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astrologysbabe · 2 years

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💘✨✨💝💕💖 Venus aspects 💘✨✨💘

◾ Venus conjunct Ascendant

You have a charm and an appeal about you that others cannot resist. You draw people to you like a magnet and you have the uncanny knack of attracting anything and everything you need. You know how to tell people exactly what they want to hear, which is not always good. At times it is difficult for you to say no because you do not want to hurt anyone. Yet you do not see that many times you use people and think quite nothing of it. Remember that one day you will reap what you sow.

◾ Venus conjunct Jupiter

You are a generous, warm-hearted and open-handed person who shares every resource with others. You give of both yourself and your possessions to those whom you favor. You do not want to be limited in any way, either with your affections or with your personal possessions. You enjoy luxury and refinement and you desire to always be in comfortable, elegant surroundings. You hate having to get your hands dirty. You are charming, gracious and charitable and you are the model host or hostess. This aspect brings material good fortune, which has been earned from previous lives. If there is a negative here, then it is your tendency towards self-indulgence, over-extravagance and laziness. Sometimes things come to you so easily that you do not appreciate them. Things are most appreciated if one has to work hard for them. There may be a love of rich, sweet food as well as too much of it, hence a tendency to gain weight. You are a very gentle and social person who loves harmony, beauty and travel. There may be vulnerability through emotional, ethical or moral naivete.

◾ Venus conjunct Mars

You are extremely amorous and romantic and there are times when you find it difficult to control your passions. You seem to be a magnet to the opposite sex, regardless of whether most people would classify you as beautiful or attractive, although you may well be. You are simply fun and pleasant to be around and that is why you attract so much attention. When you are interested in someone, you tend to pursue them with all the fire within you. Of course, sometimes you come on just a little too strongly and that can cause difficulties. You have a strong desire for love and beauty and involving yourself in some type of creative activity, whether it be art, music, sculpture or poetry, would help to satisfy this inner craving. The more you channel your creativity into means such as these, the less problems you will have controlling your hormones.

This aspect brings a certain charisma and you seem to naturally draw people around you. You like to socialize and are perhaps happiest when surrounded by others. In fact, it may be hard for you to be alone in your own company. You have a great need to give and receive affection from others. Just be careful of where you place your affections. Not everyone feels the same as you do. It is sometimes difficult for you to take any relationship lightly, hence the need to be discriminating with where your heart is placed. This can be a difficult aspect at times because it tends to produce love-hate relationships with those you care about. There are hostile and affectionate feelings both at the same time towards the same person. Channel your energies into creative endeavors.

◾ Venus conjunct Neptune

You tend to be what some people call the hopeless romantic. You are very idealistic about love and romance and many times it isn't so much the case that you love someone or that you are in love with someone as it is that you are in love with love. You tend to put your loved one on a pedestal and this can bring problems because when the loved one eventually does something to "fall from grace", then huge disappointment and disillusionment set in and you are crushed. You need to stop looking at the world through rose-colored glasses and see things for how and what they really are.

There is danger of falling into the wrong type of relationship, a relationship of co-dependence. Either you or your partner may enjoy or feel obligated to play the role of martyr, victim or savior. Remember that no good relationship is unequal. Two equal partners who neither feel the need to save or be saved make the best couple.

◾ Venus conjunct Pluto

You have deep, compelling and sometimes irrational feelings of love and passion and you will not settle for a relationship that isn't intense. You are wildly passionate towards the ones you love, as well as being perhaps jealous and possessive of them as well. Whatever you feel, you want to feel it down to the deepest level of your existence. Of course this can cause problems with everyday life because no relationship can be that intense and that interesting all the time. At times you do not care whether the emotions you feel are good or bad as long as they are powerful. So agony and ecstasy are both okay with you, although you're not silly enough to prefer the agony. Well, maybe. These intense relationships, even if they do not last, have a way of transforming you and that is why you instinctively seek them out or why they seem to come to you.

You tend to have a certain emotional fanaticism about the things you care about. It's all or nothing — there are no half-way measures for you. There can be trouble through emotional excesses, misplaced passions or the loss of control of the sensual nature. Self-control and self-discipline are necessary or you may self-destruct. Channel your hormonal energies into things creative, such as art, music, poetry, sculpture, drama, etc. You must not allow yourself to become too self-indulgent or hedonistic. Feelings of jealousy, envy and possessiveness must be controlled or any relationship will be eventually destroyed. You need to develop your self-confidence so that feelings of insecurity do not drive you over the edge. All these experiences all meant to force you to reconsider and transform your values.

◾ Venus conjunct Saturn

Intimacy with another does not come easy for you. You have been hurt in the past and you are reluctant to open up to others because you fear being hurt again. It is painful to relive bad experiences and you have sort of resolved within yourself that if you do not get involved, then you won't get hurt. As Simon and Garfunkle once said, "I am a rock, I am an island". As a result of your experiences, people may think you are cold, aloof, unfeeling and uncaring. The challenge here is for you to learn to open up and warm up to people, regardless of the possible consequences. You need to remember that you cannot find true love if you are unwilling to first give love, regardless of the results. Love is not barter and you cannot expect everyone you love to love you back. That is not how it works. This aspect is trying to teach you that love is universal, all-encompassing and should be doled out with no strings attached.

You find it difficult to trust people because of past painful experiences, so it takes time for you to take down all your barriers and defenses. You perhaps feel that you are unworthy of love and you cannot think of many reasons why someone should be able to love you. But, that type of thinking is an illusion. You are entitled to as much love as the next person, but love does carry responsibilities. You are worthy of love and there is a lot to love about you, but you must change your attitudes before you can experience the truth of what I have said. People do care about you, but they will tend to leave you alone if they feel that you are trying to shut them out. Open up your emotions and take your chances. It won't kill you, unless you let it. And that would then be your fault.

So, here it is. You need to learn to value and love yourself more and to express your appreciation for others more openly. Not with material gifts, but with honest and true emotion. You have a complex emotional nature and it needs to be examined. You are very loyal and steadfast towards those you love once your emotional needs are understood and that is an admirable trait. You tend to be very serious and responsible in relationships. You may involve yourself with noticeably older or younger partners. Try to be less sensitive and more forgiving when you think a loved one has slighted you. You have a need to feel secure and if you do not, then that tends to throw you for a loop. All manner of negative emotions surface then.

You find it difficult to show love physically. Stop being such a miser with your affections as well as with your possessions. You have a stingy streak in you that does not serve you well. After all, you can't take it with you when you go. So use some of it now in order to spread a little happiness. You may have a tendency to equate having things to having security. This is another illusion. You don't really become less secure by giving away possessions. In fact, the only true wealth you have and retain is that which you give away to others. This is another lesson for you to learn. To end on the bright side, you are a reliable friend who can be trusted.

◾Venus conjunct Uranus

You are excitable, spontaneous, and easily aroused emotionally and sexually. You tend to fall in and out of love very quickly and have little self-restraint or concern for propriety when your feelings have been stirred. You are unique, a bit eccentric and unconventional and you don't mind experimenting. You love and crave excitement, especially in your emotional life. You enjoy the thrill of the chase and you split when things start to get boring. Your strong suit is not in hanging around for the long haul. You prefer non-traditional relationships, ones that give you plenty of freedom and independence as you do not like to feel tied down. You like playing the field and settling down in a permanent, one-to-one relationship may be asking too much from you. In fact, you may intentionally choose partners who are otherwise unavailable because it helps keep things from getting too close and involved. You don't like strings attached to relationships and you prefer to remain rather detached with it all.

You have a highly unusual and explosive emotional nature. You change emotionally as easily as the wind changes direction. You are troubled with the emotional ups and downs which you do not understand and you have the tendency to blame whoever is handy for your emotional lows. The crazy emotional tides which you feel are coming from within and they are because your creativity cannot find a decent outward expression. Use your wonderful creativity ability and your fine intuition in the pursuit of something artistically or musically creative. Then you won't be quite so at the mercy of your erratic emotions.

You have a lot of personal magnetism and sex appeal. Others find you very alluring, exciting and interesting. Being restless by nature, travel would be good for you as it would give you an opportunity to satisfy your curiosity and your wanderlust. Change is necessary for you and one way or another your life will be filled with it. In general, you do not care what people think of you or the ways in which you relate to the world and to others. You will do what you want. You need to exercise self-control over your sensual nature.

◾ Venus sextile Ascendant; Venus Trine Ascendant

You are cheerful, fun-loving, charming, easy-going and have a pleasant personality. You love beauty and harmony and you are happiest when things are going smoothly. You do not like discord and you do not go out of your way to make waves. You may have artistic talent.

◾ Venus sextile Jupiter; Venus trine Jupiter

You are a generous, warm-hearted and open-handed person who shares every resource with others. You give of both yourself and your possessions to those whom you favor, although you will rarely put yourself out too much in order to do so. You enjoy luxury and refinement and you desire to always be in comfortable, elegant surroundings. You hate having to get your hands dirty. You are charming, gracious and charitable and you are the model host or hostess. This aspect brings material good fortune, which has been earned from previous lives. If there is a negative here, then it is your tendency towards self-indulgence, over-extravagance and laziness. Sometimes things come to you so easily that you do not appreciate them. Things are most appreciated if one has to work hard for them. There may be a love of rich, sweet food as well as too much of it, hence a tendency to gain weight. You are a very gentle and social person who loves harmony, beauty and travel. Be careful not to take things too much for granted or take the easy way out.

◾ Venus trine Mars; Venus sextile Mars

You are warmly romantic and openly express your affection, appreciation and love of the opposite sex, though rarely in a crude or insensitive manner. You seem to be a magnet to the opposite sex, regardless of whether most people would classify you as beautiful or attractive, although you may well be. You are simply fun and pleasant to be around and that is why you attract so much attention. You have sex appeal and others like and appreciate your easy-going emotional nature. You like getting people together and if it were up to you, you would have the whole world paired off, living happily ever after.

You have a strong desire for love and beauty and involving yourself in some type of creative activity, whether it be art, music, sculpture or poetry, would help to satisfy this inner craving. This aspect brings a certain charisma and you seem to naturally draw people around you. You like to socialize and are happiest when surrounded by others. You have a great need to give and receive affection from others. You are warm and demonstrative in your affection for others. You are very much alive and others find this very appealing. Fulfillment and harmony in love is likely for you because you know what you want and need in a romantic sense and you express those desires honestly and openly. You have no hidden agendas. You are a non-combative individual who likes peace and serenity. You put a lot of energy into your emotions.

◾ Venus sextile Neptune; Venus trine Neptune

You are a sensitive person with a lot of artistic imagination and a flair for creating beautiful things or environments. You find peace in listening to good music and many times it will be the catalyst for your trips of fantasy. You are romantic and would like to have a story-book kind of life where you live in bliss with your one and only soulmate. These are indeed high ideals, but it's okay for you to dream because at the same time you are dreaming, you are able to keep your feet on the ground and not get carried away by it all. You are compassionate and seek to help others who are in need. You are a natural "giver" and it makes you happy to serve. You want what's best for all concerned and you do not have a problem with your ego getting in the way. You find it difficult to be too assertive as you like peace and harmony, without making waves. You are capable of great sacrifice for those you love and you do not necessarily need to be recognized for that or receive anything in return. You have a mystical side to you and you like being around artistic or mystical people. Church music stirs your soul and is as a breath of fresh air from your true home, the heaven worlds. You may have real talent with music or singing. You are devoted and devotional. You generally root for the underdog and can sometimes be a sucker for a sob story. You will attract people in this lifetime who will help you continue the soul growth you started in previous lives.

◾Venus sextile Pluto; Venus trine Pluto

You put everything you have into your emotions. Because you feel and love so deeply, so passionately and wholeheartedly, others may find your intensity either extremely attractive or very threatening. You are charismatic, with sex appeal and a certain amount of animal magnetism which can't help but be noticed by the opposite sex. You have the ability to use your attractiveness and charm to manipulate others, oftentimes without even realizing it. This aspect gives you the opportunity to transform your values or to be the catalyst to help others transform theirs. There is artistic ability along with a desire to create beauty, harmony and comfort. You have an understanding and an empathy for the problems of others and you are always looking for ways in which to help them or at least find the good that is in them.

◾Venus trine Saturn; Venus sextile Saturn

You are loyal and steadfast in matters of love and affection. The feelings of others are a serious matter to you and you don't play games with people's affections. Fidelity is highly valued and you don't want to settle for less. Security plays an important part in your life and you have a fine enough opinion about yourself and your own self-worth that problems with insecurity don't cause you much aggravation or upset. Still, you are somewhat reserved in showing your affections as you want to be sure you can trust whomever you are involved with. Your tastes and needs are simple and although you appreciate beauty and luxury, you do not need every luxury and convenience in the world in order to be happy. A person's character and inner nature matter more to you than their appearance. Casual or superficial relationships are not what you want and you aren't looking for them. You understand that the best kind of love takes time to develop and real love only gets better, deeper and more satisfying with age. The friendships you form are generally solid and long-lasting. Stability of emotions is one of your hallmarks. You have an innate sense of duty and responsibility towards your loved ones. Self-control is relatively easy for you to practice. You wouldn't be considered a party animal as your outlook on life is a little more serious and reserved than that. Still, others appreciate the fine qualities you have spent lifetimes developing. You have an inborn strength and courage to face life's difficulties.

◾ Venus sextile Uranus; Venus trine Uranus

You are very creative, intuitive, original, outspoken, and open in thought and emotion. You have a magnetic charm and sex appeal that attracts others to you. You enjoy surprises and anything that provides excitement to your life, including your relationships. You are independent and want a good deal of personal freedom in your involvements with others. Your ideas about love and romance are open and progressive and you are willing to try almost anything. You make and are drawn into unusual friendships with unusual sorts of people. Many people come and go into and out of your life and they are all there to test or challenge your values and your ability to change and to be flexible. They somehow fill unique needs within you. Same with friends — they come, but they go out of your life when they no longer fulfill a need. You have quite unusual ways of looking at things and you always seem to come up with clever solutions to the problems that are presented to you. Things happen to you quite suddenly, very much out of the blue. You cannot anticipate these events, you can only merely react to them. This is particularly true with love relationships. You will constantly receive exciting, unusual and unexpected events in your life which are of considerable assistance in your achieving both personal and soul growth.

◾ Venus opposite Ascendant; Venus square Ascendant

You seem to need the approval of others in order to feel good about yourself. You may lack self-assurance and self-confidence. You attract things you need with virtually no effort on your part. You like to be with warm, sociable people. You have a charming and pleasant personality but you may be insincere. There is also a tendency to take things for granted and to be somewhat lazy at times.

◾ Venus opposite Jupiter; Venus square Jupiter

There are many possibilities with this aspect. Perhaps you will try to have a relationship with one who has completely different interests than you. Perhaps your devotion to some pet cause is annoying to the one who is nearest and dearest to you. Or you may be financially wasteful or extravagant, or perhaps bombastic in your appearance. There are tendencies here for self-indulgence and over-extravagance and your love or cravings for rich, sweet food can cause you trouble with your health in the form of circulation and weight problems due to excess. Perhaps you do not value what you own because it has all come too easily. Maybe you never really had to work all that hard to accumulate it, since you seem to have the ability to effortlessly attract most everything you need. The challenge here is to balance your desires for material things with your desires for philosophic ideals. Your values will be called into question and you may need to rearrange your priorities. You have an expansive emotional nature and you have the tendency to become involved with that type of love that is commonly referred to as "blind" love. Perhaps your feelings of love are motivated by considerations of money, property or social status.

But in spite of all that is said above, you are basically a warm-hearted and generous person who will come to the aid of friends if they are in need. People know they can count on your emotional and material help without your judging them in the process. You tolerate and accept other people's shortcomings and this goes a long way in keeping harmony, which is something that is really important to you and necessary for your well-being. At times, though, you avoid confronting difficult issues because you don't want to make waves or upset people's feelings. At times you need to be more self-assertive, though, not only because it is right to stand up for your beliefs but also because your needs have to met in order for you to retain a healthy balance. You are a lover of social situations and you like to be surrounded by people. You know how to handle people and still be liked. Being alone with yourself makes you somewhat uncomfortable. You need to learn self-restraint.

◾ Venus opposite Mars; Venus square Mars

Amongst various possible tendencies are these: Your need to satisfy your own desires before considering other people's needs causes anger and frustration. You suppress your own desires in order to maintain peace, which causes internal conflict within you. Sex and love can cause problems because either you run hot and cold alternately, or you don't know the difference between the two or perhaps you simply have love-hate types of relationships. Your high sex drive can lead you to squander your creative force through sexual excess and sensuality. Perhaps you "fall" into love easily with whoever pays you the slightest bit of attention and affection.

You are intensely amorous and attractive to the opposite sex and are not inclined to simple, friendly platonic relationships. There is a lot of tension in your love life because you often put your own needs ahead of your partner's or you are impatient when it comes to having your own needs met. You tend to run hot and cold in your relationships. If your partner is hot to trot, then you are not, and when you are ready for action, then your partner is not in the mood. You probably find yourself releasing your "hate" through verbal or physical fights when there are differences of opinion with your partner and after your hostility is released, then you once again feel "love" for that person. Of course, while your emotions might be back to normal, you partner is still trying to figure out just what happened and what hit them. You are ready to go again, but they are not and you can't understand why. This can create a great deal of frustration and disappointment that you do not easily shrug off because you cannot understand what the other person's "problem" is. If you are not in a love relationship, then you want to be in one and if you are, then you don't want to be. Your emotions are not stable and you have problems dealing with them. You are indecisive and your values and standards of behavior change from one moment to the next. You need to learn how to compromise with others so that your anger does not erupt when you do not get your way. Blowing off steam is fine, and perhaps you need to buy yourself a punching bag so you can spar with it when you are upset, but it is not right to use other people, especially loved ones, as verbal punching bags or as objects of your assault tactics. Additionally, you need to overcome your feelings of love and hate toward the people you care about.

◾ Venus opposite Neptune; Venus square Neptune

Another facet of this aspect is that you may have such an ideal mate built up in your own imagination that no real person could ever come close to your fantasy. You may spend your entire lifetime looking for Mr. or Ms. Perfect such that you miss Mr. or Ms. Right. You become very disillusioned when you discover that no real, flesh-and-blood person ever quite lives up to your dream image of the perfect mate. Come down to earth and realize that no one is perfect and there are no white knights ready to come dashing along to save you. Stop the dreaming but don't give up the dream. Although you frequently fantasize about love and romance, you may avoid becoming intimately involved with anyone or making definite commitments. You can be evasive and dishonest with yourself and others when it comes to love.

You are a sensitive person who enjoys the finer, aesthetic things in life. You desire harmony and beauty and are probably attracted to the arts in some way, either painting, music, dance, theater or drama. You are perhaps attracted to those with artistic or mystical inclinations. There is a certain charm about you that others find unworldly. The unusual and the intuitive, the sensual and the explorative appeal to you. You are insecure in matters of love. Simply remember that you have human frailty, but do the best you can as that is all the Universe asks of you. Recognize, too, that human weakness exists even in those you love. Sometimes others cannot live up to your expectations, which may be quite unrealistic at times. You may be unrealistic in matters of love. You may believe that if someone loves you enough that they can read your mind. This will set you up for many disappointments because that is just not true. You need to tell people what you want and how you feel. They cannot read your mind no matter how much they love and care about you.

You need to transform your material values into spiritual values and to turn personal desires into universal desires. Personal property and possessions may disappear in strange, mysterious ways in order to teach you that material possessions are easily replaced and therefore are of limited value. The only thing you can take with you when you die are your spiritual and personal growth, your experiences. You need to learn to love without expecting love in return. You must learn to forgive and thus release inner resentments. You need to learn how to turn the other cheek while not becoming a doormat for all to walk on. One last thing, do not turn to drugs or alcohol when you feel sorrow or when you feel like escaping from the world. Life must be faced head-on if you are to get anywhere and resorting to drugs or alcohol will only make things much worse.

◾ Venus opposite Pluto; Venus square Pluto

You are drawn to powerful and compelling emotional and sexual attractions and experiences that you may feel you have little choice or control over. You crave intensity and these incidents provide you with the opportunity to satisfy your wanton desires. You feel an overwhelming need for love and you may be emotionally or sexually greedy, insatiable, obsessive or compulsive. You tend to be very jealous of and possessive of the objects of your desires and although you keep tight reins on your partners, you do not want them to question or control you in any way. This makes for very one-sided types of relationships. You need to become aware that your jealous and possessive traits will drive away those you profess to love. Power struggles are likely in your relationships as you want to wear the pants, yet you continually attract that same sort of person for a partner. Your love life is passionate and often explosive and painful, but you don't seem to mind because the intensity helps make you feel that you are alive.

The challenge here is to transform your values. Important psychological problems are being worked out because of and through your relationships with others. Because of this you may attract people and friends who act destructively towards you. The reason this happens is because these people are mirroring the same type of acts you yourself have done in former lives. You are now reaping what you have sown previously. You are being given the chance to wipe your slate clean if you do not respond to evil with evil. Release all thoughts of revenge and learn to turn the other cheek. When your debts are paid and your lessons are learned, then destructive people will no longer be part of your life. This aspect shows a readiness on your part to atone for past mistakes and cruelties.

In matters of health, this aspect tends to interfere with the magnetic forces in the veins and prevents proper drainage of toxins and waste material from the tissues. It can also hinder the filtering process in the kidneys. This leads to improper cleansing of the blood, with the result that toxins and waste material seek exit through the lungs and skin in the form of lung congestions and skin eruptions. The spiritual lesson here is to let go of ill feelings (emotional toxins) and forgive (elimination, transformation), rather than trying to get even or seeking revenge.

On the positive side, you do have the emotional power and unusual creativity to bring about beneficial and healing changes into the lives of others if you can focus on other's needs instead of your own.

◾ Venus opposite Saturn; Venus square Saturn

Your emotional development may have been delayed or it may simply be inadequate. You find it difficult to be warm and loving towards people because you have been hurt in the past and you fear it may happen again. You are stingy with material resources and with affection. You believe that everything must be earned and paid for — there are no free lunches. Because you find it difficult to express your feelings, you tend to show people how you feel by buying them gifts as a substitute for you and your feelings. If they reject your gift, then this is easier to take than if they reject you. Though you crave love and affection, intimacy is difficult for you. You have a shallow opinion of yourself and your own worth and talents. You do not understand why anyone could possibly love you. You feel that you are unlovable. This is something you need to strongly work on as your life will continue to be miserable if you do not learn to change your attitude. You are as worthy of love as anyone else, but you must come to realize that for yourself. Do not let past experiences govern your actions and feelings for the rest of your life.

You are a serious and reserved person who appears to others as cold, aloof, unfeeling and uncaring. You are not necessarily these things, it's just that you are very cautious in letting anyone see the real you or in letting people get close to you. You want to love and be loved, but you find this very difficult. You need to remember that you first have to give love to get love. And you can't buy real love. It doesn't work that way. You find it difficult to enjoy yourself in a light-hearted, open and playful way. You understand work, duty and responsibility a lot better than you understand feelings, affection and love. Rarely do you do anything for pleasure. If something involves work or getting something done, then that is pleasure for you. Other people do not understand that about you. There are times, though, when you procrastinate and put off attending to necessities with the result that duties tend to pile up. You need to learn how to balance the seriousness with life and the enjoyment of life.

You may become romantically involved with people who do not value you or treat you well. You need to learn to love and value yourself before you will find happiness in love. Security is very important to you, yet you do not know how to feel secure. Your fear of loss, of money, property, loved ones, etc., makes you very insecure. This negativity colors all your relationships for the worse. You must learn how to trust again. You must learn how to face your fears, even if it is painful. This is the only way you will ever overcome them.

You have the tendency to lose your faith and your optimism when life presents problems with which you must cope. It's fine to have a well-developed sense of responsibility, but you must also learn to trust in divine wisdom which has attracted these difficulties to you to help you develop personal and soul growth. You better than most can understand that the purpose of life is not happiness, but experience. Yet that does not mean you have to live your entire life feeling miserable. You may feel lonely, but this is because you are unwilling or unable to see that people really do love you. As I have mentioned previously, the problem may lie in your own opinion of yourself. You must first become a loving person yourself in order to attract love.

You may become defensive about expressing your real likes and dislikes for fear of being criticized or put down. You may have a jealous and possessive streak in you such that when you are in a relationship, you do anything and everything in your power to try to hold on to what you have. Of course this makes your partner feel as though they are in prison and they will try to escape the first chance they get, which is what you are fearful of in the first place. You must realize that you can never hold on to anything that doesn't want to be held on to. Love is free and there should be no contingencies placed upon it. You need to accept the difficulties you experience in life as spiritual lessons. These lessons are attempting to help you establish better values.

◾ Venus opposite Uranus; Venus square Uranus

You are excitable, spontaneous, and easily aroused emotionally and sexually. You crave emotional excitement and you tend to fall in and out of love very quickly, having little self-restraint or concern for propriety when your feelings have been stirred. Relationships begin with sudden, electric attraction, but they often end abruptly. You are unique, a bit eccentric and unconventional in your tastes and you don't mind experimenting. You love adventure, especially in your emotional life. You enjoy the thrill of the chase and you split when things start to get boring. You tend to be faithless in love — your strong suit is not in hanging around for the long haul. You prefer non-traditional relationships, ones that give you plenty of freedom and independence as you do not like to feel tied down. You like playing the field and settling down in a permanent, one-to-one relationship may be asking too much from you. In fact, you may intentionally choose partners who are otherwise unavailable because it helps keep things from getting too close and involved. You don't like strings attached to relationships and you prefer to remain rather detached with it all. There is the possibility of clandestine relationships.

You have a highly unusual and explosive emotional nature. You are temperamental and change emotionally as easily as the wind changes direction. You are troubled with the emotional ups and downs which you don't understand and you have the tendency to blame whoever is handy for your emotional lows. The crazy emotional tides which you feel are coming from within and they are because your creativity cannot find a decent outward expression. Use your wonderful creativity ability and your fine intuition in the pursuit of something artistically or musically creative. Then you won't be quite so at the mercy of your erratic emotions.

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mikefaistinfo · 4 months

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West Side Story’s Mike Faist Wishes He Got to Sing ‘America’

By Nate Jones, a Vulture senior writer covering movies and pop culture

From the very first trailers for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, one character popped off the screen — the scraggly John Mulaney lookalike playing Riff, leader of the Jets. Without taking anything away from Russ Tamblyn’s jovial performance in the 1961 film, this new Riff is something different. He’s a true street rat, almost feral with a live-wire charisma. Since the film started screening, viewers and critics alike have been asking: Who is this guy?

That guy is 29-year-old Broadway veteran Mike Faist, whom theater buffs will recognize as one of the newsies in Newsies as well as the depressed teen whose death kick-started the plot of Dear Evan Hansen. (Faist got nominated for a Tony but declined to reprise the role for the movie — a wise decision in retrospect.) West Side Story is his 14th screen credit but his first major film role, and it’s a true breakout performance: Alongside Ariana DeBose’s Anita, Faist’s Riff has been spotlighted as one of the best things about the new film, the personification of Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner’s more historically grounded take on the material.

The praise is a long time coming for Faist, who shot West Side Story back in the summer of 2019. As he told Vulture over Zoom recently, he’s spent the intervening months looking for projects that would live up to the experience, living that #VanLife, and thinking about what he actually wants to get out of acting.

In the most recent interview I read, you’d left New York and were living out of a van.

The pandemic did a lot of weird things to everybody. I was working in Austin when everything shut down. They were going to send us back to New York. I’m in Austin. I have all this space, the sunshine. I’m not going to go back to New York and just hang out in my apartment during a pandemic. So I had my dog, and we drove around the country a bunch. I would purposefully stay away from people. I would find people that had farmland. They were nice enough to let me set up a tent. I actually sold my apartment in New York this summer. Got rid of it.

This is maybe a heavy question for early in the interview, but what did you learn about yourself from that experience?

I didn’t know that I liked being alone. I think it’s important to really get quiet. I lived in New York for 13 years. And when you’re here, it’s just like constant adrenaline. Which I love. But I think when you’re here, you don’t realize the toll that it takes until you leave it.

In that interview, you also said you weren’t sure if you hated acting or loved it. That was six months ago — have you come closer to an answer?

I’m embarrassed by this because everyone’s asking. It’s so strange. I don’t know, man. Ultimately, the issue really was that I had come off shooting West Side Story, which was such an incredible experience artistically. It was everything I wanted to do as an actor in terms of how I wanted to approach the work, what I demanded out of myself. And then I had to leave. Jumping into the next project wasn’t a negative experience. But one was such a fulfilling thing, and the other one, I was going to work.

So I was thinking, To what end do I do this? Ultimately, what am I trying to get out of this thing? Do I really need attention that bad? What are the things that I really want to do? Because if it’s just to go from job to job — which is a gift, so I’m not trying to knock it. But it was more just asking myself all these questions about what my goal was. And ultimately, I came to the conclusion recently that I love it. I love it too much, maybe to a fault. I’m a little precious about the craft of it all. I’m learning not to take myself too seriously. Enjoy it, let things come when they come.

You shot West Side Story two and a half years ago. What’s it like watching it after all this time?

It’s so weird. All that time was passing, and there was this thing floating there in the ether. And eventually, maybe the world was going to see it. I remember calling Steven over the pandemic, and I said, “For me, if nobody saw the movie, it wouldn’t matter because the experience was amazing.” Then you go and see the film for the first time, and you’re in a theater with only five people, and you’re just like, Huh.

How so?

In that initial screening, I wasn’t able to relive the experience of making it. You can’t help but watch yourself, and you can’t help but critique. While I was making the film, I felt like I was giving it everything that I had. And then when I saw the film, I was like, Oh, buddy, maybe you need to go find a different job. We’ve all talked about it as a cast. We drove home back to the hotel, and we were all like, “It’s a good movie. But man, I’m bad.” And everyone else was like, “No, you are great, I’m bad.” And I think Steven and Tony sensed that we were all too close to it to actually see what was going on. So they invited us back for another screening. The second time around, I was like, Stop being such an egomaniac and just watch the movie. And being able to remove myself more, I thought it was a great movie. But still, it was an entire theater with four people. At the premiere, I realized why it’s very important to have a collective experience of going to the theater. There’s something about communal experiences that allow you to see aspects of art that you wouldn’t necessarily experience if you were by yourself. And that’s the same thing for when you’re performing onstage in front of an audience. We’re all co-creators in this thing that’s happening right now.

I know the Bruce Davidson portraits of 1950s Brooklyn gang members were a key bit of inspiration for you. What struck you about those photos?

When I saw those photos, I knew that these were the guys. These are the Jets, visually, for me. I’m not trying to knock any production of West Side in the past, but there felt like there was maybe something missing — a certain groundedness, a seriousness or desperateness, that I started understanding as I was doing research. I think that pops off the page with Bruce’s photos. You see these guys, and they’re emaciated, they’re nihilistic, they just don’t care. You can tell that they cannot see what’s beyond tomorrow. And then as you do more research, you find out they’re all orphans. None of these people have families; the only family that they have is each other. And then on top of that, too, they’re heroin addicts. They’re broke. At the end of the day, they would pool money, and instead of really eating, they would just buy wine and get wasted. They just feel so lost.

Tony Kushner also does a good job of making the Jets the embodiment of 1950s white resentment. I’m curious how you approach that element of the character.

Can you elaborate on that a little bit more?

Sure. I mean the way they’re a community that sees people moving in from Puerto Rico and feels like they are an existential threat. They act out in ways that are, to modern eyes, quite racist. But obviously, it still gets at the fact that these are desperate orphans.

Where Tony really nails that, and Steven as well, is the setup of the film. The opening shot, where you see the demolition of all these homes so that Lincoln Center can get built. Everybody’s getting kicked out. It’s like the only thing constant is change. And that’s why this story’s going to be able to be told over and over again. Humans’ inability to deal with change, that’s what makes this story super fascinating to me.

It’s an interesting thing. There are racist acts that happen in this movie. Are the Jets racist? I don’t know. I couldn’t approach that from my point of view: being the actor, trying to empathize with this character who’s doing these really questionable things.

Because you’d be putting a judgement on it?

Yeah. I can’t do that as the actor. My job is to be like, “No, this guy’s the victim.” Now, I accept that this guy does a lot of racist stuff. But where it’s coming from is the xenophobia of it all. It’s the fear of the unknown. And from Riff’s point of view specifically, his home’s getting taken away. His best friend doesn’t want to be his best friend anymore. It comes down to this weird codependent relationship between Tony and Riff. I keep joking that it’s like Thanksgiving. Tony’s a guy who wants to not be that way anymore, but he’s still trying to be loving and have a conversation. But Riff doesn’t have the emotional intelligence to understand that.

Some productions of Romeo and Juliet add a romantic subtext to the relationship between Romeo and Mercutio. Was that something you guys were playing around with as well?

Romantic?

I mean, Riff is sleeping with Tony’s ex. I was wondering if there’s a little transference there.

I think it says something more about Graziella: She has to be with whoever’s the alpha at that moment. I’m not sure if it is romantic. If an audience member wants to interpret it that way, go ahead. That’s fine. But for me, I keep going back to the familial kind of love. Tony and Riff raised each other because there was no one else. They were their only line of defense. It spread out among other guys, but it all started within these two. Which is what we see in gangs, right? You don’t have a family, well, we got you. We will do this for you, but you have to do this for us. You don’t have power in that situation, but you feel accepted.

The new movie shuffles around the musical numbers in terms of who gets to sing what. Is there a song you wish you could sing, even if it doesn’t make sense for Riff?

I mean, “America” is amazing. Those dancers are incredible, man. They’re absolutely amazing. I would love to be in that number. I think all the Jet boys got a little FOMO from that one.

One thing that I and many others who’ve seen the movie have noted is your remarkable resemblance to John Mulaney in this film. Is that something you got before West Side Story, or is it Riff specific?

No, you’re not the first person to say that. People have come up to me and been like, “You ever get that you look like John Mulaney?” It’s fun. It would be fun to see John Mulaney as Riff in West Side Story, though.

He’s got the limbs for it.

For sure. He’s definitely got the nothing-but-arms-and-legs thing going on, like myself.

You said you’re trying to be a little more intentional about where you go from here. What’re the ideal next few years for you?

Tony used the word “stewardship.” And that’s very accurate. We had a deep respect for this story and the legends that have told it in the past. I feel like I have a great responsibility here to do this right. And on top of that, to tackle roles that force me to find the pieces of myself that I didn’t know existed.

What part of yourself did you find here?

I was reading this interview from a while back where Tom Hanks and Steven were talking about Saving Private Ryan. And Tom said there was this weird thing that Steven subliminally did in terms of, you have to step up and take charge of the group. I felt that way too. It wasn’t ever explicitly said. It was just an energy thing he was putting out there, like, “You know what you’ve got to do.” I’m in charge of 15 other guys. Some of them have done some movies, and others this was their first time, they’ve never done this before. I guess what I had learned was that I’m able to do that. I demanded of them. When it was time to have fun, it was time to have fun. And when it was time to shut up and do the thing, it was time to shut up and do the thing. And they ran with that. We did this thing together. They elevated me, and I elevated them.

Find this article on: https://www.vulture.com/2021/12/west-side-story-riff-actor-mike-faist-interview.html

#mike faist #interview #2021

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zwy01 · 6 months

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Noble OCs - Blerster

Making five OCs for every clan!

Ai Blerster: Non-pureblood. Alive in the present day, belongs to Raskreia’s generation.

Ai proudly calls herself a scientist. Well, she’s impressed with her advanced creations even though she isn’t an advocate for what they actually do. Thanks to Ai’s curiosity and ambition, she ends up developing a dangerous poison which can be broadly labeled as a “love potion” if all negative side effects are ignored. If someone gives this love poison to whom they desire and have unrequited love for, the recipient would return those feelings at the eventual cost of their own sanity. The gimmick is memory manipulation. It works by replacing the people in the target’s most cherished and impactful memories with the one who feeds them the poison. This process is so seamless that the victim doesn’t even notice that their memories have been tampered with. The effects of this potion aren’t permanent, though. It becomes unstable in about a century or so and if the antidote isn’t administered by that point, the “authentic” memories resurface and clash with the artificial ones and immense pain follows. Ai is amazed and horrified at the same time. It works, but it’s cursed. Damn, she only wanted to make a prank potion that has the other person burp out pink heart-shaped cloud puffs. Turns out she has the potential to be a real villain if she wants to. Ai hands this love poison to the nobles’ equivalent of forensic scientists for them to study memory manipulation in crime. It’ll be extremely helpful for evidence examination and analyzation. Thank goodness Ai is on their side and supports criminal justice or else they’ll be in quite some trouble. She does successfully develop her ideal prank potion though. That’s the most important part. Her partner thinks it’s amusing. Ai’s hobby is collecting lollipop wrappers, flattening and smoothing them, and putting them in a special photo album.

Venus Blerster: Pureblood. Entered forced eternal sleep, belonged to Gejutel’s generation.

Venus was a strange and unpredictable person. Throughout her lifetime, she oscillated between praising blissful life and lamenting how existence is inherently pain and torture. It was almost as if she had two completely different personalities, and no know knew what triggered her to switch from one to the other. She could be twirling around with her arms wide open as she’s passionately singing about how beautiful the world is, and one minute later she’s sobbing violently as she’s mercilessly destroying every single flower in her garden and apologizing to them for forcing them to grow in this miserable place. The frequency of Venus’ personality changes were just as unpredictable as the things she did. Sometimes she switched personalities once every five minutes, sometimes she remained in one for decades which made people wonder if she was finally “settling down” for good. Then they would be proven wrong when she switched again. Rinse and repeat. Her erratic nature did not hinder her charisma from manifesting. Venus had many friends who embraced her for who she was. One of them was the previous Previous Lord. Venus’ greatest challenge in life was understanding the true meaning of love. There were countless definitions that were distinct from each other yet vaguely overlapped at times and that bothered Venus immensely. The inconsistency and lack of a single uniform definition drove her mad. She was certain that there is one that underlies them all. And there was a reason behind why she desired an answer so badly. Venus was aware of her personality changes and despite living with and mostly being used to it, she was miserable from experiencing countless ups and downs. Ascending into the heavens then crashing down into hell in a perpetual cycle drove her mad. At first she tested love for friends. Not quite. Then she tried love for significant others. Didn’t cure her. Then she moved onto love for family. Turns out a child couldn’t fill the hole in her soul either. The Previous Lord was the product and victim of Venus’ experiments. She tried her best to be a good mother, but her son ended up being more like a parental figure to her than she ever was to him. Venus continued to be a mess as her son took care of her without complaint. One faithful day, she seemingly found the answer to her struggles. Self love. To her, the only way to achieve that was to leave this world for an eternal paradise. She can finally be free from pain. She felt sorry for her son, but she loved him very much, so she couldn’t leave him alone. They could be together forever, she thought. Venus prepared a juice mix and offered some to her son. Unbeknownst to him, it was laced with a lethal poison. Venus had intended to take him out with her. She cradled her little boy in her arms as both of them closed their eyes. It was nothing less than a miracle that the nobles were able to find the Lord’s heir in time and save him from being at death’s door. But it was too late for his beloved mother. Before Venus died, her hobby was cultivating blue roses.

Imhotep Blerster: Non-pureblood. Alive in the present day, belongs to Raskreia’s generation.

Imhotep is Nefertiti’s older twin. He’s one of the calmest people out there and his deep voice is very soothing. Those who feel agitated and desire sleep for the sake of tranquility can hire him to show up at their homes and read books to them. Imhotep used to be part of the Central Order as one of the Knights who reads daily reports out loud but he got fired because his colleagues kept drifting off whenever he spoke. They were very nice about kicking him out, though. It’s not his fault, he just has some irresistible type of superpower. Currently, Imhotep works as a therapist for friends and couples. While he is aware that love can’t fix everything, he remains hopeful that it can improve lives if people communicated better. He does his best to help his clients heal with each other if there’s still love left in rocky friendships and strained romantic relationships. If nobles are going to live for so long, might as well try to not hate each other forever in case something goes wrong. Imhotep can make even the most aggressive people feel at ease in his presence. The actual therapy part is arguably easier than trying to get people to come into his office in the first place. Some are too proud to admit that they need help, some are scared of facing their problems despite wanting change, others simply don’t want a third party involved in their business. Imhotep just patiently waits for them to make up their minds. In the meantime, his hobby is keeping supernatural bees and collecting their delicious honey. The honey comes in all sorts of colors and flavors depending on the flowers he offers to them. The bees are very smart and can communicate with Imhotep. They understand his words and love following him around and hanging out in his hair. People sometimes mistake them for hair accessories until they start moving. Imhotep makes sweet hot beverages with the honey he collects.

Nefertiti Blerster: Non-pureblood. Alive in the present day, belongs to Raskreia’s generation.

Nefertiti is Imhotep’s younger twin. Like her brother, she is friendly and wants to help people. Currently, she works as a therapist for families. Her office is right next to Imhotep’s as they opened their therapy center together as siblings. Nefertiti used to be a member of the Central Order too except she didn’t leave because she got fired. She quit being a Knight to support her brother as soon as she learned about him getting kicked out. If he can’t be there, then she won’t be there either. The twins decided to work together because they share a common interest in improving society through using love to rekindle broken bonds. In Nefertiti’s case, she focuses on the love found between parents and children and between siblings. It would sadden her to see family members attempt to strangle each other when there are less extreme options available. Sometimes it’s inevitable as certain people are hopeless, but might as well give it an honest shot before resorting to violence. If they’re going to fight, they can do it outside. Unlike Imhotep, Nefertiti won’t tolerate chaos inside her office. She doesn’t have her brother’s magical soothing voice so she can’t get overreacting clients to calm down easily. Instead, she makes them all wear “peace bracelets” when they come in, which are special artifacts that temporarily prevent extreme fluctuations in mood. If you accidentally destroy her vase, she might as well blast a hole in your forehead with an arrow. Just kidding, Nefertiti won’t actually do that. She’s going to think about it, though. Be careful, she’s the less patient twin even though both of them are usually very nice.

Euphranor Blerster: Pureblood. Alive in the present day, belongs to the Previous Lord’s generation.

Euphranor is vibrant and energetic. He used to live in Lukedonia with his partner until the latter suggested that maybe it’s better if they get a new life elsewhere in the world. Although the change of mind was so sudden it seemed out of place, Euphranor nonetheless supported his partner’s idea and both of them moved to the human world. It’d be nice to switch up the pace of things, he thought. Besides, he had always wanted to do something more fun and exciting even if he isn’t the type to voice such desires. He’s glad that someone else brought it up first. Within a week, the two of them said goodbye to Lukedonia and started traveling around the world. Currently, they live somewhere in the United States and Euphranor is having the time of his life as a wedding photographer. Weddings do bring out the weirdest people after all. It’s lively, the music is great, the drama is fun to watch, dancing is cool, and the cake tastes pretty nice too. He can even bring home some yummy leftovers. Euphranor thinks humans are cute and appreciates their enthusiasm for life. In a way, he finds the relatively short human lifespan to be very romantic because they celebrate even the smallest of milestones that most nobles usually ignore. Wedding anniversaries, birthdays, passing exams, getting a driver’s license, baby taking first steps, stuff that maybe aren’t worth remembering… the nobles can learn from it, eh? Perhaps it’ll make them less stoic if they practiced gratitude a bit more. If Euphranor ever visits home, he’s definitely going to bring that up to everyone except his partner isn’t exactly too keen on the idea for unknown reasons yet again. Maybe one day. Euphranor enjoys watching overly dramatic reality dating shows even though he knows they’re pretty much staged for views. He’s gonna need more popcorn!

Thank you for reading! Kertia is next!

#noblesse #manhwa #myart #oc #original character #ai blerster #venus blerster #imhotep blerster #nefertiti blerster #euphranor blerster

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rainmustfallts4 · 14 days

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Westfall Orphanage Challenge (the sims 4)

◇ Introduction

Another challenge I wrote over a year ago. This has been found and edited before being posted to this blog. There are two different ways to play, so feel free to play whichever way suits you best or, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can try both paths!

This challenge is all about Westfall Orphanage (or whatever you would like to name your own.) You either take on the role of caretaker or orphan, tackling a list of goals that will move you toward a better and brighter future.

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◇ Choose Your Path

Path 1

You are a child sim growing up in the orphanage with six other kids. You never knew your parents and you’ve been here since the day you were born. You’ve seen kids come and go. You’ve seen the orphanage change owners many times, most of whom never cared about the children. You no longer care about being adopted. No, you’re determined to make your own path in life and support yourself!

Earn and maintain an A in both elementary and high school.

As a child, become a scout and earn every badge. Complete your aspiration.

As a teen, reach the top of a part-time career and after school activity. Graduate early.

Keep track of the money you make from your job and complete the voidcritter collection with your own money.

Max one social skill (charisma, comedy, mischief, etc.)

Max one hobby skill (painting, guitar, writing, etc.)

Reach level 5 in two life skills (cooking, baking, knitting, etc.)

Get two character values within range (either positive or negative.)

You may only leave the lot on Saturdays and Sundays. Curfew is 9:00 PM.

Sneak out at least once as a teenager.

As soon as you become a young adult, move out of the orphanage with the money you earned.

Apply for and get accepted into university.

If you want to play option 2 with this sim, graduate university with an economics or psychology degree then move back in as caretaker of the orphanage.

Path 2

You’re a young adult that has inherited an orphanage from your late grandparent. Before they died, you promised you would take over for them and do your best to raise the children living there, providing a good life for them until they either get adopted or grow up. Though you aren’t entirely excited about this life change, you’re determined to keep your promise.

Max cooking skill.

Max baking skill.

Max parenting skill.

Max handiness skill.

Must have a work from home job.

You may only leave the lot on Saturdays and Sundays.

Have a good relationship (middle bar or higher) with all kids.

Scold children when they misbehave.

Praise children when they behave.

Always bake a cake for the kids on their birthday.

Take the kids to at least one festival.

Do not accept any invites to dates, parties, hangouts, etc.

Influence them to do their homework, take care of themselves and do chores.

Keep the orphanage clean and repair all broken objects.

Cook meals for them every day (the kitchen should be locked for everyone but you, keep them fed!)

You must have each child reach young adult and move out. It’s your choice if you want to add more children in or end the challenge.

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◇ Choose Your Difficulty

Casual: 2 children, 5 teen, $20,000 starting funds, aging off.

Medium: 1 toddler, 2 children, 4 teens, $15,000 starting funds, long lifespan.

Hard: 1 infant, 2 toddlers, 3 children, 1 teen, $10,000 starting funds, normal lifespan.

Extreme: 3 infants, 4 toddlers, $5,000 starting funds, short lifespan.

Custom: choose your own combination.

Fate: roll the dice and let fate decide.

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◇ Additional Guidelines

Control only your own sim. You can check the other sim’s needs and inventory, but you can not order them to do anything.

You can build your own orphanage or find one on the gallery. You don’t have to use your starting funds toward this.

You can not hire a butler or a maid, but you can hire a gardener.

The sim you control can have whatever traits you like. The others must be randomized three times.

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◇ So you like points, huh?

Casual; +1000

Medium; +2000

Hard; +3000

Extreme; +5000

Custom; +500

Fate; +1000

Each skill over 5; +1000

Each skill at 10; +2000

Earning a degree (option 1); +2000

Completing the challenge (option 1); +1500

Completing the challenge (option 2); +2000

Each time the power is shut off; -500

Each time a child is taken; -500

Each time an item is repo’d; -500

Each time an item is repaired; +500

Every A in school; +500 each (1000 for both middle and high school)

Every B in school; +300 each (600 for both middle and high school)

Every D in school; -100 each (-200 for both middle and high school)

Every F in school; -200 each (-400 for both middle and high school)

Every character trait earned; +250

Every enemy made; +100

Every friendship made; +150

Having more than 15,000 at the end; +1000

Having less than 15,000 at the end; +500

+5000 for playing the challenge, I hope you had fun! c:

Share your stories and results with the hashtag #westfallorphanage!

#challenges i made #challenges to do #westfallorphanage #the sims 4 challenge #sims 4 challenge #the sims 4 #ts4 #sims 4 #simblr #the sims community #sims 4 community #the sims 4 simblr #sims 4 gameplay

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latermarks · 10 days

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September 3rd 2010 Smackdown

I love this plot that’s going on with Kane and Undertaker. Kane knows how to yap and it’s totally wild. He will just fucking yap for like 15-20 minutes and it’s actually just monologue status crazy town USA. But compared to nowadays, it’s cool to see the undertaker going at it! I had never heard em even pull a promo but now he comes out and it takes him 40 minutes to get a sentence out. Great great! Some sort of major announcement is coming during this.

Also something I’ve noticed is that… holy shit these edits put some fancams to shame dude. What were they doing back then? They had passion. But oh my god, I feel like I am going to have a seizure sometimes. The pyro or the introductions are absolutely unhinged.

NOTE: I will be skipping everything related to Alberto Del Rio because he’s a piece of shit :) byeeee bitch

Drew McIntyre is here and I love it! We love this shithead. He’s such a nasty boy at all times and we love to see it. He’s fighting Christian, whom I don’t really get. I feel so terminally neutral about Christian. Hes like an NPC to me. He’s currently getting his ass kicked because he fought with REDACTED earlier. Not sure why they are fighting, they don’t have any plot right now. But I love the PAPER JAMZ ad in the middle, reminding me we are in the safety of the early 2000s. This match isn’t anything special. Christian won. Wow. Keep it moving 💀🔨 captain charisma?? bro has negative aura to me I don’t get it.

Wow! An ad for their ancient website. Bring it back. WWE poker looks fun!

Oh god 😭 a women’s match. I hope they are allowed to have rights in this one! ☝️ Kelly Kelly is here looking amazing as always. And laycool, who I also love. They are currently sharing two halves of one belt! Wonderful. The women’s fights at this time are so cat fight and short. “hello pumpkin how are you your skin looks amazing” shut the fuck up 😭 it’s always so sexist and infantilizing. Also why do the women screech so much. “BEAT HER BEAT HER!” I love her. And the match is over it’s been .8 seconds. Ok gg ez

#wwe #wwe smackdown #friday night smackdown #pro wrestling

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queen-simia · 7 months

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lrb: honestly all of this and more has me nervous about the two leads and their relationship in the upcoming comic. folks who know me and my particular leanings will be kinder, I know, but once it escapes containment, all hell may break loose

thought barf below the cut

I already know Virgule will probably be polarizing. he's pansexual by nature as an incubus (when sexual energy is your food, it's best to be omnivorous, knowhutimean), which I already foresee as Problematic™... and he's technically genderless but identifies as masculine, though I write him harder on the camp/femme side. all that plus the fact he's an inhuman being (a demon, to be specific) adds up to poor Virgule potentially being a hate lightning rod ("she should know better as an ace! aces get coded as robotic/inhuman all the time, why would she turn around and do the same to gncs and pans if she claims to care so much???").

the funny thing is, Virg's camp and charisma are all based directly on the stage persona of a straight cis man: Dylan Charles Germick (Planet Booty's front man). and that persona is played as fully sex-positive and lovingly as possible, and is derived heavily from Prince (who was straight *and* very genderfucky, as you know). so, it's not like Virg's character background lacks nuance or is just "lol them silly sex-hungry fairy boys~" but I can easily see how critics could jump to that conclusion

and there's a not-insignificant plot point early in the story that involves consent and boundaries that Virg starts out on the wrong side of (and also introduces the possible interpretation that his feedings may involve dubious consent). thaaaat's gonna be fun to deal with~ 🙃

but again! it's not just for salaciousness! it's to establish a strong part of the dynamic between Virg and Sonrisa re: trust and expectations. could it be done differently? ...not really, given the context of the story and the characters' natures...? it's something I've agonized over in the years I've been developing this story, trust me. :p but it's definitely something I know will be a sticking point when it comes out. maybe it'll cause a fall-off in readership, maybe it won't, but I've been online long enough to anticipate the worst

sorry to say it's stuff like this that had me wondering at several points whether I should bother at all. but, I'm stubborn and vain enough to want a story centered around a short, fat aroace woman that doesn't view any of those traits as negative that I'm going to do it anyway.

tbh I already know having Sonrisa be fat is going to attract loads of mouth-breathing chuds—already inoculated against that 1) from First Contact's 4chan reception of my buff strong-featured Femshep, and 2) lived experience as a fat chick. that funnily enough will hurt less than any potential queer audience blowback. I guess because while it's undeniable I'm fat, my relationship with queerness is much more tenuous.

I already feel like I'm treading on toes as not just an aroace (who, like our bisexual cousins, are already regarded as Schrodinger's Queers), but a demiaroace who seems to prefer mascs ("why don't you just admit you're straight, gawd"). thing is, my lived experience is very much *not* heteronormative, to the point where I've cried and had depressive episodes over possibly having to marry someone I don't love just to survive... and that was *before* I knew asexuality even was a thing. I've experienced medicalization of my lack of sexual attraction. I've lied about my orientation to avoid awkwardness, both socially and medically. I have more in common with your flagship queer identities than I do with straights... but because the four people I've fallen in love with—and only one of whom I've actually had sex with—over 43 years of life happen to be cis men, it still doesn't feel like enough.

so I guess I fear if I tell my story in a way that offends people who are "worthier" queers than myself, I'll have proven myself even less deserving of inclusion than before.

fat-shaming? used to it, next. betrayal of found family? utterly shattering.

bah. still gonna draw my dumb comic. just... still pretty nervous about it, I guess.

#personal blog #out of the ether

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belovedxpoets · 4 months

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𝐈𝐌𝐎𝐆𝐄𝐍 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐘 : 𝐀 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐅 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘;

❝ ... I'm still a believer, but I don't know why I've never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try ... ❞

𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐒;

Full Name: Imogen Grace Ashbury Age: 27 Occupation: Junior Legal Associate at Heller & Co Neighbourhood: Laurel Village Faceclaim: Lili Reinhart Date Of Birth: 13 January 1997 Zodiac: Capricorn Parents: Derek & Angelina Ashbury Siblings: One younger sibling Orientation: Heterosexual Positive: Ambitious, passionate, bold, determined Negative: Defensive, neurotic, insecure, assertive

CONNECTIONS | PINTEREST

𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘;

From the time that Imogen was a little girl, all she ever wanted to be was perfect, and considering the family she was born into, it wasn’t difficult to see where she had gotten the inspiration from. Derek and Angelina Ashbury were picture-perfect examples of the great American dream. Meeting young and marrying soon after, the couple wasted no time settling down in a cosy town in Arizona; quickly becoming neighbourhood locals.

Derek and Angelina managed to win most of the town over with their kindness, generosity, and most of all, Derek’s charisma. Within due course, the pair became town favourites and when Imogen was born, she was doted on and fussed over every minute of every day; a factor of her life that the blonde quickly became dependant on. She loved company and attention, and for a while, it came to her in abundance, until her sibling was born.

Imogen hadn’t known what it was like to feel alone until the Ashbury family extended, and while she adored her sibling in her childhood, she couldn’t quite figure out how to adjust to this new arrangement. However, she never cried or threw fits for obvious attention, deciding instead that she would earn recognition from her parents by doing things worth praise. And so, the perfectionist was born.

As an adolescent, Imogen took it upon herself to attempt as many different activities as she could; begging her parents to let her sign up for anything she could find. She was involved in everything from dance to sports and (to the dismay of her sibling) music. She had a yearning to perfect any skill that she tried, but none of it was for her. The only thought running through her head when she was studying or practicing late at night was, I hope my parents are proud when they see me. A thought that would consume her for years to come.

By the time Imogen was in her teens, her father was heavy on the campaign trail to become a senator in Arizona, and while Derek did his best to make sure their lives remained the same, Imogen started to notice a change in people. Her peers began to treat her differently. Little by little, people whom she thought were friends started distancing themselves from her; making plans without her. She couldn’t understand why, and this made her frustrated; the isolation forcing the resentment she’d allowed to lie dormant in her bones to seep through her skin.

She guessed that people assumed she was obnoxious and self-entitled because of her father’s newly elected status and her pre-existing obsessive work ethic. So that’s what she became. She pushed all her remaining friends away and developed a chip on her shoulder; wearing her new attitude like armour. It was futile though, as it did nothing to mend the hole that loneliness had eaten into her heart.

By the time senior year rolled around, Imogen looked out for no-one except herself and her family. She threw herself harder into her work, figuring that if people didn’t like her, then they would just have to respect her instead, and when she made her valedictorian speech, she felt satisfied knowing that she’d finally earned some acclaim.

With her stellar grades, Imogen was accepted into Harvard Law school, securing a job almost immediately in New York upon her graduation. To her family's surprise, she turned it down and chose to travel for a few years instead. Years of competing to be perfect had worn her down and she decided to put herself first. When she returned, she took a legal position at a big firm in Chicago before transferring to Blue Harbor in favour of a slower pace, and the hope that she might be able to make more of a difference here.

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒;

When Imogen was growing up, she was convinced she was going to go into politics like her father. She’d listened to a lifetime’s worth of speeches and debates and was convinced she knew just about everything there was to know about the career. However, when it came time to think about the future and apply to colleges, her father urged her to follow her own path and when the Harvard letter came, he gave her the gentle push she needed to accept the offer.

Imogen has a tattoo of a single rose on her hip as an homage to her mother, who took pride in the beautiful flowers she grew back home in Arizona. It’s Imogen's way of keeping herself connected to a small part of herself and her humble beginnings.

As bold and confident as Imogen can come across at times, she has an incessant need to be liked, and as a result she is often cripplingly paranoid about what people think of her. She needs constant validation from people that she is valued and wanted, and if she doesn’t get that in a satisfactory way, she can become moody and upset and either withdraws inside herself, or lashes out.

Imogen has previously found herself falling easily for people, however, she finds relationships incredibly difficult because she has a need to control things and doesn’t want to put herself in a situation where she knows she’ll end up controlling someone she cares about without realizing. She has also had some crash and burn experiences in the past that have made her keep potential partners at an arms length, and delves into her job to keep herself occupied instead.

Despite all of her flaws, Imogen is deeply caring and will go out of her way to do anything for her friends and family.

#( — imogen | biography; )#intro.bh

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katyspersonal · 1 year

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i hate to be that guy but i wish there were more bb fics that were less smut and more lore bc for such a rich story there is mostly just nsfw stuff in the ao3 tag lol. but no offense if ppl like that..

Your feelings are valid, anon!

Like, yeah, it is one of those 'kinda petty gripe' moments I was talking about! People are completely valid to spend their time and effort on what makes them (and often their mutuals and fans) happy! Yet at the same time, I am myself a huge fucking NERD about timeline, concepts, worldbuilding, messages, philosophy, specifics of factions and covenants, systems of 'magic' and science within the lore and all that, and if presented with a choice between the hottest fanfic for my OTP or an oddly detailed fictional research paper on something complex that went within the lore, I'd not even hesitate to pick the latter xd

There ARE many things to think about in BB, yes! My personal favorite to dissect were how Kin works and headanons about Great Ones (ALL of them). I have not found a cool way to put my BB worldbuilding dissections into a fic, tho... :') Me and @val-of-the-north also dream of writing a large prequel of Pthumerians history with what predated dungeons and some known characters. But we are more visual artists than writers. Sigh!

I could offer an advice for the situation when you have a gripe with something that is most popular in a fandom, and wish people did more interesting stuff:

1) Have a tiny group of people who are bitter about the same thing (can also be conveniently put in a Discord chat)! It is extremely therapeutic to have a few friends with whom you can be haters together, so you vent it all out and go to the 'public' fandom all happy and cheerful, not carrying this negativity to the open internet where people that love [a thing] can see it. I mean- I do have a group like this! Our most frequient petty haters sessions are pouting at the fact that this or that character only gets remembered as part of a ship and not as their own person xd Feeling heard in a small group where your words can't hurt anyone, nor anyone will guilt you for being "entitled" is just. good.

2) Create the stuff you would like to see more of (drawings, fanfics, essays, theories, headcanons, memes prompting an idea in a subtle way even), or encourage people to think more about this stuff (prompting discussions, buying art/fic commissions, doing trades (art for fic, for example), catching a person that accepts requests and spending yours on what you'd like to see more of, sending people asks that could trigger to develop something about lore etc). Really mind the latter, though! Like... trust me dude, even if you can't draw or write, nor have enough money for commissions, you can still cause pretty tangible influence on creativity! If you just say right things at the right time to the right people. Heck- I more or less got some skill at inspiring people creatively <:3 Like... I prompt a person to think of this or that theme or character, and before I know it they already developed something because of that discussion? (not tryna boast xd) Or another good example is @heraldofcrow who mastered the skill of prompting discussions about Bloody Crow sooooo well that people keep becoming his fans because of her, and some are even drawing him thanks to her! I constantly see people creating more content of the boy thanks to her, and all she did was simply talking to them! xD A gripe at a character, theme, concept etc not being popular enough can cause GREAT things to happen and you can become people's MUSE! 😎

_______________

Hmmmm I think that's it! Basically? You probably have more charisma to inspire writers (including to fiddle with lore) than you are aware of. They need readers, AND they need ideas. You will figure this out! ...or even write a killer fanfic yourself.

#fandomry rambles #crow is the QUEEN of influence lol xd #i am close second tho fsdhfhds #ask replies

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fuzedatti · 2 years

Text

I. Prologue (The Parliament Of Joy.)

───── ❝ 𝐀𝐧 𝐒𝐂𝐏 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞 ❞ ─────

Masterlist

──────────────────

Dear Zeus.

I must confess that, observing your face, it is impossible for me not to give a good laugh. Your features are comedic, entertaining. They bring me such joy that I want to see them forever. Unfortunately, I don't want to sound rude by laughing at your dear face all the time, so I shall ask for you to have a mask made that vaguely resembles your face. It will serve me to sing and provide entertainment to others.

With love, your daughter.

—Melpómene

The muse of the theater, brave to challenge Zeus, sent the letter with her demands. Eagerly, she patiently awaited her adulterous father's response; The worst that could happen would be that he banished her to the mortal realm, but she bravely stood her ground against any answer. She had it all, beauty, wealth, status and men, her aching heart begged for something more. Bored with life, she made dramas for everything, whether the price of wine, the fabrics of her dresses or the singing of the birds, everything was a drama for her.

Zeus, tired of her whimpering, granted her the wish of eternal laughter, apart from the fact that he was offended that his own daughter mocked him in that way. He ordered Hephaestus to create a comedy mask in his image. Made of the purest porcelain with the most delicate lines, it was a masterpiece.

Melpómene's sister Thalia, the muse of comedy, was jealous of the attention her father gave her dramatic sister. She visited Hephaestus daily to see what he was bragging about. The mask caught her attention instantly, it was glorious. The sister laughed gracefully, Hephaestus saw her confused, but that laugh gave life to the mask, a life of euphoria.

But Thalia was not the only woman jealous of Melpomene.

Hera, wife of Zeus, drowned in her own anger. How is it possible that the illegitimate daughter of Zeus had a divine gift that she did not have? Filled with rage, she stole one of the muse's most distressing sonnets, throwing it into the fire where the mask was being finished.

The negativity, the hate, all the curses were fragmented and embedded in the creation. The vengeful goddess took the mask into her own hands, slipping out of Hephaestus's workshop. With a false smile, she gave the gift to the muse, her happiness was immaculate. Without thinking twice, she put the mask on her face, fitting perfectly.

Yet, something felt wrong. She did not feel joy, she did not feel inspiration, instead, her being was filled with melancholy and suffering. The songs that were supposed to come out were replaced by sobs, a great depression hit her mind. Hera left the poor woman to cry to her death, alone.

The mask lied on her rotten corpse, which was found by Hephaestus days later. He knew that Hera was the culprit, but there was no point in doing justice. He just kept silence. He kept the mask in a dusty drawer, so no one could ever die in such a horrible way. But since the mask was impure, cursed, it was banished by divine force to the mortal plane, where it is now wandering among humans, looking for its next victim.

It was thought that among mortals he would only find war and agony, but instead, they used the mask for their works. It did not bring them wrath or sadness, instead, they gave the best performances and filled them with charisma. From hand to hand, without knowing it, they were giving life to a creature, a divinity beyond their comprehension. And so it was, they found out, but little or nothing mattered to them, it was a gift from the Gods, a blessing.

Soon his glory days were snatched once more by Hera, who found him in Crete. The natives of the Island worshiped the mask, whom they had nicknamed "Meská, the fallen God". They prayed daily for his ascension to Olympus, although their intentions were good, they were answered with a devastating tsunami, thus stranding Meská in the ocean.

Could a divine gift made for the sole purpose of being a whim defeat a hateful Goddess? That question bounced through his abstract mind. She had taken everything from him, his home, his friends and even his family. Drowned in misery, the poor entity wandered on the deep blue until he reached the great cities of the Greek empire, where his magnum opus came to mind.

What would be a better revenge than to destroy the entire source of Hera's power? He only had to give a small push to the mediocrity of the leaders of Ancient Greece and the invasions did not stop. Among the flames and the screams, lay an awakened God.

—She deserves it.– Said the mask, now being worn by a warrior host. —You don't play with a parliament that is this weak and expect it to stick together.–

His laughter echoed through the burning corridors between the fire, the library of Alexandria had collapsed. —You do not play with parliament.–

#scp fanfiction #scp #fanfic #scp 049 x scp 035 #scp 035 x scp 049 #olympus scp

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mydarling-suggestions · 2 years

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I have a darling that I haven’t seen in a very long time, so I suppose in a technical sense I can’t really call her mine. But at the same time when you love someone very deeply parts of them do live in you, and in that way I still feel her close to me as if I see her every day.

I could talk for a long time about how much she’s done for me without even realising it. We’re very different people, and different in ways that I think would lead most people to negatively judge a relationship between us if we had one. But she inspired me to be independent, self-assured and determined, and though I still struggle with all of those things sometimes (we’re all only human, after all), they became traits I now defend with my life after I met her. She accepted me for who I was and saw right through to the soul of me, in a way that not even my very closest loved ones, many of whom have known me for a much longer time, have ever been able to do.

She herself was (and still is I’m sure) hugely passionate, vivacious, funny, fiercely intelligent, and utterly gorgeous both inside and out. She breathed charisma — you couldn’t be around her for longer than five minutes without becoming fascinated, at least on a platonic level, and wanting to spend more time with her. It’s true that I knew plenty of people who were put off by her at first glance, but it’s just as true that none of them held that opinion for longer than a couple of months. The more you knew her, the more you liked — and in my case, loved — her.

I haven’t had the easiest few years, but knowing her has been a comfort I’ve carried with me ever since we parted. Knowing she is alive and happy is sometimes all I need to keep going myself. I would give almost anything in the world to see her again someday, but whether I do or don’t, I’m just so glad to have known her at all. My heart will always be hers.

Nonnie like other gushes we’ve received this reads like absolute POETRY and it’s beautiful!

It’s so lovely they you still think of them so fondly and they’re able to give you so many joyful feelings 💛💛💛

#anonymous #answered #mod alex #not a suggestion

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brightstvrlights · 1 year

Text

STELLA CASTILLO - A BRIEF HISTORY;

❥ welcome to marina, stella castillo ( cisfemale, she/her ) ! they are a thirty two year old who has lived on the island for five years. word on the street is they’re currently living in hyland park and works as a publicist. everyone also says they look a lot like shay mitchell. what do you think?

Full Name: Stella Grace Castillo

Age: 32

Date Of Birth: 13 January 1991

Zodiac: Capricorn

Parents: Emilio & Angelina Castillo

Siblings: A younger brother and sister

Orientation: Heterosexual

Occupation: Publicist

Languages: English & French

Positive: Ambitious, passionate, bold, determined

Negative: Defensive, neurotic, insecure, assertive

CONNECTIONS | PINTEREST

BACKSTORY

From the time that Stella was a little girl, all she ever wanted to be was perfect, and considering the family she was born into, it wasn’t difficult to see where she had gotten the inspiration from. Emilio and Angelina Castillo were picture-perfect examples of the great American dream. Meeting young and marrying soon after, the couple wasted no time settling down in a cosy town in Arizona; quickly becoming neighbourhood locals. While they knew that some residents may have been standoffish and wary of a young migrant, Emilio and Angelina managed to win most of the town over with their kindness, generosity, and most of all, Emilio’s charisma. Within due course, the pair became town favourites and when Stella was born, she was doted on and fussed over every minute of every day; a factor of her life that the brunette quickly became dependant on. She loved company and attention, and for a while, it came to her in abundance, until her siblings were born. Stella hadn’t known what it was like to feel alone until the Castillo family extended, and while she adored her siblings in her childhood, she couldn’t quite figure out how to adjust to this new arrangement. However, she never cried or threw fits for obvious attention, deciding instead that she would earn recognition from her parents by doing things worth praise. And so, the perfectionist was born.

As an adolescent, Stella took it upon herself to attempt as many different activities as she could; begging her parents to let her sign up for anything she could find. She was involved in everything from dance to sports and (to the dismay of her siblings) music. She had a yearning to perfect any skill that she tried, but none of it was for her. The only thought running through her head when she was studying or practicing late at night was, I hope my parents are proud when they see me. A thought that would consume her for years to come.

By the time Stella was in her teens, her father was heavy on the campaign trail to become a senator in Arizona, and while Emilio did his best to make sure their lives remained the same, Stella started to notice a change in people. Her peers began to treat her differently. Little by little, people whom she thought were friends started distancing themselves from her; making plans without her. She couldn’t understand why, and this made her frustrated; the isolation forcing the resentment she’d allowed to lie dormant in her bones to seep through her skin. She guessed that people assumed she was obnoxious and self-entitled because of her father’s newly elected status and her pre-existing obsessive work ethic. So that’s what she became. She pushed all her remaining friends away and developed a chip on her shoulder; wearing her new attitude like armour. It was futile though, as it did nothing to mend the hole that loneliness had eaten into her heart. By the time senior year rolled around, Stella looked out for no-one except herself and her family. She threw herself harder into her work, figuring that if people didn’t like her, then they would just have to respect her instead, and when she made her valedictorian speech, she felt satisfied knowing that she’d finally earned some acclaim.

After getting accepted into NYU, Stella studied Public Relations, securing a job in publicity upon her graduation. She matured with time and most of her twenties living the New York dream before she was offered a job on Marina Island. She'd started to feel a touch stagnate in the big apple, and while she'd never heard of the island, she saw it as an opportunity for a fresh start and decided to accept the offer and move her life there.

HEADCANONS

When Stella was growing up, she was convinced she was going to go into politics like her father. She’d listened to a lifetime’s worth of speeches and debates and was convinced she knew just about everything there was to know about the career. However, when she got to college, she soon found out that it was nothing like she had expected to be. She was afraid that if she told her father she didn’t like it that he would be disappointed in her, and because she craved his approval, she stuck with it for a whole year before finally caving.

Stella has a tattoo of a single rose on her hip as an homage to her mother, who took pride in the beautiful flowers she grew back home in Arizona. It's Stella's way of keeping herself connected to a small part of herself and her humble beginnings.

As bold and confident as Stella comes across, she has an incessant need to be liked, and as a result she is often cripplingly paranoid about what people think of her. She needs constant validation from people that she is valued and wanted, and if she doesn’t get that in a satisfactory way, she can become moody and upset and either withdraws inside herself, or lashes out.

Stella has previously found herself falling easily for people, however, she finds relationships incredibly difficult because she has a need to control things and doesn’t want to put herself in a situation where she knows she’ll end up controlling someone she cares about without realizing. She has also had some crash and burn experiences in the past that have made her keep potential partners at an arms length, and delves into her job to keep herself occupied instead.

Despite all of her flaws, Stella is deeply caring and will go out of her way to do anything for her friends and family.

#( stella | biography. )#marina:intro

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armed-and-alxne · 1 year

Text

A VERY DESCRIPTIVE & DETAILED PROFILE OF YOUR MUSE

Repost with the information of your muse, including headcanons, etc.!

—————————————————————————-

[ BASICS ]

FULL NAME: Luther Nicholas Donovan

NICKNAME(S): Lou, Lu

AGE: Somewhat AU dependent but usually around 43, sometimes 44-45 if it’s an AU that takes place some time after the show ended

BIRTHDAY: June 14th, 1973 (Birth year may change based on AU)

ZODIAC SIGN: Gemini

SPECIES: Human, although he does have a vampire AU

GENDER: Male

ORIENTATION: Demiheterosexual

MARITAL STATUS: Single to start out, but he’s been in several ships. I don’t think he’s ever been married though?

EDUCATION: Dropped out of school when he was 12. Completed his GED in his mid-twenties.

LANGUAGES KNOWN: English, Russian

PROFESSION: Formerly, during the events of Red Widow: a mafia cleaner/hitman/bodyguard. On this blog: a freelance bodyguard/security guard, or an Avenger in his MCU AU.

RESIDENCE(S): He’s lived in San Francisco all his life, but was forced to leave it forever several months ago. He’s also lived in other big cities such as NYC.

—————————————————————————-

[ PHYSICAL ASPECTS ]

BODY TYPE: Tall, medium build, muscular.

HAIR: Eh… he started going bald in his twenties and just decided screw it and buzz cut it short. Now he has a decent, soft layer of fuzz over the half his head that isn’t fully bald, heh.

EYES: Blue.

SKIN: Tanned from being outside a lot, but otherwise he’s fairly pale naturally.

HEIGHT: 6’1”

WEIGHT: 158 lbs.

SCARS: He’s been shot twice, stabbed once, and he’s got a couple small burns here and there…

TATTOOS/PIERCINGS: I usually say his FC’s (Luke Goss) arm tattoo is headcanon for Luther too now, haha, so gaze upon this beauty… It’s got a panther, a sugar skull, some flowers, and the word says “Compassion.”

OTHER: He wants to get more tattoos, haha.

—————————————————————————-

[ RELATIONS ]

SIBLINGS: None

PARENTS: Biological father, Max, whom he believed to be deceased, but who is actually a retired SFPD detective living in San Francisco; an “adoptive” father, Andrei Petrov, the former head of the bratva Luther worked for during most of his life, currently incarcerated; and an estranged mother, Angela.

GRANDPARENTS: Deceased.

CHILDREN: None in canon, but he loves Marta Walraven’s kids like they’re his own. He’s had children with his ships before though.

OTHER RELATIVES: Nope.

ACQUAINTANCES/FRIENDS: Not really. Luther pretty much keep to himself. He’s not really good at reaching out to people since he’s used to being a fly on the wall, and he doesn’t want to draw attention to himself.

LOVE INTERESTS: Marta Walraven, but that was of course never going to go anywhere. Starts out with none on this blog in his main verses, but like I said, he’s had several ships over the years, somewhere around five or so.

ENEMIES/RIVALS: Cops. Feds. Irwin Petrov. And his former boss/adoptive father, Andrei Petrov as well.

ANY PETS?: yes [ ] || no [X] But he wants a dog like nobody’s business, haha. He LOVES dogs.

—————————————————————————-

[ SKILLS ]

RATE OUT OF 10:

—HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT: 10/10 —WEAPONIZED COMBAT: 7/10 —SPEED: 9/10 —GRACE: 4/10 —STRENGTH: 8/10 —RAW FORCE: 8/10 —RANGE: 6/10 —PERCEPTION: 8/10 —ENDURANCE: 10/10 —RESILIENCE: 9/10 —CHARISMA: 5/10 —PERSUASION: 2/10 —INTELLIGENCE: 7/10 —STRATEGICS: 6/10 —TEAMWORK: 3/10

—————————————————————————-

[ TRAITS ]

POSITIVE: Honest, loyal, protective, selfless, kind, generous, loving, gentle, brave, respectful of women, very sweet with children.

NEGATIVE: A chronic self-hater, very hard on himself, pessimistic, paranoid, short-tempered.

—————————————————————————-

[ LIKES ]

COLORS: Red, brown, black, gray, navy blue

SMELLS: Leather, metal, vodka, coffee, chocolate.

FOOD: Burritos, pizza, fried chicken, Chinese food, chocolate, cake, chips & salsa, burgers, bacon, cheese, brownies, etc. XD

DRINKS: Coffee, tea, soda, vodka, beer

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES?: yes [X] || rarely [] || no []

IF YES, WHICH KINDS OF ALCOHOL?: Vodka is his go-to, as it reminds him of home, but he will drink wine and other types if it’s available. Otherwise he likes beer, any kind, he’s not picky.

ANIMALS: DOGS. And also cats a little bit. But mostly DOGS. He LOVES DOGS, haha. The bigger the better. He likes to just hug them, wrestle with them, get down and dirty and crazy with big dogs. They make him laugh and bring out the kid in him.

FAVORITES: Spending time with family… even though he doesn’t have one. He misses the Walravens. He likes making new friends although he’s not really good at it. PLAYING WITH DOGS, haha.

HOBBIES: Working out (a habit, mostly for his job), reading, watching horror movies, and eating.

—————————————————————————-

[ OTHER DETAILS ]

SMOKES?: yes [] || no [X] || occasionally [] DRUGS?: yes [] || no [X] || occasionally [] DRIVER LICENSE?: yes [X] || no [] PILOT LICENSE?: yes [] || no [X] EVER BEEN ARRESTED?: yes [] || no [] || almost/detained [X]

—————————————————————————-

TAGGED BY: Reposting it from a long time ago because it’s relevant info still, heh. TAGGING: Anyone who wants to do this! ^_^

#about the muse

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teegeewrites · 5 days

Text

Comparison

From the pit of my stomach rises that familiar feeling

Of being in situations that always have me dealing

With intrusive thoughts of feeling inadequate

Like I’m some horse that’s repeatedly saddled with

An inferiority complex standing next to others

Each minute in their presence my self-esteem suffers

Can’t help but think whenever we’re together

No matter what I do, they seem to do it better

Always falling short despite my best efforts

Up to them I feel I could never measure

It’s no use because whatever I produce

Is destined to be trash when compared to their treasures

Why do I keep doing this to myself

When I know it’s no good for my health

Maybe one day I’ll finally see the light

Because this destructive belief can’t last forever, right?

~~~

I'm back with more poetic musings! While it might seem like yet another melancholic piece, there is what will hopefully be a bright and uplifting message that follows it. 😅

When it comes to this topic, I must confess that I am completely guilty of perpetually measuring myself against others, a tendency that has lingered throughout my life. On platforms like Tumblr, I can’t help but feel a twinge of envy when I see someone share an exceptional piece of writing or a breathtaking drawing, wishing I could possess their remarkable skills. In real life, I’m quite the introvert, often keeping my guard up and finding it difficult to open up to others. I frequently find myself wishing I could be more like those who exude natural charisma and can effortlessly engage in conversation, even with a grizzly bear. This leads to a persistent feeling of inferiority, as I struggle to recognize any redeeming qualities within myself that others might admire.

The dilemma we encounter is that this type of destructive thought process only serves to deepen our feelings of despair, potentially leading us to a place where no amount of effort can help us escape. There's a saying that suggests the first step to getting out of a hole is to put the shovel down and stop digging. In our context, this means we must stop the harmful habit of negatively comparing ourselves to others. I readily admit that this is no simple task; I’m still working on it myself. A helpful approach is to concentrate on the things we take pride in. For some, it might be their athletic talents; for others, it could be their cooking skills. Moreover, we may possess attributes that others envy and desire.

Take, for instance, my high school friend, whom I’ll refer to as John, a brilliant mind among my acquaintances. He possessed a remarkable talent for solving intricate math problems as effortlessly as one might recite the alphabet. John once shared a memorable experience tutoring our basketball team's star player, whom I'll name Lucas. Lucas was teetering on the edge of failing his math class, a situation that would have barred him from participating in an important tournament. He was the quintessential popular kid—an athletic marvel with a magnetic charm that left girls swooning at every turn. In stark contrast to John and me, Lucas seemed to have it all. During one of their tutoring sessions, Lucas picked up on John's body language after a girl had flirted with him. Concerned, he asked if something was bothering John. John confessed his envy of Lucas's athleticism and social ease. What happened next was astonishing: Lucas revealed that he actually envied John's intellect and would gladly trade his basketball talent for just a fraction of John's brilliance. Hearing John recall this tale left me utterly speechless, and I witnessed a newfound confidence blooming in John. As a side note, thanks to John's guidance, Lucas passed his math class and was able to take the court in the tournament.

In essence, I’m expressing that we all possess a light within us that can outshine others in various ways. The trouble is that we frequently become so focused on the dazzling lights of those around us that we unintentionally diminish our own. As the saying goes, “comparison is the thief of joy,” a quote often linked to Teddy Roosevelt. I think many of us can identify with the character in my poem, but it’s vital to recognize that such feelings are not permanent. Let’s dedicate ourselves to becoming the best versions of who we are, allowing our inner light to banish any thoughts that make us feel inadequate.

#Comparison #another poem #may write more of these should I be inspired #gloomy poem with a positive message following it #hope it isn't too preachy #tee's writing #tee's poems

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our-monochopsis · 12 days

Text

brief thoughts on communication skills and debate, autism and masking, tact, good vs bad faith debate

rambles sorted into loose sections half self examination diary half loose psychological thesis

the skill of speech

i was thinking about how much i like to talk (i am very self-aware that i ramble, i like hearing myself talk, i can go on random triads and anecdotes for an indefinite amount of time if nobody stops me) and started thinking about the concept of speech as a skill, or communication skills in general

the thought first started with the idea that most people don't 'train' speech; i think of RPGs that use it as a skill, speech in fallout or in some form charisma in DND systems. but in real life most people don't really think about how they talk at all, they aren't really conscious of how or to whom they're communicating to as much as they are just saying things

i think actually taking the time to try and improve your own communication skills is rare, sort of like how a few weeks of exercise immediately puts you above the majority of the population because most people simply don't exercise at all

i thought about myself and how much i love to give speeches when the time is appropriate, or how 'easy' it is to keep myself composed under pressure or to adapt a new personality for the purpose of acting or a bit

autism and communication skills

i'm autistic, i struggled socially, but i'm somewhat adverse to the general social struggle stereotype because i don't find it overtly difficult to speak to people or make friends, i just find it incredibly tiring and taxing on my mental energy (it's not that i DISLIKE it, i love having friends and making them, connecting with people, it just takes a lot out of me to start and maintain them)

so i STRUGGLED socially, but i was capable of building the pathways in my brain by observing and studying human beings throughout my life in order to 'mask' and fit in

i had to develop my own social skills and blend in to the world of normal people, masking is a second skin, its a different person, its very off-putting to think

1. a majority of the people i interact with in my life are never really interacting with me, they're just interacting with the mask i wear, never even getting close to what i'm actually like as a human being because that mask is on tight

2. i had to become someone else in order to succeed socially, i have to be an actor to make friends in most average social situations

that as an aside, i basically had to RPG grind the concept of communicating with people for my entire life, so i built up a bunch of XP. compound that with me being lucky enough to not spawn with as much negative levels as some of my other brothers/sisters on the spectrum. i managed to get to level 1 and afford myself basic social skills, but ive been doing it for so long i do it without thinking, so im just passively collecting more XP by experiencing further social situations. i obviously have a general cap to what ive gained this way because im not some kind of politician or actual career public speaker, i can just compose myself well in a pressuring social situation and deliver words in a way that people are able to understand

i literally had to work through the concept of basic human communcation backwards- i had to reverse engineer how to speak, and built it back up slowly until i arrived at level one and then managed to push up a little bit further since i was now able to take information i had previously learned and stored in the databanks and reformat it after a system upgrade to make better use of stored data

so if regular people are level 1, maybe im like level 3? or maybe the game-ification aspect of this is falling apart and i should stop doing it

what even is being good at talking? tact?

i'm not necessarily the most goated speaker of my generation but i think

engaging in a serious conversation in a way that is

clear

concise

understandable

is actually really hard, especially when dealing with someone who is already predisposed to disbelieve you or not take you seriously

now let's briefly talk about the word 'tact', aka knowing who your speaking to and changing the way you communicate in order for them to better understand you

the actual definition being

tact

/tak(t)/

noun

adroitness and sensitivity in dealing with others or with difficult issues."the inspector broke the news to me with tact and consideration"

(adroitness=cleverness, skill)

this can manifest in a lot of ways most people already do but didn't know the word for

knowing your friend doesn't like something, so you don't bring it up

acting differently around friends vs family

when in rome, doing what locals to in an unfamiliar environment

masking, code switching, etc are all forms of tact

i think that most people have a very basic level or understanding of tact

adopting social norms to me is like your body's subconscious sense of tact adapting your personality traits (creating new ones or suppressing old ones) in order to not stand out as much

some people are born with some sense of tact and other people start at zero have to learn and develop it over time

approaching it from a perspective of a debate or disagreement changes things though- people who have tact, are good at speaking, communicating, etc. can completely lose these skills when faced with a disagreement

advanced tact- consoling, teaching, mental optimization

I think simply being able to speak to someone who

isn't aware of what your aware of,

of the notion they're unaware of,

and doing so in a way that is understandable,

is a basic mental facility some people don't build

basic tact is as i described earlier, but an advanced sense of tact comes into play when you're consoling someone

(how are they upset? what is the problem and how was it caused? do they need it to be fixed, or do they just need to vent? what is the remedy, does there need to be one or is the answer getting over the hump to acceptance? etc.)

or, when you're trying to explain something or teach someone

(what makes them 'not get it?' what's causing the mental block? how do you bridge that gap for them? how do you explain something to someone who doesn't know what you know, about the thing they don't know about, in a way that they can understand?

how can you make them understand in a way they can understand, not in a way that makes you understand?)

these things are basically social puzzles, challenges that put your communication skills to the test, sometimes it feels like a normal jigsaw puzzle and sometimes it's like tip-toeing around a minefield. in these situations you're usually looking for a 'breakthrough', that's the best outcome- a resolution that DOESN'T necessarily fix their problem, or tell them something directly, but puts them in a position where they can resolve their own problem, or learn without your aid

the goal of consoling isn't to make yourself the savior, it's to put the troubled person in a place where they're capable of getting over it themselves

in a way this could sound bad- if you were to be critical of my thinking, you could say something alongside the lines of 'that's selfish, you don't want the mental burden of trying to help them, that's just giving up'

but from my point of view, putting someone in a position where they're capable of 'getting over it' themselves means they come out stronger. obviously that isn't always the goal, or the best method, or even necessary, i'm not a psychopath. but i think the best outcome is that person being more capable of handling their mental struggles in the future themselves. instead of stepping in to save them as part of some kind of grand hero complex, you are giving them the mental tools to repair what's broken or off-kilter, and hopefully adding it to their own skillset.

and a similar view is seen for teaching- the ultimate goal isn't to make the pupil understand a concept, but to give them the tools and make them understand how they can understand the concept. then, they can apply that same thinking to similar questions or concepts in the future.

and both of these 'best outcomes' (as i see them) can only happen with tact! really good, strong tact!

if you want an extremely basic version of this, we learn equations, not just the answer to the number problem. now apply that thinking to every form of teaching, consoling, or other social skill test

the difficulty with tact with convincing and debates

you will never be an effective communicator if you can't see through someone elses eyes

instead of writing people off who don't instantly or instinctively understand you as being ignorant on purpose to spite you or just stupid, build that mental facility and put in shifts walking in other people's shoes

even if it sucks, even if their reasons are stupid, you have to understand their reasons they think something before you could ever hope to convince them what they think is actually wrong

you HAVE to do this- you HAVE to, if you are engaging in the 'debate' seriously, scale the walls of their mental fortress and figure out what makes why in their brain

and obviously, this is a very difficult thing to accomplish because it's impossible to have a 100% completion rate. it's somewhat unavoidable that we insert our own bias and assumptions into their thought patterns and reasoning

and to double down, even when communicating with someone who stands for the same goals or ideals, you are both possibly interpreting the thing you agree with in different ways. sometimes when deconstructing a concept someone agrees with you on you'll find that you actually think very different things, or have radically different reasons for coming to the same conclusion, in a way you don't necessarily agree with

simplified; it's unavoidable to assume things. the game played properly is assuming things correctly, though the method of combining concrete information with a series of loosely stitched together educated guesses blanketed in a patchwork benefit of the doubt

sometimes you'll deconstruct someone's mental patterns and realize it makes you not like them even more. you understand the reason, but the reason is bad and stupid. but that's still the board you have to play on if you want to actually engage with them or even hope to change their minds. that's still the springboard you're bouncing off of. you understand this person better-

now can you actually engage with them properly, better? or does it make you hate them more? can you ignore that in order to communicate with them? so on. sometimes you have to grit your teeth and trudge through the wasteland. sometimes you pull out of the matrix early because it isn't worth it. sometimes the mountain is too high to climb. sometimes you try anyway

this isn't to say that people who think awful things are always worth considering or communicating with; i don't believe in giving a platform to a racist for instance. racism is an inherently illogical thing. to 'understand' a racist involves jumping through a bunch of poorly though out wiring that, if untangled, will simply break the machine. you can't seriously debate a racist because it's a concept so stupid it's impossible to take seriously.

sometimes you can still try tip-toeing the subject. the concept of 'seeing through the eyes of a racist' sounds insane but you can do it in order to present themselves with their own logical fallacies. sometimes all it takes to deconstruct a concept is asking questions about it's basic functions. but then again there's generally no merit to saying something like, 'you've intentionally taken an illogical position in order to excuse hate' because most racists already know that. it only really works if that specific racist is trying to approach their racism with easily disproven psuedoscience or something of that matter

okay enough about debating racists lets get back to

when you are arguing with someone even about something basic you're actively challenging the bridges they've built in their brain to connect information which have been reinforced in their mind for an untold number of years

a heated debate over a serious topic, or a battle of wits, while instinctually intellectual in nature in the sense of needing to get your facts right and righting the wrongs your opponent presents,

is actually a skill that relies more on charisma, as a debate isn't about being right, it's being able to convince the other person that you're right

intellectually you can understand that the information you have is the correct information, but can you make someone else see that? believe it? take it into consideration?

what the 'facts don't care about your feelings' crowd doesn't ever really seem to understand is that emotional intelligence is intelligence. you have to be really smart to understand people psychologically. using 'tact' is a charismatic skill that is built on intelligence. you have to have tact! when you don't have it, you can't talk to people good! nobody's going to pay attention to what you have to say if you can't deliver it effectively!

that's why political parties have politicians. they're the mouthpiece; they're the charisma, they are the tact of the political machine. they are the human delivery of a political parties ideas

even if you do really think someone is stupid, you saying that doesn't help

are you actually trying to debate with someone and convince them you're correct, or do you just want them to feel bad about being wrong? i've done both, but it's important to understand the difference between actually having an intelligent debate and just having an argument (don't get semantics on me you know what i'm saying)

for example, if someone makes a shitty tweet, you don't have to really dive into their psyche and change their mind one neuron at a time. sometimes you can just call them stupid.

but let's say your family member or friend says something wrong? to the point where you actively need to engage with them in a way that doesn't lead to a by-the-numbers negative influence on both parties, potentially damaging the relationship?

that's the chance to employ tact. and knowing when to use tact and when it doesn't matter... that's right baby, that's tact too. we're always tacting whether we like it or not, that's why it's good to be good at it

sometimes you actively stand to gain something by taking your social opponent in a direction that doesn't actively go against them. sometimes you have to make a stupid person think it was their own idea to change because otherwise they never will. sometimes being gentle with someone whose being aggressive is the only real answer. etc

in a debate, taking a position of unrelenting offense or playground insults instead of using tact and effectively engaging with your opponent would lead to a loss. but what if it didn't?

a quick aside on good faith vs bad faith debates

streamers arguing with eachother on a livestream regardless of the subject aren't engaging in a serious debate, they're basically just socially wrestling for an audience to comment on

you can have a debate with someone. you can use tact, be an effective communicator, be nuanced. but if the goal isn't to seriously engage?

when there's an audience involved, are you preaching to the choir? do you play to the ever-updating twitch chat? in front of your friends, are you disagreeing with your opponent or are you just agreeing with your friends?

the goal of modern televised debate, from internet personalities to our modern day politics, is less step by step and more setup and punchline, where the ultimate goal is to pedestal yourself as a noble unassailable being of pure facts and logic punching down on a rancorous, ignorant buffoon who should be ridiculed for even daring to go toe to toe with someone better at making the other guy look dumb. it is by basic reasoning a 'bad faith' position to take

i watch streamers argue sometimes, its fun, but it's hard to take it seriously even if someone is saying things you agree with. it's a different kind of debate, a different kind of social challenge. you have the common pressure of a watching audience, but entirely different goals. 99% of the time, a publicized debate is more about making your enemy into content instead of actually having a logical discussion about something.

i'm not here to make you understand why i think the way i think, or to deconstruct why you think the way you think, i'm here to turn you into a content farm. i'm collecting clips. it's for the subscribers, not the noble goal of reaching common ground or a logical conclusion

am i a master debator? baiter? do i debate? master debate? inator? master debator inator?

how i approach debates;

revisiting the optimization i talked about earlier- despite writing all of this out in a mad dash of mental strain at 4 in the morning (time goes fast when your rambling), puttering away at what it means to talk good for hours in front of a dimly lit screen, i typically do not engage in tact when it comes to debates. i don't take people seriously. but my reasons are very good i think

i can generally tell when someone wants to engage in a serious discussion vs when they are only here to virtue signal their own beliefs and leave, grandstanding their beliefs over yours with no intention of an actual discussion

i have a limited amount of mental energy and it generally isn't worth spending on spur of the moment internet flamewars

i am a mental optimizer

the last note- i think the ultimate goal of a debate should be common ground. the ultimate goal of a debate should not be to be 'right', but to establish a new, more constructive narrative for both parties. this is the utopian outcome; we take two disagreements, a result of missing information and confusion, put what we know together and pit various bits and pieces of data together, we figure out what is and isn't true based on what we both provide, and in turn we can both walk away smarter

but i know the chances of this actually happening are incredibly low

when i say i love to debate people, it's kind of unavoidable to conjure the image of a ben shapiro emulator running off damaged software. but i really do like it when i disagree with someone about something and we both run off our own reasonings and lists. a good debate or argument is like fencing. it's fun!

and it's fun when both parties use their tact, so that even if a common ground isn't necessarily reached, we can understand the value in eachothers viewpoints, or at the bare minimum ingest enough information to better understand the other person's point of view if we're unable to liken benefit or meaning to their actual beliefs

that's a pipe dream though. it doesn't happen

the ending

now that i've talked about communication skills, autism, tact, and racism, let's revisit the gameification aspect i was going for earlier

level one tact challenge(tm)

is giving someone a little push to do something they already wanted to, like acknowledging it's okay for someone to start doing something they were waiting for confirmation on

level one tact challenges are basically just suggestions that don't require a lot of thought. use tact to determine what it is and then just pull the trigger. you can't miss you just need the basic thought to understand what that person is waiting to hear, or when to shoot

a level two is convincing your friend to take a bite of your food at a resturaunt. the meal contains something your friend normally doesn't like, but it doesn't taste the same it usually does.

i don't typically enjoy or seek out spinach. but when my friend wanted me to try the spinach dip with our nachos, i didn't really have to think about it.

three is convincing someone to start their day when the bed is really comfortable and they're still tired,

four is like... convincing someone who isn't confident that they look good in the clothes they're trying on. you use tact to understand why/how they're self concious, understanding through tact they don't actively see what you see because they see themselves as a worse version of themselves.

maybe you accentuate what you like about it. it's just so 'you', the style matches what you usually wear, it fits you well. maybe more specific, like it makes your shoulders broad in a nice way, or it adds a lot to your side profile/silhouette. use some tact to compliment then in a way they feel good about in order to raise their confidence. sometimes you have to fish for a path that works before you walk down it...

4 is the jumping point in a way, once you get here and above you're actually challenging people, or challenging their preconceived notions or thoughts. it becomes more an actual struggle from there up

a level five is teaching a basic task that is relatively difficult to a child,

level six is a heated bad faith livestream argument,

a level seven is convincing your friend/family to stop saying something they didn't know is insensitive/a slur,

a level eight is convincing your friend/family to stop saying something they're fully aware is insensitive or a slur,

a level 9 is a presidential debate stage,

and a level 10 is actively trying to debate twitter troll about racism being bad or not

if i were to really close my eyes and throw the dart at the board from a relatively close yet still blind distance, i'd say most of the human population can realistically handle a level 4 challenge with some great effort, 5 when they really apply themselves, and then break down at 6 and above, if they even try at all

and a noticeable amount of the population stop at 2 and put zero effort into any further tiers

and to place myself i feel like i could realistically tackle a 7 and below, 8 is possible with great effort. there are also a lot of people who can or at least think they can/are willing to try, but on average i feel like most people wouldn't really be effective communicators when it comes to such challenging situations to be in. remember that winning is communicating and using tact effectively, not just shaming someone for being wrong or etc as discussed earlier

the worst part about grinding tact/communication XP is unless you serially choose which battles to fight (which isn't a bad thing necessarily it just means you're gonna level super slowly) you're destined to inevitably fail. in fact, if you're willing to dissect why you failed beyond just the shame of social failure and reclusion, it's probably the best way to level your skills. you have to have enough skill to diagnose your skill failures. it's a muscle; you build it up, but it has to burn itself before it comes back stronger. and if you don't keep using that muscle, it'll eventually atrophy. failing is normal when trying to progress in anything and that is still true for things like communication skills, so maybe do some self-preparation before actually engaging and get that mental fortitude up before someone takes a wrecking ball to your wall in retaliation

oh, and there's the whole idea that the 'dark side' of tact is basically just manipulation, but then it gets muddy when you try to draw the line sometimes. if your manipulating someone to do something that's good for them and doesn't directly benefit you, are you manipulating them? or are you just using tact? at what point in a debate does your toolbox start radiating sith energy? how many people use tools they aren't even aware radiate darkness, even if it's done with good intent to achieve good outcomes that aren't necessarily beneficial for you?

i mean obviously there's a moral failing, because what you think is good for someone might not be what they want, and if you preside over their own reasoning you're overstepping your boundaries. i think this is solved with safety nets; although i don't like the idea that i have to self-impose restrictions on how i interact with people to make sure i'm not acting on bad faith without realizing it, it's probably more normal than i'd think, and it's better that i'm self aware enough to have that understanding in the first place. but then there's that whole conversation to have about extreme situations and excruciating circumstances; we ban drugs like meth because it's inherently extremely harmful to consume. if someone is fully informed, aware, and conscious of what meth does to the body, and they choose to take it, and you don't let them, are you taking away their freedoms? are you 'playing god' by not letting people hurt themselves? but what do we know is really hurting? when are we supposed to let go?

i think there's a much larger conversation to be had about things like this, but there are some notions i'd like to think about and dissect in the future; ideas like, well it's bad for an individual to do it, that's why we create systems that check eachother for failures before pushing laws like 'no meth' through. even the most obvious things have to be rigorously checked, because at one time, gay marriage being illegal was the result of a failing system. and how much trust do we even put in our modern day legal system? is the 'system' not just a collection of individuals who can be manipulated themselves?

what even is manipulation? control? tact? did i properly explain what tact is in this post? am i being tactful right now and writing something digestible? no, im not being tactful at all, this whole post is catered to how i logically approach things and isnt explicitly 1:1 written for people who dont think like me

putting a cap on it before i completely go off the rails; that whole self-imposed discussion will be it's own post. i hope the rest of this is legible

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