#// the less human he appears

[nelkcats]

Death Loves No One

Cause if he did he'd want to keep them forever

After obtaining the title as Ghost King and losing all his family, Danny started to feel lonely. He had friends, ghosts that would stay for eternity by his side but it wasn't the same. Danny felt that his personal connections were what kept him sane, the evenings with Clockwork calmed him down, but it wasn't the same calm that Jazz used to provide.

So, when he was given the title of Equilibrium it wasn't really a big deal. It was just another title among a thousand others, Clockwork advised him to visit earth to discover his purpose but also warned him that he would not look human.

Danny accepted it but didn't take it seriously, he couldn't help but get scared when people started screaming around him. He wasn't doing anything weird, he was visiting the cemetery, his family's graves, but everyone was running away scared.

He realized that since he lost Jazz (the last one to leave) he no longer looked human. He wondered if it was possible that someone might be interested in talking to him but dismissed it. Some people began to nickname him "Death" because all he did was stay in the cemetery.

That's why it was extremely rare to find a boy calling him every day and making a small talk, he became attached to the boy. The boy would visit different graves but always stayed to talk to him, never yelled, or called him a bad name. Danny couldn't help but love him the same way he loved his family.

He wasn't surprised that the boy died soon after (knowing him brought misfortune didn't it?), but he never stopped visiting the cemetery. So, when the boy rose from his grave completely disoriented, Danny wondered if it was somehow his fault.

[deva-arts]

nate being the only doctor makes me wonder what he's had to do for the others before

Nate does a lot for the crew. (Also woo look at his human disguise!)

When he's not actively treating or checking on them, he's constantly working to compare studies and test data to understand how to treat his friends, seeing as they have widely different genetic makeups and could react in ways that are *catastrophically* unexpected.

He can't use human rules when working on them, which greatly complicates things when he's educated in treating humans. Sera and Vince naturally have nucleated blood cells for greater oxygen input since they're always in rigorous activity, but this is a sign of leukemia or other major deficiency in humans. How do drugs interact with their bodies? what reaction will their immune systems have? do they have an intolerance to certain chemical developments?

This is partly why Vincent underwent so much testing and experimentation- to catalogue and document an atlas for the reproduction and understanding of this hybrid Variant species, and how every facet of its anatomy works in that respect. Like a rough draft you don't care about messing up, and use only to learn from.

Sorry Vince.

It's a wonder how Nathaniel was able to successfully recompile enough information to save his friends at all. It's a lot of stress on one guy with no nurses! That goes without saying for Amon (who is a beastshifter) Sonia... (Who is a living chemical synthesis lab) The various other people who end up joining... (Who shall remain incognito)

...Yikes.

He has likely seen all of them naked at least once, due to emergencies. He's extremely professional, so it's like it never happened... But it's still never fun to have to use that kind of ER protocol on your injured friends and associates.

Everyone except for Vincent, since V never lets Nathaniel treat him for anything, even when he needs it.

Instead, everyone caught a harrowing and unwanted glimpse of Vincent when he landed back home after streaking in the rain. He now flies with his pants duct-taped on. And goggles. For the glare and the overwhelming surplus of bugs he slams into at twice the speed of a f1 car.

[oneroomjestershow]

Genuine question, how was Eli born?

They were born human! in a hospital and they are legally registered in the system, nobody found anything weird on them either, really healthy. They were born from a human mother and non carbon based lifeform/ colonial organism /invisible being with human-like conscious dad.

They just went through a transformation in their childhood to make every cell manipulable, it was inevitable, like if they had an silent  bomb inside that was waiting to go off

After their transformation they lost their memories, and is kind of the reason why they sometimes have trouble recalling memories (cell restoration through the year, loss of some)

U can have some little Eli sketches featuring little Leon too, he was there to support Eli when nobody else was (actually the second person to approach, but Eli wasn’t totally conscious at that time, so lamentably it doesn’t count.)

[randomnameless]

Forget Holoholo bird, that thing was a piece of cake compared to Guillo -

I legit took 2 hours and a half to beat them like what the fresh fuck

Big reveal was the big reveal -

Sagi's growing more and more doubtful and annoyed with you, the player who's supposed to play the navi "hey listen" like entity because plot wise you're supposed to give him super powers, and yet we keep on fighting battles with plot mandated losses lol

+ coupled with flashbacks where Thoraxn and pals pick the worst option available, and Sagi (nor the player, I tried to pick the "no" option when asked if we were ready to sell our souls lol) cannot influence those events eithers since they already happened : he feels useless in the "real timeline" and in the "flashback timeline" and I thought it was nice to have the protag, well, lash out at the so-called omniscient player

(Imagine if Eliwood, just after Elbert's death, lashed out against Mark because for a supposed tactician they failed him and Elbert, and if they had been better maybe they could have arrived faster to the Dread Isle and saved Elbert!)

Remember how I've said Gena and Sagi's bond was important in the plot?

Granted, it's always the "female character who suffers to make the male protag go berserk" trope, and yet, as opposed to a certain manga that makes us want to believe the protag and his "more or less" stalker are in such a relationship that her death means he loses controls, as opposed to the death of his mentor or of ramen guy (tm), here, as I mentionned in another post, Gena always writes letters to Sagi, giving him pocket money, items, asking how he's feeling, encouraging him to do something he wants, etc etc.

Gena is Sagi's world - hell he becomes a soldier/mercenary because he wants to help his mom and her orphanage!

Short story big story : the evil guys tear her wings out (apparently it spells death if not treated), Gena passes out and Sagi rages and transforms in one of the Eldritch Abominations we've been fighting (and losing against).

The plot continues and once Sagi and the player make up, Sagi gets his power-up and can finally start winning some fights!

However, Sagi is driven by revenge - and while Shanath deserves an ass beating for what he did to Gena - Sagi killing him puts Savyna, Shanath's own daughter, on the path of revenge, with the events we know in BKEWLO.

Enter the "Baten Kaitos character sidequests before the final fight" (tm) - and I nearly ragequit'd for the day after the Seginus fight

Sure it doesn't hit as hard as Guillo does, but fuck, fighting two godcrafts in the same day is a hassle lol

More flashback time where we see the events from 1k years ago from someone else's POV, and how Seph'n'Thoraxn's plan to make a deal with the "Dark brethren" fucked everyone over (them included!), because while they supposedly got a super power to defeat their enemy, well, they didn't and created instead a sea of corpses, poisoning the Earth so much that the only solution for people to survive was to send some parts of the land to the sky, effectively creating the setting's floating islands.

I still have some sidequests to continue with but while the plot is interesting, in the sense that you discover the reasons/secrets/origins (lel) of the first game's plot points and lore events...

Well, the playable character are more engaging plot-wise than the ones from the first game, and yet, the battle system becomes kind of stale.

Sagi got his ultra super duper combo that can wipe 1 enemy, Guillo can do AoE stuff, and Milly... well, she can be used for support and MP charging (so Sagi and Guillo will be able to use their combos).

It's not boring at all, but I feel like I was more engaged with the first game banking on each character's deck and their own stats/equipment.

[yoonyia]

my humanity in a book series now that I actually think about the premise is so weird.

the original concept is just to prove that all of humanity's pain and suffering and joys and gifts can be shown in just a few books, that a lot of our struggles are shared and a lot are unique but that they're all inherently human.

no matter what experience you go through it's going to be a human experience because you are a human, and no matter how isolated and alone or exiled you feel the rest of humanity you are still infact human and take that part of you everywhere

you will always be a step in some direction of humanity no matter what that deed is

it's not meant to be read as comforting, in all honesty most of the characters find the idea of never not being human to be sort of disturbing. But that's a part of the human experience too. To look at humanity and say "man we suck"

But now I'm looking at it and it's more then that

the book is set in the 32nd century

although because of my lack of imagination I can't think of what the language would be like I did haphazardly put together a culture that I personally felt like matched the common trend of development in humanity

everyone is given a livable space, concept of currency really isn't a thing (but that's less on humanity and just because the space colony is made up of roughly 10,000 people and trade is impossible, there's more reasons too but I won't get into them at this moment) and in all honesty the society is fundamentally different then most societies on earth.

It's what you would call a utopia but it's such an obvious system that no body even considers it good. They talk only about the unfairness of the council members and the inhuman layout the colony is built on to make it relatively fair between all people. (I say fair not equal because they do take children, occupation and just size of person into account, which yes is a nightmare for everyone invloved)

but I dont know if you see it but there's a disconnect

they don't value the things we value, they don't have the same desires the same ambitions the same secret indulges, many conflicts are the same as they are now but they have a completely different context, different reactions from people, different tones and no real recognizable side we usually see in modern debates.

it's worse then if it were completely different conflicts, then you could just do some narrative translation and make it based off of the modern lense but you can't do that because it's the same conflict. ofcourse it's not to a point where your brain thinks "I can't compherehend this at all" but actually that makes it worse, because it is compherehensible it just isn't common

it's a story trying to tell you that all human experiences are inherently human but it's showing you a humanity that you can't really quite connect with

things you think are basic desires exist but they're not considered the core things that makes someone human, there's something alien about these people that you can't really agree with the actions they take and can't make sense of the movements and words they make.

800 years is a long time and I wanted to show it but I made a story that's inherently ironic

it still fits the original theme, it might fit it even better since it's telling you no matter how much humanity changes its still going to be humanity

but I left my audience behind, I alienated them to show them that they are human, that despite the alienation they're still apart of this society that they're reading about that dosent feel quite right

it's a weird thing to do

I really thought this book was going to be simple to write but I'm already adding layers and I don't think I'm going to stop

and also the science aspect behind this story excites me so much

I'm no biology major so half the stuff I come up with for the alien planet's are probably going to be impossible but it's fun to write about

espicially the plants, I found the heat regulated Lilly pads to be really fun to think up of

also fox like creatures that glow under uv light, gosh that took so much research

they're adorable by human standards but they are deathly venomous so please don't pet them

this series isn't even the only one in this universe

there's a second story that I suddenly forgot the name of but it's something like 'Colony 1, Brother Lutangalo' or something similar.

oh and if you haven't noticed yes these books are heavily inspired by the enderverse and I just wanted to go more indepth into the parts of the books that was largely left unexplored. So this series is also inspired by the shadow series, so the humanity in a book is more morality, conceptual and personal in nature the col1 brother lutangalo books are more political and more grounded in the main society (the 2 main characters are sent to set up a colony on a different planet so they aren't really on the main colony themselves) the main narrator being lutangalo which is the son of the 108 year old colony leader Lau. (this society also has a euthanization law that all people over the age of 100 by law must die to prevent over population, but religious leaders are protected so they can live pass 100 indefinitely) and is currently 8 when you first meet him. Actually his books don't start until he's 12, we meet him when he's 8 because that's the year the 2 main characters comes back

his books, and I'm calling them his books because this series is heavily centered on the one character rather then the humanity series which is forced to jump between people in different time and space to get the message across because the 2 main characters litterally don't react to anyone else but eachother for the majority of book one, all of book 2 and half of book 3 (at least that's what my planning says but it may change when I get to writing the drafts)

anyways his books are very focused on the family that he's apart of and how they affect the colony, it also focuses on the personal perspective of this one kid which is honestly the closet thing the readers get to a instinctually relatable character, he has all the impulses and needs a person of the current age would have, because he basically lived in the 21st century because of his obsessive need to research about Mr ari who is notoriously a history nerd.

so you're finally getting a person that lives and breathes in the same patterns as you do.

and he's so miserable

he is one of the most troubled, impulsive people you have ever met

but also the calmest and kindest and gentlest person at the same time

he's a horrible liar until he isn't, he's intelligent and self aware until he's shockingly oblivious

just a ball of horrible contradictions that feels way too unstable and flipfloppy to be consistently relatable

yes of course in several moments you will exclaim "ha, he's just like me!" but it's going to be rather hard to admit that all of his experiences and actions are relatable or even compherehensible

unlike the first series it's not justifiable in any rational way

it's messy, it's complicated, it's convoluted and he's honestly awful in some scenes

but thats human too

[beegswaz]

I MISSED BUG. BEING CORRECT ABOUT WHEATLEY..???? WHY IS THE WORLD SO CRUEL.

[humanitysong]

i probably should say this at least once but lil critter va.sh is not canon - he's meant as a lil thing on this blog but isn't something plume can actually do. not BIG creature va.sh? that one is canon. I mean we see him transform in vol. 5 but i go as far as to say he becomes even bigger ( longer?? he takes on more of a plant shape ) his 215cm ( 7feet ) probably become a 240cm (7'9) or something. the feathers only add to it so he appears even larger...

[chocochococoffee]

ive seen quite a lot of hate and posts against jean vicquemare hate

personally i like him? hes super toxic and hes also super depressed. for me he is like what harry would be if he hadnt lost his memory (only a bit better because he aint putting his gun in his mouth every 20 seconds). im glad the phasmid helped him be less depressed albeit for a while. loved the hug in the end. i guess people can change with a miracle.

[jamesisasimp]

Well if the good omens bartylus brainrot can't be stopped then it must be encouraged

Can you share any interaction or dialogue you can't stop thinking about?

(also, good whatever-time-it-is-in-your-timezone!)

Helloooo Ary, my dear

I hope you know what floodgates you just opened. I'm going to try to make this sound even a little bit concise and not just like a lengthy ramble, but no promises

It's going to be a mix of me gushing over Good Omens and how perfectly bartylus translates to it, so strap in ♡

First of all, Crowley. Barty. Need I say more?

Fanart credit: twosidedstarr on Instagram and Pinterest

Look at them! They're two of the same, swagalicious, out of pocket, impulsive idiots, and, I'm sorry, but Barty as the snake in the Garden of Eden?

In God's universe, Bartemius, now affectionately referred to as Barty, along with the rest of his human name, Crouch Jr. (not to be confused with Crouch Sr., who was also him, just a couple hundred years ago to be realistic), has been dealt a losing, rather shit hand. Course he is a demon, that's sort with the territory, but he was an angel once too. Doesn't really get what all the fuss was about, it was awful up there, all the white and the glass, gave him a headache.

He was never cut out for Heaven, and Hell is just depressing, and in either he's a miserable excuse for a being, either occult or ethereal, and that is why Barty, formerly Bartemius, Crouch Jr., formerly Sr., is so in love with Earth.

And then there's Aziraphale and Regulus, which is, I think, more of a reach but definitely still completely valid

Fanart credit: twosidedstarr on Instagram and Pinterest

It's important to note that Azzie here is softboi core to the bone, and Regulus is absolutely not. While I think they have a lot of the same fundamentals ideologies, like fierce loyalty, they are very different. Aziraphale wants to believe in the good will of angels only to, slowly, over time, realise how corrupt it is, and I think this parallels amazingly with Regulus's experience with Death Eaters and the Dark Side - BUT Regulus is NOT a softboi, I will not reduce him to this

Consider this analogy for further explanation

Aziraphale and Crowley:

Barty and Regulus:

Regulus can't just abandon Armageddon all together. Not because he particularly fancies being at war, but because of the opposite. He's not the coward Barty seems to think he is - he's not the one trying to run away from this. He's the one trying to fucking stop it from happening entirely, if not for his own sake then for all those innocent humans that aren't ready to be judged yet. That never asked for any of this. That are caught in the crossfire just so good and evil, whatever the fuck those even mean anymore, can figure out who's best.

Regulus has to try. If Sirius taught him anything it's that hope is worth the plunge, no matter what's waiting on the other side.

NOW why am I currently obsessed with this, may you ask? Does it have to do with David Tennant's David Tennant-ness? Yes, a lot actually. Because through him and his portrayal of Crowley, I was able to understand a version of Barty that I could see in Crowley, because I actually relate to him. Probably more than one should relate to a demon but that's the whole point of the show!

The glory and freedom, allure of humanity

It's the story of a demon and an angel that have fallen in love with humanity (and each other) and are willing to give everything up to stay together. Because, if they lose humanity, they lose the bridge over which they can be together, and when the end of the world threatens it's destruction what do they do?

Stop the end of the world, obviously

They go against everything they've been taught, everything they've been told is right and wrong and devine and instead of doing what they should they do what they want to do, which I just think is so beautiful. And opens up a lot for Regulus's character. I mean, Barty's a fallen angel soaked in corruption, he's not blind to it and escapes it in humanity, fueled by spite, whereas Regulus wants to believe he's doing the right thing, that's he's on the right side, and has only really a matter of days to understand that he's not - that there is no right side, only a wrong one. And, instead of fighting for the greater good, do you know what he fights for?

Barty. A demon. A demon that was never evil and never cruel to him, a good person deep deep down

It just suits them SO WELL in my mind

But that's not enough for Barty, of course it's not. To him, he's still just a stubborn coward that still believes in God's Plan. To Barty, he's given up on them, and he can't tell him that he'd never do that, not in another six thousand years, not in eternity if they ever even make it there.

I've written out their version of the bandstand breakup, and I WANT more than ANYTHING to write Barty saying the words "you're so clever, how can somebody as clever as you be so stupid" right to Regulus's face (for those of you that haven't seen the show, don't worry, he absolutely deserves it in the moment). I want to write Barty's collapse, his last few hours on Earth, saying goodbye to the life he loves and his best friend, his partner, his Angel, who he'll never get to be with again. His desperation to find an out, to keep his little Regulus shaped slice of heaven that he knows he doesn't deserve

I want to see Barty when he believes Regulus has gone back to heaven, just hours before the end of the world, and that he never even got to say goodbye

Skip to 2:20

Also, come on, Barty driving through hellfire while blasting queen just to make sure he gets to the end of the world in time to stop it from, well... ending

Then of course there's the holy water scene, Regulus breaking the rules to get Barty a thermos of it so he doesn't end up risking own life to get it in less legal ways. Giving him LITERALLY the means of his own destruction, because Regulus is the only one how can

Because, you see, the trouble with loving someone is that, in doing so, you give them a step my step guide on how to destroy you. Not with holy water or hell fire, but deep deep within. You don't even realize it, Barty certainly didn't, at least not until right now.

I also really want to explore their dynamic! Barty shares Crowley's impulsivity and energy, and he's a bit of a gambler in my mind, getting more of a thrill out of just winning for once than the actual game

"It's not like you need human money," Regulus reminds him.

"Nah," he just shrugs, shoving his hands into his British pound lined pockets. "I just enjoy the game, really. It's fun, you should try it sometime."

"Definitely not."

"And the atmosphere. Can't get that kind of an atmosphere anywhere else."

"Think a nightclub might be similar? Perhaps a pub?"

"Eh. Too much lust, not enough greed, and I get enough of that downstairs," Barty corrects and gets out his keys. "Dinner?"

Regulus, on the other hand, is more reserved and to the point. I did come up with this particular distinction between them that, if someone were talking to them and they didn't really want to talk, Regulus would stay and listen though making it clear he wasn't interested, and Barty would just say "yeah, sorry, don't really care" and be on his merry way. I also think Regulus is a bit of a foodie, in that he loves the different types of human meals and flavors and how each reflect a different culture and background. It's just the little things for Regulus, food and books. Books that allow him to travel to different worlds in which God doesn't exist and he can be anything he wants to be, not just an angel bound to the Greater Good

Also Barty is an ABSOLUTE simp

Regulus, much the same and far less likely to admit it, is in love with the fascinating world of humans too. Most particularly the food. Technically they don't need to eat, it's not a requirement, Barty only ever does it when he feels it's neccessary for appearances or when Regulus insists that he just can't go on living without at least trying a bite. Regulus, however, is a connoisseur. When he acquired his townhome in central London back in 1979, his main concern was the size and capabilities of the kitchen. For comparison, Barty doesn't think he's ever once touched the kitchen in his flat, aside from the one time Regulus asked him to store a cake in his refrigerator. He's thinking of having it refinished into another plant room.

His all time favorite is French food, after a particular excursion during the French Revolution filled with temptation, miracles, crepes, and a near mountain of baguettes. He learned quiche, creampuffs, and croque in Paris, fell in love with garlic in Italy. Spain got him hooked on chocolate and olives, and the shrimp came about from one confusing trip to Japan that Barty isn't fully certain actually happened. He also likes waffles, but that's far too American for him to admit.

So Barty takes them to Le Gavroche, which he is aware is secretly Regulus's favorite, not because the food is good, but because the restaurant itself is so flashy and sought after it takes an angelic miracle to secure them a table. He, as a higher, or technically lower being, is not limited by human languages, well versed and able to communicate in any one he chooses, but there is an unspoken agreement in which he allows Regulus to translate the menu into English for him and does not remind him that he, too, knows French.

So, in conclusion, it's not really a concrete thing it's just the entirety of them. The story of Good Omens is so good and through the lense of Barty and Regulus, who are both very different and very similar to Crowley and Aziraphale, would be just *chefs kiss*. They're two idiots choosing each other over a war and how can you not fall on your knees as to how tooth achingly sweet it is?? "Aww, Reg. You were willing to kill the antichrist for me? Little ol' me?" "Shut up."

Ary, this was very long and hardly made any sense, so I apologize, but I had the time of my life writing all of this down for you. Did I actually answer your question? I have no idea! But I definitely did something, so... tada!!

Brainrot successfully encouraged, this going to be all I can think about for the rest of the day...

[githvyrik]

the amount of people in jacob geller’s comments who don’t understand the point he’s pretty clearly making is always staggering but the comments on his new video on executions are like. pretty bad, so many people are like “well I would rather be murdered by the government via injection vs dismemberment and burning to death 🙄” like hey buddy the point of the video is that humane execution point blank does not exist there is no way to kill someone nicely and peacefully. how does the point sail over your head that bad

[panvani]

I’m enjoying BCS but I kinda don’t like it as much as BrBa

[paragonrobits]

some important calvin and hobbes facts in case you haven't read the original comic strip in a long time or only absorbed stuff on it from memes and out of context bits on here:

Calvin's last name has never been given, and neither has any of his parent's names. This was actually why his uncle Max only showed up for a brief storyline; the creator of the comic, Bill Watterson, ultimately felt that while it was fine to have him as someone for his parents to talk to, it felt far too awkward to never have Max refer to them by name and he never made a return appearance.

The general tone of the comic is fairly light-hearted, with a big emphasis on goofy slapstick comedy contrasted by clever wordplay and often surprising adult-centered jokes that'll hit you like a slap. A big part of the comedy is, as Watterson put it (paraphrased) "It's really funny to me when people express deeply stupid ideas with really fancy terminology." One notable example you might have seen is that one bit where Calvin asks his mom for money to buy a Satan-worshiping rock album and his mom replies that there's nothing genuine about them and they're just putting on the attitude for shock value, and comisserates with Calvin as he deplores that mainstream nihilism can't be trusted. He concludes that childhood is disillusioning.

There is a LOT of criticism of the extreme materialism and selfish mentality of the late 80s, when the comic was initially written. This may go a long way to explain how its aged so well; much of what it criticizes resonates well with people today.

Bill Watterson views comic strips a legitimate form of artwork, and repeatedly fought to have more space to draw more beautiful and artistic backgrounds, which was a very hard fight and unpopular even with other comic strip artists. He eventually did win some compromises and a lot of Calvin And Hobbes' artwork shows it, with the use of space to indicate time as well as a sharp contrast between the often plain environments of mundane life contrasted by the wildly beautiful imagery of Calvin's imagination (which often sports realistic depictions in an art shift of sorts).

Hobbes is explicitly not an imaginary friend, by word of Watterson himself. We don't know WHAT he is exactly, and Hobbes is apparently unaware of the strange nature of his reality; people look at him and only see an ordinary stuffed tiger plushie, but he has a tangible effect on the world that would be physically impossible for Calvin to do on his own. He's apparently been around for a while, and was apparently around when Calvin was a young baby.

On that note; Hobbes has implicitly killed (notably treated as both a gag and also with the vibe of 'he's a tiger, duh') and while he doesn't do it again on-screen, he doesn't have any moral issues about it. Calvin claims that he's never had trouble bringing Hobbes to school because the last time he did, Hobbes killed and ate a bully named Tommy Chestnut and simply comments that it was gross and he needed a bath. Calvin's tried to repeat this again, but Hobbes was grossed out at the thought having to eat a kid raw and not being allowed to use an oven first, or complaining that children are too fattening.

Hobbes became gradually less human-like in body language and more like an actual cat in both body language and behavior; this was due to Watterson drawing more inspiration from his cat, who also inspired a lot of Hobbes' running gags, such as pouncing on Calvin when he got home. Several years into the syndication of the strip, Watterson's cat passed away, and he did a tribute to her with a comic strip of the two of them agreeing to try to dream together so they can keep playing when they have to sleep; Watterson's commentary (if I recall right), remarks on his cat: "We can see each other again in dreams."

[maaarine]

Why are British teenage girls so unhappy? Here’s the answer (Caitlin Moran, The Times, Sep 13 2024)

"The report, by the Children’s Society, found that British 15-year-old girls are the most unhappy in Europe.

British girls aged 10-15 are “significantly less happy” with their life, appearance, family and school than the average boy — and their happiness is still declining.

Boys’ life satisfaction, meanwhile, remains broadly stable. (…)

But I still didn’t have an “aha!” moment about why this so disproportionately affects girls until… I talked to some teenage girls.

It was at a party, and I went to vape with them on the patio. Because I take my nicotine like children do.

“Duh — it’s the boys,” one said when I brought it up, as all the others agreed.

“The boys?” I asked.

My last book, What About Men?, had been all about how much boys struggle these days: their loneliness; their suicide rates. I’d spent the past year feeling very sympathetic towards boys.

“Yeah, well, who do you think they’re taking out their unhappiness on? It’s us,” another girl said.

“One boy at school used to draw a picture every day of how ugly I was,” a third girl said. “Every day for two years.”

“They’ve all got ‘Rate The Girls’ polls on their WhatsApps,” the first said. “They mark you down for weight gain, haircuts, what you say.”

“But then, if you’re hot, it’s just as bad, in a different way, because they’ll be talking about how they want to f*** you.”

The girls discussed coping techniques. Bad news: none of them worked.

“The only way you can stop them is if you become ‘one of the boys’ and hang out with them. But then,” the second girl said with a sigh, “all the other girls call you a slut. Because you’ve gone over to the boys’ side.”

“Surely it’s not all the boys?” I said. “There must be some nice boys?”

“Oh, yeah,” one girl said. “But they keep their heads down. Because… well, look.”

She showed me the Instagram account of her friend. Under every picture she posted of herself — smiling in a new dress; with her dog — dozens of anonymous accounts had replied with the most rank abuse.

“Fat.” “Slut.” “You gonna try and kill yourself again, for attention?”

“They’re all boys from her school,” she said. “And look, this one boy tried to defend her.”

I saw a series of messages from a brave teenage boy, posting things like, “You’re all big men, leaving these replies under anonymous accounts.”

As I could see, this boy immediately became a target too. Mainly accusations that he was “white knighting” this girl: “You wanna f*** her, bro?”

“So,” I asked, “you don’t think it’s social media pressure to be beautiful, or the economy, that’s making girls so sad?”

“Well, yeah, them too,” the first girl said. “But, Monday-Friday, 9-3, I’m not on social media. I’m not… in the economy. I’m just with these boys. And no one talks about how horrible they are.”

I thought about another recent report, showing a 30 per cent ideological gap between Gen Z men, who are increasingly conservative, and Gen Z women, who are increasingly progressive.

I thought about Andrew Tate, who has nine million mostly young male followers — and faces human trafficking charges, which he denies.

And I thought: maybe these girls are on to something. Maybe more people need to vape with teenage girls and ask them for the school gossip."

[thorntopieces]

once again hit with thoughts about smtv and headcanons

[darker-than-darkstorm]

The 1940s-1960s were rife with gorilla characters in comics, and what's left now is just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the time they're not used seriously anymore.

is that a fucking gorilla