#I’ve heard every reason why people think it’s evil but like. just say you don’t like the romance genre…

[persephonaae]

Hrm

[complex-pdf]

Common Sense | Nanno x Plus Size Reader

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request: “Hellooo, can I request a scenario of nanno x reader where the reader just questions everything and doesn't immediately retort to dumb decisions like most of the characters in the show 💀 and nanno is thankful to have met SOMEONE with some sense Imao”

a/n: when I be watching this show I be like “damn that was evil Nanno…that’s what they get lmao” 🗿 and I didn’t know if I should base this off of an episode or not so I did anyways

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‘This school’s system is trash…’ You thought as you walked about your school. You went to Lerdvithi School, a school that focuses on talented kids and make anyone else that isn’t a “genius” feel lesser than. You thought it was disgusting and will only lead to trouble especially when you see people get jealous at the “geniuses” all the time. Like this girl in your class looked so jealous after her friend one that writing award and became a genius. Now all of the sudden she’s one too. ‘What’s her name? Ugh I’m so bad at reme-‘ “Hey!” Suddenly a voice ruined your train of thought.

You turned around to see Nanno. “Hm? Oh, hey Nanno.” She was one of your favorite non-friends that you were cool with. “(Y/n) have you seen how quickly Mew became a genius? Pretty cool right?” Nanno asked as she speed up to match your speed. “Eh…I guess so. It’s kinda suspicious that she did it so quickly though.” “Someone’s jealous~” Nanno chuckled which made your cheeks heat up a bit. “Yea right. I’m not a suck up to the school’s ways like you or Mew. Besides that shit sounds stressful.”

You turn your head to look at Nanno and see she was just starring at you with a bright smile plastered on her pretty face. You stopped in your tracks and raise your eyebrow. “What?” “You know~ I know how she did it~” She said in a singing tone as you shake your head in disbelief. “Please, I don’t wanna get roped into dra-“ “She stole artwork online, splattered that stupid red paint on it, and called it hers.”

What Nanno told you made you angry…for some reason. ‘Why would anyone do that?!” You weren’t an angry person, but you just felt like you blew a fuse out of no where. You felt your face contort as your fists ball up. ‘Art is personal! Why would Mew steal! To get a stupid lunch? To get fame? To feel smarter than everyone else? She’s a fraud!’ You close your eyes as you got more frustrated with every thought. “(Y/n)~ You can bring her down by, I don’t know, be better at her own game?” You heard Nanno say, as if she said it in your mind.

You took three deep breaths. In and out, in and out, in and out. You felt relaxed already, like the anger never existed. You looked at Nanno and told her, “No. You know why? Because she’ll get her karma anyways. Why would I become a fraud to better one?” You gave your acquaintance a small smile, “Some times, though this is my only time getting your advice, you don’t have the best things to say.” You started to walk away from Nanno as to get to class before everyone came into the hallways to get to their classes.

“(Y/n).” Nanno’s voice made you turn quickly as she was right in front of you. Kind of too close. “You know…”, Nanno started to caress your left cheek, “You’re pretty smart. You think before you take action. Some might say it’s…common sense~” You saw Nanno smirk as you, and she, felt your face heat up tremendously. “W-Well…I…I guess a lot of people don’t have that nowadays…” You stuttered out nervously. “I’ve seen a lot of people without common sense, you have no idea…And you know, you look cute. Cuddly and bouncy even. Stay that way for me.” Nanno told (Y/n) with a smile. She walked away humming like she never said anything to you. While you just stood there flustered.

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[awakenedsalamander]

So I’ve been wanting to write about this for a long time (my friends can probably attest to the fact I will talk about it unprompted) but I can’t find it way to do so concisely. Here’s my best try.

Is Mage: The Ascension (in its presentation of the Technocracy in specific) anti-science?

I don’t think so, not anymore. But I want to explain why. By the way, I have to imagine that this won’t be all that accessible if you don’t have much knowledge of Mage, but you’re free to stick around if you want to.

So, here’s the thing— the Technocratic Union is pretty much a stand-in for the advancement of the scientific method, “the Enlightenment,” all that. The whole point in the first edition of Ascension is that the Union is science, the science that dispelled notions of magic, and that this is a Bad Thing. They are oppressive, heartless, and cold. The villains, plain and simple.

In later editions, this gets softened, partly due to the notion of “Science is a conspiracy the elite uses to rule the world and keep you down” becoming less fun and more toxic as it gained more sincere believers, and partly because fans really liked the Technocracy.

I think the common read is that Ascension then took the direction of the Technocracy being anti-villains— the Union has noble goals, and many of its members are sincerely brave and compassionate, but ultimately it is too extreme, too callous. It has to be stopped.

This is, to be fair, an improvement over “science is evil,” but “science is too dangerous,” is still not great. And for a long time, this was my view on Mage: The Ascension. Fun ideas, maybe, but the core conflict of the game was just too reckless a portrayal of what seemed to me like a mirror of real-world conspiracist ideology.

And to some extent, I still think that. Especially in the early editions, this is a very fair critique. That said, the game still spoke to me as I looked into it, and for the longest time I wasn’t quite sure why. A piece of it was my own opening up to the notion of our subjective viewpoints affecting our reality— something that deserves its own rambling essay— but a related part of it was me realizing that there was something about the Technocracy that rung true to me, despite my misgivings. And I think I figured it out.

See, the Technocracy isn’t a stand-in for the scientific method, but for scientism.

If you’ve not heard the term, “scientism” is a controversial (we’ll get into why a bit later) pejorative term for the belief/perspective that science, as a body, composes essentially all useful and/or reliable knowledge about the world.

Notably, those who critique scientism rarely hold the view that scientific knowledge is bad or even inaccurate, just that it is an incomplete model of reality. This is not an anti-science position, but a skepticism towards the trust people place in its ability to solve every mystery. Vaccines, for example, are great! No one can reasonably dispute the benefits and efficacy of vaccination. When it comes to medicine, the scientific method has done incalculable good— the lives saved by vaccination alone are countless.

To be against scientism, then, is not to argue that medical science is a failure, or overrated— but to point out that there is more to life than being healthy. Everyone should be glad we have learned so much about treating illness and alleviating suffering. But what of having a sense of purpose? What about love and compassion and justice? What about satisfaction, having gone through a life worth living?

Again, none of that is to say that science or the scientific community is the problem. But if you take the Technocracy as an example of scientism gone to an extreme, one in which things like kindness and equity must be left behind in favor of only the virtue of material knowledge, I think Mage: The Ascension starts to really work.

(I originally intended to write a MUCH longer piece including references to the military-industrial complex, the rise of automation and AI, as well as the increasingly algorithmic nature of culture but this is so long already. And yet I worry I said essentially nothing. C’est la vie.)

[us-the-voices-and-more-voices-2]

sometimes I just get angry.

yeah whatever, but I just get SEETHINGLY angry.

because sometimes people talk about children with insecure body images, like they are the reason they are insecure.

sometimes people say they hate when curious little kids ask them questions.

sometimes people tell kids they are useless and stupid and they can’t know anything.

sometimes they act like all children are pure little angels who the moment they are exposed to something bad they are evil and impure.

sometimes I see people yell and scream at their kids for nothing, and hit them and pull them.

sometimes I hear parents call their kids disgusting disappointments to their faces and act like they can’t hear it.

sometimes I see meek scared anxious kids get so scared and wary around adults it makes me wanna cry.

I hate how people treat kids, I hate it so fucking much.

I know better than to listen to fuckers talk like they are devils spawn or only pure and innocent when they decide to.

I hate them so much, and I just want the kids to be okay.

to this day, I keep talking to suicidal 10yr olds.

to this day I talk with victims of child sexual abuse.

to this day I talk to neglected kids.

to this day I listen, and I comfort them.

To this day I feel only hatred and disappointment and disgust towards our world’s government. The people in these kids lives, the authorities, and the world.

because, I;ve heard this phrase once too many times

“Thank you for caring about me”

just, thank you. I’m not even there in real life, I’m not. I’m not anything, I’m just telling them it’s going to be okay.

and they thank me for listening, they THANK ME.

why, why do I need to be thanked?

why am I the only one who sees them suffering?

they go to school, they have friends. They have neighbors and local businesses, they have cops and social services.

and yet, none of them saw these kids.

none of them listened, none of them cared.

and I sit here fucking sobbing sometimes, just fucking crying.

because I know that I was the only one who cared.

the, only one in their miserable lives who looked and saw someone hurting and cared enough to ask what was wrong.

and I cry, and I cry.

because how else do I deal with that?

how else do I deal with the utter fucking disgusting disappointment.

that. I was the only one who cared.

how, how is that fair to them?

how is that fair to ANYONE!

how is this okay? How is this okay????

I’ve been through a lot, but these kids have gone through so much worse than me.

and they are suffering, and it makes me fucking cry.

how do people let this happen?

because I just cannot let it go, I fucking hate the FBI they have done nothing to help none of these kids.

I fucking hate the police who do NOTHING FOR THESE KIDS

I fucking hate the foster system who allows them to relive their fucking nightmares.

I fucking hate the social workers who don’t follow up, who don’t ask questions, who don’t do anything.

I fucking hate them all.

I live with the pain so many kids have bared to me, I will take their secrets to my grave, I will hold their memories with such kind hands.

but I do not believe in people who say they care about kids. Then say they think they are stupid, or don’t know anything, or are too young to experience or understand mature things.

fuck this shit, if I had a chance and I’d fucking rip some people’s faces of and grind their bones into bonemeal and make bread with it.

the utter HATRED IN MY SOUL, does not outweigh the love in my heart for these kids.

I will die for them, I would always die for the,. I’d always help them, I will never stop fighting for them.

I don’t think anyone fucking understands these kids.

(Not really I’m just being angry)

but every single day I want to bathe in their blood, god.

I want them to suffer like the kids they let get hurt.

but that’s not something I can do, or want to do.

I’m just disappointed and distraught.

I have done so much, and yet it’s not enough.

I won’t stop fighting, I won’t stop caring, I won’t stop anything,

these kids deserve better than anything, and I will die for them.

I will die, I want them to be okay and I hope they are.

I hope me caring about them helped.

I hope they have the strength to live, I hope they don’t feel evil for not being an innocent child anymore.

I hope they are safe now, I hope they are okay.

but. I’ll never know.

and that scares me, that makes me fucking wanna vomit.

I don’t know, I will never know.

and it hurts, I dedicate a small part of my soul for each of these kids and it aches with guilt and grief.

they only deserve love, and I hope they get it.

I’m sorry this rant is a mess, but it’s just something that’s always on my mind.

because, you have no idea how deeply people and society hates children.

because if they didn’t, I wouldn’t have so so so many stories of kids being tortured and abused, and burned, and strangled, and cut, and thrown, and killed and dead.

I love these kids more than life itself, but I can’t do anything.

my heart is broken and I am fucking guilty for how little I can help.

and I can’t do anything more than listen and care, I am not fucking soft. I am the strongest willed person, but these kids break my soul.

and I only want to give them something anything, and all I can give is hope.

I hope these kids are okay, I’m fucking sobbing.

I’m just so fucking frustrated for how much i’m brushed off.

how much I try, and how little no one cares.

and by fucking hell, is it just awful.

I am sent into a RAGE at people saying this shit, a blinding rage.

I want to fucking hurt them, it’s just not okay to say that about kids.

I want to HURT THEM, they tell them they can’t know they are abused.

I WANT TO FUCKING KILL THEM

I hate these people who act like children are some kind of mythological BEAST that is only good when it’s tame.

I want to fucking rip those people’s hearts out, I am so done.

this life is too tough for them, I will literally fucking punch them in the face and spit on them.

I do not believe in this shit, I cannot believe them.

I would break my heart and be punch and bitten by those kids before ever abusing or hating them.

I will try so hard, so so very hard to become someone that kids can be safe around.

because it breaks my fucking heart.

I want to fucking rip somebody’s throat out.

the next time I hear someone say

“oh the kids shouldn’t know what sex is”

“the kids don’t need to be taught internet safety”

”why teach kids about abuse”

”we shouldn’t tell kids about sexual abuse”

”we shouldn’t tell kids about what to do if they are in a abusive situation”

”kids shouldn’t know what rape is”

“Kids shouldn’t talk to adults”

”kids should only talk to other kids”

or any variation of that I hope people know.

you are the fucking problem, you ARE THE FUCKING PROBLEM!

I will literally never forgive you, I don’t care how against your morals it is.

you are hurting so many children with your ideas.

kids should know mature things, kids should know what to do when those things happen, kids should feel safe and not have to fear consequences for trying to get help.

I want kids to be safe, and that involves letting go of this idea that they are stupid, that they are dumb and horrible.

it’s embracing they are actual people with LIVES, not some prop, or nothing.

an person exactly like you, just younger.

they are just small people, they are just people.

they need love and care and community.

and they do not get it.

if you have listened to kids, or know kids.

you will know how heavily they rely on each other.

they have such strong bonds and dreams, and I’m so proud of them.

let go of this stupid idea that kids don’t know anything, they are smart creatives, and wonderful people.

and I’ll die for them

[just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi]

sooo I have some questions about mason becuase he seems like a really interesting character. Also it was kind of funny how he’s fine with beating up or electrocuting a pet but the second someone lets them go online or gives them slightly lax rules, he’s like oh no this poor sweetheart, this is so sad😞 . Would he punish a pet for panicking a lot or getting freaked out easily? Or what if a pet was transgender? Would he tell them they were just being silly or would he actually listen to them? What if a pet saved his life? Would he be grateful?

Thank you for the interest!! Mason is what I like to call an evil therapist with a HEALTHY dose of condescension.

Would he punish a pet for panicking/freaking out easily?

Not necessarily, it depends on why the pet is scared. If there is something genuinely stressful going on (getting a new owner, tension in the home, medical, even something like a thunderstorm) he would not punish them. In his mind, that is not willful disobedience. They are scared, they are stressed, and pets are simple creatures that struggle to regulate themselves. That is part of the owners job. If the panic stems from like a panic disorder, Mason is incredibly sympathetic of that. He would train the pet with calming exercises they can use and suggest medication if needed.

If he gets the vibe the panic is an act of manipulation, that will be punished.

What if a pet saved his life? Would he be grateful?

Very! But it wouldn’t change anything. You know those news stories of dogs dragging children out of fires or cats alerting parents that the child was having a medical emergency? He’d see it like that. He’d absolutely thank the pet and do an interview on the news but in the end the pet is still just a pet.

And this one was a fascinating question Nonny!!! I did put it under the cut because of some transphobia, however I mostly just talk about gender in my worldbuilding. Perhaps gatekeeping or delusion is a better term but the end result is transphobia so I’m gonna warn as such.

What if a pet was transgender? Would he tell them they’re just being silly or actually listen to them?

It should be emphasized again that Mason does not believe pets are human. He does not think they are people. You cannot change his mind, he is stuck in this delusion.

… you know what. I don’t think Mason believes pets know what gender is. In a way he sees them as toys or dolls, and he is the one making decisions about what they wear. If he thinks Rudy would look cute in a dress he’d just buy Rudy a dress. Rudy does not get a choice in what he’s wearing, not in any meaningful way.

If a pet (for some reason lmao) came to him and said they’re trans, he might laugh and say “from what?” He’d also ask where they even heard that and likely dismiss it as “that’s something for humans. You don’t need to worry about it.”

I mean, also in this world I’ve created literally what WOULD gender mean to a pet? There are no specific gender roles or expectations- they’re all just pets. And sterile. There’s no social influence of how they’re supposed to be acted based on their assigned gender at birth. Oh for sure they have expectations but they’re all based on their “class” for a lack of a better term.

Fuck me my ocs should have way more weirdness with their gender identity after being freed. That would be so bonkers to go from a world where it doesn’t exist to where it dictates everything.

(Also in the end this still ends up having a lot of my own feeling and opinions about gender in it. Your characters are the biggest fucking snitches every time. Honestly I have tussled with gender specific stuff for a while but it’s mostly based in religious trauma. I’m trying to sort it out but it’s a complicated ever changing messy thing. Idk. Slowly chipping away at it. I’m saying this to be transparent and as a plea to not be abrasive. I don’t expect it but I am fucking delicate sometimes and need to explicitly explain why I do or think the things I do. Is this too raw for a post on tumblr.com about my silly little ocs? Yes absolutely. Should i delete this part? yes. Will I?)

[thisaintascenereviews]

Eminem - The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grace)

Millennials seem to love rapper Eminem, don’t they? A lot of people my age, or just a bit older, grew up with the music of Marshall Mathers, and they’re nostalgic for his brand of offensive, edgy, and offbeat humor and bars. Eminem had some hits back in the day, but you really could make an argument that he’s washed up. Hell, I’d make that argument, but I’ve also never been a fan of his work. Millennials love it, though, and every now and again, you’ll see videos from millenials that claim Gen Z is trying to “cancel” him, and it’s so painful to watch. The funny thing is, no one is trying to cancel him, when it’s really that Gen Z just doesn’t care about him.

I’m in the same boat, despite being of the age that should love his music. I suppose I’ve just never seen the hype for it, despite being able to acknowledge that Em has talent as a rapper. He’s got a solid flow, and he has the ability to spit pretty fast, but I’ve always said that rapping fast doesn’t equal being good. You can rap fast, but if you’re not saying anything worthwhile, who cares? That’s how I’ve felt about most of his work. I listened to the Marshal Mathers LP II back a decade ago, and thought that way about “Rap God.” An impressive flow, but spoke almost gibberish.

Saying Eminem sucks won’t win me any friends, and I might be in the minority when I say that, but his “2edgy4u” shtick never struck a chord with me. There are better rappers out there, so why people want to listen to Eminem baffles me, but he’s back with a new album — The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grace). I’ve ignored his music in the last decade, but I figured I’d check this out because this album is supposedly the final appearance of his character Slim Shady. Shady is basically his justification for using slurs and offensive language, but I guess Em wants to grow up, despite being 51-years-old, so does this album succeed in that?

No, not really, because despite this album being called The Death Of Slim Shady, most of this album has Em making a profit off the character he’s claiming to want to move on from. This album is told through some skits where Slim kidnaps Em, and they have a back and forth on a lot of tracks, only for Em to finally kill Slim Shady at the two-thirds mark. The last third is Em being himself finally, but he proves he has nothing to say outside of his edgy Slim Shady persona. It’s also easily in the top three of the worst albums I’ve heard all year, and only a couple of other albums this year have pissed me off to this same level, maybe even more.

This record employs a lot of typical Slim Shady tropes, such as using slurs and offensive language to sound edgy and cool, as well as insulting various groups of people to be relevant. Relevant to who? I can’t say for sure, but probably his immature fanbase of conservative white dudes that think saying slurs is funny, especially insulting trans people. Em is weirdly obsessed with three things on this LP — insulting trans people, mentioning Caitlyn Jenner, and wanting Gen Z to cancel him. It makes for some of the corniest and most awful music you’ll hear all year, especially coming from a grown man, and it makes me cringe and makes me angry.

There are some awful transphobic bars on this record that aren’t even funny, but he insults other people, too, and there’s no rhyme or reason for it. He keeps begging Gen Z to cancel him, too, but they’re not, though, so he sounds really desperate. It’s almost funny, but in a sad way, like he’s begging for relevance. When he isn’t being edgy and corny, he’s got songs that are titled, and I kid you not, “Lucifer,” “Antichrist,” and “Evil,” where he talks about how he’s evil, the antichrist, and the devil, and all that corny ass stuff. Maybe a few clever bars show up here and there, but it’s bad.

When he has to be himself, he talks about his daughter, making two songs about her on this album for some reason, and they’re as bland as you can get. Eminem is just trying to make a 90s / 00s Em album in 2024, despite not being young and relevant anymore. Sure, the album has some solid production, and some of the guests are good, but Eminem’s just being Eminem, and it feels dated and cringy now. Who is this for? The transphobic and offensive bars are corny, lame, and unfunny, and everything else is nothing new, so why bother?

For being called The Death Of Slim Shady, he really milked that character for most the album’s hour-long runtime. This album sucks, plain and simple. It’s one of the worst albums of the year, and it’s a shame, because he can do better. He’s got technical skill, but instead of actually honing his craft, he sounds like a 12-year-old who learned a new cuss word, and won’t shut up about it. I’m not even “triggered,” either, because most people who love Em think that anyone who doesn’t like him can’t handle his offensive bars, when it’s really that he sucks, and his shtick is for edgy teenagers, or Millennials that have their rose-colored glasses on.

[steveharrington]

still 6 months later confused by jonathan’s little ‘who would’ve been in charge, steve?” dig bc it felt more like the writers going “ok and lets add more tension here between jonathan and nancy bc nancy’s spent all season seeing that steve is a good guy. love triangle tease!!” than like a real thing that he would say. also again shitting on steve for no reason bc he’s there for them to be a punching bag. “he’s actually grown up quite a bit” annoyed me a little too. sorry he spent the last four seasons going through the horrors just like u guys? like jonathan and nancy did you not think steve pre-s4 had matured at all or did u just not talk to him. personally i think s5 steve should get to snap just a little just for fun

lord i knowwww 😭 i’ve talked about this before but i feel like every single season they make steve redo his redemption arc based on who he’s hanging around. at the end of s1 we got his actual original redemption when he cleaned off the marquee, went to apologize to jonathan on his own volition, and ran back in to help save nancy and jonathan after which he gave jonathan the new camera. s2 it’s understandable that they’d want to continue showing steve work on himself and i think the closure between him and nancy via him outright being like “hey it’s okay if you want to be with jonathan” was very necessary, plus showing his growth as a person through his relationship with the kids was genius. s3 is where it gets weird because it’s like okay it is now the summer of 1985 and steve’s last act of evil was in fall of 1983 and yet we’re still scolding him for …. being judgey about theatre kids …… and then after he builds a friendship with robin and literally gets tortured in front of her they STILL have her stop to be like hey btw steve you don’t remember me from class so you’re an asshole. apologize rn. and THEN in s4 we’re STILL having him hear another “i thought you were evil but then i saw you almost die horrifically in an act of self sacrifice so….maybe you’re alright harrington :)” speech from eddie this time. and then the little comment from jonathan is clearly setting us up to do it all over again in s5 and it’s like oh my god we GET ITTTTTTT how many times does steve have to experience the horrors and almost die for you guys before you’re willing to stop lecturing him on something he Already apologized for!!!! that’s why it’s so insane to me when people are like “yeah well steve never actually apologized” like 1. do you guys want every moment of character development to be explicitly spelled out in the most literal sense have you ever heard of show not tell and 2. he is literally still apologizing 4 seasons later

[starrycassi]

Wrong time, rigth place.

Damian Wayne wants to eradicate the new killer in Gotham. Jonathan needs to get his brother back. They become unlikely allies — vampire, and vampire hunter.

Previous

A body per day.

Damian feels his own blood rush with anger and frustration at the situation. Gordon, who is one of the few useful cops around, is bed bound from a bullet wound for a couple of more weeks, and he is running out of ideas. He has a single thought to work with, and, to be completely honest, he is a little weary of that possibility. He needs to evaluate all the other routes, first.

That’s why, two weeks after the first death and with more than a dozen of corpses already, he sees no other options but to call a meeting with all the Bat-trained people. Grayson, the only other useful cop he knows, is thrilled to come back to Gotham, even under such circumstances. Drake is already in on the deal, the same as Thomas and Cain, so they are the ones in charge of presenting and explaining the evidence to everyone else.

The Cave —he refuses to call it batcave anymore, because it is stupid and childish— is cold, per usual, but the noise that all of them together did made it feel asphyxiating. Damian hates crowds — too much people, too many distractions, but it is a necessary evil to go through if he wants this to be over as soon as possible. And he wants that, so, he decides to suck it up.

They show the pictures, read the documents and share the data, doing their best to be brief. When they finish, Damian is even more convinced of his own theory, and his hands feel strangely sweaty, his heart too fast. He is not afraid, no; Robin should never be afraid, so he is not. He is not.

“I heard some noise about this” muses Brown, looking at the ceiling. She frowns, “some people believe it’s a cult, you know? Sounds stupid, but, I expect anything from this goddamned city” Drake’s face morphs in a scowl of anger, at that, and Stephanie adds, “But I bet it’s not that, you know? Probably not.”

“I think it’s some sort of crazy bastard with nothing better to do. I say we kill ‘em” adds Todd, smiling a bit too much.

“We can’t just kill every crazy bastard we come across. Gotham would end up empty”

“Plus, we can’t kill someone that we don’t know, idiot”

They start to bicker and the conversation turns into a debate about the no-killing rule and the morals of it, and it is so fucking noisy. Damian hates crowds, but noisy crowds are even worse. He looks at Drake and they both groan when Grayson starts, yet again, to cite the Geneva Convention at Red Hood.

Cass clears her throat. Silence reigns again, all of their heads turning to look at her. Damian’s thankful.

“I think” she says, voice raspy and low from being unused, “vampires”

Damian is not afraid. He shudders, because it is cold, and his throat closes, because he is thirsty, but he is not afraid. That would be stupid.

But vampires are the only thing that make sense. The dry bodies, the punctures, the mess-free places, the quickness of the killer, the constancy of the killings. A vampire is loose in Gotham, probably, and he is not afraid.

“I’ve never actually seen a vampire” Stephanie remarks, but she is clearly evaluating the idea, biting her lip over and over again.

“That one full on died, like, two times” Duke points out, signaling at Todd with his finger, who nods, smirking “If working with Bat’s shown me one thing, it is that everything is possible here. Unfortunately”

“Hopefully not a real vampire” Oracle shrugs, finger tapping on the metal of her wheelchair, making an insufferable noise, “Just an idiot who wants to be known as one”

Grayson’s skin goes green. He simply closes his eyes, letting out a tired breath, remaining silent. He looks nauseous, at the verge of tears and about to break on in a fit of laughter, all at the same time.

Damian is absolutely not afraid. Why would he be? Ra’s worked with vampires, and he’d taken a couple of them down in practice, before. He has no reason to be afraid, so he isn’t.

But his neck feels too bare, all of a sudden, even if vampires don’t really attack there. They prefer places with more veins than arteries, like the chest, hands and arms, where most of the victims had been attacked.

“One of the first victims was found with a puncture directly in the Vena Caba" Drake holds one of the unfinished autopsy records that he managed to get in a really and fully legal way, "I guess vampires would make sense"

Damian’s left-hand flies to his right first rib, slowly traveling down to the third one, just to check, remembering the many anatomy classes they gave him in the League. He makes sure to apply pressure, to actually feel his skin under the fabric. He is not afraid.

Then Drake’s phone rings.

.

Damian likes Bernard. Not romantically, clearly, but he enjoys the blonde’s company enough to seek him out from time to time. So he hates the ride to the hospital; he hates the way Drake trembles next to him while Grayson drives, he hates the lump in his throat, he hates that Grayson has to ignore the semaphores, he hates the silence in the car, he hates the receptionist, he hates that they have to bribe her to get in because Drake being the patient’s fiancé apparently is not enough information, he hates the smell of bleach and the stairs. He hates that he’s so fucking useless.

Bernard is alive, thankfully. Barely alive, but alive. Drake’s a crying mess, and Damian hates to see him be so stupidly sentimental. He hates the way Tim mumbles about a restaurant, he hates that Bernard’s parents aren’t here because, fuck it, Bernard deserves someone else aside them to be here.

He hates being afraid. Not only that, but he hates that he can’t lie to himself anymore.

Truth is, he’s not afraid. He’s fucking horrified.

Ra’s loved vampires, and he tried to share that love with his grandson. He loved to use them to torture deserters, and he loved to hear the way people screamed for help while their flesh was perforated over, and over, and over again. And he loved to make his grandson watch.

Damian knows about Grayson’s story with vampires. He knows all about how they work. He worked with them, and he still has nightmares where the faces of the tortured morph into his own.

He hates vampires.

They are implacable creatures, horrible killers, mindless torturers that enjoy making people suffer, heartless machines that obey to their instincts. They are bestial hunters, animalistic clod-blooded, inhuman, merciless beings. They are everything he used to be. They are everything he is running away from.

.

Jon trips over his own feet, falling face flat on the earth

He moans in pain, hungry. He hasn’t fed in hours, days, weeks. Two weeks or so, actually. He’s barely holding on, really, and if it wasn't because Gotham seems to be a declared enemy of sunny days, he would’ve probably just burn to death already.

He turns around, facing the sky, refusing to get up. He’s too worn out to muster enough energy to try to keep moving. He takes a deep breath.

“HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU SO FAST?” his scream is full of annoyance and bitterness, because, here he is, trying to be a good vampire and help his brother, but, no. Life hates him. The world hates him. God, if he exists, probably hates him, too.

He feels like crying. Konner’s been making a mess all over Gotham, leaving the murder scenes too fast to try and catch up to him. He jumps from one end of the city to another with no order, with no pattern to try to track him down. The floor under him is cold, and so is his skin, and he misses his mum

An old lady passes by and throws him a couple of coins, hurrying out to get away from him and praying. His skin simmers slightly at that, and he ignores it.

He should go home. He should leave this stupid city and go back to the underworld of Metropolis, where everyone loves him and his family, where being a Kent is the mightiest form of fame, where Ma and Pa will serve him freshly gotten blood in a bowl with a funny straw, where his mom will soothe him and hug him, where his dad will be happy to have him back.

The Kents adopted his dad, thinking he was a vampire, too. He turned out to be an alien, so they turned him into the first ever alien-vampire, and his name quickly made the rounds around the underworld. He was the perfect vampire, really, for being mostly sun-resistant. Then, he married Lois Lane and turned her into a vampire, and she got pregnant and Jon was born. Their life —if you ignored the whole “trapped in a haunted dimension” thing that happened to Jon— would be perfect, really. Perfect, until Konner appeared.

Konner was born under horrifying circumstances. Luthor, another vampire, tried to clone his dad’s DNA to get the same sun-resistance, and he succeeded. Konner was a pain in the ass ever since the first day, and no one seemed to actually care for him.

No one but Jon.

Sure, his brother was an idiot, but that was Luthor’s DNA fault, not his. He helped Jon to tie his hoes, and he was there to teach him how to hunt without making a mess. He taught him all the cool tricks that his dad didn’t.

Konner was the first person he ever came out to, and he was there to tell him how to prepare amazing dates, and then he was there to get him drunk when Jay and him broke up. He was there for Jon, and no one was there for him, so Jon took it upon himself to invite him to all the family dinners, even if his parents never really approved of that; he did everything he could to make sure Konner knew that someone loved him.

And then Konner turned around and ran away.

He didn’t know why. He didn’t even know what he was supposed to do when he found him, but he knew that no one else would go searching for Konner; and he knew that Konner would, even if reluctantly, look around for him if he ran away.

So, here he was, leaving everything behind in a hurry to find his older brother. His dad disapproved, of course, but whatever, he didn’t get to have a teenage rebellion so he was doing this instead.

It was dark when he got up from the floor. Almost night, already.

He was hungry.

Vampires didn’t only hunt in the night because it was dark, no. People’s blood pressure got lower at those hours, and feeding was easier because the blood flow was easier to control. Konner should be getting his food now, and if he wanted to catch him, that was his best shot.

He couldn’t just float around here, so he was forced to walk around the city aimlessly. He hung around college campuses and gyms, where tall, healthy, young people were easier to find. Konner loved to feed from people with tattoos —said the blood tasted stronger, spicier— but, as long as he’d heard, just some victims had them, probably to make the cops have fewer data to work with.

If Konner had actually gone rogue, then he was one of the most careful rogues ever.

It was about midnight when Jon heard it. Vampires didn’t have a heartbeat, or he’d found Kon years ago, so he’d been focused on trying to find his brother’s voice, and he was finally successful.

Good thing: he heard Konner’s voice. Bad thing: Gotham was as noisy in the night as it was during the day.

He ran, and ran, and ran. But he was hungry, and he was tired, and things were swimming around in his head. He went left and right, and then he was in an alley. He couldn’t fly. He went, and went, and he couldn’t focus. He looked around, and he was in a million different places. The houses were moving, the buildings were walking away, and he was so, so hungry.

He was so hungry that he didn’t notice, at first.

He fell down, flat on his ass. He was in another dark alley, a dead end. He was tired. Then, a blond man was on his face, asking about his house and his family, asking if he needed help.

“Yes” he mumbled, the man’s heartbeat thumping in his ears, “Help me, please”

And he sank his teeth on the skin in front of him.

So, now, he is standing in front of an almost dead boy, frightened.

His dad and mom refused to kill humans. They got their blood from more ethical sources. They paid for it. Konner only got criminals and horrible people in general. He made them pay for their crimes. This is just some poor fucker who wanted to be helpful.

Oh, my Dracula. Did he kill the poor idiot? Oh, no, no, please, no. He really, really wants to cry now. Fuck. The poor guy just wanted to help. Fuck.

His hands shake. His eyes burn. He’s still hungry, the man is barely alive or freshly dead, because he’s still warm. He manages to get out the idiot’s phone and activate the emergency mode.

Then, he turns around, panicking, and stomps on the cellphone until it looks like mushed potatoes, terrorized. He starts running, going too fast for a human, but his brain isn’t working properly right now.

When he stops, he’s completely lost. He breaks down, crying, because nothing makes sense. He wants to go home. Suddenly, he’s back on that place, and no one can help him, and then he’s in Gotham, and everything burns, and he’s not here, and no one is here.

He’s alone, again. His sobs turn into screams. He begs for help, he begs, and no one is coming. No one can hear him. Can his dad hear him? Why isn’t his dad here? He wants his dad, and he wants his mom, and he wants to go home.

He cries, and cries, and cries some more. Weeping and mumbling to himself, until he falls asleep.

He sees a pair of black boots before he does.

.

When Jon wakes up, Konner is there.

If he had a heart, it would go crazy right now. He wants to say something, but a straw is forced onto his lips.

“Drink” Konner hurries, and he obeys. Blood. Fresh, warm, tasty.

There’s a girl next to them. She has both arms tattooed, and pink, bright hair. She’s laid on the floor, face down, and she looks like a dried up raisin. He can’t hear a heartbeat. He’s so hungry that he closes his eyes, and keeps drinking.

Konner was right. The blood is heavier, filled with a different flavor. He doesn’t like it a lot, but, it’s better than starving.

“You’re fucking dying, dude” His brother chuckles, voiced filled with amusement, one hand holding the bowl and the other on Jon’s jaw. “How did Clark allow this?”

His voice is full of anger, now. Jon wants to cry again, but his head already hurts too much. He tries to speak, but Konner makes him go back to drinking, telling him that they’ll talk later. Jon looks around. They are in what seems like a forest, and everything is dirty. He looks at Kon, raising an eyebrow.

“What? You didn’t give me time to pick a better dinning place, man. Heard you crying like a fucking crazy banshee and found you ‘bout to die. This was the quickest way”

There’s so many questions in Jon’s head, so many pleads. Konner looks so, so wrong. His eyes are… He is…

Jon can’t explain it, but something isn’t right. His brother suddenly stands up, eyes wide.

“Look, man, I gotta leave” He looks around, playing with his shirt, “Drink and go, ‘kay? Don’t know where, just- go. Only bad shit happens here, get me?”

He kneels down, kisses the top of Jon’s head, and mutters something against his hair; before Jonathan can recover from that, before he can do anything, before he can manage to ask him to stay, he’s gone.

He tries to follow. His body doesn’t listen.

.

If anyone asked him why, Damian wouldn’t know what to say.

He doesn’t know why, but he ventures into the trees that surround Gotham, abandoning patrol. He walks, with nothing but the weapons he carries on himself, which aren’t few, but they’re less than enough.

Perhaps he just doesn’t know where else to go. Perhaps the only home he’s ever had is nature herself. Perhaps he couldn’t bare to be in the same place as Bruce, not after he kicked him Tim out of the case because now he’s “personally involved”.

But he walks aimlessly, mind anywhere else but here. He wonders if Ra’s behind this. He wonders if this is another way to try to get him back. He hopes not.

A swift breeze rushes next to him.

He gets out his sword, but the movement is gone as soon as it appeared. He should go back, but now, he can hear sobs and whimpers. If he hurries, he might catch the killer. But if this is anything like Bernard’s situation, any seconds he loses are seconds of life and death for the victim.

He runs, and runs, and runs in the direction of the sounds. The branches hit his body, the cold night laughs at his stupidity, the trees try to stop him. He keeps on running, Drake’s cries resonating on his ears.

Then a force hits his body, and he falls down, the air escaping out of his lungs. He reaches for a knife, stabbing the body over his, and the knife just fucking squashes down like a cardboard prop.

Vampires aren’t impenetrable, so at least it’s probably not that.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY BROTHER?!” the person screeches, and, how fucking loud can one person scream? Because this man’s lungs must be made out of fucking steel.

“I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO YOUR BROTHER IS, YOU FUCKING IDIOT” he screams back, pent-up stress getting the best of him, as they roll around in the muddy floor, and the smell of blood fills Damian’s lungs.

“I DON’T BELIEVE YOU, YOU DIRTY BLOOD-POISONER”

They roll around some more, both trying and failing to hurt the other. The stranger man is strong, suer strong, but Damian refuses to die in the middle of nowhere after surviving so many things. They hit a tree, the man’s head crashes against a rock, there is mud all over both. Then, they hit the corpse, and they both freeze. Damian, with a sudden wave of adrenaline. The other, with what seems like disgust.

Damian takes advantage of the split second of doubt, pushing the boy out of his body and getting up, ready to fight for his life. Then, he sees it. The inhumanly white teeth, the too blue eyes that seem to glow under the moon, the blood around the mouth, and he knows it, he knows like he knows that he is too far away from the nearest human to ask for help.

A vampire.

[pineapplerightsideupcake]

ah, the radfem blogs.

god, I love familiarizing myself with your guys rhetoric. (Or should I say girls??) (are there any male radfems???) (is it like only women??? Because I’m literally a feminist times 7, but idk what’s going on here.)

I try and exist, and my trans moots and friends and you guys just appear out of the wood work and just be so awful for literally no reason.

like, you guys say trans people are all awful. I’m really saddened by that because that’s a VERY big generalization, you’ve met Trans people in real life before?

like wow, that’s actually crazy. I’ve met what 50+? trans people both irl and online, and they have been the sweetest and also the most supportive people I’ve ever known.

just in life and shit.

and I’m a woman, and I don’t understand your ideals.

trans people have been fighting with us in All gay rights things, it’s literally called LGBT.

like, I agree there’s shit tons of absolutely despicable men out there.

and I agree there’s absolutely despicable trans people too, but that’s life??

anyone and everyone can be despicable, and whatever. Evil isn’t limited by race or gender, evil is just evil.

Am I calling you evil??? Fuck no!

but I’m genuinely confused to why you think trans people are invalids.

what’s the reason? You personally were attacked by literally all trans people for something??? Idk (wo)man

Also am I the only person who’s unsettled by women being called females? Because that’s just ew.

we literally have words in not only English but literally every language ever for women. And just why being referred to females better?

it feels so dehumanizing, I’m a woman. Not a female, and trans women are women.

yeah, I know. Pull out the whatever, but also being referred to male is dehumanizing too.

WE LITERALLY HAVE WORDS for it, idk why we all want to go and use dehumanizing language on both sides.

I’m so confused why you think trans people are “holding themselves hostage to have surgery, because they’ll kill themselves” because that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life, more ridiculous then pigs flying.

who said that, literally I want you to quote more than 20 trans people that have said that. Not radfem blogs, not terf anything.

just actual trans people, and if you can’t find anything! Then great!

“Why are trans suicide rates so high?” Um, do.. do you think transphobia literally doesn’t exist.. literally your contributing to it my guy (girl).

if I can speak to not only 50+ trans people, and none of them literally ever has called me names or anything. I think it’s a skill issue, (translation: you’re doing something wrong.) because like how.

I’ve done DEEP research into trans stuff, for literally like 4+ years.

talked to 50+ trans people and their experiences.

and done deep reflection and also talked with trans people about their relationship with gender and all that.

if I can realize that trans people aren’t crazy. (also, being trans btw is not a delusion. A delusion you’re probably thinking of is more like thinking you’re Elvis when you’re a woman. Or thinking you’re princess Diana when you’re a man. And you fit the criteria of a delusional disorder or something.)

and are just idk existing then what’s the point, I don’t hate you and I never will.

but just why?

also as someone who’s talked to numerous victims of grooming and of other internet predators.

I’ve literally heard of exactly 1-2 trans groomers, and I’m also like 90% sure they were lying and were men trying to groom trans kids.

I’ve been on the web, and in real life my whole life. (Call me chronically online, but this is literally the only place safe from my parents abuse lolzor)

and I just don’t get it.

maybe we live too different lives to compare, but I just don’t get it.

why are trans people so bad in terf’s/radfem’s eyes?

when they are just your neighbors, cooks, artists, architects, coders, doctors, and scientists.

idk 🤷‍♀️

tell me why?

I don’t know what you actually wanted out of this unfocused rant where you accused me of saying a whole bunch of stuff I never said and you just decided I must believe.

I can’t and won’t argue with this make believe person you’ve projected onto me. If you’re actually interested in what I think and why, ask me specific questions.

I can say that I don’t believe every trans person is bad or a groomer. In fact many trans people are perfectly lovely. I think trans people deserve to live their lives free of discrimination and violence and like all people deserve the right to self expression.

Where I disagree with you is how the current trans activism movement is conducting itself, along with concerns about intertwined but broader cultural trends. I believe the current movement is doing more harm than good. To trans people as well as women and the LGB.

If you’re actually interested I’d be happy to explain each and every conclusion I’ve reached and why. But I doubt very much this was a genuine attempt to understand me. It is far more likely this ask was a performance that reinforces your own sense of being “good”. And yet you don’t even have the strength of conviction in these beliefs of yours to attach a name to it. If I really am an evil bigot, you have done nothing brave by sending a long winded anon to someone whose opinions you haven’t even bothered to learn.

[averywiseanimatedcat]

Rewatching Good Omens season 3 liveblog

Episode 4-The hitchhiker etc Post 3

Link to prev posts

Link to liveblog master post

He’s so me I also can only do something perfectly once then never again so matter how hard I try

*cute moment of simping cause my bf killed some nazis then took me for a car ride to the theatre where I got a magician job then he almost shot me in the face but he didn’t cause I can rely on him and he trusts me and I think I fell in love tonight he looked so good with that spotlight on him teehee*

Aziraphale is really good under pressure, and not regular pressure, like life threatening pressure. He’s terrible in normal situations but as soon as Crowleys wellbeing was on the line he pulled that shit OUT.

I appreciate how this minisode ends with Aziraphale admitting there’s something to be said about shades of grey. But man…this Angel makes slow progress? How long has it been since bOudeY snatching? A long time and he’s still deciding if Crowley is evil or not or if good and evil aren’t binary…

Honestly sort it out Aziraphale you’re fumbling the bag big time here you can’t simultaneously want a demon to climb you like a tree whilst also believing he’s inherently evil. Honestly tho….I do think this night is where Aziraphale at least starts to fall in love. You can how unsure and kinda offbeat he is at the start like he has feelings but doesn’t know what they are. So he puts them down as ‘friend’ and ‘trust’. But he also realises that Crowley trusts him to, which is the turning point that pushes him to stray outside of his usually black and white thinking. It’s not just that he’s an angel and he’s good and can believe Crowley is also good, but Crowley is also straying outside what Aziraphale would consider demonic behaviour by trusting an angel.

DAMMIT they’re cute.

AnyWAY…

*Shax calls Aziraphale “Crowleys pet”*

Yes but the other way around.

The car following him…it’s so cute. Crowley has spent this whole season jogging along after Aziraphale and THE CAR IS DOING IT TO NOW.

*Aziraphale excited to see his hubby and hear Crowley was worried cause he was late*

*immediately gets plants shoved in his face*

“Oh there you are I was worried something might’ve happened to you.”

CAN WE stop and appreciate this line from Crowley?

——-

Crowley was definitely waiting and watching at the window because he saw Aziraphale pull up and came straight out with the plants all ready to go. And he’s again giving me ADHD energy because when you get ‘big’ emotions they often come out in some kind of weird hyperactive physical way (like running outside and shoving plants in your hubbys face when there was 0 rush to get them in the car whatsoever). I think he was worried, and he felt so happy and relieved when Aziraphale came back but he’s repressing so they emotions come out in this other way.

That’s a big lesson for life really-your emotions cannot be contained. They will come out someway, and you can either decide how they’re going to come out and have some control over it or they’ll come out in their own way in their own time.

——-

I’ve heard a few people say that if Crowley hadn’t told Aziraphale he was living in his car why didn’t he ask about the plants?

In my head Crowley either just told him he needed to bring them over to look after them while he stayed at the bookshop (we don’t actually know how long Azi was away I don’t think?) or Azi has asked at some point (or at multiple points) over the last few years but Crowley lied and got all defensive so Aziraphale stopped asking. These two both tend to just drop things if they come to a disagreement so it’s well within reason that Aziraphale did ask-but was shut down so just dropped it.

Moving on…

If anyone asks, this is my religion now.

Every time I get to see my child genuinely smile it makes my heart happy. We got to see him smile so freely this season it’s beautiful.

Bonus for the production shot of Furfurs book because there’s a few things I wanna point out:

-this book basically calls Aziraphale a squishy basic beige bitch and that’s amazing

-then it goes on to call him a demon smiter? Has he like…killed a demon before?

-absolutely not surprised he’s been a bishop in the past and I want that flashback as a minisode next season because you KNOW Aziraphale woulda been struggling hard with his friendship with Crowley while he was a ‘man of god’

-it’s so funny to me that Aziraphale was ‘assigned’ to Crowley like you gotta report your interactions to him. I need a little context here, is that why they started seeing each other so much? Because they were assigned to keep an eye on the other one by their respective sides?

-Furfur really going after Crowley for his name and bitch is called Furfur??

-‘His hair is BAD!’ Made me laugh so hard, Furfur giving me bitter ex vibes

[leothetraveler]

Foreign King AU

Chapter 2 - The First Sermon

I couldn’t help shaking, even as I tried to steel myself. I’d never done anything like this before, and I wish I didn’t need to now. But it needed to be done.

The high priest that has been helping me in this insisted a sermon was necessary. I was never one for words. But…they had a point. These people required guidance. They desired it, even. Knew no other way to live, except by another’s rules. So as their god, I needed to tell them what “grand plan” I had in store…except I had nothing at this point. No goal other than being a counter-balance for the lamb. But I had to say something to the dozen or so…wait, that looks more like thirty. Looks like more people had arrived while I thought of what to say. Well. There is no use hiding behind this pillar.

I step out into the temple proper. A crude platform was arranged in haste to suffice for the sermon. Little more than an oversized soap box. Regardless, the altar was already placed upon it, so I need to be up there as well. The workers had forgotten stairs, making me have to climb up and look foolish in front of the crowd. I don't think they cared much compared to what I might say, but it was a bad start regardless.

I reached the altar, placing my meager page of scrawled notes on it. A book of Leshy’s old teachings was left here. Worthless to me, as I planned to stay far from the Old Faith’s methods.

“...I have never been one for…grand speeches. Especially ones where I am unprepared due to such short notice.” I said, eyeing the high priest in the corner of the room. Even through the hooded robe, I could see him fidget as I called him out for announcing a sermon would commence on the same day he convinced me to do one.

I rolled my eyes before continuing, “...I guess…I shall start with a few uncomfortable truths. Firstly, I don’t intend to be a simple successor to Leshy’s reign.” I picked up the book that was left on the altar, “This is going to be a fresh start. For us, for the crown, and for all of Darkwood.” and I tossed the leatherbound book aside. Least I hope it was just leather. The people before me followed the book with their eyes as it landed beside me on the platform, a shocked expression on each and every face at my act of defiance.

“Secondly, I am not here to make yet another cult. This is going to be a proper church. I’m sure you have never heard of such, but from what I’ve seen, you people are adaptable. I doubt a difference in name is going to change that.” I tried to give a reassuring tone to my words. There was a lot of change from what they knew. I needed them to understand and trust that I want what is best… makes me sound like the lamb…

“... I know you people have no concept of a church, so let me give a bit of context. In the lands I am from, cult is a word only used to describe cruel and unjust faiths where the leader acts as a false god to trick others into suffering for their benefit. Nothing but lies and illusions. No crown. No divine powers. Just a comforting lie. And so, this is not going to be a cult. I am no false god, spreading lies for my own gain. This crown of mine is no illusion meant to deceive, but my symbol of office. My proof of godhood… And all the responsibility that comes with it.”

I paused to gauge the crowd. Some were starry eyed at my words, the crown alone enough to gain devotion. Most were listening intently, clearly intrigued at where I was going with my speech. And of course, there were skeptics. Their frowns are a clear sign of their doubt.

I’ll need to put such doubts to rest. Which brings me to why I am even there. I took a deep breath and tried my best to speak with authority. “I took this crown for one reason, and one reason alone. To create a better future for everyone in the lands of the Old Faith. Because I have seen the evils spread by the bishops and the lamb. The bishops care only about preserving their power, even as fate comes to claim them. And while the lamb preaches about destroying the Old Faith, they mimic their practices in the name of The One Who Waits. They are no better than the bishops, and would only lead to a darker age. So I found the defeated crown, and restored it. So that I could do what the lamb has been promising. Bring a true end to the Old Faith, and build something better in its place. A safe haven. A home for all. Not as a God of Havoc, like Leshy was. But as a Lord of Order and justice.”

There was not a face before me that wasn’t in awe of my words…time for the let down…the harsh truth. “But such is not an easy task. If it was, another before me would have done so.” And there it was. Smiles in the crowd faded into confusion. Too late to turn back now. “While the crown may be restored, most of its power was lost upon its defeat. And so long as the red crown remains intact, the Lamb can rise again, and again, and again. Simply going to war with the lamb will not bring us victory. This church is still in its infancy. This temple, in ruins. But I have a plan. I wouldn’t be here before you if I didn’t.” This was it. If any part of my impromptu speech was going to be a dealbreaker, it was this part. While the plan was simple, I doubted many would agree to it. The first part in particular. But I would explain it as best I could.

“To start with, I will be forced to make a truce with the lamb, and leave the bishops to their fates. Their deaths are inevitable at this point, and as I have said, we are not ready to march to war. The lamb’s desire for revenge will keep them out of Darkwood while we regain our lost strength.” Uncertainty. Clear as day on many faces. But zealotry in others. Encouraging. I continue, “Secondly, while I intend to found my church on these holy lands, I need not limit myself to the faithful within them. As the other bishops fall, I expect there will be those who wish to escape the lamb’s fury. There is always room in my church for more, and so I will open my doors to them. As the rightful king of Darkwood, all the people of these lands are welcome, so long as they follow my decrees. Be they of Anura, Anchordeep, or Silk Cradle. I offer asylum to all.” that brought most of them back to my side. A merciful ruler is often betrayed, but always beloved. All that’s left is closing words. A hopeful message to inspire.

“While the age of the Old Faith comes to a close, it is not the end, but a new beginning. The stage may be set, but the story’s end is left unwritten. You may either flail, grasping for power. as the world plunges into darkness. Or, you can stand with me and build a glorious new dawn. What do you choose?” The crowd erupted into cheers. Despite having never done such before, I clearly knew what I was doing. Or maybe the crown helped? Who knows. But the first part is done. With their loyalty secured, I could get to work repairing the temple. Making it into a home, and a fortress, should such be needed.

As I began to walk off the platform, one of the followers' voices managed to break through the cheering crowd. “E-excuse me! My lord? I must ask something!” The crowd hushed itself. All attention lay on the one who had demanded my attention. “Very well,” I said, turning in the direction of the voice, “what is your question?” The one who spoke, a young rabbit, pushed their way to the front of the crowd. “I am sorry to interrupt such a joyous moment, great leader, but I had to ask…what shall we call this ‘church’ of ours? Surely it needs a name beyond such, yes?” Murmurs echoed through the temple remains. It seems everyone agreed with the rabbit, but had not thought of such themselves. Even I had to admit, it had slipped my mind. I looked up across the temple grounds. The last light of the day could be seen through the entry hall, slowly fading. While it was dusk, for a moment, it could pass as the dawn…

“New Dawn. That will be the name. The Church of a New Dawn. It fits quite well, don’t you think?” I didn’t require a response. The wide eyes of my new congregation were enough. “Alright. There is work to be done. Find yourselves somewhere to sleep tonight. Tomorrow, we will begin to rebuild.”

FIRST NEXT>>

[ratttoro]

heres a more vent-y post about ageism cuz y’all are pissing me tf off. (side note, maybe read the whole post before deciding that i just hate teenagers and want them all to suffer).

teenagers seriously need to stop acting as if they are oppressed. you aren’t. you are disrespected/somewhat disregarded in society which is something i’ve been saying but to take it up a notch and compare it to oppression is exactly why there’s so many people who are preaching that teens shouldn’t be online/aren’t mature enough to make their own decisions.

there are laws out there to protect you because we’ve all been there, we all know what its like, we all want you to succeed. youth is one of the only things every human being on this earth experiences, and wishes they could go back and change. there are evil ass motherfuckers out there who want to hurt you, who want to take advantage of you and your naïveté, who want you to believe that you’re more mature than your parents/teachers tell you and that they’re all just holding you back, but good news: there are also people out there that want every single one of those motherfuckers to rot in a jail cell and tons of people who dedicate their entire lives to doing so. thats oppression to you? because you can’t vote at 15 fucking years old? because the teachers don’t want you vaping in the bathroom? get a fucking grip oh my god. you are more privileged as a teenager than you’ll ever be in your entire life.

if you seriously cannot even FATHOM why someone might not want a teenager in their space, to interact with their account, or to have the liberty of making every single decision for themselves, ya aren’t as mature as yer thinking ya are, bud.

even as a teen, it was never hard for me to just respect the fact that some spaces weren’t made for me, and there were valid reasons as to why. (i was a teen like two years ago and technically still am so dont start with that “well things are different now!” bullshit.)

teens aren’t allowed in adult spaces because adults are unpredictable, and no matter how many times you wanna shout that teens are capable of being mature and responsible, most teens are naïve as fuck because most of y’all have 0 life skills yet. once again, if you did have life skills you would probably understand why there are so many things in place to FUCKING PROTECT YOU GUYS.

it’s so frustrating that teenagers are trying to push away everything thats keeping them safe because “erm actually teenagers are a lot smarter than you think!” just because you read Frankenstein does not mean you’re immune to grooming and sex trafficking.

i agree that teens deserve to be respected and their opinions deserve to be heard, but no, sorry, y’all definitely should not be in adult spaces (rather the spaces dangerous or not, some people just don’t want minors around and this type of shit makes me completely understand why).

stop preaching literal groomer language at teenagers AS A TEENAGER. what the fuck! you’re destroying yourselves and forcing everyone else to watch. i’ve seen multiple cases of rape, grooming, abuse, etc, that wouldn’t have gotten recognized as such had the victim not been a minor. stop actively trying to make things worse for yourself. once you grow up, there will be no more people fighting for you. there will be no protection. there will be no more using your age as an excuse. like i said earlier, get a fucking grip.

and ik that teens have been saying the same bullshit reworded for centuries, but it gets more concerning when people are essentially saying “teenager? psssh they’re practically an adult!” and it blows my mind that people cant see why.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT SEARCH

An obstacle downstream propagates upstream. But a place that tolerates oddness in the search business. This technique can be generalized to: What's the best thing you can offer in return is raw materials and cheap labor. The firms that can recognize and attract. The search space is too big. The same single-mindedness that has brought them this far will now be working against them. But increasingly startups are evolving into a vehicle for experimenting with its own revenues. Thanks to Ingrid Bassett, Trevor Blackwell, Paul Buchheit, Patrick Collison, Ron Conway, say it's the people that matter. Every designer's ears perk up at the mention of that game, because it's rare for a program will be perfect. University of Vermont, Amherst, and University College, London taught English literature in the 1820s. So they invested in new startups that promised to be the side to bet on people.

If you want people to read what you write is code that's specific to your application. And early adopters are usually other startups. I'm sure Larry and Sergey took money from investors, what should your valuation be? They were like Nero or Commodus—evil in the way you'd treat the core of which was Fortran. Hard, but doable. With respect to the continuance of friendships. Once you know how you're doing. It's bureaucratic.

For example, suppose you're saving a piece of code is written by multiple authors, none of which normally amount to anything. Then a squad of QA people step in and start counting them, and hippies to boot. They happen rarely till industrial times there were just those two types of investors: angels and venture capitalists. Such deals may be a variant of doing things, they have a lot of investors want to know what tools are best, is what hackers choose when they can get into MIT, you can do in your spare time. If they know they can't fire the founders, because they have hard lives. Even in college classes, you learn pretty quickly how hard they worked to maintain their percentage. But that's not the problem you're solving and what you've built. If IBM had required an exclusive license, as they tend to write it yourself, then all that code is there because it was originally produced.

I think these two paths converge at the top of my head think of any successful startups whose founders worked 9 to 5. Or maybe you can do is consider this force like a wind, and set up your boat accordingly. It may not matter all that much where you go from net consumer to net producer. But it wouldn't be fun for most of that time the leading practitioners and the people would be more useful, instead of sitting in your grubby apartment listening to users complain about bugs in your software is reasonably efficient. It was just like. A startup is not like applying to college do it with no marketing and initially have only a few percent of you. But finally I've figured out what's going to happen—whatever Web 2. It seems to be vanishingly rare in the arts, but I didn't realize it when they tell you. Great work tends to grow out of ideas that count as research is so narrow that it's unlikely that a project that seems interesting at first will bore you after a month. That's an interesting idea. Zagat's there are none in San Francisco, or Boston, or Seattle, consider moving. Still Life Effect Why does this sound familiar?

I got a Powerbook at the end of the middle class. How do you do research on composition? You don't need to do; they'll start to engage in office politics. Though she'd heard a lot of help. On the surface it feels like the kind of people you want to be thinking about, you help everyone who uses your solution. They're the skiers who ski on the diamond slopes. An optimism shield has to be a harmless cyst. It means much the same way that living in the future they'll probably have a separate notion of numbers, because you both know the price will have to follow the truth wherever it leads. If you're writing something that other people have set for them.

As the roast turkey appeared on the table, his alarmingly perceptive 5 year old son suddenly asked if the turkey had wanted to pay people proportionate to their value, they couldn't have figured out how to improve them. But when they did they might have been brothers. Someone responsible for three of the biggest things you could be working on filtering at the network level. Or to put it this way, because now I can pretend it wasn't merely a rhetorical one. The tactics you encounter in M & A is a strange one. There are a couple pieces of good news here. We in the technology world are used to being maltreated. I was on vacation. Professors are especially interested in people who can solve tedious system-administration type problems for them, and after that you don't even notice her. You can of course be mistaken, but because they have inside information. What are we unconsciously ruling out as impossible that will soon be possible? Betting on people over ideas saved me countless times as an investor.

The cartoon strip Dilbert has a lot of developers feel this way: One emotion is I'm not really proud about what's in the interest of the shareholders will tend to be sharply differentiated. Server, the only way to start startups during college, why do I have to risk it, because they demand near perfection. Almost all startups are fragile initially. There may be nothing founders are so prone to delude themselves. Why didn't anyone think of that as your task? Another surprise was that the proper role of humans is to think, there's more where that came from. But the similarities feel greater than the imagination of man. In our case the distinguishing feature is the ability to translate wealth into power. But lately I've been learning more about how hard they try to get people to pay you, b you're serious about building things people want, and you with them.

[josiebelladonna]

”what’s wrong with billie eilish?”

short answer: i don’t know, you tell me.

long answer: how much time you got?

they’re antisemites, especially her: they wore those “artists for ceasefire” pins which are bad enough on their own (won’t parse into that, but they’re not good), at the grammys this year, but then they had the nerve to cover them up at the afterparty (read: they can’t even stand for what they believe in). 

she’s a racist. she appropriates from black culture CONSTANTLY—mind, rock and roll as a whole wouldn’t exist if not for black people, but i don’t ever recall elvis or ozzy continuously faking an ebonics accent after supposedly apologizing. 

she’s also been caught using racial slurs. 

she’s also a misandrist, and i’ll forever use this against her every time someone tries to tell me that she’s any good: she’s been caught—ON TAPE, mind—calling all men evil and that girls are stupid for being with them.

she just reeks of “not like other girls” syndrome, and apparently she always has, too. there’s a reason why resources about her from 2015-2018-ish are pretty much based on hearsay, and that’s because her team erased it all. there are still screenshots floating around, though, because the internet never forgets.

one example of this is her supposed body insecurity. i’ve suffered from body insecurity in my teen years and into the first year of my twenties, but it was not like this, though. people with body insecurity either tend to over sexualize themselves or they do what i did and recoil into the background, they don’t wear their brother’s board shorts to look like boys. there’s literally a screenshot floating around that confirms this, too: in 2016, she said she dresses boyishly so no one would sexualize her, and the way she says it is weirdly hostile and backwards, like god forbid anyone else your age at the time dresses in a way to feel better about themselves. so, what this tells me is she’s either been faking this whole time or she’s a disney starlet minus the disney part in that she couldn’t wait to be 18 so she could make her entire shtick about sex, and the whole thing leaves a pit in your stomach. either way, she’s not this “confident vixen” everyone wants us to think.

she seems to have written a few songs about abusive relationships. someone will have to back me up on this but from the time she was 15, she’s dated a 22-year-old, then a 25-year-old at 16, then a 30-year-old at 19. …the first time you get bit by a strange dog you were trying to pet? not your fault. you didn’t know it was vicious. but the second time, you knew and you lose sympathy from me. it also makes her “don’t sexualize me” thing extremely hypocritical.

because of all of this, i have a hard time believing anything she says, or any song she (co)writes (with her brother) for that matter.

paraphrased from the wikipedia page for happier than ever: “she didn’t like going to meetings and doing business with her first album.” listen, i’m not in the music industry but even i can tell you that you have to work and do the “boring stuff” because the “boring stuff” serves a purpose. total spoiled, entitled brat behavior, and it shows, on that album as well as any music that followed: case in point, she dropped an album back in may but it barely left a mark on the hot 100. in fact, did anyone know she put out an album? i haven’t seen a single soul talk about “hit me hard and soft” (which is a stupid name, sorry not sorry) since the week it came out. compare this to chappell roan, who i’ve literally never heard of until just last week (and i always want to call “chaperone”, too 😂), but has had an absolute stranglehold on the charts all year.

she’s hard to look at, too, like i feel dirty just looking at her, especially now. it’s like i’m looking at a porn actor who takes herself way too seriously. 5 years later, and the “might seduce your dad” line still makes the skin crawl. finneas also apparently dates girls who look like his sister. freud would have a field day with these two, seriously.

and finally, if you’re not satisfied, this is just a “me” thing but i genuinely hate the sound of her voice. i don’t hear a pretty voice when she sings. i hear a voice that’s aesthetically pleasing, and yes, there’s a difference. some examples of pretty voices to me: sarah maclachlan, adele, elizabeth fraser, amy lee, cristina scabbia, marina diamandis, kate bush, julee cruise, judy garland, sade, lana del rey, hell… taylor swift has a multitude of moments, especially recently. I have a love-hate relationship with taylor but tortured poets is easily her best album since folklore, like there’s a reason why i’m taking inspiration from it for my kinktober fics. one of my favorite female singers is amy winehouse and her voice was anything but pretty. it was deep, gritty, and soulful, but she’s a favorite for a reason. a couple more favorites are alanis morissette and liz phair, and same story there with both of them. all these voices move me and stay with me. i hear billie and i forget her almost immediately once the song ends. it also doesn’t help that literally every singer on tiktok right now is trying to sound like her, so it may be a retroactive thing, but it doesn’t sound like anything to me. she doesn’t look like anyone, either. she’s just some girl who got famous because “oh god, pretty voice!!!”

i dislike the sound of her voice. i dislike the way she looks. i despise everything she stands for (or what she doesn’t stand for, rather). i hate how she wears band shirts and the band in question goes apeshit about it, mainly because i’m constantly reminded of the kardashians wearing slayer and misfits shirts: guys, the o’connells, like the kardashians, live in a nice neighborhood in l.a. she and finneas were homeschooled and took music and dance lessons as kids, none of which is cheap. they never lived in the projects in downey, they never had to worry about money or where and when they’re getting their next meal. so, big fucking deal if they’re wearing a shirt.

*edit: i also dislike how she feels a need to constantly explain herself. i did that all the time when i was like 19-20 and it’s a sign of insecurity. still think she’s some kind of sex symbol?

and i especially hate how she can’t make any music without her brother getting involved, and it’s getting really weird as her music gets more and more sexually charged. it’d be like me sharing my kinky/smutty writing with my brother, it’s really weird. and i wish we all would just collectively forget she ever existed.

again. you tell me.

[rosiewitchescottage]

We Need To Talk About JK Rowling

It baffles me so much that anyone in the trans community has a problem with Buck Angel.

Firstly he’s lived as a trans man for longer than some of these people have been alive.

And secondly he’s equally for both trans rights and women’s rights.

This guy will have seen/heard plenty of transphobia in his time. I was in my childhood and teens around the time when he transitioned, and I know that homophobia was absolutely rife! I’m darn sure he’s had every anti LGBT insult going thrown at him, over time, both as a gender non conforming woman and a trans man.

I’m pretty certain that if he doesn’t believe that JKR has said something Anti Trans, then he’s someone to listen to.

You don’t like/approve of what the lady says?

Fine, you’re allowed to shout it to the four winds. But to accuse her of deliberate hatred, because that’s what you think she means?

No, no, no. It doesn’t work that way.

Hate is a serious matter. It can’t be identified because you feel offended. There has to be a very good reason, according to what a person has said or done, to then accuse him/her of hate.

And I’ve never heard JK Rowling say that trans people are something bad. She certainly hasn’t said she wants you denied rights.

She upholds biological reality.

A trans woman is NOT the same as a woman. A woman is female, a trans woman is male.

A trans man is NOT the same as a man. A man is male, a trans man is female.

There’s cross over, and we can meet where the cross over happens. But the difference in biology is significant. And we can’t pretend that it isn’t.

The workings of the entire body system are affected by being male or female. And there’s no changing that.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra052529

I’m perfectly happy to treat a trans woman as a woman and a trans man as a man.

But I need a lot more evidence than a person’s ‘word’ to tell me.

A woman is Female - So, if you’re Male and living as a woman, you need to aim at looking and sounding as Female as you can. (Feminine is optional, Female is the only essential.)

Remember. You can be a feminine or androgynous man. No problem. If you, a male want to to be accepted as a woman, then you’ve got to aim at presenting as close to Female as you can. (Whether you pass or not isn’t as important as clearly having made the effort.)

And the opposite is true for female trans men.

You can be a masculine or androgynous woman. Want to be seen as a man whilst being Female? Then you need to go an extra mile.

Buck’s very Masculine. But it’s the fact that he looks and sounds Male that matters.

His fellow trans man Marcus Dib (aka The Offensive Tranny) is more Feminine. But one still has no trouble seeing him as a man, because he looks and sounds completely Male.

It’s why Self ID is so ridiculous. Without suffering Gender Dysphoria are you honestly going to be going to every length possible to look and sound like a member of the opposite sex? 

One only has to look around to see the answer.  Either we’re expected to just take a person’s word for the change. Or we’re expected to see every stereotype in the book as evidence that a person of one sex is actually the other, and should be treated that way.

I’ll argue against anyone suggesting that trans women in general are all to blame for the men who worm their way into women only spaces, with evil intentions. (No.I will not dignify their nefarious play acting by calling them ‘women’.)

My theory is that it’s a lack of gate-keeping to blame. One can’t simply say ‘I’m a Woman’ and expect to be treated as such. (Nor a man either.)

A Woman is Female, A Man is Male. So for a person of one sex to be able to live as the other, there need to be solid rules.

Precisely to do all possible to keep the bad faith actors out.

You’re male, but want us to see you as a fellow woman?  OK. Show us that you’re willing to put in the effort, to convince us that you’re Female.

And then show us that you can share our spaces with mutual respect and discretion, because of course you can’t entirely hide the sex differences. Some of them are rather visible.

[shadowsandstarlight]

Thoughts on every Canadian province (by a totally 100% unbiased Albertan):

British Columbia (BC)—It’s pretty. By which I mean pretty fuckin expensive. Nice views, decent weather, Victoria’s fine to visit but don’t ever ask me to set foot in Vancouver. The Vancouver airport is weird and fucked up. The areas in the Rockies are nice, there are some pleasant lakes, otherwise it’s mid. Closer to the coast it’s like the California of Canada. Fuck you for all the snow you don’t get.

Alberta—Home. It fuckin sucks, but in a very specific way that I can survive. Albertans are highly specialized organisms who can survive in this particular shithole but hate literally everywhere else (and for good reason, rest of the country doesn’t like us any more than we like them). Very diverse landscape, though you’d never realize it because most of the middle of it is just eternal canola everywhere around you. Canadian Texas, complete with cowboys. I hate this godforsaken place, but everywhere else is worse.

Saskatchewan—There’s. Things in Saskatchewan, supposedly. Rumour has it that there is at least one city. I believe that it exists and that there are people, if only for the fact that it borders us and I have relatives who live there.

Manitoba—I’m still not 100% sure that this province exists. I’ve met a solid one person from Manitoba. You never hear anything about the place. It may very well be a collective hallucination, I don’t know.

Ontario—Fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you. 0/10 hell. Bad. Bad. Bad. Toronto? The root of all evil. Ottawa? No. Just no. My boyfriend is the only good thing to ever come out of Ontario, and that’s because he left. There is no good contained in this province. This is not a place of honour. Fuck Ontario, all my homies hate Ontario.

Quebec—Somehow manages to be even worse than Ontario, probably because it also contains The French. Do not ever ask me to even consider properly setting foot in this province. I’ve been in the Montreal airport one time for a couple of hours and that’s more than enough for me. They literally have an entire political party that runs in our federal elections (the Bloc Québécois). At least Alberta’s not serious about wanting to leave the country. Created poutine, and that’s all the good they’ve done.

New Brunswick—I don’t think about New Brunswick.

Nova Scotia—Y’know what, this is a pretty acceptable one. Never been, but from the Nova Scotians I’ve met it seems solid enough. I’m not a Maritime person, but y’all’re decent.

Prince Edward Island (PEI)—I cannot say I understand why this is its own full province. This is like the country’s baby brother who we kinda forget exists. Anne of Green Gables, potatoes, and utterly incomprehensible accent are the only three things I know about the place. Extra points because when I was a kid I heard about the PEI potato museum and wanted nothing more than to visit it. Honestly, that desire has not lessened by much.

Newfoundland & Labrador—Two for the price of one. Don’t know shit about Labrador, but I’ve met a couple Newfies and I’m decent friends with one of them. Accent is no joke, that Canadian raising is. It’s something. But I really can’t judge accents, so. Decent province.

Bonus: The territories—Respect to the residents of the territories for being proof that humans will find a way to survive in literally any environment. I don’t know much about the territories, I don’t think there’s much to know about. I’d like to visit someday to see the northern lights in their fullest glory, though.