#Turning off reblog pre emptively

[neurodecadence]

If i swing a sword and I watch it go through a rat, and then the game says "no u missed tho" while the rat bites me to death, that's not skill issue, that's bad game design.

[oplishin]

what are your thoughts on patho 2 re race

i don't think you were looking for such a long response but uhhh you're getting one!!!!! smarter people have discussed this better, but i have a lot of feelings.

the good:

the broad strokes of artemy's relationship to his race: everytime i have replayed p2, i find myself surprised by how much artemy's angst resonates with me. he can fit into the broader, white culture of the Town, but that acceptance is always conditional. his friends have this "you're not like them" attitude, or they're just outright racist to him. they hate his people but like him. He's also not accepted by the Kin- he's spent too much time both in the Town and outside of it. the way elders in the community chide him is too real, haha. artemy discovering that the cultural practices he ran away from in his youth actually really, really matter to his identity is a feeling i find uhhh really relatable!!! this aspect of p2 just rings really emotionally true.

i like the way (some of) the racism is written: vlad jr is obsessed with learning about the culture of the Kin, he's even gained some trust with them, but wow, he does not give a shit about them when it comes down to it. they're an object of study to him, artifacts to collect, not actually people. andrey takes the cultural art of twyre tinctures and uses it to make a profit and to get really high. he keeps a dancing herb bride in his bar as entertainment. rubin's deal feels similar, he's learning kin traditions because of his weird weird relationship with isidor, but he hates the people. i like that foreman oyun sells out his culture, and that he hates himself so much for it.

okay. it's only downhill from here.

the bad. there's a lot:

the endings

i think the endings are cynical to the point of being unnuanced and un-interesting. the tragic mulatto trope played as straight as possible to a comically extreme degree. either almost every NPC you've met dies, or you destroy the remnants of your indigenous culture. it's just. i don't know. it wouldn't be very pathologic for this to have an actual magical solution- there isn't a magical solution in real life, the status quo just churns onward, and indigenous bodies and lives are discounted. i don't know. i don't know!

i hate that the game presents the diurnal ending as better than the nocturnal one. this is the part where my faulty memory is troublesome- i may be getting the way the fandom treats the endings mixed up with the way the game does. sorry if that's the case! the diurnal ending is bright, the town you've spent so much time saving is safe at last, all your children and friends are rebuilding their lives in interesting ways that you get to take part in. but it's fucking disgusting! the bodies and lives and culture of indigenous people are utterly discounted. this includes artemy, who's doomed to forever try to fit into white society, to never be able to pass on his cultural traditions, who just has to let himself die. the only person who mourns is a dying Aspity, who was one of the last people to carry on and teach tradition anyways. it's terrible.

i,, honestly do not remember much of the nocturnal ending, and a lot of went over my head when i played it. the majority of people read the nocturnal ending as "the bad ending"- all your friends die. and even though they're all super racist, you care about them, probably.

whyyyyyy are the indigenous characters written Like That????

it is fucking embarrassing that 26/29 of the Bound are white. i cannot believe this did not change with 14 years of hindsight post p1. well, the game did add nara, and she deserves her own paragraph!!!! wow, lucky her!!!!!!!!! the kin are so fucking underrepresented within the major characters. the white characters are given complex, differing perspectives about the nature of government, spirituality, morality and guilt. pathologic 2 writes the Kin as a mystical, esoteric hivemind. the non-diversity in the perspectives within the Kin was always something that bothered me, even when I was 15. They do not feel like a real, breathing living group of people. minority groups are not monoliths. i think the game wants to represent them as a collectivist culture, but is too racist to know that people within collectivist cultures uhhh have opinions about things.

p2's racism is just slightly more subtle than p1's, to the point where my stupid fucking 15 year old self didn't pick up on it as much. but god, it also asks the incredible question "what if racist stereotypes were true? wouldn't that sort of justify mass genocide? isn't the diurnal ending just as valid as the nocturnal ending?"

so much justification for the white characters' racism within the fandom comes from "but the indigenous characters did [x] bad thing! but their culture is misogynist!" which 1) fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you 2) someone made the active choice to write the indigenous characters like this. now why would they do this??

the misogyny

god i fucking hate the herb brides. i know that the fandom has tried to reclaim them in interesting ways. i just really cannot. why are these dancers all soft and curvy in the correct ways? why do their clothes fall off to look like they're wearing raggedy skimpy swimsuits? why are gamers soooo horny?? i'm. i cannot! i can't. this game has an asian women fetish. no thanks!

this brings me to the nara thing, which, okay. i'm about to get really mean!!! nara is this demure, docile, exotically sexy lady who's totally cool with giving up her agency artemy and being killed by him because the game has deemed it necessary. sorry, i do not care abotu the diegetic reasons for this. there's a dream sequence where her sexy sillohuette dances in the void. why? this game has a misogyny problem! and a yellow fever problem!! so much of her dialogue is dedicated to "ohhh i'm trying to make you less uncomfortable with this, artemy :(. i'm indifferent i promise :((" she doesn't protest in her death, she just says lore at the player. i'm not happy. i find the attempts to reclaim her in fandom admirable, i'm just. disgusted! by all of it! this game owes me reparations.

[werewolf-cuddles]

I hate that every single post about Bridget inevitably turns into an argument about whether she's trans or a femboy.

Like, every single fucking time, without fail, the replies will devolve into an "anti-woke localization" circlejerk.

The fact remains that, regardless of what your personal opinion on the matter is, Bridget is officially trans in Guilty Gear Strive. This has been the canon status quo for the past 2 years.

Move the fuck on already.

[undead-mourning-dove]

god That Post is getting notes again someone kill me now. anyway 'uh, yeah, this type of fictional work which notably influences people in real life DOES do that, but that doesn't mean fiction affects reality!' isn't the ground-breaking take some of you think it is

[panstarry]

will u still continue artfight? whats going on with af

hi! yes, i will still be continuing to participate in art fight. no, the event is not over.

just to start off: i joined art fight as a user in 2016, was hired as a chat & site mod on february 2018, and resigned in march 2022. my resignation was due to the fact that at the time, i could no longer keep up with mod responsibilities while juggling school, work, and extracurricular activities.

right now, there's been staff resignations across the server/site for multiple reasons. i'm erring on the side of caution at the moment and will let further announcements disclose exactly why. nobody, former or current, is calling for boycotts. and personally, i'm of the opinion that referring to what's happening right now as a "strike" is inaccurate. you can continue working on your attacks and participating in the current event. every one of us loves art fight and would like to see it continue and have also worked to make sure that users are able to enjoy it as well. i would advise against donating to the site until the dust settles.

there's a lot of misinformation and out-of-context messages going around right now. please take these with a grain of salt: i saw a couple docs and screenshots going around with outdated or straight up incorrect information (for some reason i saw mentions of a data breach going around? there is no data breach, i don't know where people are even getting that from. furthermore, there is no "ceo of artfight". art fight is not a corporation or a company, so this language, to me, does not properly describe what's happening rn)

i'm not sure what can be disclosed to the public aside from this ^ so please hang tight, be excellent to each other, so on & so forth. thank you <3

[vaspider]

Pre-emptively turning off reblogs because people haven't been able to behave.

Pride has always been about standing up to bullies.

[callioclops]

Woah, a pinned post

Figured I may as well start using Tumblr as an actual blog rather than a promotional tool for streaming that I no longer do and letting it just sit here and occasionally reblog something funny from my friends, so I'm making a introduction post.

Hi, I'm Calliope or Callie for short. I'm an autistic trans woman and I use she/her. My primary interests include structural analysis of TV and anime, and getting way too deep into the mechanics of various video games inevitably resulting in an attempt to flawlessly optimise whatever it is I'm meant to be doing. As you can imagine this draws me to roguelikes a lot, but also fighting games, RPGs, etc.

If you fall under any of these groups kindly fuck off: Homophobes, TERFs and other transphobes, and honestly just as a general catch-all if you harbour a hatred for any group of people for no reason besides their appearance or the way they refer to themselves.

Quick pre-emptive Q&A:

Why do you have anon asks turned off? - Simple answer is that I don't want anon hate. I think if you want to be mean to someone online you can at least have the courage to stand by what you said without hiding behind a circle with sunglasses. If you want to send an ask but don't want it to be public that it's you, put "[/p]" somewhere in the ask. If you aren't being hateful I'll respect your want to be anonymous. Obviously I'll still know but that's the best I can give.

What TV shows/anime do you usually talk about? - That's very dependant on what I'm watching at any given time. I'll try to keep this up to date (no promises) with what I'm currently interested in. At the time of writing (23/12/23) the two main ones are Rick & Morty and My Hero Academia. These two specifically I have heard are a turn off for a lot of people due to the fandoms, personally I don't really interact in that space.

What posts can I expect? - Probably not that many in all honesty. I'm writing this at 11pm and it's entirely possible that I'll just forget about this for weeks on end. But if I am to post it will likely be short rants about any of the above mentioned media. Either talks about specific episodes of a show or mechanical intricacies of video games. I like to imagine that it will be educational in a way that is completely incomprehensible in an academic capacity.

Why a cyclops? - Initially, I was attempting to 'transition' my online persona at the same time as I was transitioning in real life and wanted a pun or portmanteau based on my new name. Callioclops was the only one I could think of and I stuck with it. Over time though it really grew on me, I had design ideas for an icon (Thanks to @caeruluspirit for the profile image), I really just became engrossed in cyclopes and monocular creatures in general. I think part of this fascination also stems from an irl friend who has depth perception issues and once tried to explain it to me by saying "The sky is in front of the trees." I've been thining about that every so often ever since.

So yeah, I'm going to try and be a bit more active on here. Share a piece of my autism with a wider audience. If that interests you stick around, if not then by all means keep on moving.

[literallyjustmyventaccount]

I am pre-emptively terrified of the reactions of others to anything I say ✨✨✨✨

In other words, I should turn reblogs off on my main. That way there's less terror.

God I hate my life sometimes. I always feel like a rabbit on the brink of a heart attack.

[frankhightower]

Seriously considering Bluesky now

For a while now, I've been observing what I call the Twitter Exodus, watching the "goodbye" tweets to see what everyone is jumping to. Bluesky seems to be what most people have settled on (which I find hard to take seriously because... how can you just rip off the creators of Ice Age and get away with it? Threads at least had a somewhat original name!) Many people have pre-emptively identified their last straw as Twitter becoming a wholly paid service -- i.e.: tweet button becoming disabled because you haven't paid your membership fee. This happened yesterday in The Philippines and New Zealand, which I can only guess were chosen as guinea pigs for being a very poor and a very rich country, respectively. The stated reason: “It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots,” says Musk. Not to again draw comparisons with Facebook, but when they rolled out a similar test trying to control disinformation during the 2016 election, they chose Mumbai and Westphalia, if memory serves; not whole countries! I had been reticent to jump on Bluesky because, as you can tell, I have trouble handling the social media accounts I already have! They all work slightly differently: on Twitter, replying to a tweet means the algorithm won't even bother with what you said; but Tumblr, reblogging to continue the thread-equivalent is just common courtesy; while on Instagram, there's just no such thing! FA has-built in prev and next buttons for this purpose while DA seems to expect you to create a new gallery for every storyline (but since they also don't allow gallery folders, practically no one does it!) Reddit wants self-contained posts that fit its subreddits (so linking to the last page in the series is a no-no, readers will just have to remember it) and no one uses Ko-fi as social media seriously. Not to mention that making my old art internet-ready (which is what I'm doing to bring my instagram "up to date") feels like a chore. But most of all, the crushing realization that Mastodon doesn't have Quote Retweets (or rather, that the servers that have them are few and far between) was horrible for me. At my last count, anything on Twitter gets buried after about 10 minutes, and people usually scroll through Twitter for about 30 at a time. My work around has been scheduled Quote Retweets 5 times a day (approximately the times most people are online). Not having it on Mastodon hasn't turned out to be that big a problem since Toots seem to "live" a few hours, like in Ye Olde Twitter. But I fear that, with all the people who say they've "moved to Bluesky", I'll have the same problem... but with no solution this time.

Posted using PostyBirb

[pink-squirrel]

Important thread worth sharing - also turning off reblogs out of respect for op.

[symptoms-syndrome]

I'm too lazy to try and find sources to back this up, esp considering the state of pop psych about both of these things right now, but I could've sworn that like. Hyperfixation was primarily (but not exclusively) associated w ADHD, and was like. Isolated incidents vs special interest being primarily (but not exclusively) associated w autism and a longer term thing? And hyperfixations are widely varied but a SpIn would be more singular/limited?

Example being. A day where you spend 6 hours in a Wikipedia hole reading about welding despite not having previous interest in it but being intently focused (even tho u might never be interested in welding again) would be a hyperfixation. And being primarily/solely interested in like. Fabrics and learning all about the manufacture and materials and history n shit since you were like 10 would be a special interest.

Like words are fake n everything and I think there's flexibility in what I just described but also I feel like these are both just being watered down to mean "interest" or "passion." Like I'm being a judgemental asshole here but I don't think 15 diff fandoms can ALL be a special interest/hyperfixation nor do I think something you're into for like. A week would be considered a special interest. Like I think some of y'all are just fandom nerds and like things and that's like. Literally fine like I can also be a fandom nerd and also like things. I think it's a square:rectangle type thing sometimes.

IDK this is speculation but I think some people are either thinking they have to label something as a hyperfixation/SpIn to validate their belief in their autism/ADHD and/or thinking that being interested in something or passionate about something means you have autism/ADHD. IIRC I don't even think you need to have circumscribed interests to have autism/ADHD I think they're just a v common thing.

Bc sometimes I'm looking at what ppl are talking about re:these two things and I'm like. Are we talking about the same thing here.

[veeranger]

i really wish popular indie vtubers would get better fucking material than really low hanging fruit sex jokes on twitter. it’s driving me crazy. i’ve unfollowed like all of them because i can’t fucking take it anymore.

[cool-jpgs-of-wizards-with-swords]

I understand the importance of queer self defense, especially in cultures like those of the united states where guns are ubiquitous. But if you take claim to take emergency preparedness seriously and carry a gun without having first aid training I'm not gonna get along with you super good.

[viewmonster-deactivated20230122]

i gotta learn to stop making posts on here publicly complaining about the way people act on this site because sooner or later some asshole finds it and reblogs it making fun of me starting a chain reaction of more assholes making fun of me

[kember-writes]

*＊✿❀ Kember's 400 Follower Celebration - CLOSED ❀✿＊*

Oof, boy. Well, here we are again. I have more Tumblr followers than Facebook friends, which is neat. I still haven't recovered my energy from the 200 celebration, but since I didn't do anything for 300, I want to mark this occasion somehow. Let you know that you're all appreciated and I'm very grateful that you pay attention to my ramblings :)

But, on the note of having limited energy... you guys are going to be doing some of the work here, because I love you so much >:) It's kind of a raffle, it's kind of a fest, and hopefully it's kind of fun too! The rules are, hm, not as simple as usual, so let's go over them:

Step 1 — You send a ❀ to my inbox

You can do this as many times as you like until the celebration closes! That'll be on the 27th February at 3pm GMT.

But, you CAN'T do it anonymously. I need to know who you are!

Step 2 — I answer with a randomly-generated pairing and trope mash-up

So, yeah, there's gonna be some wild ones. Make of that what you will.

Characters may come from any era. There's a good chance they won't be a common, or even unusual, pairing. BUT - I will try to match up characters from the same era, to pre-emptively avoid that kind of ickiness.

For the sake of my sanity, I've only included characters mentally and emotionally capable of maintaining a relationship with a human, so no dragons, no house elves, and no giant spiders will be coming out of my hat. Also the sorting hat doesn't count because I say so. He's a gaslighter. Nagini also does not count because while she may have been an Asian woman in a past life, she is now a snake and that's poor representation.

Step 3 — You respond with a fic prompt based on that

There'll be a cut-off for this - I'll only be taking prompts back until the 6th March at 3pm GMT (again).

Your prompt can be anything you like, from a one-sentence description to an in-depth scenario with accompanying Pinterest vision board and Spotify playlist.

You'll be limited to returning one prompt per ask, to keep things somewhat tame - but as mentioned, you can ask as many times as you like.

Remember to @ my username (@kember-writes) in your response to make sure I see it - I'll reblog them all, so if I haven't reblogged yours, let me know!

Step 4 — When they're all in, I pick the best one and it gets written up as a full-length* fic!

This'll be announced on the 13th March at... yeah, you guessed it, 3pm GMT.

*Full-length referring to something under 10k words, so no multi-chapters.

And the better you know me, the more you'll be able to play this game to your advantage...

Of course, if your prompt doesn't get chosen (or even if it does), you're more than welcome to write it yourself! I'll be claiming no ownership of them.

So to summarise those all-important dates:

Sunday 27th February - I stop taking asks

Sunday 6th March - I stop taking prompts

Sunday 13th March - the winner is revealed

And in the spirit of healthy competition - good luck, and don't fuck it up! I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Mutuals my beloveds below the cut :)

@0theyoutubewhore0 @accio-marauders-bullshit @acciorxses @aeridi0nis @andromedas-star @annie-x-o @ardentlychaotic @astranix @ben-barnes-enthusiast @billsfangearring @blitheringmcgonagall @carolinesalvawhore @chaoticregulusstan @chiechie97 @couldibeanymorechaotic @dead-james-potter @definitelyamarauder @de-sire-blog @dragonsandbeans @dreamyremu @dykesiriusblack @emmacata @enbysiriusblack @exilesblack @gayremus @graceful--chaos @greyeyedmonster-18 @gryffindorsong @howlingpadfoots @impishtubist @iwishiwassiriusblack @jamespotterinskirts @jegulus-trash @jeguluswhore @kismet-ly @lilgaywolf @lostmykeysie @lotta-soup @min-blogg @mischiefhasbeenmanaged @mollymarymarie @moth-rothko @myloser @nymphadorathebubba @officialyobsessedwithmoony @padfoot-supremacy @padgayfoot @pinesconemaybe @problemmarshall

[risottoromance]

Clingy ej!!

Thanks for the request, anon! I really had fun writing this one, so I hope you enjoy <3

...

“Giiiii,” EJ whined, pressing his body up against his girlfriend’s, “I don’t want you to leave me.”

The couple sat waiting on a bench outside of the Salt Lake City airport, sharing an ice-cream and passing the time together before the call for Gina to board her flight. Despite the blue sky and pleasant feeling warm sunshine on his face, EJ felt gloomy. It wasn’t his first time seeing her off for a few weeks, but since Ashlyn was going to Montreal with her parents this vacation, and his own parents were booked in for a spa retreat, he could just feel the pre-emptive loneliness creeping up on him.

Gina grabbed the cone from his hands, giving it a lick, “I’m sorry, Eej. I promise we’ll FaceTime every day, and you’ve got my hoodie to snuggle while I’m gone, right?”

He groaned, moving to lie down and bury his head in her lap. She ran a hand through his tousled hair. He had just started growing it out, but it had already snuck down past his ears, the ends clipping the nape of his neck. 

“It’s not the same- and I’m pretty sure your clothes won’t fit me anyway, even though we are practically the same height,” he joked.

She giggled, tracing his jaw absentmindedly with her thumb. He gazed up at her adoringly, his green eyes glinting in the sunlight.

“I know. I just really miss my mom, y’know?”

EJ hummed quietly in acknowledgement, taking hold of her hand and pressing it to his lips. After a few moments he pulled away, letting her continue to card through his hair.

“I’m sure she misses you too. You guys are going to have an amazing time together… Just remember to call me?”

Gina started to respond, but was interrupted by her alarm, a song from Wicked, blaring from her phone.

“Oh, that’s my cue to head inside.”

She made to stand up, but found herself being pulled into an embrace instead. Laughing, EJ wrapped his arms around her waist, preventing her from standing.

“Don’t goooo,” he moaned.

Gina turned to face him, cupping his face and pressing a quick kiss to his lips, leaving him temporarily dazed enough to loosen his hug.

Picking up her familiar, pink suitcase by the handle, she pulled away and began to walk towards the set of automatic doors behind them.

“Behave, Caswell. I’ll call you as soon as I’ve landed, ok?”

He blew her an air kiss and she pretended to catch it.

“I’m missing you already,” he whispered as she disappeared from his vision.

And he really was.

...

Thanks for requesting- kind comments and reblogs are much appreciated <3