#I'm having lots of thoughts about it and it's literally the only thing I can think about so here ya go I guess

[blackcrystalball]

Honestly I think the worst part of it all is the adults just refusing to do anything about it. It actually sets me ablaze with fury.

I got lucky in that my autism was palatable because I'm pretty and most of my special interests were fashion and makeup related, so people didn't clock me as "too weird," but my best friend wasn't so lucky. Our classmates would do the weird low-key bullying that requires a lot of social skills to understand (they invited us each to a dinner, separately, as a joke?? I, to this day, don't know what the joke could have been. I didn't realise they were trying to bully me so it didn't really work. But she realised, and it really hurt her feelings because she thought they were friends.) And weird shit like that was constant and literally no one did anything.

At the end of grade 12 she wanted to report our Afrikaans teacher to the board because she would literally terrorise the students who wouldn't fight her back. The neurodivergent ones, the ones from different countries that struggled with Afrikaans because they had very little experience with the language, and honestly anyone that struggled in general. I have no idea what her fucking problem was, but she clearly hated children and she seemingly hated my bestie the most. She was literally screaming at her loud enough that classes down the hall could hear her and would complain.

That woman was the actual fucking worst. Screaming seemed to be her only method of conveying upset, she'd always cause such a fucking scene, i assume to embarrass whoever she's shouting at. It was weird and honestly pathetic imo. She's grown, older than our parents and she couldn't express that she was frustrated with how slow people's progress was? Screaming at them, in Afrikaans, a language they barely understand, is the only way she can do it???

And the principal and hod did nothing, honestly the hod was a seperate fucking problem on her own(that bitch has such major beef with me, and then my mom by having beef with me), they only made moves, for like a week after my besties parents came to the school with representation to let them know that if it kept happening, it was going to be a big problem.

Things changed for like a week, then she was back to it, eventually everyone was so fucking over it that they just let it go. My bestie didn't bother with the complaint and just stomached the abuse until we graduated.

Bullying, especially from the adults that are supposed to protect you, will literally grind your down down to powder and you won't have anything left to give. Why try when literally everyone's going to shit on whatever you do.

And that school held so many anti-bullying assemblies because the students were fucking insane. And it was all such weird low-key bullying. They're little bully badges did nothing, most people forgot they even existed by the second day.

Schools are so fucking performative, they love boasting about how accepting and inclusive they are, but once it's actually time to get the fuck up and do their job, they can't be bothered. The teachers, the leadership, even the fucking administration does nothing.

None of them ever fucking do anything and it's so frustrating.

every piece of ""autistic representation"" in hollywood sucks not just because of the infantalization and inspiration porn but because movie executives always fail to realize the real universal autistic experience: spending your childhood slowly and unfalteringly realizing all of your friends not so secretly hated and/or merely tolerated you at best and you've missed every social signal about it ever

[nanamiskentos]

Begging you to write something for Kashimo you're the only writer I've seen that actively writes for him please i will literally suck you off (pretend I just didn't type that, i'm just desperate for fine shyt)

I CAN DO A LOT WITH FIFTEEN MINUTES ❛ hajime kashimo won't ever admit defeat, even if there's a time constraint. he just has to make you finish ❜

cw — afab!reader, MDNI, marking, édging, kashimo doesn't fw gojo, thigh ríding, inappropriate jujutsu usage, gojo cameo, fíngéring

"i kinda' ship them, wouldn't you agree?" you're snapping your glossy mouth, gently gnawing on your lower lip. straddled over a toned, muscular thigh, with your back pressed against a washboard, deliciously carved abdomen, "hakari and kirara, right?"

you hear a clever tongue click absent-mindedly behind the soft shell of your ear, "i do not understand this, i may find them . . insufferable, but are they not friends of yours?" you can hear the strained confusion colouring kashimo's voice, that, and the impatience as he's hissing and sucking a quick draw of breath between teeth as you lean back into him just a little bit more, "why would you send them off on a boat?"

ah, sometimes it's easy to forget that the sharp-tongued, bratty, teal-haired sorcerer ( who spends his days attempting to pick fights with anyone who looks at him 'funny' ) is yet to fully swap out his birth-tongue medieval vernacular for something a bit more up to date.

"it means that i think they'd look cute together, 'jime," you sigh, hearing kashimo sigh, loud and heavy, before opting to bury his face into the crook of your neck. if only to nip at the soft flesh there, awaiting the blooming petals of the pink and violet bruises he so loves to see there.

"that's nice, little dove," kashimo murmurs, and you can tell that he's doing his best to indulge your gossip and conversation, but the thick curve that's straining against the loose drape of his martial pants is making it quite difficult for him to focus, "but we do not have long before everyone is scheduled to meet here. and the last thing i wish for is that irritating, white-haired upstart to kick up a fuss."

"who?" you frown, a soft whine slipping from your lips as kashimo's strong hands find a firm grip on your waist, gently beginning to move you back and forth in a slow rocking motion, "gojo?"

"if i do not like someone, i will not indulge them by speaking their name."

sighhh, frankly what gojo thinks is the last thing on your mind right now. . . for all you can truly think about is the gentle, cloying strands of slick that must be pooling now in your underwear. stimulated by the soft brush of fabric creating an electrifying friction, dampening kashimo's pants with a translucent stain of your arousal.

you're so lost in the addictive sway of your cunt against the contours and muscle of kashimo's thighs, like the subtle pressure of a coiled spring just waiting to break loose, "feels s-so good, 'jime."

a rasp-rough chuckle from kashimo, his hands falling away from your hips and leaving you to rock yourself against his thigh in growing desperation. hands instead curling around your front to slide surreptitiously up your top, breezing past sensitive and pebbled skin to gently cup your breasts, tweaking and flicking, "yeah, yeah? thought so, heh, my fair lady."

but just as you're so, so close to seeing stars shoot across your vision, kashimo bounces his thigh, creating the most delicious jolt that suddenly breaks your rhythm and leaving you to kiss your climax a tearful goodbye, "what the f-fuck, i was gonna' –"

kashimo is so close to you, his face practically glued to the back of your neck that you can feel the flutter of his long, teal lashes as he rolls his eyes, "whaaat? you were gonna cum, was that it, little dove? is that why you're suddenly so –," a bandaged finger reaching around to wipe a stray, frustrated crystalline droplet from your teary eyes, "weak, mm? weak for my touch?"

"y-you're the one who said we didn't have long 'n –"

the same finger that was gently brushing over your weeping eye, gliding away the last remnants of your ruined orgasm, now presses over your lips, firm, "shh."

kashimo quickly spreads his thighs apart, and considering you had just been balancing on one, the action should have toppled your balance. but a veiny arm wraps your waist, keeping you in. . place pressed against his back.

instead, now your legs are spread wide, each ankle hooked around kashimo's calves so you balance precariously.

praying to god, to tengen, to every deity out there and throwing whoever you can quickly of in, that the training room door will remained closed for at least fifteen minutes. but it's hard to think rationally when kashimo is purring, still pressed to your back as he reaches around your waist to gently pull down your waistband.

"how filthy," he teases, "tsk', i've barely even touched you, and you're drippin' allll over my fingers." and while you'd like to keep your dignity intact, there's no denying that every prod of kashimo's padded fingertips against your pussy leaves the bandages soaked in your wetness.

"alright, little dove," kashimo murmurs, "here we go, keep ya' balance for me." and you wonder why he's bothering to give you a warning when your cunt is already spread by his hand, but in hindsight, it makes so much sense because like most things kashimo does, his pace is brutal and aiming to win.

in and out, in and out. the sloppy pshh and pop! of kashimo's fingers driving into your gummy walls has you keening, and it has the old sorcerer loudly moaning before he sucks in a breath, lips pressed together tightly like all he wants to hear right now is you, just you.

"ah, ah, 'jime," you writhe in his gasp, groaning as his fingers prod and curl in all the right places. sharp, pistoning motions that faintly crackle, you swear, heightening every sensation tenfold, "are you, f-fuck, are you seriously using –, oh my god!"

you can feel kashimo smile against your neck, and the soft press of his lips on your skin, "am i using what, love?" waiting for your answer that was never going to arrive, not with how kashimo's pumping his middle finger against that sweet spot, "ah, can't even speak now, 's a damn shame."

what a debauched sight the two of you must make. kashimo, flushed just from watching and hearing you fall apart on his lap, with his teal hair unbound. choppy, slick strands brushing his shoulders. you, with your legs pushed wide open, and wider still as kashimo jolts his own thighs apart further.

you're babbling now, riddled cries of the sorcerer's name, as he never lets up, not even once on the nasty pace. if you turn your head to fall back against kashimo's shoulder, you can taste the trail of salt-tears at the corner of your mouth, "baby, 'j-jime, so close now, baby."

"good, good," kashimo hisses, and you don't miss how he's furiously bucking his hips up, jolting you higher into his lap as he must chase some friction for his own release, "if you jus' hold onn, little dove."

a thumb messily gliding through your glossy mess to flick at your clit, all in conjunction with kashimo melding three fingers into your pussy, well, it's got you hurtling close and the sorcerer knows it, "three." he crooks his fingers inside and towards your groin, "two." sloppily running his thumb alongside the side of your clit, scooping, "one."

a devastating high that leaves you both panting, and your hips clenching and twitching, your arousal so plentiful that it's beginning to froth and pool at the edges of your pushed aside underwear. kashimo hisses, and then sighs, "made a mess, love." and you need not pointedly mention the dark stain on his loose, white pants.

"you look like a mess, 'jime." your legs feel utterly boneless but you make an effort to move, falling back into kashimo's surprisingly gentle, "i've got a hold of you." the sorcerer's laughing as you smooth your skirt down, grimacing at the slap of slick and sweat that's dampening your flesh.

kashimo's snapping his teeth around a loose tie that hangs off his wrist to scrape his cyan hair back up into his recognisable knots, "you know, if we had more time, little dove, i would have –" he makes a quick whistling sound, jerking his wrist over his groin and pointedly looking down to your shaking thighs, "but we had to make do."

it's a surprisingly crude gesture from the prudish sorcerer that makes you laugh, "and right on time, too. because i swear, if anyone had –"

"i swear to fucking god, you two pull that shit again, i'm going to fight sukuna early." yeah, right on time, because gojo's pushing open the training room door with one hand, the most disgusted look over his face that informs you that you didn't account for the sheer magnitude of six eyes.

gojo's bright-blue eyes swivel away from the turquoise-haired sorcerer now, to where you're shuffling sheepishly and avoiding kashimo's proud, fanged grin, "and you, control your boy toy. i don't have time for this shit."

you press your lips together in faint embarrassment in front of one of your oldest friends, all while kashimo is vaguely fiddling with his hands, making you wonder if he's about to pull out some new domain expansion that no one has heard of. but what you end up hearing is a satisfied 'aha!'.

"see, i'm getting the hang of these modern things." kashimo's fingers are curled into a tight fist, all save for the middle one, proudly flipping gojo off ( who just mutters some ominous portent about hoping that december 24 rolls around quicker )

[citruskushh]

Am I the only one who is thinking that Gales underwear is enchanted to keep him from getting too worked up or turned on? That man is doing everything to stop the risk of explosion. If he isn't also doing the magic equivalent of suppressing his libido, then he's gotta be doing something else for it. (Or just some seriously extreme levels of self control)

As far as I'm concerned his underwear is a chastity belt and he disenchants it once the orb is stable.

More in depth ideas under the cut (it could've been a different post entirely but it's too late now)

I've seen most people say that the underwear is actually what is giving him abs and I have some thoughts.

Hear me out. We all saw the posts a few years back about male actors starving themselves and doing unhealthy practices to gain that muscle that we see in movies. Take Thor for example, Chris Hemsworth spent a lot of time barely eating and drinking a shit tons of water to achieve that look. I'm not saying Gale would be anywhere near that level but it's something to think about.

He's self conscious, trying to fit in, and in a relationship with a literal goddess. To me that all adds up to him probably having been quite fit, even if visible muscle wasn't the look he had, he still would've been very capable and in good shape.

Then he very suddenly has this thing in his chest that is eating him alive, his relationship has ended without his full knowledge, and he is quickly shunned by everyone around. That would take a huge toll on his body, and he probably would get pretty depressed. Personally I'm a lose my appetite kind of depressed so I see that being pretty reasonable with Gale. Maybe he makes big meals so he can try and feel normal but enjoying it just isn't the same when you're alone and in pain. And as much as Tara tries to help, it just isn't the same. To add to that, his stress levels are at an all time high, which can also account for sudden loss of body fat, giving him the look of an action movie lead, without any of the intentional effort.

This is all just my own head cannons / speculation.

Personally I adore Gale for how he is in the game, but I am not against anyone who has different opinions. This is not intending to cause issues or arguments so please refrain from doing so 🩷

[wandaluvstacos]

all of these mentioned above are not regulations on housing. They are product regulations. Which are good! But they have very little to do with housing; no one is installing lead pipes in a house because lead pipes are not made. Because of regulations on products. Same with asbestos shingles.

Trump deserves to be [redacted], and I'm sure whatever regulations he cut are probably good ones because the GOP is a death cult who loves the suffering of others, but housing regulations in the US are notoriously awful and they're why we're in this housing crisis mess to begin with. This idea that "oh well landlords are just evil" does not take into account that... landlords are evil everywhere. Human greed exists in every country in the world. And yet some places (mostly in Asia) do not have a housing crisis.

There are some good housing regulations, for sure. A home should be habitable, with proper wiring and plumbing and all that. But that's not the problem, because we all know how to BUILD a house. There are millions of people who can figure that out. It is the regulations that stand in the way of building homes that are actually the issue. Trump and the GOP do not care about those, because they like those. Zoning was created as a way of segregating neighborhoods after the Fair Housing Act made it illegal to discriminate against race. Zoning regulations, parking mandates, the way the US requires every apartment building to have two staircases and giant elevators... these are all things that make building housing extraordinarily expensive, impractical, and unpleasant. Parking mandate regulations is why you literally cannot build charming downtowns anymore. Building an insane amount of parking - especially via underground garages for apartment buildings-- add thousands of dollars of cost to each unit in an apartment building. And parking mandate numbers were just... made up. No reason. Local officials literally just guess how much parking they THINK is needed.

I don't expect random people on Tumblr to understand the intricacies of urban design and the battles raged on that front, but not ALL regulations are good across the board. Many of them were invented to fuck over Black people, or keep poor people out of a neighborhood, or were thought up in response to one problem a guy had 50 years ago. This NIMBY idea of "oh well the only reason we can't find housing is because it's EMPTY and being HOARDED by greedy landlords" is just... not true. Landlords suck ass, but they exist everywhere. They exist in West Virginia, where housing is cheap, and they exist in California, where housing is not. It's really important to look into WHY housing is more expensive in some places more than others, and A LOT of it has to do with those local regulations. Lead and asbestos and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory simply have nothing to do with it.

Homes are expensive because of landlords hoarding them for profit, not because of regulations.

[katerinaaqu]

Hello! I just stumbled upon your blog when I joined The Odyssey community! If it isn't too much a bother to ask, what things, reccuring themes and characterizations do you feel are most important and iconic within The Odyssey?

I am asking this mostly because I really do like your rants and opinions, I find myself agreeing to a lot of what you say, which sorta surprises me because of your clear dislike of Epic, whereas I personally adore Epic: The Musical. (I stayed away from it for a while -I was wary of retellings, adaptions and what-not- until I finally got into it like, a month ago and since, I have been listening non-stop)

So, when I came onto your posts, I was immediately drawn towards your Epic based rants and your translations. Point for point, you hit all the parts I disliked about the musical, albeit, my dislike is obviously much milder, since I still love it. I also completely understoond your stance on source material over so-called retellings since I have felt and still do feel the same about other (unrelated to The Odyssey) medias and fandoms.

If you'd like to talk, I love to hear more of your thoughts! Tell me all of what you loved about The Odyssey. Refresh my knowledge and give me your insight! I'm getting back into reading it, since I read it only once before a long time ago. I have always been more of a casual enjoyer, but now I'm really trying to dip my toes in.

(You don't have to say anything about the musical either, I just really liked your rants on it and the corrections you made on the misinformation rampant in the fandom due to preconceived notions... Sorry, I talk a lot-)

Why hello and I am quite honored you discovered me hahahahaha oh my, my once again being known for my runts huh? Hahaha XD I can see why though! I am really honored you decided to ask me such intriguing question! Hahaha how dare you! You know I am a yapper about this book! Hehehe!

I would say one reoccurring theme in the Odyssey that I rarely ever see in adaptations is the theme of seeking of knowledge. I find it so disappointing how it is literally one of the main themes of the Odyssey and yet I rarely ever see it happening. It is literally at the first lyrics of the poem:

πολλῶν δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω

He saw many cities of men and gained knowledge from them

(Translation by me)

Odysseus was not just experiencing his homecoming. It was a cognitive trip; a trip where he learnt things and he achieved things on his way.

He didn't stop at the cave of Cyclops because he had nothing else to do or no food to go by. It is clearly stated in the Odyssey that the island of the Cyclops was extremely fertile and had many wild goats and other animals they could hunt and feed on. Odysseus entered the cave because he wanted to meet the people that lived there. He ignored the signs that showed the residents were non-human because he wanted to give a chance to whoever lived in that cave to show that they were more than what met the eye.

He met the land of Aeolia next. His stay in that land for one month was share knowledge with Aeolus. He told them his story, they also told him their own experiences, thus Odysseus knows about how Aeolus arranged the marriage of his children and all

He sent scouts to the land of the Laestrigonians and their city, he was though more prudent this time and assured a safe passage even if his comrades didn't follow his prudent stance this is what costed them their lives but one ship.

He shared knowledge with Circe, not only on the part of his trip that he needed to move on but also gained knowledge from her. One example is the mention of a cunning knot he learnt from her which he used later in his adventures. Small details like that.

He gained knowledge from Tiresias not only on how to break his curse but also on what happened the years he was away from his home.

He had no reason to hear the sirens! The sirens is exactly the manifestation of his trip being of cognitive nature. He wanted to hear them. He NEEDED the knowledge they provided! Removing that concept from his trip in any shape or form shows to me someone who does not understand the Odyssey (I know it is harsh to say but I feel like there is one part of the Odyssey that is so iconic like the 12 axes challenge and that is the sirens passage)

Odysseus learns in every part of his trip and uses that knowledge to future adventures. But what I also fail to see is how CONSCIOUS this knowledge-gain is. Of course he learns things accidentally too but most part of it is knowledge he chooses to acquire for himself.

Another theme that I do not see much is theme of fate and destiny. Odysseus is not some idiot who doxxed himself as most people use the overused joke. In fact his trip is so thick of plot that one way or another something would have happened to cause this wandering.

Troy was destined to stand 10 years (from the Iliad),

Odysseus was destined to go home in 20 (hence he needed extra persuasion to go to the war).

Polyphemus was prophesized before that he would have been blinded by a man named Odysseus (he just didn't know who that Odysseus would be)

but we also know that Odysseus was destined to meet Circe (Circe mentions how Hermes had warned her for the prophesized man coming to her isle. She probably was unaware on the identity of the man or how that man would arrive at her doors)

Odysseus was also cursed by Polyphemus that he would either never return or return alone without his companions and find misery at his home

The true line between fate and destiny and human will is very thin in greek mythology. However we also see that Odysseus tries repeatedly to change fate even if it is inevitable (see my analysis here). It is this human part of his that is so relatable! Also the fact that oftentimes in the joke people forget that Odysseus experienced the absolute horror in the cave of Polyphemus for days. Exhaustion and anger took the best of him as well as of course his ego being inflated that he had managed to take down such a powerful opponent. And of course the reoccurring misunderstanding that Odysseus never cared for anyone else but as I have also analyzed there that is simply not true. It is even stated in the Odyssey:

πολλὰ δ᾽ ὅ γ᾽ ἐν πόντῳ πάθεν ἄλγεα ὃν κατὰ θυμόν, ἀρνύμενος ἥν τε ψυχὴν καὶ νόστον ἑταίρων.

He suffered many torments in his heart out at the sea, seeking to win his own life/soul and the return of his companions

(Translation by me)

The whole trip was always about Odysseus wishing to return them all safely home. Which is also part of his tragedy and shows why he went in so many lengths to save them etc.

I am honored that someone that likes this piece of media can still understand and even liking some of these opinions. I understand that for someone that genuinely like it might be a bit annoying or tiring but yeah I guess I love the original way too much! Hahaha! And okay I understand the songs are really catchy so it can be getting into someone's head easily but I am really delighted to hear you say that! And of course to be fair there are many things one can like about the musical for example the talent of the people related to it and their passion

However ironically that was the source of my dislike as well hehe I know it is paradoxical but when I see someone with obvious knowledge of the sources and passion for something, twist the original material to THAT degree...dunno I feel it even harder. I mean of course one does not expect it to be accurate but when I hear that and yet someone claim to adapt material I would expect of course these small details changing here and there for example adding dialogs with Poseidon (that is like a must in every adaptation minus the 1968 version I noticed...like Poseidon never interacted with Odysseus but that is something every adaptation adds!) or extra scenes with Hermes or whatever or even some of the details added. The problem is that the whole plot was twisted beyond repair, basic parts of the plot that made the plot unique and beloved were thrown out the window And BECAUSE I recognize the talent of the people involved AND seeing they had the chance as they did to make not only the Odyssey available to public but also influence more people to see it and they could do it by staying respectful to the material and yet they chose not to which increased as I said my disappointment. I was also very warm when I watched the first two sagas even if they were also inaccurate because they had exactly what I describe. So yes of course I absolutely understand why people would like it. Dang I absolutely do at least on the artistic department but the way as you brilliantly stated not only the plot but also the fandom of it has been at times it really got to me more than many things

So it is really a good change to see more people see this point of view too and I respect the fact that some people like it and yet do try to see the other view too. You are very kind for saying that!

Hahahaha dude you are asking a dangerous question! Hahahaha! I can talk about it forever! Hahaha Honestly what is there to me not to love about the Odyssey? For starters the fact that it is an ancient Greek poem, something linked to my country and my history and being loved in such a great degree and continue to inspire even almost 3000 years later, fills me with so much pride! Makes me inspired to do something similar! Like not caring if I will be a celebrity but someone see my work and admire it even if they do not know who I am...someone that can see this and continue to speak on it for generations to come... Of course many writers do the same as well like classical literature and all but for the specific one I feel so much pride!

The Odyssey arguably has everything! Romance, friendship and companionship, horror and peace, war and bloodshed and also tenderness of a family, drama and comedy, adventure and domestic life even daresay sci-fi details with the Phaeakes island that have literal robotic dogs created by Hephaestus for them. Odysseus is one of the most complicated personas in all literature history and earned that position in the hall of fame. Arguably even ancient Greeks and Romans could not handle the guy with so many different opinions that paint him from hero till villain. The same guy that held back from the battle till the proper moment and then abandoned his last escape to save Diomedes in the Iliad is now sailing to the seas. The same man that took Ismarus and slay the men and took women of it as his property and mentioning it as casually as he could was also crying his eyes out in guilt upon hearing a song about Troy and the way the city fell. The same guy that tenderly held his son and cried like a baby holding him and kissing him was also the same person that slaughtered 108 men in his palace and executed their allies in less than a day. The same guy who reigned the kingdom like a father; who embraced and kissed his slaves like equals, was also undoubtedly a strong leader and king who defended his authority with iron hand and he was ready to even slay his own brother-in-law when he defied him. The same man that held back from volunteering to face Hector in the Iliad and made sure he would be the last to be chosen, in the Odyssey he armed himself ready to face an immortal 6-headed monster all by himself. The man known for his mind and cunning and indirect ways is also known for being one of the greatest warriors known. Arguably even his age being one of the oldest kings in the Iliad and yet as Antilochus said he was also one of the fastest and more agile and one of the best in spear. The most pious and religious people to the gods, favored by one of the greatest goddesses of all, Athena, and loved by Zeus was also one of those who suffered a great deal from his hubris.

This man is the absolute perfection of contradictions in one body and the way he is portrayed by Homer especially in the Odyssey where he is the protagonist is a masterpiece of emotions. Arguably Odysseus is also one of the earliest male rape victims in literature for he was not just attempted to be raped and seduced but he had to literally sell his body once to Circe and then he was being forced by Calypso. A warrior that was absolutely powerless before the gods

The Odyssey is also a great allegory of the spread of Greeks to the Mediterranean sea before the official set of colonies and the way it provides us information on how they moved around. It is also an allegory on the dangers humans faced out in the sea, how they struggled and how the families left behind also struggled with the consequences. How the power of nature can bend someone but also how human with seer will can do incredible things Odysseus survived the impossible not because he had gods as parents or hardly any help from the gods itself with the exception of Leucothea in the last adventure and of course finally Athena to the final stage. Odysseus survived because of his seer will and his need to return home. Odysseus can be any one of us; a person who struggles every day; everything can hold us down and we might have no help or very little help from others but we must keep pushing through. The Odyssey also shows us the importance of companionship and family bonds, loyalty and trust. Odysseus didn't slay the suitors because he was a mary-sue all-powerful person. He had help from three loyal slaves (Euryclea, Eumaeus and Philoetius) and his son Telemachus. He didn't do it alone. He used the help of those who believed in him and quite frankly he faced a much less bad situation at his palace because of his wife's seer will and loyalty to not abandon the throne of Ithaca to anyone till he arrived.

The Odyssey is also about how there are many forms of strength. Penelope was not less strong than Odysseus because she didn't kill anyone with a sword. She was strong for keeping more than 100 men and several parts of the household that were betraying them with her seer will and mind. Telemachus was both a fighter and someone who tried to see the best in people and that saved his life (when he spared Theoklymenos at his return from his trip. Theoklymenos was a man who had committed murder. Telemachus chose to give him a chance and in return he received the prophecy of Theoklymenos that the suitors were planning an ambush) Odysseus also learnt forgiveness in one way when he was ready to start another bloodshed by the end of the Odyssey when the families of the suitors saught revenge but Athena stopped it, making sure both sides stopped the never-ending circle of violence. Nausicaa is an example of loving someone and yet you must respect their wishes and let them go. Telemachus is an example of self-discovery... The very realistic scenario of someone not recognizing the place they left for so long and people not recognizing you back. That you have to work yourself through the very same place you left behind! Even Telemachus as a character not even knowing what to believe anymore about the father he never met, not knowing whom to listen and whom not to etc. like a realistic scenario of absent veteran fathers who disappeared a long time ago...

Honestly...what ISN'T the Odyssey?! It is in my opinion one of the most complete pieces of literature that opens the way in many things! I am really happy you shall decide to look at it more attentively and I hope you shall enjoy it because honestly it's worth it.

(My friend I do not mind at all speaking about it. I am just not a fan so I am just asking the understanding of anyone that I am not gonna be very positive about what I mention and say. However I shall try not to be hater with no reason or logic, that I can promise to try)

[shiny-jr]

hi shiny ! i saw ur post on that anon who was asking abt AI i use it too ! i don’t use it to write my works but i use it to refine it like my grammar and punctuation.. i feel like it’s bad. even though all the ideas, and writing are mine (minus the better synonyms and punctuation)

so need a genuine writer on how they feel abt it cause i feel like after all the AI hate i don’t think my writings are okey.

Well, there are a lot better sites to use. I can recommend some resources? So maybe take a look at some of these and consider using them as tools without the need for AI!

WordHippo - This one is my personal favorites, and I've mentioned it in multiple other posts. It's great for finding anything word related, like definitions, synonyms, antonyms, etc. I literally use it all the time, whenever I'm writing something.

GoogleDocs - This is my preferred site to write. It's where I keep all my drafts and saved files when it comes to writing. There are others though like Word and such, but I just prefer this application because it can be used without downloading any app and it's free. Plus, some of the time, it'll catch spelling mistakes and such. Additionally, recent updates on it added a feature to create subtabs within a single document, which really helps when I'm creating an extensive project. So for example, I'll create the document, and have a separate subtab on it for the story, another subtab for notes, another for ideas, etc.

Reading - It's also important to read. I don't mean reading of your own work, but while that is important too, I mean read over things you like. Try to understand why you enjoyed what you read. Was it something about the style, the word choice, descriptions, plot, characters, themes, etc? The list goes on. Find what you like and build on it. Maybe you like a certain author's style. It's okay to attempt to emulate (not directly copy) it, and form your own style from that.

Share - Sharing is vital, and posting falls under this. While I understand this may be more difficult to complete depending on if you have mutuals that would give good critiques or not, if you do have friends and are confident in them, maybe they might be willing to read one of your works and give pointers. Keep in mind, this doesn't work for everyone. I know a lot of writers who prefer not to share their work before posting, I only share my own work with like one person before posting, others have multiple friends who read their work before posting. It varies.

Acceptance - I will say this: accept that your writing is not perfect. And that's okay. Literally, no matter what you do, you will have supporters and you will have haters. You yourself may sit there and believe your writing is not good enough. Believe me, this is a very common thought process amongst writers.

I remember being so hesitant and scared to post in the beginning. My writing was BAD, I will be the first to admit. But that's because I was inexperienced. With time and effort, my experience grew and so did my skill. It became something that I'm sometimes proud of, sometimes I'm not. That's just how it is. Even now, years later, I still get those negative thoughts and anxiety as I look at the post button when finishing a project. Those thoughts creep in and I begin to doubt myself. But, I think I would rather post it and risk the chance of maybe regretting it later instead of the alternative where I never posted something and regretted never sharing it.

[arcaneconfessions]

NO, Vi didn't know Jinx was going to kill herself. First off, she just hasn't been privy to a lot of the things that have clued us in to Jinx wanting to die in the first place. She's mostly been seeing Jinx at her most stable - the Jinx she'd gotten to know in ep5 and ep6 was genuinely doing pretty well, probably better than Vi herself had been doing. The only things Vi could possibly have to go off of as far as Jinx being suicidal are Jinx saying "no matter what I do, I just can't seem to die" and "I'm glad it's you, had to be you" in ep3, and the conversation in ep8 ("you don't have to worry about me anymore, there's no good version of me, [I'm going to] break the cycle"). All of those things are vague enough that they could be reasonably interpreted multiple ways, especially if you don't have further context (which Vi for the most part doesn't). The first thing in ep3 could be Jinx saying "I've been trying to kill myself but haven't managed it", or it could just be her taking the piss, given that it's followed by her revealing that she's tricked them and cackling. The second thing could be her saying "I've been waiting to die, I'm glad it's you who's finally going to kill me" or it could be her saying "if this is it, then I'm at least glad it's you". What she says in ep8 could mean "I'm going to go kill myself to escape this existence and so that I don't keep dragging you down with me", OR it could mean literally any number of other things, like "I'm going to run off, don't look for me" or "I'm going to go blow some more shit up because I'm destructive and I don't believe I can change for the better, don't feel bad". But also, crucially, Vi has her own shit going on, and isn't necessarily really hearing or parsing what Jinx is saying at all. These are seriously emotionally intense situations for Vi too. In ep8, she's just woken up to the fact that not only are Isha and (as far as she knows) Vander both dead for good, but that Cait has Jinx in prison. Like, just when she thought she could keep it all together and get all the people she loves on the same side, she's confronted with a situation where she has to choose between Cait and Jinx AGAIN. Her going down to the bunker to try to convince Jinx to help out is her last-ditch effort towards being able to have both her sister AND the woman she obviously still loves in her life. She's thinking that if she just frees Jinx and Jinx uses her "explosive potential for good" and shows Cait and Piltover that she's changed, then maybe it can all still work out somehow. Jinx sucker-punching her and leaving her in the cell is spitting in the face of that whole fantasy. Like, yes, sure, what Jinx is saying should maybe be raising some red flags - but Vi isn't in a place to pay attention, because from her perspective she's just lost everyone. She went behind Cait's back to free Jinx because she thought she could get her to help, but instead Jinx has locked her in a cell and fucked off. And we know that this is the case - that she's stuck thinking about how she's fucked everything up and lost everyone rather than about what Jinx said - because that's literally what she says at the beginning of the scene with Cait: "I really believed she'd help. Say it: you told me so, I went behind your back, I choose wrong every time; and because of it, I've lost everyone". Like, I'm convinced that the people who are saying Vi knew about Jinx being suicidal just straight up didn't listen to the dialogue in this scene. I think it's made pretty damn clear here that she's in her head about how she's fucked things up, and NOT thinking about what Jinx meant. "It doesn't make sense that Vi would prioritize having sex with Cait over trying to find her obviously suicidal sister" - right, it only makes sense if Vi didn't know she was suicidal. Which she didn't. As should be obvious from the things she says, if nothing else.

.

[i-am-not-acting]

I can't help but think that this puts Danny in a catch 22. If he proves he's not insane then he's under the jurisdiction of the Anti Ecto Acts, and might be handed over to the GIW. If he's insane then he's stuck Arkham. His goal was probably to 'recover' and get released, which is hard enough in a place as corrupt as Arkham, or to be considered safe enough that Jazz can accept responsibility for him and sign him out after she turns 18.

Damian has smashed both of those plans to pieces.

Unless a different bat speaks up for him he probably won't be considered for release, even with conditions. The bats are unlikely to believe his story, and Danny has no reason to believe that it would be better if they did. Batman doesn't kill, but that doesn't apply to aliens when he's in a big battle, and if the rumors Danny has heard about what happened to Dracula while in the infinite realms are true, it doesn't apply to supernaturals either.

Even if Danny tries to convince someone he's dead there's a layer of denial. It's hard to think about a random child's death, and it's even harder to think about one you're connected to. If Danny manages to convince someone he isn't delusional there's no guarantee that they'll help him. If the bats take the Fenton's word and research to heart then they might hand him over to the GIW. If they don't decide to destroy him themselves. Phantom doesn't have a stellar reputation after all, and Batman might take personal offense at a thing parading as his son (once again, if he listens to the GIW and Fenton's research, and Danny doesn't have any reason to think he won't right now)

Sorry this is really rambly, I'm writing in little spurts at work. I'm going to swap to list format for everyone's convenience, including mine. So we have!

Reasons Danny doesn't trust the bats:

1) Damian's lovely introduction screwing him over

2) He literally doesn't know any of the other bats. If Damian's first reaction was to hurt him, how does he know the others won't be worse?

3) Batman's no kill rule only seems to apply to humans and meta humans, and Danny probably doesn't want to risk that

4) He has every reason to believe that Batman will take the Fenton's side! They are the lead experts in their field world wide! Surely they, of all people, would know if their son was a ghost or a meta! (Danny has probably heard that a lot from the Fentons themselves and several psychiatrists by now)

5) He has every reason to believe that Batman will agree with the official government stance and the Fenton's ground breaking research about ghosts! They're Evil!!!!!! And Worse!!!

6) General mistrust. His adoptive parents did just toss him in the most dangerous loony bin in America

7) He doesn't know how much the bats interact with the supernatural.

And for things influencing the Bats here we have:

1) Damian. He is the only one of them who knows Danny personally, and how this affects things is going to depend on a lot of variables we don't have here!

2) Multiple members of the bats have worked with ghosts. They won't believe that all ghosts are evil. But! None of the ghosts they work with are anything like Danny

3) Isn't it so much nicer to believe that your son/ brother/ random kid is a meta and not actually dead? The thought of failing him hurts

4) Same point as up above, but wouldn't the Fentons know? They ARE the leading experts in all things ecto after all. Even if the Fenton's research has obvious bias, it is pretty solid from a technical standpoint. Their inventions wouldn't work otherwise! The bats have no reason to believe Danny would even know what tests to run to prove he is or isn't a ghost, because there are maybe 5 people in the world who could without using magic. Like, from the bats perspective, literally, how would Danny even know? He's probably just traumatized

5) None of the ecto based beings are anything like the ghosts the bats know, therefore they must be something else, which means Danny must be a meta! Because ecto entities aren't ghosts!

6) Arkham is awful. This is going to affect different bats different ways. Some may just want to break him out, some may just want to have him transfer facilities. There may be concerns on how different facilities handle metas both from the facility's ability to handle Danny and the general safety of Danny and those around him.

7) The bats don't really know Danny. Even Damian hasn't seen him in years

8) Talia keeps sending clones. Damian seems sure this is actually Danny, but does that convince everyone?

9) Jason Blood does live in Gotham and may be used as a resource to investigate Danny. Or if you want, maybe he's already investigating Danny

The “insane” twin

The Fentons found about Danny being Phantom and… it could have gone worse?

They don’t hate him. He’s not in any danger of being vivisected or having his adoption annulled. However, they’ve convinced themselves that he’s not actually a ghost; clearly he must be just a Meta with ghost-like powers and delusions of being dead!

So now he’s spending time in a psychiatric institute. Oh joy.

Well, at least they aren’t shooting at him?

…And of course this is when his twin brother Damian finds out he’s alive and comes to see him. While he’s in the looney bin.

Great.

[anonmousegosqueek]

I didn't know you made a poll?? Honored that I was able to bring you to the correct side of things. Gaz will always be a cat to me. While I love some classic Dog!Johnny or even Fox!Johnny, I like him as a cat too. I always picture Johnny as Thomas O'Malley from Aristocats.

Gaz has shifted between Harpy (courtesy of bluegiragi on twitter) and a cat. He just fits so well with birds and cats.

Anyways! To the ask I was thinking about, because I've got hybrid on the mind. Specifically, full transformation hybrids.

Goose!Ghost that never changed into his goose form as a kid (his dad threatened to cook him and use his feathers for a pillow) and the military never forced him to shift. So when he finally feels comfortable enough to shift around Price, he's just this little ball of fluff.

If Price is completely honest, it messed with his hawk instincts. Food was the first thought in his mind, a fleeting intrusive thought, but one that happened every time Simon shifted around him. Think of the guilt.

But yeah, since Simon never really shifted as a kid, his hybrid form never grew up with him. Gaz is the only other person to see hatchling!Ghost, though he's not as fluffy looking. Roach is the next to join the team, doesn't assume anything is wrong until he catches sight of Gaz's home screen. Hatchling Ghost sitting in Gaz's hat.

Johnny complains vocally about not being able to have seen hatchling!Ghost. Thinks it's worse than death, a personal karmic disservice against him, is literally begging Price and Gaz for photos.

-🦴

AGHHHHHHHH

AGHHDUHEHEHEHEHE

*Dies

Seriously tho 🦴, spare me.

Okay so, I *love* Bluegiragi's hybrid au. I'ma be honest, I would chew off my own leg for Gira to pay attention to me. I neeed them to draw more Gaz.

But they were actually the reason I STARTED this! Two main reasons actually-

1) Soap is scared of dogs, or at least hates him (his journal)

2) Gaz fell from the helicopter, if he was a bird he could just fly

That's literally it. Those two reasons. One of which isn't cannon in the reboot (I think) and the other one is just one silly mission. And I made an entire au about it.

(that- and I had original thoughts I hadn't seen anyone else use and I thought it would be neat to share)

Okay, baby Goost now.

Of course Papa Pawk saw first. He's the only one Ghost trusts enough. Yeah he *loves* his Johnny, but... Listen, for most of his life he's avoided his full goose form. Not even from shame like some might think, but no, because of *fear.*

Every time he even thinks about it, he gets that reminder. His dad's voice ringing through his ears.

Childhood trauma can do that to a guy (believe me, I know)

But Price? Price is... Price is comfort. Price is safety and stability, he's a living campfire with the softest wings he could just curl up and sleep in for years.

So one night, bourbon warming his soul, he finally opens up. Talks about *why* he never shifts, why he settles for the wings. Yeah being smaller might help for a mission but it's not worth it.

It's also Pricey boy who points out the obvious.

"You've not shifted much? You mean, you're... You're still a gosling? Never had time to grow?"

Huh. Yeah, Ghost never really thought about that one.

So they talked about it some more. Took a lot of time, more than that one night, but finally, *finally* he convinced him.

Price promised to keep the little bird safe, setting up a safe place and making sure no one but Price was around. Simon sat down, breathed, and for the first time in... Ever. He let that little part of his brain take over.

The only reaction from Price, besides making sure the little guy doesn't instantly fall over, is the smallest twitch of his wings.

(this is too cute to get all angsty about the hawk part seeing him as a tasty little snack, I'm ignoring it for now so I don't weep)

Gaz is next.

While Ghost continues shifting sometimes, trying to catch up with all the growing he's missed, slowly he gets more comfortable. He starts to do it without Price. Still, he finds it easier to do it with his scent around.

Which is how the Sargent found out. He was just looking for Price, trying to get something or another. Imagine his surprise when not only does he find his captain's hat (WITHOUT CAPTAIN ATTACHED :0) but inside is the cutest little bird, right in those awkward teenage years where the fluff isn't exactly gone yet but not all the feathers are grown in.

"...Lieutenant?"

His phone screen has been a photo of a very grumpy goose baby since then.

Finally, Roach.

He was snooping politely looking through Gaz's phone when he found the image. Bro didn't even bother to finish his little crime before he was walking out of the room, making a b-line to wherever Ghost was. He slams into his office, ignoring the glare and signing angrily.

*SHOW ME*

"...whot?"

*the baby. Show me the baby.*

"Sanderson, do you need to be taken to the hospital? You're not making any sense."

*you. Baby bird. SHOW.*

It took a solid week of begging after that (with some bonus "I'm just a human :( I dunno what shifting is like" before Ghost cracked. Roach may or may not have scooped him up, Ghost may or may not have fallen asleep in the mans arms.

Sadly, Soap missed it. Hybrid halves tend to grow pretty quick (depending on the animal) and only slow down once they match the human's age. By the time Soap finally caught wind of 'baby Ghost' it was too late. The fucker had become a monster of a goose, big and bitty and a bastard. No more fluff, just a feather pattern that looked exactly like his signature skull masks.

Needless to say, his disappointment was immeasurable.

"But I'm yer boyfriend! How could ye not show?"

"didn't want ta."

"BUT YOU WERE *FLUFFY*."

"'xactly."

At least he has Garrick's photo sessions 😔

Bonus, wanna know a fun thing about birds? You don't really get a good look at the father pattern before they start growing them. That means that instead of spooky masked Goost, you got:

CHUNKY BABY

[slaaverin]

Integrity and why it is so fucking important

The last ask I answered about V sparked an idea to talk to you a little more deeply about individual integrity and why it matters so much.

I see so many people spreading mindless hate, harsh and harmful words. I see so many people "wishing the worst on others" when they don't agree.

Guys. Guys. No.

Most people are not aware of all of this, but there are many hidden truths about why we shouldn't be doing this.

Look, everything you say, do, or think, matters. Everything you say, do, or think is seen.

While you think you are alone living your human experience, and that you think thoughts alone in your head, and that you think you can spread hate because "no one will know".

I'm sorry, but that's not the case. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING about you is seen by the whole universe. There's nothing that can be hidden or concealed. You are perpetually naked in full display for literally everything and everyone to see.

Especially yourself.

Every words you utter, by speaking or writing, is like a spell you do. You do magic constantly. And many people do dark magic constantly by spreading negativity.

Each of you hold a tremedous power to create either love or fear. Each of the little things you do create an effect. You affect everything and everyone, in big or small ways. You are interconnected, and you can't help to be.

And guys, everything, and I really mean everything you do matters.

This power is your own, it's your power of creation. But with that knowledge, comes an even greater responsability.

The responsability to use this power with wisdom.

Will you choose love or fear today? What is your higher ideal? What do you want to get behind? You must ask yourself this question. What do you believe in? Which person do you want to be?

I don't know your answer, but my answer is love. Love is the only thing that truly matters to me. There is nothing higher than this that we are aware of.

So aligning yourself with love, and most of all aligning yourself with words/thoughts/actions that aligns with love, that's the whole name of the game here.

Can we choose love even in tough situations? That's not an easy thing to do. But that's something we all should strive for to grow in consciousness.

I'm not talking about a mushy wishy washy love, love can mean so many different things.

You must find your own wisdom of what that may mean for you.

You must take responsability for your own power. Because everything will be held accountable, especially by yourself.

At the end of your life, do you want to be proud of yourself? Do you want to think you truly tried your best?

That's what I have been telling myself.

That's why I think integrity is so important.

When we are not aware of all of this we can always say "I didn't know", but when you KNOW, there is no going back.

At least there were none for me.

And I know my path won't be everyone's path.

My path as a spiritualist to be the person I am today went through a whole lot of hardships and constant tweaking and improving of my mind. It took years to deprogram the things my parents and the whole society taught us. It took trauma and years of searching. It took metaphorical death and rebirth. It took mental pressure so extreme I thought I wouldn't make it. Today, I'm extremely rigorous, I hold a code that I can't deviate from, even for a little bit. That's my personal responsability. I don't tell you to do the same, because it won't be for everybody.

But if I can make you think even for a second of your words and actions, and that it matters. If I can make you pause to ask yourself what the hell you are doing before speaking or thinking vile words, then it's a win.

Jkkers are behind jikook because we believe in love, we are drawn to it, we celebrate it, we cherish it. It means we can't become hateful, and spread this kind of negativity. We can't become like people who doesn't care about hurting other people.

Once again, what kind of person do you want to be?

There must be some kind of ideal to uphold here.

(I'm a sagittarius sorry, I'm all about higher ideals)

Otherwise, who are we? Can we really say we deserve to be Jimin&Jungkook's fans, people who are pure of hearts, loving in an unconditional way?

Shouldn't they inspire you to be better humans instead?

Don't you feel the pull?

Don't you think it's time to act like adults, awake, and not in a trance of unconsciousness about one's actions and words?

I just hope I offered you food for thoughts. That's my only wish.

Now you know who you are dealing with coming to this blog.

Integrity is such a huge part of my life that I couldn't shut up about it, sorry.

Take of this what you wish and make your own decisions.

Take care everyone 💜

[princessofghosts-posts]

Can we all talk about when Percy in Tartarus almost choked Akhlys on her own poison? Like,I know that Annabeth got scared of it and what he was doing and becoming in the moment,because that wasn't Percy at all,but the "some things must not be controlled" is totally bullshit. Every child of the Big 3 control an aspect of a calamity that shouldn't be controlled: lightning,sea,earth,air and death (Nico is the equivalent of Jesus and Satan both in PJO if we think enough about it). Being able to control dangerous things that "shouldn't being controlled" is literally in their divine blood.

The guy was trying to save both of them. He did give in to the darkness,but he was so tired of it,it's ok to snap when you are put under so much pressure from everybody you know. And yes,I get Annabeth's POV of it,but Percy was doing everything to survive there,he was risking no matter what,you don't need to make him feel bad about wanting to survive in hell. You needs to adapt sometimes,especially when the situation is so extreme,not everything is black and white,there is a lot of grey too.

Percy's power evolved because of the needs to protect himself and Annabeth in there,mixed with the high level of stress while trying to remain sane,and the worries about making it back or not. That whole speech was uncalled for (like most things that Annabeth did in Tartarus) and she could have handled better the situation no matter how scared she was. Look at Reyna,she is extremely scared of ghosts because of her past but didn't want to make Nico aware of that,and consoled him after he killed Bryce without a second thought. Was she scared? Yes. Did she made Nico feel guilty about protecting them and using his powers to do so? No,she was greatful to him and understood that he needed to,if they wanted to come back to a successful quest. That's exactly how Annabeth should had reacted to Percy and Akhlys.

And let's be honest,Nico and Percy should had a conversation about what they went through in there,especially because their powers evolved and are stronger than before,at the end of BoO. If not alone then with Dionysus as a therapist because they both need it after that hell. Nico would have a crash out hearing about that speech (since his powers go against the law of nature itself) and would make Percy understand that there is nothing wrong with what he did.

Percy is a survivor. He was surviving in Tartarus and sometimes surviving requires doing bad things and it doesn't matter if in the long run,those same bad things take you out of dangerous situations. He survived. That's the important. Also,poison is still a liquid,so no matter how strange is,Percy can still control it because his power can and it's completely normal for him to do so.

I'm honestly disappointed in Annabeth for this,especially when part of what she said influenced Percy so bad that decided to not fight Polybotes's poison and die in his father's domain. And other than the talk he had with Jason after it,it's never mentioned again and he and Annabeth don't talk abou it. Which isn't ok.

The fandom forget about it all the time when it cames to their dynamic,but yes guys,Annabeth almost killed Percy with her reasoning,let's address it more often ok? Everyone who think what she said didn't contribute to his actions is dead wrong,they were almost co-dipended in everything during HoO and Percy was already doubting his powers before Tartarus: he already was scared of them and scared of drowning. Annabeth made it only worse for him. And it's never addressed,as if it never had consequences.

A talk with Nico would have helped him understanding that yes,it's normal what he did and he has a right to it,since poison is still a liquid: that's a part of his power,like raising the dead is to Nico,no metter how strange or "ugly" it is. He was surviving,he needed to use everything he could use to make it back alive,and he did. And if it's coming from the guy who's powers literally proves Annabeth's "you can't control some things" is stupid and wrong,especially when it cames to Big 3 children,then it has more effect.

But we never got to have that too.

Justice for Percy,he deserve better than this.

[sandorsubs]

no intro no aesthetic or proper writing bcz i need to kick this out of my head. i always feel like i'm shouting or wizardlizing around but no i promise it's pure passion...or my scorpio placements trying to come out but dw i usually keep them tied up (:

i'm curious what state are you in? because there is a state for every assumption like a status bar, it probably gets updated time to time: state of having, state of wanting, state of waiting, trying, hoping, praying etc. you have to be in one of those states otherwise there would be literal blanks. there is no in-between. everything shifts instantly and gets replaced(same with void. there is nothingness and everything(ness?) but it's never blank. non-existence is invisibility, not blankness. things need to exist in any form in order to be nonexistent)

if your state was a code, what would be the value: true or false? 0 or 1? if it's a switch, is it on or off? do you have it or not? it's so simple.

idk if you guys play any games but i do and i have this mode program. there are switches for every mode. i become lazier everyday so the way i persist turned into picturing a switch button.

i don't think or worry because if my rigid brain needs me to activate, open or turn something on even in my mind, why would i complicate things?

+is it on?

-idk check the switch.

+yep, it's on.

are you in the state of wanting? ew, switch that off. type false. value: 0. cut the energy line or the red wire, kick the battery idk just don't electrocute yourself. and then switch on the state of having.

"h-hold on, energy...?" yeah, you actually pour energy to this parasite state. what were you thinking? your thoughts=energy. first you react to them with emotions, second you act on them and spend more energy. now imagine this state creates a whole traffic, yk like how youtube does but more like a stream of thoughts(in pattern):

it didn't happen->but i want it to happen->then i need to try something new->i need to do more searching->it didn't happen->but i want it to happen->then i need to try something new

it all starts with one little upsetting thought and then vicious cycle has been created to keep you in. who needs to be scared of tiktok, you have your own algorithm in your brain. brick by brick, yes.

wanting, needing and hoping are all parasite states. they feed off from you. longer you stay in these states, stronger the vicious cycle gets. it's a toxic relationship. they literally give heavy "ihatemygirlfriend" vibes. stingy, if these states were a person they'd probably give you a broke boyfriend hug (pleaseee get the joke i'd definitely provide for my bf gf bff im just joking)

you know there is a moment of realization: i've been doing too much. maybe happily, with positive thoughts, while dancing with the butterflies, little expectant for some return eh, but i've been doing it for the wrong person. thankfully, you don't need a break up or divorce in this case. what you've learned and improved will stay with you.

lots of hugs heh 💋😏 and pheww i don't want to make different posts on shifting/manifesting/loa anymore. sometimes i just want to delete all my posts and only keep this one because look at this. i've been thinking about switch thing since the start of the year and it's so simple...i was so blind to see what's in front of me(thanks gaming)(dw it's not league of legends or valorant type of games)(and i don't think you can use mods on them...? def not)(and not FREAKY mods i swear why people always assume that...)

[mydogatemymotivation]

Ok you know how people say there are some people who don't have an inner monologue? That just means that their thought process isn't words and paragraphs but rather abstract 3-dimensional cubism that they have to try and condense into 2-dimensional sentence structure. Guess which thought process I have. If we were chit-chatting in person, trust this would've been a long directionless rambling while I explained the entire web of connection I can see in my brain but putting it into sentences almost killed me oh my god I've literally been thinking about this all day trying to figure out how to word it so if anything is rambling, I'm so sorry, and if anything is unclear, please ask, I'm happy to answer. I do love this stuff; it's just the sentences that don't like me lol.

So, one thing that's important to remember about cults, is that they rehearse arguments. I think him saying that makes sense for where he's at. And I think, down the line, it's something he'll look back at and go 'geez can you believe I said that' while Zeb's like ‘YEAH NO SHIT PAL’. I was watching a book reviewer once, she was raised in a Christian Fundamentalist cult, and she was reviewing a book that handled the deconstruction thought process quite well (despite the rest of the book being a hot mess so I'm not gonna recommend it here) and she was saying that cult leaders know that their ideology will get push back in the world at large so they train people to counter logical argument with faith. That's why when you say 'hey, if the world is only 6000 years old (or whatever the number is), how do you explain dinosaur bones?' their answer is, 'oh, those were placed by the devil to tempt people away from god' and the response is so goddamn stupid that is shuts the entire argument down. Kallus regurgitated A LOT on that moon. And you're right that generalizing an oppressive group is NOT the same as generalizing the oppressed. You know how women will say 'ugh, I hate men,' and men will IMMEDIATELY go 'oh, but if I say I hate women, then what?' like, you're already saying it. The problem is that you already say it. People are asking you to stop. It is, in fact, WHY women say they hate men. But when your group’s superiority is what the system is designed to prop up, any critique on the system feels like a critique of you. And these men will justify taking their anger out on the system by scapegoating women by saying things like 'oh, men can't do the things women can, men can't paint their nails, or wear makeup to cover up their acne, or wear skirts >:(' you very much can my guy. And you're not angry at women you're angry at patriarchy, just like the rest of us, but you're taking your anger out on the people who could be your ally in your fight to make things better. But when you're told that the system is designed to help you, you turn to the oppressive system for help.

Ok I need to come back to Kallus. Kallus and his squad are attacked on Onderon by Saw Gerrera's partisans. Kallus is the only survivor. This is tragic. It is. That is a devastating thing to go through, especially watching the entire rest of your squad get executed one by one. It is horrific. And Kallus is justifiably angry, but when he's told that the system will protect him, he views Saw Gerrera's attack as an attack on the protective system and the resulting casualties as Saw Gerrera's fault. BUT. If the Empire knows that Gerrera is from Onderon, why do they send a group of boys on their first time out to its capital city? And Kallus doesn't ask. He just does what he's told. He's so used to scapegoating people, even when they don't deserve it, that when the Empire sends the one guy in ISB who has personal beef with one singular Lasat to a campaign on Lasan you can't convince me that was a coincidence. They sent him there to reinforce his training. Exacerbate his anger and point him like an arrow at the people you want to destroy. But there was a little bit of humanity left in Kallus that when he was a part of the Boosan Keeraw, even if he didn't know what it was, he understood that it was significant, and he kept and protected the bo-rifle that came with it.

As for forgiveness, I don't think he was forgiven on Bahryn. Bahryn wasn't the forgiveness, it was the opportunity. Kallus saw that lifeline for what it was, and he took it. Zeb was willing to give him a second chance after that because Kallus responded to his arguments in good faith. Did he regurgitate propaganda? Yeah, but that's to be expected, but he listened and tried his best to actually respond in kind. You can always tell when someone is responding out of confusion versus when they're responding out of hatred. This actually happened to me once. I was in class, some communications class, where we were working on persuasive speeches and one guy decided to do his presentation on how being trans was a mental illness and I immediately was like 'mmm no. absolutely not.' and I literally followed him around on campus yapping in his ear about what being trans was and what it meant to people and queer history and he didn't yell, didn't shove, didn't get aggressive or mean. He did argue with me, sure, but the more we spoke, the more I could tell he was genuinely not understanding what being trans was. He ended up changing the theme of his presentation, and I had no idea until he got up to present and it was a completely different topic from what he said he was going to do. I was cringing while he was walking up to the front of the classroom until his slides came up and I saw he changed his entire presentation concept. Did he change his mind? I don't know. But he listened and he was never nasty with me about it, and he actually complimented how hard I fought him at the end of the semester. You can always, always tell. Kallus listened, regurgitated some propaganda, which Zeb cut off immediately, but you could tell he was thinking, even having trouble looking Zeb in the eye. Zeb left the door open for him to follow and he did, of his own accord.

Kallus went from conservative straight to anarchist on his own (also anarchy is an actual political position, it's an offshoot of communism. Where communism is overtaking the systems in place and installing a dictator in order to distribute the means of production among the workers until the government is no longer needed and can be dissolved, anarchy is the belief that the system should be torn down immediately and there should be no taking it over to begin with. Put very simply). He was fulcrum for what I always assumed was like a year? Year and a half? Then he survived Atollon, then he helped liberate Lothal, then the Death Star, then Hoth, then Endor and the Death Star 2, and presumably Jakku. I imagine he wanted to see the war through to the very end. If he and Zeb became friends or more during that time, that's their business. I'm not gonna begrudge them finding comfort and peace in one another during wartime, and I think they're cute together. But the actual, 'yes, I actually forgive you' came after all that. That's what bringing Kallus to Lira San was. That's why he turned to smile at Zeb when he realized what was happening. Kallus earned that forgiveness, he had to work for it, but he earned it.

I don't think Zeb brushed off anything Kallus said, but I rather think that he could see where it was coming from and that it was loss and confusion and hurt, not genuine hatred. Which is why he decided to give Kallus the opportunity to redeem himself.

If there are three people in a cave, one lights a torch, the second covers their eyes, and the third says 'oh, thank god. I didn't realize how dark it was in here' which two of the three are willing to build a fire together.

Thinking about Kallus. Thinking about the Empire. Thinking about how a fascist dictatorship can take over the minds of a population. I think more people should think about Kallus' defection the way they think about leaving high demand religions or cults. (not trying to absolve him of the shit he did, I'm just thinking things) I'm not a cult expert or anything, but if you're on tiktok I'm sure you've come across knitting cult lady, she's a cult expert who was raised in the children of god cult and she's mentioned more than once that the US military (which she was also in) is a cult, but people don't like thinking about it like that. But we grow up with all the propaganda about the army and there are recruiters going to schools and doing pull up challenges and there are ads on tv about how honorable and noble joining the military is, and how much good the military does (like technology research, paying for your education, providing jobs, benefits, etc.) to make it seem like it's a benevolent thing to do. And I have to wonder if that's what growing up on Coruscant was like. Ads every commercial break about joining the Republic's Military Academy, recruitment stations, veterans days and memorial days and military appreciation month and whatnot, and from Kallus' perspective joining the military would've been seen as honorable from the jump. Just wearing his uniform out and about for whatever reason got him "thank you for your service" and everything.

Then when you join, men shave their heads and women don't (maintains rigid gender binaries and division within the cult) and rigid body standards are maintained as well. This is something the US military does, too. It doesn’t matter how good you are at your job if you don't look the part, you'll be trimmed down until you do. There are real service members who've left the service that have confirmed as much. And think about it, when is the last time you saw a US army commercial with someone who wasn't conventionally attractive or uber thin. Controlling food is a surefire way to keep people in line, dependent on your organization, and too weak to resist. Cult shit. Worth noting that storm trooper armor is rigid. As far as we can tell, there's no way to adjust the plating, expand it, restrict it, whatever. It must be worn at the size it comes in. Which means body size must be maintained no matter what your body wants to do naturally. Also Leia's famous "aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?", could be she was just trying to antagonize, could be she meant it literally. It's also worth noting that Kallus, like the stormtroopers, wears rigid plate armor. So the people who give him an eating disorder upon his defection, or the inability to regulate his own body's needs are exactly right.

Cults also have the 'skinny-white woman' near the top of the cult. It's the female counterpart to the cults patriarchal leader (doesn't have to be skinny, doesn't have to be white, it's just an archetype). I don't think the Empire has one specifically (maybe in legends, Mara Jade? but I don't know enough about legends, so I could be wrong), but I think that it's kind of broken up into different regions or sects, or there's more than one or something. Because if you look at Lothal, there's Thrawn, who is the local patriarchal leader of the cult, and Pryce, who is the 'skinny-white woman'. She has to defer to Thrawn despite being the Governor of Lothal and Thrawn being a 'guest' so-to-speak in the region. There's also the Grand Inquisitor (patriarchal leader) and Minister Tua (skinny-white woman) and Vader (patriarchal leader) and the 7th sister (skinny-white woman) (though she does kind of share her position with the 5th brother) throughout the series. Kallus always works for the patriarchal leader, and is usually equal to the skinny-white woman in the chain of command, but ISB seems to be its own entity, so he's not quite as dependent on that hierarchy as the other imperials on Lothal, which gives him some leeway that others don't have.

As for the harm he would cause. Yeah, he caused it. No one's denying that. But in the eyes of a Coruscanti, he was still just a vet. Probably had arguments about healthcare with the VA's office, would go home and have the narrative reinforced that he was doing the honorable thing, then would go back out into the field and try to maintain that slim grasp on what he was told was good. And I think this is why a lot of people are very uncomfortable with Kallus. Because he's a veteran and we all want our veterans to be taken care of and we all grill on memorial day and so on. And we don't want to think of our neighbors, and the women who've fought for the right to serve, and the queer people who've fought for the right to serve, as just abject bad guys. Like, yeah we'll critique the military industrial complex all day long, but our vets should be taken care of. Like they weren't all killing the same people for oil. And you can get online and wax poetic about how you're actually the special-special that always saw through all the lies and you think that all vets deserve to get spit in the eye. But no, you and I both know that's not true. I mean, George Lucas has confirmed that the rebellion is the Viet Cong, a militant leftist group that fought against the empire (Americans). And my grandpa fought in Vietnam. Or was it Korea. Or both. You see, I don't even know which one. You know why? I never asked. Either way, he got 'thank you for your service' and military discounts, and respect in his community, and blah blah blah. Because all of us are either directly in the cult of the US military OR directly affected by the cults' propaganda and then to see, accent aside, a US service member be blatantly evil and then acknowledge how blatantly evil he is, repent, turn around, and betray his home world, and the military industrial complex we've all been trained to love, makes us very angry because 'hey, you're not supposed to be self-aware'.

'Well, I don't love the military industrial complex, I'm the special-special >:(' ok what have you done that's helped destroy the military industrial complex other than complain about the healthcare vets receive and try to convince people not to use fireworks on the fourth of July. You benefit from colonialism. The US military is doing all the heavy lifting of colonialism globally allowing the US and Europe to benefit from ongoing systemic neo-colonial efforts, that's why the US military's budget is so overinflated.

'Well, Kallus still committed genocide,' so did your cousin that enlisted. In Star Wars, Anakin slaughtered a village of Tuskens and Padme married him and had children with him. Then he killed all the Jedi and Alderaan and got his redemption with Luke. Kylo Ren destroyed the entire Hosnian System and then got the girl. But yeah, those guys are space wizards and that distances them from real people so we don't think too hard about them. All the bad guys look like nazi ripoffs, so they're obviously evil and they stay evil for the most part, and all the good guys were always good guys. To us, at least. Sabine created a weapon that was designed specifically to slaughter her own people and their cultural heritage but that all happened off screen, so it's just interesting backstory for later. But Kallus? From space USA, not a wizard, and his about-face happened in real time for us. He looked right at us, holding up a mirror to us and our complacency and people had viscerally negative reactions to him, because we didn't like our own reflection. His redemption is so, so, so, so fascinating. Fascinating look at the US military. At least for me, I have so much fun doing analysis like this lol

I would've loved for Rebels to get into the weeds here, but I also understand why they didn't. He was a secondary antagonist from an animated kids show on Disney XD. So, naturally, they weren't going to get that in depth, especially with the military contracts that Disney has. I don't think they were planning on redeeming him at the beginning of the show. Sometimes characters kind of, come alive in a way, and say 'nu-uh, I wouldn't do that. Give me the pen, I'll write it,' and I very much get the feeling that's what Kallus did. If they had known from the beginning that they were going to redeem him, I think his backstory would've been different, but given the limited budget, and limited time, and the fact that he wasn't a main character, you know, these things happen. Real world stuff affects what happens in the writers room, and that's a bummer. But I'm also kind of happy I get to speculate and theorize the way I do. Like I said, it's fun. Anyway, I just think he's neat. I think his redemption is neat, and it was good enough for Zeb and his people, so it's good enough for me.

anyway, be nice. i'm just riffing to riff.

[batfam-stuff-posts-0]

(Curious because I have 4 (this is my main one but I had a tumblr once before and realized putting all my obsessions in one blog doesn't really work for me))

[jojo-schmo]

How did you come up with roleswap Elfilis' design? It's really cool!

Hi! Thank you so much! :D I'd love to share my thought process! Gather round the armchair by the fireplace, friends! It's story time!

I've said before that the Forgotten Land Roleswap started off as a doodle that swapped Dedede and Bandana Dee's roles as Player 2 and the Brainwashed Beast. But when I realized how fun that one little change was, how about EVEN MORE changes? That's how my one-time doodle turned into the full AU story. I swapped Meta Knight and Kirby, Clawroline and Leongar, and Sillydillo and Gorimondo- and because the story is so Waddle-Dee centric, I promoted Dedede to "Player 1" since the stakes would be higher for him as their King.

So now I had a story that had a lot of opposite traits to canon and I wanted to explore that further! When it came to the matter of Elfilin, I thought he would probably behave too similarly towards Dedede and Meta as he did to Kirby and Bandee. He'd be friendly and trusting, communicative, optimistic, knowledgeable, and cooperative. So how about providing them a travel companion who is defensive, has trouble communicating, a little wild, uninformed about themselves and the world around them, and has a bit of a temper?

But working with all these opposite traits didn't feel in-character for Elfilin anymore. So my natural next step was to swap Elfilin with Elfilis and make a new version of the Forgotten Land's lost little pup!

Enough yapping about the context behind my decisions, tho. How'd I come up with Roleswap Elfilis' design?

I see you out there, Fecto Forgo fans. Maybe somebody out there's thought, "Roleswap Elfilis does not look like them! Why not? That's what the other 50% of the Ultimate Life Form looks like! I demand justice for the angry glowing rat fetus!"

Maybe nobody has ever thought this. But I wonder sometimes lol

Your feelings are valid, friends. Please lemme explain my reasonings.

This fella, to me, is the abandoned wet specimen left to float in a jar for who-knows-how-long after a forcible physical and mental separation via spatial teleportation shenanigans. And I think part of their appearance is due to their role as the trapped and forgotten half.

The role of the half that got away fully formed his own body and inherited some traits from the complete being-

For Elfilin in canon, he got ears that are proportionally huge compared to the rest of his body, blue eyes that sparkle with the light of a thousand destroyed planets, a tiny bit of pink fur for his adorable blushies, and a really long fluffy tail. Maybe becoming a being free of chaos gave him those sweet eyes like Kirby and the Waddle Dees have.

My reasoning is that whichever half ends up escaping the Lab and fully forming their own body, they would carry the major physical traits the other wouldn't inherit.

Anyway, that left Elfilis with the horns, colorful and expressive eyes, whiskers, beige chest fluff, opposable thumbs, and pink tummy fur.

Elfilin gets the long tail in the bodily divorce so Elfilis has a short stubby little cotton tail like a bunny. Like if he ended up with just the very tip of the Ultimate Life Form's tail.

Behold this diagram above I came up with two years ago! Disclaimer: the canon Elfilin is the one in the chart. And I draw him a little differently these days lol. I ain't showing anyone how he ended up in the Roleswap yet tho!!!! >:0

But Roleswap Elfilis is more than just "baby version of the Ultimate Life Form..."

All the differences in the Forgotten Land Roleswap from canon stem from one event in the timeline. One change that I added to the events that were already supposed to take place. It's why the Ultimate Life Form split differently. Why the Beasts have different roles and aesthetics. Even why the portal took Bandana Dee and Kirby before Meta Knight and King Dedede.

How did that saying go again? The flap of wings somewhere can influence a bunch of huge changes somewhere else down the line...? What was the name of that theory again....? Hmm. Not important, I guess.

Anyway, the end!! You sly dog, you got me monologuing!!1! /lighthearted

[fennthetalkingdog]

Dang, being nonhuman really is just like being trans, where I look back at my life and go, "Ohhhhhhhh, so THAT'S where it came from." It's easy for me to fall into the habit of thinking, "Well I just found this new label but I don't want it to infiltrate my whole life." But... it already has. All those moments pretending to be a cat on the playground, making fake "dog packs" with my friends, wrestling with my dog and laying next to her as if I was just another pup, attaching to my dog and cat stuffed animals, making dog-like noises to supplement my words, pretending I had (and still have) a tail to wag when I wanted, shaking out my "fur" and huffing just because I "liked mimicking my dog"—those were all my nonhumanity shining through. Me identifying with the nonhuman/therian label isn't an outliner, it's just the trend.