim, his cadence steady.  Then he, too, fell silent.)

(Had something bad already happened?  Rex didn’t remember.)

(He… didn’t remember.)

((He didn’t want to remember))

(The door opened.  Footsteps came near, two sets of them, his mother and his father.)

“Rex, we’re so sorry, but this is the only way.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll work, and then this will all just be a memory.”

(There was, very briefly, the sensation of something cold in his veins.)

{system integration initiated.}

{processing…}

{processing…}

{processing…}

{update: b4739-BETA integration achieved.  hosttype hsapiens detected.}

{update: locus designated hsapiens1-REX (user-REX) systemwide.}

{alert: locus-hasapiens1-REX healthstat abnormal. processing healthstat report to topadmin.}

{alert: beginning t88-INITIAL activation of b4739-BETA.}

{processing…}

[princesscatherinemiddleton]

I know you’re not representative of the whole UK population, but can I ask how people are reacting there to Where’s Kate? I’m from a commonwealth country and the rumours here are going crazy like William is gonna get arrested for beating Kate while I’m here like WTF she’s recovering at home.

It seems most of this hysteria is coming from non-UK countries, and most British ppl are just like she has surgery and she’ll be back whenever.

I think this will be my last comment on this because I'm fed up of the whole topic but this message sounded really nice so I wanted to reply.

A disclaimer: obviously some people are fully believing the weird theories and genuinely think Kate is dead but those people are insane. Also, some people have no idea this is an issue - my grandma, for example.

I think most people fall into three categories. Category one: people who are enjoying the memes and jokes but think it's all gone a bit far and people have gone mad over a bit of photoshop. Category two: people who are really enjoying the memes and don't care about it. Category three: people who are furious at the jokes and memes and blame Meghan.

At the risk of repeating myself, people do not think about the royals. When the Queen died, when Philip died, when Harry and Meghan left, when Andrew did Newsnight, people were talking about it. It came up in staffrooms, on the bus, in houses. Even when Charles was diagnosed with cancer, it was a proper topic of conversation. No one is having genuine real life conversations at work about "where is Kate?" I'm not saying no one in Britain is talking about it but I'm saying few people in Britain are either genuinely worried about Kate, worried this is the end of the monarchy, or celebrating the end of the monarchy.

Furthermore, this is very much a social media phenomenon. That's not to say none of it is offline - AFP describing KP as "untrustworthy" - but is predominantly online and most people are not online. Over half the world's population is on social media but the top 4 social medias are Facebook (where there is not a particularly large "Where is Kate?" contingent), YouTube (again, very few people discussing this issue), WhatsApp (this is not a WhatsApp phenomenon), and Instagram (of the major social medias, this is possibly the one with the smallest conspiracy theory contingent). Even on Twitter or TikTok, the amount of people genuinely worried or angry about this is tiny.

[pleasuresoftheharbor]

people on here who genuinely believe women joking about hating men cause real life problems for men are so insanely detached from reality 😭 stepping outside my mutual circle is always crazy to me cause i'm always reminded how nuts the general tumblr population is about that kind of thing like you people are never escaping the evil shadow maze... get offline for five seconds and take a look at real world issues wrt misogyny and then take a look at yourself and what youre complaining about and GET REALLLL

[dimonds456]

Hey, guys?

People on the opposite side of the political spectrum can be good people too.

It's starting to make me really uncomfortable how divided everything is. People have adopted an "if you're not with us, you're against us" mentality when talking about the other side, and it's so jarring going from online where that's the norm to being in an Uber and your driver is the other side.

Online parties make the other side out to be monsters who want nothing more than to watch the world burn. And while that is absolutely true for some people (on BOTH SIDES), most people are far more sane than that.

Everyone's actions make sense to them. Everyone thinks they're in the right, at least to some degree.

Left-wingers aren't monsters under the bed out to kill and eat kids or something.

Right-wingers aren't shadows on the wall that stalk their prey at night.

But holy fuck the way they talk about each other, you'd think they are.

I'm not saying you gotta switch sides. What I am saying is that you're not helping out anything by "us vs them"ing the other half of the population in your head.

Most offline people either don't think some issues are as prevalent as they are, or just don't see how it applies to them and focus on their own lane. This (the second half) can be a bad thing, absolutely, but it can also be a good thing, too. Mostly it's neutral from what I've personally seen. The first half just means they should do more research, but if someone doesn't see why it matters then convincing them to do so in earnest will be hard.

That doesn't make them bad. Just means they're focused on other things. Just because someone doesn't get it doesn't mean they're the scum of the earth. There's plenty you don't know about, either. How dare you not know about every tiny conflict happening out there right now, y'know?

Love thy neighbor n all that. We're all just trying to live as best as we can at the end of the day.

[invested-in-your-future]

Is internet a thing in your au?

As far as the idea of internet goes, the the Cross-Continental Transmit System enabled a rudimentary prototype of the concept, with towers connecting to each other, so information could travel between them. Relay stations in each city and beyond would also connect to the closest tower, essentially allowing an archaic(from our point of view) system of information transfer across continents.

Satellites aren't really a thing because dust doesn't work beyond a specific altitude and all technology uses dust.

Underground cables have been attempted but they have high failure rate due to underground Grimm (giant worms y'all) as well as erosion in the areas with higher Grimm density. High Grimm particle density tends to warp or blank signals of any kind.

Each bigger city has a local smaller network with the relay station connected to tower and thus to the world, allowing the share of information.

Towers connect to each other and to everything in range.

Relay stations connect to each other and to towers.

Personal devices like scrolls, TVs, radios, etc connect to relay stations or towers(as it's essentially a souped up relay station).

Personal devices close enough can communicate with each other acting as handheld transceivers.

So information could be transmitted from towers to local networks, but wanting to access or transmit to another tower could only be done at the tower.

That's mainly due to signal strength as a bigger newer device will punch through to weaker ones but not vice-versa. Hence if Weiss wanted to directly contact Atlas, she'd have to do it via the tower.

With Vale's tower being down, that whole system is no longer operational (and there's an actual reason why it requires all four towers to work).

Each bigger city essentially has it's own local "network" as communication entirely relies on relay stations connecting to each other now.

Connections between continents or locations further away from relay stations are outright impossible now.

With CCTS down, cities don't really have access to any of the networks and rely on the closest relay stations for communication. The communication involves physically sending information from one relay station to the other the way it would have been done pre-CCTS.

Any even smaller villages have zero communication with the outside now.

So, for example, the parts of City of Vale on the right bank of the river that remained intact can contact Patch and vice-versa as well as contacting the evacuation area housing the refugees - there's a relay station in the Upper-Class district and the evacuation area has a retrofitted relay from one of the fallen Atlas ships. However the only way to deliver or receive information from, for example, anywhere on the other side of Mt.Glenn would require someone actually travelling there and back again.

Same holds true for communication between Kingdoms as, by their very nature, there's quite a bit of distance between the population centers of each Kingdom. The only official channel for diplomacy and communication remaining after the system went offline is actual physical meetings between representatives.

Different Kingdoms face different issues too - places more centralized like Vale are more cut off from the smaller outposts and towns, while something like Mistral make use of the relay stations lining the logistics points between the four main cities, as well as the ones lining the railway network that has been built after the war.

So as of right now, after fall of beacon, there are local networks with no information flow between them and before it was more akin a bunch of closed off ARPANET-style systems interacting with each other.

Yes I put way too much thought into this.

[satoshi-mochida]

Earth Defense Force 6 launches July 25 in the west

From Gematsu

Earth Defense Force 6 will launch for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store on July 25 in the west for $59.99, D3 Publisher and developer Sandlot announced.

PlayStation Store pre-orders are available now and include the following bonuses:

24 hours of early access to the game

Downloadable content

Reverse Core Type-N

Powered Exoskeleton Nix Metal Coat

Recruiters (Takanashi Kiara, Gawr Gura, IRyS)

Blacker No.6 (Deluxe Edition-only)

The Deluxe Edition is priced at $89.99 and includes the following -content:

-A copy of Earth Defense Force 6

-Season Pass

--Additional Weapons

Air Raider Boarding Weapons: Eros No. 6

Air Raider Boarding Weapons: Naegling No. 6

Ranger Boarding Weapons: Free Bike No. 6

Ranger Weapons: Broken MR98 Fang

Ranger Weapons: A60 Binary Round

Ranger Weapons: Aerial Reverser M0

Wing Diver Independently Operated Equipment: Handy Saber Type 0

Fencer Weapons: OneeChanbara ORIGIN-Illustrated “Disguised Body Pillow”

Fencer Weapons: Power Blade Zero

Fencer Weapons: Proto Reflector

Strengthening Parts for Fencer: Gunner’s Exoskeleton

--Additional Missions Additional Mission Pack 1: “Lost Days” Additional Mission Pack 2: “Visions of Malice“

Here is an overview of the game, via D3 Publisher:

Live the future of despair.

Story

The year is 2024 AD. Mankind has won the long battle against the unknown invaders. The enemy Primers are now gone and peace has returned to Mother Earth. However, the population has shrunk to 10% and the world was on the verge of collapse. The survivors fought against the remaining threats while trying their best to continue their recovery. Three years passed in the year 2027. In a new world without hope, the time has come to once again resist the fate of the Earth.

Save the Future of Earth in the New World

The identity of the invader that has long tormented Earth is finally revealed. A chain of deep despair that strikes in a devastated world for the first time in the series…But your presence as a soldier of the Earth Defense Force will lead humanity to the greatest joy. Now you must face it with courage and wisdom.

the Largest Volume in the History of the Series / Supports Online Cooperative Play

The largest number of missions and weapons ever included. All missions support online cooperative play for up to four players. Offline cooperative play is also available in split-screen mode. Take control of four different soldier classes and fight alongside real Earth Defense Force members from across the country.

Earth Defense Force 6 first launched for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on August 25, 2022 in Japan. In Asia, version of the game with English audio and text launched for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on March 14, 2024.

Watch a new trailer below.

Release Date Trailer

[mariacallous]

2024 is a big election year for the world: More than 50 countries are expected to hold national polls, including large but profoundly damaged democracies such as India, Indonesia, and the United States. Anxieties abound that social media, further weaponized with artificial intelligence, will play a destructive role in these elections.

Pundits have worried that technology might doom democracy since Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president in 2016. It’s true that social media can benefit aspiring autocrats. Populists in particular latch on to social media today as a way to connect directly with people, bypassing restraints on their behavior that political parties would have provided in the pre-internet age. They can also profit from echo chambers, which reinforce the sense that a whole people uniformly supports a populist leader.

Yet social media is not inherently populist. And if populists do well this year, it will not be because there are no tools or strategies to stop them.

To combat populism, democracies need political will. They must not only push for better platform design and regulation but also work to strengthen what some consider a thoroughly old-fashioned institution: political parties that have the capacity to rein in leaders threatening democracy.

Every media revolution in history has caused a moral panic: The printing press was said to have prompted wars of religion; radio gave the world Adolf Hitler; TV enabled McCarthyism. None of these points, still repeated by sophisticated observers today, is completely wrong. But in every case, the technological determinism proved mistaken, as did the assumption that new media would empower irrational masses, always ready to be seduced by demagogues.

At first, social media was greeted with great optimism. In what now feels like a different era, promoters of democracy looked to Twitter (now known as X) and Facebook as tools to help uprisings against autocrats everywhere. But just as the Arab Spring turned to Arab Winter, enthusiasm morphed into pessimism. Panic ensued in 2016, after the double shock of Brexit and Trump’s election. Liberal commentators were quick to identify what they saw as a major culprit of the world’s twin populist disasters: social media and, in particular, echo chambers. Not only did liberals veer from cheering to jeering. They also indulged in nostalgia for a supposedly golden age of responsible gatekeeping by journalists. The wild swings in opinion and the idealization of the past were signs that we have yet to find our bearings when making sense of new media.

Social scientists today know a bit more than they did in 2016: Filter bubbles—or online echo chambers curated by algorithms—exist but are much less common than often assumed; they are not the main cause of polarization, even as they help spread disinformation and propaganda more swiftly; and our offline life is in many ways less diverse than our online existence.

What makes social media unique is that it allows for what can seem like a direct connection between political leaders and potential followers. This is particularly useful for populists, who claim that only they can represent what they often call the “real people.” This implies that all other contenders for power do not represent the people, since, as the usual charge goes, they are corrupt. It also implies that some citizens are not part of the “real people” at all. Think of Trump complaining that his critics are not just wrong about policy but that they are “un-American” or even—as he put it at a Veterans Day rally last year—“vermin.” The point of populism, then, is not just criticism of elites. After all, finding fault with the powerful is often justified. Instead, the point is to exclude people from the people: other politicians at the level of party politics and entire groups—usually already vulnerable ones, such as Muslims in India—at the level of the citizenry.

This seemingly direct connection contributes to the erosion of political parties. Populism is about denying and, eventually, destroying pluralism; well-functioning parties can push back against this and rein in populist political entrepreneurs. Some countries even require parties by law to have internal democratic structures. (The radical right-wing Dutch populist Geert Wilders’s Party for Freedom, which won the most seats in last November’s elections, would not be allowed in those countries because Wilders is the only official member.) Of course, parties unite partisans. But partisans often disagree on how principles they share should translate into policy. There is nothing strange about parties forming legitimate opposition to their leadership, and it has often proved crucial in providing a check on leaders. There’s a reason that populists such as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban run their parties in a highly autocratic fashion.

To be sure, the sense of directness created by social media is an illusion. Social media mediates, after all. Yet the prospect of an unfiltered encounter—however misguided—promises authenticity and a sense of connection that was once available only at exceptional moments, such as at a party meeting or mass rally. The political theorist Nadia Urbinati has suggested the paradoxical-sounding term “direct representation” for this relationship: Anyone standing between citizens and their representatives seems to have disappeared.

The work of getting people to the polls used to be done differently. As the political scientist Paul D. Kenny explains in his book Why Populism?, before the age of social media, mobilization depended on clientelism or a well-organized (put more bluntly: highly bureaucratized) political party. Parties and candidates promised supporters material benefits or bureaucratic favors in exchange for votes. This was costly, and costs would rise steeply if political competition intensified or more power brokers entered the fray. Bureaucratic parties are also expensive to maintain. Party officers have to be paid, even if they can count on volunteer work from idealists who sacrifice their weekends to distribute leaflets or canvass door-to-door.

As Kenny points out, social media cuts the costs of mobilization, especially for celebrity candidates such as Trump, who can draw on their pop culture credit. In the old days, when print and TV were dominant, propaganda feedback loops would have been constructed at great costs by party strategists; today, they are created for free by companies that want to maximize engagement for the sake of profit.

As with influencers, a politician’s online presence requires constant curation, so it is not entirely costless. Trump might have written his own tweets, spelling mistakes and all, but others need to pay tech-savvy teams. Social media might work best for those who already treat parties as instruments for marketing a personality rather than developing policy. Take former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose public relations specialists created the Forza Italia party for him in the 1990s and organized it like a fusion of soccer fan club and business enterprise. It is not an accident that Berlusconi joined TikTok before the most recent Italian elections in 2022 (even if the ragazzi he tried to appeal to might have found his performance, as young adults would say, cringe).

The most successful politicians can tap into both forms of support. For instance, Modi, with his enormous cult of personality, has emerged from a mass membership party with a bureaucratic apparatus and can rely on the free labor of partisan foot soldiers. Yet he has also built a following online, where he has been able to present himself as a celebrity above party politics.

Once populist leaders establish the illusion of direct connection, they find it easier to discredit traditional mediators, such as professional journalists, by claiming that they distort politicians’ messages. That can translate into fewer pluralistic debates and fewer opportunities for reporters to ask inconvenient questions. Modi and Orban have not held a genuine press conference in many years; Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have declined to join debates before elections. Trump’s refusal to appear onstage with current Republican candidates might seem like a risky gamble: As candidate Ron DeSantis has tried to point out, the front-runner seems afraid to engage the rest of the pack; plus, he’s losing an opportunity to fully display his knack for the memorable put-down. But Trump is following the autocrat’s playbook: to appear above the fray and portray yourself as the unique embodiment of the popular will. Why stoop to the level of the competition if you’ve already told your supporters that everyone else is corrupt or, at the least, completely unrepresentative of their views?

Filter bubbles can therefore help populists sell their core product: the notion of a homogeneous people united behind the populist leader. Algorithmic curation designed to increase engagement with like-minded users amplifies this dynamic. Platforms often suggest what to watch or click on next. Anyone looking up Orban on X, for instance, will likely find an assortment of far-right content. When I recently checked his account, I was shown tweets from the Russian foreign ministry and U.S. presidential candidate and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

To be sure, these online bubbles do not form in a vacuum. In the United States, plenty of people do live in a far-right bubble, without any contact even with center-right outlets such as the Wall Street Journal. This bubble is not the result of Facebook or X, however. As social scientists at Harvard University demonstrated in a 2018 study, its contours were shaped by the enormous success of right-wing cable news and talk radio in the 1990s. Social media just came on top of that infrastructure. If social media itself made for a world where conspiracy theories and hate always reign, we would see the same outcome in every country—but we don’t.

Democracies must overhaul how platforms are governed to make it harder for populists to use them to their advantage. One problem with social media in its current form is that it gives too much power to a few people. Platform power—the control over the means of connecting with others online—is today’s great unchecked power. As the social scientist Michael Seemann has written, platform power stems from the ability to give access to platforms or deny it, either through outright bans or harassment from online trolls.

As Elon Musk’s changes at Twitter have demonstrated, those who control platforms and their underlying machinery can manipulate online discourse. Since he took over the platform in 2022, Musk has not only arbitrarily suspended journalists but also weakened the rules—and reduced staffing—for content moderation. As Musk has replatformed white supremacists and other hatemongers, minorities such as transgender people have become less protected.

In halfway-functioning democracies, capricious oligarchs such as Musk get to govern platforms almost singlehandedly. In countries on the path to autocracy, the state itself can successfully pressure platforms to do its bidding, as India has done with Twitter by forcing it to block politicians, activists, and even the BBC. In outright autocracies, governments are perfecting what the social scientist Margaret Roberts has called friction and flooding. Rather than simply rely on fear created by widespread repression, as traditional dictatorships would, autocracies now “flood” the web with information to distract users and use intentional technical glitches (“friction”) to make it more difficult for citizens to access certain sites. These regimes know that censorship can draw attention to scandalous content; the truly savvy make it disappear. Such techniques are ubiquitous in China, as is surveillance. Aspiring autocrats, including right-wing populists vying for power in democracies, will no doubt try to copy this repertoire.

To be sure, populists cannot be prevented from building their own counter-publics online, just as parties cannot—and should not—be hindered as they bring together followers. Freedom to assemble and associate means that like-minded people have every right to get together with others who share the same commitments. One would not want authorities to start shutting down safe spaces for groups devoted to empowering minorities, for instance, just because they happen to be insufficiently pluralistic. Ideas to combat online homogeneity through injecting viewpoint diversity into online life are well intentioned but impractical. The jurist Cass Sunstein, for example, has suggested a “serendipity button,” which could very well come out as, “Now that you’re looking at the feminist viewpoint, how about clicking on the anti-feminist one?”

A more nuanced view of online political life does not mean that democracies must tolerate the incitement of hatred. Platform design makes a difference: As the political scientist Jennifer Forestal has shown, Reddit, for instance, makes for a more diverse conversation than Facebook Groups. Reddit allows for communities to form but keeps borders between subreddits permeable; it also empowers both moderators and users to stick to rules agreed on by an online community.

Content moderation in particular should be mandatory, as it is in Germany, rather than a luxury that a platform controller such as Musk has the power to dispense. Moderation can be abused, but that is the case with any attempt to control media power. (Libel laws can be—and are—exploited by undemocratic actors, but that does not mean we should dispense with them altogether.) To forestall this, content moderation must be as transparent as possible and subject to proper oversight; the “black boxes” of algorithms should be opened at least to researchers so that they can help policymakers understand how social media platforms are run. This might sound like a pipedream. But the European Union has been pursuing these goals with its recent Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, which so far have prevented Facebook from launching its X clone, Threads, in the bloc due to its failure to comply with privacy regulations.

Legislation and education will be important tools for democracies. The business models of social media, which are based on maximizing engagement through offering ever more extremist content, are not beyond political regulation. Democracies should also invest serious resources in teaching media literacy—something that many leaders affirm in the abstract but that, just like civic education, always gets short shrift in the end, since “hard” subjects such as math are seen as more important for global economic competition. Not least, democracies must not treat social media in isolation. If they foster a healthier media landscape, including by reinvigorating local journalism, and regulate political parties, it will be much harder for populists to succeed.

[hrodvitnon]

Finally back with some “how would X work in the Abraxasverse” headcanons. Recent birthday really rejuvenated me, so here goes.

Hedorah: in the wake of Ozymandias’ terror across the stars under the control of Gigan, a parasitic species began following after the Mad King, consuming the pollution left in the wake of his attacks. Eventually, one such member followed Xenilla to earth, where it would discover a source of pollution unlike any it had ever seen before: Titan DNA. Consuming the genetic sludge left over from experiments by the likes of Bio-Major and APEX Cybernetics, the parasite soon found itself transformed into the monstrous Hedorah, a being of pure rot.

Singleminded and cruel, Hedorah is amongst the most dangerous of the titans’ new foes, as their rotted sludge like form can corrode even the hardiest of flesh. Godzilla in particularly has found the creature repulsive, with its existence only making him even warier of humanity’s meddling with titans.

Moguera: Millenia ago, the Mysterians were a thriving race, living on a world much like that of a 20th century Earth. Having harnessed the power of the atom, they began experimenting with biomechanics. Looking to their planet’s native species of gigantic mole like reptilians known as Mogela, they used a mix of DNA from these creatures and atomic technology to create the biomechanics creatures called Moguera.

Their fortune was not to last however. As they grew more and more comfortable with atomic powers, their world Mysteroid began to fall prey to to infighting and war. Eventually, nuclear weapons became the name of the game, and the resulting fallout began to horrifically mutate millions. Searching for a solution, the Mysterians began adopting much of the same biomechanics used in the Moguera’s into their own form, eventually become more technological than flesh. As the fallout worsened, many among the Mysterian’s turned to used the Moguera’s as weapons of war as opposed to the radioactive bombs they had grown so accustomed. It was too little, too late, as the planet had become hopelessly irradiated. With much of the population dying and even much of their biomechanical tech beginning to fail them, many do the remaining Mysterian’s created space craft and fled with a handful of Moguera’s stored aboard.

Crash landing on Earth in 1957, they would remain hidden until after the fallout of the “Many Incident”. Fearing humans experiments with Titan DNA would destroy Earth much as they had destroyed their own. Presenting the Moguera’s as a gift to humanity, many Mysterian’s would join organizations such as MONARCH and APEX, acting as voices of caution in the use of Titan biology as weapons. At least one of the Moguera’s has been added to MONARCH’s fleet, serving as an a tool should any Titan go rogue and the likes of Godzilla or Abraxas are unavailable to handle them. This Moguera in particular was the most advanced of them all and has developed somewhat of a sentient mind, even having been observed interacting with Jet Jaguar in a way many personnel described as “flirtatious”. She is seemingly wary of the likes of Godzilla and was amongst the first to encounter Xenilla, having been taken offline after encountering him in Earth’s atmosphere. Conversely, she seems to almost revere Mothra, well, as much as a biomechanical mecha who is seemingly only beginning to gain sentience can revere someone.

Orga: The Millenian’s were once amongst the Universe’s most dominant species. Hailing from a distant galaxy, their species’ scientific predications leading to them to be amongst the first to develop space travel. They journeyed far and wide, using their empire to spread the “genius” of their experiments. Legends even allude to them as among the “keepers of the stars” who came to Earth in the earliest days of humanity, experimenting on the Meganulon and Rodan species. But, their colonization would eventually draw the ire of several other worlds, whose own species began to learn how to achieve and engage in space travel. Constant war began to wear down their empire, but they found themselves extremely lucky when their primary enemy, the Garoga’s, found themselves wiped out by their own monstrous hydra.

This joy was not to last however. Decades later, another monster which had seen the touch of the Garoga’s scientific hand, Gigan, arrived to their world with his fleet. With the mad Titan engaging in warfare both traditional and psychological the likes of which they had never seen, the Millennian’s world was on the brink of death. In a last ditch effort for survival, they transferred their collective consciousness into a fluid, stored within a bio mechanical starship, before fleeing. For centuries they evaded the Fleet of Terror, until an an attempt at invasion of the Zone species’ world was was thwarted. Fleeing with their tail between their legs, they soon encountered Gigan once again. Capturing the ship, he decided to see what he could do with the collective consciousness of an entire species in one singular body. Using a mix of codryceps and DNA taken from his most feared soldier, Ozymandias, Gigan’s experiments twisted the remains of the Millenian race into the horrific Orga.

Deranged and mutilated, the experiment proved fascinating to the abhorrent admiral. Ever since, Orga has been used alternatively as either the first threat sends to a world or as the “clean up”, depending on what he wishes to use said world for. With the warped influence of their master, the collective known as Orga will stop at nothing to please their leader. Rabid and vicious, they are in constant pain, a fact earth’s titans seem quite sympathetic to, although they fear they will almost certainly have to kill it. After the battle with Ozymandias, Gigan has sent Orga as a distraction till he is able to begin the next phase of his plan: Krystallak.

Ah, happy belated birthday! The similarities in some cases to preexisting AbraxasVerse ideas makes me think that in addition to convergent evolution, convergent technological advancements are evidently a thing, what with the Mysterians utilizing atomic power and the Millenians sharing the cult of space-faring bio-tech experiment schtick with Gigan's fleet, and apparently the Garogas having some influence on Gigan... oh, the Garoga were the Makers in this case?

[k-s-morgan]

Our military say there is a big chance of another massive air-raid happening tomorrow — it can be the biggest so far, meaning that I can be offline for a week or longer. We received advice from the government today that we should avoid using our bathrooms in case of a lengthy black-out, meeting our needs by using special packages and then burying them outside. Obviously, there will be no heating, no water, no shops accepting credit cards, no chance to work because it’s impossible without Internet and cell connection. We won’t hear air raids alarms. We’ll be cut off from the rest of the world, plunged in total darkness, in more ways than one.

That’s why I decided to make my monthly post earlier. I want to address it to Ruzzians (people who support the war) — not because I want or expect them to reply, or even care, but just because I feel like doing it. Because I’ve been watching my strong city, my strong country fight for survival for months; because today is my father’s birthday and I can’t be with him - I spent 9 months separated from him, and I want to voice some thoughts that have been living in my head.

So, Ruzzians… do you know that when you cheer upon hearing about your terrorist government hitting Ukrainian critical infrastructure, you’re being happy over a genocide of the most vulnerable and the least protected slices of population in particular? People like me, they’ll be fine — unless your missile hits our apartments again, whether by itself or from being intercepted unsuccessfully. The young and the able will find heating centers. They’ll find a way to survive, to make fire, to cook food, and naturally, they’ll hate you and your country with every fibre of their being. No one is going to protest against our government — the only protests will start if it decides to make peace with you because you don’t make peace with terrorists. Ever.

Do you know who’ll suffer most? The elderly and the disabled who live on top floors, especially those without families nearby. The elevators won’t work, there will be no chance for them to call someone. These people will be trapped in their cold apartments, unable to care for themselves, unable to leave. Some of them will end up crawling to their windows and throwing themselves out, like it happened in Mariupol.    

Do you know who else will suffer? People who need electricity to survive. This includes people in hospitals, people who use chargeable medical devices, people who need constant supplies from drug stores. The same applies to vet clinics. I have a sick pigeon. I have a cat who needs surgery. I am unable to help them because your terrorist attacks have led to numerous black-outs that damaged the necessary equipment.  

Do you know whose deaths you’re cheering on? The death of countless homeless animals who rely on heating in the buildings to stay warm. These are cats. These are birds. These are dogs. You are also enthusiastically supporting their starvation since during the black-outs, most shops cannot work, and those that do quickly become empty. Few people are going to be able to feed these homeless creatures when there is nothing to buy.

Do you know that you are encouraging the poverty and the loss of jobs for people like me? People whose works you might enjoy, who only want to live normally and be left alone? I’m a Russian-speaking Ukrainian. And I hate you. I want to have nothing to do with you or your country, like millions of other Ukrainians, including those who were loyal to Russia in the past.

Your support of these deaths and this suffering made you as complicit as your government. It made sane Russian people feel scared for their safety, preventing them from voicing their thoughts openly. The hundreds of thousands of your soldiers who mindlessly come to another country to kill its people, bomb its cities, torture its animals, destroy everything people have worked-for for their entire lives, tear families apart, steal years of life from the survivors because of all the mental traumas — they represent you. And this representation is monstrous.

You are not even fighting the military. You are fighting civilians first and foremost with your missile terror attacks. You are especially fighting the most undefended groups of people. You delight in taking the smallest bits of comfort and joy from our lives, leaving thousands of ugly, happy messages celebrating our pain and fear. I don’t know what you are. In my mind, to be a human, you need to have at least some humanity, and I don’t see any of it in you. You remind me of bloodthirsty, emotionless robots who can only be happy when others are suffering.

This post is not for you. It’s for me. Because I love life and yet you make me want to die sometimes just so that I could escape the world that I’m forced to share with you. Instead of doing that, I decided to express my thoughts and feelings because writing always makes me feel better. The day you pay for what you’ve done and supported is the day I want to live to see.

 And now about all the wonderful people who support me, who have been helping me keep my sanity throughout this horrible year: thank you. You’ve done so much for me that I will never be able to feel grateful enough. Thank you those who comment on my fics, who ask me questions, who leave words of support and who message me; thank you those who support me financially on Patreon — I especially appreciate it now, when I might go days without a chance to do my job due to black-outs.

If everything becomes unbearable, I will leave my city, but this is my home. I have obligations here. I have homeless cats and my lovely wild pigeons to feed. I have two fathers and a brother who I don’t want to leave behind, so I’ll stay for as long as I can.