About ten, fifteen years ago I wrote a story about a guy living in a Capitalist dystopia. His walls, furniture, and tableware are all covered in smart displays. Basically animated wallpaper. It's sold as being able to turn your room or objects into anything - A nice forest view, outer space, a fantasy realm... but the companies that run this stuff keep sneaking ads in.
It gets so bad he's always being woken up by adverts that offer insomnia cures and better bedding that play when he tries to sleep.
So he buys the ad-free tier, and it's great... for a few months. And then he starts getting adverts from 'premium partners'. So he goes up a level... and the same thing happens.
So he jailbreaks his wallpaper and sends all the ad servers to 0.0.0.0 and voila... he can sleep.
Until this SWAT team blows his door off and drag him off to jail. The Ad companies are suing him for loss of revenue for the products he' notionally have bought if he'd watched their adverts, based on some weird 'The average consumer buys X products with an average value of Y' calculation.
The judge is like 'well I dun wanna annoy the sponsors' so he RICO's this guy's house and possessions and sends him to jail.
... which is a nice relaxed non-volent offender jail for the corporately disenfranchised. But because these people have no money... there's no ads and now he's happy because the only place he's free... is in prison.
Which at the time was a bit much and now it's like: Called it.
Elon's suing companies for not advertising because he's losing revenue. He's also cranking the price of Ad Free Twitter. Disney and Amazon play adverts on their paid service when services used to be free because of the adverts... and now you have to pay to watch the adverts or go up a couple of tiers.
And google's going around freaking out about ad-blockers.
if you're ok with an incessant amount of boops reblog this so I can get those other 2 badges <3
Traditional lanterns during Ramadan lighted up a market in Gaza City, Palestine, on June 5th 2016. Mohammed Asad/APA Images/Zuma Press
Literally, send beel in to the frontlines.
-texting with asmo-
Asmo: Hi ;)
MC: send dudes
Asmo: you mean nudes?
MC: no, i'm in a fight. Send in Beel
Okay but scariusaquarius writes one of the best leon fics I’ve read, I love them so much 😭
ID Leon when you get a flavoured chapstick mMMMMM- i've got a cherries' one 👀 like the man can't stop kissing you especially when you reapply throughout your day, Leon just HAS to make out with you
nO TAKE BACKS😭
Leon's favorite flavor was cherry.
He figured that out the first time you had ever changed up your chapstick, grabbing a cherry one instead of your usual that you always bought, and when he had kissed you in the morning after you had applied it, the man couldn't stop licking his lips.
It tasted so sweet; just like the cherry pie his grandmother would make for Thanksgiving when she was still alive. Leon had been craving for another taste since he had departed from you in the halls of the DSO to begin working.
When he saw you again, your smile bright as he approached you, Leon didn't hesitate to kiss you again. His hand cupped your cheek, lips pressed firmly against your soft lips, and he realized with glee that you had repplied the chapstick.
Leon had pulled away, licking his lips all the while as you became shy, pressing a hand against his chest and teasing that the two of you were still at work. Leon couldn't care.
His favorate flavor was cherry, so he wasn't going to refuse himself from such a sweet treat.
Every time Leon passed you by or you had to swing by to drop stuff off for him, Leon would give you such firm kisses, licking his lils before sending you on your way.
When the day was done, the two of you meeting up to travel home, Leon went in for anther cherry kiss before your finger stopped him.
"What is it?"
"If you wanted to use my chapstick, all you had to do was ask."
You were holding up the pink stick, a subtle smile on your lips, and Leon chuckled, pulling you close.
"It doesnt taste as good when I don't get to kiss it off your lips."
"Oh, please. You're such a flirt. Take the chapstick, would you? I bought another stick just for you."
Leon shook his head, taking the stick before kissing you deeply, this time rubbing his tongue against your lip and smirking when you softly sighed against him.
"Hm, I'll keep risking professionalism, but thanks for the offer~"
The worse this situation in Ukraine is getting the more i hate the jokes americans make about it. All of those "vladdy look at me this isn't u 🥺" "not me living through ww3" and "i don't wanna get drafted" jokes are just in bad taste to me. If it were my country, i would not want people to joke about it this way.
And i see so many of them go "well we use humor to cope" literally from what? What do you need to cope from? The traumatic event of watching the news and seeing footage of something that's happening hundreds of miles away from you? That's no different from any other war that's been happening over the last two decades though. Wars that America has very much been involved in. So why is this different to you? Because "white" countries are involved now?
Before you joke think about what you're saying. American teens and young adults are probably as far removed from this conflict as can be, which is why you find it so easy to joke about this. I have also seen brits and other west europeans make jokes so ofc americans aren't the only ones, but you are the majority. I have yet to see east europeans make jokes though. Why? Because they realize how serious this situation is and jokes don't help.
Meanwhile Ukrainians have to sit and watch their land be invaded. They are losing their homes. I stand with Ukraine 💙💛
Me: damn this situation I'm in sure isn't ideal, what am I gonna do about this
Suicidal Ideation Man who lives in my brain: perhaps I have a suggestion ☝️🤓
Tehran tonight.
People are protesting the forced hijab laws and the murder of a woman in police custody.
The internet is down in Iran. Please help spread the news.
This too shall pass (x)
“Wait, there are people blaming the writers?”
Are you surprised? Fandoms have become notorious anti-writer spaces. Studios love you guys. They can cut the budgets, cut the number of writers, cut the wages of the writers, and you guys always blame the writers. “The writers ruined the show!” It’s never “the studios ruined the show.”
I hate to break it to you: more than half the shows you complain were “ruined by the writers”, were ruined by the studios. Studios cut the scenes and arcs you were excited for. Studios cut the budget of the show, or even raise the budget of the show and force a “bigger, louder, bolder” tone on shows that were unexpected hits (this is where we get “the Netflix look” on every show post-Stranger Things and Queen’s Gambit).
You guys do not do your research. Half your fanfics are tagged with bad faith digs at the writers, when a few searches would reveal how strapped that show was and how poorly the writers were treated. Writers are being given a 10 weeks to write 10 episodes. How are good arcs and scenes supposed to happen under that time limit, with a max of only four writers?
Tumblr, the self-proclaimed “pro-union, pro-worker, pro-artist” site is also a major fandom site. You guys rarely practice good faith consumer etiquette for television and film writers, because your fandom salt always turns you against writers. And studios love you for it.
Yeah, individual writers do create bad writing from time to time. But so do painters, chefs, and musicians. Directors and actors sometimes refuse to film certain scenes or follow a show’s projected style and arc, and the writers always get the crap for a bad performance or a poorly directed episode. This isn’t to blame actors or directors; it’s to point out that you guys have one villain, and it’s always the writers. You guys never give writers the same grace you give animators, designers, directors, actors, composers, and editors.
Studios love you every time you say “the writers ruined the show.” Every single popular fandom is guilty of this. View any of the “why did the writers cut this scene, they hate my characters” talk when leaked scenes hit the internet. Writers barely get paid for what they do write. You think they’re writing scenes and then happily throwing them in the shredder? You guys just eat the talk that studios put out. Always have.