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peterpumpkinhead · 5 days

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about yibo's recent controversy

it's bad!!!!!

I'm a black fan of his and needless to say, I'm devastated lol

Yes, I fully understood the context of the scene. Yes, I also understand there were many black people on set (and I will not hold them responsible or use them as tokens to justify what cannot be justified). Yes, I get that actors have contractual obligations and have limited say in what makes it in the film, in spite of what people might think.

That being said, there's a reason why blackface is 99% of time and abhorrent practice in the arts. I leave 1% out because, in certain instances, like in the show Mad Men, it appears for the sake of historical accuracy and it is MEANT to cause revolt and disgust in the audience.

The fact is - as much as the plot of the film is based in real life, blackface, as an aesthetic instrument, reinforces many negative stereotypes, it perpetuates itself in the collective imagination and is more so a tool of dehumanization and naturalization of the relegation of black bodies to the category of costumes, props, tools.

I don't even need to get into the paternalistic approach of foreign law enforcement, coming from powerful countries of the global north, working in developing countries and portraying themselves solely as heroes - which is the storyline of a film that has no main black characters and relegates the black cast to either victims, criminals or extras in the background.

The entire cast, crew and production company should be held responsible for this enormous error, so I won't single one person out.

Being critical and demanding a response is not the same as being a hater. I'm nobody's hater, or anti and I believe in measured, strategic responses to a situation like this. But being angry is a very, very valid feeling right now.

I myself work on television and ~believe it or not, am a socialist. You don't need to explain away the inner workings of the entertainment industry or the complexities of cultural impact and ongoing symbols of oppression. I'm *quite* aware.

But, as a good old socialist, I must ask the question: what do we do? My thought process is: I fear that the Chinese audiences will not give two damns about this, which does not mean we shouldn't mobilize ourselves to demand change, an apology and consequences.

Being someone's fan is not the same as joining a cult and my admiration for the actor involved is not larger than my responsibility to social justice and to my people.

So I suggest we contact and comment on posts made by international brands endorsed by the talents in this film - like Dior, Chanel, Lacoste, Pantene, etc. We need to ask them if they're ready the back actors who have agreed to this outdated, highly insulting practice.

This film will not be getting my support and I will not defend actions that need no defense. I'm nobody's attorney, I'm a working class artist and I know better than to infantilize a grown man, as much as I've a history of admiring him.

#Wang Yibo #Yibo #Formed Police Unit #Tat Chiu Lee #Andrew Lau #Huang Jingyu #Johnny Huang #Zhong Chuxi #Elaine Zhong #Wanda Film

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vocalsynthbdays · 3 months

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happy birthday ia(vocaloid 3), vivi(vocaloid 4), merry kohaku(utau), and one(cevio cs) !!! [jan 27]

(ia and vivi)

(merry and one)

IA is a japanese synth developed by 1st PLACE Co., Ltd., and released in 2012. ia is voiced by singer-songwriter Lia, and mostly illustrated by Akasaka Aka, who done all her art apart from her ai song art, which was drawn by Simanerikotton. as well as that, ias ai song english box arts artist is unknown. its a render of a 3d model of ia. ias mmd model was created by mqdl. ia was released for vocaloid 3 on 27 jan 2013, and for vocaloid neo on 7 dec 2013. later, on 27 jun 2014 she was released with her IA ROCKS vb for those same engines. she was then released for cevio with her IA Talk vb on 1 march 2017, and her IA ENGLISH C on 29 june 2018. then for cevio ai, with her IA TALK on 12 mar 2021, and her IA AI SONG and IA AI SONG ENGLISH on 27 oct 2021. shes also available on the mobile vocaloid editor and vocaloid keyboard. ia is a part of 1st PLACE Co., Ltd.'s -ARIA ON THE PLANETES- series.

merry kohaku is a japanese synth created and voiced by Shiogama, and released in 2014. merry is illustrated by sweeper_ms and _kiyomizutera_ i think, with kiyomizutera doing the colouring if i am understanding a post on ms's pixiv correctly.

VIVI (aka Vivian Vu) was announced in 2018. she was to be an english synth with a japanese and chinese bank also, but was cancelled due to legal issues surrounding obtaining a development license. she was being developed by VoMelody (vocadb also lists zero-g as a company shes associated with but im not sure in what way. vomelodys vocadb article just says they were developing her). since vivis banks were never released there is no official way to obtain them, but developer copies were leaked to the public in 2021. vivi is illustrated by hieihirai. i dont know who voiced vivi

the following was very kindly written by my friend who knows nothing about vocal synths:

happy birth ONE (オネ) !! 🍮

one is a cevio released by the company 1st PLACE Co., Ltd, and she was released on january 27, 2015. 🌹

one is a 15 year old girl and she has orange hair. she shares a birthday with her older sister, IA. coincidentally, she also shares a name with her voice provider, ONE, who is a singer. an illustrator called „sidu“ created her character design. 🪣

one is apart of the -ARIA ON THE PLANETS- project, which is a series of umm characters. ☘️

she lives on planet ARIA, which is similar to earth, but with „various life forms that resonate and co-exist together, several of whom raised IA and ONE.“ 🧣

inhabitants of planet aria:

チコー or“Neko-san”, or simply “cat”) is a spirit that lives on ARIA. She is the mother figure of IA & ONE, and has been with them all of their lives before coming to Earth with ONE. ^^

They have a „grandfather“ figure named “Chōrō” (“長老”, meaning "elder") or "Choro no ki” (長老抜き, meaning the "eldest tree)".It was mentioned that he taught ONE and IA all that they know. :3

“フェニックス” (also known as “Phoenix”, or simply “Nix“ is a singing teacher and a voice trainer for ONE and IA. ^−☆

there‘s also another inhabitant that lives on ARIA but shes so irrelevant shes not even worth mentioning!!! -_-

im done writing for this b shoutout to this website i literally reworded most things and made it shorter https://cevio.fandom.com/wiki/ONE

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werfenspeer · 1 year

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Chongyue voice lines and other lore stuff:

His combat skill is ranked as ■■, other people with ■■ rank is Skadi's physical strength and Gladiia's mobility

His old name is Shuo (朔) but he doesn't use it because Chongyue is more human and was given to him by a friend

He sealed his original self into a sword, and he made a human body for himself, something that only the 2nd sibling knows how to do other than him. Though it's no longer 'him' per se and is instead 'one of Sui's 12 fragments'. The sword was given to Waai Fu's father as a token for their rematch

He's uninfected but his Originium density is 0.01 unlike the others who have 0.00

His human body is extremely normal, even though his stats are super high, there's nothing special about his physical form

He has an EXTREMELY regular daily schedule and is a strict teacher

He taught wushu (Chinese martial arts) on RI for a bit and everyone had to adhere to his schedule, he's even stricter than Dobermann

But he's a nice and reliable guy for sure!!

Operators from many countries can recognize a pure form of their cultural style in his moves, as if he was there to influence the founding master of their schools

He's hardworking, humble, and ready to try new things with the other Operators

He's always on time

His other hobbies include but are not limited to wood sculpture, pottery making, literature, and coffee

He's resting at RI. Ling asks Dr to not ask him for too much

The Yanese Sui commission (sorry, I forgot the EN name LOL) wrote a letter to RI asking RI to take care of the retired Chongyue so he can recuperate from his injuries

He was the earliest to despise killing, but was also the closest to it

He wanted to retire since a very long time ago

He once went into Dusk's painting, chatted with her for a day and night, asked her to come outside and not be a shut in (failed), went out to the painted field the next day to do his morning exercise and the painting collapsed instantly

He joined Nian's film making for fun

His greeting line is "Doctor, I didn't see you at the morning exercise today either." HES SHAMING US

"I promised Nian to be her 'stunt director', both to settle her and to keep her company. Dusk is timid and Ling loves wine, I'll watch over them too... even if we aren't bound by mortal blood, we are still siblings, and not "Them"."

"You wish to be my 'martial witness'? Rhodes Island truly treats their guests well, I can see why my sisters like it here... no? Then, I wouldn't mind being your second in command either."

"To see death and suffering is the daily course for a martial warrior. To see death yet persevere, to be steadfast in morals and justice, and not use 'such is the world' as an excuse, these are their trials. This has been the way of the world for tens of thousands of years. Only behemoths drunk on hubris will have unfeeling hearts."

#arknights #cywirtls #chongyue #chongyue arknights #HES SO NICE #text #long post

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year

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We should ban TikTok('s surveillance)

With the RESTRICT Act, Congress is proposing to continue Trump’s war on Tiktok, enacting a US ban on the Chinese-owned service. How will they do this? Congress isn’t clear. In practice, banning stuff on the internet is hard, especially if you don’t have a national firewall:

https://doctorow.medium.com/theyre-still-trying-to-ban-cryptography-33aa668dc602

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/2023/03/30/tik-tok-tow/#good-politics-for-electoral-victories

My guess is that they’re thinking of ordering the mobile duopoly of Google and Apple to nuke the Tiktok app from their app stores. That’s how they do it in China, after all: when China wanted to ban VPNs and other privacy tools, they just ordered Apple to remove them from the App Store, and Apple rolled over:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/11/foreseeable-consequences/#airdropped

That’s the completely foreseeable consequence of arrogating the power to decide which software every mobile user on earth is entitled to use — as Google and Apple have done. Once you put that gun on the mantelpiece in Act I, you damn betcha that some strong-man backed by a powerful state is going to come along and shoot it by Act III.

The same goes for commercial surveillance: once you collect massive, nonconsensual dossiers on every technology user alive, you don’t get to act surprised when cops and spies show up and order your company to serve as deputies for a massive, off-the-books warrantless surveillance project.

Hell, a cynic might even say that commercial surveillance companies are betting on this. The surveillance public-private partnership is a vicious cycle: corporations let cops and spies plunder our data; then the cops and spies lobby against privacy laws that would prevent these corporations from spying on us:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/25/nationalize-moderna/#hun-sen

Which makes the RESTRICT Act an especially foolish project. If the Chinese state wants to procure data on Americans, it need not convince us to install Tiktok. It can simply plunk down a credit card with any of the many unregulated data-brokers who feed the American tech giants the dossiers that the NSA and local cops rely on.

Every American tech giant is at least as bad for privacy as Tiktok is — yes, even Apple. Sure, Apple lets its users block Facebook spying with a single tap — but even if you opt out of “tracking,” Apple still secretly gathers exactly the same kinds of data as Facebook, and uses it to power its own ad product:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

There is no such thing as a privacy-respecting tech giant. Long before Apple plastered our cities with lying billboards proclaiming its reverence for privacy, Microsoft positioned itself as the non-spying alternative to Google, which would be great, except Microsoft spies on hundreds of millions of people and sells the data:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/25/the-peoples-amazon/#clippys-revenge

Tech’s surveillance addiction means that Tiktok’s own alternative to the RESTRICT Act is also unbelievably stupid. The company has proposed to put itself under Oracle’s supervision, letting Oracle host its data and audit its code. You know, Oracle, the company that built the Great Firewall of China 1.0:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/selling-china-surveillance

We should not trust Tiktok any more than we trust Apple, Facebook, Google or Microsoft. Tiktok lied about whether it was sending data to China before:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilybakerwhite/tiktok-tapes-us-user-data-china-bytedance-access

And even if it keeps its promise not to send user data to China, that promise is meaningless — it can still send the vectors and models it creates with that data to China — these being far more useful for things like disinformation campaigns and population-scale inferences than the mere logs from your Tiktok sessions.

There are so many potentially harmful ways to process commercial surveillance data that trying to enumerate all the things that a corporation is allowed to do with the data it extracts from us is a fool’s errand. Instead, we should ban companies from spying on us, whether they are Chinese or American.

Corporations are remorseless, paperclip-maximizing colony organisms that perceive us as inconvenient gut-flora, and they lack any executive function (as do their “executives”), and they cannot self-regulate. To keep corporations from harming us, we must make it illegal for them to enact harm, and punish them when they break the law:

https://doctorow.medium.com/small-government-fd5870a9462e

After all, the problem with Tiktok isn’t the delightful videos or the fact that it’s teaching a generation of children to be expert sound- and video-editors. The problem with Tiktok is that it spies on us. Just like the problem with Facebook isn’t that it lets us communicate with our friends, and the problem with Google isn’t that it operates a search engine.

Now, these companies will tell you that the two can’t be separated, that a bearded prophet came down off a mountain with two stone tablets, intoning, “Larry, Sergey, thou shalt stop rotating thine logfiles and, lo, thou wilt data-mine them for actionable market intelligence.” But it’s nonsense. Google ran for years without surveillance. Facebook billed itself as the privacy-forward alternative to Myspace and promised never to spy on us:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3247362

The inevitabilist narrative that says that corporations must violate our rights in order to make the products we love is unadulterated Mr Gotcha nonsense: “Yet you participate in society. Curious. I am very intelligent”:

https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/

Of course, corporations push this narrative all the time, which is why American Big Tech has been quietly supporting a ban on Tiktok, which (coincidentally) has managed to gain a foothold in the otherwise impregnable, decaying, enshittified oligarchy that US companies have created.

They have conspicuously failed to call for any kind of working solution, like a federal privacy law that would ban commercial surveillance, and extend a “private right of action,” so people could sue tech giants and data-brokers who violated the law, without having to convince a regulator, DA or Attorney General to bestir themselves:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/01/you-should-have-right-sue-companies-violate-your-privacy

Instead, the tech giants have the incredible gall to characterize themselves as the defenders of our privacy — at least, so long as the Chinese government is the adversary, and so long as its privacy violations come via an app, and not buy handing a credit card to the data-brokers that are the soil bacteria that keeps Big Tech’s ecosystem circulating. In the upside-down land of Big Tech lobbying, privacy is a benefit of monopoly — not something we have to smash monopolies to attain:

https://www.eff.org/wp/interoperability-and-privacy

Not everyone in Congress is onboard with the RESTRICT Act. AOC has come out for a federal privacy law that applies to all companies, rather than a ban on an app that tens of millions of young Americans love:

https://www.businessinsider.com/aoc-first-tiktok-congress-ban-without-being-clued-in-2023-3

You know who agrees with AOC? Rand Paul. Yes, that absolute piece of shit. Paul told his caucusmates in the GOP that banning an app that millions of young American voters love is bad electoral politics. This fact is so obvious that even Rand fucking Paul can understand it:

https://gizmodo.com/rand-paul-opposes-tiktok-ban-warns-republicans-1850278167

Paul is absolutely right to call a Tiktok ban a “national strategy to permanently lose elections for a generation.” The Democrats should listen to him, because the GOP won’t. As between the two parties, the GOP is far more in thrall to the Chamber of Commerce and the rest of the business lobby. They are never going to back a policy that’s as good for the people and as bad for big business as a federal privacy law.

The Democrats have the opportunity to position themselves as “the party that wants to keep Tiktok but force it to stop being creepy, along with all the other tech companies,” while the GOP positions itself as “the party of angry technophobes who want to make sure that any fun you have is closely monitored by Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pinchai and Tim Cook and their pale imitations of the things you love about Tiktok.”

That’s not just good electoral politics — it’s good policy. Young voters aren’t going to turn out to the polls for performative Cold War 2.0 nonsense, but they will be pissed as hell at whoever takes away their Tiktok.

And if you do care about Cold War 2.0, then you should be banning surveillance, not Tiktok; the Chinese government has plenty of US dollars at its disposal to spend in America’s freewheeling, unregulated data markets — as do criminals, petty and organized, and every other nation-state adversary of the USA.

The RESTRICT Act is a garbage law straight out of the Clinton era, a kind of King Canute decree that goes so far as to potentially prohibit the use of VPNs to circumvent its provisions. America doesn’t need a Great Firewall to keep itself safe from tech spying — it needs a privacy law.

Have you ever wanted to say thank you for these posts? Here’s how you can: I’m kickstarting the audiobook for my next novel, a post-cyberpunk anti-finance finance thriller about Silicon Valley scams called Red Team Blues. Amazon’s Audible refuses to carry my audiobooks because they’re DRM free, but crowdfunding makes them possible.

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

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

[Image ID: A modified vintage editorial cartoon. Uncle Sam peeks out over a 'frowning battlement' whose cannon-slots are filled with telescopes from which peer the red glaring eyes of HAL 9000 from '2001: A Space Odyssey.' Topping the battlements in a row are Uncle Sam and three business-suited figures with dollar-sign-bags for heads. The three dollar-bag men have corporate logos on their breasts: Facebook, Google, Apple. Standing on the strand below the battlements, peering up, is a forlorn figure with a Tiktok logo for a head. The fortress wall bears the words 'RESTRICT Act.']

#rand paul is right actually ugh ugh ugh #politics #oracle #restrict act #privacy #privacy without monopoly #tiktok #commercial surveillance #trade war #bytedance #apple #google #facebook #meta #usausausa #generational warfare #electoral strategy #pluralistic #aoc

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svechnikovvv · 1 year

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lake days & a broken nose (2)

pairing: trevor zegras x hughes!reader

warnings: profanity

summary: it’s been months since you broke trevor’s nose at the lake house. what happens after that?

a/n: this is a part 2 since someone requested it (: you can find part 1 here

masterlist: here

ever since i broke trevor’s nose, and apologized profusely about it, we’ve become closer friends. we even exchanged numbers and would text everyday.

i was on my way back to my small apartment on campus since my senior year started. i unlock the door and cut the lights on. i practically jump out of my skin when i see someone on my couch.

“trevor?”

“the one and only.” he gets off the couch and engulfs me in a hug.

“holy fucking shit, i missed you so much.” he laughs

“i missed you too, hughesy.” we pull apart and i look at him, not believing that he was in front of me.

“what are you doing here? how’d you get here?” he laughs at my rapid-fire questions.

“i came to surprise you, and i flew here.” my eyes widen

“all the way from anaheim?” he nods “that’s too far. you didn’t have to do that.” he shrugs

“missed my favorite hughes,” he then leans in. “don’t let the other three know that you’re my favorite.” he shoots me a wink

“it’ll be our secret,” i tell him and set my bag by my bedroom door.

“sorry the place is a mess, i wasn’t expecting company.” he looks around at the space and laughs.

“you think this is bad? try rooming with four other hockey players who are superstitious.” i wince

“i’ve seen the guys on the team and they look like they’re messy.” he gasps

“you aren’t seeing other hockey players behind my back are you?” he jokingly asks and i place a hand over my heart.

“i would never.” we both laugh and i fall back on the couch.

“you fancy takeout and a movie?”

“depends on where and what movie.”

“i was thinking chinese and happy gilmore.”

“i’m sold.” he takes a seat beside me and i grab the takeout menu from the coffee table. i hand it to trevor and he takes it, scanning it.

“orange chicken.” is all he says and i nod

“good pick.” i grab my phone and dial the number, calling in the order. they said one of us would have to go and pick it up and trevor volunteered to do so.

“here’s my car keys,” i stop him before he leaves the room. “leave a scratch on the pimp mobile and you’ll have another broken nose.” he holds up his hands

“don’t worry, it’ll be in mint condition.” he then leaves the room to go get it. i turn on the movie and have it on pause as i wait. figuring he’d be a minute, i decide to take a shower. and like any sane person, music is a must. if you don’t go on tour to at least half the globe, what are you doing?

i grab a shampoo bottle and start to belch the lyrics to when i was your man.

“ALTHOUGH IT HURRRRRRTS, I’LL BE THE FIIIIRST TO SAY THAT, I WAS WROOOOOOOONG.” this part was my absolute favorite of the song because of the way he drags out the word ‘wrong.’ once my tour and shower was done, i change into my pajamas and head back into the room to see trevor sitting on the couch with a very amused smile on his face.

“you were pouring your heart out.” my fave goes red and i grumble, sitting beside him. he takes our food out the bags and places the trays in front of us on the table.

“oh! i also bought some sprite. figured we get thirsty.”

“smart idea, let me go grab some cups and ice.” i get back up and head to the kitchenette, grabbing two cups. i fill them both with ice, heading back to the couch. i hand trevor his and hold mine out for him.

“to the brim, z. the. brim.” he laughs and pours sprite into my cup, filling it to the brim as asked. i take a sip and sigh of content.

“sprite is like flavored tv static, but i love it.”

“that’s going to fuck with me for the rest of the day.”

“good.” we then get comfortable as we eat our chinese food and watch happy gilmore.

“adam sandler is such a god.” trevor says with a mouthful of rice.

“if i ever met that man, i’d probably cry and shit my pants at the same time.” trevor laughs and sprite comes out of his nose. i laugh at his predicament and he grabs a paper towel, wiping his nose.

“that burned. i can now smell sprite.”

“i’m just that funny.” he rolls his eyes.

it was starting to get late and trevor hadn’t left yet.

“where’re you staying?”

“was figuring i could crash on your couch?”

“oh nonsense. we can share my room.” he nods and we walk into my room.

“welcome to the fortress of y/n-tude. you can set your bags by the closet.” he does as told and drops his duffel bag and then unzips it, pulling out a hoodie and some sweats.

“do you-” my eyes widen and i nod.

“oh yeah, of course. my bad.” i turn around and face the wall as he changes.

“okay, im done.” i turn back around and my breath is gone. how does he manage to make a hoodie and sweats seem so nice?

“y/n?” i snap out of my trance

“yeah?” he laughs

“i asked if you wanted to sleep on the left or right side of the bed?”

“yes. uh, it doesn’t matter to me.” he nods and gets in on the left side. i slide in on the right side and i cut off my nightstand lamp.

“goodnight trev”

“goodnight y/n/n”

somehow throughout the night, trevor and i ended up tangled with one another. i woke up to my head on his chest and my arms wrapped around his torso.

“morning y/n/n,” i hear his husky morning voice and i look up at him. he goes to move but i groan and stop him.

“five more minutes. you’re warm” i close my eyes again and he laughs, running his hand through my hair. i could get used to this everyday.

“trevor?” i sleepily ask and he hums

“i think i’m in love with you.” i can feel his heartbeat quicken and i sleepily smile.

“you don’t mean that.” i open my eyes and look up at him

“i meant every word.” i give him a sleepy smile and he smiles too.

“thank god, i didn’t know how much longer i could go before i told you.” we both laugh and he places a kiss on top of my head. my phone then buzzed and i reach over and grab it, answering the facetime call. quinn’s face then appears on the screen.

“q! how’s my favorite older brother?” he laughs

“i’m good- wait. who’s with you?” oh shit

“what do you mean?”

“y/n, i can see someone’s hand. and unless you became a contortionist, who is it?” i sigh and look up at trevor really quickly to see if he’s okay with it. he nods and i move the phone so that it’s facing him.

“trevor?!” i hear quinn gasp and trevor waves

“hey quinn…”

“okay, i saw this coming anyways.” he brushes it off. “but trevor, if you break my sister’s heart, you’re dead.”

“would never plan on it.” quinn, trevor and i continue to talk for a bit before he has to go for his morning skate.

“should we call j?” trevor nods and i click on jack’s contact, facetiming him.

“hey sis, what’s up?”

“there’s uh, someone i want you to meet.” he gasps

“you have a boyfriend?” he gets excited and i look up at trevor and smile, nodding.

“cmon, who’s got my little sister cheesing?” i point the camera at trevor and jack gasps.

“i fucking knew it! i knew it!”

“how does everyone know?” trevor asks and jack and i laugh

“you both made it very obvious.” jack says “anyways, glad to know you’re both finally together. now i have to go. bye you two, don’t do anything gross!” he then hangs up and i set my phone on my nightstand, cuddling into trevor even more.

“the others can find out later. you’re warm and i don’t wanna move.” he laughs and i fall back asleep in record time.

it’s funny how a broken nose can bring together two people.

tags: @goldenbrokenheart @liquidflyer @woodruff-edwards @hockeyboysarehot @ajbird2010 @hughesx3 @hannahh01938 @theywantedplayer @k1ttyt3ar @jackhughesily @fratboyzegras @marauderzkinnie @babydollmarauders

a/n: part 2 is finally here (:

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lafaiette · 2 months

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hello! I’ve been reading your posts about Pen and ☠️ man I hate when that happens, when a character or concept gets scratched from a game last minute and you can just tell. Pen is that. It sucks because from the beginning I immediately knew there was more to his character than they wanted us to believe. My only hope is that Pen’s story isn’t really done? Maybe there will be mention of him in the upcoming game? But even then would that be a satisfying resolution for Pen?

Hello! I agree, he has so much potential, AND YET. We've been given mere crumbs ☠️

I don't know if his characterization got cut during development - iirc his romance was a kickstarter milestone, so they probably added his romance content to his already developed story (and if he was supposed to be the Big Villain since from the start, then they perfectly knew they were giving us another Aadit-like romance... PATHEAAA)

His Chinese version feels much more cohesive and complete. English Pen is... heh. He's still funny and sweet (and sad), but the difference between the two versions is abysmal and, frankly, depressing. The English localizer butchered his character imo.

Perhaps, if fans keep asking for it, they will finally give us more stuff. Logan already appears in the upcoming game (which isn't really "upcoming" - it's a mobile game developed by another company to which Pathea lent the concept), so that's out of the question. Our last hope is receiving more updates and DLCs for Sandrock, and the devs just said in their Discord channel that they are aware of people's desire for more content that isn't centered on Logan and Fang. Their exact words were: "Thanks for your feedback. This is some of the most requested feedback we get. I can't say for sure if everyone will get all the content we would like but we are going to do our best to get as much done as possible."

#mtas #mtas pen #my time at sandrock #my time at sandrock pen #i don't trust you pathea #i'm gonna stand in front of your offices in chongqing and sing 'PEN! PEN! PEN!' until you give us more

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saffronapplemanga · 1 year

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Recent Read Manga Recommendation Round Up (plus anime!) - Part 3

Manga/anime I’ve been enjoying recently! Links to part 1 and part 2.

Twitter link to this post here.

~Links to my other manga posts~ My personal favs/ones I super enjoyed will have a ✨ on them :)

PLEASE LOOK UP ANY TRIGGER WARNINGS!

CRIME, ACTION, DRAMA

✨GANGSTA. by Kohske

(8 volumes + chapters released past vol.8, hiatus)

Available in English

Please check out my dedicated post I linked for this series. I worked super hard on it!

If you take one recommendation from this list, let it be GANGSTA. I’m begging… This series is going in my all-time favs. I have a whole “Why You Should Check GANGSTA. Out” section in my dedicated post, so definitely take a look at that! But in short: Do you enjoy great character writing? A diverse, adult cast featuring different races and disability rep (deaf MC)? A gritty setting? A FOUND FAMILY OF DORKS?

I'm obsessed and I'm making it my mission to take as many of you down with me as possible...

TIME TRAVEL, SUPERNATURAL

Link Click directed by Li Haoling

(24 Episodes - Season 2 Coming Soon)

Link Click is a donghua from Studio LAN and streamed on Bilibili — the Chinese streaming service that I do some subs for, if you're unfamiliar with them — as well as Funimation. I enjoyed the art, animation, and atmosphere. The premise is that two guys working at a print shop time travel through photos to help their clients. And who doesn't love a trio of kids with a big-hearted jokester, the quiet, mature one, and a feisty girl who reins them in? I think this is my first donghua and I enjoyed it!

Plus, the opening and ending themes are pretty slick ->

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Season 1 Opening Theme - Adding it to the playlist.

MECH, POLITICAL, SCHOOL

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury by Yatate Hajime

(12 Episodes + Prologue - Season 2 currently airing)

Let me tell you about me and Gundam.

I used to work at a translation company in Tokyo where I translated some Gundam figure commercials/interviews (which are currently privated on Youtube, unfortunately) amongst other things. I'm telling you guys, every time I walked into the office and saw an email from Bandai/TAMASHII NATIONS with a new Gundam translation request in my inbox, I would cry a lot little inside. I had never watched anything Gundam and didn't know what the heck was going on in the stuff I had to translate. There was this one interview with a figure designer where I was like, "Oh, you have to be a Gundam fan to understand what the heck he's talking about..." I remember me, another translator, and our editor staring at our screens exasperated. We managed, though. Big shoutout to the Gundam Wiki — not that I understood anything from it LOL.

If you told me back then that I would enjoy a Gundam thing, I would've laughed — but here I am, enjoying a Gundam thing. I'm not into mechs, even though I think robots/robot-adjacent stuff + space are cool. Still, I could never get into mechs for some reason. So if you're like me, try The Witch from Mercury. Our MCs are these two girls who end up engaged to each other in a rather hilarious way imo, with a colorful cast of supporting characters. The political themes I hear Gundam is known for really hooked me, and I LOVE how the kids handle a situation they end up in. I won't say more so as not to spoil it, but I think this is a great entry point for Gundam newbies!

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Season 1 Opening Theme - Am I turning into a Gundam fan? Wild. Who would've thought the day would come? What if I start getting into Gunpla? A slippery slope, really.

SLICE OF LIFE, SCHOOL

✨Skip and Loafer by Takamatsu Misaki

(10 volumes, ongoing) + Season 1 Anime

Available in English

I remember seeing volume one of this series at the bookstore I frequented in Ikebukuro Station when it had just come out. Sooooo many times, I almost picked it up over the years. But I always passed because I was swamped with work, school, and current reads.

Now, I have a little more time on my hands, and the new anime adaptation has so much love put into it! A great coming-of-age story following young Mitsumi as she moves to the big city for school. This series is so wholesome, it's cavity-inducing.

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This opening is the most delightful thing~

SLICE OF LIFE

Hotel Metsäpeuraan e Youkoso by Fukuta Seira

(5 volumes, ongoing)

JP only

In the mountains of Finland is a hotel run by two men. One day they see a young man outside in a snowstorm, and bring him inside. The men can tell that teenager Jun seems to have a heavy past and offer him a job and place to stay at the hotel.

Super cute, wholesome, and has great found family vibes!

SLICE OF LIFE, FOOD

Samenai Machi no Kisaten by Hasha

(2 volumes, complete)

JP only

A chill read with a touch of melancholy. At the end of each chapter is a recipe! The art is very cute and pleasing.

DYSTOPIAN, SCI-FI

✨Fool Night by Yasuda Kasumi

(8 volumes, ongoing)

JP only

In the future, the sky is blacked out, not allowing any sun through. To survive, technology has been developed to turn people into plants. The real horror is late stage capitalism though. I'm in love with the art and atmosphere of this series. I can't wait to read more!

ROMANCE

Gakusou by Tsurimaki Nodoka

(oneshot)

JP only

This is a super short one-chapter oneshot. Cute little read with lovely art! By the same author as 聖血の海獣/Seiketsu no Kemono, a 3-volume manga I've been meaning to read.

LGBTQ, DRAMA, COMEDY

To Strip The Flesh by Tooda Oto

(oneshot/anthology)

Available in English

An anthology that has some funny stories, and some that made me feel too seen...

DYSTOPIAN, SCI-FI, CRIME, ACTION, POLITICAL

✨PSYCHO-PASS by Urobuchi Gen

Check anilist for all content because the seasons, movies, manga, light novels, and watch order are a little all over the place.

The Psycho-Pass: Inspector Shinya Kogami manga is available in English from publisher Dark Horse.

Set in the future, Japan has implemented a surveillance state that measures people's psyche and flags anyone with the potential to do crime, even if they have not done anything or will never have done anything.

I watched season one back when it first came out in 2012. Since then, I would see ads for new content at the train stations in Japan and thought I’d catch up. There’s a new movie, PSYCHO-PASS PROVIDENCE, releasing May 12, 2023.

I've been having a lot of dumb, edgy fun with this series and its on-the-nose political themes. It's kinda camp-y? I do wish it spent more time on character moments, though.

I love me a trio (which seems to be a theme in this round-up lol) and this series has a good trio! Akane is such a great character, and Shinya and MY BOY GINOZA NOBUCHIKA!!! have been thoroughly entertaining me.

I love him. I wanna bully him and stuff him into a locker...

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tanksandbeyond · 5 months

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As a follow up to my previous post, I present the Jaguar main battle tank! This was a joint collaboration between the American Cadillac Gage and Chinese China National Machinery & Equipment Import & Export Corporation companies to upgrade Type 59s. Work began in 1988, the idea being that even though there were superior tanks in service, for the many Asian and African nations who operated Type 59s, the Jaguar would be an option to upgrade their fleet without having to buy entirely new tanks. Not only this, but it was much cheaper than tanks like the M1 Abrams or Leopard 2.

Besides improved armor protection and a 105mm M68 cannon, the Jaguar most importantly improved its mobility, with a 750 hp Detroit Diesel engine, coupled with a fully automatic Allison transmission, improving the tank's power-to-weight ratio. Since the base for the tank was already in wide use, development was a rather quick process, with China sending two Type 59s to Cadillac Gage in 1989, with a fully completed prototype by mid-1989 built in Detroit. Unfortunately, the program fell through due to the Chinese government's response to the Tiananmen Square Protests. Cadillac Gage continued to test the prototype through November of 1989, but with the Cold War ending and military procurement winding down for much of the world, the Jaguar never saw any interest.

While it fell into obscurity for some years, in 2021 a remaining prototype at a Textron facility in Louisiana was found, unfortunately worse for wear.

#Tanks #Military

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allthebrazilianpolitics · 2 months

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Brazil's Lula proposes law to regulate labor on ride-hailing apps

razilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sent a bill to congress on Monday to regulate labor rights of workers from ride-hailing apps in the country, which includes the need to pay a minimum wage.

The proposal, which might affect ride-hailing companies such as Uber (UBER.N) and Chinese Didi's (92Sy.MU) 99, must be approved by the Senate and Lower House to become a law.

"The debate in Congress won't be easy", Lula said on Monday in an event.

Uber said in a statement it sees the bill as "an important milestone towards balanced regulation of work intermediated by platforms.". 99 said it would only comment through the Brazilian Mobility and Technology Association.

#brazil #brazilian politics #politics #economy #workers' rights #luiz inacio lula da silva #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt

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certified-stupid · 1 year

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OKAY. That new persona 5 x game looks like dog shit imo. But that’s not because it’s a reskin of persona 5 made by a different Chinese company, or that it has no original music, or that it’s probably gonna be a gacha game, because it is. It VERY MUCH is gonna be exactly that. But because the designs in the game are actually REALLY cool. Like, the MC looks pretty bland outfit wise, but their persona is cool as hell, like, Axe guns. The mascot character is just owl Morgana, and that’s fine, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but his persona is a LITERAL SD Gundam figure, which is honestly really inspired! And the blonde girl with the yellow hood is really cool, and her persona looks like a real, actual atlus monster! Like, one that I could see in a mainline SMT game!

These are banger designs! Too bad it’s on a mobile gacha game with micro transactions.

#persona 5 #persona 5 royal #p5x #persona 5 x #atlus

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gacha-incels · 2 months

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Do you think that there is a possibility of Hypergryph splitting from Yostar for global publishing of Arknights and moving it to Gryphline instead? The traditional Chinese server got moved from Long Chen to Gryphline recently, and the new ambience synesthesia concert merch is on the Gryphline store rather than yostar’s. It may just be wishful thinking as yostar and hypergryph both own large shares of each other, but if there is a planned split from yostar would it potentially be a reason why Hypergryph hasn’t made a statement condemning Yostar Korea’s actions? Is there any precedent for publisher changes for a sort of legal clause preventing them from hurting each others’ image prior to the split being announced?

Gryphline is situated in Singapore, having what I guess you could call a “proxy” company for global business in Singapore is something a lot of companies in China have done for a while, increasingly within the past couple of years, for a multitude of reasons. Last time I checked Mihoyo had “Cognosphere” in Singapore, and when you buy gachabux in that game on servers outside China I believe your bill is from Cognosphere. The slave labor fast fashion site Shein has been operating under the Singapore-registered “Roadget Business” which some have speculated makes it easier to list in the USA. Yostar has HQ in Hong Kong which used to be the proxy location but according to this FT article-“Traditionally, Hong Kong was the choice for many such companies, said Kia Meng Loh, a senior partner at Dentons Rodyk. But with Beijing “flexing its muscles” in the semi-autonomous rival finance hub, Singapore is the obvious next choice, he said.” Hypergryph has multiple games coming out in the near future, I believe a regular (non-gacha) 3D anime mobile game and a 3D Arknights spinoff that will have a weapon gacha, and I think another game that’s TBD? They could be rearranging their internal structure due to this expansion if they’ve switched around their Chinese server already, but I’m unsure if this means they will completely split with Yostar who I believe publishes the US, Japanese and Korean servers.

Admittedly I can’t say I’m super well versed with this type of business and therefore it’s harder to really predict what they will do in the future, but I’ve been watching the situation since AK KR posted that notice to see what happens. I don’t have anything against the game itself, if it comes out that somehow their hands are completely tied in the situation or something I’ll post about that as well but I’m not holding my breath. In terms of my read on the situation, I think a huge message has ready been sent to the fans as to whom the company deems most profitable to listen to, regardless of any future handwringing over the situation. I would think between a woman posting extremely basic feminist thoughts on her personal twitter (equal pay etc) and enjoying the woman’s day google doodle years ago, and the Arknights KR/Yostar employee liking extremely violent fanart on the official twitter account and hanging out on extremist, misogynistic chat boards, that the employee would be seen as more of a problem and should have been the one disciplined. In reality, not only was the woman punished by having her work deleted but the official KR account posted that diatribe calling basic feminism a “dividing force” or whatever. This action and the following statement are absolutely not neutral, especially during a time a which violent misogyny has been increasingly ripping through South Korea as a whole but also gacha games specifically. In terms of PR I do think this is something Hypergryph could address, if HG doesn’t want to rock the boat with Yostar so to speak because of some upcoming split, it seems Yostar has already rocked the boat quite a bit with this action to begin with…

in terms of a main developer punishing the publisher, one example I can think of is Fate/Grand Order’s DelightWorks (after the sakura wars fuckup FGO is developed by “Lasengle” now, but when this happened it was DW) changing an in-game reward that FGO’s Korean publisher Netmarble gave out. In terms of them splitting as well, I’m still looking into it 👍 If anyone knows anything else feel free to reply or send me stuff and I’ll post it, sometimes I feel if I wait too long to reply to messages it comes across as rude lol so I’m not getting lost in like thesis tier research

#Arknights #yostar #hypergryph #feminist ideological verification

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