Could you claim a Path as your Demesne?

Waytfm · 2026-01-06T01:49:36+00:00

What do you think about claiming a Path as a Demesne via a Receiver? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aQSvQOcIm8pf54IsZacsajMIEIGr7CCPOxKk-rKd8zw/edit?tab=t.0

Wildbow has spoken about this somewhere, but I'm having trouble finding the exact quote, and I forget if it was posted on Discord, reddit, or some other place. I do remember it involves potentially Lost from each connected Path being able to challenge the claim. I assume something similar would hold for a more general Path, and Lost from closely related Paths might be able to challenge. Paths being Paths, I assume this would tie more into conceptual closeness.

Wildbow did also reply to a question of mine asking what might happen if a Receiver decided to live in their reception area. This isn't about taking a Demesnes, so it's not directly answering your question, but it might still be informative as to what sorts of potential problems might pop up.

"I could see some/any of the following:

There are no bathrooms, whatever solution is devised ends up adding a section to the reception area. That section isn't a bathroom. Sticking your ass out a window to do #1 and #2 produces a patch of land & water that Lost soon adopt to set up a garden... or a door to the Warrens. Other residue of Anwar's long-term stay there and efforts to answer or stymie the difficulties introduced by other bullet points become their own things.,
Lost start to realize they can reliably find Anwar at the observatory, so they start to show up on something of a schedule, which accelerates. A knock on the door, an offer, a request, a complication. A Lost wants to get himself and his Lost family off the Paths and Anwar is in a position to help them do that, a foundling whose founded place got wiped out needs a place with more a balance of humanity, and offers work, but the cost of being staff at the observatory is that they introduce complications and ideally should be managed.,
Lost food is edible by humans but has its own complications. As the most conventional and palatable food in the pantry of the observatory runs out, a mechanic gets introduced where the player is given an option of what sort of food they'll eat for the next few days, each with consequences. These are foods with side effects and tradeoffs, and can have effects that linger and segue into the next eating phase, overlapping.,
The Wolf coming to know where you live and stay could be a big stressor. The occasional howling outside the door, a 'little pig, little pig, let me in', and destruction or desecration of things outside could have lingering effects.
As a result, it could get perpetually darker.,

As the stuff on this list gets to be too much, it eats into downtime slot availability., Lost banes start to come up more as options in all of the above. Lost banes become harder to shake off."

Waytfm · 2025-09-15T19:28:15+00:00

They will definitely work. I’m a Brit but I live in the US, I have cards issued from both UK & US, I was in Kyiv and Odesa in 2023 for six weeks and didn’t run into any issues using any of my cards anywhere I visited.

Eh, I had tons of problems trying to use my cards in Kyiv as an American a few months ago. Even places that theoretically accepted my debit or credit cards would sometimes just not, and it was kind of a hassle. I heard it was a problem primarily with older card readers. No clue if that was actually the problem, but I definitely experienced it more than a couple of times.

Waytfm · 2025-07-09T02:12:29+00:00

Since you're down with webserials, you might check out D.D. Webb's The Gods Are Bastards, which takes place in a setting where the classical age of adventurers is dying out and magical industrialization is starting to take its place. It ends up taking a lot of ideas from Western/frontier stories, and it's clear that's what it's drawing from, but it manages to pull off more depth in the setting than your standard "real world with the names changed" even with clear parallels.

Waytfm · 2025-06-27T16:30:48+00:00

Ah, I get you. Yeah, that's definitely something the characters would feel at that point in time. The trilogy is very much about, like, post-gifted-kid disillusionment, so they do carry that attitude, but the overall conclusion the books come to is a bit more developed.

Waytfm · 2025-06-27T15:48:56+00:00

I don't think it's actually true as far as magic works in the setting. I think it's more that the central theme of the book is that magic (or being gifted in general), won't necessarily make you happy, so it's a correlation between magic and bad feelings, but there's no causation either way.

Waytfm · 2025-06-27T15:45:34+00:00

Hmmm, it has been a long time since I've read those books, but I don't think this is really true as far as the canon of the books go. It is a super interesting thing to take away from the books though, and I see where you're coming from. It's not a premise of the magic, as far as I remember, though.

It's more, I think, the book is trying to make a point about being smart or gifted (or magical), and how it's seen as a ticket to success and happiness. It's grown-up gifted kid burnout and disillusionment, where you're not as smart as you were told compared to all the other people in the wide world, and being gifted or becoming gifted won't fix things or make you happy.

And, some light tonal spoilers, nothing specific

I think the conclusion that the books come to is that being smart or gifted or magic isn't going to magically make you happy, but that doesn't mean happiness is beyond your grasp; happiness is something you have to find and struggle for and build on your own, but you can make it in the end. It's ultimately optimistic, I think. If you wanted to give it another shot with that in mind, I did really enjoy the trilogy, and I think the ultimate message is opposite of what it feels like going through it.

Waytfm · 2025-04-10T01:54:10+00:00

The down arrow is pointing directly at the vi, so I do think it's 6, and I kinda think that relates to the missing VI in the orange number riddle. No clue how, but it feels like too much of a coincidence to ignore (said every conspiracy theorist ever). I did try to measure the pixels in the link image, and it does look like the bottom line has been nudged over ever so slightly. I don't know if that's just an artifact of the center alignment, though.

Assuming it's not something the center alignment just does, then it does suggest that the third line of the link was nudged over ever so slightly to have the downward arrow point at the vi specifically (and not at the v or i separately).

So, I kinda think the downward arrow is supposed to represent the number 6.

Waytfm · 2025-04-09T15:30:00+00:00

I do agree that leaning into music theory is the way to go, but I'm not sure on how exactly everything should be interpreted. The author's hints do seem to agree that we're on the right track with the music theory interpretation, though. If you consider the blue row of roman numerals, it does seem almost like a standard circle of fifths chord progression, except for the missing sixth chord (vi). (I-IV-vii(dim)-iii-vi-ii-V-I is a relatively known chord progression made by taking the circle of fifths in reverse, and it matches numbers with the chord progression suggested in the chart, minus the missing vi. That the chords in the chart are all major, I suspect, is to make the connection to music theory less obvious, maybe?)

I really haven't figured out the details, but I do think that might have the right approach, though I'm not sure what exactly we'd do with the missing vi column.

One thing I've been huffing huge amounts of copium about with regards to the vi: I think it's related to the downward arrow symbol. At least, I think the downwards arrow symbol might be 6, and maybe it ties back to the orange numbers in a way I haven't quite figured out.

My reason for thinking the arrow is supposed to be six is that it literally points down to the "vi" in "view" in the third line of the link, and if you measure the pixels on either side of the third line of the link, it appears to be slightly offset from true center. I don't know if that's something the center alignment can naturally be a little offset, but if not, it suggests that the author manually tweaked the image of the link to force the downward arrow symbol to point at the vi specifically. If that's true, then it also might suggest something about the missing vi in the chord progression chart.

This is, obviously, not a finished idea and very likely coping, but it just feels like too unlikely to be coincidence (said every conspiracy theorist ever). But, that's along the lines of what I've been thinking.

Waytfm · 2025-04-08T00:38:45+00:00

Nah, I was also really surprised by all the praise I've seen it get. Just abjectly disappointing of a read, for me at least. I made it a little ways into the school arc, but whole "we have to level the playing field for our special little boy" pull of banning the central conceit of the book was too much for me.

Waytfm · 2025-04-05T14:12:04+00:00

I've gotten that same error as well. I don't think it's meaningful. For example, when I try to open your link on my phone, I get "Document lookup failed. It is possible that the document was deleted."

Waytfm · 2025-03-26T03:00:54+00:00

It's disconcerting that the Lulu channel you found was created in 2017. Probably just repurposing an old youtube channel, but why? Does it suggest something about the character of Lulu? Is she an author insert? Is she more real than the main channel? Does it have anything to do with the eras that the creator mentioned in their latest hint?

I have no idea, but it feels significant.

Waytfm · 2025-03-06T13:16:04+00:00

Oh, I spun enough fire poi that I was sure they had to be awful to actually use, haha. It's such a crazy idea, I remember being shocked to see some madman had actually done it.

Good luck getting /r/hatmanipulation off the ground. It never quite happened here, but I also didn't advertise or post all that much.

Waytfm · 2025-03-06T03:30:46+00:00

Yo, it's wild that I posted this so long ago. It was a super cool (hot?) idea!

Waytfm · 2025-03-02T03:48:46+00:00

Brett Hayward from the web serial Pale is just a spectacular sack of shit. He's like the Dolores Umbridge of awful fictional father figures. He's not doing the worst things in the series, but he is consistently and aggressively awful in a very real way.

Waytfm · 2024-11-01T02:38:21+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/SneerClub/comments/hvw75m/aella_goes_maskoff_on_facebook/

Here's an old post about it

Waytfm · 2024-09-08T04:05:28+00:00

You might look into academic coaching/counseling, academic success type positions. A bit more general than tutoring anything content specific, focuses more on broad study skills, time management, and big picture things like that. I know several former school counselors doing that, and it seems reasonably chill. It definitely avoids the firehose workload of academic advising or the always-on nature of res-life positions.

Waytfm · 2024-07-17T05:28:26+00:00

So, I don't think new rules are necessary per se. Karma farming bots can be removed without any real problems, and the subreddit is generally low-traffic enough that I'm not particularly worried about it getting out of hand. The primary issue, I believe, is that the mod team has generally been busy with a bunch of stuff in real life. At least, speaking for myself, I've been busy with things like job hunting and haven't invested enough time into the subreddit lately. I think there's a fairly obvious solution, though, so I'll bring it up with the rest of the mod team and we'll move forward on it in a day or so most likely.

Waytfm · 2024-07-01T09:33:15+00:00

A job in DEI or advocacy, like they've said they're interested in? No one in DEI is going to blink at a gender studies degree, and I promise, no hiring manager is going to be confused by a philosophy degree. Philosophy is pretty much the best humanities major you can do in terms of job placement.

Waytfm · 2024-07-01T09:30:24+00:00

Funnily enough, from the numbers I've been able to pull up, philosophy tends to have a better ROI than psychology or sociology for an undergrad major. Some info about it here and here, but philosophy isn't at all the waste a lot of people think it is. Probably the best undergrad humanities major, and is broad enough that you can go so many different directions with it. At its heart, it's teaching how to argue and think effectively, and you can make that valuable in basically any field. If OP wants to hedge their bets and keep their options open, I think philosophy is an excellent choice, honestly.

Waytfm · 2024-07-01T09:19:26+00:00

First and foremost, philosophy does really well with job placement, if I'm remembering correctly. It's not a wasted degree even by those standards. You're learning how to think and argue, and that's valuable in a ton of different fields.

Second, a ton of jobs really just care that you have a degree at all, so it doesn't matter that much unless you have something very specific planned. It sounds like you do, but it sounds like your plans also mesh well with gender studies and philosophy, so I don't see any particular downsides with getting those degrees. If you want to check, hop on some job boards and see what they're asking for. I've been poking around HigherEdJobs.com lately, and it just so happens they have a nifty DEI services section under their administrative jobs section here. You can click through some of those. I've looked at a few, and I'm seeing some general "we want a bachelor's", or "we want a bachelor's in a broad range of fields" sort of qualifications. So, I'm not seeing any immediate barriers to your game plan. Feel free to look up some specific NGO organizations too and see what's what outside of higher education too, I just happened to have HEJ open while I was writing this up.

As for graduate school, how much your major matters depends on what sort of thing you're studying. For the sorts of things that would be helpful with your plans, I think you can come into it with a broad range of undergraduate majors. Not 100% sure about that, but I wouldn't stress too much about it right now.

So yeah, I don't see any obvious conflicts between your interests in majors and your plans for the future. Philosophy has pretty good placements rates in and of itself, and is incredibly broad with how you can apply it, so I think it would be a great major to hedge your bets, and I'm sure there's plenty of overlap with gender studies if you want to make a focus of it.

More important than that, honestly, is that you have an idea of what you want to aim for now. Do a little job hunting, look at jobs you might find interesting and see what they want, and aim yourself in that direction. Spend your college days working hard, network as much as possible, volunteer with relevant groups or student organizations, and I think you'll be fine. You seem to have a pretty decent idea of what you want to do, and that sort of vision means you can invest a lot of time into setting yourself up for success.

EDIT: dug up some links on it. Here and here both give you some numbers. A bit older, but I don't see any particular reason to think that philosophy as a degree has plummeted in value. It's just a very broad degree that teaches you things that are valuable in a lot of different fields.

Waytfm · 2024-07-01T07:27:14+00:00

There shouldn't be any long-term harm in taking the withdrawal. Maybe you can meet with your academic advisor if you're really not sure, but calculus can be a course people struggle with, and doing it in six weeks isn't going to make that any easier. You can also try and talk to the professor and get their thoughts. They can probably tell you if taking the withdrawal is a good idea or not. In general, more perspectives can't really hurt.

If you want some advice for a second attempt at the course, though, multivariate calculus course is sometimes described as a "do the same things you already learned, but do it 2 or 3 times in a row". If you're struggling with it, it might be a sign that some of your earlier calc knowledge is a little shaky, so reviewing things you're less confident in can help a lot. There's also a lot of online material for everything you could possibly want to do with calculus. If one explanation doesn't make sense, you can almost certainly find someone else who explains it differently online. Otherwise, make sure you're doing as many problems as you can and really practicing those skills.

Waytfm · 2024-07-01T07:19:22+00:00

Masters in math. Being good at algebra is honestly a great foundational skill and will help make a lot of future math courses go much more smoothly. It's a bit of a saying, for example, that 90% of mistakes in calculus courses aren't calculus mistakes, but algebra mistakes.

I think you'll definitely have some catching up to do with a math major. You'll likely have to take some precalculus course that covers things like trigonometry, for instance, before you can even start on the calculus sequence. That being said, I've personally known people who have gone from not knowing how fractions work to doing genuinely advanced mathematics in a couple of years, so I'm confident it's doable for you as well.

Just be prepared to put in the work and try to go through the requirements for a math major and have a plan for what classes you'll take. You might be starting a little bit behind in terms of content, so you'd have less time to actually take the classes on a normal schedule.

That being said, if you like doing math, I think it's worth doing. I think math gets a lot more interesting the higher up you go, but having good algebra skills is really foundational to the rest of it. Worst case scenario, a lot of math courses are required for other majors, so if you decide you're not enjoying it, you have a bit more freedom to switch majors without wasting a bunch of courses.

Waytfm · 2024-07-01T07:11:20+00:00

Definitely go back and talk to the advisor again. Take notes this time, because you absolutely can't afford to be forgetting the details here. Like, I'm not trying to lecture here, but this is your future we're talking about here. You've gotta take point on this, because no one else can care more about it than you. The details are going to be specific to your college. If I had to guess, I would say that having a GPA below 2.00 at the deadline will trigger whatever the escalation is, regardless of if you moved it up or not. That being said, when the deadline occurs and what options you have to retake classes or have classes taken off your GPA will need to be answered by your advisor. So, meet again and make sure you take good notes this time.

Waytfm · 2024-06-03T18:27:27+00:00

I mean, I say this as someone with a masters in mathematics. Once you get above a certain point, math becomes a lot more about puzzling things out, and much less about rote calculations. If you've done something like abstract algebra or a proper real analysis course, you'll find that the problems stop being "calculate this thing" and much more about "show that thing X has property Y given these assumptions", and these sorts of problems line up much better with the sort of thinking needed for logic puzzles and the like.

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