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seresinhangmanjake · 2 months

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Super Soft!Simon Riley x reader - You're terrified that Simon's not making safe choices when he's on deployment, so he comforts you. (fluff, allusion to future smut (barely), drunk johnny, cod inaccuracies)

Johnny recounts the tale of their hard-earned achievement—a victory, as they have deemed it—with a number of beers in his system that you’ve long stopped counting. As he sits at your kitchen table, he is looser, giddier, freer with his words, and spares no detail of your boyfriend’s selfless acts of bravery during their last deployment. Acts that got him shot at; one of those bullets finding their home.

You’d be proud of him, if not for the fear that built up over months from recurring nightmares and an overactive imagination—all of which had you losing the love of your life. But that’s not out of character. You think about yourself, you think about your boyfriend, before you think about the lives he saves when he’s away from you. Maybe it’s wrong, or unfair, but you can’t help it.

While Simon’s work is not something he ever kept secret, you don’t need the reminder that the preservation of his life is not always his priority. It can't be. There are other factors that dictate his future. He has a team, people who depend on him. He has responsibilities and orders to follow. Control is often snatched from his fingertips. And so, what does that mean for the two of you?

You don’t care to think about it. Not tonight. Not at midnight from a friend who should have passed out on your couch hours ago. So you stretch, yawn, and excuse yourself for bed before your brain implodes from any more of Johnny’s ramblings.

Simon knows. He spent the night squeezing your hip each time you tensed in his lap at Johnny’s words, and now, as you stand to head to the bedroom, he holds onto your hand until your fingers slip from his. Deep brown eyes are filled with guilt and apology and all you can offer in return is a slight upturn of the lips that barely qualifies as a smile.

Away from the men, you cry in your and Simon’s shared bed, waiting for him to encourage Johnny to the couch. There's a few more loud laughs, a whine when Simon cuts off his friend's alcohol supply, and then a final groan of acceptance as you hear the springs of your couch squeak under the weight of a muscled body. It’s only when the animated snores of your drunk friend reach your ears that the door to your room creaks on its hinges.

Simon’s footsteps are thumps muffled by carpeting. From your peripherals you see him shed his clothes as he moves to you. Shoes, then t-shirt, then jeans, until he's in his underwear and settling onto the mattress behind you.

His arm slips under yours around your waist and he tugs your back to his chest, into the cocoon of warmth.

“Do you know what I thought when I first saw you?” he asks, gruff and thick. His voice rumbles from his chest, vibrating against your spine as his breath brushes your ear. “That my life is over.

“Everything I want, everything I need—none of it matters anymore. All because of one look at a woman who was too busy with her friends to notice me,” he says. “I thought, I'm ruined now. If you leave this bar right this second, I won't be able to forget you. And if you don't leave, I can't ever let you go. I didn't know your name and you had me ready to change my whole world for you.”

You sniffle but don't bother to wipe away the tear that escapes. “That's insane, Si,” you whisper.

“It is,” he agrees, pressing a kiss just under your ear. “But it happened. I let you in and you latched on to my entire existence like this beautiful, little parasite. Just like I wanted you to. My life ended and it became our life.

“I don't take a single step without considering you. Not here and not there. So if you think I don't try to be careful when I'm gone, you're wrong,” he tells you. “I try for you. I try for us.”

Yet, ‘trying’ means he still gets injured; he gets another circular scar to add to the healed knife slashes and the burned patch on his upper arm. ‘Trying’ is not always about picking the safer of two options, but about optimizing luck, which is rare enough as it is. And that terrifies you.

“What if you step wrong not knowing that it's wrong?” you ask. “What if you think it's right and then you're gone? You can't tell me that will never happen.”

Simon sighs. “No, I can't. But you trust me, don't you?”

Turning in his arms—your nose nearly nudging his—you place your hand on his cheek and run your thumb along his cheekbone. “Of course I do.”

“Then don't mourn me while I'm still here, love,” he breathes against your lips. “Can you do that for me?”

You nod, because you’d do anything for him.

“Good girl.” Simon smiles lightly and slides his palm from your back down the length of your arm. He squeezes your fingers, then moves further, tucking his hand into the front of your underwear. “My girl,” he whispers and presses his lips to yours.

A/N: i dont usually write different stuff but i felt like it so i did

#simon ghost riley #simon riley x reader #simon ghost riley x reader #simon riley #cod mw2 #ghost x reader #call of duty #simon riley x you #cod ghost #johnny soap mactavish

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mostlysignssomeportents · 29 days

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Humans are not perfectly vigilant

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in BOSTON with Randall "XKCD" Munroe (Apr 11), then PROVIDENCE (Apr 12), and beyond!

Here's a fun AI story: a security researcher noticed that large companies' AI-authored source-code repeatedly referenced a nonexistent library (an AI "hallucination"), so he created a (defanged) malicious library with that name and uploaded it, and thousands of developers automatically downloaded and incorporated it as they compiled the code:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/ai_bots_hallucinate_software_packages/

These "hallucinations" are a stubbornly persistent feature of large language models, because these models only give the illusion of understanding; in reality, they are just sophisticated forms of autocomplete, drawing on huge databases to make shrewd (but reliably fallible) guesses about which word comes next:

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922

Guessing the next word without understanding the meaning of the resulting sentence makes unsupervised LLMs unsuitable for high-stakes tasks. The whole AI bubble is based on convincing investors that one or more of the following is true:

There are low-stakes, high-value tasks that will recoup the massive costs of AI training and operation;

There are high-stakes, high-value tasks that can be made cheaper by adding an AI to a human operator;

Adding more training data to an AI will make it stop hallucinating, so that it can take over high-stakes, high-value tasks without a "human in the loop."

These are dubious propositions. There's a universe of low-stakes, low-value tasks – political disinformation, spam, fraud, academic cheating, nonconsensual porn, dialog for video-game NPCs – but none of them seem likely to generate enough revenue for AI companies to justify the billions spent on models, nor the trillions in valuation attributed to AI companies:

https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/

The proposition that increasing training data will decrease hallucinations is hotly contested among AI practitioners. I confess that I don't know enough about AI to evaluate opposing sides' claims, but even if you stipulate that adding lots of human-generated training data will make the software a better guesser, there's a serious problem. All those low-value, low-stakes applications are flooding the internet with botshit. After all, the one thing AI is unarguably very good at is producing bullshit at scale. As the web becomes an anaerobic lagoon for botshit, the quantum of human-generated "content" in any internet core sample is dwindling to homeopathic levels:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/14/inhuman-centipede/#enshittibottification

This means that adding another order of magnitude more training data to AI won't just add massive computational expense – the data will be many orders of magnitude more expensive to acquire, even without factoring in the additional liability arising from new legal theories about scraping:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/17/how-to-think-about-scraping/

That leaves us with "humans in the loop" – the idea that an AI's business model is selling software to businesses that will pair it with human operators who will closely scrutinize the code's guesses. There's a version of this that sounds plausible – the one in which the human operator is in charge, and the AI acts as an eternally vigilant "sanity check" on the human's activities.

For example, my car has a system that notices when I activate my blinker while there's another car in my blind-spot. I'm pretty consistent about checking my blind spot, but I'm also a fallible human and there've been a couple times where the alert saved me from making a potentially dangerous maneuver. As disciplined as I am, I'm also sometimes forgetful about turning off lights, or waking up in time for work, or remembering someone's phone number (or birthday). I like having an automated system that does the robotically perfect trick of never forgetting something important.

There's a name for this in automation circles: a "centaur." I'm the human head, and I've fused with a powerful robot body that supports me, doing things that humans are innately bad at.

That's the good kind of automation, and we all benefit from it. But it only takes a small twist to turn this good automation into a nightmare. I'm speaking here of the reverse-centaur: automation in which the computer is in charge, bossing a human around so it can get its job done. Think of Amazon warehouse workers, who wear haptic bracelets and are continuously observed by AI cameras as autonomous shelves shuttle in front of them and demand that they pick and pack items at a pace that destroys their bodies and drives them mad:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/17/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs/

Automation centaurs are great: they relieve humans of drudgework and let them focus on the creative and satisfying parts of their jobs. That's how AI-assisted coding is pitched: rather than looking up tricky syntax and other tedious programming tasks, an AI "co-pilot" is billed as freeing up its human "pilot" to focus on the creative puzzle-solving that makes coding so satisfying.

But an hallucinating AI is a terrible co-pilot. It's just good enough to get the job done much of the time, but it also sneakily inserts booby-traps that are statistically guaranteed to look as plausible as the good code (that's what a next-word-guessing program does: guesses the statistically most likely word).

This turns AI-"assisted" coders into reverse centaurs. The AI can churn out code at superhuman speed, and you, the human in the loop, must maintain perfect vigilance and attention as you review that code, spotting the cleverly disguised hooks for malicious code that the AI can't be prevented from inserting into its code. As "Lena" writes, "code review [is] difficult relative to writing new code":

https://twitter.com/qntm/status/1773779967521780169

Why is that? "Passively reading someone else's code just doesn't engage my brain in the same way. It's harder to do properly":

https://twitter.com/qntm/status/1773780355708764665

There's a name for this phenomenon: "automation blindness." Humans are just not equipped for eternal vigilance. We get good at spotting patterns that occur frequently – so good that we miss the anomalies. That's why TSA agents are so good at spotting harmless shampoo bottles on X-rays, even as they miss nearly every gun and bomb that a red team smuggles through their checkpoints:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/23/automation-blindness/#humans-in-the-loop

"Lena"'s thread points out that this is as true for AI-assisted driving as it is for AI-assisted coding: "self-driving cars replace the experience of driving with the experience of being a driving instructor":

https://twitter.com/qntm/status/1773841546753831283

In other words, they turn you into a reverse-centaur. Whereas my blind-spot double-checking robot allows me to make maneuvers at human speed and points out the things I've missed, a "supervised" self-driving car makes maneuvers at a computer's frantic pace, and demands that its human supervisor tirelessly and perfectly assesses each of those maneuvers. No wonder Cruise's murderous "self-driving" taxis replaced each low-waged driver with 1.5 high-waged technical robot supervisors:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no

AI radiology programs are said to be able to spot cancerous masses that human radiologists miss. A centaur-based AI-assisted radiology program would keep the same number of radiologists in the field, but they would get less done: every time they assessed an X-ray, the AI would give them a second opinion. If the human and the AI disagreed, the human would go back and re-assess the X-ray. We'd get better radiology, at a higher price (the price of the AI software, plus the additional hours the radiologist would work).

But back to making the AI bubble pay off: for AI to pay off, the human in the loop has to reduce the costs of the business buying an AI. No one who invests in an AI company believes that their returns will come from business customers to agree to increase their costs. The AI can't do your job, but the AI salesman can convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI anyway – that pitch is the most successful form of AI disinformation in the world.

An AI that "hallucinates" bad advice to fliers can't replace human customer service reps, but airlines are firing reps and replacing them with chatbots:

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240222-air-canada-chatbot-misinformation-what-travellers-should-know

An AI that "hallucinates" bad legal advice to New Yorkers can't replace city services, but Mayor Adams still tells New Yorkers to get their legal advice from his chatbots:

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/03/nycs-government-chatbot-is-lying-about-city-laws-and-regulations/

The only reason bosses want to buy robots is to fire humans and lower their costs. That's why "AI art" is such a pisser. There are plenty of harmless ways to automate art production with software – everything from a "healing brush" in Photoshop to deepfake tools that let a video-editor alter the eye-lines of all the extras in a scene to shift the focus. A graphic novelist who models a room in The Sims and then moves the camera around to get traceable geometry for different angles is a centaur – they are genuinely offloading some finicky drudgework onto a robot that is perfectly attentive and vigilant.

But the pitch from "AI art" companies is "fire your graphic artists and replace them with botshit." They're pitching a world where the robots get to do all the creative stuff (badly) and humans have to work at robotic pace, with robotic vigilance, in order to catch the mistakes that the robots make at superhuman speed.

Reverse centaurism is brutal. That's not news: Charlie Chaplin documented the problems of reverse centaurs nearly 100 years ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Times_(film)

As ever, the problem with a gadget isn't what it does: it's who it does it for and who it does it to. There are plenty of benefits from being a centaur – lots of ways that automation can help workers. But the only path to AI profitability lies in reverse centaurs, automation that turns the human in the loop into the crumple-zone for a robot:

https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/260

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/01/human-in-the-loop/#monkey-in-the-middle

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

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

Jorge Royan (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Munich_-_Two_boys_playing_in_a_park_-_7328.jpg

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

Noah Wulf (modified) https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thunderbirds_at_Attention_Next_to_Thunderbird_1_-_Aviation_Nation_2019.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #ai #supervised ai #humans in the loop #coding assistance #ai art #fully automated luxury communism #labor

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em-dash-press · 7 months

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How Authors Write Fictional Wars

Some of our favorite novels include wars. They might stretch over a trilogy or build within a single book. Writing one might seem staggering, but it just takes a different planning approach. Use these tips to write a fictional war for your next story and make your readers feel like it really happened.

Foundational Factors to Consider

1. Your Opposing Sides

Wars always have at least two opposing sides. Start there and develop them before deciding if you need a third or fourth side involved. Cover details like:

What does each side want?

What would each side settle for?

What is each side’s worst-case scenario?

What is each side’s hard no? (What wouldn’t they sacrifice or do to win their cause?)

2. Who Supports the Opposing Sides and Why

As a war progresses, each side loses resources. They start running out of money, soldiers, and whatever public support they had when they started the war due to citizens losing their loved ones or sacrificing for the cause.

Your protagonist and antagonist will need to ask for help eventually. Who would support them and why?

There are numerous reasons why someone might pick one side of a war over another. Politics and economics are often the first things leaders consider. The morality behind each side is another factor.

Consider the American Revolution. Many historians believe America would have lost without France sending money, troops, food, and supplies. Why would France support a budding nation over Great Britain? People argue it was because the French:

Wanted to humiliate the British king

Wanted to hurt their British military rival by partnering with America

Wanted to weaken the British kingdom by ending the colonial taxes they benefited from

Wanted to gain power on a global standing by overcoming Great Britain and rising as America’s first ally

These reasons are great examples of what your novel could include. Another country, kingdom, or group could rise in sudden support for your protagonist or antagonist, ultimately throwing chaos into the determined path of war for better or worse.

3. The War’s Terrain

People can break into battle almost anywhere, depending on your fictional world. Your characters could fight:

On land

On sea

In space

In the air

Underground

Online

Some terrain also comes with other considerations. If your war happens on an ocean, will storms and hurricanes affect battles or the ultimate outcome? How will the soldiers and leaders on both sides deal with the weather?

Note these possibilities as you plan your novel. You can add them in as background or crucial plot devices once you have a skeletal structure in place for your story.

Need help remembering everything you’ve imagined? Try making a map and keeping it wherever you write.

4. What Would Make Each Side More or Less Powerful

There’s always something that could give one side an advantage over the other. It’s often in an unexpected way, although you could make the advantage a goal. The bad guys might feel confident in their ability to win, but they have a secret mission to develop a new weapon just to give them a greater advantage.

Other factors to consider would be one side or another doing something like:

Discovering or enacting a magic system

Eliminating a crucial resource their enemy depends on

Removing funding that makes their enemy able to fight by befriending or overcoming their enemy’s financial backers

Changing the positive or negative public perception of the other side’s reason for fighting to change national morale

Doing something that makes one side’s leaders more or less moral (which could change public perception, the soldiers’ vigor, the leadership’s advisory team together, etc.)

6. What Kinds of Conflict You’ll Write

There are two types of basic conflict you’ll likely write when navigating a fictional war. You may not need both if your story is shorter, but adding both makes the plot more realistic.

First, there’s external conflict. You’ll have at least two opposing sides on some kind of battlefield, sneaking around on spy missions, planning surprise attacks, etc.

Secondly, there’s internal conflict. Soldiers might start fighting amongst each other, people in leadership positions could lose trust in each other, citizens might turn on their country’s cause for one reason or another, etc.

7. What Weaponry Your Characters Will Use

The weapons used in your war depend on numerous factors. It will draw from the genre you’re writing, the time period your story takes place, the advancements made in each civilization’s weaponry prior to the war, and any advancements made while the war goes on.

Examples of these could be:

Guns

Swords

Bows

Bombs

Drones

Armed ships

Armed space ships

You should also consider if one side’s weaponry is more likely to change during the course of the war. That’s more plausible if your story or characters change locations where regional cultures use different weapons. Also if the war spans years, people will naturally develop new weaponry during that time.

If you want extra details to daydream about, think about which weapons will become outdated during your story. Some will prove less useful due to complicated usage or cleaning. They also may not work, like if your science fiction characters follow their enemy underwater, but their laser guns require a dry atmosphere to function.

Include Emotional Plot Arcs

Writing always involves some kind of emotional work that results in a plot arc. It keeps the reader engaged by evoking their core feelings. That’s what makes a novel different from a textbook (in a very basic sense).

Work on details like these to find what emotions will be most present and relevant to your story:

Your overall theme

Your characters and what they experience

The action your characters will go through

How the above action will change your characters by affecting their loved ones

What your characters’ goals mean to them emotionally

If your characters’ will undergo things that change their perception of their world, leaders, country, or themselves

You don’t need all of these things to have an emotional plot arc, but they’re relatable human elements that can drive your plot right into your readers’ hearts.

Avoid Some War Story Tropes

Tropes have a bad reputation that I don’t think is entirely deserved. People recognize them as overdone stereotypes, but sometimes they’re useful.

When you’re writing a war, you’re going to have necessary tropes like:

The hero

The unit or squad

The antagonist

What they undergo and who they become is how you make them fresh concepts for your readers.

Some tropes aren’t helpful because they’re what readers expect from every story. If you give them what they expect, your story isn’t as engaging (unless you get the occasional reader who exclusively reads war novels and never tires of overdone tropes).

Keep these in mind as things to avoid, unless you have an ingenious way to make them a brand-new experience:

One soldier dying in another’s arms

A character dying by going out “in a blaze of glory”

Characters using guns in ways that are obviously wrong (i.e., firing more bullets than the gun-type/model holds)

Getting military rank incorrect (if your characters exist in a real-world, already existing military structure)

Injury-proof characters (even your protagonist will eventually encounter some physical harm, whether it’s illness in bad weather or getting shot on a battlefield)

You can check out this great resource to discover more tropes to avoid/consider as you draft your plot outline.

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If it feels like writing a war over the course of a book or a series is challenging, you’re not alone. There’s a lot to consider to make it have an engaging flow.

Keep notes on things like these to develop your story as much as possible before starting your first draft. You can always go back and add or edit things out as needed while developing it. Writers do this all the time—you don’t need to get any manuscript perfect on your first try.

#writing war #writing warfare #writeblr #writing advice #writing tips #writers of tumblr #creative writing #writing #writing inspiration #writing community #writing help #writing resources #writing action #writing conflict #writing batlles

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dailyadventureprompts · 4 months

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Homebrew Mechanic: Battles of Attrition

I think we can all agree that there’s something a little wonky with how d&d’s combat system changes between the early and mid/late game. Heroes go from being rightfully cautious about danger to being outright banal about it, confident that their accumulated power will be enough to dispatch all but the most outstanding foes. The traditional solution is to put them up against stronger enemies but in my experience these mismatched encounters are a failing proposition: combat just gets more swingy and there’s only so many high level threats I can throw at them in a short period of time before it begins to strain credulity.

While a lot of folks (Especially the OSR crowd) have taken the stance that 5e is broken because of how much it empowers players, I think the real fault lays with the lack of systems that exist to provide challenge outside of anything related to the damage based tug-of-war that is combat. I think a lot of those systems were part of the non existent “exploration” pillar of the game before Hasbro realized they could make easy money selling the game in its unfinished state and gutted it along with the development team.

Thankfully, I and other homebrewers are around to do what the megacorporations cant, namely have some original thoughts and try and figure out a way to add challenge back to the game without resenting those playing it for having fun.

TLDR: Trying to make our games challenging by upping damage numbers in combat is a losing proposition, in no small part because that part of the game is DESIGNED around the heroes winning. Instead, we up the overall difficulty by making them temporarily weaker with systems like sickness, stress, exhaustion, & item degradation. All of which I have details and guidelines on below the cut.

First and foremost let me state some of my goals for these “attrition systems”, so we can all be on the same page. Whenever I make homebrew rules I try for something that’s going to require little to no paperwork on behalf of the players and can be seamlessly implemented into my DMing style. It’s not about realism, it’s not about punishing players, this is a way for me to add mechanical depth without bogging down the machine entirely.

Attrition should be largely non-permanent. The 5e audience invests a lot in their characters both emotionally and mechanically, so it won’t do to pile on debilitating debuff after debuff to the point of making a character useless.

There should be an inverse relationship between the severity of the affliction and how long it lasts. Think in term of encounters, days, or weeks, (with the understanding that an attrition that goes on for long enough becomes a questhook in itself)

The exception to this rule is if someone hits 0 hitpoints. I’m outspoken in my stance that characters should only die when it’s alternatively appropriate, but the dm is at liberty to inflict thematically devastating setbacks in the unlikely event that the party DOES suffer losses in the damage tug of war.

We want to be sparing with how much attrition we throw at the party at once, so as to not create a “death spiral” where failures compound upon one another and make getting through the adventure impossible.

In most cases suffering Attrition should be something the party is able to avoid by being fast/lucky/cautious/clever or whatever else the encounter requires. It’s there to add weight and consequence to their actions, and as a factor for DMs to build scenarios around.

Exhaustion: Unlike a lot of the other changes made in Oned&d, I actually quite like the overhaul of “each point of exhaustion is a cumulative -1 to all d20 rolls and spell dc, beyond 10 is death” as it allows us to play with exhaustion far more readily as an attrition.

Every night you don’t rest in a haven (a safe comfortable place) you need to make a con save or take a point of exhaustion, with the ruggedness of the environment determining the DC. Characters with the survival skill or natural explorer feat don’t have to make this roll. Only rest in a haven removes exhaustion at the rate of one point per night (though spaces like a luxury inn or a peaceful glade watched over by friendly fey may restore more)

Hitting 0 hp and then being healed gives you a point of exhaustion. Nothing’s going to tire you out like getting magically defibulated so now everyone can stop complaining about healing word spam.

Poison: For our purposes, the “poisoned” condition as written is too severe. Disadvantage on all attacks and ability checks is downright punishing for anything other than a single battle. Instead we’re going to make it work like charmed, where there’s a baseline effect for the purposes of resistance, but the status of each poison is dependant on the source.

Poison falls in the “ short term big effect” side of attrition, specifically undermining a player’s ability to do most things since most effects end on a successful save or at the end of an encounter. Long lasting poisons should have more minor effects than the default poisoned condition, only applying to a few types of rolls or having a bane-like effect that makes judging the odds just a little bit more difficult.

This makes poison great to use for dungeons and short-ranging exploration where the party is likely to face multiple encounters in one day.

Diseases: 4e aced the design of these maladies by treating them as a contained skill challenge with their own CR with various stages: stage 0: you were cured, stage 1: you suffered the initial effect, stage 2 or 3: you suffered a severe effect, with the final stage (3-4) being some effect that made the disease permanent. When you got a disease it was usually stage 1, and you (usually) saved for it at the start of each day. Beating the DC by 5 or more meant you went down a stage (closer to 0), where as simply succeeding meant it stayed as bad as it was. Failing meant you got sicker, meaning a character could bounce up and down in wellness as an adventure went on.

Diseases are best for longterm adventures, and often undermine one particular aspect of a character ( healing, actions assosiated with a particular stat). Counterpoint to poisons, diseases should start out fairly gentle and then get worse the longer they’re left alone, leading to eventually devastating effects.

Curses: While borrowing the mechanics of diseases, I’d have curses be specifically weirder in their effects. The sort of thing that can make up the central hook or b-plot of a whole adventure. This should also mean that curses are the hardest for the party to stumble into, but also the hardest to shake.

Item Degradation: Detailed in a previous post HERE, the long and short of it is that item degradation is a form of player driven attrition that gently curbs their overall power level. If they go too hard, use their best items recklessly, get involved in needless fights, then they’re going to be in worse shape by the time they reach the final challenge. This was supposed be the idea behind HP/limited class abilities per day, but attrition systems cover that better IMO.

Stress: The psychological counterpoint to exhaustion, I’ve already talked about Stress HERE. I tend to only use stress in horror themed adventures and campaigns, as it builds upon 5e’s optional “madness” system which fits the theme when gothic terrors and eldritch abominations but less so with the game’s usual heroic fare.

Hunger & Supply: I made a super lightweight system based off this idea of “depletion die” for potions and other consumables, check it out, it’s lightweight and fantastic. Using this kind of system gives us another avenue to challenge our party, lengthening or shortening their lifeline as they lose supplies and seek out new caches.

Thinking environmentally: Part of the fantasy of being an adventurer is travelling to dangerous places and living to tell the tale. We’re denying our party that fantasy if we don’t follow through on the threat the idea of these places imply. You should risk sickness if you go into a swamp, sewer, or jungle, thirst should be a factor in desert exploration, just like freezing is for mountain and winter expeditions. That’s to say nothing of magical hazards; cursed landscapes that drain your will to live dead marshes style, alchemical smog in a steampunk industrial zone, fading into nothingness as you approach the edge of existence.

Figure out the natural hazards, make your party aware of the danger, and then build your adventure around the fact that they’ll need to save against the hazard each time they take a long rest.. Do they take a detour if it means having a safe place to camp? Is there a resource they need to manage along the way? Could encounters expose them to further dangers or make their current exposure worse? Keeping these ideas in mind especially when you’re planning a wilderness exploration adventure should give you lots of ideas to fill up those encounter tables.

Adding insult to injury: Giving enemies the ability to inflict attrition in various forms makes otherwise trivial enemies a credible threat even to a seasoned adventuring party. As an example, A party might breeze through a fight with some monstrous spiders ( or even ONE regular sized spider, if you can imagine) , but that spider encounter doesn’t need to be the most dangerous thing ever if their next encounter is a navigation challenge fording a river and a few of the heroes are still groggy thanks to the slow acting poison in their systems.

In this way you can use attrition based battles to soften your party up for greater challenges, long after their HP totals and healing ability have outpaced the damage a single trap/encounter can do.

Artist

#homebrew mechanic #d&d mechanics #attrition #combat

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oddballwriter · 8 months

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hello! Could i please request a one shot where Steven and Marc know about Jake's existence and they have been trying to get used to him and get to know him, and during a mission where they need help they found out Jake has been having like a long term relationship with the reader (who is Sekhmet's avatar)

And Steven its totally freaking out but also crushing on her but Marc its like "wtf how long has this been going on?"

Unexpected Addition

꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦

Part Two

Summary: Life with a new addition is a bit tricky, but Steven and Marc are getting the hang of having Jake around. But what they don't expect is that Jake has a bit of a life of his own, including a love. Which sort of adds another addition.

Warnings: The boys are fighting. Steven being a love sick puppy. Marc is kind of a dick in this not gonna lie. Mentions of some factors of D.I.D. . It's mentioned that Jake told reader about Marc's past, to a degree. There's some arguing about you and Jake being a thing for so long and kind of referenced that you and Jake technically overlap with Marc and Layla by a hair.

This fic is actually more of Steven just having a big stinkin' crush on you and Jake and Marc yelling at each other.

Author’s Snip: I feel like this is good but not completely on the mark. Anon, if you want to throw me another scenario that's Jake centric with this idea/world then feel free. Just give me a sign.

Notes: I semi-proof read this so if there's weird grammar and shit just ignore it.

I’ll shut up now. Enjoy! And don’t be afraid to request.

꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦

Jake was a surprise. Well, in the logic of common D.I.D. systems not really, but in the sense that neither Steven nor Marc knew he was there. It felt like a bit of a privacy breach to think that Jake's just watched everything go down from the shadows only to leave as soon as he came, and it was a bit unnerving to know that Jake was more off the hinges. But it's not like they could really do anything about him. Jake's a part of the system, whether they like it or not.

Jake honestly wasn't that much of a change up though. He usually did his own things and kept in his lane for the most part. Even if his tactics were more... forceful than Marc and Steven's were. Otherwise Jake would be something of an allusive one. He didn't seem to do much but they had a hunch that there was more than just Jake Lockley, the third alter, cabbie by daylight, and system parachute and low key Khonshu's hitman. And there was.

Because there was you.

Marc and Steven found out about you because they were on a mission that Khonshu demanded that they do. And it turns out Sekhmet had the same idea for you.

It wasn't like the two were in on it and it was a ruse to get you to meet the others. It was genuinely just an "Oops, did know you were gonna get it." sort of thing.

"Jake? Wasn't expecting a surprise team up with you. Usually boyfriends surprise their girlfriends flowers." you laugh under your breath as you try to not catch any unwanted attention. You didn't need anymore than the " Excuse me?" from Marc to know that it wasn't Jake you've bumped into. "I'll explain once we get this done. Just follow my lead for now." you say as you move on with what you were planning on doing.

"Okay... so..." you roll out trying to think of what to say after having just handled the mission, and now sitting at an empty park bench in your regular clothes, "My name is Y/N. What's yours?" you settle on as you lift your hand for a handshake, trying your best to have a non-nervous smile. "How do you know about Jake?" Marc asked, ignoring your polite gesture of formality.

"Marc. That is so rude. She's trying to be nice." Steven scolded from the puddle at his feet.

"Me and Jake are... together." you mumble out. "How?" Marc demanded. He looked so angry and menacing while he interrogated you. You've seen a lot of mean looking guys but when it's the face of someone you recognize as your boyfriend, you felt a bit trapped by the tense energy. You barely squeak out "I met him a while back.".

"Marc, if you just let me explain without making a scene it'll all make sense." you quickly speak out before he almost interrupts you, "How do you know my name. You were acting like you didn't know it a seco-".

Marc violently twitches before the tense scowl on his face disappears and is replaced with a softer worried expression after a second less violent twitch.

He looks at you, he sees that you looks a bit frightened, and then he speaks, with a British accent "I'm sorry about that... that-that wasn't me. I didn't switch us." he says, "Must have been-" he tries to say before you speak. "Steven, right?" you ask in a soft voice. He's caught a bit off guard that you said his name. He points to himself with a "Me?" and nods "Yeah.".

You stare at each other for a bit before you speak up. "Jake hasn't told you about me, I know. He just barely started being known to you guys and he didn't want to rush anything. I understood that and did my best to stay clear so that I wouldn't shock you two but I knew that there would be a fumble at some point." you explain.

Steven listens intently till you're done. It was either that or listening to Marc and Jake yell at each other in the reflection of the puddles.

"I only know about you guys because he wanted me to be ready when the time came for him to think that it was a good time for us to actually meet. I didn't mean to throw any of you through a loop like that. It's just been a while since I've seen him and I got excited." you apologize as you explain more.

"It's okay , love. It's just that we hardly know anything about Jake and finding out something so personal was a bit jarring." Steven says. You feel a little flutter at being called "love" for a second before Steven speaks again. He subconsciously touched your hand. "And I'm sincerely sorry about Marc's behavior. You were being courteous and he was acting like you were a danger when you were making it clear that your and Jake had some type of acquaintance." he apologized.

"It's okay." you comment. "Jake told me that Marc would be a bit... apprehensive about me. That's just how he is." you add.

"And me?" Steven questions with a bit of curiosity to what Jake might have said about him. "He said that if I meet you then you might be a bit flighty. Said that you were easy to spook." you say in a bit of a laugh.

Steven got to see more of you after that. You would spend some time to get to know each other more, which Jake approved of. He thought it was nice to see the two parts of his life that he kept separate finally meet. It was kind of like having cats meet for the first time where you watch them interact and then get comfortable with each other.

Steven, admittedly, and a bit too obviously, took a huge liking towards you. And you the same. You were fascinated with the other. He liked hearing about what you did as the avatar of Sekhmet and what that entailed for you both in mission and personal life. Along with what you just did in your regular civilian life. As for you, you were amazed to see a person who acted, talked, and even moved so differently than the person you usually associated his face and body with.

Unfortunately, you and Marc weren't taking to each other too nicely. Well, you were still perfectly friendly towards him any time you saw him. It was Marc who wasn't very enchanted by you.

Matter of fact, he and Jake were still at it with each other.

"How long has this been a thing?" Marc asked with the same demanding voice he did to you. "Three years." Jake answered in a nonchalant tone. "Three years?!" Marc repeated, unpleasantly surprised by the answer. Jake scoffed "Didn't she say we've known each other for a while?" Jake mentioned.

"So you've just been seeing this random woman for three years behind our back-? Behind Layla's back?" Marc fumbled out with anger. "You," Jake interrupted, "- Sent divorce papers to Layla. Not me." Jake clarified. "Not to mention. She was your wife. You made it very clear to Steven that she was off limits and I already knew that she was off limits. So sorry I went and found my own woman instead of hitting up yours." Jake quipped.

"Yeah and now it seems like Steven likes yours too." Marc said making his own quip.

"Good!" Jake bursted, "At least he's courteous enough to treat her with some respect and get to know her.". Marc would have spoken again but just beat him to it. "You're acting like I was going to hide you from each other forever. I would have had you two meet at some point once you were used to me. You three just met earlier then I would have liked." Jake explained.

"Did she know about Layla?" Marc asked. "Of course I told her about Layla! I was open and honest about my situation and what that would spell out for our relationship." Jake answered with an emphasis on the words open and honest. "How much did you tell her about us?" Marc demanded again before Jake exploded.

"Everything!" Jake barked. "I told her fucking everything I could! I told her about you. About Steven. Layla. Our condition. Everything about us, she knows. I wanted her to be ready for when you cross paths. I told her how to behave and what to watch out for so that she wouldn't startle either of you. And you know what? She did! She was going to explain everything to you if you would just let her fucking speak instead of grill her like that." Jake lectured.

Listening to the two fight was something that Steven would usually ignore. It seemed like arguing while getting to know each other was a thing in the system. Usually Steven would intervene if it was getting too bad or he was brought into it. But neither of those caught his attention because he was busy paying attention to you. Again.

"You look so different." you say almost out of the blue. "Excuse me." Steven spoke. "You look so different from Jake even though it's the same body." you remark.

"You have such different eyes. Yours are all doe eyed and round. Jake has a resting angry face. It's so weird." you smile. "And you smile different too. Jake only smiles a little and with the corner of his mouth, so it looks like a smirk. You smile with your cheeks." you add.

Steven flustered and felt shy under your gaze. The way you were talking didn't speak ill of neither him or Jake. You were speaking in admiration at what made them so different.

"You also don't have the little paperboy hat or gel." you point out as you look at the curls on his head. "Jake usually wears a little bit of gel to slick back some of his hair. I sometimes forget just how curly it is." you say as you gently reach to play with a few little curls. Steven honestly felt like he should be coughing up wings by now with the amount of butterflies he had going in his stomach and chest as you touched him. Even if it was just to admire him for a moment.

He did feel a bit guilty for enjoying your words and affirmation a little too much. He wasn't entirely sure if Jake would act the same as Marc did when he accidentally made contact with Layla. But then again, he hasn't had Jake barging in and being defensive about you. It felt weird to think about it this way but at least Jake was, seemingly, sharing. That or he's too focused on Marc when he's not the one fronting.

Steven did wish that Marc was nicer to you and more open to meeting you. You were very sweet and treated them nicely.

Maybe Marc would get to see you look at him and complement all the details about him like his eyes and his smile. You could get to know him and what he likes and how that contrasts with you. maybe you two could get used to fighting together in the cases that you bump into each other again.

#moon knight #moonknight #moon knight x reader #moonknight x reader #steven grant #steven grant x reader #marc spector #marc spector x reader #jake lockley #jake lockley x reader

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utopya-cc · 1 year

Text

youtube

SIMS4 MOD | Kiss-n-Grind

Hey guys, hope you all are doing well. Quiet excited about this one,

The main idea was to make a mod that will focus on adding more romantic interactions to the game. to add more realistic moments between couples. I wanted to add what I feel is missing from the game.

So After some searching and looking at what should I make first, I have decided to start with a passionate grinding/dancing interactions, There is too much stuff to cover in the club life. that the game didn't manage to add, other than some silly dances. Your Sims couple can't even dance together.

Therefore I ended up turning These new animations into their own mod, It will be a great foundation for all the ideas that I want to add!!

The mod For now will introduces two new interactions with their animations and emotions/buffs

The new pie menu will appear in the Romance category under the name Kiss and Grind, all the new interactions will appear on it:

The interaction won't appear if your sim hasn't had their first kiss yet, or the level of romance is too low

Features Of the Mods:

New highly detailed animation with their own sounds

New pie menu for the new interaction

New icons for each Interaction/animation that will suit their own animation

A new dynamic buff system which increases with the romance bar

These interactions will give you a buff for both the actor and target sim.

There is a chance to get some notifications/comments from your partner

The animations were made to have a more romantic feel to them. to give the player the freedom to use them in any game style they want. All the icons used are custom-made by me, I did put extra time into them to be more visually pleasing and match their original content

Possible outcomes:

I have implemented in this mod a new buff system that will depend on the relationship between the Sims and some other factors:

First of all The outcomes will be highly randomized for both the actor and the target to keep the game more exciting.

The higher the romance level between your sims the higher chance of getting more intimates outcomes with stronger emotions:

Obviously, this is a club-based mod, you take your sim there to meet up with new Sims, So Even with a low romance, The outcomes may be higher and unique If your sim has high charisma.

When the romance bar is higher the 90% there is a small chance to get a notification/comment from your partner.

The mod will be enhanced further in the future, with New animations, New mechanics, and features.

I still love the original idea. So once I have decided all the interactions for it, I will start making them into their own mod, and leave this one just for the club-related animations.

The interactions shouldn't be played autonomously,

Better to wait until the animation is finished and the queue is clear before playing another one.

Requirement : This mod needs the XML injector by Scumbumbo. You can download it here : https://scumbumbomods.com/xml-injector

How to install :

Just put both my mod and the XML injector script into your Sims 4 Mods folder.

Reblogs are super appreciated!

DOWNLOAD

#sims 4 mods #ts4 mods #the sims mods #sims mods #sims 4 interactions #sims 4 cc #ts4 interactions #sims 4 custom content #sims cc #the sims cc #the sims 4 custom content

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earthstellar · 7 months

Text

Currently combing through the Transformers Exodus novel, as I often do.

Some notes, by which I mean, this is going to be long:

Using an Abandoned Hydraulic Mining Facility as a Battle Arena: This Sort Of Happened in Real Life -- Know Your Labour History

The building in Kaon that is used by Megatron for gladiatorial battle is an abandoned hydraulics works, and on the page prior to this it refers to extremely deep slag pits, which indicates this hydraulics facility was almost certainly used for mining. The location is given specifically as "to the south of Kaon's centre".

This makes me wonder if the now-abandoned Orgreave Coking Plant may have been some inspiration to someone somewhere in building the backstory; A coking plant uses massive amounts of hydraulic machinery and components, and the location of this specific facility is to the south of the centre of Rotherham.

Plenty of Brits work on Transformers, and I wonder if any English people who may have been on the team for developing the Aligned Continuity bible/character backstories might have thought of Orgreave as some kind of inspiration.

It's worth noting Orgreave Coking Plant was famously the site of a huge labour dispute which turned into a borderline Battle of Harlan situation, called the Battle of Orgreave in 1984.

Which makes it excellent potential inspiration, both visually and in terms of historical significance in union/labour and working class struggle against the oppressive upper class- A significant theme in Transformers.

Nearby, there is also the abandoned Orgreave Colliery, and while all abandoned collieries would fit the mechanical and dark, heavy design of Kaon, Tarn (the location, not the bot) and so on, it's still worth pointing out that Orgreave has plenty of industrial ghosts (abandoned industrial facilities).

That having been said, hydraulic mining works could also refer to actual hydraulic mining methods rather than just any hydraulic machinery present, which would also explain the large pits that Orion Pax sees at the site in Kaon, and would add another level of horror: Using fluids to carry out this type of mining would be a huge hazard to bots. I'd imagine rusting was a common problem, not to mention gradual armour/frame wear, increased fall/slip hazards for most frame types, etc.

CONTENT WARNING: Here's where some medical conjecture begins, you might want to skip this section if you're sensitive to medical discussions! There is no detailed comparison to any particular real world cases in this segment, however there is brief mention of ableism in a fictional context.

This would also account for the description of optics and audials needing more frequent repair even prior to suffering any gladiatorial damage--

--In some frame types, these components/sensory systems may be more exposed to the environmental pollution as mentioned in the text, but also, would be sensitive to abrasive damage from spray back/high pressure soil/stone/crystal like particulate materials present in Cybertron's surface and sub-surface layers acting essentially as sand paper against their bodies as they worked in any such hydraulic mining sites.

This is the type of shit Kaonite workers in these mining facilities were likely exposed to on a regular basis, because they are Cybertronians and could physically tolerate this kind of thing without dying-- At least, not right away.

A combination of repeated extreme wear, chronic overwork, likely poor medical resources, and complicating factors like questionable access to healthy fuels etc. would have inevitably resulted in a generally very unwell population with high workplace casualty rates.

This was the type of life most low class/caste heavy labour designated frame types were assigned to, under the Functionist system.

I've talked about my headcanons re: hearing disabled Megatron before, and it's kind of interesting to see that canonically here, that's very much possible. Audial damage from mining, audial damage from the fighter's ring.

But in general, the Kaonite population is seriously at risk, especially medically. Same deal with other low class/caste designated regions across Cybertron. Much like many Appalachian mining populations, where COPD is as common as flies in summer, the chronically poor health of this population would be staggering in comparison to better-off polities like Iacon.

Rust in their optics, rotting their optical components from within, likely leaving many workers sightless--

--At which point they were probably deemed "useless" under the ableist Functionist system, as they would then likely be unable to work their prior jobs or would only be able to work in limited or different capacities; Any system that determines worth by perceived functionality is inherently ableist, and Primus knows there were almost certainly no disability accommodations provided or available potential repairs/treatments in places like Kaon on Cybertron.

As a result, these newly disabled bots were likely left unemployed and therefore without any income source for Shanix, therefore left to their deaths via fuel deprivation etc.--

--Unless they fell in with mob-controlled sources of materials or aid, as a last resort...

Apparently Megatron Displaced The Local Kaonite Mafia: Pit Bosses Could Be Mob Bosses Too

This is also a real thing, as a lot of productive industrial facilities (not just mining, but textiles etc.) were often tied into in local black market raw material goods and organised crime shit, owing to less than moral site owners and company bosses. (At least in the USA, it may have varied in other countries or from region to region.)

This is because if you have a productive facility, you can make a fuckload of money bypassing any common sense safety rules or proper waste/product handling or disposal protocols etc. and skip the whole regulated market and just go right to making a fuckzillion moneys from whoever will buy this shit illegally.

(This is part of why a lot of Appalachia is polluted to hell and back-- Even at the time, a lot of these industrial works and companies knew perfectly well that dumping coal ash and other horrible shit into every single river and creek available was a bad idea. They did it anyway. Why? It saved money overall and they didn't have to pay for more long distance drivers to reach actual approved waste sites etc.

For those of you who may not be familiar with this USA specific shit, let me introduce you to the concept of a Superfund Site. It's depressing. Most are former industrial illegal waste dumping sites. These places are so fucked up that even the American Government was forced to acknowledge how bad it is. Some of them are straight up literal nuclear waste sites.)

This has been a huge problem in American industrial history, because America can turn out some very, very productive sites using very, very unsafe and cruel means to force workers to work. Paying in scrip etc. were all methods to ensure a workforce could not leave. And so on.

Not to mention the horrendous impact on Native populations, the poor in general, immigrants in general, etc. who were all subject to the worst possible treatment throughout.

And there are many modern examples too-- Not just in the USA, but in many places around the world, such as Peru. Note that capitalism is often the facilitator of mistreatment, pollution, etc. and serves as the motivating factor for much of this fuckery worldwide. This also includes factors like western companies wanting to appear more "green", so they simply go abroad to abuse people in other nations and exploit their labour and raw labour products instead.

Capitalism is the root problem, on Earth and evidently, likely on Cybertron as well.

Can you imagine the amount of Shanix these fucking Kaonite mob bosses were making, possibly from selling raw materials and energon crystals mined in Kaon to other polities with fewer natural resources, arranging illicit under the table deals with large energy distributors etc. in other regions? Depriving Kaon of its own natural goods and stealing the near-entirety of their labour, constantly, endlessly?

(If this all reminds you a bit of Marx's Theory of Alienation, you are correct.)

Much of Kaon is, essentially, a Superfund Site. Dangerous industrial waste, materials, and abandoned facilities, all affecting the population in all sorts of ways into perpetuity even long after one industry dies and another rises-- Or a new industry never comes along, and you end up with even worse off sections of an already brutally deprived area, living in the remnants of an equally hellish past that was just marginally better enough to make some bots yearn for the good old days of having a job to be worked to death at.

If this is relatable or frustrating to you, you are correct. These are all real world problems. It's easy to relate to the plight of the Kaonites-- Megatron, at this time, is still largely a sympathetic figure to many.

Because of course, even from the outside, it is clear that this degree of suffering cannot be sustained. Even Orion Pax recognises this, despite his own total lack of exposure and lack of class awareness at the time in which he initially starts speaking with Megatron.

Anyway. Briefly back to our real world example, because it's important here:

All of this capitalist corruption is another example of systemic level rot; A lot of the time regulators knew that facilities were engaging in illegal dumping and worker rights abuses etc. but couldn't do anything about it due to a lack of federal involvement and lack of means or resources to raise a larger case or investigation on the scale that would be needed.

And of course, some regulators and investigators were paid off. Sigh.

It's genuinely impressive that Megatron was able to run off an industrial crime syndicate, because that shit goes very deep and has lots of tendrils that tie into pretty much everything else going on in a given area, especially in towns or regions where only one or two industries make up the entirety of everything.

It doesn't surprise me at all that Megatron gained such a large following so quickly.

Nobody else in Cybertron was willing or able to acknowledge (let alone try to address) the horrible abuses going on in Kaon.

Endless, brutal labour, often resulting in horrible deaths. No reward for any of their work, with much of their meagre pay going to the mob and likely to companies based in other polities around Cybertron, so none of the materials or money ever stayed local. No care was put into their living conditions or standard of living, with most bots being used up and worn down with nothing to show for it but the industrial hell that consumed their own region.

And by getting the organised crime rings out of the local industries and community, by turning this abandoned facility into a gladiatorial ring, that provided both a more personally rewarding use of their physical skills developed through hard manual labour and gives an opportunity to gain legitimate funds and potentially fame-- Granting a social status previously completely unattainable to Kaonites, while clearly being built up on the legacy of all of their prior labour.

No wonder the appeal to follow Megatron was so strong, even in the early days.

Not even Primus helped these people, none of the Primes helped these people--- But Megatron did.

And that is powerful, to be liberated by one of your own, someone you know truly understands the difficulty and suffering and misery of a cruel, unending grind.

All that most of these bots could ever look forward to previously was dying in a hopefully not-as-painful way.

Now, there is potential for a genuinely tangibly better future, quite possibly for the first time in Kaon's history. Certainly for the first time within living memory.

Megatron turned an immiserated local population with no hope and no prospects beyond being worked to death into up-and-coming athletic stars with a burgeoning sports industry, using their local culture and previously disparaged frame types to prove the inherent wrongness of the class/caste system to a literal mass audience.

Megatron essentially took waste from the Cybertronian equivalent of colliery spoil tips and used it to forcibly create some kind of real hope and better future for every Kaonite, both individually and gradually on a larger regional scale, while living under an oppressive system that was just as likely to kill him in the same way as it had been killing everyone else around him his entire existence.

Megatron turned an industrial hell into a revolutionary city-state.

And he started local, he started with the injustices closest to him, what was visible rot to him in the environment he grew up in. Start small, strategize, your morals are your fuel-- In part because they keep stealing the fuel we mine. Does that seem fair? Does that seem just? What sense does it make, to have a system in which your most important workers are kept deprived and struggling into perpetuity?

He is the perfect Cybertronian revolutionary, he is the figurehead the people of Kaon needed, and his words were heard planet-wide from an arena he facilitated the building of himself, that he reclaimed from decay and loss.

From the bare frame structure of an abandoned mining pit, Megatron spoke words that inspired the downtrodden and lifted up countless impoverished populations through solidarity, the collective power of the working class, the low caste bots, the low class frame types.

The people that were previously discarded, were now using their means and their frames for their own purposes, gradually weakening the grip of the Council, gradually proving to more and more bots that this system is broken and this world can be better and we deserve better, and by any means, we will obtain better. We will make it better, with or without your permission.

No wonder Megatron became so powerful, so quickly.

He appealed perfectly to his people and others in similar living conditions, he articulated perfectly the flaws in oppressive Cybertronian society, he showed that different frame types can and do have multiple uses beyond the classist interpretation of their build schematics--

--All Megatron did, fundamentally, was care.

He cared about what was happening around him, he did not buy into the idea that life has to be miserable and this is the way things are and it can never change or get better, he saw and lived the awful conditions and suffered discrimination and understood that working together for each other would improve things for all.

And he acted on this understanding. There is always someone who is first to act, because there must be.

And Megatron does not act in half-measures.

I like that they mention him getting rid of the crime syndicates, here; It gives you a good idea of his morality pre-war.

It would have been easy to collaborate with these crime syndicates for some time, to secure funds for a new gladiatorial ring.

But instead, he took out the crime syndicates entirely and opted to build his arena inside an abandoned facility.

No capitulation to capital.

No money was exchanged, not a single Shanix, no deals made. No fucking around. This is Kaon, and you are no longer powerful here.

Megatron is increasingly powerful, however, because he embodied to the people the collective power of the people; He reflected themselves and their experiences back at them. But actions like this also played a large part in gaining that trust, in proving his skills and worth as a revolutionary and potential leader. It's not enough to be like everyone else. You have to prove you're not just another asshole looking to exploit everyone for influence or other personal benefit.

If you want a collective movement, it has to be about the collective. And for Megatron, it very much was. And things like this helped him prove that from very early on.

The Council and the mobs effectively have no authority anymore; They are losing control. Megatron, very quickly, becomes the accepted authority. Kaon becomes a freed city-state, it escapes the grasp of Functionism.

Standing up to one crime syndicate may not seem significant in the grander scheme of things, knowing how things occur in the story from this point onward.

But it is hugely significant-- It is a very important thing to highlight.

Because it is "smaller" things like this which are actually massively important and impactful.

And each "smaller" thing built up, and improved things for people to the point where Kaon could function entirely independently with a better off population of previously severely oppressed peoples.

Every "smaller" thing counts. Every "smaller" thing is the entire world to someone, or to a lot of someones.

How many lives were saved and debts erased, when Megatron took out this one crime syndicate?

How immediately did that improve a lot of lives, how quickly did that endear those people to him, to his ideology, to his plans for their collective future? How fast did they start listening, when he started speaking?

This is how revolution happens.

Anyway, thank you as always if you read any of this-- I know this got very long and it is nearly 2 AM now where I'm at, so it may have lost a bit of coherency here and there.

tl;dr labour history is important, fuck capitalism (this includes fictional capitalism), and intersectional solidarity is key to collective survival in general but especially among the working class and all groups subject to systemic oppression/discrimination in various forms

#megatron #megatronus #orion pax #tfp #transformers prime #aligned continuity #transformers exodus #transformers novel #maccadam #maccadams #transformers #tfp megatron #kaon #cybertron #long post #tw medical discussion #I try to tag medical talk even fictional stuff in posts that aren't explicitly medical discussion focused #just because I know some people are not into the medical talk stuff #tw ableism

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swisccfinds · 4 months

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Kiss-n-Grind Mod by UTOPYA_cc

This is a good ineractable romance mod! I like that is gives more physical interactions with your sim's partner.

Creator's Notes-

Hey guys, hope you all are doing well. Quiet excited about this one,

The main idea was to make a mod that will focus on adding more romantic interactions to the game. to add more realistic moments between couples. I wanted to add what I feel is missing from the game.

Therefore I ended up turning These new animations into their own mod, It will be a great foundation for all the ideas that I want to add!!

The mod For now will introduces two new interactions with their animations and emotions/buffs

The new pie menu will appear in the Romance category under the name Kiss and Grind, all the new interactions will appear on it:

The interaction won't appear if your sim hasn't had their first kiss yet, or the level of romance is too low

Features Of the Mods:

New highly detailed animation with their own sounds

New pie menu for the new interaction

New icons for each Interaction/animation that will suit their own animation

A new dynamic buff system which increases with the romance bar

These interactions will give you a buff for both the actor and target sim.

There is a chance to get some notifications/comments from your partner

Possible outcomes:

I have implemented in this mod a new buff system that will depend on the relationship between the Sims and some other factors:

First of all The outcomes will be highly randomized for both the actor and the target to keep the game more exciting.

The higher the romance level between your sims the higher chance of getting more intimates outcomes with stronger emotions:

Obviously, this is a club-based mod, you take your sim there to meet up with new Sims, So Even with a low romance, The outcomes may be higher and unique If your sim has high charisma.

When the romance bar is higher the 90% there is a small chance to get a notification/comment from your partner.

The mod will be enhanced further in the future, with New animations, New mechanics, and features.

I still love the original idea. So once I have decided all the interactions for it, I will start making them into their own mod, and leave this one just for the club-related animations.

The interactions shouldn't be played autonomously,

Better to wait until the animation is finished and the queue is clear before playing another one.

Requirement : This mod needs the XML injector by Scumbumbo. You can download it here : https://scumbumbomods.com/xml-injector

How to install :

Just put both my mod and the XML injector script into your Sims 4 Mods folder.

Please visit UTOPYA_cc and show some love and support for this amazing mod!

download

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that-ari-blogger · 6 months

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Light In The Owl House

Across history, stories have correlated light with good and darkness with evil. This has probably stemmed from the primal fear of the dark and the unseen creatures that lurk in the night. But the concept has warped and changed over time, for better or for worse.

Enter the Owl House, which plays the whole light motif pretty straight. Or does it? The Intruder delves into the concept and lays out how the series will use the motif going forwards.

Let me explain.

So, this episode is about worldbuilding, specifically about explaining the magic system. You could go into the technicalities of this, Brandon Sanderson has three rules to use for writing magic that are mostly useable. But the owl house handwaves this and focuses on the thematic of it.

I believe that every element of a story has an effect on it, and you can usually tell this with the main elements of a story by asking a simple question. Why is it in the story? Why does Luz learn magic and not how to be a warrior or some other kind of hero? The magic here is vital for the symbolism and meaning it provides.

"Why do you want to learn magic so bad, anyway?" "I was a nobody back home. But becoming a witch is my chance to be someone. Do you know what it's like to have no one take you seriously?"

Magic is freedom to express yourself however you want, and this episode is about Luz learning to express herself in a way that is different, but just as valid as everyone else.

Anyway, why light? Well, let's examine how light is used in this episode, because it is very deliberate.

First up, there is the setting. Ten minutes in, the lights in the Owl House go dim, casting everything in shadows and shards of light. Everything is distorted or unclear.

Even the colour of the light factors in, when Eda is revealed, she is backlit by this sickly green light, recalling a stereotypical witch's cauldron to drive home the point about the curse.

But, Light comes up in other ways too. The lightning is a signifier of the storm outside, but that is warded off by a glowing shield, cast in a spell resembling a ball of light, showing how light both scares and protects.

Luz also uses the light on her phone to see. Light reveals, and if you didn't catch it, that's another theme here.

This episode keeps coming back to revelations. First impressions are never accurate. From the rain turning out to be dangerous, to the Snaggleback being so disappointing, to the label on the potion. This keeps coming up.

The episode is also full of people intentionally concealing things. Eda conceals her curse from the others and band aids keep getting used to conceal wounds. There is even a joke early on in which Eda pulls King's hat over his eyes, in reaction to which, he shout's "Ah! Darkness!" But here is the thing with these, nothing ever gets hidden fully. The band aids only add colour to injuries, they don't cover them entirely, and the Owl Beast Curse is an issue throughout the episode and for the rest of the series.

There is another source of light in this episode. And it's the Owl Beast's eyes. The creature is bathed in shadow for most of the episode, except for its eyes, which glow like beacons.

So, what conclusion does this lead to? What is the point of the light?

I have already mentioned in a different post how the Owl House examines naivety and willful ignorance, and I think this ties into that quite nicely. Light reveals, and shadow conceals. Shining a light on Eda allows her to open up about her curse and temporarily defeats the monster, where the shadows keep it hidden and terrifying.

Light also symbolizes magic, and Luz's determination. it signifies her succeeding in her own, unique way. And here's an interesting link to that. In their video Names In The Owl House: A Breakdown And Analysis, @idlescree presents the meaning of Luz's name.

"The name Luz translates to light in spanish... No-ceda can be taken informally to mean do not yield, or do not give in. Combined, the name Luz Noceda literally means Light, Do Not Give In."

The video linked is incredible, it goes into a ton of the names in the Owl House, so I highly recommend you check it out if you haven't already. But I would like to focus on this little segment.

If we have associated light with expression and uniqueness, as well as the revelation of the truth, Luz's name is an extension of this concept. The protagonist's name is the thesis of the story. Never stop being you, never stop seeking answers, never stop shining.

Previous - Next

#rants #literary analysis #character analysis #literature analysis #what's so special about...?#the owl house #the owl house luz #toh luz #luz noceda #toh #toh eda #edalyn clawthorne #eda clawthorne #eda the owl lady

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spacelazarwolf · 1 year

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I think "why GenZ went puritan" is a mix of factors, one is algorithm, we have a whole generation with just a very small number of social media, vs the millennials we grew up on message boards we had to find ourselves, GenZ started off with twitter, etc and an algorithm that fed them content, with little to no skills to find their own experience so this is in part a way to impose their taste on a world that they feel like they have little control over "why don't people make...." I guarantee they do, but people don't have the skills to find a book not being pushed by a TikTok influencer who landed in their feed through algorithm

another factor I think is that people are being pushed by the Trump/post-Trump zeitgeist to be responsible while also being disempowered. They're told that our system is broken, Republicans and Democrats are the same, no one is doing ANYTHING! and barring "The Revolution" nothing will ever get better, but also you, yes you have a personal responsibility to stand against racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. This leads to a lot of posting

also we live in an age, MeToo etc where a lot of gross powerful men have been slayed like dragons by people speaking out. Now if you're 14 in Des Moines you're unlikely to have the dirt to bring down a rich powerful and gross figure in the world, but you can also get that dragon slaying thrill from a call out post about a slightly more popular figure in your fandom

finally, bullying, its not really fun to attack someone if they don't give a shit. So I can post all day about how Matt Gaetz has sex with underaged girls for money. But he's never gonna reply or care. But Yiffy the fan artist will reply in tears begging me to take down my post where I say they support incest and child abuse, and I can feel powerful, righteous and important..

also I guess, just if you grow up in a right wing house where the TV, the Church you go/went to, and your parents endlessly bang on about the gross Queers and Qanon style paranoia about pedoes controlling the world etc etc that shit isn't as easy to get rid of as you think and people carry those mindsets over into their "fuck you mom and dad!" progressive/leftist/socialist politics.

nothing to add, 10/10 analysis

#ask avishai

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aspoonofsugar · 1 year

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you wrote such a beautiful rwby analysis but unfortunately I think you put more thought into the plot than the entire writers room

Hi!

Thank you, I am happy you found my analysis beautiful!

That said, I am sorry, but I disagree with your statement. It is fine if you dislike the series and even if you criticize it, but as for me, I think the writing is rather strong.

Here are some thoughts, which aren't really directed at you, but rather are born by me seeing a tendency going around where it is somehow "cool" to outloud state RWBY is badly written. I even saw people like... "apologizing" because they enjoy the series. Newsflash...RWBY is good.

RWBY is a series with a writing that goes from decent to very good depending on the moment. I would give it from 7 to 8.5 or even 9 in some scenes. More importantly, it is a story the writers are clearly enjoying writing, as for now. This is why I like watching it. It is genuine, upfront in what it wants to say and it takes risks. Ironically, a series with limited resources shows much more freedom in execution than many other stories, which are economically backed up.

I would also add people keep talking about good writing, but never really elaborate on it... And like, trust me, I do think there is good writing and bad writing. The problem is that people just take examples of "well written series" and decide a series written differently must be bad. This isn't really the case.

First of all, let's focus only on a specific type of story, which is the kind most modern movies, books and series are. This type of story is built on 3 (4) factors:

Plot

Characters

Themes

(Worldbuilding)

I would say the first 3 are more important usually, but there are some stories where the worldbuilding is so strong it becomes its own selling point.

Now, a good story is usually strong in all these departments. The perfect story is top notch in all 3 (4). That is because a good plot usually lets you develop the characters better, which in turns helps exploring the theme.

However, here comes the amazing truth... even the most incredible stories. Even the masterpieces loved by everybody... even them... end up choosing only 1 or 2 of these aspects and sacrifice a little bit of the 3rd (and 4th) one.

Naoki Urasawa's Monster? Its focus is themes. He chooses to go all out on this department, which is why the story is so powerful and resonates so much with people. Still, to do so, he chooses to sacrifice some parts of the plot to the point... some mysteries are not really solved. Some people may be annoyed by it, but I would not call it a flaw. It is a choice. Leaving some things open enriches the themes.

Death Note? If the story has to choose between characters, themes and plot, it goes for plot. This is why despite having so many well liked characters, it is difficult to think of outstanding character arcs in it. The same goes for the themes, which are only touched superficially. This is why btw Death Note is not a fave of mine, really.

Now obviously, many examples can be done and we could discuss forever on some because there is always always always a subjective component. What I am trying to say is... there are different ways to write a story. Not all people would like the same. Luckily, we have tons of stories.

Back to RWBY. I would say RWBY shines when it comes to themes. Characters and plot are good and interesting, but what keeps the story together, despite it playing so much with genre is that it has a very strong thematic core. You can't invent it or fake it btw. See, Death Note's author tries to do it in later works (Platinum End cough cough), but fails. At the same time, there is another department RWBY is top notch and that is symbolism. RWBY has a very rich symbolic system. Again... surely there are coincidences, but like this is a little bit too much...imho.

Now, does it mean, the writers came up with all the patterns I and others find? Probably not, but here is the thing... writing has an unconscious component. If you go earnestly at it, you are bound to unconsciously create patterns. A good writer is able to recognize them (either consciously or unconciously) and to capitalize on them. So far, I think CRWBY has capitalized on the patterns they created. I also think it is clear they are very good at researching and at playing with different sources by going deep into them. Again, you can't come up with the Ever After if you have not read and even studied Alice in Wonderland. It is just impossible. You would end up with a shallow and uninteresting copy cat. The Ever After isn't that because it is used to explore themes, characters and lore in an interesting way. Hence... ladies and gentlemen... it is a fruit of... good writing.

But really, since people are not commenting on it... I would like to point out that in 5 episodes of less than 20 minutes, they have managed to introduce a whole world, with its own lore, set of characters and main story (Alyx's) and to tie it to the protagonists' predicament in a way that hits really hard thematically and psychologically... To do that you need exceptionally thight writing... it is not that simple to do...

Anyway, have a nice day anon and consider watching something else. Thanks God the world is full of stories!

#rwby #asksfullofsugar #anonymous #rwby volume 9 #rwby spoilers #btw obviously the story can still go downhill #this is possible for all stories #but so far i trust the writers #if that changes i'll let you know #i will add that messing up a story doesn't mean some parts of it aren't well written #see tokyo ghoul has still some of my favourite moments ever #but i still think it went downhill

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mostlysignssomeportents · 3 months

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American education has all the downsides of standardization, none of the upsides

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

We moved to America in 2015, in time for my kid to start third grade. Now she's a year away from graduating high school (!) and I've had a front-row seat for the US K-12 system in a district rated as one of the best in the country. There were ups and downs, but high school has been a monster.

We're a decade and a half into the "common core" experiment in educational standardization. The majority of the country has now signed up to a standardized and rigid curriculum that treats overworked teachers as untrustworthy slackers who need to be disciplined by measuring their output through standard lessons and evaluations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Core

This system is rigid enough, but it gets even worse at the secondary level, especially when combined with the Advanced Placement (AP) courses, which adds another layer of inflexible benchmarks to the highest-stakes, most anxiety-provoking classes in the system:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Placement

It is a system singularly lacking in grace. Ironically, this unforgiving system was sold as a way of correcting the injustice at the heart of the US public education system, which funds schools based on local taxation. That means that rich neighborhoods have better funded schools. Rather than equalizing public educational funding, the standardizers promised to ensure the quality of instruction at the worst-funded schools by measuring the educational outcomes with standard tools.

But the joke's on the middle-class families who backed standardized instruction over standardized funding. Their own kids need slack as much as anyone's, and a system that promises to put the nation's kids through the same benchmarks on the same timetable is bad for everyone:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/28/give-me-slack-2/

Undoing this is above my pay-grade. I've already got more causes to crusade on than I have time for. But there is a piece of tantalyzingly low-hanging fruit that is dangling right there, and even though I'm not gonna pick it, I can't get it out of my head, so I figured I'd write about it and hope I can lazyweb it into existence.

The thing is, there's a reason that standardization takes hold in so many domains. Agreeing on a common standard enables collaboration by many entities without any need for explicit agreements or coordination. The existence of the ANSI/SAE J563 standard automobile auxiliary power outlet (AKA "car cigarette lighter") didn't just allow many manufacturers to make replacement lighter plugs. The existence of a standardized receptacle delivering standardized voltage to standardized contacts let all kinds of gadgets be designed to fit in that socket.

Standards crystallize the space of all possible ways of solving a problem into a range of solutions. This inevitably has a downside, because the standardized range might not be optimal for all applications. Think of the EU's requirement for USB-C charger tips on all devices. There's a lot of reasons that manufacturers prefer different charger tips for different gadgets. Some of those reasons are bad (gouging you on replacement chargers), but some are good (unique form-factor, specific smart-charging needs). USB-C is a very flexible standard (indeed, it's so flexible that some people complain that it's not a standard at all!) but there are some applications where the optimal solution is outside its parameters.

And still, I think that the standardization on USB-C is a force for good. I have drawers full of gadgets that need proprietary charger tips, and other drawers full of chargers with proprietary tips, and damned if I can make half of them match up. We've continued our pandemic lockdown tradition of my wife cutting my hair in the back yard, and just tracking the three different charger tips for the three clippers she uses is an ongoing source of frustration. I'd happily trade slightly sub-optimal charging for just being able to plug any of those clippers into the same cable I charge my headphones, phone, tablet and laptop on.

The standardization of American education has produced all the downsides of standardization – a rigid, often suboptimal, one-size-fits-all system – without the benefits. With teachers across America teaching in lockstep, often from the same set texts (especially in the AP courses), there's a massive opportunity for a commons to go with the common core.

For example, the AP English and History classes my kid takes use standard texts that are often centuries old and hard to puzzle out. I watched my kid struggle with texts for learning about "persuasive rhetoric" like 17th century pamphlets that inspired anti-indigenous pogroms with fictional accounts of "Indian atrocities."

It's good for American schoolkids to learn about the use of these blood libels to excuse genocide, but these pamphlets are a slog. Even with glossaries in the textbooks, it's a slow, word-by-word matter to parse these out. I can't imagine anyone learning a single thing about how speech persuades people just by reading that text.

But there's nothing in the standardized curriculum that prevents teachers from adding more texts to the unit. We live in an unfortunate golden age for persuasive texts that inspire terrible deeds – for example, kids could also read core Pizzagate texts and connect the guy who shot up the pizza parlor to the racists who formed a 17th century lynchmob.

But teachers are incredibly time-constrained. For one thing, at least a third of the AP classroom time seems to be taken up with detailed instructions for writing stilted, stylized "essays" for the AP tests (these are terrible writing, but they're easy to grade in a standardized way).

That's where standardization could actually deliver some benefits. If just one teacher could produce some supplemental materials and accompanying curriculum, the existence of standards means that every other teacher could use it. What's more, any adaptations that teachers make to that unit to make them suited to their kids would also work for the other teachers in the USA. And because the instruction is so rigidly standardized, all of these materials could be keyed to metadata that precisely identified the units they belonged to.

The closest thing we have to this are "marketplaces" where teachers can sell each other their supplementary materials. As far as I can tell, the only people making real money from these marketplaces are the grifters who built them and convinced teachers to paywall the instructional materials that could otherwise form a commons.

Like I said, I've got a completely overfull plate, but if I found myself at loose ends, trying to find a project to devote the rest of my life to, I'd be pitching funders on building a national, open access portal to build an educational commons.

It may be a lot to expect teachers to master the intricacies of peer-based co-production tools like Git, but there's already a system like this that K-8 teachers across the country have mastered: Scratch. Scratch is a graphic programming environment for kids, and starting with 2019's Scratch 3.0, the primary way to access it is via an in-browser version that's hosted at scratch.mit.edu.

Scratch's online version is basically a kid- (and teacher-)friendly version of Github. Find a project you like, make a copy in your own workspace, and then mod it to suit your own needs. The system keeps track of the lineage of different projects and makes it easy for Scratch users to find, adapt, and share their own projects. The wild popularity of this system tells us that this model for a managed digital commons for an educational audience is eminently achievable.

So when students are being asked to study the rhythm of text by counting the numbers of words in the sentences of important speeches, they could supplement that very boring exercise by listening to and analyzing contemporary election speeches, or rap lyrics, or viral influencer videos. Different teachers could fork these units to swap in locally appropriate comparitors – and so could students!

Students could be given extra credit for identifying additional materials that slot into existing curricular projects – Tiktok videos, new chart-topping songs, passages from hot YA novels. These, too, could go into the commons.

This would enlist students in developing and thinking critically about their curriculum, whereas today, these activities are often off-limits to students. For example, my kid's math teachers don't hand back their quizzes after they're graded. The teachers only have one set of quizzes per unit, and letting the kids hold onto them would leak an answer-key for the next batch of test-takers.

I can't imagine learning math this way. "You got three questions wrong but I won't let you see them" is no way to help a student focus on the right areas to improve their understanding.

But there's no reason that math teachers in a commons built around the (unfortunately) rigid procession of concepts and testing couldn't generate procedural quizzes, specified with a simple programming language. These tests could even be automatically graded, and produce classroom stats on which concepts the whole class is struggling with. Each quiz would be different, but cover the same ground.

When I help my kid with her homework, we often find disorganized and scattered elements of this system – a teacher might post extensive notes on teaching a specific unit. A publisher might produce a classroom guide that connects a book to specific parts of the common core. But these are scattered across the web, and they aren't keyed to the specific, standard components of common core and AP.

This is a standardized system that is all costs, no benefits. It has no "architecture of participation" that lets teachers, students, parents, practitioners and even commercial publishers collaborate to produce a commons that all may share and improve upon.

In an ideal world, we'd get rid of standardization in education, pay teachers well, give them the additional time they needed to prepare exciting and relevant curriculum, and fund all our schools based on need, not parents' income.

But in the meanwhile, we could be making lemonade of out lemons. If we're going to have standardization, we should at least have the collaboration standards enable.

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/16/flexibility-in-the-margins/#a-commons

#pluralistic #education #common core #commons #set texts #pedagogy #scratch #edtech

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overheard-at-camp-half-blood · 4 months

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Zeus Cabin Deep Dive & Analysis

As stated in the Percy Jackson TV show and books, being a demigod sucks, especially given the broken system. Being a forbidden child sucks, given that it is an isolating experience. However, being the child of the god who is one of, if not the most responsible for the broken system, the god most unwilling to change his perspective, is the worst.

Not only that, add that in with the fact that being a child of Zeus gives you alot of added pressures in general. As a child of Zeus, you are expected to lead in one way or another, and almost always, children of Zeus have very little say in their paths in life.

Thalia Grace managed to escape the pressures of being a child of Zeus by joining the hunters. Jason, was a boy, so he didn’t get that same choice. Instead, he was forced to endure the pressures of being a child of Jupiter, until he was able to pass it down to someone else.

However, Jason was never truly free from these pressures until he died.

It also seems like, contrary to popular belief, Zeus isn’t a very popular godly parent. In a series of polls I ran, I asked people about their godly parents- nobody chose Zeus. The survey for Zeus cabin remained blank. I asked if people knew someone in real life who would be a child of Zeus, most said no.

Zeus, in general seems to be a very unpopular god in general, and it may seem very arrogant to many to claim to be a child of Zeus. I also don’t think there are a lot of discussions on children of Zeus in general.. because analyzing the Zeus cabin as a whole, there are many traits that I think alot of people don’t realize.

The curse of being a natural leader

While he is Roman, I am going to be including Jason in this analysis, because I think a lot of what applies to Thalia also applies to him, even if there is a slight difference.

Now, Jason and Thalia are the only two (demigod) children of Zeus we meet throughout the series, and both characters have distinct personality traits. Thalia, is much more hot-headed than Jason is. Jason is more experienced in leadership than Thalia is, but there is one thing they certainly have in common: they are often under immense amounts of pressure.

They are natural born leaders, mainly because their father is the king of Olympus. Leadership seems to be the trait most commonly associated with Zeus kids- even when I did the fandom survey, asking what traits people commonly associate with Zeus kids, nearly everyone said leadership.

There had always been a lot expected from Jason, being a child of Jupiter. He was expected to lead, he was Camp Jupiter’s golden boy, and sure, a lot of it was pure skill and experience, but a lot of it was also the fact that he was a child of Jupiter.

These pressures only followed him to Camp Half Blood, where he was immediately expected to lead a quest. Jason is shown to be somewhat tired of the expectations placed on him.

Thalia… was pretty much the same, just slightly different.

Thalia was not only a child of Zeus, but at one point, she was thought to be the child of the prophecy. So not only was she expected to be a leader, not only was an unreasonable amount of attention placed upon her for being a child of Zeus, there was also a level of danger that followed her around as well.

Until of course, she became a hunter of Artemis, and the expectations shifted back to Percy. However, I am fully of the belief that a lot of factors went into her decision of joining the hunt, but among the most significant factors, was that she would be free from the near impossible expectations.

Gifted Kid Burn Out

A lot of people associate gifted kid burn out with Athena kids, and don’t get me wrong, I understand why, but from examples we see in the text, children of Zeus often fit this mold much better. Children who are proven to be very gifted at a young age, very good at what they do, so they were given high, nearly impossible expectations.

Half the time, they had very little help or support navigating these expectations. Thalia ran away from home at a young age, and didn’t get to train at camp in the same way other characters were. Jason was raised by wolves… literally. So for the most part, they were left behind by the system that created them.

Then they are put into situations, with people just as good at leading, some just as powerful, after being told their whole lives they were the best at everything. That has got to suck, to be shown that you really aren’t as good at something you are supposed to be the best at.

For Thalia, we see her become a bit competitive, especially with Percy. Their egos, as children of the Big Three, tend to clash, because they are almost always fighting for the attention and respect of others.

Jason, however, does not know what to do with himself anymore. We see glimpses of him going through a existential crisis- why does he always have to be the leader? But what is he, if he is not a leader?

Thalia and Jason tend to show many traits of traumatized gifted kids, to the point where they just give up altogether.

The shittiest father in a world of shitty fathers.

Okay, this is obviously subjective, but Zeus, in the Percy Jackson universe, is probably the worst father, even towards his godly children. He quite literally tells Jason that he cannot openly show his pride towards him, or else his other children will get jealous. Not only this, but he is responsible for a lot of decisions that force godly parents to be somewhat neglectful towards their children, especially after the first series.

It is deeply implied throughout the two series, that Zeus does love his children… to an extent. He does not love his children enough to put his pride aside for them. So as isolating as it is, being Zeus’s son, they seem to be most isolated by their father.

In Conclusion

I feel like children of Zeus are some of the most misunderstood children, at least fandom wise. There seems to be this idea that all children of Zeus are arrogant assholes, like their father, but they are actually the most obvious examples of the gods’ neglect.

Overall, most children of Zeus find ways to be freed of their fate, of their responsibilities, because oftentimes, it is overbearing. Some die. Some pass the torch. Some join the hunt.

Either way, one thing is for certain: where there is a child of Zeus, there is a leader.

The Masterlist

#thalia grace #jason grace #zeus cabin

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jujutsukgojo · 3 months

Text

Blue Fire

Dabi x reader

He gives a breathy laugh. He moves his hold from your jaw to your back and the other hand grabs your hair.

In a low voice he asks, “Oh peaches, is it possible to be mean to the dead?”

A night of terror because Dabi is hunting you.

TW: Death by fire...because it's Dabi and bad coping. i think yandere dabi fits here. this is based on a dream i had! it was so weird and borderline romantic lmao

_____

Before you leave, you put the numbers in the alarm system. Exiting you do a mental check list of leaving for the night. Alarm, check. Register locked, check. Money deposited in safe, check. Check, check, check, with everything.

Thank God you get to go home and won’t be back for two days.

You shut the door and lock it. Waving goodbye at the guard, you leave out the gate. There’s no reason to worry about the guard since he’s escaping this joint in less than an hour. Given the time, you wonder if maybe you should stay to hitch a ride with him.

Nah, you want to leave now . Your back is killing you. Besides, the bus stop is only a little way from here. No fucking way do you want to stay any longer than you have to. Not with the day you had.

You stretch the aches away. The bus stop comes into view with a single streetlight above it. Thankfully, one bus has a night shift.

The sound of your shoes clicks against the ground. The only lights in the night are the streetlights and a few store signs. There are no stars today and the clouds cover the moon, unfortunately. It adds to the creepy factor.

Suddenly, there is a bright light from behind you. The shine is so intense that it makes the streetlights look dull. You turn to look at it for you to see that a man set his arms aflame with blue. He wears a dark jacket and a white shirt. Strangely, he has purple skin and dark, spikey hair. The fire rivals his blazing blue eyes.

At first, you want to talk to him and see if he’s okay. With quirks being so common, it’s normal for them to set off on accident from time to time.

Yet, there is a feeling you can’t shake. Something shivering and cold at the sight of his heat. A fight or flight alarm blares inside your mind and settles into a queasy feeling in your stomach. Instincts telling you that he’s dangerous, not because of his quirk but of his intentions. He's a villain.

You only know him by his description and murderous tendencies. Blue fire, black hair, scars; burned corpses, destroyed buildings and cities. Dabi.

“Oh hell no.” You take off and don’t look back. Not even the Lord would make you do it. You run to the other side of the street, screaming the whole way. Somebody’s going to answer you one way or another.

Even though you were facing in front of you, you somehow missed the body you collide with. It’s a man with brown hair and glasses. His suit is pristine and now has flecks of dirt. You point behind you. “What? Come down, tell me.”

You’re breathing heavily. “You don’t see him?”

“Who?”

You look behind you and see no one. It's too dark. Maybe he actually left? The man lifts you up. “Okay, tell me what he looked like. We have to be careful and vigilant.”

“It's Dabi!”

He freezes. “Alright. Let's go. This place wouldn’t help at all.”

“They have a phone, don’t they?”

“No, it’s disconnected last time I checked. They don’t keep up with this place.” He leads you down the street with his arm around your shoulder. He gently guides you and tries to calm you down. It works somewhat but you’re still outside. What if Dabi comes back?

“Did he attack you at all?”

“No, but he was behind me with his quirk up. God, the psycho could’ve killed me.”

He hums in response. It almost sounds like he’s offended.

“What’s your name?” He looks down at you with a smile and closed eyes. It could just be you being paranoid because of your encounter, but his smile seems fake. “Nico. You?”

“(Y/n). Sad we have to meet this way.”

You hear someone humming a tune and see someone with their hands in their pockets. You cross the street to them, ignoring Nico’s scolding. The guy is average height and has, most notably, a mole on his jaw. You stare at it, trying to get rid of this feeling of familiarity.

“Have we met before?” He shakes his head no. “No, I don’t believe so.”

No, there is something there. You can’t put your finger on it. You have a feeling that the encounter was a long time ago.

“What’s your name?” Nico groans at your question and says, “We don’t have time for this. Do you have a phone we can use?”

“No, it’s at home. Totally forgot it.”

Nico grabs your hand and leads you away. As he does, you look back at the man with a mole. His lips are sucked in. His eyes, you can swear, have a look of pity or something. They know something you don’t.

As the two of you get farther away from the familiar man, there is a vicious laugh sneaking up on him.

---

After a few blocks, you see another man on a phone. A man with a receding hairline and deep set eyes. The look in them tells you that he has been through it. “Sir! Sir, we’d like to use your phone for a second.”

“For what?” You notice how Nico and him slightly tense up when they look at each other. You pay no mind to it. “To call the heroes.”

“Why in the hell would I do that?” He takes a puff of his cigarette and bids the person on the phone goodbye. You release an exasperated sigh. “Dabi! I ran into him; I need to call the authorities.”

“Oh, come on. Did you see this?” He blows the smoke from his cheap cigarette in your face. If you weren't in this situation right now, you would beat his ass.

He looks at Nico. “No, I didn’t. But I believe her.”

“Of course, you do. Listen lady, I'm not buying it. No way he’d be here.” The guy scoffs and puts out his cigarette only to take out another one. Nico grabs your arm and tries to move you. “(Y/n), he won’t help us. Let’s go find another way.”

“Wait, (Y/n)? (Y/n). Oh wow. Don’t I have a story for you. There’s a deal at play. I heard it fr-”

"Smoking is bad for you, you know." A deep voice interrupts. Heat rushes towards you, aimed at the man. Nico moves you just in time. The guy screams. Before you can even go to help him in any way, Nico picks you up and runs.

Over his shoulder, you see that is Dabi next to the corpse that is withering away to ashes. Dabi stares at you as you get farther away. He cocks his head and smiles so widely. Dabi’s staples are threatening to quit as they glow orange.

Why? Why is he doing this? You barely saw him for Pete’s sake! It’s not like you walked in on him doing something. So, why do all of this?

A clock’s ring gathers your attention. It’s midnight and dead. The chance of running into someone with a phone just evaporated.

-----

The clouds move away from the bright, full moon. Nico passes trees and no longer is there a sidewalk. “What? Where are we?”

He puts you down to face a house. It's two stories and creepy. It doesn't look like it's been cared for. “Why the hell are we here, in the middle of nowhere?”

“There’s a good chance there’s a phone here. See, there’s a light.”

“Why not look for someone-”

“We tried that, remember? The burning man?” He grabs your hand. Your breathing is too heavy, too fast. Nico grabs your wrists and urges you to calm down. That Dabi didn’t follow us and that he got you far away from him. The two of you enter the house and shut the creaky door. You call out to any residents in the house.

The house is empty.

The burning man.

The entire night flashes before your eyes as reality finally sets in. Dabi, the maniac, was right behind you. He's hunting you. It's dark out and there's not a soul in sight other than the murderous fire wielding villain. Your knees begin to buckle. Despite all of the room, it feels like there's not enough. The world begins to spin.

You witnessed a murder. The killer is out there and he's coming for you.

“Dabi-h-he killed that guy. We don’t even know his name.” What if he had a family? Friends? A pet at home!

Nico grabs your face. Immediately you begin to calm down.

“Set that aside. We have to focus on getting help. I’ll turn off the lights while we both make sure the doors and windows are secure. Then we’ll find a phone.” You nod and immediately start with the foyer’s windows. Nico parts from you to turn off the lights. There is an instant darkness that makes you uneasy. Everything about this is sending chills down your spine.

Soon, the heroes will arrive and then Dabi will be taken away and you’ll be safe. Just lock everything up and find the phone.

You find the phone first. It's not working. “No, no, no.” you try again and again. You think the chord goes farther than normal. That is, until you actually look at it.

“Shit! It's cut.” You feel your way around to find an exit, desperate to find a phone in your panicked state. Room after room there is no phone. You didn’t see one in the living room either.

“Only one fucking phone? Seriously?”

You hear a crash downstairs. You whisper Nico’s name. “What?”

You smack the source of the noise. “Ow! (Y/n), it’s me!”

“Sorry. What’s downstairs?”

“No idea, but I got here just a second ago and there was nothing.” You want to smack him again.

“You said he wouldn’t be here! That he wouldn’t find us!” You whisper.

“That was never a guarantee. Come on, we must find a way out.”

Nico walks too slowly for your liking. You ask with a soft whisper. “Hey, Nico. Did you know that guy earlier?”

“Yes.”

“How?” You don’t look at him. “I’m a prison psychologist.”

You wait for an answer as the noise gets quieter. “He was a prisoner,” He takes a deep breath. “Our association has nothing to do with us ending up here. Right now, we have a bigger problem.”

A gnawing feeling sits at the pit of your stomach. Something isn’t right but you have no idea how to go about it. Not when there is creaking up the stairs.

You take off down the hall. The glass walls don’t cover you at all. The hallway is narrow and long. The moon only offers so much with its pitiful glow.

Like your mind was read, suddenly, there is a light. The two of you gasp when the phoneless, mole having, man appears. “What are you guys doing here?”

“What the fuck are you doing here?!”

“I asked you first!”

You growl. “We’re hiding from Dabi. You?”

“Same. I came across him and some big ass fire. Took off to the woods, stupidly.” You gesture to the guy and look at Nico. “See? Even he says it’s stupid.”

Nico rolls his eyes and walks back to him. “Do you know where he went?”

He shakes his head no. “I just took off.”

“Ok, ok. We have no phone and are stupidly in the middle of the damn woods in a scary ass house being chased by a psychopathic killer.”

“More severely emotionally disturbed or maybe borderline sociopathic, if anything.” Nico states. How in the hell and why in the hell.

“Don’t make me slap you. Stop diagnosing people, he can’t pay you.” You turn to the man without a name. “Any suggestions on what to do next?”

“Hunker down for tonight. We'll be able to see him better in the morning and have a better chance at getting help.”

Nico begins to rub your back when he sees you shake. “He’s right. As long as we are quiet and do not draw attention to ourselves, he won’t notice us. Like the gentleman said, we have a better chance in the morning.”

You ball up your fist then point to Nico. “Out of sheer curiosity, what are your guys’ quirks? Y’know, just in case?”

The late arriver who still hasn’t given you a name, answers, “Mine isn’t anything special. Every step I take I go three steps further. Like a cheap super speed shit.”

You point to Nico. “Aura. I can feel people’s aura, and most helpfully in my line of work, their intentions and mind. It helps me diagnose people and figure out their mindset.” You wonder if that is the reason you began to calm down. That perhaps there is another trick to his quirk.

Even though they are not offensive, they are still incredibly useful. You on the other hand...

“How about we rest, yeah? The lights are out and we’re quiet. Everything'll be okay.”

The man with the mole on his face grabs your hand and leads you to one of the rooms. Once out of Nico’s ear shot, you ask him, “What the hell is your name?”

“Is that important?” Before you can get the smallest answer out, a wicked noise you could swear shakes the house. The two of you freeze. A blazing blue appears outside the window.

There the Grim Reaper stands in all his flaming glory. Nope, nope, nope.

You take off down the hall. Mr. Mysterious is right next to you in the narrow hall. Nico looks up and asks, “What’s wrong?”

You roughly grab him to run. The echo of feet hurling down the hallway doesn’t hold a candle to Dabi’s laugh that is way too close. You feel warmth behind you, making you look back. How did he get in so fast? He can't teleport, can he?

Like a true devil, Dabi saunters behind. The darkness encases him with only a little leeway given by his fire. The blue eats away all that’s behind him. The smothering stench of it is becoming too much. It’s too grey, too toxic.

He begins to hum a tune. You pause from crying of fear. Slowly, as you run, you turn to look at him. The shadow still favors him and his terrible ways as it conceals most of his features despite the inferno surrounding him.

Dabi smiles so brightly at you.

What exactly did you do to warrant this? To deserve this fire from him and that smile?

You’re pushed to the side and down a wider hallway. It isn’t like the previous one that is narrow and has glass walls. Instead it is wooden trimmed and wide and leads to rooms.

Nico drags you into a far-off room. The room is a wooden office that holds a sturdy desk with no knickknacks on it or papers. The wide bookcase is bare, and the leather chairs are undisturbed.

You look at it all strangely. The bookcase has recently been cleaned. There isn’t a speck of dust or trash anywhere.

“Where are we?” You whisper. Nico and the guy board up the door quietly. “Nico, this doesn’t make any sense. Everything’s been cleaned.”

The mole guy scoffs. “That’s what you’re worrying about? Cleanliness?”

You’re going to punch him in his throat.

“Don’t you think it’s odd? I mean, come on now! Why is it cleaned, and the phone line cut? How the hell did he find us or catch up with us so fast?”

Nico pushes his glasses up. “I think there is a possibility that, uh,” he takes a deep breath. “That we might have stumbled into one of their hideouts. He could be familiar with it.”

You furiously rub your face in frustration. “Oh my God, oh my God…” you groan. The one with the mole waves his hands.

“That doesn’t matter now. We need to start talking about strategy.”

He holds you by both of your arms. “He wants you.”

“The hell he does!”

“He wouldn’t be following us had you not been involved!”

You slap the Mole. “He is chasing all of us. Stop being a coward, Mole- oh my God.”

It all comes to you then. A deep memory that you had forgotten completely.

“Hey, should you be doing this?” you question as you rub your ear. You hear the gym teacher’s booming voice telling everyone to get ready to run.

“Pfft! I’m the fastest there is! All Might couldn’t beat me.” Yuki stretches as he prepares to run.

“Ha! With that cheap super speed? I’d beat your scaredy cat, mole ass and I’m not even at full power yet.”

You elbow the source of the noise. Even if Yuki is a bit of a scaredy cat.

---

“Yuki.” You say in disbelief. It has been so long since you saw him. What, eleven or twelve years? That memory is even older than that. The two of you weren’t close. Just classmates that would play together from time to time.

Did he remember you?

Suddenly, there is a bang. The door caves by Dabi’s foot. Your heart drops to the pit of your stomach. Yuki, ever the scaredy cat, tries to push you toward him.

Nico is thankfully a lot braver than Yuki is. “Go, in the vent!”

You do as you’re told. As you stand on the desk and reach for the vent that is above, you could swear you see Dabi frown as he watches you escape.

The vent is small. You struggle to wiggle through it. The vent becomes hotter as time goes on. The screams become fainter as you get away.

Finally, the vent comes to a dead end with an exit leading to a floor. You slip through the ceiling and onto the floor. Sneaking out, you see that you are right at the backdoor.

You don’t hesitate to run away. Not even seven feet out and Dabi is right there with Nico. How is he doing that?

Yuki isn’t here.

“It’s kinda unfair to kill me when I’m this far.”

Dabi sighs. “You’ve always been dumb.”

“Bitch, you don’t know my IQ test scores.”

Dabi chuckles. Your eyes are on Nico. “Nico,” The madman growls when you place your attention onto Nico. “What’s going on?”

It is about time the truth came out, right? “(Y/n)-”

“Say it.” You’re right, you know you are. The eerie feeling when you first met him, his weird fake smile when you would mention Dabi in a negative way, his slow and reluctant movements, were all so telling. But y ou were so scared and desperate that you ignored the signs. However, you’ve been right the whole time about him, about it all.

“I am his prison psychologist. When he escaped, I barely made it out alive. He promised that he wouldn’t kill me if I helped him.”

“Helped him do what?” You shout. But you know why. The answer to your question all night. Why was Dabi doing this?

Nico looks down in shame. He softly says, “Find you. It was easy finding where you worked, specifically. As it turns out, Yuki and I had the same deal.”

“And that one guy? What about him?”

“He shared a holding cell with Dabi. Since he mentioned you, I assume it is the same deal.”

You take off your shoe and throw it at Nico. This is some bullshit.

“Stupid asshole! You really think he’s going to let you live?”

And just like that, Dabi wraps his arm around Nico’s shoulders. Nico’s eyes are wide. They aren’t covered by his glasses. Dread and pain and realization are glued to his face. Nico looks at you the entire time. Why? What are you supposed to do? How could he have made this deal when he could’ve easily gone to heroes? People that are more than you. Better than you. Someone who can stop this.

“She’s right.”

“Don’t!” You scream in effort. No, you are nothing. At least you can try to some degree.

Nico runs around in pain. Covered in blue, he tries to stop, drop, and roll. It is no use against the killer’s quirk. Nico no longer has the strength to stand and lands on the wall of the house. That is all it needed to erupt. The house burns right along with Nico’s corpse.

Horrified, you cover your mouth with your hand. Dabi takes this time to walk up to you.

He smells smoky and like a maple tree.

The house provides an abundant light, finally showing you Dabi’s face. His eyes are so blue.

You look up at him. Then, it hits you like a truck.

“Hey, should you be doing this?” you question as you rub your ear. The gym teacher’s booming voice is telling everyone to get ready to run.

“Pfft! I’m the fastest there is! All Might couldn’t beat me.” Yuki stretches as he prepares to run by using his quirk.

“Ha! With that cheap super speed? I’d beat your scaredy cat ass and I’m not even at full power yet.”

You elbow the source of the noise. Touya.

Touya rubs his arm and pouts. “Stop cussing and leave Yuki alone.”

“Ooh! Touya got in trouble with his girlfriend! ”

Some of the class teases Touya much to his annoyance.

The first time you met you were eight years old.

“You smell like peaches.” A classmate comes up to you. He has weird, fluffy hair and a frowny pout that’s looking like it will be permanent.

“We have a peach tree!”

“Lame. Play with me.” The two of you run around the playground, enjoying the structure and each other's company.

He comes down from the monkey bars, proud that he made it all the way across.

Just to be weird and bother your new friend, you call out to him. “Hey, Touya, can I have your lashes?” You pluck one of his flutter lashes and try to put it on yours.

“Stop, freak!” he snatches it from you. You’re about to stomp your feet when he pinches your cheeks. “Stupid peach cheeks.”

“Touya, I’m not saying you can’t I’m saying you shouldn’t. ”

“You are just like them! All of them who think I’m weak and useless!”

You smack him. “I don’t think that! I’m saying I don’t have a good feeling about this. The air feels off.”

“ The air feels off?”

You nod. “What, you finally got a quirk or something?”

It stings that he brings up your lack of a quirk. Especially when he’s been raised to believe in the strength of a quirk. In his and his family’s mind, a quirk is the basic form of a person. Without it, you’re not even a speck. And those who have strong or desirable quirks are considered humans at their most evolved. Deities.

You’re quirkless.

“That’s not funny.” Touya laughs and laughs. “You know what?! Go ahead! I’m done caring.”

You walk off and rid yourself of him. Lately he’s been insufferable about you not having a quirk. You’ve always had his back and supported him, but he can’t do the same for you.

There's a difference between friendly teasing and harassment. Being bullied is never funny. Especially by your own friend. It only proves to you that you are nothing to him when he means so much to you.

Stomping off, you don’t notice that he has shed tears at the sight of your back.

You can see the fire from your house. It is bright blue and hot. The sky is even affected by the intensity by a roaring thunder. You cry in your room as you look out the window. He’s gone. You can feel it.

It becomes too real when you go to school and the teachers tearfully explain what happened and the dangers of quirks. The sight of his empty desk and the principal emptying his cubby made you vomit.

---

Years have passed. You forced those memories down. It was years of numbing yourself that got you through the guilt and helped you push all of the memories and pain away. You just couldn't handle it. So, you got rid of it.

He's close enough to smell you. “Still peaches, huh?”

You close your eyes. You remember that he called you that because of your eating habits. Back when you were with your parents, they had a bountiful peach tree. You were always munching on them.

Even now, the fruit are a staple in your home. Touya, if you remember correctly, teased you about it and in the same breath would ask for some.

He grabs your chin and makes you look up at him. “Now, now, Peaches. No sleeping.”

“What happened to you…”

“You left. ”

“You made me.”

He scoffs. He moves his hand to grab your jaw instead, smoothing your cheeks. Touya brings you in to press your foreheads together. “Nah uh. You’re not doing that today. Take some fucking responsibility, Peaches.”

“I mourned you. For so long.” Your eyes tear up. “Ha! You forgot about me, just like everyone else. Even that cheap ass speed twerp.”

“Stop being mean to Yuki.” He gives a breathy laugh. He moves his hold from your jaw to your back and the other hand grabs your hair. You gasp.

In a low voice he asks, “Oh peaches, is it possible to be mean to the dead?”

His lips feel odd yet right against yours.

#yandere dabi #dabi x reader #bnha #bnha fic #touya todoroki x reader #my dream was so weird omg #yandere dabi x reader #idk what else to put??#wrote it for Halloween and just now putting it on here #q #this is bad but it will do

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guckies · 2 months

Text

The egg task hater post :D

Comprised into 3 parts of the problems, the lore aspects and solutions because I just want them gone. Especially when it makes so much sense for them to be gone by now.

Problems with egg tasks ————

- A majority of the ccs hate the egg tasks. Foolish has mentioned it multiple times, Fit mentioned it specifically after purgatory due to him seeing it as an opportunity to get rid of them, Tubbo often would have procrastinated them and a lot of others procrastinate them or express that they just don’t want to do them. (I’m not very active on other POVs so if you have other example please add them)

- The ccs don’t log on to do the tasks and some don’t even know about them. They log on to have fun and play mc. Like take a look at Pepito’s parents(apart from Roier, I don’t think any of the others are aware of the egg task system, so are logging on to have fun).

- Single parents and looking after multiple eggs. They rarely ever know what to do with them, Foolish counts for one cookie but because of the inconsistency of Pepito’s parents he doesn’t get double the cookie stuff. Where as Phil almost always has to request the double stuff for Tallulah and Chayanne.

- Egg admins are busy. Multiple have irl stuff they need to do, like school, work or even attending hospital appointments. This has even made some of the old main egg admins like Ramon and Chayanne have to give up playing due to being so busy. Even at that it’s fairly obvious when another admin is playing a different egg because the personality isn’t the same, which isn’t a big deal until they mess up personal egg lore. That’s excluding their problems with lag or internet.

- The cc parents are busy. Majority of them are variety streamers or have projects outside of qsmp. They cannot always log in to play and are subject to outside factors like having to move, travelling, internet outages, launcher breaks or even sponsorships contracts (which might mean they can’t play for long due to having set contracted times where they have to do something else)

- Some of the stuff is hard or impossible to do. Take toxic caves; one glitchy mob and an egg with internet/lag problems will almost instantly be in danger. The parents having to do tasks with the eggs; again some eggs are busy and not all eggs will just hang out with whoever. For the current system specifically they need to include tasks the parents can do alone for some of the eggs to survive.

Lore/in game stuff ————

- Everyone knows that the egg tasks do not matter especially after purgatory which just means that it was the fed doing the killing when eggs didn’t complete their tasks. They even expected them to be gone after purgatory.

- The reason the parents don’t do anything about it is because they’ve expressed their dislike of egg tasks; yet it is such an integral part of the game play that they have no control over since the admins rarely ask them about it. So they just suck it up and deal with the fact that egg tasks are still around. They’re not really aware if they can go to Cucurucho about the egg tasks because it is really just a game mechanic.

- From my understanding, the competition part of the eggs is no longer the case due to the fact they all should have lost a long time ago. So why would they need to be so aware of if the eggs are surviving or are happy. Especially when the fed are very aware of most things that happen on the island with the eggs.

Solutions!!! ————

- Get rid of them. We did fine without them for a few weeks. Without them we eggs get more chance to develop and have actual fun with the cc. Plus the cc doesn’t have the added stress of needing to log in to make sure an egg doesn’t die. They could even just get rid of them by some fed excuse like them going bankrupt with cookie materials.

- Make them optional!!! Instead of cookies or food tickets being the reward just make it something egg related or make it something like tickets for egg cosmetics. They could even make it the reward for things that the parents might want like items in the shop or access to the mod access. By making them optional takes away the stress but still gives them the chance to do something with the egg to keep them happy.

- Instruct a cc that hates the egg tasks how to get rid of them in lore. The admins should get someone like Foolish or Tubbo who know how to manipulate information to speak with Cucurucho to get rid of them. Or get the players to investigate the cookies. They could even get the morning crew to revolutionise against the egg tasks and have them mess with the server to unionise against the egg tasks.

- Make it time based, like the egg spends under an hour with a person during that week. The egg gets to choose the person too and it can be anyone. It’s under an hour so the egg or parent doesn’t need to log on for a long amount of time if they are busy during the week.

————

Anyway that’s my case against egg tasks. If I am missing something or think of other solutions then I will edit it into the post. But thanks for reading my /negs posts because I’ll be an egg task hater for life 😀✌️

#this was on queue #qsmp #qsmp discussion #idk if this is neg specifically but tags are here just in case #qsmp discourse #qsmp neg

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