kariachi

[kariachi]

The thing with the whole 'oh the Rooters were allowed to operate as an experiment but oh no we never thought they'd pull this shit' is that the only way it can work is if there was literally no oversight. Because it's not like Servantis and his team are any sort of subtle.

I mean these fuckers showed up to another base without warning and immediately became fucking around with people's heads, utilizing implicit threats, jumping to violence as soon as they got the chance, openly spoke about how they were using kids as fucking test subjects, etc, when they had plenty of other options that would have been less effort for them. Even when dealing with the kids, the fuckers they were shown being the most subtle with, the lack of response to the thrown truck in the flashback, plus the keeping Argit in a cage and- if Phil's response to him is any indication- continuing to run experiments on him, show that they weren't even being all that subtle there.

These fuckers were active for at least seven years under Servantis, if not more. They don't seem to have any desire, concern, or anything about pretending to not be absolute pieces of shit. And I doubt they weren't throwing up red flags before Servantis got the mind-fucking powers, given fucking look at them and their behavior. Much like my opinion on Phil specifically- there is no way in hell that these attitudes and ideas just suddenly started. So, how the fuck did they manage to fly under the radar when they should have been a flashing neon warning sign? Really, the best options as far as explanations are

The Plumbers just sent them money and as long as they kept putting out tech didn't give them a second thought until the Top Hero got involved and they couldn't ignore them anymore

The Plumbers knew what was going on but for some reason or another didn't do anything until the fucking Top Hero got involved and they had to cover their asses to keep him backing them

The Plumbers were actively supporting their shit and once the Top Hero got involved had to lie about their involvement to cover their asses to keep him backing them

#ben 10 #i am just in a tagging mood today

[kariachi]

Am I saying that between his standing against Servantis in the end seeming as much if not more a matter of spite than anything, combined with his willingness to not even consider other potential methods of handling things during the Ultimate Kevin arc in favor of jumping straight to 'well he always was awful, kill him now', and the way he immeidately went 'well fuck that entire family no matter what' with the Validuses, leaves me feeling like Max's always cared a shitload less about Kevin than he and the show would like one to think and in fact has and will continue to think of him as just a violent criminal looking for a place to happen that he has to put up with because the cousins are Family?

Yes. Yes I am.

[kariachi]

solstice greetings upon ye!

[ID: a watercolor, colored pencil, and acrylic illustration of a four-legged creature with bird-like front legs and lion-like back legs. The back half of the creature is blue, while the front half has blue, purple, and red scales or feathers. The creature's face is a grinning sun, with green stars for pupils. It has a multi-pronged tail tipped with stars. It is surrounded by plants, insects, and a fish. The background is black.]

[kariachi]

Y'all, the world is sleeping on what NASA just pulled off with Voyager 1

The probe has been sending gibberish science data back to Earth, and scientists feared it was just the probe finally dying. You know, after working for 50 GODDAMN YEARS and LEAVING THE GODDAMN SOLAR SYSTEM and STILL CHURNING OUT GODDAMN DATA.

So they analyzed the gibberish and realized that in it was a total readout of EVERYTHING ON THE PROBE. Data, the programming, hardware specs and status, everything. They realized that one of the chips was malfunctioning.

So what do you do when your probe is 22 Billion km away and needs a fix? Why, you just REPROGRAM THAT ENTIRE GODDAMN THING. Told it to avoid the bad chip, store the data elsewhere.

Sent the new code on April 18th. Got a response on April 20th - yeah, it's so far away that it took that long just to transmit.

And the probe is working again.

From a programmer's perspective, that may be the most fucking impressive thing I have ever heard.

[kariachi]

Okay so Kevin and a bunch of other people are snatched up a branch of the Plumbers. They're subjected to what is clearly for him painful experimentation, him and most of those that aren't presumably killed being trained as child soldiers by the creepy, manipulative, and most likely violent asshole running the joint. This same asshole not only eventually casts them all out into the wastes after wiping their memories, but also reprograms at least Kevin into a sleeper agent, including giving him memories of a fake father in order to push him towards joining the Plumbers himself.

This same fucker eventually comes to collect him for more experimenting, he and his team doing a shitload of damage just because they can. When he catches him and begins to take him away, despite having an idea of their plans the head Plumber in the region- his girlfriend's grandfather- only stops them when he realizes the asshole has mucked with his head as well to get him to keep an eye on his "experiments" (the actual word Max uses to describe them by the way).

After an escape followed by a long and stressful ordeal that ends in Kevin defeating asshole and his team, finally the Plumbers do something. The highest up in the Plumbers shows up and not only directly states that this isn't getting out, nobody can ever know, and that that these fuckers are above the law, but then just takes all the evidence and the base and otherwise leaves Team Asshole in the Null Void. An act that isn't even as big a punishment as it is for other people due to their training and still having basic supplies in their specialty uniforms, and does nothing to protect people from them and the brainwashing the asshole is very much and very openly capable of. So really the fuckers have at best been unleashed on a populated area with nothing left to lose.

And then the higher up just leaves, without sparing so much as a glance at the victims of a so-called experiment that they didn't keep any sort of eye on at best. There is and will be no trial, the only people held accountable have just been dropped on a load of unsuspecting people with nothing to protect them, after all this lot are above the law. There is and will never be any sort of acknowledgement of the trauma the victims all gone through, or even so much as an 'it sucks you went through that'. The matter is dealt with, everybody is expected to sit down, shut up, and be glad it's supposedly over.

And then this fucking show had the audacity to try to tell me Kevin went back to working with the Plumbers after that.

#ben 10 #kevin levin #'oh but achi the null void is a hellhole they can't do much damage' #please remember what animo did just being able to control the null guardians #what the fuck will somebody who can and is happy to brainwash *people* and who has no reason not to anymore going to be able to accomplish

[kariachi]

#image description in alt

[kariachi]

Those who protest against Israel's genocide are punished for antisemitism.

But for some strange reason, authorities have never cracked down on antisemitism any other time. Any other time, antisemitism is considered free speech.

It's almost as if they know damn well that protesting against Israel is not antisemitism.

[kariachi]

Fuck Israel and fuck everyone who still wants to pretend this is confusing or complicated. Is it really that hard to point out the "bad people" in a scenario where a multi-billion military apparatus is handcuffing and killing children and medical staff inside a fucking hospital?

[kariachi]

The sick reality is that many of the renowned academics and writers among Gaza's thousands of martyrs will, in twenty years time, be quoted and memorialised by the same universities and institutions that have denigrated them and enabled their slaughter.

[kariachi]

One of the interesting things I learned about zoo history is that the reason so many exhibits used to be barren or floored with concrete was because keeping the animals clean kept them alive.

It wasn’t that people wanted to keep them in horrible conditions - it was that before we knew much about exotic animal medicine, all we knew is that the more thoroughly we could clean, the less they’d die. Then the tendency towards tradition that’s prevalent in animal care fields kicked in, and it took forever to shift away from that type of construction even as knowledge was gained.

[kariachi]

[Image Description: A photo of a banded linsang on a bare background. Though the closest relatives to felines, they are very low slung, with long faces, long necks, and tails nearly as long as the rest of them, giving them an appearance more similar to mongoose than cats, though with a longer neck and narrower body. The banded linsang in question has yellow fur covered heavily in bands and patches of rich brown. The face in particular has a mask similar to a ferrets, and the tail is striped like a tigers, while thick strips run down the neck and break up into large patches along the body and small spots on the legs. /End description]

thinking about creatures.

[kariachi]

[Video Description: From the point of view of a paraglider, watching as a black vulture flies alongside them. After a time, the vulture lands on the glider and slowly settled in as the paraglider pets it's wings and tail. Once settled in, the bird begins to groom the paraglider's shoes in reciprocation. /End description]

Paraglider and black vulture chilling

(via)

[kariachi]

Who wants more house arrest fic? Mike hasn't killed himself yet- 'yet' being the operative word.

Kevin is not paid enough, and in fact has to live with the knowledge he's doing the funding.

~~

Mike was not a stupid person. Selfish, yes. Persistent, yes. Bit of a drama queen, yes. But not stupid. Once the stinging in his throat became hindering, he took that as his cue to step away and let whatever fumes the cleaning solutions were giving off dissipate from the oven. When it became clear that they were still a problem, he’d opened a window. Of course, while grumbling about the house clearly being too small, certainly they’d never had this problem even back in the guest house. Then he’d opened another window. And another. At which point he’d lowered himself to calling Levin.

So it was that he was sat on the roof when the ‘hero’ pulled up, all but slamming the car door shut behind him.

“How the fuck,” he yelled up to him as he stormed up the walk, “did you manage to fucking gas yourself?!”

“I don’t know,” he called back, “I was just trying to clean up, since somebody decided my allowance shouldn't account for a maid.”

“I don’t trust you with a maid.” Shaking his head as Mike huffed, he heaved a sigh. “How’s breathing going?”

“Better since I came outside.”

“Good. Stay here.” As if he had options. Mike was generally certain the talk of an explosive in his tracking anklet had been a hollow threat, but he couldn’t entirely discount it and didn’t intend to go back to prison besides.

Kneeling, Levin absorbed the concrete from the walkway and headed in the open door. Mike didn’t know what exactly Levin was doing in there, investigating the situation presumably, and he could hear more windows opening, but it took several minutes longer than he felt it should. How long could it take, really, when he seemed to already know what he was looking for.

“First up,” Levin said when he finally exited, as he finally exited, “did your fancy school not teach you not to mix cleaners or did you just not pay attention?” Mike blinked, frowning, and did him the service of at least considering the question.

“I certainly don’t remember anything like that, no. They weren’t exactly expecting up to be doing our own housework.”

“Fucking rich people…” Grumbling, Levin shook his head again. “Second, why the fuck were you scrubbing out the oven, anyway- it’s got a fucking self-clean!” Nose scrunching, Mike glowered at him.

“And how was I supposed to know that?”

“There’s a fucking button!”

“Excuse me for not paying attention to the functions I don’t need.”

“You need it!”

“And now I know.”  The pair stared each other down, eyes narrowed and frowns on their faces, until Levin let out a growling huff.

“If I could trust the Plumbers with a fucking beanbag chair, Morningstar…” he said, all that was needed to get Mike to relax with a huff of his own. He was, again, not stupid, and knew exactly how much work, had an idea of the strings Levin had pulled to keep him out of the Null Void or a cell. The story behind the turnaround was still a mystery to him, would likely stay that way, but he couldn’t be ungrateful for it. “A month and you already burned through three sets of cookware-” Quite literally. “-nearly starved-” A excessively polite way of saying ‘failed to order enough groceries and almost ate Levin’. “-and now you’re gassing yourself.”

“I always have been an overachiever.” Mike smirked as Levin flipped him off.

“Or you’re a dumbass. Ya know, Ben joked about how I should kill you and move on, beginning to think it woulda saved you as much trouble as me.”

“Well, if you’re going to kill me, can it wait for next month? There’s a movie I want to see.” Levin snorted a laugh.

“Sure, when’s good for you?” Pretending to mull over it, Mike leaned out so that he wasn’t looking quite as far down his nose at him.

“The next to last Tuesday. Always hated Wednesdays, I’ll avoid one if I can.” With more snorting laughter, Levin shook his head, a small smile on his face.

“Let shit air out for like an hour,” he said. “Already wiped out the oven, when you go back inside hit the self-clean, leave it closed, wipe it out with a damp sponge once it’s cooled off. A’ight?”

“Alright.” With a nod, Levin took a step back, half turning to go, and Mike took less time than normal to stop him with a quick “Thank you, Levin.” Levin threw a smirk back over his shoulder.

“No problem. Try not to hurt yourself again?” Resisting the urge to throw out a quick jab in the midst of what was, for them, as good as a goodbye, Mike just nodded back.

“I’ll do my best.”

~~

Mike wasn’t a stupid person. Yes, his upbringing meant that there was a lot regarding maintaining one’s own home that he didn’t know. But that didn’t make him an idiot, merely uninformed. He was, for a lack of any other options, trying, and with each mistake came a little bit closer to knowing what he was doing. It was a perfectly normal, or at least understandable, situation to be in.

But three days later, when he had to call Levin out again over a dryer fire (“If somebody had said anything about ‘lint traps’ before-”) he was forced to admit that he wasn’t beating the allegations anytime soon.

#fanfic #mike morningstar #kevin levin #fuck it i'm tagging if other people get to throw their shit out there i can sometimes

[kariachi]

"We call it vff," said the alien. "It's - it's hard to describe to a species without vffsense. Imagine trying to describe light to a species that never evolved eyes. But there are forms of life that are only perceptible with vffsense, and they've visited Earth and fed on life as long as it's existed here."

There was a pause.

Then the human said, "That's the worst thing you've ever said."

"Don't worry about it."

"I think I have to, now."

"No, because - well - you have a species of spider which pretends to be an ant, correct? It's not capable of understanding the fact that it's mimicking an ant, but it instinctually mimics an ant in order to deter predators."

"Sure?"

"Humans produce a vff to mimic varths, predators only perceptible through vffsense. The organisms that would like to feed on you are terrified of varths, and so they leave you alone. You aren't aware you do it, you don't have the capacity to understand you're doing it, but you evolved to instinctually do it to deter predators you can't see."

There was a pause.

Then the human said in a very soft and thoughtful voice, "And are there varths on Earth?"

"Yes," said the alien. "Everywhere. But don't worry about it."

[kariachi]

we talk a lot about ohhhh what if my calling is to be the greatest mammoth hunter ever and I'm wasting my talents in the modern era but we never think about what if Thog from 30,000 BCE was the only person ever born who could get a sub-7min Donkey Kong Country any%, and he never got the chance. what about thog

[kariachi]

Ahmed Saad or @/90-ghost's brother in law is currently doing his best to organise the evacuation of his family from Gaza. This family suffers from a combination of ailments that all require medical attention. This is the description on their GFM page:

Hello, I hope you all are doing well!

My name is Mohamed Monir Ahmad Mahmoud, I’m a hemophilia patient from Gaza. I decided to start this campaign with all the hope that you could support me in evacuating Gaza to do surgery for me and my daughter and start a fresh life with my 5 kids out of the ongoing genocide in Gaza [...] I was supposed to go out at the end of 2023 to have surgery on my knees but since 7 October, I had no chance due to the procedures on Rafah crossing, the gate of Gazans to the world. Now, my knees and elbows are bleeding with no access to any type of care and if things stand as they are in Gaza, I won’t be able to walk or make any effort because of the bleeding (currently I am barely able to set up a small fire in front of the tent to prepare food for my kids).

What I ask is 60,000, for travel costs because each one would need to pay 5,000-8,000$ to be allowed to leave Gaza through Rafah crossing and we need around 3000$ more in Egypt for our stay and to obtain visas. We will be heading to Brazil where my brother Diaa lives and there is a huge chance to do the surgeries and access health care as the health care for Hemophilia patients in Brazil is one of the most advanced in the world.

please give generously!!

[kariachi]

i hate being on my corny shit but sometimes mass movements and protest movements can be very beautiful. they bring out the worst and best in humanity. during the arab spring, when people were camped out in tents in tahrir square, there were so many beautiful moments that it convinced a whole nation to believe in a better future. i find it difficult to talk about now but it was the collective sense of community—the feeling of being responsible for everyone, for living on principle instead of self-preservation for once in your life. many people risked their lives for other people during the protests. people died for strangers who were no longer strangers. sometimes it was also small things: funny signs, doctors volunteering medical aid, people giving out food and water, muslims protecting churches, christians protecting muslims while they're praying. things like that. and i've seen a lot of people and countries have protest movements since then and i think everyone feels the same way, when you're within a mass movement, there is a sense of hope and determination that is so much stronger than fear. everyone falls in love with their country, everyone falls in love with their people, suddenly a country you hate is a country you're willing to die for

these kind of protest movements were easy to call beautiful and easy to call powerful bc they were so obviously against a tyrannical force. and yes while the regimes did call the protestors everything from spoiled kids to infiltrators to traitors, the world usually saw it for what it was. and the protestors had a sense of pride about it. the eyes of the world are on us, we matter, we're making a difference

truthfully i think the campus protest movement has escalated so suddenly and is so maligned that nobody is taking a moment to call it what it is. it is very brave and it is very beautiful. in some ways i find it more touching than protest movements for your own country and your own future, because while the protests for palestine are also about what it means to be a citizen of a nation complicit in genocide, many of these protestors are just there because they care about palestinians. some of them are there against their better interests; risking their academic careers, their personal safety, their future. in the case of anti-zionist jews many are risking their communities and their familial relationships. i just saw a video of a USC student in the middle of a literal police riot where her classmates are being brutalized by cops being asked if she's scared and she said "no, i think the children in gaza are more scared than i am." on a human level, this is so moving. it's truly the best and bravest of america there, and it's so sad to me that some people can't see that.

last week speaking out for palestine was risky, but this week it has taken personal and physical bravery to show up, and people (mainly young people of color) have absolutely shown up. this is no small thing. it really isn't. its a historic thing. and i promise you if you think i'm exaggerating by comparing US campus protests to arab spring protests—a lot of arab spring students are on US campuses right now and they see the parallels too. the response to the protests has been american in the way america was in the 60s and 70s, but it is starting to take the shape of a broader and much more global crackdown, where militarized police brutality is the norm. this is familiar to everyone in sudan, in egypt, in palestine. university campuses and students go from safe havens to targets for punishment overnight. things are changing very rapidly right now; a lot of the things said about college campuses last week don't apply as of today.

there is a sense that these protests are full of spoiled and innocent kids and that is transparently not true. these are people (including grad students, faculty, etc) who have also experienced upheaval across the world and in their own communities. the fact that they're receiving the same treatment on university campuses now as protestors did in ferguson, as people have on their streets, means that while US colleges are profit-oriented neoliberal institutions and their administrators are fascists, their student bodies are on the forefront of history once again.