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So while I was looking up articles, I came across this article surrounding the jirai kei trend by a website called sunicadesign and I found the tone of the article a bit odd. While i know a lot of articles surrounding jirai culture tend to brush off or just not mention the serious issues, this article felt different from even those ones. My first suspicion was when they said that "no brands exclusively focus on jirai kei fashion" because there are plenty of girly brands that have been labeled as jirai now, and many brands have changed their whole image to cater to the jirai trend. My first actual red flag was when they listed both Metamorphose temps de fille and Baby the Stars Shine Bright as "jirai kei brands". It just kept getting weirder and weirder from there when I read their other jfashion blogposts, their ouji post has Bodyline listed as a "reputable ouji brand" that has "stores outside of Japan" when Bodyline only has physical stores in Japan, as well as claiming that Bodyline has participated in Tokyo Fashion Week Angelic Pretty produces furniture, and that Lolita Wardrobe is a brand. Besides all the misinformation, some of their other Japanese fashion blogposts feel almost fetishistic to me (in one post, they greet the readers as "fashionistas and japanophiles").They also seem to use either AI art and sometimes even uncredited stolen photos in their article as seen in their fairy kei post where they claim AI-generated images are from "an anonymous artist". In the creator's about me, they claim to be an illustrator but it's very clear from their example works that they just use AI, so now I'm wondering if the blog articles themselves could also be AI-generated. This website makes me so confused and frustrated so my only question I just want to know what's up with it. I definitely feel like even if it's not AI, it's still run by a person who does not interact with any jfashion community up close and does not care about the jfashions their writing about enough to spend more than 5 seconds on whatever jfashion wiki they're ripping this info from.

Hello, I hope you are doing well as you are reading this. ☺️ If the title of this post intrigued you, then we probably have a lot in common!
Pic: https://imgur.com/a/SoKuZOQ
A few things about me:

I’m 5’11,” working in finance from home in NY. I have wide-ranging interests, but not too deep. My favorite things to do is thinking, being outdoors in nature, listening to music, watching shows/movies, traveling (once or twice a year), board & video games, reading, museums, arts and crafts, and the occasional NFL game. 

Edit: I accidentally put 28 instead of 29. Just had a birthday, oops! 😅
Personality:

I think life is more exciting when you’re open to exploring new ideas and perspectives. If you’re feeling down and need encouragement, I love listening to thoughts and feelings without judgment, and provide a different perspective or a sounding board when needed. The best way to describe me is that I’m like a sponge. I can fit into a lot of different environments, I’m adaptable and flexible, I like to absorb new information, and I take on the attributes of those around me. 

Therefore, I’m eager to hear from all types of people, so please don’t hesitate to reach out as long as feel I’d make a good fit from reading the following.
I’m looking for are people who are also focused on growing these attributes of their character:

• Caring & Empathy—Wanting to leave the world a better place than they left it.
  
• Curious—Interested in learning new things and having deep discussions, especially about philosophy, new ideas and technologies, sociology, psychology, etc.
  
• Open-minded-“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” ~ Unknown
  
• Self-control—Is able to have a good balance between short-term and long-term passions of life, so that neither one is in conflict with each other.
  
• Honesty & Communication—Open and free with words, even if it is sometimes blunt, so that there is no underlying confusion or miscommunication.
  
• Attentive & Affectionate—In tune with their own feelings and can easily express them.
  
• Wasteless—Doesn’t mind a comfortable life, but one that’s not too fancy. Would rather spend their money on experiences than material goods. Tries to find ways to practically save money and the world’s limited resources.
  
• Patience, Humility, & Understanding—Knowing no one can ever completely master these qualities and accepting of where others are on their life’s path.
  

Bonus points if you’re interested in finance!
Studies show that people like hearing bad news first, so if my intro makes you think I may be a good fit, then let’s get some potential deal breakers out of the way first:
Cons:

• Quiet Offline
  
• Can be an over-thinker
  
• Slooooow while doing everything, even cleaning
  
• Sometimes forgetful
  
• May burn food sometimes and hates chopping with a passion
  
• Bit of a germaphobe (it just means I use a lot of hand sanitizer in public places)
  
• Does what is expected, and nothing more…but if you expect surprises then I’ll be sure to oblige! 😉
  
• Little fashion sense, but eager to learn
  
• Some anxiety with new situations, but I’m always glad after I push myself
  
• Will do anything for love, but won’t do that
  

…Still here? Great! Then hopefully the “good news” will clinch this!
Pros:

• Emotionally stable
  
• Financially independent
  
• Working remote, can relocate
  
• Generally happy and optimistic
  
• Non-judgemental
  
• Highly adaptable, so can easily be brought out of my shell
  
• No drama
  
• Conversationalist online
  

Top 5 Favorite Bands:

Paramore Fallout Boy Florence + The Machine Jonas Brothers The Brothers Johnson 

Top 5 Favorite Artists:

Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd) Christine and the Queens Pebbles Justin Timberlake Chromeo 

Favorite Genres:

K-Pop Rock Synthwave New Jack Swing Dramatic Soundtracks 

Favorite Show:

The Walking Dead 

Favorite Anime:

Dragon Ball 

Favorite Video Game:

Chrono Trigger 

2 Truths, 1 Lie:

I made it to the district-wide Spelling Bee, my favorite movie is Godzilla 2000, I eat once a day 😉 

I hope this piqued your interest, and I would love to hear more about you, your passions, and your struggles!
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Dante (pen name)

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• Photoshop Beginners to Expert – Secrets Revealed with TipsREDEEM OFFER
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• Spring Framework & Spring Boot desde cero a expertoREDEEM OFFER
• Curso Blogger 2023: Cómo Crear un Blog Gratis Paso a PasoREDEEM OFFER
• Developing Role-Based Full-Stack App : Spring Boot + AngularREDEEM OFFER
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• كورس أساسيات وقواعد التصميم الجرافيكيREDEEM OFFER
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We’re a diverse group of gamers of all skill levels and play styles, ages and lifestyles. We’re super newbie friendly and also have events and players who like the hardcore stuff, with everything in between. We have PvE, PvP, PvEverything events, including folx who will make you gear, potions and food, even help you decorate your house. :D
Remnants of Hope (RoH) has over 900 members, playing lots of games (currently 5 divisions -ESO, SWTOR, WoW, FF and GW2, plus plenty of people playing random games), and over 200 active members in ESO. ESO division has departments for fashion and craft, PvE, PvP, role play, trials (including a beginner friendly prog group to help you learn the ropes), as well as an active discord, social spaces (in discord and even in person sometimes). We have players of all skill levels and play styles, and a fully stocked guild house! Boom.
We’ve been around a long time and learned the hard way that having some supportive structure is important to maintaining a community that works for everyone. Our code of conduct ensures a respectful atmosphere with no tolerance for toxicity. The structure is just enough to keep things copacetic and is still open to input from the community.
We have a simple application and trial process via our forums. This gives you a chance to get to know us and for us to make sure you have everything you need to enjoy the game and find your way around the community. The tasks are simple and we’ll happily help you get them taken care of. You can find the application here. Once you’re in, play as often or as little as you like.
RoH is not just a guild, we’re a community. <3
Here’s an abbreviated list of our current weekly schedule. Check the calendar on the forums and specific channels in discord for more information. All times are listed in Eastern.
Monday
9pm EST Dungeon Mayhem with Snicket
Sign up in the below thread or show up to be grouped up for dungeons!
⁠Tuesday
Free time – group up – Have fun – Pledges, randoms, overland stuff – Post pics
Wednesday
930pm -1130pm EST Trial with Snicket TBA---sign up early
Fishing event with the guild
Thursday
8pm - 9pm EST Social Hour with copper_dreams Come out and do some fishing!
9pm -11pm EST Cyrodiil Siege
Blood for the Pact! Level 10 EP character is all that is required!
No-CP Ravenwatch campaign
Friday
7pm - 9pm EST with copper_dreams TBA…make suggestions⁠
Saturday
Open
Sunday
5pm – 7pm EST Gear Farming Trial with Josie
Wear your tabards to scheduled events for bonus points (edited)
Tuesdays---9pm EST RP Story RP with Stariya
Please make certain you have access to Discord for all of our events. Some events have sign-up channels so you can reserve a spot and we always communicate over Discord during the events. If you do not want to join the group on Discord, it is your responsibility to keep up with the group during the event. Thank you.
Check us out at Apply RoH! And let us know if you have any questions!

Hello! I have been sitting on top of this since a year, and now is the perfect time to voice it out. Enough is enough! I have been on the lookout for this dreaded group since years, and even though I covered this group largely before, it is essential to cover rest of the elements I could not give space to in my previous expose writeups, due to lack of ample evidence and sheer amounts of writing that does not allow enough space for one particular group.
This Canadian (yes, took time to know that) group of trolls is nothing significant today, thanks to largely efforts of people dishing out ample evidence about them, but they tend to fabricate way too much lies in a concerted manner across Reddit, 4chan, YouTube comments and the like, all while simultaneously fabricating boogeymen cabals that apparently attack them. Today, even Louis Rossmann has felt the wrath.
It is critically important to trace and decode the patterns of their workings and Kiwifarms-like behaviour on internet, and I see this group as the next big threat to privacy community, simply because they have been persistent and think they are unstoppable.
My aim is to try to stay objective throughout as much as I can. I also want to mention that this is a lore that basically nobody other than me has tracked in this depth (arguably Techlore has enough material), and nobody else carries a record of these events in this manner to date.

WHY IS DANIEL MICAY'S BEHAVIOUR SO WEIRD?

I have been more curious than anyone else, trying to decode his behaviour psychologically to the best of my capabilities and experience on internet by myself. This person is claimed to be either mentally ill or narcissistic by various people, as of now. But I do not think he is simply narcissistic, because he consciously and responsibly knows very well what he does. As I show you screenshots of DivestOS incident, you will know why.

EVENTS

I will describe events in a chronological order since last year's "criticism of ... 4 years of evidence" magnum opus I wrote, making this the 5th year of "security" entities in FOSS community continuing to engage in awkward behaviours and exploiting the lack of expertise of ordinary folks who skim through various privacy communities. I recommend going through this first if you want to know everything about the backstory about privacy community's related issues. (https://old.reddit.com/privatelife/comments/ug9qnc/writeup_criticism_of_rprivacyguides_grapheneos/)

HOW IS GRAPHENEOS AN EMBARGO GOOGLE PARTNER FOR SECURITY PATCHES?

I read a couple of years ago somewhere, GrapheneOS describing how they are an embargo security partner. However, I cannot find those reddit comments anymore, so the next best option is a tweet from August 2022 by the horse's mouth. One person alone building monthly patches for years for supported Pixels compared to Google Inc seems like quite an impossibly tall order to me.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220829223401/https://twitter.com/GrapheneOS/status/1564322206414524420#m

(MAY 2022) MICAY CLAIMED HOW I WAS PAID BY CHINESE GOVERNMENT TO SPREAD LIES AND DESTROY PRIVACY COMMUNITY, PRIVACYGUIDES HEAD ENDORSES SAID CLAIM

Exactly one day after I published the 4 year criticism magnum opus on May 1 2022, what I see on the afternoon of May 2 2022 is this.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220502064114/https://old.reddit.com/PrivacyGuides/comments/uged1y/is_grapheneos_actually_good_or_just_hype/
One long thesis with zero citations. Hubris. This guy loves to talk about character assassination after pissing off people, and when he gets civilly criticised, this happens.
You can remove the archive.org part (https://old.reddit.com/PrivacyGuides/comments/uged1y/is_grapheneos_actually_good_or_just_hype/) and check currently how Jonah Aragon, head of PrivacyGuides, fully endorses these claims, and to this day, has a shared moderator (mbananasynergy) with GrapheneOS subreddit (earlier it was B0risGrishenk0/Tommy_tran whose new alt is Privsec_dev). You may also check how after a year, the post mostly has [deleted] users and comments, all being GrapheneOS sockpuppets and harassers abusing pseudonymity offered by Reddit. These are the people that scream everyday how sockpuppet harassment occurs to them.
He did this on Twitter as well. http://web.archive.org/web/20220820001954/https://twitter.com/GrapheneOS/status/1560729241364340737
In the tweets down the chain, he says:

That person is a tankie who supports authoritarian governments and peddles lies for them [...] It might as well be official CCP propaganda too.

Is there any problem with liking certain countries that you hate, because of geopolitical preferences and news media propaganda? How xenophobe can you be, to think Indians/Asians must like same geopolitical narratives as Canadians/Westerners? I do not believe in Western nationalist tropes, and I think it is fair for everyone to have this freedom.

HOW GRAPHENEOS WITCH HUNTS ANY OF ITS CRITICS

Here is the moderation list of GrapheneOS. https://i.imgur.com/nZDeBG6.jpg Here is it, straight from the horse's mouth. https://i.imgur.com/nhepoMJ.jpg

(JUNE 2022) LEMMY RCMP THREAT FIASCO REVISIT

There has been a recent incident from late April 2023 (a month ago) where Daniel Micay claimed he has faced a swatting attempt (attempt to raid house and murder), and a certain CP and gore spammer flooded GrapheneOS chatrooms with this type of nasty troll content, but in one month, he has NOT provided any evidence. Moreover, he claimed Royal Canadian Metropolitan Police (RCMP) is investigating this matter, and then proceeded to lockdown the GrapheneOS Off-Topic Matrix chatroom (place of claimed incident) for sometime.
For context in follow up, Lemmy is a free and open source federated Reddit alternative, that is fully federated with Mastodon, Twitter's free and open rival.
This faux threatening using Canadian police's credentials reminded me of a very similar incident that I faced at Lemmy from two moderators (akc3n from GrapheneOS and dngray from PrivacyGuides) on behalf of Micay. I am the moderator of c/privacy at Lemmy, and this was their failed attempt at trying to rage bait me into reacting hastily, causing administration to revoke my moderation powers, so that GrapheneOS trolls could make Lemmy their next place of habitat, something I protect Lemmy from.
https://archive.ph/acy2h
During this incident, due to the chaos that the tag team of GrapheneOS and PrivacyGuides (remember they still have shared moderator after Tommy?) caused, one Lemmy administrator warned me, because they got scared about the name of police being involved. Tommy_Tran/Privsec_dev proceeded to get me banned from Lemmy c/privacy's Matrix chatroom by tag teaming with dngray (PrivacyGuides moderator) to bait the moderator of that Matrix chatroom in believing I was the troll. Tommy took over soon enough and changed the room into some Windows/GrapheneOS Security crap, and later the moderator of Matrix chatroom itself moved off of Lemmy.ml (Lemmy's main instance) onto Lemmy.ca (coincidentally a Canadian instance). I do not know if these Canadians are friends or just fellow countrymen, but what they did was insanely evil. (Instances are like separate websites that can still operate like they are the same forum/website.)
Screenshot of c/privacy Matrix room takeover and trolling behind my back, knowing what they have pulled off: https://i.imgur.com/PoTiANo.jpg

(JANUARY 2023) akc3n, GRAPHENEOS MOD, CLAIMS THAT WITCH HUNTING CRITICS' ACCOUNTS IS "BRAND REPUTATION AND COMPETITOR ANALYSIS" AND TOMMY BEING A XENOPHOBE

Another horse and his mouth. N-n-neighhh!!! Since Reddit made API paid and Pushshift archival service has said goodbye forever, I can only show you the thread with barely any comments leftover as proof combined with the screenshot I preserved from back then.
Tommy loves Micay so much, he started to accuse me of being a Chinese government shill in exactly the same way Micay did in May 2022.
Now a ghost town of comments: (https://reddit.com/deapple/comments/10dxzdb)
Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/q2OefBw.jpg (see the blue highlighted portion at the very end, at about 20% height from below)

DIVESTOS DEVELOPER BANNING ME ON MICAY'S ORDERS OTHERWISE HE WILL INITIATE A SOCIAL MEDIA HARASSMENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST DIVESTOS

Yes, this happened, and this is my favourite part as far as everything GrapheneOS head/mods have done to date. As dramatic as it sounds, Micay in realtime, in DivestOS' XMPP chatroom, was accusing me of the typical "harassment ringleader campaign" BS, and ordered DivestOS/Mull developer (these are his aliases) SubZer0Carnage/Tad/SkewedZeppelin that if I was not banned immediately, DivestOS and him would face social media targeted campaign and DivestOS will have to forcibly pull off any borrowed GrapheneOS code. DivestOS developer dusted his hands off me, since he does not like me apparently for liking some closed source software and he benefits off of the crybully. Also, unlike the crybully, I have never harassed or harmed anyone because I have a moral conscience to not be an abusive asshole on internet, so he will face no issues on my end.
Screenshot 1: https://i.imgur.com/Al65uTZ.jpg
Screenshot 2 continuation: https://i.imgur.com/mT8W9pa.jpg

TOMMY AND ANUPRITA/RANDOMHYDROSOL SHOWCASING THEIR LOVE FOR GOOGLE/APPLE/MICROSOFT SPYWARE

See, the point is Google and Apple are spyware/ad companies at the end of the day, and it does not matter if you need to use their services due to necessity. The technicality of it does not change, and people simply make privacy compromises for convenience or out of necessity. I do not have anything against that. What I am against though is this weaseling being done in privacy community, knowing people want to prevent privacy abuse from corporations and governments.
I use Windows (and Linux) daily according to how I laid it out in my computing guide in a very private and secure manner. I understand the use cases of common people extremely well, even better than just about all of privacy community, having been a Windows user all my life and daily driving Linux exclusively since 6 years (now dual boot).
These specimens come and evangelically claim how Google and Apple do not spy on people, and how "degoogling" is a nonsensical concept. The reality is, basically all of these peoples' knowledge other than Micay and DivestOS dev, is as good or worse than a first year sophomore computer science student. They mostly parrot the typical points that they formulate based upon things they would hear in their own little world of shitty security blogs, reddit and whatever proficionados like Micay and developers at XDA would blabber about, creating reductionist notions in their head they can just preach around.
Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/bUdVCpH.jpg

GRAPHENEOS ALTS CLAIM CELLEBRITE KITS CANNOT EXFILTRATE DATA FROM PIXELS ON YOUTUBE COMMENTS

I do not know enough to be able to browse every YouTube comment section of every tech related video made on custom ROMs on phones, but what I know is Luke Smith is fairly popular among Western youngsters regarding tech topics. He is a more extreme version of Mental Outlaw, for those that are clueless.
When I saw this, I was astounded. Cellebrite is an Israeli cybersecurity company whose phone exfiltrating kits cost upwards of $1 million, and are only purchasable for government agencies like TSA, police and forensic departments. This company purchases 0day vulnerabilities in commonly used smartphone apps which allows them to run their phone hacking government nexus. How are these GrapheneOS people buying million dollar kits when Micay only has one desktop computer for his GrapheneOS ROM binary compilation? The answer is - it is a lie attempted to be spread like rumour.
One would think, why would anyone be concerned about going this far? I am usually the person who people try to follow on, since I pose good questions regarding a lot of things. In this case, the question would be: if GrapheneOS claims bootloader lock security for protection against Evil Maid and other bootloader attacks, is it secure against phone hacking kits at airports or against state actors? Has GrapheneOS' security ever been vetted independently? Since regular Joe on the street is not a proficionado, would it be okay to ensure selling claims of such extreme security of GrapheneOS is battle tested? People started asking these questions that always went unanswered. You get the idea.
Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/woNxPhx.jpg

DOZENS OF GRAPHENEOS ALTS SPAMMING "PIXEL 6A $299" ON PRIVACY SUBREDDITS AND 4CHAN PRIVACY CLOSES OFF ALL AOSP ROM DISCUSSION POST BRIGADING

If you go to any of the 4Chan archives for /g/ board, and search "graphene" or "pixel", you will find both of these mentioned together many times, which is a very interesting phenomenon. This is known as astroturfing. Here is a compilation of /g/ comments from the last 6 months.
privacy suffered the same and sheltered Micay against all criticism until last month when Micay accused privacy moderators of sheltering claimed CP/gore spammer and swatter, followed by a lot of vote manipulation and sockpuppet brigading, leading to privacy shutting down all discussions relating to any specific AOSP custom ROMs. https://old.reddit.com/privacy/comments/130y6uz/android_based_operating_systems/

MICAY'S CLAIMS OF CP/GORE SPAM ON HIS CHATROOM, AND CLAIM OF ATTEMPTED SWATTING (HOUSE RAID MURDER)

This is the spiciest part for most people in the know about this, and it has been one whole month since the claims. However, neither local Canadian news media has reported anything on something that would be as significant as swatting a software developer, nor has he presented evidence upon being asked by numerous users. Upon being asked, Micay has either ghosted or banned people, or accused them of being complicit in his self-proclaimed attempted murder.
What he is doing here is using psychological trickery of dead cat strategy, creating a loop of "mysterious" act that only he and his 2-3 moderator friends know about but have, upon being repeatedly requested by dozens, denied to give a shred of evidence, and has attempted to use this dirty sensationalist act to gain sympathy. He has also utilised the effect, until now, of relying on the goldfish attention span of masses regarding world events, so that people forget questioning his shocking claims and think his gospel is the immortalised truth.
Moreover, he has a history of never giving any evidence for his claims he has made over the years. Techlore and I have noted and documented this dozens of times at this point, and one Reddit user involved with using GrapheneOS undertook the effort to do this as well. https://old.reddit.com/u_lo________________ol/comments/1314x2x/_/
In the past 24 hours, after Rossmann's video came out, Micay announced that not just is he claiming to step down as developer of GrapheneOS, but that "police know about the swatting situation and are preventing it happening again". How did it go from blocking and ghosting dozens of people upon asking for evidence, to a month later claiming "oh all is good I am quitting social media have a nice day"? Is everyone this gullible? Is there no course of action, or no accountability to present evidence publicly (let alone block users asking) for the duration of an entire month? Nobody is asking for CP material, and evidence of such incident could have easily been shown. Micay engages on social media almost everyday, in a terminally online manner. The reality is, he is escaping accountability after failing to get sympathy from baseless sensationalist claims. Dead cat strategy works until it does not, and people hate being taken as fools for long enough.
EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS REQUIRE EXTRAORDINARY EVIDENCE.
STOP BELIEVING STRANGERS SAYING ANYTHING ON THE INTERNET.
BEING EMPATHETIC DOES NOT MEAN YOU NEED TO TAKE EVERYTHING AT FACE VALUE.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230527063653/https://twitter.com/DanielMicay/status/1662212232506388481#m

COMPARING LEMMY FIASCO FROM LAST YEAR WITH CURRENT EVIDENCE-LESS CP/GORE SPAMMING AND SWATTING CLAIMS

The incident that happened with me from June 2022, in a nutshell, is faux RCMP (Canadian police) threats in order to sensationalise and scare off me and Lemmy's admins into thinking I was onto some serious wrongdoings, creating an image of things that never happened or never will happen. The exact same scare off tactics happened with Micay's fresh claims in late April 2023, which constitutes psychological manipulation of privacy and Android community users to gain attention at all costs. Bad PR is good PR, and good PR is great PR.

LOOKING AT u/lo________________ol's COMPILATION POST OF MICAY'S NUMEROUS EVIDENCE-LESS CLAIMS IN THE PAST

This is the compilation post. https://old.reddit.com/u_lo________________ol/comments/1314x2x/_/
The only ever real conflict that materialised enough into a spat, where I did support Micay, was when CopperheadOS CEO James Donaldson and him had their catfight going on, and when Donaldson asked me in DMs to harass Micay in an organised manner. I protected Micay. https://i.imgur.com/hujn4P1.jpg
Coming to basically every single claim Micay has made about me, Techlore, CalyxOS, F-Droid, Bromite, FlorisBoard developers/heads and so on... Micay has NEVER EVER provided proof justifying his claims. That is right, NEVER, not in a single case. All he has ever done, is scream and shout sensationally, utilising dead cat strategy over the years. There does exist a reason for why he has done all this, which I will elaborate on in a section below.

A VERY COMMON OCCURRENCE OF "$299 PIXEL 6A" COMMENTS ON PRIVACY SUBREDDITS

privacy has now purged comments of these Graphene/Pixel zealots, but there was a certain phenomenon that started after the Black Friday/Christmas sale regarding how financially "accessible" Pixels were, leading these single origin sockpuppets and astroturfers to spam comments with this theme in every "phone recommendation" post/thread. After the Black Friday sales ended, they went ahead and started recommending Swappa/Craigslist used handsets over anything else, with the idea that if you do not buy Pixel, you might as well be directly streamed 24/7 live to 3 letter spook agents. How much more elitist, misleading and toxic can one be when trying to improve privacy of average people?
Collage: https://i.imgur.com/Q1wIIfS.jpg

GRAPHENEOS MATRIX CHAT TELLING PEOPLE TO FLY TO OTHER COUNTRIES TO GET A PIXEL IF NOT AVAILABLE DOMESTICALLY

It is known among Google Pixel buyers and USA/Canada phone buyers, that Pixels have extremely limited availability by country. The amount of mental gymnastics required for someone to tell they need to travel by airplane to other countries to get one specific phone, if they want to have any privacy and security on a phone, forces me to say this - you need medical assistance. When a community goes ahead to do this, what will be your reaction? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Here you go. https://i.imgur.com/Yv9nvxy.jpg

PRIVACYGUIDES PROTECTS AND PETS GRAPHENEOS MODS/HEADS INTENTIONALLY, UPON QUESTIONING YOU GET MUTED OR SILENCED

Tommy was originally made the moderator of PrivacyGuides (PG) exactly one day after he published the "false privacy prophet" post on me (https://archive.is/7wKJW), a post that had no evidence, and trended for an entire month at PG. This person has been a key member and friend of GrapheneOS mods and Micay himself. He thoroughly ensured that Micay's personal grudge based ideas were echoed through PG, and fellow mods like dngray, trai_dep and Jonah fully supported this. akc3n, a fellow GrapheneOS moderator, was always active in threads with them, essentially heavily controlling participation of users at every level. This sounds as ridiculous to me as it does to you, and to this day (May 27 2023), mbananasynergy is a shared moderator between GrapheneOS and PG. You might wonder, the subheading above has still not been addressed. How did I get silenced? Read below.
The exchange between Jonah Aragon and me. https://teddit.adminforge.de/u_lo________________ol/comments/1314x2x/why_did_i_do_this/ji36hbs/#c

REDDIT MAKING ITS API ACCESS PAID, CAUSING PUSHSHIFT ARCHIVAL SERVICE TO COLLAPSE, LEADING TO RAMPANT SOCKPUPPET ABUSE AND HEADACHE FOR MODERATION

Reddit's decision to cripple Pushshift's archival service is intentional. It allows to generate negativity and drama, which will lead to more internet traffic like how Elon Musk loves the new "town square" Twitter. More internet traffic translates to more value when Reddit becomes public entity for shareholders. This causes a nerve busting headache for sitewide moderation, and everyone knows it.
GrapheneOS, as demonstrated and as observed by basically everyone, is extremely formidable at sockpuppet trolling and witch hunting of critics. The definition of a "critic" for them is anyone who does not worship GrapheneOS. Period. Louis Rossmann sees how this makes sense, and so does everyone else. Refer to the "HOW GRAPHENEOS WITCH HUNTS ANY OF ITS CRITICS" section above.

UTTER IGNORANCE AND FAILURE OF PRIVACY COMMUNITY TO SELF POLICE SUCH ELEMENTS

A little angry rant on privacy community as a whole
Privacy community seriously is pathetic in keeping people accountable and vetting the products/tools and their developers, for all the vigilante preaching that goes on in here. It took me to create privatelife and bring some change, and I do not know how much change has been brought about. People just want to look good, nobody cares about actual democracy and putting in the effort to maintain it. Everyone wants their hands clean, expecting others to do the watchdog job, and nobody ends up standing in the crowd. I am from India and I should care zilch about privacy community filled with "democratic westerners" not standing up for themselves, and living like sheep in a dictatorship of some FOSS, corporate and closed source developers/entities. Why do people want to dust their hands off of everything like X or Y incident has nothing to do with them? Where did the concept of solidarity go? Why does nobody want to hold people accountable for being assholes?
/rant

LOUIS ROSSMANN FACES THE MUSIC (COMPLICIT IN ATTEMPTED MURDER) FROM DANIEL MICAY FOR CALLING HIS REPULSIVE INTERNET BEHAVIOUR "INFORMATIVE AND UNFORTUNATE"

Rossmann came out yesterday with a descriptive video with a screen recording of his chat with Micay, where Micay accused him of all that he has gone to accuse literally everyone under the sun during the past month, and folks like me during the past few years. Some reddit users have been targeted with the same, and found solace in talking to me and whatever I have documented on Micay and his acolytes, among other topics and groups.
Rossmann's video on uninstalling GrapheneOS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl1x1Dy-ej4
The video is gaining attention because of how much goodwill Rossmann's deeds towards Apple repairing and Right to Repair movement has garnered over the past 10-15 years. And he is a good person. My only disappointment with him has been missing the mark on, and being silent on GrapheneOS all this while. I get his reasons of benevolence towards FOSS projects, but we need to be stricter about social conduct. Nothing excuses being a horrible person, as far as civil discourse goes.

SO, WHY IS MICAY'S BEHAVIOUR SO WEIRD? A LITTLE MORE CONTEXT AND AN ATTEMPT TO SEE WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO HIM...

More than almost anyone else, I have been interested in why he turned out like this. I will preface this by saying I do not fully believe he is autistic, and even if he is, it does not explain this kind of "me versus the world" impulsive behaviour.
Last year, sometime after he wrote that "paid Chinese government agent" comment on me, I decided to try to genuinely sympathise with him for one more time and see his response.
https://old.reddit.com/privatelife/comments/ws96wx/_/ikzipwf/ (feel free to read with context https://old.reddit.com/privatelife/comments/ws96wx/_/ikzipwf?context=10)
He went silent on me and stopped attacking me. Considering I have documented his behaviour for a few years, I have a well supported conjecture that is better than "BPD/schizo".
Originally, Micay made the memory allocation hardening patch for Linux kernel, but never got a fulfilling wealthy life or career out of it, considering how many of his years later went down quarrelling with CopperheadOS' Donaldson. He quit Copperhead organisation to maintain his fork under the name of GrapheneOS, which is a free open source project. Lack of success in life is the first condition fulfilled.
The second part of this consists of many smaller parts.
I noted last year how in the below reddit thread/screenshot, Daniel Micay and madaidan argue together against Firefox. Before the Tor Project mailing list happened in August 2019, the whole anti-Firefox sentiment mysteriously used to not exist in GrapheneOS community. This is probably the first instance of Micay's resentment towards a large FOSS project.
https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2019-August/013995.html
https://www.unddit.com/firefox/comments/gokcis/firefox_is_insecure_refuted/
Screenshot: https://i.postimg.cc/1P0cfmjX/Firefox-insecure-refuted.jpg
For context, I would ideally advise to read through the "criticism... 4 year evidence" writeup, but an easier way to go through this is knowing about madaidan and his "toilet paper" (I did not call it that) blog attacking FOSS projects' security while simultaneously recommending the antithesis of privacy - Windows, MacOS, Google Chrome et al.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210929053611/https://old.reddit.com/linux/comments/pwi1l9/thoughts_about_an_article_talking_about_the/
https://web.archive.org/web/20220111035527/https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25590079
https://archive.is/zxS72
This is one part of how Micay started to become an isolated toxic person developing hate for FOSS projects for others not conforming to his ideas of how things should be done. This was also the first moment where he took a step towards the Google Big Tech black hole.
Slowly, however, he started to attract the "security zealots" in privacy and FOSS community. What happened here is explained by Dunbar's number, which says a human can only form relationships with 148 people. This number falls to a maximum of 30-50 if you are not particularly extroverted or prefer a smaller group. All of the "security zealots" found some comfort together, creating a loosely linked group where everyone can unite with certain talking points, regarding bashing Linux/Firefox security, preferring Big Tech obscure security products and services, and allowing to normalise the various toxic behaviours everyone individually bears, in the name of "oh IT security people are just bad at social skills". I can count these 15-20 people which allows me to be a bit more confident in what has happened.
People do not know much about this, but Micay used to fantasise replacing Linux kernel with Google's Fuchsia microkernel, a... Google project, because Linux is insecure and trashy. The issue here is that while he did work on Linux kernel patch in the past, he does not anymore, because he has started to develop resentment against any FOSS projects that are not fully conformant with his ways. Linux simply never gave him the success. Micay is apparently entitled to get the fruits, not realising individual work on Linux is largely a communistic effort. Free open source movement is by design democratic and for the community/society first.
Sometime ago, someone informed me of Micay (alias thestingestrcat) creating drama with Bromite (on which their Vanadium browser fork is based) and FlorisBoard projects. They labelled those project maintainers with very bad, false epithets, like "you will be tied to a group engaging in Kiwi Farms level abuse and tolerating neo-nazis". Well too bad, witch hunting people is what you people admittedly do and call it market research.
https://github.com/bromite/bromite/pull/2102#issuecomment-1155760155
https://github.com/bromite/bromite/issues/2141
http://web.archive.org/web/20220803142758/https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard/issues/1921
I should not need to elaborate on GrapheneOS' attitude towards Techlore (he has 2 videos on it) and CalyxOS (again Techlore partially covers CalyxOS).
GrapheneOS members, Micay and his friends like Wonderfall have attacked F-Droid in the name of security, only to push using Google Play Store that annihilates all privacy of people. Google Play Services gather every possible metric about your phone which includes sensor, location, IP address, telephone number, IMEI and so on every 7 minutes. Just to be fair, Apple does the same things and is far worse. This theme of evangelising Google products at the cost of bashing all other projects is a thumb rule for GrapheneOS community.
https://forum.f-droid.org/t/what-are-the-issues-fdroid-have-about-security/17520
Micay finding solace among his "security zealot" friends allowed him to go unchecked and grow into a very malicious person, targeting FOSS projects, individuals, organisations and privacy communities with a lot of sockpuppet trolling, vote manipulation, dishonesty, normalising horrific social etiquette, demonising and witch hunting any and all people that do not worship GrapheneOS. It is borderline criminal and is a surprise to me how people are okay with someone like him. I have two explanations for this - either the ones okay with this themselves share some of these behaviours, or they themselves use GrapheneOS and due to sunk cost fallacy and/or fear of Micay personally targeting them, they either defend him or keep their mouths intentionally shut. An insignificant number of people accept him merely because of benevolence towards FOSS projects IMHO.

FINAL WORD

The problem is not Daniel Micay. The problem is this kind of mindset that has been able to breed and flourish in society. Today, this Micay might go. Tomorrow, another Micay will come under a different name or even this very person under an alias. Privacy community needs to stop being such selfish and individualistic. People need to stop procrastinating or avoiding vetting of these people. I understand tools and code is hard to vet, but people behind the projects can absolutely be vetted. Giving space to elements like these toxic "security zealots" in tech is not bravery or benevolence, it is stupidity and disgustingly selfish. This is precisely why rulebooks like Code Of Conduct have become increasingly popular. We need to give people and projects the boot from society that do not follow Code Of Conduct, and especially pretentious groups like GrapheneOS (https://web.archive.org/web/20230521023428/https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/11-grapheneos-code-of-conduct) that pretend to have civil rules but do the exact opposite to everyone that disagrees with them.
Since enough people may not have understood this, I will repeat it, as I end this text file with some internet rules.
EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS REQUIRE EXTRAORDINARY EVIDENCE.
STOP BELIEVING STRANGERS SAYING ANYTHING ON THE INTERNET.
BEING EMPATHETIC DOES NOT MEAN YOU NEED TO TAKE EVERYTHING AT FACE VALUE.

Greetings my severed heads. Like many of you I discovered the show, ate it up, read the Lexington Letter and am on a personal campaign to tell every person I know about it.
Having that said, I have also taken the next logical step, which is to peruse the subreddit ad nauseam, and doing that, I noticed one of the pivotal questions around here revolves around wondering why innies are the way they are, i.e. why someone like Helena would be as defiant as little Helly. I think it makes a lot of sense to compare them with children—that is to say, the innies are a reflection of who the outie was during childhood, before trauma set it and life events shaped and matured the personality. I’m going to go over the MDR staff to show you what I mean.
Let’s start with our protagonist Mark S. Mark’s innie is thoughtful, law-abiding, supportive and congenial, a real example of what Lumon wants their Severed staff to be like. We know outside Mark is very different: he’s cynical, jaded, melancholic and struggling to deal with the death of his wife by drinking. But, what was he like as a child? His relationship with his sister, Devon is a big clue. She’s his closest friend and confidante, and despite the snark he burns her with on occasion, he’s clearly always there for her, down to being present for the birth of his niece despite his utter dislike of his brother-in-law Ricken. One of the inside jokes that the actors came up with on set was the “M’Lady/M’Lord” exchange. I will take the liberty to read into things here and take this as a sign that their relationship has been strong since childhood, perhaps even one of camaraderie. The same kind of dorky, servile attitude we see in Mark S as an innie.
Then, let’s talk about Dylan. We only get a couple of glimpses into Dylan’s home life and are informed—thanks Milchick—that he has three children. But, we do get to see a lot of him as an innie. Sardonic, deadpan and spirited, Dylan is particularly proud of his achievements at Lumon, somehow touting them as better than they are. This is, again, an attitude that many kids have. I’m talking the more competitive ones who long to assert themselves by being dismissive yet motivated at the same time. There’s also something fiercely protective about Dylan, who selflessly sacrifices himself to let the others experience their outie lives. He has those hidden depths, perhaps he was one of the most loyal kids around, but you had to win him over first.
Irv is really fun to think about. Like Helly, he seems to lead a polar opposite lifestyle than his innie and is a bit of a recluse. We see him painting the same corridor everyday while blasting “The Ace of Spades.” I’m going to gloss over the goo or the idea that his memories are fusing and focus on personality. Irv’s innie is rigorous, sociable, a little old-fashioned and rigid but always polite. We see here the child of old times, where not following the rules had, perhaps, different and more dire consequences. He appears to be the most dedicated Keirian (is that a thing?) in the office, like a well-read little nerd, and that’s not hard to imagine, especially if he had a military background which further enforced this tendency to be rather obedient and well-behaved. We don’t see much, if any, of Irv in the break room because he doesn’t break the rules (get it? The break room breaks you). He’s from a time where children were seen and not heard. As a consequence, his outie is, instead, eager to let himself go on a canvas.
Now, Helly. Helly R is our audience surrogate, but she’s even more rebellious and steadfast than most. Her first few days consist of multiple attempts to escape as well as threats of bodily harm and violence towards her outie. Despite this, she’s paid special attention to and always brought back. That’s because her outie is none other than Helena Eagan, daughter of Jame, current Lumon CEO who has voluntarily decided to undergo severance. There is a battle of wills. Just as Helly is unwilling to work, Helena is unwilling to give up working. They’re both immature from that standpoint—recall Helena’s video to Helly also threatening torture in return. But, Helena appears to be controlled, poised and even a little entitled (okay, very entitled and pretentious). This is an opposite Irv situation. She was a child who had a natural rebellious streak. This quote particularly clued me in: “So, one of the things you learn growing up as an Eagan is that the workers are our family. And I remember being confused about that as a kid, because I thought that meant I had a few hundred thousand literal brothers and sisters scattered around the world. But as I grew older, I learned that it’s about shared ideals.” So, as a child, Helly didn’t care much for the intrinsic bond that brings family together (just as she states she doesn’t want to belong to Mark S’ family early on). This might be a reach, but she had to learn this, meaning originally she believed workers to be separate and potentially below her, just as she sees the rest of them on the first day. As a child, she focused on the parental, genealogical bond that is family rather than the feelings behind it. This is even more telling: “My dad used to make me recite the nine Core Principles before bed every night, which I can’t say I always did happily. Sorry, Dad,” what is she apologizing for here? What was the extent of her unruliness? I profoundly believe Helena was a lot more resistant to her family’s legacy when she was young, which is why her motivation for taking a Severed job is “because it’s awesome” or, that’s what she says. There is no calling or servile behavior. The possibility that this goes farther than Helena simply wishing to win over herself lingers. Perhaps, she has been persuaded to do this as a PR stunt through potential ties with Angelo Arteta’s campaign and to reinvent herself as some sort of holier-than-thou Eagan after a problematic past. Again, this is just a theory, but I don’t see Helly as Helena’s polar opposite. I see her as her starting point, her natural state.
I won’t babble on any further, but one of the things I look forward to the most in shows is characterization and character growth. I don’t know how much of MDR’s OG team will stay in the Severed floor next season, but it will be very interesting to see them ‘grow’ into their ouitie selves, or maybe to see the adult outies recognize their work selves as nothing more than a child and revert back to that state. I think part of that psychological mindfuck is what did Petey’s consciousness in. He had the memories of a child and those of an adult sharing the same head, and that’s just not compatible if he kept triggering the ‘child’ timeline that wasn’t his actual infancy.
Just a theory, but I thought I’d share.

Social media and blogging are sometimes seen as in conflict with one another. In fact, they actively complement each other’s roles online, bridging the gap between people looking for information and the creators looking to reach them.

Bloggers use social media to tap into rich new markets across various platforms, using different techniques. From marketing and promoting their blogs to posting content directly to these highly trafficked platforms, social media sites for blogging are a valuable tool and resource.
We explore the best social media platforms for bloggers and unpack some of the information that will help you choose which ones are best to give your blog the reach, exposure, and opportunities to engage it deserves.

Blogging and Social Media

​
If blog websites were towns and cities, search engines would be the roads, airports, and train stations that link them together. On a more granular level, if blog posts were individual shops, outlets, and information booths, social media is the bars, restaurants, and social hotspots where people chat, engage, and share. While blogs have been around a lot longer than social media, they’ve always been there for one another. Blogging with social media is a natural fit.

The job of the blog

Bloggers actually need to reach audiences for people to read their blog posts. And, without a means of making those readers aware of a blog post, getting onto their screens can be tough. So bloggers employ various means to get the word out about their content. From email marketing and SEO for bloggers to paid advertising, digital marketing, and, yes, social media, bloggers have many options for getting the word out.
Before social media, bloggers relied almost exclusively on blogging platforms like – Ghost and Blogger – and Google to get their blogs into the market. And these methods were beginning to get more demanding and competitive.

Enter social media

Then social media came along. Bloggers didn’t completely abandon the tried-and-tested methods – Google, email, and blogging platforms are still the most popular mechanisms to market and promote blog content. But the many new channels and opportunities that came with this digital revolution suddenly meant bloggers could tap into an incredibly vast global audience faster and more affordably.
Social media has grown into a dominant internet resource that almost everyone with an internet connection has or currently uses. Over 4.7 billion people (out of the 7.8 billion on Earth) use social media daily or intermittently. That’s almost 60% of the planet, making the communication method the biggest market in history.

Blogging meets social media

Bloggers realized the potential these sites and platforms had for their blogs a long time ago. They continue to use blogging with social media to reach into markets that Google isn’t able to give them access to.
While Google decides who gets the most exposure based on bloggers creating content that abides by their rules, with social media, anyone can get high-level exposure – it all depends on you – and the social media platform you choose to do it with matters.

What Bloggers Use Social Media For

Social media is used primarily by bloggers for marketing their blogs, promoting posts, and advertising their brands. But content creators can use social media for a multitude of other things. From adding links to their blog websites in their bios to including links to individual blogs in posts and even publishing whole blogs on some platforms, social media sites for blogging are dependable resources in a competitive industry.
Almost every business uses social media to market its goods and services, and bloggers are doing the same. Social media also allows bloggers to connect with their markets and engage with them on a meaningful level. Many platforms offer useful features that let bloggers sell their content, collect paid subscribers, and even make money with them.
Here are some of the benefits of using the best social media platforms for bloggers to boost your blog.

Engaging with new audiences

Growing your readership is crucial to scale and sustain your blog. Social media’s vast size means you can now tap into rich, expansive markets that were once out of reach. Having a social media presence means that people can actively find you away from Google and that your blog content will slide into the feeds of many more people than you’re currently reaching.

Saving – and making – money

Blogging with social media is free – mostly. Signing up to social media platforms and creating a profile for your brand or pages for your blogs usually won’t cost you anything. Once you do start to think about paid advertising on social media, you’ll soon realize the impressive returns you can get for paying to promote.
You can also use social media to make money for your blog. From monetizing groups to selling merchandise and participating in affiliate partner programs, social media offers excellent ROI.

Promoting your blog

Nothing beats social media for sheer exposure. With so many social media sites for blogging to choose from and the ability to have a presence on all of them, once you’ve got your pages, profiles, and feeds up and running and boasting your content, you’ll enjoy many new visitors to your blog.

As a powerful traffic driver

Aside from the extra pageviews and impressions you notice, the diverse blend of new niches, different target audiences’ locations, and demographics that social media delivers make it a powerful ally. Marketing is easy too. Most platforms have the marketing and analytics tools you need to understand who is reading your blog or visiting it and why.

As a secondary blogging option

Some bloggers aren’t necessarily keen to set up a website or restrict their content to one blogging platform. Instead, they can use social media as a blogging alternative. While you can’t blog on all of the best social media platforms for bloggers, some do allow you to post content as descriptions, in comments, or as much smaller ‘microblogs.’ This content can then double as a blog in place of a regular, published one.
Of course, nothing beats traditional blogging as the most lucrative blogging option, but social media platforms make for a great alternative.

To learn and conduct research

Social media is also a great place to collect data and information, learn about markets, and discover what your readers want. Two-way communication across a regular blog post can be a big challenge, mostly limited to email and comments. However, social media is designed to allow people to communicate efficiently and comprehensively.
Bloggers can use social media to discover new content ideas, learn about their readers to deliver better content, conduct surveys, and answer any questions these audiences may have.
Best Social Media Platforms for Bloggers

1. Tumblr

Active users: 135 million Can blog on-platform? Yes Character limit: 4,096 (Blocks)
With over 500 million blogs hosted on Tumblr, the microblogging platform has made an impressive comeback and continues to take significant strides. Easy to use and the perfect community for connecting with an engaged audience, Tumblr allows bloggers to drive traffic to their blog sites quickly and easily.
- Best for: Bloggers who want to post shorter blog content on-platform & for those starting out while looking to connect with people with similar interests.
- Top niches: Content Creation; Writing; Anything, really.
- Used for: Increasing your blog’s exposure & directing more traffic to your site quickly & easily.
- Top feature(s): Integrability with WordPress blogs by adding a Tumblr button.

2. Facebook

Active users: 2.7 billion+ Can blog on-platform? Yes Character limit: 63,206 (Posts)
Facebook – of course. The social media pioneer and digital titan reaches a staggering number of people, and almost every brand, influencer, and serious content creator has an account. Facebook is ground-zero for blog marketing 101 and ranks among the top social media sites for blogging. Create a Facebook page for your blog to promote and advertise your content directly to the world.
- Best for: Bloggers who need a mainstream social media presence. This is a must-have for any legitimate content creator.
- Top niches: DIY; Moms & Parenting; Fashion & Beauty.
- Used for: Sharing your blog & marketing it to a vast audience across different groups, markets & regions.
- Top feature(s): Facebooks Groups & Facebook Pages, allowing you to create a dedicated page for your blog.
Check out these useful articles on how to monetize your Facebook groups and how to start a blog on Facebook.

3. Pinterest

Active users: 455 million Can blog on-platform? No Character limit: 500 (Pin descriptions)
Pinterest is an exciting prospect blogging with social media. Bloggers looking to introduce a visual element to their blog’s presence count on Pinterest as a different option to Instagram. The platform is also a visual search engine that allows bloggers to blend their blog posts with attractive visual brand elements. Boost interest and add an appealing touch to your offerings with this uniquely innovative platform.
- Best for: Bloggers who need to generate more traffic through enriched imagery & those looking to share the visual components of their brand.
- Top niches: Art; Photography; Design.
- Used for: Driving high-quality traffic to your blog – for free & generating ideas.
- Top feature(s): Pinterest boards & eCommerce. Pinterest can be integrated with an eCommerce store using external links to websites or platforms.
Bloggers can create boards with imagery and other visual elements that support and enhance the blog’s content. Visit our comprehensive guide for how to use Pinterest for blogging.

4. Medium

Active users: 85 – 100 million Can blog on-platform? Yes Character limit: Unlimited
Medium is possibly the most ‘native’ of the social media sites for blogging. The writing-focused social media platform is popular among bloggers as it operates as a blogging platform. Bloggers can post directly on Medium or import their published blogs. You can even include your blog posts in various Medium publications.
- Best for: Bloggers looking to establish their writing and brand in a high-level writing social community while earning extra income.
- Top niches: Blogging; Writing; Digital Marketing.
- Used for: Generating revenue for blog content & articles posted on the platform.
- Top feature(s): The ability to republish your WordPress blogs on the platform by importing your posts & Medium Lists.

5. Instagram

Active users: 1 billion+ Can blog on-platform? Yes Character limit: 2,200 (Descriptions)
Instagram is incredibly popular among bloggers operating in various high-value niches. The home of the ‘influencer,’ Instagram is the go-to for bloggers hoping to make it big. The Lifestyle niche thrives on Instagram, backed by big-money food, fashion, travel, beauty, health, and fitness brands. Creators are leveraging the platform to market their content and search for potential sponsorship opportunities.
While your posts will still shape up as image or video-based, you can link your blog to the bio of your Instagram profile. Bloggers can also add written content of up to 2,200 characters (around 500 words) into their posts’ descriptions, though links to blogs can only go into bios.
- Best for: Influencer bloggers & those looking to engage visually with their audiences around a focused niche topic.
- Top niches: Travel, Food, Health & Fitness.
- Used for: Tapping into specific, younger niche markets & growing a following around your brand.
- Top feature(s): Instagram Stories, Reels, & the ability to post links here.
This guide on how to start a successful Instagram blog will get you up and running in no time.

6. LinkedIn

Active users: 875 million Can blog on-platform? Yes Character limit: 120,000 (articles)
LinkedIn is the ‘professional’ social media platform for bloggers looking to promote their blogs in a more business-focused environment. LinkedIn works similarly to Facebook, allowing you to include links to your blog in various posts, but bloggers can add far more detail around a blog’s authority and expertise potential.
You can use your LinkedIn profile as a CV for your blog, opening the doors for sponsorship opportunities or attracting potential clients for whom to create content. The platform also allows you to create entire articles ‘written’ by your blog’s page.
- Best for: Bloggers with goals to scale their business online. Reaching out to a business-minded community in a professional environment & finding potential clients.
- Top niches: Finance, Business, Wealth & Careers.
- Used for: Showcasing your authority & expertise while connecting on a more professional level.
- Top feature(s): LinkedIn Articles, where you can essentially blog long-form content directly to the community. Google won’t see this as duplicate content, either.
If you’re considering using LinkedIn as a blogging platform, ensure you’re doing so for the right reasons.

7. YouTube

Active Users: 2 billion+ Can blog on-platform? No Character limit: 5,000 (Video descriptions)
YouTube is another social media titan that, while not the first blogging with social media option for most bloggers, can become a powerful engagement channel, traffic driver, and trust-builder for your blog. YouTube is the home of video and, with video engagement rates far higher than written content, makes for the ideal community-building platform.
Bloggers can break down long-form blogs into short, bite-sized videos, optimize for SEO (YouTube is the world’s 2nd-largest search engine), and even generate revenue on the platform.
- Best for: Bloggers offering instructional or ‘how-to’ blog content. YouTube is also optimal for directly engaging with watchers & asking them to visit your blog.
- Top niches: Education; Music; Reviews.
- Used for: Developing a video alternative to your blog (especially if you want to convert your blogs into video scripts) and building an audience for your brand.
- Top feature(s): Embedding YouTube videos in your blog posts & the ability to monetize YouTube video content by directing people to videos through sponsored content & display ads.
Read this article if you’re still undecided about the potential of YouTube as one of the social media sites for blogging that aligns best with your social media strategy.

8. TikTok

Active Users: 834 million Can blog on-platform? No Character limit: 2,200 (Descriptions)
TikTok hasn’t been around for long. But the platform is making waves as one of the fastest-growing social media options around. Creators are thriving on the China-based short-form video platform, and bloggers can get in on the action, too – both to drive traffic to their blog and make money.
TikTok’s algorithm works differently from other platforms in that anyone – even those with very few followers – can enjoy the same level of post exposure as top influencers. The platform lets you link your other social media profiles, and you can add your blog’s link to your bio.
- Best for: Bloggers looking to access a younger, more diverse audience and to promote their blog through more accessible short-form videos.
- Top niches: Entertainment; Current Trends; Young Lifestyle.
- Used for: Cross-promoting your blog across other platforms and gaining more exposure for your blogging brand within a younger market.
- Top feature(s): The TikTok Creator Fund is helping users with large followings to earn healthy revenues.
Making money on TikTok is becoming a popular option for the social media sites for blogging that pay. The TikTok Creator Fund, for example, is netting content creators (including bloggers) good income. TikTok Creator Next takes things to the ‘next’ level. This article will tell you everything you need to know about it.

9. Twitter

Active Users: 354 million Can blog on-platform? Yes Character limit: 280 (Tweets)
While Twitter has been through some ups and downs recently, that doesn’t make it any less of a top social media platform contender for your blog. The 280-character limit on Tweets means that Twitter users spend less time on the platform than they do on others, but you can still use the ‘Twitterverse’ to make a significant impact, driving good traffic to your site.
Bloggers can post links directly to their blogs, create ‘Twitter lists’ so that their Tweets appear on the feeds of the people they want them to, and use hashtags to target the right markets. Bloggers operating in the news and current developments niches can count on Twitter to help them hit their exposure and engagement goals.
- Best for: Bloggers keen to use social media to engage with established audiences, keep them updated, and invite followers to visit their blog through a pinned link in their Twitter profile.
- Top niches: Technology; News; Economics.
- Used for: Engaging with followers in real-time and building a community around your blog.
- Top feature(s): Unique hashtags allow you to segment and target your posts & you can simply tweet links directly to your blog posts automatically.

What About The Others?

There are many other best social media platforms for bloggers that you can tap into to achieve their blogging ambitions. Some are geared towards specific audiences, others are ideal for bloggers in particular niches, and some of them aren’t considered social media platforms per se, but they still perform a similar function.
- Reddit, with its 500 million active users, will let you blog on the user-generated content (UGC) platform, providing a means for the forum’s users to reach your content with ease.
- Quora is a great place to earn traffic by answering questions and posting your blog’s link on the Q&A-centric platform.
- Snapchat is another video-driven platform that makes for an exciting storytelling space in which a blog series targeted at under-20s will thrive.
- WhatsApp is quickly evolving into a social mecca.

Conclusion

Whether you’re looking to use social media to boost your blog’s exposure, access new markets, drive fresh traffic to your site, or generate additional blog revenue, best social media platforms for bloggers represent some of the top tools with which to do it. With audiences spanning a wide range of demographics, regions, and spending potential, social media is an affordable (and mostly free) promotion tool that boosts engagement and gives your blog a valuable presence.
You can set up pages and profiles for your blog on all of these social media sites for blogging if you want, but ensure that you do so with purpose. A neglected or incomplete profile can do more harm to your blog than good, and ignoring user interactions can cause significant problems down the line. Choose platforms frequented by your niche, align your blog’s brand with your social media presence, and ensure you take advantage of these innovative platforms’ unique features and tools.
Social media can be a powerful partner for your blog – so make sure you’re getting the most out of what blogging with social media has to offer.

When it comes to urological health, finding the right doctor is of paramount importance. Delhi, being a bustling metropolis, is home to several renowned medical institutions and specialists. However, one name that stands out among the rest is MASSH (Medical Association for Sexual Health), known for its exceptional urology department and world-class urology doctors.
In this blog, we will delve into the reasons why MASSH is considered the go-to destination for urology care in Delhi.

Expertise and Experience:

MASSH boasts a team of highly skilled and experienced urology doctors who have a wealth of knowledge and expertise in their field. These specialists are not only well-qualified but also dedicated to providing the best possible care to their patients. With their extensive experience and continuous training, they stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in urology, ensuring that patients receive the highest standard of treatment.

Comprehensive Range of Services:

MASSH offers a comprehensive range of urological services, catering to various conditions and ailments. From common urological problems such as urinary tract infections, kidney stones, and prostate disorders to more complex cases like urinary incontinence, bladder cancer, and erectile dysfunction, the urology department at MASSH is equipped to handle diverse conditions. Patients can rest assured that they will receive accurate diagnoses, personalized treatment plans, and compassionate care for their urological concerns.

State-of-the-Art Facilities:

In addition to its exceptional medical staff, MASSH is renowned for its state-of-the-art facilities. The hospital is equipped with cutting-edge technology and modern diagnostic tools that aid in accurate assessments and precise treatment. The urology department at MASSH has advanced imaging equipment, robotic surgery systems, and specialized laboratories, allowing doctors to provide the most effective and minimally invasive procedures for their patients.

Patient-Centric Approach:

One of the key factors that sets the urology department at MASSH apart is its patient-centric approach. Every patient is treated with utmost care, empathy, and respect. The doctors take the time to understand each patient's unique concerns, medical history, and lifestyle factors to develop personalized treatment plans. Clear communication, patient education, and involving patients in their own care decisions are integral components of the approach at MASSH, fostering a trusting doctor-patient relationship.

Positive Patient Experiences:

The reputation of MASSH speaks for itself through the countless positive patient experiences and success stories. Patients consistently praise the urology doctors at MASSH for their professionalism, expertise, and genuine care. The hospital has a strong track record of delivering excellent outcomes and improving the quality of life for individuals struggling with urological conditions.
Conclusion:
When it comes to choosing the best urology doctor in Delhi, MASSH undoubtedly stands out as a leading healthcare institution. With its team of highly skilled and experienced urology specialists, comprehensive range of services, state-of-the-art facilities, patient-centric approach, and a history of positive patient experiences, MASSH is a top choice for anyone seeking urological care in the capital city. Rest assured, at MASSH, you will receive world-class treatment from the best urology doctors Delhi has to offer.

Custom t-shirts have been a popular fashion trend for many years, but did you know they also hold significant power in building a strong brand image? Whether running a small business or trying to promote your brand, custom t-shirts can be the game-changer you've been looking for. In this blog post, we'll explore how custom t-shirts can help you establish and strengthen your brand image - from increasing visibility to creating a sense of unity among employees and customers.
Custom T-Shirts Are Powerful Marketing Tools
There's no denying that custom T-shirts are powerful marketing tools. Custom T-shirts can create a unique selling proposition (USP). Your USP should be the unique feature that differentiates you from your competitors. Customized T-shirt printing can help you develop and implement your USP.
Role of Custom T-Shirts Manufacturer to Promote Product/Brand Features
Another reason custom T-shirts are such powerful marketing tools is that they can be used to promote product or brand features. For example, if your business produces custom T-shirts with funny slogans or graphics, you could use them as marketing materials to promote your products. By promoting product features, you'll attract more customers interested in purchasing those features. An experienced Custom T-Shirt Manufacturer is vital in providing essential information about the material, the latest designs & product development.
Customized T-Shirts Are Perfect for Promoting Your Business Image
If you want to promote a positive image for your business, customized T-shirts are the perfect tool. Customized T-shirts can help differentiate your business from its competitors. And last but not least, personalized T-shirts make a great impression on potential customers. They make you look like a company committed to providing quality service and products.
How Customized T-Shirts Help Build a Strong Brand Image
Whether you're a small business trying to brand yourself or an established company looking to stand out, custom-made shirts are a great way to do just that. Here are four reasons why custom t-shirts are such powerful marketing tools:
1. Custom T-Shirts Are Personalized Messages That Stick with Customers
When you give your customers a customized t-shirt, you send them a message saying, "you're important to us." Not only do personalized messages make customers feel appreciated, but they also tend to stick with them more than generic messages.
2. Customized T-Shirts Increase Sales and Conversions Rates
Studies have shown that when businesses use custom t-shirts as part of their marketing strategy, they experience an increase in sales and conversion rates. Why? Because customized shirts communicate clear messages about the company's values and mission, which can encourage customers to buy products or services related to those values. As a result, customized shirts can boost customer loyalty and engagement levels - two key factors in boosting sales and generating leads
The Different Types of T-Shirts
There are many types of T-shirts, each with its own benefits. For example, crew neck T-shirts are the most popular type because they're comfortable and versatile. Women's T-shirts come in various lengths and styles, from fitted to loose fit. And finally, there are baby T-shirts, which make great gifts for newborns or infants.
The different types of T-shirts have different marketing benefits. For example, women's T-shirts are often more flattering than men's shirts, which makes them more likely to be purchased by women. Baby T-shirts also appeal to parents who want to show their children they support their interests. They create a powerful connection with customers by using unique designs that reflect your brand and personality.
What to Consider When Choosing a Design

1. The message you want to send.
   
2. The tone you want to achieve.
   
3. The size and shape of the design.
   
4. The cost and time involved.
   
5. The availability of a designer who can create the shirt exactly how you want it.
   
6. Your company's branding strategy and timeline for implementing it.
   

To help you decide which T-shirt design will best suit your needs, here are three tips for creating a powerful brand image with custom shirts:
1) Choose a message that communicates your unique selling proposition (USP)
2) Ensure that your T-shirt design is appropriate for the tone you're trying to achieve—serious, humorous, or businesslike—and reflects the values and culture of your company/brand/businesses).
3) Pick designs that are easily identifiable as yours, both visually and in terms of color palette and style (elements such as fonts, graphics, etc.). This will help reinforce your brand's identity and make customers feel like they're part of something special—even if they
How to Order Customized T-Shirts
There is no doubt that a customized T-shirt can help build a strong brand image. Whether starting a new or established clothing business, custom shirts can be a great way to show your brand presence.
When ordering custom T-shirts, it is important to consider several factors:

1. The T-shirt should fit well and be of high quality to last long.
2. The message plays a vital role in communicating with customers.
3. Consider what type of graphics or unique features would make your T-shirt unique and special.
4. Think about how you want your logo or text to appear on the shirt.
5. Plan by ordering enough shirts to create different styles and variants of the same design.
6. Make sure to include a design template with your order so the customer can see how their shirt will look before ordering it.

Remember to take advantage of social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to promote your customized T-shirts. Using creative hashtags and tagging relevant accounts helps to reach potential customers and develop an interest in products. Finally, keep your customers updated on your latest T-shirt designs and promotions.
Custom T-shirts are the way to stay ahead of competitors. Not only you can get your logo on display uniquely and memorably, but you can also build a strong brand image with customized T-shirts. Here are four tips for ordering custom T-shirts:
1. Know Your Brand's Message
Before ordering any T-shirts, ensure you know what message your brand wants to communicate. This will help you decide which designs work best for your brand and how much customization is necessary.
2. Be Flexible with Your Design Specifications
Once you know your brand's message, be flexible with your design specifications. Consider including specific wording or images on some shirts or allowing for different colors and sizes.
3. Request Designs in Advance
Request designs in advance so you can consider all possible options and choose the ones that best represent your brand. You want to avoid ending up with mismatched shirts that won't look as good as they could have if they'd been ordered together in one batch.
Conclusion
Building a solid brand image is essential for any business; custom t-shirts are a great way to do it. Custom t-shirts made specifically for your business make them more unique and memorable.

A homeless teenager reaches out to the Shil’vati on first day of the invasion of Earth.
This is a rewrite of my original story ‘Loyalist’.
Credit to u/bluefishcake for writing the original SSB story.
Pizzaulostin who has been beta reading since the beginning.
and u/BruhMomentGEE
Credit to u/HollowShel for getting me started with this!
This story is based in the SSB universe.
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as always, comments are welcome.
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Chapter 20:
Itaro:
I tried to distract myself by looking out the large windows framed by scuffed dull purple alloy. I fidgeted with the flat pulpwood box on my lap as the old city bus lumbered through the low-income apartment block suburbs broken up by small factories, tiny parks, schools, shopping malls, restaurants, temples, and other minutiae of the community.
I looked down at the box containing dad’s old cooling vest. A vest I had tailored surreptitiously for Klein as a “friendly gift”. A utility present to get closer to him and maybe ask him out in a month or two.
That scheme had gone out the window two days ago the moment I stood between Klein and Giton. That same day, Klein had kissed me, and the gift now was part of the first date. I’m still stupefied on how forward he’d been. It didn’t help that he was the adopted son of my father’s ex-lover.
Yeah, this was weird, Humans are weird.
The calm chime sounded to let me know that we reached the junction of thirty-seventh and forty-fifth street. I sighed inwardly, signaled a stop, and stood up. Weird are not, Klein was fun to be around, and a mental vacation compared to my own family.
Klein:
I tried my best not to notice how tight my arm sleeves on my dress shirt were as I read through Gearschilde craft-book on common legends and stories of the early days of their calamity.
The heavy book had pages made of brass and steel, small levers, dials and switches helped animate the illustration while also teaching the basics of mechanics, electronics and materials science through rhyme and illustration. Skills necessary personally and communally needed to simply survive on their hellscape of a home world.
I handled it gingerly. I hadn’t understood when Cee gave it to me why they were called “craft-books”, nor why a priest had so many of them. A bit of research on the data net had explained that a craft book was an heirloom object of the family, made by a crafting-priest with the removed augments and implants of a deceased Gearschilde. A priest such as Cee handled such sacred objects when the family may no longer need them.
Apparently Forges Metal In Service Of Life was Exceptionally doting on her grandchildren, and the introduction she wrote for her own recycled corpse told of a woman who had literally given everything to her children so they may have a better future.
It was wholesome, but still I couldn’t help feeling a little creepy that I was technically playing with a dead body, or at least what had been vital prosthetics within it.
My thoughts were so wrapped up in the book though that I only caught the last few notes of the front doorbell melody by the time the sound drew my attention. Reqellia was already out of her chair looking at me expectantly in the study. I (carefully) closed the craft-book, got up and followed her out into the courtyard. A bit of nervous and excited energy in each step.
Itaro was here!
‘You are acting like a middle schooler on his first date’ Squirrel brain chastised me.
Fuck you too squirrel brain, it’s not like I had a wholesome date before that I could bring to a parent. I thought back, bringing up the mental image of Kelly, my last “girlfriend” that lasted two weeks, and was expelled for drinking in school.
I shook the old memories away. Bringing myself back to the present as Itraro opened the courtyard main doors. Dressed in tight, tailored, black ‘hunting pants’ with a thin silver stripe down the out seam and a deep navy-blue cooling vest with more silvery accents. I could see actual boning on the vest meant for body support. Itaro had gone for the Rakiri “functional formal” dress that was meant for parades and hunting parties. She carried a flat gift box that was semi-expensive and had clearly come to take this date seriously.
I stood up straighter in my Shil formalwear that was ready to burst at the seams. Reqellia moved between me and Itaro, performing the Shil’vati ritual of inspecting a potential suitor for their son on their first date. Again, yesterday Reqellia calling me her “son” felt fake, I was not her son, but I played along. She was at least one of my guardians right now.
There was a lackadaisy air to Reqellia’s words as she spoke. “You are interested in Klein, and want to go for a walk with him?”
Itaro still had a bit of nervousness in her voice, but she spoke steadily. “Yes, ma’am.”
Reqellia stayed silent and stared at Itaro for just a heartbeat, then broke into a wide grin, throwing up her hands. “Jrafell’s (goddess of joy’s) fire! You two get out of here, and don’t message me till {sunset}!”
Reqellia shooed us out the front door, and as it closed behind us, Itaro held the package out towards me. “So, uh, I wanted to give this to you after the raid game. It’s a cooling vest since I notice you're starting to sweat even in the mornings now.”
I took the box slowly, trying to parse what she said. It was warm, but I was sweating all the time? I touched my forehead, and yes, I felt a slight dampness. How had I not noticed that?
I looked down at the layers of wicking fabric I was wearing. The high collar, the arm length sleeves. I was normally clothed neck down so that only my head and hands were exposed. The sweat wasn’t visible, and I had just mentally blocked it out. Shil cloth didn’t get stiff with sweat salt somehow.
I opened the lid. The vest was colored in a dark blue with the heat sinking accents in gold creeping vine motifs. “It’s… gorgeous.”
Itaro’s ears flicked back in self-aware embarrassment at the complement. “It’s not too outdated?”
I closed the lid with a dramatic snap as we started to walk towards the bus stop. “No, I think it’s styled for exactly the right time.”
The bus took us to a different part of town. Instead of the monolithic metallic blocks of shopping, living, and factory complexes, it was more akin to squares of walled-in outdoor malls with rows upon rows of car width sized streets and two-story shop or factory houses.
The outer walls of the area were the same style as any other Shil’vati building; however, inside those walls completely threw off any Shil sensibilities, and reveled in the multi-species culture so indicative of Sky that had become my favorite part of living here.
I always felt like a tourist walking through the compound gates. It was still hard, trying to understand what all the stores, meeting houses, clubs, and drink vendors offered. I was really hoping when I could walk alone to come here on my off days and just learn.
It was by far one of the most comfortable places I had been. I wasn’t given a second glance as scales, fur and even odder skins walked the streets. The scents changed from pungent and earthy to downright floral. The late morning was bustling with crowds also wanting to enjoy their off days of the Shel mid-week break. Colorful awnings had been stretched out to provide shade, and here some of the signs even had multi-language signs as opposed to the normal Trade Shil lexicon. The small gardens ranged from normal green hues, to cartoon colorful oranges, reds, and even bright blues and shiny blacks
I led the way to a cluster of shops owned by Tulo’s family. The architecture was Shil-ish. The patterns were of typical stars and seas done in metal, but instead of the traditional purples, blacks, and golds, it had textured matte finish and pastel colors. The sign above this particular hole-in-the-wall was labeled simple “Ki’tra’s Styling”
We walked in the open door, and again I was transported to a Shil’vati style not fashionable in at least two centuries. Brass instead of gold, marble and granite where thermocast metal should normally be placed. It was bright, shadowless, with a similar setup of padded chairs every barbershop that every species seemed to have in common.
“Be with you one second!” Tulo called out as he finished with a different customer. A Sharpfish gang member getting their hair done in a complex set of braids that I knew had a tradition of long-ago sea raiders. Thank you, Death Islands serial drama play, for giving me that tidbit of info.
Tulo was dressed flamboyantly straight for Shil’vati culture. He carried tools on a lacy belt rig. The pants and shirt were Shil cut, but again, the normally muted tones were swapped for bright swatches of color. A workaholic in terms of Shil’vati lifestyle and at the upper end of his species’ stamina. Pulling forty hours or even more a week, he never lost his marine’s purposeful gait despite the turn towards more gender conforming attitude and fashion.
I had a suspicion that Tulo and Ruhal were more than friends, but I didn’t pry. A few books and shows had hinted at such relationships, but there was a weird feeling when I checked the data-net that something was missing.
Tulo finished with the Sharpfish, as she strode out the room, she gave me a wink, and I could feel Itaro raise her hackles next to me. The tension was broken with Tulo throwing his arms wide in greeting. “K’ien! Thank you for giving us your time (and money) today! Ruhal sent over your wants, and I have been looking forward to this appointment, and who is this with you today?”
I looked at Itaro for permission, and with a barely perceptible nod I introduced her. “This is Itaro, my girlfriend.”
Tulo faked surprise dramatically. I knew Ruhal would have told him by now. “Oh, Itaro! I must say. You have found quite the catch, would you also like a trim? On the house!”
I knew Tulo would send a small fee to Ruhal for Itaro, but Itaro didn’t need to know that. She nodded again, but with her ears twitching, she said in a smaller than usual voice with intonation posing it as a question. “I would?”
Tulo turned around and yelled. “Reku! I have a K’ien’s girlfriend here wanting a trim and polish! You want practice?”
Reku walked out onto the shop floor from the back rooms holstering his omni pad while looking severe, but then again, he always looked severe. Reku was dressed in crisp clothes with muted blacks and purples more akin to a boardroom than a barbershop.
Tulo had let slip it was Reku’s way of “rebelling” from his father’s own counterculture style while helping Ruhal replace a faulty home heating unit.Tulo, to his credit, encouraged Reku’s “rebellious” behavior, and the quiet smile when he saw Itaro meant the next hour would be a production for both me and Itaro.
As I heard the snip of scissors, my head felt lighter by the second. It took a good quarter hour of combing for Tulo to get my bird’s nest hair unknotted, then the clipping started. It didn’t take long before the floor around me was covered in hair with faded shades of dye still clinging onto the strands.
I looked over at Reku snipping at Itaro’s mane to even it out and fur to sit flush with her clothes, with acute precision. While son and father had wildly different styles, their skillset was comparably solid.
“Head forward please.” Tulo’s voice was now business-like as he powered on the nearly silent trimmer, and in the mirror was a face that wasn’t recognizable to the boy a few months ago. The hair being the last vestige of a “Beach Bum” front I had worn while working at the convenience store.
The sides had been buzzed, and the top had been quaffed and rolled into a haircut I could only describe as “punk Elvis”. The haircut would be easy to maintain daily, but would require weekly trims.
“And now for the final touch.” Tulo smiled as he pulled out a hair dyeing comb and artfully brushed in a fade. My hair looked now like a field of grass just starting to turn in autumn with dark green tips shading lighter and blending into my naturally blonde hair.
It was just hair, but the loss of its weight on my head made me feel energetic. I wanted to stand, walk, run, but I kept seated as Tulo called out “Reku, I’m done with K’ien, ready to switch?”
“Almost” Reku replied flatly. I turned to see what he was doing and, oh… He had applied a dark bronze powder that gave her normally dull black spotted gray fur a speckled sheen that subtly reflected and scattered the light.
I stared a bit too long, and when Itaro saw me she looked away self-consciously. I did the same. It wasn’t right for me to stare, dating or no.
“Reku will be with you shortly. I need to take care of another customer,” Tulo said as he walked away. I still snuck glances at Itaro as I drummed my fingers to the rhythms of Ki’zachi, Chopin and got through the opening riffs of a Megadeth song before Reku started to work on me.
My face cleaned up and my nails polished and lacquered. I finally got up from my chair with Itaro openly staring at me. I blushed, feeling the heat on my cheeks, and looked away.
Well maybe staring wasn’t so bad.
“Now, my wife and daughter are two stores down with the clothes you picked out. The commissions take time, but we have rapid fabricators that will give you a feel how the real thing will wear, and if any adjustments need to be made,” Tulo explained to me as both me and Itaro tried not to gawk at each other.
We headed out of the shop clumsily, weaving slightly as we tried to decide where the line of personal space between us was considered proper.
Itaro:
“They are adorably awkward together aren’t they?” I heard Tulo whisper when he thought I was out of earshot. Dirtmothers this was embarrassing. Was my only thought as we walked down the road. All too aware of how we both looked.
Tulo’s wife Ma’tari was already putting clothes on the counter, her teenage daughter was at that weird phase of Shil life where they are skinny to the point of looking underfed with a name tag that read ‘Iss’fera.’
“Here you go K’ien! How have you…. What happened to you? I just tailored that shirt two months ago,” Iss’fera asked as her mother Ma’tari sternly looked at her.
“He built up some muscle, and you should too if you want to catch any boy’s eye!” using a bit of guilt to chastise her daughter for her faux paus. I wanted to defend her since she was working Shel break, but I didn’t want to get in another’s family drama.
“Oh! Uh, here you go!” she mumbled while handing Klein his clothes, blushing furiously.
I paced in the lobby of the shop each time passing the mirror trying not to stop and inspect myself. The coppery tint reminded me of action stars and dramatized play fights when we visited Iron Mountain city.
I thought of Klein, and how he looked. He might not be a heavyweight door guard, but he wasn’t some bone thin Shil boy, and Hario had explicitly approved of him. I held my head a bit higher. Reminding myself I was disappointing no one with my choice. No matter how xenophobic some of my extended family was.
The door to the changing room clicked open, and I turned to see Klein in a mix of profoundly familiar and utterly alien clothes. My father’s cooling vest over a loose white shirt with… belts? On the forearms, making it close fitting at the wrist with the excess fabric over the bicep. The black pants were Shil tight, but with weirdly patterned knees that could stretch, and the pleated skirt of heavy fabric that covered the crotch and thighs looked to be directly imported from the Dirt governess’s honor guard. The only thing still standard was the shoes, and I had doubts they would stay standard for long.
“It fits you,” was all I could say, and it was true. The clothes complemented a figure that was neither Shil, Senthe or Helkam slim, nor Rakiri heavy. It was clothes meant for a human.
Klein’s lopsided smile told me this wasn’t the same Klein that walked into the changing room. It was the smile worn right before a Raid game or an obstacle course, or when bantering with Paluto. It meant his persona switched from quiet to theatrical*.*
At least this meant he’d be talking more. It wasn’t like him to be this quiet. “Thank you Ma’tari, Iss’fera, for the wonderfully crafted clothes. I look forward to the real thing!” Klein said as he walked up to me and offered his arm. This was the Klein that had kissed me, and now I could relax as there was a role for both of us to play, with easy to follow baked-in social conventions.
I took Klein’s offered arm confidently and we walked out together as I asked. “Where to now?”
“Somewhere to talk, ever tried Nighkru Tea?” Klein stage whispered cryptically.
/////// Author’s notes:
A lot has happened in life! And this chapter was hard to get started. I didn’t know where the first scene was supposed to even be! I also had a lot of worldbuilding to do for everything to feel more solid than before. It was worth it though! It took me two weeks to get the first half done, and two days for the second half.

A homeless teenager reaches out to the Shil’vati on first day of the invasion of Earth.
This is a rewrite of my original story ‘Loyalist’.
Credit to u/bluefishcake for writing the original SSB story.
Pizzaulostin who has been beta reading since the beginning.
and u/BruhMomentGEE who has really helped with plot and dialogue.
Credit to u/HollowShel for getting me started with this!
This story is based in the SSB universe.
Previous
First
next
as always, comments are welcome.
​

Chapter 20:

Itaro:

I tried to distract myself by looking out the large windows framed by scuffed dull purple alloy. I fidgeted with the flat pulpwood box on my lap as the old city bus lumbered through the low-income apartment block suburbs broken up by small factories, tiny parks, schools, shopping malls, restaurants, temples, and other minutiae of the community.
I looked down at the box containing dad’s old cooling vest. A vest I had tailored surreptitiously for Klein as a “friendly gift”. A utility present to get closer to him and maybe ask him out in a month or two.
That scheme had gone out the window two days ago the moment I stood between Klein and Giton. That same day, Klein had kissed me, and the gift now was part of the first date. I’m still stupefied on how forward he’d been. It didn’t help that he was the adopted son of my father’s ex-lover.
Yeah, this was weird, Humans are weird.
The calm chime sounded to let me know that we reached the junction of thirty-seventh and forty-fifth street. I sighed inwardly, signaled a stop, and stood up. Weird are not, Klein was fun to be around, and a mental vacation compared to my own family.

Klein:

I tried my best not to notice how tight my arm sleeves on my dress shirt were as I read through Gearschilde craft-book on common legends and stories of the early days of their calamity.
The heavy book had pages made of brass and steel, small levers, dials and switches helped animate the illustration while also teaching the basics of mechanics, electronics and materials science through rhyme and illustration. Skills necessary personally and communally needed to simply survive on their hellscape of a home world.
I handled it gingerly. I hadn’t understood when Cee gave it to me why they were called “craft-books”, nor why a priest had so many of them. A bit of research on the data net had explained that a craft book was an heirloom object of the family, made by a crafting-priest with the removed augments and implants of a deceased Gearschilde. A priest such as Cee handled such sacred objects when the family may no longer need them.
Apparently Forges Metal In Service Of Life was Exceptionally doting on her grandchildren, and the introduction she wrote for her own recycled corpse told of a woman who had literally given everything to her children so they may have a better future.
It was wholesome, but still I couldn’t help feeling a little creepy that I was technically playing with a dead body, or at least what had been vital prosthetics within it.
My thoughts were so wrapped up in the book though that I only caught the last few notes of the front doorbell melody by the time the sound drew my attention. Reqellia was already out of her chair looking at me expectantly in the study. I (carefully) closed the craft-book, got up and followed her out into the courtyard. A bit of nervous and excited energy in each step.
Itaro was here!
‘You are acting like a middle schooler on his first date’ Squirrel brain chastised me.
Fuck you too squirrel brain, it’s not like I had a wholesome date before that I could bring to a parent. I thought back, bringing up the mental image of Kelly, my last “girlfriend” that lasted two weeks, and was expelled for drinking in school.
I shook the old memories away. Bringing myself back to the present as Itraro opened the courtyard main doors. Dressed in tight, tailored, black ‘hunting pants’ with a thin silver stripe down the out seam and a deep navy-blue cooling vest with more silvery accents. I could see actual boning on the vest meant for body support. Itaro had gone for the Rakiri “functional formal” dress that was meant for parades and hunting parties. She carried a flat gift box that was semi-expensive and had clearly come to take this date seriously.
I stood up straighter in my Shil formalwear that was ready to burst at the seams. Reqellia moved between me and Itaro, performing the Shil’vati ritual of inspecting a potential suitor for their son on their first date. Again, yesterday Reqellia calling me her “son” felt fake, I was not her son, but I played along. She was at least one of my guardians right now.
There was a lackadaisy air to Reqellia’s words as she spoke. “You are interested in Klein, and want to go for a walk with him?”
Itaro still had a bit of nervousness in her voice, but she spoke steadily. “Yes, ma’am.”
Reqellia stayed silent and stared at Itaro for just a heartbeat, then broke into a wide grin, throwing up her hands. “Jrafell’s (goddess of joy’s) fire! You two get out of here, and don’t message me till {sunset}!”
Reqellia shooed us out the front door, and as it closed behind us, Itaro held the package out towards me. “So, uh, I wanted to give this to you after the raid game. It’s a cooling vest since I notice you're starting to sweat even in the mornings now.”
I took the box slowly, trying to parse what she said. It was warm, but I was sweating all the time? I touched my forehead, and yes, I felt a slight dampness. How had I not noticed that?
I looked down at the layers of wicking fabric I was wearing. The high collar, the arm length sleeves. I was normally clothed neck down so that only my head and hands were exposed. The sweat wasn’t visible, and I had just mentally blocked it out. Shil cloth didn’t get stiff with sweat salt somehow.
I opened the lid. The vest was colored in a dark blue with the heat sinking accents in gold creeping vine motifs. “It’s… gorgeous.”
Itaro’s ears flicked back in self-aware embarrassment at the complement. “It’s not too outdated?”
I closed the lid with a dramatic snap as we started to walk towards the bus stop. “No, I think it’s styled for exactly the right time.”
The bus took us to a different part of town. Instead of the monolithic metallic blocks of shopping, living, and factory complexes, it was more akin to squares of walled-in outdoor malls with rows upon rows of car width sized streets and two-story shop or factory houses.
The outer walls of the area were the same style as any other Shil’vati building; however, inside those walls completely threw off any Shil sensibilities, and reveled in the multi-species culture so indicative of Sky that had become my favorite part of living here.
I always felt like a tourist walking through the compound gates. It was still hard, trying to understand what all the stores, meeting houses, clubs, and drink vendors offered. I was really hoping when I could walk alone to come here on my off days and just learn.
It was by far one of the most comfortable places I had been. I wasn’t given a second glance as scales, fur and even odder skins walked the streets. The scents changed from pungent and earthy to downright floral. The late morning was bustling with crowds also wanting to enjoy their off days of the Shel mid-week break. Colorful awnings had been stretched out to provide shade, and here some of the signs even had multi-language signs as opposed to the normal Trade Shil lexicon. The small gardens ranged from normal green hues, to cartoon colorful oranges, reds, and even bright blues and shiny blacks
I led the way to a cluster of shops owned by Tulo’s family. The architecture was Shil-ish. The patterns were of typical stars and seas done in metal, but instead of the traditional purples, blacks, and golds, it had textured matte finish and pastel colors. The sign above this particular hole-in-the-wall was labeled simple “Ki’tra’s Styling”
We walked in the open door, and again I was transported to a Shil’vati style not fashionable in at least two centuries. Brass instead of gold, marble and granite where thermocast metal should normally be placed. It was bright, shadowless, with a similar setup of padded chairs every barbershop that every species seemed to have in common.
“Be with you one second!” Tulo called out as he finished with a different customer. A Sharpfish gang member getting their hair done in a complex set of braids that I knew had a tradition of long-ago sea raiders. Thank you, Death Islands serial drama play, for giving me that tidbit of info.
Tulo was dressed flamboyantly straight for Shil’vati culture. He carried tools on a lacy belt rig. The pants and shirt were Shil cut, but again, the normally muted tones were swapped for bright swatches of color. A workaholic in terms of Shil’vati lifestyle and at the upper end of his species’ stamina. Pulling forty hours or even more a week, he never lost his marine’s purposeful gait despite the turn towards more gender conforming attitude and fashion.
I had a suspicion that Tulo and Ruhal were more than friends, but I didn’t pry. A few books and shows had hinted at such relationships, but there was a weird feeling when I checked the data-net that something was missing.
Tulo finished with the Sharpfish, as she strode out the room, she gave me a wink, and I could feel Itaro raise her hackles next to me. The tension was broken with Tulo throwing his arms wide in greeting. “K’ien! Thank you for giving us your time (and money) today! Ruhal sent over your wants, and I have been looking forward to this appointment, and who is this with you today?”
I looked at Itaro for permission, and with a barely perceptible nod I introduced her. “This is Itaro, my girlfriend.”
Tulo faked surprise dramatically. I knew Ruhal would have told him by now. “Oh, Itaro! I must say. You have found quite the catch, would you also like a trim? On the house!”
I knew Tulo would send a small fee to Ruhal for Itaro, but Itaro didn’t need to know that. She nodded again, but with her ears twitching, she said in a smaller than usual voice with intonation posing it as a question. “I would?”
Tulo turned around and yelled. “Reku! I have a K’ien’s girlfriend here wanting a trim and polish! You want practice?”
Reku walked out onto the shop floor from the back rooms holstering his omni pad while looking severe, but then again, he always looked severe. Reku was dressed in crisp clothes with muted blacks and purples more akin to a boardroom than a barbershop.
Tulo had let slip it was Reku’s way of “rebelling” from his father’s own counterculture style while helping Ruhal replace a faulty home heating unit.Tulo, to his credit, encouraged Reku’s “rebellious” behavior, and the quiet smile when he saw Itaro meant the next hour would be a production for both me and Itaro.
As I heard the snip of scissors, my head felt lighter by the second. It took a good quarter hour of combing for Tulo to get my bird’s nest hair unknotted, then the clipping started. It didn’t take long before the floor around me was covered in hair with faded shades of dye still clinging onto the strands.
I looked over at Reku snipping at Itaro’s mane to even it out and fur to sit flush with her clothes, with acute precision. While son and father had wildly different styles, their skillset was comparably solid.
“Head forward please.” Tulo’s voice was now business-like as he powered on the nearly silent trimmer, and in the mirror was a face that wasn’t recognizable to the boy a few months ago. The hair being the last vestige of a “Beach Bum” front I had worn while working at the convenience store.
The sides had been buzzed, and the top had been quaffed and rolled into a haircut I could only describe as “punk Elvis”. The haircut would be easy to maintain daily, but would require weekly trims.
“And now for the final touch.” Tulo smiled as he pulled out a hair dyeing comb and artfully brushed in a fade. My hair looked now like a field of grass just starting to turn in autumn with dark green tips shading lighter and blending into my naturally blonde hair.
It was just hair, but the loss of its weight on my head made me feel energetic. I wanted to stand, walk, run, but I kept seated as Tulo called out “Reku, I’m done with K’ien, ready to switch?”
“Almost” Reku replied flatly. I turned to see what he was doing and, oh… He had applied a dark bronze powder that gave her normally dull black spotted gray fur a speckled sheen that subtly reflected and scattered the light.
I stared a bit too long, and when Itaro saw me she looked away self-consciously. I did the same. It wasn’t right for me to stare, dating or no.
“Reku will be with you shortly. I need to take care of another customer,” Tulo said as he walked away. I still snuck glances at Itaro as I drummed my fingers to the rhythms of Ki’zachi, Chopin and got through the opening riffs of a Megadeth song before Reku started to work on me.
My face cleaned up and my nails polished and lacquered. I finally got up from my chair with Itaro openly staring at me. I blushed, feeling the heat on my cheeks, and looked away.
Well maybe staring wasn’t so bad.
“Now, my wife and daughter are two stores down with the clothes you picked out. The commissions take time, but we have rapid fabricators that will give you a feel how the real thing will wear, and if any adjustments need to be made,” Tulo explained to me as both me and Itaro tried not to gawk at each other.
We headed out of the shop clumsily, weaving slightly as we tried to decide where the line of personal space between us was considered proper.

Itaro:

“They are adorably awkward together aren’t they?” I heard Tulo whisper when he thought I was out of earshot. Dirtmothers this was embarrassing. Was my only thought as we walked down the road. All too aware of how we both looked.
Tulo’s wife Ma’tari was already putting clothes on the counter, her teenage daughter was at that weird phase of Shil life where they are skinny to the point of looking underfed with a name tag that read ‘Iss’fera.’
“Here you go K’ien! How have you…. What happened to you? I just tailored that shirt two months ago,” Iss’fera asked as her mother Ma’tari sternly looked at her.
“He built up some muscle, and you should too if you want to catch any boy’s eye!” using a bit of guilt to chastise her daughter for her faux paus. I wanted to defend her since she was working Shel break, but I didn’t want to get in another’s family drama.
“Oh! Uh, here you go!” she mumbled while handing Klein his clothes, blushing furiously.
I paced in the lobby of the shop each time passing the mirror trying not to stop and inspect myself. The coppery tint reminded me of action stars and dramatized play fights when we visited Iron Mountain city.
I thought of Klein, and how he looked. He might not be a heavyweight door guard, but he wasn’t some bone thin Shil boy, and Hario had explicitly approved of him. I held my head a bit higher. Reminding myself I was disappointing no one with my choice. No matter how xenophobic some of my extended family was.
The door to the changing room clicked open, and I turned to see Klein in a mix of profoundly familiar and utterly alien clothes. My father’s cooling vest over a loose white shirt with… belts? On the forearms, making it close fitting at the wrist with the excess fabric over the bicep. The black pants were Shil tight, but with weirdly patterned knees that could stretch, and the pleated skirt of heavy fabric that covered the crotch and thighs looked to be directly imported from the Dirt governess’s honor guard. The only thing still standard was the shoes, and I had doubts they would stay standard for long.
“It fits you,” was all I could say, and it was true. The clothes complemented a figure that was neither Shil, Senthe or Helkam slim, nor Rakiri heavy. It was clothes meant for a human.
Klein’s lopsided smile told me this wasn’t the same Klein that walked into the changing room. It was the smile worn right before a Raid game or an obstacle course, or when bantering with Paluto. It meant his persona switched from quiet to theatrical.
At least this meant he’d be talking more. It wasn’t like him to be this quiet. “Thank you Ma’tari, Iss’fera, for the wonderfully crafted clothes. I look forward to the real thing!” Klein said as he walked up to me and offered his arm. This was the Klein that had kissed me, and now I could relax as there was a role for both of us to play, with easy to follow baked-in social conventions.
I took Klein’s offered arm confidently and we walked out together as I asked. “Where to now?”
“Somewhere to talk, ever tried Nighkru Tea?” Klein stage whispered cryptically.

/////// Author’s notes:

A lot has happened in life! And this chapter was hard to get started. I didn’t know where the first scene was supposed to even be! I also had a lot of worldbuilding to do for everything to feel more solid than before. It was worth it though! It took me two weeks to get the first half done, and two days for the second half.

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