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shipwreckie · 10 days

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long (like ridiculously long) rant about watcher entertainment

Whilst the vast majority of the response to the watcher drama has been negative I still have seen a few people expressing opinions along the lines of ‘oh its just $6’ ‘shouldn't creators be paid for their work’ etc. I also think this situation is getting a lot of attention from people who don't necessarily watch Watcher, or haven’t keep up with them in years so here is my breakdown of why people are unhappy with the announcement that Watcher will be putting ALL upcoming content behind a $6 a month streaming service (with the exception of the premiere episode of each season going to Youtube.)

The issue is not that it's $6.

The success of other internet companies like dropout and smosh is proof people are willing to pay for content they enjoy and to support independent content creators. I personally have given money to kickstarters, patreons, digital downloads etc in the past. But I do that because I know I’m valued as a fan with and without my money. I still get access to content on youtube for free. Even Dropout, who is a much larger and more expensive operation than Watcher, releasing 5 show a week, still maintains a steady Youtube presence.

The thing with these internet companies is they can be successful in creating something but they do have to understand that you are on the internet. You're not netflix or HBO or hulu or whatever. Watcher’s obsession with creating ‘television-calibre content’ worth $6 a month whilst also only having one show a week is unrealistic. They want to be independent creators but also television producers… but you’re not! They hate being youtubers so much but YOU ARE. That’s how you gained a fanbase in the first place and you were successful at it! If you’re not happy being a youtuber that’s fine, move on and do something else. But you can’t expect it to be funded by the fans. So many famous artists create content they care less about that has a larger audience, and that in turn funds the stuff they DO care about. If you’re so dedicated to making expensive, high-quality productions you should be using these smaller cheaper shows to save money and fund them, rather than forcing everyone of your fans to pay a monthly subscription fee that I’m sorry, just isnt worth it or is simply unaffordable for the majority of your audience who you have now essentially told aren’t welcome or valued by you. And which one is it?

Such a large percentage of your audience are casual viewers too. Why cut out that completely? What fans are you expecting to follow you to this ? Your most dedicated fans are there because they like Ryan and Shane, so why not push that? Are you trying to appeal to your fans or are you trying to make the content you want. There’s no clear creative direction that makes sense with this move and that’s why people aren’t supporting you.

Also I’m sorry but how can we suddenly trust the content is gonna improve once we start funding it when there’s already been so many missteps both in their content and their business. Look at how many fans have said Ghost Files and Mystery Files have started feeling phoned in. Their patreon has been mismanaged for years, they barely promote it and the perks on there aren't really worth it (but they have 6000 paying members because people can and do want to support them!). They go months having barely any merch. There are ways to make money on youtube, they’re just not doing it well .

And I’m sorry. But there is just absolutely no reason to have 25 employees. Shows like Survival mode should be cheap and easy to produce, and help bring in money to support larger ventures like ghost files. So why are there 18 people credited for a video of you playing Minecraft? And of course I don’t want people to lose their jobs. But continuing with this is going to cause EVERYONE to lose their jobs regardless.

They also barely have a plan for their new content. People watch for Ryan and Shane, you KNOW THAT. So why is your first new big show hiring the worth it boys and doing a globe-trotting, crazily expensive show. Are you even really expanding your content if you’re still sticking to a one-video-a-week schedule with no present plan to change that? They have a survey for subscribers to vote which past show to bring back, but there’s obviously a major budget difference between filming something like Weird Wonderful World and something like SD&D&D… or at least there should be but there isn't when you employ 20 people to make one video. There’s such a clear lack of thought put into it that makes me even less likely to want to support.

I want to say that they probably expected a negative backlash and thought they could just wait it out… but did they? Because WHY did they hype this up like it was an insane new announcement fans would go wild for. WHY do this several days before you have live shows where you let fans ask questions live to your faces? So much of this roll out makes absolutely no sense and makes Ryan, Shane, and Steve look so ridiculously out-of-touch with their fanbase, which only makes fans feel even less supportive.

I think their defenders think we want to see Watcher crash and burn but the majority of us don't. I want them to be successful but this isn't the way to do it and I truly do believe it’s going to ruin their company. Unfortunately as much as I love them, I wont be supporting them.

#watcher #watcher entertainment #ryan bergara #shane madej #steven lim #buzzfeed unsolved #ghost files #mystery files #seriously though... what the hell #i dont even use tumblr anymore but i just had to get my thoughts out #sorry i don’t know how to do the read more function i haven’t properly used tumblr since 2016

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nayatarot777 · 10 months

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what strengths do you have that are not acknowledged by you?

subscribe to the patreon if you’d like to :)

• pile one •

it seems like in situations of complete chaos and disaster, your independence immediately kicks in. you know what to do and operate from your intuition which influences your actions and how you approach dealing with messy situations. i’m also hearing that you yourself will burn some shit down if you need to lmao. sometimes you don’t even know why but it’s because whatever it is has been keeping you in the dark, away from your own strengths. you intuitively pick up on that and know when connections with people, things, and places need to go. you know how to cross a bridge and acknowledge any illusions and truths that may have been hidden prior. you guys do a whole lot of self work too, and i don’t think that you realise just how much you invest energetically into yourself. this tearing shit down might be in relation to yourself - you know when aspects of you gotta go 😂. you use chaos as a tool to push yourself forward (you could do well with chaos magic for my witches and practitioners out there).

you’re not someone with control issues. if something is clearly crumbling, you don’t try to cling onto it and prolong your pain unnecessarily. you understand that nobody’s holding you at gun point to settle for chaotic people and situations, so you move accordingly. period. you’re extremely nurturing, caring, etc - but that doesn’t mean that you allow yourself to act like a fool in the name of love or caring about someone. you know how to also implement your own boundaries and do what’s best for you. because you have unconditional love for yourself - or more love for yourself than for the people and situations that cause a ruckus in your life. when things go wrong, you put yourself into a state of acceptance and receive the lessons that you need to from these situations. you take responsibility and accountability for the part that you play in the crumbling of connections and situations. meaning that you’re not someone who acts like a complete victim to life and to everyone around you. you know that certain things in your life wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t play a part and allow them to develop when they clearly weren’t built on stable foundations in the first place. even if someone else does you wrong, you will still ask yourself “wtf is wrong with me and my actions/mindset/standards that helped aid in this bs happening? why did i continue to feed into this? why did i settle for this?”.

you hold onto stability internally for yourself, therefore that reflects in the physical in some way. whether that be through your finances or some other area of your practical life. you listen to your intuition that helps to protect everything valuable that you’ve already accumulated for yourself already. you also don’t over-extend. mfs may have tried (and failed) to make you feel selfish for this but you understand that they’re just mad that you won’t let yourself be used as a charity case for leeches. you’re receptive to your higher self when it steps in to protect you from certain people. even if they’re people who your ego doesn’t want to necessarily let go of, you’ll let it happen for the sake of your own self-preservation, which is how it should be. you’re loving and caring and nurturing but not out of desperation for love and acceptance. not to receive that back for yourself in order to fill a void. this isn’t self-serving love and nurture for others out of a state of lack. this is out of pure genuine intentions. you’re fulfilled alone and you’d like to fulfil others where possible. however, if you ain’t getting wtf you deserve back, you dip and go back to just focusing on yourself. you don’t let your energy be easily accessible to energetically vampiric people.

• pile two •

your strengths are related to your belief systems and your life philosophies. you know how to be your own mentor and how to give yourself the knowledge that you need - mostly about yourself. this seems to be how you maintain your internal peace. you don’t gain much peace from knowledge given to you from outside of yourself, and that doesn’t mean that you can’t find valuable information from others, but you know that you have a direct connection to the divine of your own. you also know how to manifest and persist in manifesting whatever you want over the course of a long time. and whereas other people would grow impatient, you stay balanced and understanding that what you want is in the process of being given to you. you don’t let much in your external life fuck with your internal state of being. and there’s a repetition of patience throughout this whole spread. you don’t force anything. i’m also hearing that you know how to navigate traditional expectations and structures in society through your own methods. it’s like you don’t fit into society and what they want, but it seems like you do from the outside, so you go under the radar or something like that.

you value your own beliefs and morals over what other people may try to enforce onto you, and this results in a very stable sense of self. you know what you stand for based on your own viewpoints and opinions, so you’re not prone to easily falling for feeding into other people’s expectations of you. you’ve also made your own safe space according to how you want your life to be structured and it’s not easy for others to have influence over this or to even be let in. you guys could also allow your shadow as an energy of protection. you could have lilith or pluto in the first house or something like that. but your shadow is clear to see to other people, especially to those who try to take something of yours that’s quite valuable to you (whether that’s money, time, or something else). thanks to this, you see what you need to and i believe that people view you as someone who people can’t really get anything past. also, when you’re tending to your work (whatever that may be) you’re able to redirect your path to one with less challenges when you encounter blockages on the path that you’re on. it seems like this is quite easy for you, or like it’s easy for you to maintain momentum + motivation with what you invest energy into.

you’re able to learn a lot about the physical realm and how to feel complete within it. even when others would expect you to feel some type of lack, it seems like you understand what’s truly valuable to you. your version of abundance may be heavily different to other people’s version - your abundance is felt metaphorically - and you could reject what the world tells people regarding what to prioritise and what’s important (like earthly riches). you could find more value in your family, teachings from family members like your grandparents for some of you in particular, and that’s what has you feeling like you always have a stable foundation in your life. where other people would only ever feel stable through finances, you feel stable through the faith that you hold. you also know how to dissect your mental state when you’re dealing with some mental conflict, leading you to single out the mindsets that actually serve you and discard the rest. your mind seems to be constantly changing for the sake of becoming more grounded in reality, so maybe that’s something that you feel like you struggle with usually. but you’re doing it! a lot of you could have earth signs in your big three.

#psychic readings #pick a card #pac #pick a photo #tarot reading #pac reading #pick a picture

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sleeplesssmoll · 4 months

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Reverse 1999 HCs: The Kitchen

I mentioned these in passing, but I finally added them in post with more detail. Feel free to add your HCs to the buffet! Word count is 960ish so you know what you're getting into if you continue down this path of madness.

Apple tends to stay out of the kitchen unless he's looking for wine. He doesn't want to be mistaken for a tasty snack.

Regulus is banned from the kitchen but barges in anyway as the "official taste tester". She also steals from people's plates if they're left unguarded, unless it's Sotheby's. She is an exception. Vertin gets the worst of it where Regulus might lean over her shoulder and chomp down on her spoonful of food. This is the tax for sharing her premium snacks with Vertin.

As for the snack sharing, one time Regulus caught Vertin eating uncooked noodles with the seasoning packet sprinkled on top like chips as a snack. Ever since then, she gave Vertin free access to the stash of snacks in her room. There's always potato chips and Dr. Papper available to her friend.

Vertin stills occasionally eats noodles like chips because Madam Z used to do it when they were traveling together. When Smoltin caught her red-handed, Madam Z advised her not to be like her and to eat her celery sticks instead. They both knew that wasn't going to happen.

Sotheby is allowed use the kitchen with supervision. There needs to be someone there to give their opinion on her creative choices (stop her from accidentally poisoning someone).

Druvis is the head chef and Sonetto is her apprentice that does everything by the book due to her upbringing in the Foundation. For example, if they don't have the right ingredients, Sonetto believes they can't make the dish anymore. However, Druvis will teach her how to substitute things and improvise.

Sonetto is a great cook, but she operates like a robot that needs to be updated with new ideas from a programmer. All the knowledge is there, but she struggle to make her own conclusions. (This is something we see her struggle with in game but I applied it to cooking lol)

The Horror Trio have no interest in cooking, only eating. Although, Jessica and her Critter friends harvest things from the garden so Druvis can supervise/mentor in the kitchen.

Vertin can't cook per say, but she can throw together very basic meals a child could do (eggs, bacon, toast, grilled cheese, simple stuff). However, her specialty is eggs. She can cook an egg in every way possible thanks to Madam Z. The scientist told her if she learns to cook anything, let it be an egg. They're easy to cook, versatile, and a good source of protein. This is an HC but I can hear her explaining egg supremacy to Vertin. Fun fact: Eggs are a staple food in China and many Asian countries. Eat an egg for Madam Z everyone.

Vertin's also handy with a knife since it's all about technique and she's good with her hands. Before her crew, she probably ate a lot of sandwiches, Foundation MREs, and instant food (with eggs on the side).

However, one day Druvis witnessed hot bacon grease pitch onto Vertin's arm. Vertin flinched at first but continued flipping her bacon, saying, "It happens sometimes." Druvis damn near threw Vertin in the sink in her rush to run cold water over it. They didn't notice how serious Vertin's disregard for injuries were due to the lack of scars and reactions from her. Vertin doesn’t understand since it'll go away with a healing potion. This breaks Druvis's heart because even if it's healed, Vertin's putting herself through unnecessary pain since she's used to getting hurt.

That was the last time Vertin was allowed to touch a frying pan (rip her beloved eggs as collateral), but they still let her use the knife since she's adept with it. Also Vertin wants to help them because it's a way for her to spend more time with them. They couldn't chase her away after she admitted that.

There is another advantage to letting the Timekeeper help sometimes; Vertin's the only one who doesn't cry rivers when she cuts an onion. Sonetto and Sotheby are a mess when they try. Pupnetto has a sensitive nose and Sotheby is baby. Druvis keeps her deadpan face but tears will prick at her eyes.

Vertin didn't always eat her veggies as a kid and Madam Z wasn't sure how to make her eat them. It's actually Tooth Fairy who found a way to make fruits and veggies fun. Vertin now does the same for her Suitcase Family.

Imagine an elegant, celebratory dinner set up by Druvis, Sonetto, and Sotheby after a particularly tough mission. What did Vertin contribute with her knife? Sandwiches? Salads? Nope. It's this:

Fruits and veggies decorated as little critters! It's how Tooth Fairy advised Madam Z to prepare them so Smoltin would eat them. As a kid she loved it. Vertin is creative so there are many variations (she's the opposite of Sonetto who's highly skilled but lacks creativity).

They're a hit with her crew too. Even Blonney, who normally acts like a moody teenager when it comes to her true feelings, finds them adorable. After seeing the way Jessica's eyes lit up from the little display, she was inspired to try and learn too. In secret, of course.

Horropedia said they were neat, but listed a terrifying bunch of ideas for Vertin's next fruit/veggie display: monsters, eyeball, tentacles, severed fingers, a dipping sauce that looks like slime or blood...

Bonus:

Regulus: Vertin! What are you doing?

Vertin: I'm making cheese toasties (grilled cheese). Don't worry, there's no way I can burn myself.

Regulus: You're dealing with hot melted cheese. On a scale of 1 to 10, how angry do you think Sonetto and Druvis would be if I called them right now?

Vertin: ...Would you like one too?

Regulus: Cut diagonally, no crust. Thanks ❤️

#reverse 1999 #reverse 1999 hc #suitcase fam #this is me being self indulgent #also the idea of madam z having small traces of gremlin energy #that only tooth fairy and smoltin know about #is important to my mental health #the gif hits different after writing this #i should just write the damn fics lol #this post contains egg propaganda

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gothhabiba · 11 months

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I feel like I'm having to do the 4D-chess brain calculus of three variables that I had to do to understand what white people are ever talking about all over again, in order to understand what the fuck happens in able-bodied people's minds. so far I'm at:

they believe that no motion or force whatsoever is required to do things that require motion or force, such as using your hands, moving your face, or getting up to go to the bathroom. they think these things just sort of happen through universal permeating energy waves or something. they will probably continue to believe this the first ten times you point out their error to them even if they live with a disabled person. this is a really, really hard one for them.

they have a weird idea of what it means to do something "by yourself" or "under your own power." they seem to simultaneously belleve that doing something with the assistance of a mobility device that you can operate on your own is not doing it under your own power (?), and that needing a person to help you do something is not really a big deal & there's no importance at all in setting things up such that a disabled person can do as many things on their own as possible. they don't tend to think it important that disabled people have autonomy, or they find the consideration to be oxymoronic in the first place.

part of this last one is that they think it's trivially easy for any disabled person to get anyone to help them with something at any given time. this is possible for them because they are thinking in the abstract, without any of the messy calculus of "who do I ask for help" and "are they busy" and "when did I last ask them for help; am I using up all my grace by asking again" and "how patient were they the last time I asked them for help" and "when should I do this thing so that it's the best time for them to help" and "do I know anyone who's able to do x" and "if I make sure to stay friends with this person because they can do y for me is that the action of manipulative monster" that anyone who actually requires help with many of their daily actions knows is necessary.

and yet, at the same time, if you ask them for help with any task at any given time, half the time they will not do it (even if they're able to). they will only say that they will help, in the abstract, because maybe on some level they recognise that their assistance will be helpful or necessary, and they want to think of themselves as good people, and give on that they value you & their relationship with you, at least to your face. however they are not used to doing the kind of calculus that dealing with real-life disability involves (again, in their minds things just sort of 'happen') and will usually quickly bow out.

nevertheless they believe that the willingness of able-bodied people to provide help will make accessible design unnecessary ("no, there's no ramp, we'll just carry you up").

they believe that a mobility aid or prosthetic will magically make a person not disabled, no matter what said person's condition actually is, or whether a wheelchair is suited to help said person at all. you can plop someone into a wheelchair and all of their difficulties with anything, no matter what those things are, will disappear. simultaneously, and bizarrely, they consider mobility aids to be some sort of tragic impediment that is "other" to and not an extension of the body (see above about their interpretation of "under your own power").

as a corollary, if they think that a mobility aid would be helpful for someone (or even if it genuinely would be), they think that person should be basically forced to use it by being denied any other accommodation (e.g. "surely a motorised wheelchair will obviate the need for an on-call taxi service?"). reasons of personal preference or discomfort do not matter. they think that everyone should want to be as "normal" as possible.

#ableism #transportation

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the-girl-wh0-cries-w0lf · 9 months

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You're waiting for a train...(5)

A Lesson in Planning

Robert Fischer x reader

description - the logistics of the dream begin to come together and get finalised by the group. Y/n's heart yearns for Robert more but she feels absent from those around her.

warnings - non-con touching (because she is not awake! UNCONSCIOUS PEOPLE DON'T WANT TEA!), mentions of surgery, mentions of murder.

word count - 2.2k

a/n - Boy you guys are gonna hate Arthur here! this is an important filler chapter for the plot but the real juicy stuff is still to come!

Previous Part Series Master list Master list

If you want to be added to the taglist - here

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

“So now in the first layer of the dream, I can impersonate Browning and suggest concepts to Fischer’s conscious mind. When we get a layer deeper his own projection of Browning should-should feed that back to him.” Eames orated to our group as we sat concepting the plan for the mission.

“So he gives himself the idea?” Arthur questioned.

“Precisely.” Eames continued. “That’s the only way it’ll stick. It has to seem self-generated.”

“Eames.” Arthur leant back in his chair and looked to me and I nodded in agreement. “I am impressed.”

Eames chuckled. “Your condescension, as always, is much appreciated, Arthur, thank you.” I laughed at Eames’ quip, but felt I should cover my face to not embarrass Arthur further.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

I sat in the workspace with Ariadne as she worked on her totem.

She’d decided upon a chess piece with a partly hollowed out centre that would always fall a specific way. We’d actually had the idea together when we’d been walking in the park and had come across a group of old men who’d formed a chess club. When Ariadne had picked up the queen, it had felt right in her hand.

I glanced to my watch and commented on the lateness of the time but hadn’t noticed Ariadne had actually left our desk. I must have zoned out. That had been happening a lot recently. My mind went to Robert. It wasn’t always thinking back on our interaction, most of the time it was just imagining him beside me. Living in the moment with fantasies of him living it with me.

I perked up when Dad and Ariadne walked back towards me, Ariadne gestured for me to show my Dad the mazes but I hesitated.

“Each level relates to the part of the subjects subconscious that we are trying to access.” Dad walked past our designs, assessing the skill and intricacy. Ariadne and I loomed over her paper built mazes. “So, I’m making the bottom level a hospital so Fischer will bring his father, -- um you know, actually, I have a question about this layout.” Dad immediately retreated as if the sight burned his eyes.

“No, no, no. Don’t – Don’t show me specifics. Only the dreamer should know the layout.” I winced at Dad’s harsh tone.

“Dad, she just wanted some help.” I looked up at him.

“Just – “ He pointed at me in a fierce tone but doubted his words. His tone smoothed out. “Just no specifics.”

“Why is that important?” She questioned, amid our staring contest.

“In case one of us brings our projections in. We don’t want them knowing the details of the maze.” Dad feebly explained.

“You mean in case you bring Mom in?” I spat at him. The room went quiet, the tension was thick. “You can’t keep her out, can you? Right. If you know the maze then she knows it. That’s why you can’t build anymore.” I stalked towards him amidst my lecture.

“Cobb is this getting worse?” I appreciated Ariadne’s concern. She had been whisked in to this operation only to find out the leader’s brain was more fucked up than most. Who wants to share dreams with that. “Because the others need to know if it is?”

“Who said it’s getting worse!” He abruptly ended so we knew the conversation was done. There was a lull. “I need to get her home.” He pointed at me. “That’s all I care about right now. Is her.” He stood up and embraced me. My guilt weighed me down. He’d only ever thought of me, and my thoughts were filled with someone else. How selfish could I be.

“Why can’t you go home?” Ariadne fiercely inquired.

“Because they think I killed her.” Cobb said into my hair whilst we stayed hugging. I squeezed tighter at that answer. Ariadne stayed quiet as Cobb left my arms to walk away. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For not asking whether I did.” He smiled appreciatively.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

“I will split up my father’s empire.” The word emblazoned on our whiteboard. “Now, this is obviously an idea that Robert himself would choose to reject which is why we need to plant it deep in his subconscious. The subconscious is motivated by emotion, right? Not reason. We need to find a way to translate this into an emotional concept.” Dad addressed us.

“How do you translate a business strategy into an emotion?” Arthur questioned.

“That’s what were here to figure out. Now, Robert’s relationship with his father is stressed to say the least.”

“Well, can we run with that?” Eames perked up. “We could suggest breaking up his father’s company as a ‘screw you’ to the old man.”

“No.” I commented. “Positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time. We yearn for reconciliation, catharsis. His bond with his dad is broken beyond repair. Maybe if we’re gonna be in there anyway, we could do him a little good.” When I trailed off softly, I felt all eyes on me, confused. I especially felt the hot gaze of my father.

“We need Robert Fischer to have a positive emotional reaction to all this.” Dad agreed whilst eyeing me suspiciously.

“All right, let’s try this.” Eames jumped to my rescue. “My father accepts that I want to create for myself, not follow in his footsteps.”

“That might work.”

“Might?” Arthur argued. “We’re gonna need to do a little better than might.” Eames turned towards him with a cheeky smile.

“Oh, thank you for your contribution, Arthur.” He said sarcastically.

“Forgive me for wanting a little specificity, Eames.”

“Specificity?”

“Inception’s not about being specific. When we get inside his mind, we’re gonna have to work with what we find.”

Ariadne had already prepped each of the dreamers with the layout of the maze. I was truly impressed, and I spent every minute telling her that. It was so great to have a girl on the team. I often felt I was drowning in testosterone.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

We had entered Yusuf’s dream which would act as the first layer. Ariadne had created a metropolitan city with towering skyscrapers. It was perfect. Complex and confusing if you were not familiar yet still had a sense of believability.

“On the top level,” Eames narrated to us all, as we stood in the direct centre of the road. “We open up his relationship with his father, and say ‘I will not follow in my father’s footsteps.”

I walked around in awe of the world around me. I’d been in many dreams and had created a few for myself, but nothing like this. I bumped Ariadne’s shoulder and whispered.

“This is seriously amazing.”

“you’ve told me that like 5 times, y/n.”

“Oh sorry—”

“No, it’s nice.” She threw her arm around me so we ended in a half way hug. I suddenly remembered the boys were talking.

“Then the next level down, we feed him ‘I will create something for myself’. Then by the time we bring out the big guns – “

“My father doesn’t want me to be him.” I finished. After speaking those fateful words I chanced a glance at my own father’s eyes. But I looked away in shame, missing his own longing gaze.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

“Three layers down the dreams are gonna collapse.” Arthur admitted. “Even with the slightest disturbance.”

“Sedation.” Yusuf proudly stated. “For sleep stable enough to create three layers of dreaming, we’ll have to combine it with an extremely powerful sedative. The compound we’ll be using to share the dream creates a very clear connection between dreamers whilst actually accelerating brain function.”

“In other words, it gives us more time on each level.” Dad explained for the ones who struggled to understand Yusuf’s chemistry.

“Brain function in the dream will be about 20 times normal. When you enter a dream within that dream, the effect is compounded, it’s 3 dreams – that’s 10 hours times –”

“I’m sorry maths was never my strong subject.” I chuckled at Eames’ confusion. “How much time is that?”

I decided to fill him in.

“It’s a week, the first level down, 6 months the second level down –”

“Its 10 years, the third level.” Ariadne said in a gasp. I nodded sadly towards her. “Who would want to be stuck in a dream for 10 years?”

“Depends on the dream.” Ariadne and I looked unamused towards Yusuf’s attempt at humour.

“So, once we’ve made the plant how do we get out? I’m hoping you have something more elegant in mind than shooting me in the head.” Arthur commented whilst swinging on his chair.

“A kick.”

“What’s a kick?”

“This Ariadne,” Eames gently tapped Arthur’s chair so he panicked and fell forward. “Is a kick.” He smiled innocently towards Arthurs unimpressed face. I giggled watching their little bromance.

“It’s that feeling of falling you get that jolts you awake.”

“Will we even feel a kick with that level of sedation?” I questioned.

“I’ve customised the sedative to leave inner function unimpaired.” I gave a grateful nod. Yusuf was truly a gift to this mission. “Let me demonstrate.”

“Arthur.” “Arthur!” Eames and I said in sync.

Arthur reluctantly rises and sits on the chair Yusuf gestures to. Yusuf puts him into a dream.

“You see the sleeper still feels the falling.” Yusuf tips Arthur and he jolts awake just in time to watch his body hit the ground. Eames and I burst out laughing. I wink at Eames as we both get the same idea.

“But Yusuf.” I begin. “He just fell sideways. I think it needs to be demonstrated that it works falling at ALL angles.” Eames and I could barely hold in our laughter as my dad shook his head in disapproval. Arthur was put under 4 more times and shoved off the chair each time. God this was too good. After the final time, he threw his hands up when Yusuf went in for one more IV. He abruptly stood up and walked past me. He slowed down when he reached my shoulder.

“Don’t be so childish.” My smile broke.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

“He hasn’t got any surgery scheduled, there’s no dental, nothing.”

“Wasn’t he supposed to have a knee operation?”

“Nothing. Nothing that they’d put him under for anyway.”

We were coming up with the final stage. And the most important element. Time.

“We need a good 10 hours.” My dad offered up the situation to the room.

“Sydney to Los Angeles.” Saito had very much taken up the role of the silent money. Quiet, observing. Merely here to protect his investment. When dad had told me he wanted to go under with us I wasn’t shocked. Inception is hardly a mission which has a physical outcome a buyer can hold. The only way to get proof is to be there with us. I did worry about safety. He was just another parasite the projections could flock to; this put us all at risk. And I had a feeling this sedation meant a simple kill shot wouldn’t suffice.

“One of the longest flights in the world. He makes it every two weeks.”

“He must be flying private then?” Dad questioned.

“Not if there were unexpected maintenance with his plane.” I smirked at this.

“It would have to be a 747.” Arthur jumped in.

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“Because on a 747, the pilot is up top,” I didn’t miss how Arthur directed the answer towards my dad. “and the first class cabin is on the nose, so no one would walkthrough but you’d have to buy out the entire cabin and the first class flight attendant.”

“I bought the airline.” We all flocked our gaze to Saito. “It seemed neater.” Ah of course! Why didn’t we think of that?

“Well then.” We had our stage. “Ariadne?” Dad stopped us as we went to leave. “Terrific work by the way.” I smiled her way but she missed it, taken up in a conversation with Arthur.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

My fingers fidgeted on the lock of the case. Itching to try again. Nothing around me was satisfying, I needed some release. The lock flicked up and I hurriedly unpacked the IV. I inserted it and let it do it’s magic. My eyes drooped, my heart slowed yet my excitement bubbled up. My head flopped onto the rough fabric of the deck chair. As my mind floated me away, a presence loomed in my peripheral.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

*Arthur’s pov*

I’d stayed behind late, hoping to have a word with y/n. She hadn’t seemed herself recently and I worried for the state of her mind when we begin this task.

I made my way to the door, believing I’d missed her. I noticed one of the deck chairs hadn’t been put away so I went to tidy up. I saw five painted nails loosen their grip on the edge of the chair and collapse to the side. There was an IV exiting the vein, I tracked it back towards the silver case.

I ambled my way towards her sleeping frame. So peaceful, yet so much life danced behind her closed eyes. I found myself stroking her soft cheeks. She was so perfect. My thumb caressed the contours of her face and it began to droop lower, until it met the curve of her lips. What was I doing?

I jumped back as if her skin had burnt me. Suddenly I was possessed by a new found drive. I ripped one of the other IV’s out of the case and dragged a chair up to the table. I inserted the tube and let the sedative consume my body.

My mind crumbled down and was rebuilt into her subconscious.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Oh boyyyyy Arthur has gone into her subconscious! What's he gonna find? What's she hiding??

taglist: @jonsncws @h-l-vlovesvintage @theethy @fashionki11a @felicity1994 @bearchermer @idkyoutellmesmh @mimimarvelingmarvel @butterfly-lies-chase-them-away

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innsyn · 9 months

Text

Writers and Dreamers needed.

Have you ever heard the term parallel collaboration?

It’s where teams, or individuals, working towards a larger goal, tackle tasks independently.

How could that work in creative writing?

Think of writers telling different stories set in the same world with overlapping characters.

Each writer has independent control of their own story, but needs to collaborate on consistency and continuity between stories.

Why are you telling me this?

Because I would love some of tumblrs many wonderful writers to join me in a parallel collaboration project of epic proportions!

I knew this was a trap! You never wanted to be my friend, you’re just trying to recruit me. Go on then, tell me more.

Okay - so it’s a totally non-profit, Creative Commons Share-A-Like endeavour. Anything anyone contributes can be taken, reworked, reimagined and recombined by everyone - as long as it’s all properly attributed, and distributed under the same licence.

It’s a sandbox which is open to everyone - the idea is to operate like fan fiction in reverse. Anyone can come and write a story using any of the characters that have been developed, and the best will be adopted into canon.

I would love to have stories of all types exist within one original story world - action, romance, horror, smut, slice of life, coming of age, hero’s quest - I want them all and more!

Why should I contribute towards your project instead of working on my own?

I would never ask anyone to bench their WIPs. I promise, I understand how personal that connection is. If you are feeling good and working well on your WIP then I am super proud of you and will cheer you on. But working on your own WIP can be hard precisely because it’s so personal, because it’s your baby.

I don’t subscribe to the archetype of the solo writer, tapping away in isolation. It helps to have people to bounce ideas off, it helps to know that other people are working towards the same goal as you, and it helps to know that you’re not shouldering all the responsibility.

I want this to be your favourite side project. Somewhere you can go and share a big dumb idea and write without pressure, whenever your WIP is kicking your ass.

But what’s it actually about?

I’ve tried to design an overarching scenario with inherent conflict, but scope to be interpreted in many directions…

Here's the idea:

An alien with godlike technology finds an Earthlike planet and its human people.

It designs a game to select a human to be given access to its technology and decide the fate of the planet.

The alien enlists its friends to select 5 human ‘team captains’, spread around the world. They each receive access to a different technology, giving them a unique superpower.

These captains then recruit a further twenty four ‘players’ each, taking it to 125 contestants, each with their own different power.

Once the teams are fully recruited - the humans still unaware where these powers are coming from, or what their purpose is - the alien talks to them. It explains they are part of a game, and what the prize is.

The game is a deathmatch. Any player who kills another player will gain their tech access/superpowers. They cannot kill their own teammates until only one team remains.

A global superpowered battle royale. 5 teams. 125 candidates. 124 of them must die.

And you want, what? Different writers to adopt the different players and tell their stories?

Exactly! I want someone to adopt the teleporter, and someone else to adopt the earthbender, or the emotion manipulator, or the one who can bring nightmares to life. I’ve outlined 125 possible characters, each with a different superpower, but I have no idea what’s going to happen or who is going to win.

Battle Royale. Hunger Games. Squid Games. Haven’t we had enough deathmatch games?

Quick answer: no!

The important differences for this idea are twofold. Normally deathmatch stories happen inside a fixed ‘arena’ - but our stories are loose in the world.

This means most of our players have to travel around the world, trying to hunt or escape from each other - giving them much more opportunity to engage in other adventures aside from trying to kill each other - or to hide from the game and try and live a normal life.

Secondly, by making the project open ended and collaborative we make the writers part of the game. Don’t want your character to get killed off? Write stories better than the ones where they get killed. The deathmatch is part of the project process just as much as it’s part of the plot.

You’re insane. This will never work.

The only way it will definitely never happen is if we never try.

Damn. You got me. Sign me up.

Alright… let’s figure out which character you want to start with…

I've still got a loads of questions though.

Come at me, let's do this!

So what are you calling this big dumb project?

Powerclash

Nice.

So... who can I tag in who might get a kick out of this?

@advashaviv @prokopetz @huttslut @whats-on-your-mind-then @fearofthefourthdimension @caxycreations @time-to-write-and-suffer @wip-nook @blind-the-winds @autism-georg @ryns-ramblings @writeblrfantasy @writeblrsupport @harleywriteshit @unmellowyellowfellow @leebrontide @melonsap @jgmartin @tananaphone @pluttskutt @careful-fear @scribbling-stardust @irlactualwizard @cryptid-s-wips @squarebracket-trick @at-thezenith @slowboz @writinglittlebeasts @lividdreamz @all-write @sergeantnarwhalwrites @tabswrites @authoralexharvey @quantumlandbooks @stanrendipity @manuscriptsatmidnight @memento-morri-writes @magic-is-something-we-create @lukascritical @liv-is @garthcelyn @fearofahumanplanet @antique-symbolism@poetinprose @thedeerwight @inflarescent @viva-la-topknot @theblackbookofarkera @nikoschrissis @sfhoe @soiledcat

#writeblr #creative writing #writers on tumblr #writeblr community #fantasy writing #worldbuilding #world building #fantasy world #powerclash

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bayleafpsa · 3 months

Note

What are your honest thoughts on Witch Hat Atelier?

I'm both pleasantly surprised and apprehensive. Forgive me if I ramble on, I'll try to explain.

The first thing that attracted me to the manga was the lovely art. It is really on another level compared even to good manga artists. But when I dug up the premise, I was worried. "Oh god is this gonna be some weird thing where the teacher and the girl have a wink wink nudge nudge totally not serious ship tease I will shoot someone if it does". Quickly I realized that it dodged that bullet and I thought "ok, it's going to be a fun little adventure with your basic manga flaws, that's fine!".

The beginning of the manga has tropey moments and characters (feat. Agott/Agatha as the unhinged rival that suffers no consequences because the adult in the house is a moron outside of important plot beats), and I dont find the world building as strong as most of the fandom seems to (the lie about magic is extremely flimsy and contrived). But then it surprised me again, because the manga grew beyond the predictable setups and managed to say interesting things about the world, about children and the way adults treat them, about disability and accessibility, about teaching and trust. That's what really hooked me up.

Furthermore, as time went on the mangaka stretched her diversity muscles to provide a vibrant set of characters and designs. There's a notable absence of dehumanizing fanservice and gross shit (WE HAVE SIBLINGS THAT ARE LOVING AND NORMAL!). I don't hesitate to say Witch Hat Atelier is a notch above the rest in many ways.

So what makes me concerned? Well... the direction of the main plot. Because while Witch Hat Atelier managed to make insightful criticism of the institutions it depicts, I'm still not sure it's committed enough to follow those criticisms through. I'm not saying that little Coco and her friends should be expected to behead the Knights Moralis and instate unlimited access to all magic, that's stupid and against the genre. But I do feel like we are heading for a "soft" solution that will leave the people who exerted power and violence largely untouched, because they will see the better, middle way Coco will present, as if these full grown adults couldn't have thought of it themselves if they wanted to. There is a critical word here: accountability. You don't need to make the narrative revolve about punishment and revenge or say that people can't change for there to be accountability, but many writers and readers don't seem to get that. So I worry.

Ah, and I'm also worried about how the Brim Hats will continue to be shown. So far, the adult members have done truly vile things (that I will excuse because THE DESIGNS). Custas is rightfully angry but operating under little knowledge and I dont trust this "Lord Restis" fellow one bit, so the kids arent in a good situation. Combined with what I said earlier it creates an unfair dichotomy that ends up excusing the sages and knights. "Oh, sure, we destroyed people's memories, attacked children, are massively incompetent and unjust, but if we dont do that more incidents like Eunie will happen!!!". If you are gonna write a whole chapter about how Lulucy is Yielding Girl Power Against Misogyny by being a cop, you BETTER give me an equivalent on the Brim Hat side.

Anyway. Here's hoping for the best.

#witch hat atelier

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lord-squiggletits · 1 month

Text

One of my least favorite parts of how JRO wrote Optimus is that he wanted so badly to continue his dark and gritty world building making the Autobots problematic, but evidently couldn't reconcile this with Optimus being a Heroic Paragon, so instead he leaned way too hard into "oh Prowl was the one who did this and it was behind Optimus' back" which if anything I think makes Optimus look worse, not better. Because then it's like, okay I know Optimus trusted Prowl a lot as his friend but you CANNOT TELL ME that over the course of 4 million years, Optimus as the leader of the Autobot army who literally would have access to 99.9% of all the records they produce, would never notice or question where some of these odd/inconsistent details were pointing. It just seems really inconsistent with how a real military would actually function, especially regarding Optimus' character, who is incredibly thorough and responsible and wouldn't neglect to keep up with all the details of his army.

Hell, Optimus knows who the Wreckers are and had them on call for tricky operations when he needed them (Stormbringer) so he's literally not at all ignorant of/averse to the use of special wartime units composed of dubious individuals. He's the fucking commander of an entire army, of course he knows that War Is Hell (TM) and no one's hands are clean. That's not even getting into all the stuff he got up to in phase 2/3, I mean everything from the annexation of Earth to OP breaking humans out of prison against Council orders shows that Optimus is no stranger to immoral and/or unlawful means.

It also leads to a lot of annoying fanon where people write Optimus (sometimes unintentionally, sometimes not) as like some sort of ignorant fool who's unaware of the machinations of his own army or has some sort of naiveté of "b-but we can't use bad tactics against the enemy! I would never condone the use of morally gray means in war!" No, IDW Optimus knows perfectly well all of the bullshit he's enacted/condoned for the sake of trying to win the war. Some stuff is definitely out of character for him and was only machinated because of Prowl, but I think this fandom REALLY underestimates Optimus' personal agency/responsibility as the commander of a whole ass army and ESPECIALLY underestimates Optimus' capacity to condone morally gray Bullshit Of War while still being a good person individually as well as, comparatively, the lesser evil compared to Megatron/the Decepticons.

Anyways what I'm saying is JRO may be a good writer but he's really hesitant to make Optimus morally gray and does some asspulls sometimes to justify most of the bad things the Autobots did as "Optimus just didn't know," and since the majority of the IDW1 fandom only reads JRO's stuff they go running with this premise of ignorant/uninformed Optimus when there's evidence elsewhere in canon to show that Optimus is, in fact, very highly aware of the bullshit he's allowed "for the greater good" and the only stuff he was "unaware of" was the stuff he would literally never agree to the ethics of, like bombing innocent neutrals disguised as Decepticons to get them to join the Autobots.

#squiggposting #idw op love #i feel like part of the issue is that for a franchise whose entire premise is war #i feel like a lot of this fanbase. hasnt actually read a lot about war (fictional or nonfictional)#bc a lot of ppl here really seem to struggle with reconciling OP as a good person and OP #as a war leader who had bad things happen under his rule #and bc they dont know much about war in fiction or IRL they treat this as like. one extreme or the other?#when like if ur someone whos read a lot of war literature it's very easy to comprehend both of these as being true #like idk i think the 'OP was ignorant' defense isnt even how being a commander works #but it's also a cop out to make OP less interesting/morally gray than he could be #like idk how to explain that war is an inherently corrupt/immoral institution where in pretty much all of history #the act of waging war in itself is a moral compromise. war is literally about killing more of the other side than they do you #you are treating human life (and society and gov and the environment) as tools for victory #no matter how righteous your cause is or if you follow rules of engagement you literally are going to do bad things #so like this idea the fanbase seems to have where they like. want OP to be sheltered/ignorant of these realities #is SO not how reality works and wouldnt ever be in character for like 99% of optimi #i'm still trying to pull together my thoughts on this sorry the tags are so incoherent

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claraameliapond · 7 months

Text

The Indigenous Voice Referendum Australia 2023

Floored and devastated

repulsed at the racist selfishness of the no voters

It had NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM.

This is NOT who we are

Although it's a comforting narrative that no voters and conservatives are dying out - and will gradually have less and less pull

Firstly - It's too gradual to just wait it out

And Secondly- It's foolish to think that's only where these no votes are coming from

Younger less educated people are part of this too

Ignorant and arrogant - and selfish- that's what less education translates to.

This highlights, more than ever, how important it is to have strict policies in place legally for managing misinformation, fear mongering and propaganda spreading

We need laws about media monopolies and restricting or banning them altogether

Because one agenda from a multimillion dollar media monopoly cannot have majority access to inform a whole country. Especially because they were intentionally running interference with the simplest truth - they threw everything at it - spreading misinformation, blatant repulsive, violent lies - totally made up lies, not even remotely connected to what was being proposed. It's heartbreaking they could invent such lies and then spread those repulsive invented lies so fully and have people believe them.

And less educated people are always more vulnerable to propaganda: they believe hatred without a second thought. They don't fact check. They don't research. They don't make sure. Any excuse to flaunt their selfish racist self interest, against anyone else who might actually be more vulnerable, worse off.

However, That's the thing about this referendum - IT WASNT "US AGAINST THEM"

It was just : do we all agree that indigenous Australians should get to share information and advice with the government about how best to provide the care and facilities we already provide to them. So they work. Because they haven't been. So it would be a good use of money and then we can achieve permanent results and solutions for those issues and then move on, and do different things with that money. To actually move forward with this and not be stuck in stasis with things not improving.

That was literally all it was

It still is an issue now.

Don't loose hope

I'm still proud of all of the Yes voters- there were a good amount of us - and we will continue to turn the tide from ignorance and misinformation to the truth.

We've got to keep going 💪🏻 🙌🏻 👏🏻 🙏🏻

And now we have a more accurate idea of how to do that , and what needs to be fixed with people's understanding of this in our country. We can use this information to succeed

Ironically - doing exactly what the referendum was about : getting more accurate information to better help vulnerable communities of indigenous Australia.

But apparently, we've got to deal with the misinformed tantrum havers first - they make everything an "us against them" even when it literally wasn't. It doesn't affect anyone else. It could only have been positive. They make every issue an "us against them " even when it has literally nothing to do with them, because everything's a tantrum if it's not about them.

We've got accurate information now - just not about the people we were expecting : we know how to combat the racist minformation spreaders, and those who believed them.

What we need is :

Real limits and legal consequences on misinformation spreading, fear mongering and propaganda

Real limits on media monopolies and restrictions from letting them operate the way they do.

AND we do have to continue to combat this misinformation and propaganda whenever it is paraded near us. Respond with the truth, and make sure you ALWAYS RESPOND.

Don't let them think they're right.

Respond simply and calmly with the truth.

I'm sorry we have to do this but we do.

I don't want to be anywhere near those people, but if they identify themselves- we have to respond.

Respond and correct them.

Their idiocy can not and does not rewrite the truth. We are right and the truth of what this is, always was and what we need to do still exists

A few sources to begin to understand this:

A breakdown of who voted what where

Interpreting these results properly - this is well worth a read

I am looking forward to seeing the full count when it's ready. Make sure to look at those things - from Official sources.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO VOTED YES

I stand proudly with you on the side of truth. Empathy. Morality. Justice

We have a more accurate idea of what's going on now: let's get to work

Also thank you to MC HAMMER for supporting and encouraging and campaigning for people to vote yes. That was lovely.

It really was a very simple thing - the truth is still the truth and we will succeed

Love and strength to us all

By goodness we need it

Xxxx🤍🖤🧡❤🤍🖤🧡❤💗💖💜💕💕💓💗

My heart was so full when I voted yes - it's an obvious yes

And it still is

Because YES is the truth

It is what is needed.

Still.

And we will achieve it xxxxx

#The VOICE #THE VOICE REFERENDUM #AUSTRALIA #YES23 #AUSTRALIAN REFERENDUM #PSA #The INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN VOICE #VOTE YES #THANK YOU FOR VOTING YES #Let's keep going #It's still the truth #We will achieve it #Antony Green #Referendum 2023 #MC HAMMER #KINDNESS #LOVE #SOLIDARITY

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thefirstknife · 1 year

Text

Another lore dive because I see people asking around about the following:

Why didn't Neomuna help humanity after the Collapse?

This is directly addressed and it's really interesting and potentially something that will bring conflict (both in the game and probably with the fandom).

To find out, we have to look at the lore book about four Cloud Striders which you can get when you do a quest to acquire the exotic glaive Winterbite. The quest can be picked up at the archivist Quinn. The lore book is called Cloud Strider Legacies. Under for length:

The first Cloud Strider in that book is Stargazer, real name Laminak Li. They (canon pronouns) were a mathematician and an explorer prior to becoming a Cloud Strider.

In the early days of Neomuna, it was almost impossible to see through Neptune's atmosphere:

Not only did Stargazer allow Neomuni to finally study the sky, they also made it possible for them to detect Earth.

This is an important first part of the answer because it tells us that for an indeterminate amount of time, they could not physically see or check on Earth at all. So Earth could've spent decades or even centuries in the Dark Age and Neomuni stuck behind Neptune's thick atmosphere and powerful magnetic field.

Stargazer was finally able to see Earth and check for human activity. And they did. And they... were not impressed. More accurately, they were afraid:

This happened at some point in the Dark Age. When they looked at Earth, they saw violence and devastation and war. The lore book continues and says that Stargazer went to Earth and used the Warmind to erase records of Neomuna. So it was Stargazer who erased it!

This is further elaborated in the lore tab after this one where we actually see Stargazer on Earth, fighting off some warlords while in a bunker and linking with Malahayati The lore tab I copied so far is a sort of a tale about the Cloud Striders as told to children.

The second lore tab about any given Cloud Strider is a more realistic and often quite weirder story because it's an official record as things happened. Stargazer was not just a curious explorer, they were a powerful warrior who led a full expedition to Earth and lost several people in the fighting.

A Lightbearer died as well and Stargazer was afraid that other warlords would access the Warmind bunker:

At that point, they even considered nuking the entire group of people to prevent them from ever finding out about them visiting Earth, but decided against it because it would've obviously been inhumane.

I want to take a very brief detour because the dead "Lightwielder" is named:

The name Carnunta sounded familiar to me so I ran the name through Ishtar and voila. Loreley Splendor Helm:

"The crate says it was recovered from the tomb of Carnunta, a Warlord in the EDZ. Lightbearer."

Cool detail!

In the end, they decided to wipe all data about Neomuna and the Exodus ship that founded it. They also spoke about how their original intent was to "teach" the people on Earth about civilisation and help them recover, but when they found only warlords, they gave up as they believed it wouldn't have worked and that it would've only provoked warlords into attacking Neomuna.

This point from the first tab is important because it says that to Neomuni, ALL Lightbearers are "warlords." To this day. As a matter of fact, this is repeated a few times in the game, with various characters calling us a warlord and Lightbearer interchangeably. This point is best explained with this patrol Neomuna News lines:

Earth representatives today objected to the identifier “Warlords”, preferring the label “Guardians”. They claim that while they command similar powers, Guardians operate within a system of checks and balances overseen by the Vanguard. Critics remain sceptical, citing the Vanguard’s apparent lax control over their membership and lack of accountability.

Of course, people tend to think of Neomuni as bad people for not helping Earth. However, first, as we've seen above, they tried. They first spent years not having the technology to even see Earth and then they tried helping and found only warlords fighting over scraps and killing people with strange powers. When they tried helping, they were attacked.

Second, something that we don't really think about or talk about is just how utterly incomprehensibly strange Lightbearers are to almost everyone in the universe. We are risen from the dead by an unknown power. We are immortal. We wield incredible superpowers. And we cannot be controlled.

This is referenced throughout the lore in various ways, sometimes in a kind of a funny way when we're referred to as space zombies or when someone comments how strange we look dancing in the Tower aimlessly or randomly jumping to our deaths. I don't think we really pick up on this because we're the heroes and Guardians are a force of good, but we are really a force that could do whatever it wanted. We could conquer the universe in the blink of an eye if we wanted to. We can easily become corrupted or mishandle our powers or our weapons in devastating ways.

Point is, the fear Neomuni have of Lightbearers is entirely justified. Even when we first landed, Rohan's first question was "Are you here with the invaders?" Rohan repeats that a few times; he later tells us that he always thought that when he finally meets Lightbearers, he would be fighting us.

Neomuni believed that if Lightbearers find Neomuna, they would come over and wreak havoc and endanger their entire population. Helping is a noble thing to do, but what if it would result in your own extinction? Neomuni have a responsibility to their own citizens.

I think it's reasonable to be angry with them for not trying harder. I also think it's reasonable to be a Neomuni and think that it would've been too much risk. It's definitely an interesting possible conflict that would hopefully be mentioned more. I would love to see reactions from various characters about this, and even reactions from random citizens of the Last City.

There is sure to be some resentment between Earth and Neomuna, because it's natural. But I would also not be too harsh on them and I would definitely not call them bad or evil people for not dragging us out of the Dark Age. I also want to add that Neomuna wasn't just chilling and doing nothing; hey had their own challenges and survival to worry about. Some of their own wars and conflicts are detailed in the Cloud Strider Legacies lore book, mainly conflicts with the invading Vex, but also conflicts amongst each other. Not to mention that building a city in such a hostile environment surely took a toll.

Overall, I think that the question of "if Neomuna existed all this time, why did they never help us?" has been addressed pretty well, all things considered. A significant portion of the lore was dedicated to explaining Neomuni's re-discovery of Earth and their attempts to help and their fear of Lightbearers. Even people on Earth spent centuries absolutely terrified of Lightbearers!

The very obvious misinterpretation of Guardians as still "warlords" is also a pretty good way to show just how separated and alien we are to each other. But it's also a good point to make. The only thing separating us from warlords is that we're not fighting for territory with other warlords. But we could easily revert to that behaviour and we did in many other timelines where corruption prevailed. Obviously we won't now, but only we know that. A society that grew on horrifying stories of immortal warlords can't possibly have that insight about us. Their caution can be read as cruel, but it should be read as complex.

#destiny 2 #destiny 2 spoilers #lightfall #lightfall spoilers #neomuna #cloud strider #stargazer #lore vibing

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centrally-unplanned · 3 months

Note

I agree with your assessment that Biden could not have passed any form of federal abortion protections (short of court stacking, which is a non-starter w/ him), but I think that tweet is still correct to criticize this facet of Dem campaign strategy. Barring a fantastically strong Dem showing in 2024, the prohibitive legislative hurdles Biden faced in his first term would still be there on re-election, and I frankly think Biden has better odds of croaking himself during his second term than a conservative Justice like Thomas does, much less the two Justices Dems would need to revive Roe.

Every election holds the potential of seeing abortion rights curtailed if Republicans win big enough, but the plurality odds are that the present deadlock will continue to prevail, which makes the Dems look either weak or unserious or both when they run on issues they can't materially fight for even if they win the election. Imo, Dem electeds need to learn how to campaign in a way that doesn't make their constituency feel like they are Charlie Brown in that one gag with Susie and the football, and the fact that the Dem VP candidate is falling afoul of that mistake sparks serious concerns for when the election that will actually determine the fate of abortion rights comes along.

I am definitely not adverse to critiques of how the Dems are campaigning! I don't think its been great myself (though not awful or anything). But on this one I do think you really need to ask what is the concrete, specific, actual thing Dems can do about this?

Like we can say "campaign on passing the WHPA but A: they currently do the equivalent of that, and B: its a lie, they can't pass it, they can't pass any bill federally on this - its pulling the football. They can appoint judges, which they say they will do, actually do, and makes a difference. And then....well, shit man, what do you want? Now what you can also actually do is operate at the state level - and here Dems have been hitting quite hard! Every Dem in a competitive state was emphasizing abortion in 2022 in campaigns, on the concrete promise that they will support bills in state legislatures to legalize the right to an abortion - which they did. And down-ballot voting strats is how it works, you get people into the ballot box to vote for the big elections and it drives turnout down the line. But while you can imagine a campaign that is like "vote for me a figurehead stamp for state level initiatives", imo that would be a bad strategy - people are very invested (to their detriment, but w/e) in the President-as-leader, and so him downplaying himself would probably not work.

IMO they should say "lets get to 60 everyone, if we do we will pass the WHPA" - but they do say that! Its what the VP thing you are mentioning is about, it was the focus Biden's first campaign event of the year. And as the same mentions, they are using the Justice Dept. to challenge bans on medically necessary abortions and other maneuvers that seem viable. Remember when Congress couldn't appoint military officers, like any, because a Republican Congressman was filibustering them? That was over Biden's continuing directives to fund abortions for servicemen. He is doing things! These are not football pulls, if Trump wins you absolutely could see members of the military losing access to abortion, even in pro-choice states. That's 200,000 women, its not small.

Again, I'm not saying there aren't some other ideas out there that might be good. The article above actually mentions some - leasing Federal Land for abortion clinics is a big Fuck You, I kind of like it (but its probably not smart, voters won't like it and state governments will go ballistic) But I think Dems have been pretty solid here since 2022, they are hands-tied but have found a bunch of ways to hammer the issue and make concrete promises with real stakes. If you don't win elections, which the US system is essentially built to prevent, its a tough game.

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nayatarot777 · 1 year

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✨ what do you need to know right now? + random messages ✨ ~ pac

check out my youtube if you’d like! 🤍

• pile 1 •

there’s an ending to a long cycle that’s coming up. everything in your life seems as though it’s stagnant. not progressing or moving forward at all, but that’s because you’re afraid to surrender a certain way of doing things. when just living your life, or how you achieve things in particular.

you could be feeling stagnant because you’re trying to develop motivation through projects, hobbies, belief systems, etc. that you’ve outgrown. you’ve learned what you need to learn from those things but it’s almost like you’re afraid to let go of them regardless. the unknown seems scary at first, but i know that you know that there’s so much more peace and balance on the other side of surrendering to this life change/identity change.

random message but animals could be important to you guys. birds. chickens in particular. and frogs. idk what that’s about 😂

i just heard “life reset”. there’s also a message about finding complete peace and comfort in your own private world. you might not want to be around people much and that’s perfectly okay.

surrender your boundaries between you and the universe. things might be too overwhelming right now, but if you’re someone who operates out of faith, now is a good time to practice the art of surrendering. those of us in this pile have fought through enough already. we’ve been through enough. we deserve to sit in our own peace and quiet and enjoy our time to ourselves if that’s what we choose.

bonus message: for those of us who have done fiery wall of protections or return to senders? the universe has heard our requests loud and clear. this is blocking out anything and everything that is destructive in our lives. our spirits won’t be so susceptible to being bothered by people’s bullshit lmao. i’m seeing that most of us are people that not many people have access to easily, anyway. if that’s not the case yet, then a space and time for complete hermit mode is coming up.

• pile 2 •

you guys are switching up the way that you think and speak to/about yourself. a huge burst of self assurance and confidence is subconsciously coming to you guys. it’s not clear where this confidence is coming from, but it could be due to avoiding a disaster of some sort?

you could be in a situation that has continuously made you worry for quite a while now, but i’m seeing that you’ll have either the motivation, strength, or bravery to change the course of your life through actively asserting yourself towards something. that’s what will help with this tough situation.

there’s also a message about you guys genuinely picking up on hidden enemies, psychic attacks, and non-genuine people around you. you’re not being paranoid or anything like that. you’re subconsciously or unconsciously picking up on some hating ass energy. i don’t like that. i heard that you should burn some palo santo or something to cleanse yourself and your space. bitches are big mad over you, pile 2 👀

what i’m picking up on is you picking up on the hidden competition that you know you feel from certain people in your life. it’s very gross. you’re realising that you’re someone who actually has something that others are jealous about. and that could be absolutely anything.

you’re increasingly getting more confident in listening to your intuition and this will help you to avoid a betrayal or backstabbing. i feel like, again, you’re unconsciously aware of this (or maybe you are consciously but you’re not speaking about what you know?) and this is also helping you.

keep doing your thing, and release other people’s assumptions and judgements of you. you don’t owe them shit. not an explanation. not your defensiveness. nothing.

• pile 3 •

for some of you, you’ve been given the responsibility of putting in the ground work for something. you’ve been given too much responsibility for too long and it’s overwhelming for you. an opportunity to leave something stressful behind is showing itself. you see that you’re investing way too much into whatever this is, just for it to not progress or evolve. things have stayed the same for a while and you’ve been carrying burdens related to this that you haven’t had to. for way too long. the opportunity to walk away is arising.

i’m also seeing that some of you could be laying a creative project or some type of work to rest? to switch paths and find something much more fulfilling. you can use the knowledge that you’ve learned so far for your new path and make great shit happen. it’s better than sitting around, waiting for something to happen without any progress.

some of you could even be leaving whole careers behind. because of the fact that they don’t emotionally fulfil you like you’d like. you’re following your heart more than money, status, or anything else, and that’s a great thing. your spirit feels free after releasing whatever this is.

i’m really getting big retirement vibes from this. of course that’s only for a smaller number of you, but figuratively speaking, whatever path you’re going down is building you so much stability and wealth. it’s actually insane. you’ll be able to live your life in a chill way. no stress. you can grow fruits out of your labour on your own unconventional path and still live comfortably. you know that. and you’re succeeding as long as you release what you need to.

p.s. - i’m picking up on a lot of virgo energy from you guys. or chiron. you guys are doing enough. stop being so hard on yourself. you’ve perfected your chosen path. you know what to do. run with it.

#pick a card #pick a photo #pick a picture #psychic readings #divination #tarot #pac #tarot reading #pac reading #spirituality #oracle #collective reading

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skymaiden32 · 7 months

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Safety Measures

Read on AO3 here

Fandom: Thunderbirds

Tagging: @dragonoffantasyandreality @thundergeek59 @janetm74 @katblu42 @liseylou @amistrio @uniwolfcorn @idontknowreallywhy (Please ask if you would like to get alerts when I update or post new stories.)

Thundertober Day 18: Safety

Some rules are made to be broken.

Continuity: TAG

------

“Are you joking?!” Gordon winced when he heard Virgil yell at the hologram in front of them, hovering above Thunderbird 2’s dashboard. “Please tell me you’re joking…” The man in the image tried his best to look apologetic, but after years of learning how to read others, the two Tracy’s could tell he wasn’t.

“This is no joke, Mr Tracy. It’s health and safety.” The idiot stated. “According to the official handbook, no non-staff members are allowed to access the master control panel. If we let just anyone use those controls, it could result in disaster.”

Virgil grumbled, uncharacteristically folding his arms in front of him and slumping back in his seat with a huff. This back and forth was eerily similar to the whole atmospheric cleaner debacle not too long ago. Honestly, he wouldn’t be surprised if the official he was currently speaking with was the same guy and had moved companies. But alas, that was not the case.

Gordon frowned at the man, standing up and making his way over so he was eye level with the hologram. It was lucky he was in front of them as a hologram; if he were truly face to face with them he probably would’ve had a black eye. “Well, can’t you make an exception just this once? There are people in that factory who could die if we can’t access those controls!” The idiot began to open his mouth, and Gordon quickly silenced him. “And before you ask if there’s another way, there isn’t.” He put it bluntly, hoping to get the situation into this guy's thick skull. “Our team has run through every possible solution we can think of in various simulators, and nothing works. They all result in the building collapsing. Or worse.”

Sensing his brother’s increasing frustration, Virgil took over the conversation again. “The master controls are the only way. Please, we don’t have much time left to save your workers.”

“As much as I’d like to help…” Liar. “I’m just doing my job. Which is to uphold our company's code of health and safety to the highest degree.”

“Well, so are we.” Gordon snapped. “Would you seriously risk your employees' lives just because a rescue team wants to access your system to save them?” He practically hissed. “A little hypocritical, don’t you think?” The officer rose an eyebrow, as if genuinely puzzled. Virgil looked at his brother in shock. Gordon ignored them both. “You preach about wanting to protect your team from danger, but you fail to realise that the most dangerous thing you can do is not let us help them. They’ll be waiting for us to come to their rescue, probably scared out of their wits, but help will never come for them. All because you have your head buried in the sand.” He shook his head, and laughed without humour. “Don’t you see? International Rescue is the only thing standing between those men and women down there, and an untimely death. If you don’t let us in, believe me, we’ll find our own way in. It’s your choice…”

An uneasy silence followed. Virgil and Gordon waited a few tense seconds before the official huffed. “...Fine.” He finally relented, seeing the point the aquanaut was making. “I’ll allow it. Just this once. Meet me down at the main control building. I’ll let you in and show you how to operate it.” That was all he said before the hologram winked off, leaving empty space where it once was.

Virgil looked at Gordon in awe, laughing at his success. “How’d you manage to do that?��

His brother just shrugged, still amazed that it had worked. “When you’re in a naval officers company to defend yourself enough times, you pick up a thing or two…” He explained slyly, examining his nails. “Guess I still got it!”

“You sure do little brother!” Virgil chuckled, flying towards the rendezvous point. “Down with overcomplicated safety measures, huh?” Gordon couldn’t help but agree.

#thunderfam #thunderbirds #thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds fanfiction #gordon tracy #virgil tracy #sky writes stuff #thundertober #thundertober 2023

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orowyrm · 1 year

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like the thing that i think a lot of ppl gloss over is that a large majority of the talon aligned heroes have little to no interest in the actual ‘goals’ of the organization (to the point where we still don’t entirely know what talon wants or why they exist, lmfao) so much as it just being a means to an end. like we can all conceptualize that sombra is pretty much just there because it gives her access to more resources she can use towards her own goals, moira is there for research opportunities and funding that she’d never get elsewhere due to the nature of her work, i can only imagine that ramattra’s alliance with talon (and thus null sector’s as a whole) is purely situational because it provides advantages he considers useful, reaper is pretty much just there because they’re against overwatch therefore he can use it as an avenue for his revenge, even doomfist doesn’t really seem to hold as much stock in talon as an organization as he does use his position as a tool to achieve his goals, if it stopped being useful he would likely just walk away.

in opposition to the overwatch aligned heroes who all seem to be coming together solely for the sake of this like, ideal of Overwatch as a concept being this paradigm of good and justice and doing what’s right, and rallying behind their faith in the organization and what it symbolizes… i genuinely don’t think any of the talon operatives really care all that much about talon at all. it’s just a job. like, sure, we’re doing cartoon supervillain shit, but the pay is decent and we’ve got benefits and i can continue to do my own thing on the side, no questions asked. it’s honestly a pretty sweet deal.

all of that to say i really don’t see why people seem so averse to the idea of sigma having that same mindset. like yeah, he’s not exactly thrilled to be using his research and abilities to assist in acts of violent terrorism, but does he have many other options? he says it himself in that interaction with baptiste, talon gives him everything he needs - funding, resources, something to fall back on after being in total isolation for decades and coming out with absolutely nothing. it’s a guaranteed safety net — so long as he’s with talon, there’s absolutely no chance of anyone dragging him off or locking him up again, and so long as he contributes when he’s needed, he’s free to pursue his research to his heart’s content. does he regret it? sure, sometimes. i think they all do. i doubt there’s a single talon-aligned hero who genuinely believes what they’re doing is genuinely morally correct and sound. but ultimately in his mind he didn’t have many options left, so he had to settle for something he knew would at least guarantee his safety and continued freedom. it doesn’t really mean he’s being manipulated or held against his will any moreso than most of the other talon heroes, imho. he’s not proud of it, but hey, it pays the bills.

i feel like he regards it with a similar level of resentment/annoyance as i felt towards my horrible soul sucking corporate retail job of several years - like don’t get me wrong, the company i worked for absolutely sucked and i HATED how they operated, policy was bullshit and so much of it was unnecessary and needlessly counterproductive. but i also really connected with my coworkers in the same situation AND i got to get paid to do stuff i already would have been doing on my own anyway, and ultimately the experience i got and connections i made were really helpful in pursuing what i actually wanted to be doing with my life. it’s like if your shitty day job required you to kill people but they also like, got you hooked up with a place to live and a healthcare provider and all that shit and paid for all of your living expenses no questions asked AND gave you a decent budget to screw around with so long as every now and then you showed them what you were making and maybe used it to kill people more efficiently sometimes. i wouldn’t exactly feel any amount of loyalty to the company paying me but i wouldn’t exactly be in a hurry to quit either

#overwatch #sigma #am i posting instead of going to bed. yeah. whatever. i think about it a lot #siebren de kuiper #fuck it. look at my posts boy

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gxrlcinema · 1 year

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I received this message last night, but as I blocked the anon who sent it, I don't have the original ask. I didn't think that I was going to respond at all, but there are some lingering thoughts about it that I'd like to speak to.

I'm appalled by the assumption that I don't leave feedback on Ao3 or Wattpad. Of course I do. I leave comments on fics on every platform I consume them on. I am also imperfect - I don't have the time or energy to leave an effusive comment on every fic - but I leave a one sentence comment. I leave kudos. I let them know that I enjoyed.

I do consume free content on other sites without engaging with it. The difference is that on Youtube or TikTok, the content I'm consuming is compensated. My viewing of it feeds an algorithm that then promotes it to other users. My viewing of it allows the creators to become members of their respective platforms' creator fund. My viewing of it enables these creators to get sponsorship deals that can then literally pay for things. When I consume free content on other sites without interacting the creator is getting paid. Their labor is being compensated.

It is illegal to monetize fanfiction. To attempt to make money off of it would bring about lawsuits from the corporations that own the characters and universes we write about. It would destroy sites where fanfiction is hosted, as it has in the past. We attempt sometimes to get something in little ways, like a patreon or a ko-fi, but these operate as systems of donation because any other method of payment is illegal. (You can go to the ko-fi link in my bio and see that nobody has donated to it. I'm not asking anyone to.) So you see, my content isn't like other free content you access on the internet. The only way I get anything out of my work is through interaction.

Of course I write for myself. But do not be so naive as to believe that I post it on the internet for my own validation. I could very well write my pieces and keep them to myself, or only share them in a discord server of friends who I know will appreciate it. I post them online to share them with a wider fan community who also love the characters. I post them online to get feedback. Yes, I am deliberately baiting reactions. I am creating art; its purpose is to make people feel things, and I'd like to know if it's effective. I am no more entitled to feedback than you are to an endless stream of free content that you, admittedly, have the option of not engaging with. But to assert that I am somehow being greedy or obtuse speaks to your lack of understanding of how this works. Or perhaps it is indicative of your callous disregard for the art that you so readily consume.

Imagine a painter friend of yours shows you their new work that they are excited about. They present it to you, all excited and hopeful. You stare at the painting impassively. You don't smile, you don't react.

Your painter friend's face falls. "Do you like it?" they ask.

"You showed it to me for free," you reply. "I don't owe you anything."

No, reading my work is not a debt to be paid in forced reaction. I did not say that I was owed feedback, nor did I "demand" it. It is absurd to assume that this was my intention. It is equally absurd to act as though fan creators are benevolent art martyrs who should expect nothing in return for their work but the supposed satisfaction of a job well done. It is absurd to think that readers play no role, that this is not a symbiotic relationship between artist and art consumer.

If you do not want to accept responsibility in this relationship, that is your choice. You are right in that regard; I can not control your behavior. But do not expect me to continue on as though nothing is amiss. Do not act as though I should be grateful for every little scrap I am given and never speak up for myself. And do not tell me that I have no right to my feelings ever, but specifically in regards to the diminishing returns of the labor I am doing.

We are not here to die on the swords of your indifference in perpetuity. Press the fucking reblog button.

#ilana.txt

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