#(TL;DR: I'm busy busy busy...)

[magicalgirlsandcerulean]

The 17th of September is Nanao's birthday. Happy birthday.

More famous scenes from the Love Macho X account. (Sulfur: "Seems this time we've become little kids, huh?" | Vesta: "Say that again-")

[unproduciblesmackdown]

(genderly) chill as hell if i was only ever glimpsed / detected like this

[thecassadilla]

Hey, hi, hello! I am still alive (albeit, barely) and it feels it's been a lifetime since I was on here last (but really, it's only been 20 days, somehow). if you are interested in a mostly-pathetic life/writing update from me, then boy, this is the post for you lol.

So I've been trying to update Still Falling For You for the last...4-ish weeks? To no avail, clearly, though it's not because of writer's block this time around. It's because I, quite literally, have no time. Between my main hustles, my side hustle, and the fact that I'm a doctoral student (perhaps getting my PhD in Arendelle History? 😎) I just can't seem to swing it. Every week, I sit down, write a couple hundred words, realize I have to stop myself because more pressing life responsibilities must be attended to, and then the next thing I know, it's Monday again and I have 5 exams to study for, 3 papers due, and 28 new tasks between my multiple jobs to worry about (okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but that's what it feels like right now). This is a fairly accurate depiction of what my life has looked like/felt like for the past several weeks:

Anyway, the point of this post is not to cry "woe is me" - because really, what adult isn't super busy nearly 100% of the time? But rather to give a lil update for the handful of you that may be wondering "when the heck is she going to post a new chapter?"

The answer is both "I'm trying" and "soon, hopefully."

For those of you who have read this far, I thank you kindly for your patience. When I started writing fics again in *gasp* 2020, I certainly hadn't expected either my personal life or my writing/online life to take the routes they've taken. But I'm here, for better or worse, and I have no plans to go anywhere, even if it means I'll be updating at a snail's pace from this point forward.

So in the meantime, I will close out this post with a gif of this adorable waving snail, which represents both my writing/update pace and my overwhelming desire to make everyone happy (myself included).

[yangjeongin]

Hi! Maybe you can finish Back door series till New year? 👉👈 Sorry and thank you ❣️

Annoying Back door anon

hello back door anon 🫶 i'm ngl i forgot about this series LJKSDLFJSJDG with how busy i got, i totally will not be able to finish it before the end of the year but i will continue it over time!! i intend to finish it eventually but it's just kinda a "when the inspiration strikes/i need something to gif" series for me. i'm sure i can make at least one set for you before the end of the year tho <3

[autistichedgehogs]

hello all! i apologise for the inactivity--i was having a lot of medical (and dissociative) issues in my off-screen life. hopefully i can be around a bit more :)

[chocoenvy]

Unnatural Anon here, and you are apparently back! Do you want to discuss what caused your absence or no?

Hello!! Idk if I can say I'm back but! I am alive!

It's nothing necessarily new, I'm in my last years of highschool and doing my best to seem appealing for colleges. I'm taking all honors which is effectively taking up any life I thought I didn't have from me.

I'm on a short break rn which is why I was able to finish up that fic, but this is probably going to last until summer break of me not being very active (or christmas break)

I would love to write more, that fic was so so so fun to write, but school is taking up all of my time so i won't be able to do it much.

Thank you for sticking around though <33 it means so much

[melovrs]

are you going to continue fyh or drop it once you move to the new blog ?? js curious ! :))

hi tysm for the ask anon !! this is gonna be really disappointing, but i was thinking about scrapping the series as a whole. i wasn't really liking the pacing and how the plot was going :(

fyh was my first smau and long series ever, and i was terrible at planning the chapters and plot, so it wasn't the greatest. (i'm still invested in the concept of a boba shop au, so it might make a comeback on the new blog <3) i really wish i could update for it again, but i'm more into blue lock currently :( i still love haikyuu so much tho, so pls don't be mad with me ;w;

once again, i'm really really sorry for the disappointing news, and PLEASE don't keep your hopes up :( i'm really bad at keeping promises, so there's a very slim chance fyh might come back :(

[louderfade]

A BRIEF HISTORY OF YOUR TERRIBLE SITUATION FOLLOWED BY THE FACTS AS THEY CURRENTLY STAND (AGAINST YOU)

the doctor hands you some educational literature detailing the history of the highly effective emotional treatment programs currently enjoyed by citizens today. the story begins with the breakthrough partnership of psychiatry and business, resulting in all variety of for-profit psychiatric products. (god bless the free market.) this vastly increased access to SSRIs, as the industry leaders generously made sure the miracle cure was affordable for citizens everywhere. following this landmark achievement, the state made great strides toward equality with the decision to simply go ahead and just put the drugs in the water. this was very progressive and inclusive of all demographics. it was so inclusive, that they didn't even ask anyone if they wanted to be included. all groups and individuals were treated with the same level of unbiased disrespect.

soon, troublesome and uncomfortable problems like art eradicated themselves, as no one felt like making or looking at stuff anymore. they didn't have time anyway. now, talents previously wasted on art are free to concentrate on producing excellent pharmaceutical advertisements for all. the future is bright from the glow of all the video advertisements. the video billboards never turn off. they glow even when no one is looking at them. that's how bright the future is. it's absolutely blinding. its glare has made the practice of seeing for one's self obsolete, as no one can see much of anything anymore. but don't worry. you don't need your eyes to tell you what's out there. the company will let you know what's real. your boss will issue periodic truth statements containing descriptions of reality. studies show these statements are even more accurate than the primitive sense of sight we once relied on. in fact, they're more accurate than reality itself. they're part of an advanced reality. they tell you exactly what the experts believe is best for you to know. this increases productivity and improves quality of life. not your life, of course. but the lives of the men in charge of the companies. the only lives that still have people living inside them like human beings. your life ceased to exist a long time ago. you relieved yourself of it by choice. after all, you do have free will. you didn't have to take a job with the company. nobody forced you; nobody threatened you with violence. we gave you other options, such as freezing to death on the streets of the closest modern, progressive city. you are in control of your fate. you made all these decisions yourself. your qualified, well-meaning leaders set it up this way on purpose. they studied history and its various warnings for the future. they wisely realized that truth was too powerful to be legal. they understood that the best slaves are those who believe that they are free.

[wernerherzogs]

.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

truly something that, amidst facing / going through a dramatic Life Change ft. unavoidable emotional effects of that, there are instances where i can't conceal any & all degrees of being distressed / upset, & repeatedly getting "it's hard for me too" as a Direct Response to that: really something & a half how the asserted theoretical Sympathy of [i feel similarly!] is invoked so as to, oh you know, preclude sympathetic Treatment. such as that what would be More sympathetic in these instances would be to say Nothing, "if there's nothing but dismissal / making it first & foremost about someone else's feelings to say, don't say it at all" style

[the-bibrarian]

I see a lot of incomprehension online about our pension reform and the anger it generates in France, and what it often boils down to is "why are they so angry, 64 is plenty young to retire?"

I don't agree, but even if I did I would still oppose the reform. Here are some of the reasons why:

We already need 43 full years of work and tax contributions to be able to retire. Which means college-educated people were never going to retire at 64 anyway, let alone 62. This reform is aimed at people who start working early, mostly in low-paying jobs.

There's very little provision made in this law for hard/dangerous/manual labour.

There's no provision made for women who stop working to raise their children (51% of women already retire without a "complete career," which means they only retire on a partial pension, vs. 25% of men).

At 64, 1/3 of the poorest workers will already be dead. In France, between the richest and the poorest men, there's a 13 years gap in life expectancy.

Beyond life expectancy, at that age a lot of people (especially poorer, non-college educated) have too many health-related issues to be able to work. Not only is it cruel to ask them to work longer, if they can't work at all that's two more years to hold on with no pension

Unemployment in France is still fairly high (7%). Young people already have a hard time finding work, and this is going to make things even harder for them

Macron cut taxes on the rich and lost the country around 16 Billions € in tax revenue. Our estimated pension deficit should peak at 12 Billions worst case scenario.

While I'm on wealth redistribution (no, not soviet style, but I think there should be a cap on wealth concentration. Nobody needs to be a billionaire.): some of the massive profits of last year should go to workers and to the state to be redistributed, including to fund pensions. The state subsidized companies and corporations during the pandemic, Macron even said "no matter the cost" and spent 206 Billions € on businesses. Now he's going after the poorest workers in the country for an hypothetical 12 Billions??

Implicit in all of this is the question of systemic racism. French workers from immigrant families are already more likely to have started their careers early, to have low-paying jobs, are less likely to be college-educated, more at risk for disabilities and chronic illnesses, etc., so this is going to disproportionately affect them

This is not even touching on the fact that he didn't let lawmakers vote on it, meaning he knew he wouldn't get a majority of votes in parliament, or that 70% of the population is against this law. Pushing it through anyway is blatant authoritarianism.

TL;DR: This is only tangentially about retirement age. The reform will make life harder for people with low incomes, or with no higher education, for manual workers, for women—mothers especially, for POC, for people with disabilities or chronic conditions, etc. This is about solidarity.

Hope (sincerely) this helps.

[yeppeudau]

not that I was updating anw BUT I'll be busy packing/ moving this weekend probably till monday or tuesday as there are a lot of other things to do so I apologize one again 🙏🙏

[shewhowas39]

a quick note on elven maturity

all right. time for another lore dump, brought to you by a big DnD fangirl.

so i see a lot of conversation around Astarion's age at the time of being turned (39 years old) and how, in DnD, that would make him a "child." this comes from rules and lore that state that elves can live to be about 750 years old (or older) and are considered adults at 100 years old. and i can absolutely see why that is confusing, but let me break it down a bit.

Elves reach physical maturity at the same age as humans, but after that point, their aging slows down tremendously. a 39 year old elf may be "considered a child" but has the physical maturity of a human in their 20s and mental maturity of a 39 year old human.

so let's talk about that "considered a child" business. this might be cleared up by adding the caveat "by other elves" at the end.

the distinction of "childhood" is cultural. because elves live so long, they see those under the age of 100 as youthful. think about it: if you had seen five hundred years of shit, you'd think an 80 year old was a sweet summer child, too. hell, i'm in my 30s and sometimes it's hard not to look at people in their early 20s as "kids" because we're just in such different places in our lives, even though they are legally adults.

even in the real world, maturity and adulthood are seen differently across cultures. different countries have different drinking ages, different ages for driving cars, different ages of consent. those standards may seem odd to an outsider, used to their own cultural norms, but every community is different.

elves don't just see other elves under age 100 as children. they see other races this way as well. high elves tend to view humans as immature - even in their old age - because 80 years to them is nothing.

i was a legal adult at 18, but 18 year old me didn't know half the shit 33 year old me does. and i'm sure 45 year old me will think 33 year old me was "young" by comparison.

now, i've seen some takes that Astarion might be lying about being a magistrate because he was "a child" and why would they make a child a magistrate? that argument might hold up in an elven dominated city, but Baldur's Gate is mostly human. by human standards, Astarion had the same mental capacity as any other 39 year old man.

Astarion, at age 39, may have been seen as a "child" by other high elves, but this isn't literal. it merely means he had yet to reach a major cultural milestone of a very, very long lived race. a milestone even the most elderly of humans likely will never reach.

would you call an 80 year old human a child? no. but a high elf very well might see them that way. not in the physical sense, but in a "oh to be young and naive and know less of the world than I do" sense. the way that we all inevitably look at those a decade younger than us, even though they are adults, and see their youth in comparison to our own.

it's 5am here and i'm babbling. the point is, the "child" bit of elven lore in DnD is confusing, i get it. but it's purely cultural. in Baldur's Gate, a city primarily run by humans, Astarion was not seen as a child by most. he was a grown man. he had the mental maturity of a 39 year old man. the only people who would have seen him as a child are other, older high elves (mostly those who grew up in a place like Evermeet) and maybe elders of other races - even humans - who were like "oh, to be 39 again!" (lol, me the day i turn 40 probably.)

tl;dr elves in dnd are not LITERALLY children until they turn 100. it's an elven culture thing, similar to how in real life different cultures have different standards for things like driving, drinking, joining the army, and age of consent.

[akirathedramaqueen]

The bias is not always conscious

And that's the case with Stolas. That's it, that's basically the post, so you can count it as your tl;dr, but let me elaborate. :)

(A little gratitude note! Sorry @tealvenetianmask, I failed being concise here, but I thank you for encouraging me to put it all together :3 I also thank you for our conversations about Stolas and about museums in particular which heavily contributed to it)

I think there's some misunderstanding when people get offended by the suggestion that Stolas acts classist/racist. It seems that people assume we’re implying he is malicious and intentional with it, but the actual problem is that he doesn't think.

S2EP2, Seeing Stars, 1:29

The problematic behavior we're discussing is reflexive and internalized. Stolas was raised in an environment where the lower demon class is looked down upon, and while he believes he expresses nothing but deep respect for Blitzø and treats him as an equal…

Goodnight, Blitzø. S1EP7, Ozzie's, 14:50

And while you can see from this bow that this intention is sincere, which is both wonderful and fascinating—he preserved this profound gesture ever since he was a kid, despite being actively discouraged from doing so!...

[Stolas]: I'm Stolas! It's nice... Ouch! [Paimon]: Don't bow to that one! He bows to us! Idiot! S2EP1, The Circus, 7:40

He was still raised in privilege and influenced by the narratives around him. For him, it's acceptable because that's what he was taught is fine. It's part of his everyday speech, and he never actually asks Blitzø, or anyone else, how they feel about the literally belittling nicknames (like literally—do you notice how often he uses the word "little" when referring to imps?).

I mean... there's a lot, okay? I'm just going to pull out some examples off the top of my head. All of them are from Season 1, and I'll explain why later.

I was hoping you brave little imps would accompany us! S1EP2, Loo Loo Land, 5:15

Ugh, that's better... Where's Blitzy? He's my knight in shining armor, not you, littler ones! S1EP2, Loo Loo Land, 13:22

And it [grimoire] isn't supposed to be lent out to itty-bitty imps like yourself. S1EP5, The Harvest Moon Festival, 0:30

Greetings, tiny Wrath Ring imps! S1EP5, The Harvest Moon Festival, 8:22

[Stolas, in the background]: Who dares threaten my little impish plaything? S1EP6, Truth Seekers, 18:20

How the fuck did you get caught by humans? Are you little creatures not being careful up here? S1EP6, Truth Seekers, 19:38

He also takes pride in being part of Ars Goetia. That pride seeps into his mind whether he wants it to or not. He lives in a huge palace, never worries about money, can arrange a seat in a club that’s always booked out, and gets admitted to a hospital immediately, while hellhounds wait five years for a Hellbies shot.

Being part of the Goetia family is rather valuable, you know. S1EP2, Loo Loo Land, 4:39

Most of these examples come from Season 1 because, after the disastrous Ozzie’s date, Stolas begins to unconsciously cut back on this language. He seems to sense that something is wrong, though he doesn’t fully understand why. However, he is acutely aware of the problems with the transaction and the unfair dynamics it creates, and he is serious about putting Blitzø on equal ground by providing him with the means to run his business independently of Stolas.

And still, he maintains full control over the conversation during the Full Moon meeting, immediately dismisses Blitzø after one mistake, and throws him out. He continues to impose his narrative on Blitzø and…

I don't look down on you! How many times do I— When have I ever?! S2EP9, Apology Tour, 2:45

When have you ever indeed, Stolas? You literally look down on Blitzø saying that. This moment illustrates the problem clearly. He isn’t lying when he says he doesn’t look down on Blitzø because he genuinely believes he doesn’t.

Despite all said, Stolas is making a tremendous effort and is progressing, and he is far ahead of Stella, who is openly classist/racist and very conscious of her biases. So I believe—no, I know—he will get there one day. But not today.

This is something I take quite seriously, and I think people need to understand how dangerous this subtlety can be, as it happens all the time in real life too.

How often do you ask yourself why medical research groups are predominantly represented by white, cis, upper-middle-class males, and how this affects the efficiency of treatments suggested in these studies for everyone else—women, people of color, non-binary folks, and those who struggle financially?

How often do you visit museums and see art created by wealthy aristocrats who defined what constitutes 'fine art,' while 'folk art'—often created by marginalized communities—is overlooked and lost to time?

I could elaborate further on how deep and cruel this bias is, but I’ll stop here. I just ask you to consider why you might get offended when someone points out Stolas's subtle bigotry and why you might downplay it compared to the loud, aggressive Blitzø, whose anger and avoidant issues are obvious.

Just sit with it.

[janearts]

TL;DR: Roisia still doesn't think of any gods outside of Kelemvor. If she holds any other gods in contempt, it's a fleeting feeling because her thoughts of other gods are just as impermanent. More detailed analysis under the read-more.

***

Roisia's role as her mother's successor (and therefore a future Cleric of Kelemvor) meant that she was devoted to Kelemvor from a young age. So although Roisia wasn't ignorant of the other gods in the Faerûnian pantheon, she didn't spare them a second thought. Why would she? Kelemvor was front and centre to everything she was, everything she wanted to be.

I'm not sure if I've ever talked about the way that Roisia has some degree of emotional and cognitive dissonance when it comes to her faith and her career as a Necromancer. When Roisia raised her father from the dead and then doubled down on her pursuit of Necromancy, she effectively broke from Kelemvor, destroyed her Clerical future, and became godless. But she's still someone who prays to Kelemvor like he'll have an ear out for her. There's still something that remains comforting about the habit of worshipping Kelemvor, even though, when she thinks about it, she knows that her god would despise her for what she does and continues to do with abandon (raise the dead and bend the rules around death).

Roisia is effectively godless—a dangerous thing to be in this dangerous world when she knows that Kelemvor, the god whose tenets she broke, judges souls. But Roisia has had a hard time committing to another god in the pantheon. It somehow, still feels wrong to her. Much like picking a life partner, , Roisia just can't seem to select one and commit.

If she were, like she did for her "#4"s, write down her options, it would look something like this:

Bane: Talked to her. Said she was already of his ilk. A possibility.

Deneir: Scholarly and arcane. But what if she didn't want to just record knowledge, but practise it?

Jergal: If desperate. [FYI: Not 100% sure Roisia would've puzzled Withers out. Roisia would likely believe them to be a high-ranking priest of Jergal.]

Leira: Possibly, provided one has a sense of humour. (After all, in a sense, much of Roisia's life is a lie!)

Myrkul: Probably the most sensible choice of the lot. Still wants to cremate his bones for funsies for snubbing her.

Mystra: Also a practical choice, although considering Gale's history with the goddess, not Roisia's first choice.

Tymora: Again, if one has a sense of humour. (Because Roisia is, in a sense, gambling with her very soul.)

Waukeen: Once more, if one has a sense of humour, because Roisia still wants to have a thriving funerary business while also raising the dead in her own backyard graveyard.

[dyscomancer]

can you explain what happened with larian and hasbro? why are the next 5 years going to be so bad?

So, Larian had to purchase from Hasbro/WotC the usage rights for the Forgotten Realms setting and the D&D 5e systems, among other things, to make Baldur's Gate 3. Larian self-published the game; it was not published by Hasbro or Wizards of the Coast.

However, they still had folks from the WotC D&D team help them with the integration of a setting they did not own. Having folks on hand to provide visual reference for artists designing characters, items, and architecture, having lore bible folks checking the story and dialogue for lore consistency, having rules designers help to change the 5e rules for the reality of it being a video game and not live tabletop; that sort of thing.

Thing is, since then, Hasbro has let every single one of the WotC employees Larian worked with (with whom they had a great time, by all accounts) go in their recent downsizing layoffs.

Larian owner, Swen Vicke, has been outspoken about the video game industry's quarterly profit mindset and how it has been ruining the industry. These downsizing layoffs are emblematic of this toxic business structure; by nixing employees, you can claim to your all-powerful shareholders that you got a bigger profit than you would have otherwise! Because god help you if you have to tell the shareholders that you didn't double your fucking profit margins from the previous quarter. Don't worry about how you just let all your veteran talent go, I'm sure that won't have any effects down the line.

Recent news has confirmed that Baldur's Gate 3 will not be receiving any DLC, despite previous statements that the concept was being looked at. It will not get any expansions like BG games before it did. It will not be getting a sequel from Larian. It will not be getting any expanded content outside of further updates and patches. Big extra content like that requires the aforementioned involvement from the WotC team; the team that has since been entirely fired.

Larian, as a company that generally eschews firing people for bullshit reasons and don't adhere as much to the bean counting mindset, found this firing of people to be horrifyingly unethical, as many of its staff and ownership have publicly stated. This almost certainly had something to do with the previously mentioned 'no DLC/sequels' announcement. Why would you want to work with a company that treats its people like that?

The '5 years' statement I stated was just a rough estimate. Hasbro has already started up on publishing their own video game titles in-house without the aid of studios like Larian, and 5 years is a pretty good window for titles like that to be released in the future. And judging by how their previous titles from a previous effort (bad mobile games, bad steam games) were received, I don't see any reasons to believe that this push would be different.

Had they just not fired people to please a bunch of asshole suits from some holding company doing fuck-all but sitting in meeting rooms to collect money, they'd likely have had a better chance at working with Larian on more stuff for BG3, more Forgotten Realms stuff in the future, and just generally had more chances for quality products made by a passionate and proven team.

tl;dr; Hasbro fired all their people who worked with Larian, and Larian rightly saw this as a dick move.