#technically. this is from one of the later books

[grandpuppyalpaca]

I Want To Actually Write Some Fics

So, I'm finally moving to a dorm away from "home" in a few months, and I want to take the opportunity to finally start writing some of the fanfics that have been calibrating in the back of my mind.

Warnings in advance:

I will only be writing fanfic, not original works.

I have never shared or published fics before (Unless you count reading the occasional snippet in Creating Writing Club).

As of right now, I have no beta(s).

Don't know my college schedule/workload yet, so no ideas about how often I could post/update at the moment.

I likely won't be able to post anything until I have access to a computer at the college (presumably in August, sorry about that), because the closest thing I have to an unmonitored/unrestricted device at "home" is my outdated Kindle Fire tablet (where the secondary browser I downloaded to hide reading fics sometimes likes to crash every few minutes).

If you've read past all of that and are still interested in my possible future writings, here are the possible options for what I could actually post:

Azure Fingerprints: Title of a possible series based off of this idea (batman and megamind crossover). > (Time travelers have realized that Bruce Wayne will always, without exception, base his crimefighting persona on the first thing... – @grandpuppyalpaca on Tumblr)

Featuring (so far): a delayed start to "Batman's" career, SuperBat friendship, Bruce's poor social skills, the not-yet-"Batcave" getting turned into a babyproofed nursery, and lots of fluff and crack and FEELINGS. Not sure if other parts of the series would be other longfics in that world, or just little snippets of stuff.

2. Anna Elizabeth Wayne (Actual Title TBD): My take on an Annabeth is Bruce Wayne's daughter fic.

Featuring (so far): Show!Annabeth (Leah Jeffries is phenomenal), Reverse Batkids AU (with a twist or so), an Athena characterization based on Circe by Madeline Miller, GoodDad!Bruce, multiverse stuff (only a little at the moment), Siblings Bonding Over Weird Childhoods, and So Much ANGST. This one is reallllly complicated, so it might be a series just so I can include one of those "explanation of the writer's AU" pages. Not as much of a plot as it is ANGST, small ideas for individual scenes, and general vibes right now.

3. The Adventures Of Lulu And Hatchling: probably the title of first fic (probably backstory stuff) in what would likely be a series. Crossover between ACOTAR universe and PJO/HOO (I am NOT ACTUALLY merging the two worlds). Basic background is that Annabeth's mortal family are the descendants of an illegitimate child from a kept mistress of Tamlin's father, and Annabeth is the first person to have powers from their bloodline. Baby Annabeth gets sent to grow up with Tamlin (Watsonian reasons would be explained in-story), but Lucien unofficially becomes her main caretaker. She spends seven years in the Spring court (pre-Amarantha even coming to Prythian), then is returned home in time for all PJO relevant events to occur. This would NOT be a Complete Re-Write Of PJO Canon.

Featuring (so far): Multiverse stuff, Annabeth w/fae powers, Book!Annabeth description so she can look like Tamlin (Leah Jeffries is still phenomenal, fight me), Lucien's gradually increasing blood pressure, Found Family Fluff, Lucien being a good father/uncle/older brother figure, Tamlin not being a complete alphahole in the beginning, Eventual Tamlin Bashing anyway, Ianthe Bashing (once she joins the story).

Definite intentions for later parts of the story: Powerful!Annabeth High Lady!Annabeth, Consort!Percy (he refuses to become High Lord, especially when he can just vibe and technically hold the official title of Least Politically Important Person At This Meeting), Tamlin's manor getting abandoned and Annabeth employing people to help build a new one that she designs, Inter-Court Meetings between all the courts becoming a Regular Thing (bc I want to put all the little dudes in a jar, shake them up, and study the results under a microscope), Inter-Court politics, gradually undermining the patriarchy, Inter-Court friendships, Beron taking psychic damage from the sheer audacity of---, Everyone Bonding Over Hating Beron, Positive Social Change, and Me Adding My Own Additional Lore To The World Of Prythian.

Optional fun fact! The base story could take multiple paths after TTC, so it would be the most likely fic to eventually make me write one or more AUs of itself, so here's later random details of the story that may or may not be added depending on which timeline I write: Tamlin dies, Tamlin gets locked up in his own house and told that Annabeth is willing to talk to him once he's "being more rational". Beron has a brain aneurysm in the middle of an Inter-Court Meeting and dies, Percy and Annabeth somehow creating a plan to get away with sending Beron off for the Hunters and Amazons to hunt him for sport, Amarantha kills Tamlin and is shortly killed by Annabeth before ACOTAR would have happened, Rhysand and Annabeth become Very Fast Friends and make fun of people together, and Doreen Green (Squirrel Girl) becomes Annabeth's spymaster bc that would just have so much comedic potential, fight me (she's honest about that being her job [if not explaining the details of how she does it] and she's just so open and friendly and polite that it has to be a hoax, right? there's no way she's actually in charge of collecting real intelligence. she has a network of squirrels who pass info to her across the entire continent? oh right, because of the tail, very funny. some of us are actually taking this seriously, Tarquin).

4. Lightning Rod, Grounding Wire: Approximate title for a crossover AU where Agatha Heterodyne (Girl Genius) and Hunter (The Owl House) end up swapping places right before Barry would have gotten Agatha (exact explanations undecided, maybe Belos let the Collector get too bored?) and about the same time Hunter was created (with Hunter being a couple years older than her biologically). Longfic? Series? Who knows, not me(yet).

In the Boiling Isles: Agatha is initially raised by Belos in something a bit similar to the get in loser we're assassinating the emperor - elliptical - The Owl House (Cartoon) [Archive of Our Own] AU, but it's Agatha (Spark, Heterodyne, etc.) so she gets on the wrong side of the empire way quicker. I'm thinking that she wouldn't make it more than a couple years after her breakthrough (w/o Uncle Barry to build her locket) before she starts spouting Extremely Logical Treason in meetings. Mostly, Canon occurs but minus Hunter (I'm going off the theory that Belos had to reuse the same galderstone for each grimwalker, so in this he's permanently down one(1) clone child soldier) and with way more explosions.

Meanwhile, over in Europa: Barry quickly deduces that this Very Small Child isn't Bill and Lucrezia's, is definitely some kind of construct, and is likely part of some kind of plot by Lucrezia (the man's stressed, and 2ish out of 3 ain't bad). Barry's not the kind of spark who'll try to vivisect or euthanize the kid just to stop Lucrezia, so his best bet is hiding him away from the world. Hunter grows up considering himself a construct, in time gets left with the "Clays", and lives a somewhat less stressful life than Agatha would have pre-canon. Everything goes passably well for him until the first events of "The Beetleburg Clank".

Featuring (so far): The rapidly increasing blood pressure of Every Adult in this situation, young Agatha being a feral gremlin, Hunter actually having a childhood, if Eda had a a nickel for every time a semi-feral teenage girl built an interdimensional portal in her back yard she'd have two nickels, SO MANY mistaken identity shenanigans after Agatha and Hunter actually meet, eventual Huntlow and Agatha/Gil/Tarvek OT3, and Eda menacing All The Sparks.

Now that I'm thinking about it, the only one of these that wouldn't need an explanation page is number one.

I do have more ideas on all four of these (as well as other vague ideas still calibrating), but this post is pretty long so I'd need a request from someone before I give more info.

Please comment/reblog/@ me with your thoughts!

For future reference, my Ao3 account is:

Update: Okay guys, I tried to edit one of the words in the title of the poll and it wouldn't let me do that so I just remade the poll but forgot to set the length to one week. If you're still interested in voting, there's another poll pinned on my blog, or you can just comment what you're interested. Even after the polls end, I will be officially taking thoughts/questions/feedback up until August.

#percy jackson #pjo tv show #pjo #percy jackon and the olympians #batman #pjo series #batfam #annabeth chase #bruce wayne #percy jackson and the olympians #girl genius #batman crossover #girl genius crossover #pjo/hoo crossover #the owl house crossover #acotar crossover #the owl house #acotar #lucien vanserra #agatha heterodyne #hunter toh #baby megamind #megamind crossover #megamind fanfiction #megamind au #please give me feedback

[tranakin-skywalker]

It’s a lazy morning, the likes of which they rarely get. But with the end of the war so close, Padmé dares to hope for more mornings like this. Waking up lazy and happy and safe, her husband curled around her side and not off fighting a war he has no say in.

Three years ago it felt like a dream, but today she can practically taste the hundred mornings she’ll have just like this.

Hopefully with less datawork, though.

Padmé scrolls through her senate reports, trying to ignore the way they make anxiety knot up inside her chest. There is a slope the Republic is slipping down, and she fears she won’t know how steep it is or how deep it goes until they finally hit the bottom.

Her husband’s face pressed against the side of her belly is so much more pleasant to focus on. He hums sweet nothings to it, the naked metal of his right hand brushing tender fingers over her nightgown. It’s a lullaby he’s singing, she thinks, but she doesn’t recognize the words. It’s in a language she’s only heard him speak a handful of times, so much softer and sweeter than Huttese could ever sound. She likes his voice when he speaks it.

“What are you doing?” she murmurs, no longer able to focus on her reports.

The hand against her stomach pauses. "I want them to know I'm here, that I love them.” She can feel Anakin swallow, his throat bobbing against her side. Softly, he adds, “I want to make sure they know my voice… just in case.”

It breaks her heart, hearing him say things like that. Implying in any shape or form that he might die out there fighting. That he might ever die at all. She cannot imagine her life without him.

The hand not holding her datapad finds his scalp. Padmé runs her fingers through his hair, savoring the feeling of him there, beside her. Where he is supposed to be.

“They’ll know you,” she promises. 

Anakin hums, the sound reverberating against her stomach. She feels the baby inside her shift. His thumb starts rubbing soothing circles over it again, and the movement inside her settles.

“I never thought I’d get to be a father,” he whispers, soft enough she almost misses it. “Even as a kid, back on Tatooine, I just... it wasn't something I thought I'd be able to have.” The metal fingers press in a little firmer. Not painful, never painful. Just holding her in that desperate, adoring way of his. Like he can’t quite believe that she’s real. Like she’ll disappear between his fingers if he doesn’t hold in. 

“I wanted to, though,” he continues. “Be a dad.” The next breath he takes shudders out of his chest. “I thought the closest thing I would get was having a padawan. And even that... I didn't think the council would let me... let me take on a padawan..."

Hurt lingers in the silence. Padmé knows he’d been so terrified when he was first given Ahsoka. Scared out of his mind that he was going to ruin her, somehow. She thinks there’s a part of him that thinks he did. That blames himself for what happened. 

"We need to tell Ahsoka when she gets back…” he finally says, fingers curling. “She needs to know she's going to be a big sister."

@padme-amidalanaberrie asked for some soft Anidala so here you go

#myart #my fics #anidala #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #anakin/padme #fic snippet #Star-Birth #technically. this is from one of the later books #fic: singularity

[tacit-semantics]

Alright!!!!!!!!!! Finished my biggest filet lace piece yet :) a big mess on the technical level because I realized at the very very end what it was that was giving me so much trouble (was failing to account for one of the threads when working around the holes (which were giving me so much trouble on the bigger part that I DID indeed just give up on but we will get em next time)) but let’s ignore that because I DID IT LOOK YALL. Thumbs up picture partially for scale but also because I DID IT

#id in alt #YEAHHHH #amateur lacemaking baby!!!!! fly high!!!!!! #look for teaching myself entirely from books and Vibes I’ll take it sksjjs it’s RECOGNIZABLE baby we are recognizable. did it!!!!!!! did it #tension on the net is alllll screwy but I’ll figure out how to fix that in later projects :) think it’s just gonna be smaller projects for #bit though like looooord we did not have the technical basis for this one. we did not. #filet lace #lacis #lacemaking #embroidery #fiber arts #netting #net making #netted lace #my work #:))))))))))) #trypophobia

[whoslaurapalmer]

laura (1944) / laura by vera caspary -- waldo and laura meet

bonus deleted scene from the movie script, with a third interpretation of their meeting --

#laura #1944 laura #vera caspary #laura hunt #waldo lydecker #gene tierney #clifton webb #lulu talks about 44 laura #lulu makes gifs #i WANTED another gif from the movie but tumblr refuses to let me move all the images around if i do more than 5 in the top of the post so!! #damn. gonna have to reshape screentogif just a hair to get that line at the bottom out. didn't see it until now #'IT'S FINE IT'S FINE I'M NOT REDOING IT!' -- lulu vandelay while making gifs bc she will NOT re-save and re-optimize YET AGAIN #oh god though i missed an s in the third gif but who's looking. who's counting. i will NOT do it again #me: okay i'll just whip this up before i go to bed. #me an hour later: .............................well. technically. that was with relative speed. #(then i had to redo one of the book pages bc i misspelled a word. sigh.) (i mean. that's a quick fix. a gif? NOT QUICK. not for a caption) #if you are thinking 'wtf? fawn-like????' i must inform you that that is in fact NOT the worst or the most uncomfortable thing #waldo says about laura in the book. #also it's been five years since they met in the movie vs seven years in the book #i do like the second and third gifs right next to each other -- their swapped positions....

[iamnmbr3]

Ain't Thorki is a family ship between Thor Odinson and Loki....

Plz tell me you don't actually ship family

omg they're WHAT?! wow. I had no idea. thank u for letting me know. i thought the 9239432843824923890 times they called each other "brother" in canon referred to them being brothers in arms or something. i thought they were just really good friends who lived together in the same palace and both referred to the same people as father and mother. omg. can't believe I totally missed that. Thanks for sending this totally helpful and good faith ask to point it out.

I will definitely stop reading thorki fics immediately and will never post any thorki content again. Instead I'll just consume popular mainstream content like Game of Thrones. Which is totally fine. Bc it's made by HBO and thus allowed to portray problematic content without needing to be censored.

#this is actually so funny. #i really don't understand what ppl expect when they send these guilt trippy anti thorki posts. #also while i would class thorki as an incest ship technically it depends on the AU bc there are also non related AUs so kinda a weird one #to pick to crusade against #but more to the point. why can George RR Martin depict incest in his books and why can the HBO show diverge from #canon in later seasons to actually depict the main incestuous relationship between Jaime and Cersei in a much more positive light than in #the books and also not have it get broken off like in the books. and why can lots of other books and shows in the mainstream #depict all sorts of problematic or violent content and it's fine #but people think in fandom circles stories have to be censored and only depict positive and pure things #and why is it usually with ships. nobody says stories shouldn't depict murder or violence but those things are bad irl too... #asks #thorki mention #thorki

[broke-on-books]

😍😍😍

#accidentally slept through my only class today #which whoops sorry. (my 9am english) #which kind of killed step 1 of a plan of mine but thats okay #anyways THEN i had to go downtown to pick up this award bc i forgot to show up to the ceremony like a dumb dumb #but the building was like a 25 minute walk and it was COLD (punishment for my dumb dumbness tbh) but anyways i got there early so i walked #around the block and then went inside and picked up my medal #and i was already far downtown so then i popped my head in a couple of stores as i slowly walked back #got a few things from target. new hair clip nail polish m&ms pens and then a mango. very excited to eat that either later today or tomorrow #then i popped in the calligraphy store and then the comic shop and looked around. saw some white ribbon in the calligraphy store which ive #been looking for but didnt get it because it was a bit wide and kind of expensive and i want a lot for my project idea #(want to write out some of my favorite poems on them in sharpie and then use it to accessorize) #and then i went to the comic shop and peeked around. saw a nubia issue and a few gl 2021s in the discount bin but i didnt get them bc #they were all middle issues and i havent read those books yet although i do want to someday bc my guys were in them. one of the gl 21s even #had simon on the cover so i was very !!!!!!!! thats my guy!!!!! #didnt buy anything there but i did ask the guy to make sure to order a copy of the spirit world tpb so ill stop by to get that in a few wks #and then i went to the bookstore cafe and got a cold brew and did a but of English there. they have tables in the stacks its nice. the one i #grabbed was just surrounded by old paperbacks of sci fi and thrillers lol. didnt see anything id read but recognized a few author names like #card (no enders game though) and the pern lady (idk her name i havent read it). anyways did half a blog post thats technically late (ill #backdate though dw) and then packed up and i grabbed a gyro from the halal cart on that block which i just finished back at my dorm <3333 #anyways good times. now im gonna try and spam some work and go to freaking trivia team for the first time in a month later. oops #blah #oh and i think the halal cart guy may have given me a free soda. unsure abt that though bc its possible it came with and i was just being #silly again. so anyways i had a ginger ale too

[dhampirwomen]

if the vampire academy show gets multiple seasons, i really hope it changes the direction of the rose/adrian relationship bc i can’t think of any good reason to write a show where a black woman is villainized and used as a plot device for her white oppressor's manpain. regardless of your personal feelings on rose or adrian, the concept of a narrative where the black heroine is put in a bad position at the end of her own story to set up more angst for her white ex-boyfriend is a bad choice, for both meta and story reasons.

wrt meta reasons why keeping things the same as spirit bound/last sacrifice is a bad idea, following the books faithfully would prob open the door to a lot of fandom antiblackness and sexism against rose as a character and sisi as an actor. rose is already an overhated character in book fandom and reviews bc of the rosdrian subplot, with many of the same people who don’t see an issue with adrian’s sexually harassing or objectifying rose calling rose an abuser, manipulator, gold-digger and a mix of sexist and racist slurs for not returning adrian’s feelings and/or for not being loyal to him. ofc this isn’t behavior that’s unique to adrian fandom bc all fandoms have sexism/racism problems, and i’m def not saying all adrian fans are anti-rose or that anyone is bad in any way for liking adrian. imo you can love/appreciate adrian as a character and still see that the va show is better off avoiding the books’ take on the rosdrian subplot. black characters- esp black women- always get more flack from fandom and their choices are judged more harshly, rose/sisi is already getting a lot of hate from racists who hate the show reality that rose hathaway is a black woman, and there’s no need to stoke the misogynoir flames even more by making rose “at fault” for how her dynamic with adrian plays out.

the show could write any number of new subplots where (assuming the show wants to keep the canon endgames intact):

(if adrian’s behavior is changed) adrian has unrequited feelings for rose for a while but they don’t actually date, he takes no for an answer after some flirting and his romance shifts to adrian/sydney once sydney takes a more active role in the plot

(if adrian’s behavior is changed) rosdrian date, but they do it in a casual, no-strings-attached way where they break up at some point before they get together with their endgames. there are no hard feelings between them

(if adrian’s behavior stays the same) rosdrian’s trajectory stays mostly the same but the breakup is abt rose getting some catharsis calling adrian out for objectifying her, which could kickstart adrian’s redemption arc. this option would prob be closest to canon, but rose gets a mini-arc that culminates in her standing up for herself against a royal who disrespected her and adrian realizes he needs to start acting better with women who are lower than him on the moroi social hierarchy, which would pay forward with adrian/sydney

this is just me floating a few options and i’d love to hear other ppl’s suggestions wrt how this subplot could go if y’all have any. but the most important point is: no matter what happens or how adrian is written, rose shouldn’t cheat on adrian and shouldn’t be written like the breakup is her fault, like she’s responsible for adrian’s feelings, or like she "owes” adrian a chance at any point. even if adrian is written like a legit nice guy and doesn’t coerce rose in the show, the main issue with the cheating plot is richelle m using rose as an “ex who broke his heart” plot device to give adrian more tragic backstory in a spinoff, without giving rose any of the detailed catharsis, recovery and healing she wrote for adrian in that new series. the va show, like the main series, is rose’s story, and it needs to stay rose’s story without sacrificing her character development or marring her hea so it can contrive more angst for a white supporting character.

#vampire academy #rose hathaway #tweeted something similar to this but posting slightly expanded thoughts here bc twitter is horrible for archiving and referencing things #anti adrian ivashkov #for posterity bc stuff like rose calling adrian out for harassing her is canon but ik ppl don't like to see that stuff #i don't think it's technically an anti adrian take to suggest the sexist narrative bias from the books should change #or to talk abt his canon actions even if they happen to be the shadier ones #but yk better safe than sorry #last sacrifice spoilers #vampire academy spoilers #tw fandom racism mention #tw fandom sexism mention #i might type another post later wrt the story reasons for why this ending was a bad idea #and did a disservice to both rose and adrian's arcs #but that's a post for another time

[nyx-b-log]

continuing with more non-fiction, i've moved on to am i trans enough? by alo johnston, a trans therapist.

thanks to netgalley for the arc!

even just from the introduction, this feels like it's going to be a thoughtful and fundamentally kind book. hopefully that continues!

#books #bookblr #reading #lgbtq+ #am i trans enough? #alo johnston #netgalley #i knew i had to pick this one from the moment i saw it #it is technically a self-help book #and lord knows that comes with some baggage #but we'll see how it goes! #oh also review of address book coming later today #not queued

[poptartmochi]

submitted my application to be a substitute teacher!!!! let's go!!!!!

#fingers crossed! :D #i also cleared out the garage so we have room to work on my car this weekend! i have to figure out how to pop her hood.. it does not #Simply Open </3 but there's probably a button inside of her.. i just have to sit down and figure her out #besides that.. i was able to cross a lot of lingering things off my to do list today so! we ride at dawn hehe #have to turn in a fingerprinting release form to the local hs tomorrow for volunteering stuff.. i need to ask if that same form/later #fingerprinting stuff can be carried over to my employment account because i would rather not pay for the county to have my fingerprintst #*twice :3 but. we shall see! #i also decided i'm going to wait until february to schedule a plasma appt because. i'm pretty certain i'm recovered from covid + my recent #bouts of unwellness have been from being around + ingesting allergens without medicine and also eating agitating and spicy foods BUT... #to be 100% safe i'm going to give it more time. the place i'm going to donate at doesn't give any time window #but i saw one place requested you wait 7 days from diagnosis which i'm way past + another requested you be 14 days symptom-free which i #technically have not been. saur! sometime in february will hopefully be optimal #BUT i'm not going to book anything because i rescheduled my original donation appt a million times + i'm afraid they're secretly mad at me #lol!! i know it's fine but still i worry u knaur #sriracha.txt

[iamthedukeofurl]

I feel like the Hbomberguy plagiarism video has a lot of really good lessons about building an argument. Like, the thesis of the video isn't just "Plagiarism is rife on Youtube", although that point was certainly well made, it was specifically about James Somerton, who isn't mentioned until about halfway through the video. Before then, Hbomb goes through several creators who are already widely discredited as plagiarists, and in each section he introduces concepts that are later incorporated into the final takedown of Somerton, but each section also stands on it's own. Like, he starts with Filip, the game reviewer, which he uses to introduce the format of how he will discuss and expose plagiarists. Specifically, the graphic of displaying the source material while the plagiarist's voice plays, and marking up said source material every time the plagiarist changes some wording slightly. This is the method that Hbomb uses across the entire video. With Illuminaughtii, Hbomb introduces a few major concepts 1) The idea of Insufficient citation. Illuminaughtii "Cites" her sources by putting a plaintext pastebin link in her video descriptions with no indication of how each source was used. Technically, her source is CITED, but not in any relevant or useful way. She has a big list of stuff she read, and a random youtube link in there happens to be the source that she stole 90% of the video from. 2) He introduces the profit motive behind this approach. Putting out a lot of content very quickly is how one builds an audience, and therefore an income, out of making stuff on youtube. Plagiarism of this sort is a way to produce content very quickly and build a following. The Internet Historian section introduces two new concepts:

1) The behavior of an exposed plagiarist, taking down and reuploading videos with minor changes, awkwardly trying to insert credit without admitting guilt. 2) That the plagiarists are stealing not just research, but STYLE. Previous sections go over how the plagiarists are reusing the same words, but this section oozes over how much of the final product's quality was the result of how well the source material was written. TIH didn't just crib the notes from the Mentalfloss article, he created a video heavily dependent on the original author's skill as a writer. When TIH tried his own hand at presenting the same set of facts, it came out much worse. So that when the time comes for the Somerton takedown, Hbomb has already laid the groundwork to bring these concepts back. Somerton takes down and reuploads videos when he's caught, he declares this his video is "based on" work by somebody else without providing proper citation. He's not just stealing research done by somebody else, he's taking their insights and talent as a writer and regurgitating it as his own, and he's doing so to churn out a vast wall of content that he can financially benefit from, and he doesn't need to tell you why this is important, because he's already done so. He already convinced you that Illuminaughtii hiding a line in a pastebin didn't excuse her plagiarism, so you don't need to be told why Somerton saying his video is "Based On" somebody else's book doesn't excuse it.

#hbomberguy #rhetoric

[batshit-auspol]

I really enjoy this blog so much. Gimme your most favorite batshit auspolitics moment from the 2000s to 2010s. please. i am morbidly curious.

2007: The APEC conference, where all global leaders converge in one city to pretend like they're doing things, is to be held in Sydney, Australia. With the war on terror in full swing, security is at a maximum, and large swathes of the city are placed behind a giant multi-layered steel fence to keep the world leaders far away from the unwashed masses.

Attempting to ward off trouble, organisers of the conference hold a meeting with notorious political comedy prank group "The Chaser", to tell them they are, under absolutely no circumstances getting anywhere near any world leaders, and to not even bother trying.

"The whole perimeter is secure," security forces told them sternly. "The only thing getting through that fence is a motorcade."

24 hours later The Chaser were on their way towards the fence with a motorcade.

Now a few things should have tipped off security guards that this fake Canadian motorcade was not a the real deal. Number one: Canada wasn't at the conference, number two: no country has actually had security running alongside cars since the 60s, and three: most security guards don't carry video cameras with them or passes that read "this is fake".

Nevertheless the ruse was more successful than anyone had anticipated, and The Chaser team were happily waved into the most secure area on planet earth by police, who informed the incognito comedians that "the road is yours."

Reaching the outside of George Bush's hotel, the pranksters now began to worry that they were never going to be stopped by police and decided to get out of the car and walk back to the fence.

While dressed as Osama Bin Laden.

At this point all hell broke loose. Snipers were locked on. Confused police scrambled, and immediately arrested the whole group, only breathing a sigh of relief when they saw the words "Chaser" on the fake security passes.

Bizarrely the police opted to give a full escort to the guy dressed in a suit, and allowed the other man cosplaying as the world's most wanted terrorist to just casually walk out on his own before booking him at the perimeter.

The Chaser team said that while being put in a cell overnight wasn't fun, they were less stressed after police started visiting to ask for photos and signatures.

The prank group were later hauled before the courts and threatened with a massive fine, but the case was eventually dropped after they successfully argued that it's not technically breaking-in if the cops happily wave you into a high security zone.

Needless to say they have changed that law for future APECs.

Making light of the situation, the prank group also returned to the site a few days later dressed as carboard cars, to see just how flimsy a disguise could get past police.

This time at least, they were not let in.

#australia #auspol #history #fun facts

[nyxire]

finished a book 😊

#it was good except for the romance which is going to get on my nerves later on in the trilogy #but i will solider on. #book is called a darker shade of magic if u r interested #holland my beloved #i just know that bitch is gonna come back #changing subject. but im sorry but im just so done with romance #sowry. but even putting that aside kell & lila romance honestly like 4-5/10 for me :/ #i would just prefer if they were like besties or something. try out the romance thing. doesn't work and now they r just 2 bffs #its on me honestly. i picked up the book. read the back. sighed and went 'well the 2 mc's are obviously going to get together. whatever' #ik ik. they aren't technically together but there's 2 more books and somehow i don't see it going any other way. #also. lila is defintely going to end up an antari. which. alright i guess. #i will be happy if she doesn't. don't get me wrong i absolutly love her but she's plenty badass as it is. making her this extremely rare #one of a kind magical person seems like overkill. so crossing my fingers but i at least hv confidence that even if that does happen #it'll at least be well written #don't get me wrong im not saying no magic for lila. and it's fine if she's rlly skilled/very powerful. just. antari rlly seems like overkil #honestly even with regular magic. she shouldn't be to strong with it. part of her whole thing is that she's from grey london. & she was get #ting along well even without magic. so she has no real need to be incredibly strong with it #Okay now that i've gotten all my gripes out of the way (so sorry to drag down. i really did love the book & characters) #HER (lila) #the only character ever #same goes for Kell. but lila is funnier #kell is funny both in humor and bc he is an overdramatic bitch. #lila is just funny. #and she is smart!! and so very awesome!! #also i briefly jumped onto the fandom (i hv stayed spoiler free) and a lot of ppl seemed to think kell was sorta stoic & serious which is #idk i find that interesting cus thats kinda not at all what i got from him #around lila he usually serious (lila's also very troublemaking. in his defense) but from his POV & just other random tidbits #he seems rather chill (but i wouldn't say laid back) he's got a sense of humor and he's a bit mischievous. wouldn't clal him an instigator #but he seems to enjoy messing with ppl from time to time as well. next to rhy he get more serious but not terribly so. he just seems more #serious bc rhy is more grandiose.

[cherrieflavouredheadcanons]

Hi can we please have fluff w Aventurine where reader and him reunite after 2. 1 and just fucking elope start a new life etc? Please I need it.

God yes. This is what we all need after 2.1. I'm aware he is in a coma-like state technically now but for the sake of fluff and this headcanon he is awake from that coma and is now reuniting with you. CW: Spoilers for 2.1 and Aventurines actual name, starts angsty but then turns fluffy, Gn reader, pre established relationship hurt/comfort

I am still accepting requests (especially for aven) btw so if you wanna see something send it in!

Back in your arms

You had lost track of how long it was since Aventurine left for his mission in Penacony. Has it been 2 months? No, probably more. It had been months since you last had been able to make contact with him. Your messages no longer went through, unable to be sent.

Looking at your textlog and scrolling up, you came across the last message he had sent you. It had come in while you were asleep, and it simply read “I love you”.

Waking up to that message would have been a sweet message for most people, but for you it had made you immensely worried.

 Aventurine was never someone who professed his love openly, so such messages were quite rare. Receiving such a message, especially unprompted, made you send him a barricade of texts, none of which went through and even now months later none were able to be sent.

If you were honest you were starting to lose hope of ever seeing him again, who knows what happened in Penacony after all? He could be…dead for all you knew, you had no way to verify whether that was true or not after all. 

You tried continuing your life on as you would normally, what else could you do? It was hard though, everyday you missed him more and more. Sometimes you imagined his face in a crowd somewhere but whenever you would take a closer look he would vanish.

Sighing you closed your phone and looked around your apartment, it felt so liveless ever since Aventurine was gone. Tears were falling down your eyes as you wondered how much longer you had to live with the uncertainty of where he was and if he was even alive.

Exhaustion was taking over as you began falling asleep. A common occurrence nowadays, since at night you were restless, unable to fall asleep as you worried. Just as you were beginning to fully doze off, you heard the door to your apartment open, immediately waking up.

No one but you and Aventurine had the key, and with him being absent panic coursed through you thinking someone was breaking and entering. You grabbed the nearest heavy thing to defend yourself with.

“For fucks sake…” You muttered as you made your way to where the noises were coming from. Cursing every entity out there for piling even more shit onto you as if your significant other being possibly dead wasn’t enough.

Readying your weapon (probably a heavy book) you stepped foot into the room where the noise was coming from ready to attack and hit the intruder. But once you saw who it was that was in your appartment, you dropped your makeshift weapon, a sob escaping your mouth.

Before you stood Aventurine, alive and breathing. You rubbed your eyes, making sure that this wasn’t your mind playing a cruel trick on you again. Aventurine watched you with a smirk on his, albeit very exhausted looking, face and his eyes held a new found softness you had never seen before.

You fell into his arms immediately, holding him tightly against your body, feeling his warmth. Desperately you grabbed at his clothes as you held on to him, scared this was all just a dream and you would wake up all alone once again. Tears were falling from your eyes, unable to hold them back, the relief washing over you making you let out all of your emotions.

“Wow you missed me that much?” He asked, in his usual teasing tone. Though there was something in his voice that usually wasn’t there. Desperation and a bit of fear. Was he afraid you wouldn’t have missed him? Or was there a deeper reason for it?

Moving away from the hug you grabbed his face in your hands, the tears still falling from your eyes as you took a good look at him. His face had fallen in, and he seemed exhausted. But there was also something in his eyes, his beautiful eyes you were so sure you would never see again, that you couldn’t recognize, having never seen it on him before.

Before you spoke your first words to him, you pulled his face closer and gently kissed him. The feeling of his lips on yours felt like you were floating in heaven. They may have been more chapped than usual, but fuck was it nice to feel him again.  Breaking the kiss you finally were able to muster up your first words to him.

“Fuck…I was so worried about you…I…When my messages stopped being able to sent I was…so sure you…Please…never worry me like that again Aventurine…”

You leaned your forehead against his, your words jumbled together from the adrenaline coursing through you.

He took in a deep breath, and held it for a moment before letting it out. A gesture you saw in many people before they needed to say something important and heavy, but one you never saw in your lover.

“...Kakavasha…” His voice seemed unsure and meek as he spoke. 

You, of course, had no idea what he was saying, so you looked into his eyes confused.

“Wha-”

“Kakavasha…it is…my given name. The one my mother gave me” He inhaled deeply before he continued.

“It is a long story but the short version is…I am no longer affiliated with the IPC, they probably think I died or something. So I no longer go by Aventurine, and…with how close we are and how much you mean to me. I felt like it was appropriate for you to know my true name...”

His eyes refused to look at you, flickering about unsurely as he spoke. Though he tried to sound confident, his voice wavered, scared that you would not accept him for who he truly was and reject his true self.

You looked at him gently and with all the love you had for him, gently pulling him close again and kissing his nose.

“Well then…It is nice to meet you Kakavasha…” You smiled brightly at him, showing him you accepted him as he was.

He felt relief course through his body and could not help himself but pull you into a passionate kiss. He kissed you like you were the oxygen he needed to stay alive. As if he would die without you.

Breaking the kiss he whispered “Marry me.” It wasn’t a question but a request. One that you were too stunned to answer to, looking at him with wide eyes.

“I mean it. Let’s get married, run away from everything and start a new life just you and me.”

His eyes were pleading with you to agree. He knew that he wanted to start over, but he knew he needed you with him.

“...yes!!” You once again fell into his arms and kissed him. The two of you holding each other so closely it was as if you were one.

Kakavasha knew that he would need to tell you everything that happened in Penacony at one point, even the part where he tried to end his life. But he knew that if he explained everything to you, you would still stay by his side and be with him. 

You were his family after all.

#honkai star rail #honkai star rail x reader #hsr #hsr x reader #honkai star rail spoilers #hsr spoilers #aventurine #hsr aventurine #aventurine x reader #hsr aventurine x reader #honkai aventurine #kakavasha #aventurine fluff #honkai star rail imagines #hsr imagines #aventurine honkai star rail #aventurine x you #hsr x you #hsr 2.1

[gardenvarietydemon]

I've just realized that Aziraphale is A) brilliant and B) the very best husband.

I knew that but I just realized a thing that he did that I didn't catch before.

He says they both get plenty of use out of the bookshop because obviously Crowley has been staying there a good bit, probably because it's one of the only places that hell can't grab him from.

Hell can even grab him from his car.

When Aziraphale goes to Edinburgh he insist on taking the Bentley even though the train would be faster. He doesn't just ask to borrow it he insist it is 'our car.' He doesn't just say that it's their shared car, he treats the car like it belongs to him, he changes the color he changes the way it sounds. He makes sure the Bentley is completely attached to him to the point that it follows him and listens to his commands.

That's his car now. We even see that shax has to get permission to enter the car. Even when Aziraphale leaves for heaven the car is still playing his choice of music. And if the car is his in the same way that the book shop is his, he made sure that no one could just grab Crowley from the bentley and drag him to hell again. This is especially important if the bookshop isn't technically Aziraphale's anymore because Crowley would still have a safe space to stay.

Also the fact that they're able to use the Bentley as a walkie-talkie kind of makes me wonder if they're going to be able to use it to communicate later on. They're not talking but they're sending each other messages by what's playing on the radio. They're not talking but Aziraphale knows exactly where Crowley's going. Hopefully to Edinburgh to get that suitcase, Aziraphale probably left in the grave yard. Then hinted to Crowley was a clue.

He is so clever and I love him.

#good omens #ineffable husbands #aziraphale x crowley #good omens shitpost #ineffable spouses

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How Google’s trial secrecy lets it control the coverage

I'm coming to Minneapolis! Oct 15: Presenting The Internet Con at Moon Palace Books. Oct 16: Keynoting the 26th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing.

"Corporate crime" is practically an oxymoron in America. While it's true that the single most consequential and profligate theft in America is wage theft, its mechanisms are so obscure and, well, dull that it's easy to sell us on the false impression that the real problem is shoplifting:

https://newrepublic.com/post/175343/wage-theft-versus-shoplifting-crime

Corporate crime is often hidden behind Dana Clare's Shield Of Boringness, cloaked in euphemisms like "risk and compliance" or that old favorite, "white collar crime":

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/07/solar-panel-for-a-sex-machine/#a-single-proposition

And corporate crime has a kind of performative complexity. The crimes come to us wreathed in specialized jargon and technical terminology that make them hard to discern. Which is wild, because corporate crimes occur on a scale that other crimes – even those committed by organized crime – can't hope to match:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/12/no-criminals-no-crimes/#get-out-of-jail-free-card

But anything that can't go on forever eventually stops. After decades of official tolerance (and even encouragement), corporate criminals are finally in the crosshairs of federal enforcers. Take National Labor Relations Board general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo's ruling in Cemex: when a company takes an illegal action to affect the outcome of a union election, the consequence is now automatic recognition of the union:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/06/goons-ginks-and-company-finks/#if-blood-be-the-price-of-your-cursed-wealth

That's a huge deal. Before, a boss could fire union organizers and intimidate workers, scuttle the union election, and then, months or years later, pay a fine and some back-wages…and the union would be smashed.

The scale of corporate crime is directly proportional to the scale of corporations themselves. Big companies aren't (necessarily) led by worse people, but even small sins committed by the very largest companies can affect millions of lives.

That's why antitrust is so key to fighting corporate crime. To make corporate crimes less harmful, we must keep companies from attaining harmful scale. Big companies aren't just too big to fail and too big to jail – they're also too big for peaceful coexistence with a society of laws.

The revival of antitrust enforcement is such a breath of fresh air, but it's also fighting headwinds. For one thing, there's 40 years of bad precedent from the nightmare years of pro-monopoly Reaganomics to overturn:

https://pluralistic.net/ApexPredator

It's not just precedents in the outcomes of trials, either. Trial procedure has also been remade to favor corporations, with judges helping companies stack the deck in their own favor. The biggest factor here is secrecy: blocking recording devices from courts, refusing to livestream the proceedings, allowing accused corporate criminals to clear the courtroom when their executives take the stand, and redacting or suppressing the exhibits:

https://prospect.org/power/2023-09-27-redacted-case-against-amazon/

When a corporation can hide evidence and testimony from the public and the press, it gains broad latitude to dispute critics, including government enforcers, based on evidence that no one is allowed to see, or, in many cases, even describe. Take Project Nessie, the program that the FTC claims Amazon used to compel third-party sellers to hike prices across many categories of goods:

https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/amazon-used-secret-project-nessie-algorithm-to-raise-prices-6c593706

Amazon told the press that the FTC has "grossly mischaracterize[d]" Project Nessie. The DoJ disagrees, but it can't say why, because the Project Nessie files it based its accusations on have been redacted, at Amazon's insistence. Rather than rebutting Amazon's claim, FTC spokesman Douglas Farrar could only say "We once again call on Amazon to move swiftly to remove the redactions and allow the American public to see the full scope of what we allege are their illegal monopolistic practices."

It's quite a devastating gambit: when critics and prosecutors make specific allegations about corporate crimes, the corporation gets to tell journalists, "No, that's wrong, but you're not allowed to see the reason we say it's wrong."

It's a way to work the refs, to get journalists – or their editors – to wreathe bold claims in endless hedging language, or to avoid reporting on the most shocking allegations altogether. This, in turn, keeps corporate trials out of the public eye, which reassures judges that they can defer to further corporate demands for opacity without facing an outcry.

That's a tactic that serves Google well. When the company was dragged into court by the DoJ Antitrust Division, it demanded – and received – a veil of secrecy that is especially ironic given the company's promise "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful":

https://usvgoogle.org/trial-update-9-22

While this veil has parted somewhat, it is still intact enough to allow the company to work the refs and kill disfavorable reporting from the trial. Last week, Megan Gray – ex-FTC, ex-DuckDuckGo – published an editorial in Wired reporting on her impression of an explosive moment in the Google trial:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics

According to Gray, Google had run a program to mess with the "semantic matching" on queries, silently appending terms to users' searches that caused them to return more ads – and worse results. This generated more revenue for Google, at the expense of advertisers who got billed to serve ads that didn't even match user queries.

Google forcefully disputed this claim:

https://twitter.com/searchliaison/status/1709726778170786297

They contacted Gray's editors at Wired, but declined to release all the exhibits and testimony that Gray used to form her conclusions about Google's conduct; instead, they provided a subset of the relevant materials, which cast doubt on Gray's accusations.

Wired removed Gray's piece, with an unsigned notice that "WIRED editorial leadership has determined that the story does not meet our editorial standards. It has been removed":

https://www.wired.com/story/google-antitrust-lawsuit-search-results/

But Gray stands by her piece. She admits that she might have gotten some of the fine details wrong, but that these were not material to the overall point of her story, that Google manipulated search queries to serve more ads at the expense of the quality of the results:

https://twitter.com/megangrA/status/1711035354134794529

She says that the piece could and should have been amended to reflect these fine-grained corrections, but that in the absence of a full record of the testimony and exhibits, it was impossible for her to prove to her editors that her piece was substantively correct.

I reviewed the limited evidence that Google permitted to be released and I find her defense compelling. Perhaps you don't. But the only way we can factually resolve this dispute is for Google to release the materials that they claim will exonerate them. And they won't, though this is fully within their power.

I've seen this playbook before. During the early months of the pandemic, a billionaire who owned a notorious cyberwarfare company used UK libel threats to erase this fact from the internet – including my own reporting – on the grounds that the underlying research made small, non-material errors in characterizing a hellishly complex financial Rube Goldberg machine that was, in my opinion, deliberately designed to confuse investigators.

Like the corporate crimes revealed in the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers, the gambit is complicated, but it's not sophisticated:

Make everything as complicated as possible;

Make everything as secret as possible;

Dismiss any accusations by claiming errors in the account of the deliberately complex arrangements, which can't be rectified because the relevant materials are a secret.

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/2023/10/09/working-the-refs/#but-id-have-to-kill-you

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

Image: Jason Rosenberg (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/underpants/12069086054/

CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

--

Japanexperterna.se (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/japanexperterna/15251188384/

CC BY-SA 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

#pluralistic #secrecy #opacity #google #antitrust #trustbusting #wired #working the refs #megan grey #semantic matching

[rboooks]

DC x DP: The Adoptive Son

Danny Fenton gets lost in the Infinite Releams and without the Infinite Map, he has no hope finding his way home.

After wandering for weeks, he quickly realizes his human side is dying from lack of food and stress. With a heavy heart, he crashes lands in a new world, desperate for rest.

A new world that was seemed to behind in terms of technology. But he's not afraid of helping the world catch up if it means finding a way home.

He crashed in the middle of nowhere forest and after three days of walking by foot- too worn out to fly- he comes across Gotham.

Taking a page out of Vlad's book- as much as it makes him feel sick- he possesses people to get himself set up in the new world. He needs to find somewhere with enough money that he can build a S.O.S for his friends to find him.

And he needs resources to survive.

He finds a wealthy family who is so invested in breaking each other apart they didn't notice their sudden ease in wanting to adopt Danny.

Seemingly overnight, the Crowne family went from slowly collapsing to once more being at the top due to their adopted son Danny Crowne's genius mind. Despite his young age, his adoptive father allowed him to turn the family business from fashion design to medical and technical advances.

At age fourteen he sat within the board meetings slowly but surely taking over and raising the company's stocks and power.

They developed the first heart pumps, made leaps and bounds in cancer treatment, and created software and computer programs that and their prosthetics were the most advanced in the world.

There were rumors that the head design for all engineering projects- including the prosthetics- were all done by Danny Crowne. They were never confirmed.

Even business deals done by the Crownes were suspiciously so far in their favor many believed they were making deals with the multiple families of Gotham's underbelly.

That was also never proven.

Despite all the whispers about him, Danny Crowne was considered one of the brightest minds in Gotham. Everyone who spoke to him claimed he was a soft-spoken gentleman and was even compared to royalty from his regal composition.

Personally, Bruce has always had a bad feeling about Danny Crowne. He knows the boy is off in some way, all his Instincts scream danger when he's around.

At first, he was ecstatic to hear the Crownes had also adopted an orphan from a poor background. It had been a few years after he had gotten his ward, Dick. Despite it being five years since he first accepted Dick into his home, his ward had not made any friends besides Barbara Gordon. None of the elite children gave Dick the time of day pass making passive aggressive comments about him.

Then the news of Danny Crowne broke, and everyone knew he had practically been picked off the streets after the CPS had forced him into the juvenile hall as the only place that had space for him.

Just like Dick.

He had hoped that a similar past would help the two boys bond. He had tried pushing Dick into speaking to Danny, and had gone out of his way to personally invite the young man to a party he threw for all of Dicks classmates.

The first thing Danny Crowne did upon arriving at his house was step away from the crowd and study Bruce's home wiring. Dick later told him Danny made him feel strange, like the other boy would be one the loons they stopped during the night.

Bruce, stop pushing for their friendship.

Time moved on, but Crownes only grew in power, and by the time he took in Jason, Danny Crowne inherited his family assets after his adoptive parents mysterious deaths.

They began to look into Danny after Nightwing had discovered a trail of dangerous experiments from shell companies that all led back to Crowne Co. Jason also mentioned that a lot of street kids disappeared after Danny Crowne had turn his sights on them with a new charity program his company ran.

No one knew what happened to the kids and no one in the legal system seemed to care.

Bruce thought about the Crownes rise to wealth and felt sick. Had Danny been running a trafficking ring since his adoption? Had that escaped Batman's notice for four years?

Despite the fact they were still at eachother throats, both Bruce and Dick agreed to work togther to bring Danny Crowne down. How?

Simple.

Danny Crowne was openly bisexual and, according to Jason, who was half-raised by working girls, his eyes always followed Dick around the room.

Operation Honey Pot was a go.

(Danny didn't mean to stay here for four years but had built himself a home, and no natural portals were opening. He figured he could secretly construct his while helping abused kids find safe ways out of the city and start new lives. Technically illegal, no one had batted an eye when the kids vanished, so he figured getting them somewhere safe was more important. Indeed Batman had better things to do than track down kids in better foster homes. He test-ran the homes himself before placing the children. Yes, overshadowing made him feel bad, but he rather experienced the house before overshadowing the social workers into legalizing the stay under new names. He was sick of them sticking kids in juvenile halls just cause other foster homes were "out of jurisdiction".

At least his charities helped the age out kids succeed in life.

Now why was handsome Dick Grayson winking at him??? Gosh, that made him more nervous than all the lessons Clockwork forced him to take back when he was training to take the Ghost Throne. The classes helped him become one of the best CEO in the world, but they were also the reason he got into this whole mess to begin with. At least he looked regal when he spoke. )

( Part 2 ) (part 3)

#dc x dp crossover #Danny was trainging to be Ghost King #He gets lost as sea within the Ghost Zone. #overshadowing his way to success #the Bats think hes a Lex Luthor #Dannys dimension is futher in tech and hes proving his fenton Genius genes #Bi disaster Danny Fenton