#a queston of research

[raenparade]

Thoughts on Undertale - 01/12/22

I was 15 when Undertale was released into the world. An RPG by the now-legendary Toby Fox that promises you the ability to complete the game without hurting a fly. Or a frog. Or any monster living in The Underground. I’ll admit to putting hundreds of hours into my various Pokémon save files throughout my childhood, and even more after Undertale’s release. Honestly that’s about as much RPG experience as I’d had until that point, but it still made Undertale’s message resonate with me quite a lot.

In Undertale, you do not need to hurt anyone. You’re initially encouraged to talk to your foe when thrust into a familiar-looking battle screen, and if you play it like I did, you never even click on the ‘Fight’ button. This is just an encouragement, however, you can slaughter to your heart’s content - and this is definitely a slaughter. Whenever I play video games, especially those that rely on player choices, I just can’t be mean! I stand my case and try to be fair in any judgements, but being actively mean genuinely makes me feel sick. 

I do find the way Toby presented Undertale’s mechanics extremely interesting, though. In Pokémon, for example, you don’t cause any death per se, the Pokémon faint. You can revive them easily enough, and this is just part of the world! I know in other RPG’s that this isn’t given much thought, the creatures, good or bad, don’t have much of an aftereffect when their health bar drops to zero. Your choices in Undertale are baked into the game’s code, with no real way to escape them. This isn’t explicitly stated, but does make for some pretty funny reactions when people realise they’re not going to be so easily forgiven for going back on a mistake. 

As an example, you meet a character called Flowey when you first start. He is, unsurprisingly, a flower. He beckons you, promising to explain how things work. Instead, he tries to kill you, and berates you for being so trusting. Luckily, you’re quickly rescued by the kind pseudo-goat lady, Toriel (her name being a pun on tutorial). From the very beginning Toby is telling the player to not get too comfortable with the game, their expectations solidified by previous games will serve them little purpose here. At the end of the first chapter, you are forced into a fight with Toriel, who doesn’t wish for you to leave the ruins she calls home in an attempt to spare your life from the horrors to come. Talking to her won’t work, despite that being all she told you to do to everyone else you encountered thus far. If you decide to fight her and succeed, she stays dead. She can be spared and will let you go, so long as you promise to never return. When you leave the ruins, Flowey appears again, berating you further, based on your choices up to that point.

Something interesting happens if you kill Toriel, but reload a save and choose to spare her.

Flowey remembers what you’ve done, and calls you out on it. 

While this never happened to me, because I refused to fight Toriel, I’ve seen plenty of videos of other players reacting to this, and honestly the reactions are priceless. It really does shake people to their core when something - saving - which we all think of as a typical game mechanic - is used against us and remembered. As dramatic as it sounds, it’s a bit chilling! The whole game is like this, in various ways, and there’s a lot of different endings between the two extremes. No matter what road you go down, all of this is built upon very nicely, although how satisfying it is depends on how much mercy you show to those you meet. 

In an interview with NPR, Toby Fox said how originally, the player had to kill Toriel to progress, but this was quickly changed. He also describes the game Shin Megami Tensei as an inspiration, specifically in terms of ‘pacifism’ within the game's mechanics and narrative. This led to the battle system of the game being the foundation of the story and themes. While some may think Undertale’s message is pretty black and white, I really like it since it’s playing to people’s expectations of how mechanics in RPGs work. It makes you more aware of your actions and thoughtful in your approach. Of course I don’t think anyone who plays these games is a ruthless killer, but Toby was able to very cleverly subvert the expectations of millions, which in turn has led to an explosion of fan-generated works, from fanfiction to fangames.

Irish Youtuber John Walsh, mostly known from his channel ‘Super Eyepatch Wolf’ released a video at the end of 2020 titled ‘What the Internet did to Undertale’ - describing how from the release of the game, fanworks simply exploded, to a point where they were almost indistinguishable from what they originated from. Despite mentioning Toby Fox’s fears about how big Undertale got, nowhere in the video does Walsh bemoan or demean those who’ve taken Undertale and made it their own. Especially as a lot of these creatives are, or were children when they started. This ties back to something I mentioned in my previous post, about using preestablished tropes, themes or media to build upon, like a creative scaffolding. Undertale really is a perfect example of this. While some call it cringey, if it wasn’t for Toby’s initial desire to subvert, a lot of people wouldn’t have developed themselves creatively! I almost feel like it answers my question pretty perfectly.

I often feel bad about relying on other people or things to use as a catalyst for my creativity, and I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever be able to make something on my own. Maybe not literally, but something that is mine - I think I can do this with my project I’m set to start next year, although ADHD-induced time blindness makes it a shaky concept to perceive. Thinking about how much Undertale gave in itself, and inspired in others makes me feel a bit better about what inspires me most days.

[crevicedwelling]

Queston: where do you source your isopods? I'm researching into keeping them, and I know I have some in my yard/backyard I could use, but, IDK about if that's a good idea or not.

buy online, at reptile shows (I like to see the stock in hand, helps judge if the sellers are informed and if the animal are worth buying), but nearly half my stock are descended from yard/backyard/local wild caught animals! in Northeastern US, all large land isopods are European invasives, so I do not see any issues with collecting as many as I want. wild isopods carry slight risks of having diseases, but otherwise acclimate perfectly into captivity. keep an eye out for odd color mutants!

if you’re in the native range of isopods you’d like to keep, I’d advise you to do more research on if collecting that species is ethical. most species people commonly encounter are very widespread and not in any peril, but there’s always the chance you’re in the Florida Keys or a little village in Spain where there are endangered local endemic isopods, so I feel like I’ve got to mention that.

[winged-wolf987]

a reminder to the alterhuman community, people who are not alterhuman and people who are questoning beaing alter human

quadrobics does not make you a alterhuman

having gear does not make you a alterhuman

alterhumans know they are humans

alterhumans don't act like animals 24/7

alterhumans have jobs/life's that aren't linked to alterhumanity

alterhumans don't need to know their alterhuman identity of their kintype immediately. discovering your self takes time so don't panic if you don't know yet it can take weeks mouths or even years to know if you alterhuman. alterhumans are people who identify as and animal on a non-physical level with urges and shifts (but you don't need to shift to be alterhuman). take your time and do PROPER RESEARCH before labelling/calling yourself alter humans or with any other label's

the journey of discovery is long and hard and can seem imposable sometimes but you will seek answers and know about yourself although it might not be what your looking for/seeking/expecting but it will be worth it in the end

[croissantbae]

June 4, 2023

1.  Today was a wonderful Sunday (as usual).  We went to costco and Johnny asked if folks wanted to get lunch.  We all vacillated trying to choose options and ultimately ended up inviting people to our place.  Gave the kids miyukgook and ordered Bodega Park.  Then we all just hung out for hours talking while the kids played (and eventually fought /bickered lol.  That’s when you begin to know kids need naps / some space).  Jason planned a little gardening activity for the kids so that they could plant a seed.  It was really sweet/cute. 

2.  It’s happened.  After everyone left, Naya was just talking as Jason and I were cleaning, cooking.  And she says something about how someone killed someone on accident.  And I was like, wait naya say that again?  And she said that at school someone told her that someone had a gun and killed someone on accident.  I was like who told you that?  And she said her friend Sella (Sella is a little older than Naya and I noticed Sella has an older sister so I am guessing they are just actually conscious of that stuff).  I honestly wasn’t sure how to react.  And I said well, we don’t have any guns in this house so you don’t have to worry.  And Naya was like, yeah we don’t have guns in this world.  And I just repeated, we don’t have guns in this head (but thinking ugh. we have lots and lots of guns in this world).  Jason and I were kind of like uhhhhhh.  I think we really need to think about how we talk to our kids about this topic and other difficult topics like climate change, just death in general, violence, etc.  3 going on 4 and talking about gun violence. 

3.  I went to a mamamoo concert w/ my friend and coworker joan. And it honestly made me really glad that I went to a mamamoo concert specifically (over any other korean band).  Because I truly feel like they’re a little bit different and special.  I noticed there was a gay person sitting next to us and during the performance we saw that the rapper was getting a looooottt of love from the audience.  so as we were leaving my friend researched if moonbyul is gay and it seems like she is.  She seems to be pretty out (or I guess as out as you can be in Korea) and has a song out where it features two women lovers.  Anyway I just feel like their personalities are more unique.  Even like the light sticks that they passed out to everyone was a moo (radish), which was just funny to see everyone holding up a moo.  

My uber rides to and from were so weird.  On the car ride to meet Joan, the driver was talking about how he lives in Los Feliz and there are so many gay people in the area so he always warns his sons to be careful.  He was talking about it so much I started to feel like I was being punked.  And after watching Jury Duty I started to queston whether I was seriously being filmed and I was supposed to react.  He was talking about how they’d see two men walkign on the street with one walking the other with a collar around his neck, wearing hot pants.  I was like ....?? and then at a red light he showed me a pic of his 3 sons andI was like oh they’re beautiful.  and he was like yeah that’s why I have to tell them not to talk to strange men.  I was just like oh my god.... what is going on. 

Then on the uber ride home, the guy was kind of weird but I was like whatever.  Then he asked me how the concert was (I told him about it) and I said it was nice, I have two kids so its rare to be able to go to a concert but it was good.  and menitoned my husband is watching the kids.  and he was like oh yeah of course they’ll listen to him.  kids will listen to /obey men because they’re closer to god.  I was like uhhhh I’m not going to agree with that.  and he laughed.  and I was like because god is a female. and he was like haha why? I was like uhhh b/c life comes from women?  We give birth to life.  and he was like yeah but what’s the spark that creates that life? and i said just this teeny tiny thing.  and he was like oh come on.  and then he was saying kids will be loud and rambunctious and then when he comes into a room they’ll be quiet.  and its because men are close to god (like closer to the form of god I’m guessing).  and in my mind I was just like what you’re describing is fear and there’s a difference.  But didn’t say it because I was like my god just get me out of here. 

[yanche]

Since you seem to be genuenly asking for a perspective allow me to yap here for a moment.

>so the scene just before labyrinth where Maria is talking to James from the locked room. she says "It doesn't matter who I am." and we both kind of ran with that. I took it to mean that James didn't really love Mary.

Personally, I interpret it differently. I'm inclined to think of it as Maria's own struggle with her identity. I'll get into why I think this later.

>but is there an argument to be made that James didn't love Mary at all?

Of course there is and the strongest one is that you don't kill someone you love. And honestly? Valid. But on the other hand, you also don't kill yourself over someone you don't love. And you don't go on a creepy island to do some cursed ressurection ritual and re-enact Pet Sematary ending over someone you don't love. James says he'd do anything to be with Mary again, he researched medical books while she was ill for her, he says he got nothing without her, he always carries her photo around. So is it fair to say he didn't love her at all?

>he "loved" her as "woman". as "wife". but was she ever her own person in his eyes? we never hear about her hobbies. her interests. her personal quirks. she is just Mary.

Actually, we kinda do...

>in the eyes of James, "his Mary" could be any woman. a cookie cutter wife for him to latch onto.

Yet he rejects Maria, someone who is literally perfect and exists solely for him, specifically because she is not Mary. And Maria is as close to Mary as anyone can get!

except maria ending

>this links hand in hand with his sexual frustration and the way some of the monsters are portrayed.

With "his sexual frustration" that isn't canon btw and is instead a fan theory that has lost it's relevance over the years. See this post.

>the mannequins beings two pairs of legs glued together with no face. simplifying a woman down to what he considers to be the most important part of them.

Personally, I always interpreted the Mannequins as Mary's legs kicking James while he smothered her (judging by how they attack) but it doesn't matter since we're both kind of wrong:

>the nurses, also with no facial expression, being dressed so provocatively and shaped almost pornographically feminine.

Again, see the post I linked. There is no deep meaning behind their sexualized appearance.

Now to Maria's "it doesn't matter who I am": The tragedy of Maria's character is that she is a Silent Hill creation that is self-aware. In "Born from a wish" she struggles to accept the truth about what she is and cuts Earnest off when he mentions it. Still we can tell she knows, she just doesn't want to admit it until a certain point in the game. The name "Maria" she gave to herself and she knows it's fake. She knows she is nobody. All she has is broken pieces of someone else's memories and someone else's feelings (for James and Laura). All those few pieces of identity she has come from Mary. However, interestingly enough, Maria refuses to be Mary. She makes a point of it several times. Even at the end of the game when she fully transforms into Mary on the outside she still refuses to be her. So she is not Mary, she is not "Maria", all that she knows is that she wants James' love and for that she is willing to become anything for him so it doesn't really matter who she is.

Or a more simple explanation would be is that she simply tries to stop James from questoning her

been making my brother play the silent hill 2 remake while I watch (he's like my own personal streamer bc I love game but game scary). so we've been talking about the themes and James as a character of course and I wanna explore something that i haven't seen in the discourse but something we discussed a couple nights ago. spoilers under the cut.

so the scene just before labyrinth where Maria is talking to James from the locked room. she says "It doesn't matter who I am." and we both kind of ran with that. I took it to mean that James didn't really love Mary. or, at least, Silent Hill believes he didn't. now we could say it's just the thoughts James has about himself echoing back to him. we got the leave ending first playthrough without even trying and in that he tells Mary that he killed her because he hated her. she responds by saying that's okay and it's played in a way that's I think was supposed to convey that he didn't REALLY hate her. he hated the illness. hated his life being limited. I think all of those complicated emotions can still exist even if you love someone.

but is there an argument to be made that James didn't love Mary at all? he loved who he remembered her as. he "loved" her as "woman". as "wife". but was she ever her own person in his eyes? we never hear about her hobbies. her interests. her personal quirks. she is just Mary. wife of James. even her name lends itself to banality.

that's what we took Maria to mean when she said "it doesn't matter who i am". because in the eyes of James, "his Mary" could be any woman. a cookie cutter wife for him to latch onto. this links hand in hand with his sexual frustration and the way some of the monsters are portrayed. the mannequins beings two pairs of legs glued together with no face. simplifying a woman down to what he considers to be the most important part of them. the nurses, also with no facial expression, being dressed so provocatively and shaped almost pornographically feminine.

idk i guess I see a lot of people addressing the general sexual frustration symbolism but not really digging into why his sexual frustration haunts him so much. again it could all be just a personification of how he sees HIMSELF. and we know that's not always the reality based on Angela... anyway I'm rambling!!! anyone else have this thought?

[anxiouslyextroverted]

vent that idk where to put so

honestly this is random of me to say but getting diagnosed with autism at 6 was so bad for me, like not only did it cause years and years of bullying because my mum made this huge deal about me having it to everyone, and embarassed me, and friends and family a like yelled at me for any autistic trait i showed. But it also is the reason my social skills are even more sht cuz young me (who for whatever reason was allowed to have a computer and be online at as young as 7) was like 'let me google how to not be autistic' and then now i cant even relate to other autistic people anymore because me at 7-17 had trained constantly to be aware of every autistic trait I had and now I dont even know what autistic traits I have anymore. I went to multiple autistic youth camps and I related to no one. none of my therapists ever thought I have autism, my recent therapist wants to see proof that I have it like bruh

I know it sucks to have it diagnosed later in life of course it does but I just feel liek I don't know being diagnosed with autism at a young as age can be really horrible too, it was for me at least. trained myself so much to not have any autistic traits that I accidentaly trained a way a huge part of my personality lmao. like I must sound like an asshole rn but I geneuinl find it so difficult to relate to both nt and nd people, cuz like everything most nd people I've seen do now days was stuff I did at 7-16, like all the questons and all the research. and all the stuff they are already knew is stuff I never learnt until now. and im still treated like as if i know nothing about autism ect... even though I was diagnosed with that shit at 6 like not to complain about autism culture? whatever it is i dont even know, but I feel weird when people tell me I don't know anything about autism or that I'm not autistic just because I said "I have autism" rather than "I'm autistic" like, I don't get that. I am just doing what I'm used too.

I kind of feel similar with lgbt too cuz I was like nonbinary when I was 3 tbh like Ig you could call it that because at that age I denied femininity and she/her pronouns and even being called a girl and just wanted to be called my name, and that carried on until 17 where for the first time ever I worked out the difference between girl and boy, but nowdays now everyone is being like "oh wow look a guy in a dress super cool" but I just kinda thought that was already a normal thing? like I never got the separation of male and female ever, when young me saw feminism and gender equality online, I took it litterally and believed it was girl and boy are exactly the same, so now I'm seeing twitter and tumblr talking about all this like "oh let a guy wear make up cmon its 2023" but I thought that was normal already and don't get why its a big deal and never did. like its hard to explain how I feel not saying its a bad thing though but stuff like that always confuses me. But Ig thats what happens when you're exposed it at a young age, you don't really see the culture or become apart of the culture, or understand the separation to begin with.

[serainechor]

i’ve become the token gender therapist for my friends and i’m quite happy with that ngl

[ultimatestellar]

sometimes i forget that most people dont know anything abt kirby so when i mentioned researching kirby lore to my advisor she was like “THERES KIRBY LORE??? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTONS” and i was like OH YEAH THATS NOT NORMAL

[mokeonn]

Like I kid you not, I notice this shit EVERYWHERE. It's been really bugging me.

I think I constantly worry about what's going on in America because nearly everyone I talk to, regardless of political opinion, will constantly shut down any critical or further thought. You aren't allowed to ask hard questons because that's morally wrong/means you're brainwashed/means you're a [insert opposite political party] and you believe in xyz/means you're defending a bad thing.

And the thing is, these hard questions are so simple?! They're just basic critical thinking questions?? They're just questions asking for a bit of nuance?? They're just "hey did you consider [blank]?" They're not anything radical or conspiritorial?? They're just questions to encourage further thought!!

I sometimes feel crazy because of how much I notice these things and how much they bug me. I am tired of being insulted for asking for clarification or asking questions or wanting nuance?? I'm tired of being told that because I want more information I am somehow brainwashed?

I am being very vague right now, I know, but it's hard to get into the specifics when I notice it everywhere around me. Online has become a nightmare because it feels like the recent culture of anti-intellectualism is ramped up to 11 when people feel anonymous. Offline is also a nightmare because you notice these thought terminating cliches, and you can't point them out without stopping the conversation and seeming like an argumentative person. I sometimes feel absolutely insane because I will share an opinion and the discussion gets shut down instantly because the other person will just assign me to a group I am not a part of.

I am constantly noticing these little details like dogwhistles, thought terminating cliches, anti-intellectualism, and lack of critical thinking/taking things at face value, but I'm unable to point it out without being labeled as "the enemy" regardless of my beliefs.

Idk maybe It's because I'm autistic and high masking and I spent the last 10 years researching how people communicate and how to communicate with other people. I notice these little details about what people say and the way they speak because if I don't, I am punished in some way.

Every fucking day I notice small details in the way people speak, and when I point out those details ajd what they mean, I can watch as people's faces shift from "this is an enjoyable conversation" to "this person talking to me is crazy". It makes me feel crazy!! Like, whats going on?? What am I saying wrong?? What is going on around me?! Why is everyone acting like this?! Why am I unable to encourage further thinking without being socially punished for it??

And it's only gonna get worse because I'm reading "Who's afraid of Gender" by Judith Butler and now I am picking up on the gender phantasm (and other phantasms) around me.

I read a book about the language of fanaticism, and I think it set my ability to socially interact back like a decade. I can't hold conversations anymore without going "oh hey that's a thought terminating cliche" or "oh wow that's a lot of in-group language" and wanting to point it out because it bugs me.

[buglesgirlfriday]

betty loves literature and other story telling media and though she is not formally educated she reads books, analysis and research. which means she both knows a lot of things others don't, and is missing chunks of fairly elementary stuff that someone might learn in their early years on a universities course. and as long as you don't look down on the way she educated herself she has zero shame in asking questons or explaining things, so the gaps in her knowledge is very good for pushing a conversation forward.

[geeky-politics-46]

The Asgardian Candidate

Loki/The West Wing FanFiction Crossover

Chapter 1 - “Off To The Races”

“Where did this guy even come from?! How was he not even on our radar?! It's like he appeared out of thin air. I don't even have his last name yet, & what is the deal with those stupid horns?"

Josh Lyman, the deputy chief of staff, questoned as he paced back & forth in the strategy meeting for the president's re-election campaign.

He was just as frustrated as the rest of the west wing senior staff. How could they suddenly be behind in the polls? How had this snuck up on them?

An incumbent president whose popularity was the highest of his term, was now trailing to the mysterious candidate Loki. Sure he was tall, charming, & handsome; but he was a complete newcomer to the world of politics.        

“I have no idea, but I need to know what to tell the press about our numbers. We dropped 10 points to him since he entered the race 3 days ago. They'll also be expecting confirmation on the debate schedule too." C.J. responded, nervously tapping her pen against her briefing book.

She turned to Toby & Sam hoping for any hint of an answer. Toby was slumped in his chair staring into space, seemingly in disbelief of their current standing. Sam leaned forward holding his hands to his face wheels visibly turning in his head.

"Maybe it was a bad poll? Maybe we are at least still within the margin of error?" Sam offered, grasping at any straw he could find.

"Oh well that makes me feel better, maybe we are only losing by 3-5 points overnight. It’s The Washington Post Sam, not Cosmo. Even when they’re wrong they’re not that wrong." Josh snarked back, his fists clenching in his hair.

“Donna!!!" He bellowed without even turning to the open office door "did you find anything yet? Please tell me you found something on this guy".

Donna, his assistant, quickly scurried into the room carrying a manila file folder with papers sticking out from every angle. "As a matter of fact Josh I did." Before she could even extend her arm to hand him the file Josh snatched it away & began rifling through the papers. "Your welcome" she said sarcastically before excusing herself from the office.

“Alright, let's see... Full name is Loki Laufeyson. Family includes mother & father, mother is deceased, as well as an older brother named Thor. Not seeing anything about the horns. Originally from... Asgard. That can't be right can it? Is there an Asgard, Oregon or Kentucky or something I don’t know about?”

One by one they looked at each other in confusion. "Wait, does that mean he's not a natural born citizen? Doesn't that automatically disqualify him?" Toby asked with a sudden interest in the conversation.

“Don't get your hopes up to high on that." A voice interjected from the office doorway. Leo McGarry, the president’s chief of staff, had finally arrived at the meeting. Despite having called it himself a last minute call had kept him late. He already looked exhausted leaning against the doorway of Josh’s office.

“We are now in uncharted waters people. The Supreme Court just issued a statement confirming he is qualified to run for president. Because Asgard isn't technically another country they are allowing it. The chief justice wrote the majority opinion himself. Unless or until Congress can pass an amendment declaring Asgard & the rest of these new places or planets I guess as sovereign states & they are not subject to our national laws. He can run."

The momentary hopes of the staff now dashed, they shifted in their seats & settled in for a long night of oppo research. They still had the rest of the papers from Donna’s folder to go through. They wanted to learn everything the could about this Loki Laufeyson, & the sooner the better.

As he crossed his arms against his chest & dropped his head back, Toby pondered allowed "There has to be something we can use against this guy. We just have to find it. He may be new to politics, but everyone has a past. Everyone's got a weakness."

——————————

Reclined behind his desk in his campaign office, feet up & hands clasped behind his head. Loki closed his eyes & listened to the staffers in the other room busy scuttling about. 

If he had known it would be this easy he would have run for president years ago. He smiled at the thought of the chaos he had already caused. Just a few days into joining the race for president of the United States & the polls were already turned on their head. He hardly even had to use his magic. Many people had supported or joined his campaign willingly, even excitedly. It seemed the idea of burning the current system to the ground appealled to a surprisingly large sect of voters.

If it weren't for all the menial tasks of campaigning he probably could have done it single handedly, but the God of mischief had no patience or interest in making signs or phone banking. So he would tolerate the Midgardians doing that work for him. He liked to think of them as his own little army.

Really they were more like rats, or some other form of small bothersome creature, but for the time being they were what he had to work with.

They would help him finally ascend to his throne.

A sudden knock on the door snapped him from his thoughts.

"Sir, the White House press briefing s on." a small timid girl said through the barely cracked door before quickly closing it again.

The staff had already learned not to bother Loki in his office unless it was absolutely necessary, & for the most part to only speak when spoken to. Only a select few staffers were exempt from this rule. One staffer who managed everyone else. Relaying orders & crafting policy, something Loki had very little real interest in. Also two others who handled his press requests.

Loki sat upright in his chair careful to not disturb his golden horned crown, & straightened his emerald green waistcoat & well fitted black suit jacket. His clothing immediately made him stand out from the current president, & he was meticulous about his appearance. Call it vanity if you must, but Loki knew that he was his own best advertising.

He reached for the remote & turned on the TV in the corner of the room. His smile widened as he heard the topic of discussion was already about his own candidacy.

His competitor’s press secretary was breaking the news to the press that the Supreme Court had ruled in Loki's favor. That move had required a little magical coercion, but it was a pittance to pay to eliminate his only real potential legal challenge.

He listened more intently as the woman behind the podium, C.J. (at least he thought that was her name), began to wrap up.

"President Bartlet respects the court’s decision, & maintains that he welcomes the competition. He firmly believes the American people deserve to make their own decision about our countrie’s path forward. With that I can also now confirm that the president has officially agreed to the 3 pre-scheduled debates with Mr. Laufeyson. As you know the 1st debate is set for just over 3 weeks. That's it for today guys, thanks."  With that she closed her notebook & briskly exited, leaving the press shouting questions behind her.

Loki could tell he had Bartlet's staff on pins & needles already. He could practically feel their nervousness through the screen. They were right where he wanted them.

Even the press seemed to be ever aware of Loki's larger than life presence, even when he was no where near. 

“Glorious" he whispered under his breath as his lips curled into a chesire cat grin & his green eyes flashed with a bright gold shimmer. He was going to enjoy every second of this.

[captainshyguy]

whos more tone deaf, niantic, or the vld crew 

[fae-rghus]

question: is the double venus symbol exclusively for lesbians? ive seen it symbolize same sex love between women (for both bisexual and lesbian women), but ive also heard it only symbolizes lesbian love. sorry if this is a dumb queston but im getting a lot of mixed answers in my own research

[youngeditor1999]

Do you think the Top Gun pilots would take part in the Haditha massacre?

Well, this is a random and totally out-of-nowhere ask...

I had to look up the massacre in question because I truly had no idea what it even was or who was involved.

For those like me who don't/didn't know anything about this, here is a screenshot from when I initially googled the incident:

Further research revealed that these Iraqi civilians were intentionally killed by the Marines involved.

It was a very grim read, but after figuring out what all happened, I have to answer your initial ask: I don't think that *any* of the Top Gun pilots would have been involved with this. The people that were killed that day were innocent civilians and I truly believe that all of the pilots in the movie would NEVER kill civilians.

Also, it is important to point out that the branch of the military that was involved with this massacre was the Marines and the pilots of the Top Gun movie(s) are all in the Navy.

All in all, this is a bizarre ask. While I'm not saying that the pilots are completely innocent all of the time and have done/do no wrong, I also definetly don't believe that any of them would kill (innocent!) civilians, no matter what is going on in the world or what else they think may be at risk. They would keep it professional and only go after people that they know/knew for sure were (absolutely) not aligned with them.

And finally, I didn't do a deep dive into this topic; I only pulled some basic facts and information in order to give you a timely answer. The answer to the initial queston is simply my opinion and I'm not gonna lie, I feel a bit nervous about answering this ask. 😬

But anyway!!

I stand by what I have said here and hope that this answer enlightens you in some way.

Have a great day, anon!!

[kikapucreations]

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