macchiatolatte

[macchiatolatte]

I want to speak out against the whole push towards DEI. I feel that ever since you made the push to make identity the forefront of a character it has hurt the stories you tell. Captain Sisay's race was never the focus of her character and she was a complete badass! And I fear if you did it over again Gerrard would be trans, black and disabled just because. It also cheapens the stories of world devastation when characters worry more about their gender than Bolas destroying everything.

The reason I started this blog is so we can have frank conversations about things, so please let’s talk about this.

Imagine if every time you turned on the TV or watched a movie, no one looked like you. For some of us, that’s never happened. We see ourselves constantly, so it’s hard to truly understand what not seeing yourself represented in media is like.

I do have a personal window to this experience. While I am white and male, there’s an area where I am the minority - my religion. Jews are just under two and a half percent of the US population. I have had many experiences where I’ve been in situations where everything is geared towards a group I do not belong to, and zero consideration is given that not everyone at that event is part of the majority.

You just feel invisible and like an outsider. It’s not a great feeling. And I just experience it a tiny portion of time, only things that are geared specifically towards something religious. Most minorities have this feeling all the time, whenever they’re outside their personal community.

Now imagine, after years of not seeing yourself ever, you finally see someone that looks like you, but nothing about the character rings remotely true. They don’t sound like you, they don’t act like you, the facts about their day-to-day life are just wrong. It’s clear whoever wrote the character didn’t truly understand the lived experience of the character, so the character feels fake.

You bring up Sisay. Michael Ryan and I didn’t technically create Sisay (she played a small role in the Mirage story), but we did do a lot to flesh out her character as the creators of the Weatherlight Saga. We turned her from a minor character into a major one.

And while I’m proud, in general, of our work on the Weatherlight Saga, I don’t think we did justice to Sisay as a character. Neither Michael nor I have any knowledge of what it’s like to be a black woman. Nor did we ever talk to someone who did.

And if you’re someone like us that has no knowledge of that experience, you probably didn’t notice. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing.

Imagine if we made a movie about your life, and we just made everything up. We invented people you never knew, we gave you a job you never had, and we had you say things you’d never say. The movie might even be a good movie, but your response would be, but that’s not my life - that’s not me.

Now imagine we put the movie out, and people that never met you assumed that was what you were like. When people met you for the first time, they assumed things, because, you know, they’d seen the movie.

That’s what misrepresenting people does. It not only makes them feel not seen, it falsely represents them, spreading lies, often stereotypes, making people believe things about them that aren’t true.

Our move towards diversity is just us trying to better reflect the world and the people in it. We’re trying to do to everyone else what a certain portion of people get every day without ever having to think about it.

But why are we “making it the forefront of their character”? We’re not. We’re making it a part of their character. But in a world where you’re not used to ever seeing it, it feels louder than it is. Things that are a natural part of the world that you’re used to feel like the background of the story because you understand the context to it.

If a man kisses his wife before going off to a battle, that’s not a big deal. It’s just a thing a husband might do to his wife when he leaves. It’s not the forefront of his character. It’s just part of his life. But you’ve seen it hundreds of times, so it feels normal.

When someone does something that isn’t your lived experience it pulls focus. It seems like a big deal, but only because it’s new to you. It’s just as mundane a thing to that character as the man kissing his wife is to him.

Even the turn “pushing” implies that it’s unnaturally here, that we’re forcing something that naturally shouldn’t be. But why? That thing exists naturally in the real world, and it doesn’t make the real world any less. Maybe you’re less aware of it, but is making you aware of how others live their life “pushing” something on you?

How you live your life is represented constantly, everywhere. Why isn’t over-representing your experience at the expense of everyone else’s “pushing” it? Why is media only being the experience of those in power the “proper way”?

Having more depth and variety doesn’t lessen stories. It makes them deeper, more rich, more nuanced. In short, it makes them better stories. In my former life, I was a professional writer. I took a lot of writing classes. One of the truism of writing is “speaking truth leads to better stories”.

There’s another famous quote: “When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” You’re used to being over-represented, so being a little less over-represented feels like something has been taken from you. But really it hasn’t. Having a better sense of the rest of the world comes with a lot of benefits.

I’ll use food as an example. Let’s say all you were ever exposed to was the food of your heritage. Yeah, that food is really good, but sometimes isn’t it nice to eat foods of other nationalities? Isn’t your life better that you have a choice? Isn’t your exposure and access to the food of other nationalities a positive in your life?

Exposure to variety is a positive. It allows you to learn about things you didn’t know, experience things things you’ve never experienced, and get a better sense of understanding of your friends and neighbors.

Our actions are not to harm anyone, and if you think that’s what we’re doing, please take a minute to actually absorb what I’m saying. You’ve spent your whole life metaphorically eating one type of food, and we’re just trying to show you how much you’ve missed out on.

And while this might not impact you directly, we’re making a whole bunch of people felt seen. We’re bringing joy. Think of it this way. We make a lot of cards. Not every card is for you. But if it makes someone else happy, if they get to include it in a deck, and it makes Magic better for them, how is it harming you that we include it? You have so many cards that you can play.

To this poster or people that share their viewpoint, the narrative that a gain for someone else is an attack on you is just not true. As I just pointed out above, you play a game all about personal choice, about players getting to choose how they play and enjoy the game. Why should life be any different than Magic?

Thanks for reading.

[macchiatolatte]

THE FIRST VERSION OF THE GUN WITCHES PLAYER SIDE CONTENT IS NOW AVAILABLE IN PDF FORM

Image for the traction :P

Additionally, I've set up a Discord for people who are interested in the project to discuss and give feedback to me dirrectly

[macchiatolatte]

Muncher's silence is not worth a mere 8000 manna, that's gonna be 30,000 manna per month for 24 months with a down payment

By popular demand, I will be launching a new sort of service! I do believe that this option shall be quite popular with many people on the Omninet given my general reception.

BUY MY SILENCE

For 8,000 manna per month, I shall stop a brand of post of your choice on the Omninet. Dislike my posts about my wife? I shall stop! You do not want to see my involvement in Omninet discourse? They shall be no longer! Don't want to see me vaguepost across the Omninet? I believe you to be a fool, but your will be done!

Buy my silence! This new contract option is available today!

[macchiatolatte]

"Shut up Colphne, we are NOT dating" "...Evening stars, comets glittering before moonlight..." "S-SHUT UP NEMESIS"

Colphne x Krolik is underappreciated in the GFL community

[macchiatolatte]

Colphne x Krolik is underappreciated in the GFL community

[macchiatolatte]

WA2000 for the GFL2 global release

I realize as I'm posting this here that I'm a day early, but whatever lmao

[macchiatolatte]

They offered me a job as a fucker. Yeah you heard me right, a fucker. Job is to fuck things. Boss points at something and says fuck it, I fuck it. That's my job. And I'm damn good at it. Pays like dirt and wears on the mind. Wears on the mind.

[macchiatolatte]

b r o a d c a s t / /

… — – . — -. . / — ..- - / - ……-. .

.-.. — …- . … / -.– — ..-

//

[macchiatolatte]

Two flat-color commission pieces of a custom Lancer manufacturer, EINS. These guys LOVE hoses and military hardware. More to come from this manufacturer eventually, as I've been asked to draw all the licenses for the group.

[macchiatolatte]

John ward

[macchiatolatte]

The first step to cooking is applying oil. The second is to liberate said oil

[macchiatolatte]

Reblog if your blog is boopable-safe so you can get all the (probably new) achievements. I don’t care about notes I just want boops

[macchiatolatte]

salut mon ami, ça va ?

[macchiatolatte]

[macchiatolatte]

Rough Beginnings

First | Prev | Next About the Flight | List of Stories

This was originally a piece of flash fiction. You can read it under the cut. Enjoy!

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[444 words, 2 minutes]

7 January 2017 Winnipeg, Canada

A little sparrow pit-pats to the front of their father’s bedroom door. They stand outside, small and penguin-like with how their limbs are pressed to their sides. Inside, their father’s ears perk. Gavrill stops his long-overdue unpacking to look at his child.

“What’s up, Hrodwyn?”

Hrodwyn’s lips press together. Their turquoise eyes fall to their cupped hands.

“...Um. I have something for you.”

Gavrill’s eyes light up with his smile. “What is it?”

He stands to walk over. Hrodwyn’s lips remain pursed, small. “We weren’t able to visit in December. I was going to give you this for Christmas.”

They raise their cupped hands and open them. A small crocheted sparrow sits in their hands and they look up at their father with big eyes.

"Oh, Hrodwyn!" Gently, Gavrill scoops up the sparrow in his hands. He strokes its soft head and back with a finger. "Oh, my sweet sparrow, thank you." He pulls Hrodwyn into a hug, squeezes them, and kisses the top of their head. Hrodwyn is tipped over and their face plants straight into their father's chest. They remain there and smile, speaking with a muffled voice. 

"You're welcome. It matches Merethel’s and Hygd's."

"That's very sweet of you. Always so thoughtful," another kiss on the head before Gavrill leans back a bit to peer at Hrodwyn. "What about you? Do you have one, too?"

Hrodwyn leans back and looks up. "They're Christmas gifts, for you guys. I won't make myself a Christmas gift for myself."

"You should! We can have a little sparrow nest," Gavrill chuckles. "One for each in the family, hm?"

Hrodwyn makes a sweet, childlike smile in polite response to their father's childish tone. "Maybe, if I have the time. Mm! I can attach a keychain to it, if you like. I did the same for Merethel and Hygd."

"Sure! Then I can take the little friend wherever I go. Should I give it back to you?"

"Mmhm," a smile and a nod as Hrodwyn scoops the sparrow back in their hands. "If it breaks, tell me and I'll fix it again."

"Mmhm. Thank you, Hrod," Gavrill says again, ruffling their hair. He stands there looking at his child for a while.

So what have you been doing—

Can you help me unpack—

Do you want to help me unpack—

He doesn't commit to an excuse fast enough before Hrodwyn, with the little sparrow nestled in their hands, pit-pat-pit-pats away to attach a keychain. He watches them go, takes a deep breath in, and sighs.

—Hey, don’t worry, she would say. It’ll take time. You’re doing great.

Оh God, I hope so.

[macchiatolatte]

I NEED MORE MAIDS WITH GUNS

Combat maids by bibibibirite

[macchiatolatte]

thank you I love it