maverickk

but then percy makes the gods swear to “release her” and they do! they just. don’t tell her. so she remains on the island, trapped by her own mind because she doesn’t believe she’ll ever be free, however her emotions become her own and she can finally feel that rage she’s been kept from for so long. so leo lands on her shores and she reacts viscerally, angrily, and curses the gods for trying to put her through this again. but leo gives as good as he gets and he leaves and comes back and in her mind, he’s the one to save and rescue her. and she’s indebted to him. and how else does she know to show appreciation but what she’s been forced to endure for centuries. so she dates him, she says she loves him, she traps herself in that same role again just like how she trapped herself on ogygia after the curse was lifted. plato’s cave, if you will.

and leo has always felt like the outcast and seventh wheel, finally did something extraordinary and found ogygia twice as a feat no other person could manage—not knowing that the curse was lifted by percy so anyone could come and go as they please. and she offers him this love and care for what he’s done and he eats it up because he’s been starved of it for so long. but calypso can only force herself into it for so long before she starts to snap and get angry and loathes his touch but she’s indebted to him and the curse says she’s meant to love him anyway so…this is love, is it not? love in the free world. real love. and she’s grateful but she kind of hates him and he needs her affection and love, he needs this. but its not the same as the way he sees everyone else loving each other. but this is all he’s gonna get, isn’t it? it’s all he deserves to get, isn’t it?

just.

toxic caleo>>>>

broken and abused and lost and clueless caleo>>>>>>>>

trying to make the best out of a horrible situation caleo>>>>>>

a million times this. “I don’t like these xyz fics” then don’t read them. THEY ARE NOT FOR YOU!!!!!!! no one forces you to read anything you don’t want to read. no one forces you to consume art you don’t enjoy. it’s so easy to click that mute or block button. instead of insulting fanfics or fan art for not fitting your personal liking, either choose something that does fit your personal liking, or write the fic you want to read yourself / draw the art you want to consume yourself.

Ah maybe because its an inherently politcal series with multiple marginalized groups represented including trans people, poc, queer people, unhoused people, people of lower income, and disabled people-

Maybe

Just maybe

They have a Global Device Identifier (GDID) Tracker that functions as a fingerprint for your PC that can surpass VPNs, proxy servers and countries. Although it can't survive a clean reinstall of Windows (it can survive updates), because Microsoft forces you to go to the internet and log in into a Microsoft account, they will be able to get to you.

Microsoft kept it secret and it was only found out when the FBI tracked a hacker thanks to the information Microsoft gave them.

You should be paying attention to this, and possibly consider moving away from Windows. If a government, especially the US government, doesn't like you for some reason, this could be seriously concerning.

This article specifically notes:

For journalism, activism, or domestic abuse situations, skip Windows and use Linux routed through Tor instead of a commercial VPN. A GDID doesn’t care which VPN you use, only that it’s still the same Windows installation.

Other important quotes:

What has researchers uneasy is everything else the case reveals. Costin Raiu, a well-known malware researcher, asked on the Three Buddy Problem podcast how much of this exists on other platforms, and whether it is linked more permanently to hardware. Matthew Hickey, another security researcher, called Windows “surveillance software”.

Two things back that up:

There’s no consent screen. A GDID gets assigned when you sign into a Microsoft Account. Apple’s advertising identifier needs an App Tracking Transparency prompt and a visible reset; Android’s works the same way. GDID has neither, and a Windows reinstall only gets you a new number Microsoft can still get back to the same account.

Then there’s activation. Massgrave, the group behind Microsoft Activation Scripts, notes that Windows setup sends hardware info to Microsoft and gets identifiers back, the same tokens later used for Store access and licensing: “It’s impossible to prevent Windows from getting a GDID without breaking activation and UWP app[s].” Anyone who lost a license after swapping a motherboard has already met a smaller version of this.

Here's the complaint filed to the court, the primary source for the case mentioned in the article. You can find mentions of GDID on page 30 of the document or 34 of the PDF.

I also made a PDF version!!

If at all possible, I would NOT use the above method to remove and block the GDID.

Why? One of the first steps in this is permanently disabling Windows Update.

TL;DR if your threat model indicates that a government/nation-state could seriously go through the effort of working with outside companies to track you down, extradite you, hit you with felony charges, simply don't use windows.

Ok so:

The author calls this out and says that it's at least ok because you can still update Windows Defender, but this is a false equivalence. Disabling operating system updates is Fundamentally Dangerous, and antivirus measures like defender Cannot protect you from all the things that having an unpatched operating system can make you vulnerable to.

Windows Defender and other antivirus/anti-malware programs are designed to protect you against downloading and running malicious software or being hit by a drive-by download of malicious software. What it does Not do is protect you from unpatched flaws within the operating system. These flaws can open you to your computer being compromised via routes that aren't within the scope of Windows Defender, including Remote Code Execution and Privilege Escalation attacks.

(Now yes, there exist flaws in operating systems that are known by high-level, usually nation-state, actors that have Not been disclosed to operating system manufacturers. These are called zero-days, and if your threat model is such that a nation-state is willing to burn one or more zero-days to get your ass, I'm sorry, but I can't help you. And also, you should already know that your threat model is such and how to take appropriate actions to protect yourself.)

I don't blame you for wanting to avoid having your activities fingerprinted by a GDID, and it sounds like a fresh install of windows with a local account only does allow you to avoid this if using linux isn't an option. This does mean, at minimum, backing up all your data (not on OneDrive, using that defeats the purpose), wiping your computer completely, and then reinstalling windows and using a local account.

Do keep in mind, even without a GDID, that there are many ways that companies and nation-states can track a person, and take that into account when assessing your risk. If you are taking or planning radical actions against a government/nation-state or large corporation, your risk is going to be higher than if you're just trying to get by (which is not to say that it's good or acceptable to be tracked).

With that said I do admit my guide is at least a little biased.

I wrote the guide on my Windows 10 machine, which really hasn't been updated for maybe a year. From my personal experience I haven't had major issues with security, and I frequently do a lot of piracy and torrenting (bc practically no one cares about those two activities in my country). Admittedly I also don't use Windows Defender either, I use a different AV (which I will not disclose) that has worked reasonably well for my use case.

It may be possible to block GDID just by blocking the host endpoints via firewall and leave Windows services and Windows Update untouched, although I haven't tested this. I plan to setup a VM at some point but I'm kinda busy with my work and real life things.

Personally I just disable Windows Update bc it's intrusive. Whenever my games slow down it's almost always Windows Update running in the background. Maybe this is not the case with Windows 11, but certainly does that way with my computer. So maybe forcing that personal bias in the guide was not the best idea in hindsight.

Maybe a small correction that the step to disable Windows Update in my guide is not permanent; it can be reverted in the Registry Editor by changing the "Start" value to 1, 2 or 3.

Overall really the best approach is to not use an MS account at all/use an offline local account instead. Or transition to Linux, which I highly encourage if people who have the means to. Sadly many people don't. Including me, because I'm required to use Windows in my work.