#and I think they're too important to do without having a better base of knowledge

[blackjackkent]

All right, bit of a late start on liveblogging tonight but let's see if we can make a little more progress on Rakha's terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day.

How you doing, Rakha?

Yep.

Some meta points to start off:

Point 1: We're reaching the point in early Act 3 where a lot of things start happening very fast for a little while. We have two back-to-back pretty important long rest things that can happen here - Orin's infiltration and Wyll's showdown with Mizora. As I learned on Hector's run, Wyll's showdown takes priority on the next long rest if you have talked to her after the coronation, but for Rakha I think I'd like to have Orin's shit happen before anything else.

While I am mostly trying to be pretty loyal to in-game events for Rakha without manipulating things too much, I am going to do a little metagaming here to line everything up in the order I want it to happen.

The ficlet I posted earlier today is set the night after the Gortash business, which implies at least a night's rest before everything else starts going off the rails. So we're going to do a few extra things before actually LR-ing and, for story purposes, say they're happening the next day, and then trigger Orin's invasion afterwards. Then we'll talk to Mizora so that all of Wyll's stuff unravels afterwards.

There's no way to get to the Lower City without talking to Mizora, which limits our options somewhat. So I'm inclined to say that after everyone's pretty uncomfortable night post-Gortash-revelations, Jaheira makes the executive decision that they're heading straight to Danthelon's the next morning to get Harper backup before anyone can get into more trouble.

So we'll do that first. Maybe also Sharess's Caress, since we currently have two short rests to play with and there's only one bit of combat in Sharess's that I can think of. And then we're off to Orin Crazytown.

Point 2: With regards to the actual kidnapping - Hector had Lae'zel taken, so in an ideal world I would want to have someone else taken with Rakha. However... I really don't think Halsin or Gale or even Minthara would have nearly the same impact for Rakha as Lae'zel, so I'm going to once again do some metagaming to make sure that happens.

Because basically Act 3 is going to be about heaping more and more bullshit on Rakha and everyone around her. XD

Point 3: I don't know exactly when Wyll's romance scene pops, but the timing might end up being rather strange. I suspect his Act 3 romance is probably sweet as hell, bc it's Wyll, but as things stand right at this moment, neither Rakha nor Wyll are very much in a sweet mood.

So there is a non-zero chance that, when I reach it, I will go through it, save all the necessary caps, and then hold onto it and drop it into the story later in Act 3 when it fits better tonally. We'll play this by ear.

Point 4: The final point is that, with Hector, I definitely beelined straight for Minsc and then Orin pretty much as quick as I could, because I wanted both of them settled in camp ASAP. But with Rakha (especially since with Florrick rescued we're not under a time clock on anything), I'm going to try to be a lot more deliberate about letting her just wander into things and go where she would be inclined to go based on her own knowledge. There are three reasons for this:

I'd like to try to experience Act 3 in a slightly different order.

There's a LOT of random side crap happening in Act 3 and the easiest way to rationalize Rakha bothering with most of it is her being lost and stumbling across it while looking for something else. (That said, some less important stuff still might end up getting skipped.)

The showdown with Orin feels like it's probably a (if not the) climax point for the Durge storyline, so it seems best not to rush to it more than necessary.

So yeah. That's where my head is at on Rakha's story. :D So let's get rolling.

[cappuccino-bear]

Cats, noses, smelling and how my rewrite uses biology to do interesting things

Aka: here's musk babyyyy

When I started thinking of writing xenofiction I wanted to look at how animals, cats in this case, live the world. The first thing that I though of were senses: how do they differ from us?

Reading Warriors, I noticed the cats would often scent or smell things, but looking into real cats, I would see some misconceptions in how the book handled this whole side of cat life. And just putting it in as it is in real life would be cool... but how could I make it better?

Long story short, I came up with a nifty idea based on how cats' noses work: musk.

To explain it better, and show you why I think I made a pretty useful concept, I'll go through these points:

1- Warrior Cats and scent marking

2- a cat's nose and "hidden nose"

3- "layers" of smelling

4-  musk and blood

Click under the readmore to check this!

1- Warrior Cats and scent marking

Aka the Erins are too cowardly to say that cats piss.

If you have any knowledge about cats, you know that their pee is super smelly and they rub on things leaving their smell anywhere. This is because, in the wild, many animals like cats use "scent markings" to denileate their territory, letting their smell be what tells prey, rivals, and other predators that that general place is their zone. It's not the only way to mark a territory, but cats do this so we'll focus on this.

Warrior Cats, in the books, go on patrols to refresh their scent markings... except it's never stated what they even do. What is a scent marking for a warrior? We can assume it's urine and rubbing on trees with their scent glands, but the books themselves never even say it. In fact, the books rarely think of cats as more than tiny quadrupedal humans, which inevitably makes you wonder if it even is scent marking in the "traditional" way.

Personally, with how they're written, I think it'd make more sense if they delineated territory with paint or flags or signals of some kind but I digress.

But scent is so important to cats! It's arguably half of the way they investigate the world! Yet warriors, other than smelling the other clans, or prey, or scent markings, rarely ever describe what's around them through their smell.

One of, in my opinion, the stupidest concepts for Warriors, if you look at them as cats, is the dirtplace, basically an open aired latrine right by their camp where they live. While cats tend to pee in the same places, it's not ONE place, unless you have a pet and give them a litterbox that you clean regularly. Even then, it's recommended for multiple cats in the same household to have separate litterboxes.

Side tangent 1.1- the dirtplace is stupid.

It's an open aired latrine that nobody cleans. I can give you five reasons off the top of my head why it's a bad idea:

1- the camp is next to a pile of shit so everything will smell like shit the moment the wind picks up.

2- if someone is sick someone else might get the same disease just from going to the dirtplace after them.

3- so. Many. Flies. That also could carry disease.

4- a predator, which the cats deal with often enough, will smell it from a mile away and will know that there is a giant group of cats that might or might not become a perfect snack. Or even an enemy warrior trying to launch an attack just needs to follow the poop smell to find the camp!

5- if they do their business there then what the heck are scent markings???

Even without following this whole post beat for beat as instructions of how to write, at least consider removing the idea of a singular dirtplace near camp. Do it for me. Lil old me. You can make it multiple ones around the territory, or a stream so it gets washed away, or even use scent markings and everything else that comes with it.

So, when I started rethinking it, I decided to focus first on what the sense of smell is like for a cat.

2- a cat's nose and "hidden nose"

Cat noses are not just the little leathery triangle we see! There's a reason cat's olfactory sense is 9-16 times higher than humans!

(Noses in general are pretty interesting in my opinion. Even in humans. What do you mean you use it to taste.)

Just through a quick googling and reading the first articles on the matter (so very little effort), I can tell you cat noses have a lot more olfactory epithelium (the internal tissue of a nose) than humans. They also divide the airflow between air and smell particles, which are then divided in even more ducts, making the smelling part super efficient by essentially dividing the task between different nose tunnels and through their 200 million olfactory receptors. For a comparison, humans have 5 million.

Then, there's the "hidden nose", the Jacobson's organ or vomeronasal organ, which specifically detects pheromones when cats pull their lips up a little, in a process called Flehmen response. This is the magic stuff, they can detect different pheromone scents super accurately because they have an entire organ just for that!

This also makes their nose incredibly sensitive to diseases and bad air agents. Smoke especially is super deadly to cats, so keeping that in mind I think cats who survive a fire might still have their nose impacted severely.

Also, this means that a cat not being able to smell is even more of a disability than for humans. Humans with anosmia already have problems like not being able to taste or recognize potentially dangerous substances like smoke or rotten food. It's maybe not as life threatening as other disabilities, but smell impacts our day to day lives without us noticing. Imagine not being able to smell ever, even the good things, and you might already invision a bleak life. Then put on top of that not being able to tell if the air is moldy in a room so keep sleeping in it, putting your lungs in danger.

Cats are this but tenfold. Not being able to tell apart other cats from friend or foes, not knowing where scent markings are, not smelling a dangerous fox nearby, not being able to track prey, not immediately knowing if you're sick or not.

This is not a disability specific post but yeah I think you understand why I put cat smell in high regard as a sense, even more than touch prehaps.

3- "layers" of smelling

So when we think of a smell for cats we could describe it in two layers: the ambient scents, like plants, or the ground, or water etc., and then the pheromones of other living creatures, from prey to pedator to fellow cats.

I know plants also release pheromones but I wanna think that they're different to other organisms' ones. I could be wrong tho.

When I imagine a cat in the forest goes to smell something, I think that they mostly smell the ambient smells until they lift their lips in the Flehmen response, then they can smell mostly pheromones. This means that a cat could "choose" which types of scent they're looking for by using their "hidden nose" or not.

No I am not calling it Jacobson's organ or vomeronasal organ in my explanation, hidden nose is funnier.

This also means that cats themselves can have layers of smells! Their pheromone smell and the smells they picked up around, for example by walking around in the forest, or getting wet, or rolling in a patch of lavender will both be "theirs", but one comes from their enviroment and one comes from the cat themselves.

4- musk and blood

This is where I Warriorify this concept into something I can write with and implement in the culture!

A cat's pheromone smell is what I'm gonna call musk, like a personal scent that a cat has and that varies from one cat to another.

Musk to a cat is almost the same as a name: it's so subjective that you can recognize someone else through it alone. And while all cats have different musks those variations are lesser and lesser the more the cats are related. Humans kinda have that too, have you ever entered a house and it just has a different smell than your own?

When I put blood in the title of the chapter, it's because I realized that this can be an explanation for something that I think is pretty important in canon: recognizing relatives. Cats rarely talk of their family, especially in the first books, and in the later ones the families are so muddled it becomes a mess. So I though, what if they can just tell if they're related in some way? So musks are somewhat "shared" by families, where they'll always smell similar. I think they think it's because they have similar blood to their relatives.

I will also make it so cats are inherently attracted to others with a distinctly different musk, where they'd rather not mate with someone with a similar musk, even if they don't know they're related.

And Clans will have different smells because of what they eat and their enviroment, but the musk of a cat is unchanged from their enviroment. Smelling an enemy warrior will come with both their musk and their clan scent, so even if you don't know their name, you'll know if they're Riverclan or Shadowclan just by smelling!

Scent marking, therefore, becomes more personal, because a cat with a good nose might be able to tell apart each and every cat in a border patrol by their musk in the scent markings. It might even be cool to have it be an intimidation tactic: if an enemy patrol comprised of some random young warriors strays over their side of the border it's probably a taunt, but if strong warriors, or even the leader, leaves their musk there? It might be even more serious.

Also, with the whole blood smelling similar thing: it could come up that some cats from different clans smell strikingly similar, so this could set off alarm bells... but I wanna think that the ambient scent of a cat can cover the musk a bit, making it seem similar but not exactly the same. A cat that only eats fish will probably smell of fish despite their musk, so that could cover what similarities it has to another cat's own.

(Still, I think it'd be funny to have Bluestar try to dodge sitting close to her biological children because then someone might just recognize they smell the same lol.)

Conclusion: cats are smelly, nature is smelly, I'm just leaning into it for my own ideas!

Sources:

https://neurosciencenews.com/cat-olfaction-23557/

https://www.rover.com/blog/how-far-can-cats-smell/

https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/smell-disorders

[fitzrove]

I noticed your tags on the "bad localisation"-post and now I must know the lore... the Finnish translator of Elisabeth didn't speak German???

Hehe, I'm glad you asked!!

Mind you, this production happened when I was a small child, so all I have is second-hand knowledge from the internet (and an audio recording). Also, I may have exaggerated for comedic effect in my original tags lol, I don't know if he genuinely didn't speak it. However...

The guy who translated the Finnish Elisabeth was a very famous (prolific, if nothing else) theatre director and musical translator, starting his career in the late 60s already with a wildly popular production of Hair. Elisabeth seems to be among the only German-language shows he ever worked on - most of it was translations from English and French. ngl I also sort of hate his musical translations from English LMAO - because of how prolific he was, they still haunt the Finnish musical scene today... One big one he did is Cabaret back in the 90s, and a theatre that put a big fancy production on in 2020 actually redid all of the songs and only kept his dialogue because the translation was so clunky lmao. But I once went to the library to dig up his original lyrics to the title song and omg they suck, I wrote better ones in two minutes because I needed a Finnish version quickly ahshshsh. So already, it's a bit of a bad sign - this man is not a translator by profession or training, he's a director who started out doing it for practical purposes, and has a pretty broad set of languages he works in.

But then again - maybe it wouldn't have been a problem, especially since he had such extensive experience. In fact, Elisabeth was the last translation he ever did before passing away rather shortly after (of old age), so maybe I shouldn't be too harsh on him... However, the fact remains that the translation, just as lyrics, is pretty terrible and nonsensical sjjsjsjd.

My initial comment was actually largely inspired by this blog post by someone who actually saw the prod live (from onenightintheatre on blogspot), quote:

It sounded like the translator hadn't really understood German, because many lines sounded like someone had taken a dictionary, looked up the most important words of the sentence and then written a whole new sentence(-ish) based on those words. An example that remained etched in my mind: ("Eine Kaiserin muss glänzen"; Finnish, the Finnish translation in English, and the original German text) Countess Esterházy: Suunne aukaiskaa! ("Open your mouth!") (Öffnen Sie den Mund!) Sophie: Keltaiset ei olla saa! ("[Teeth] may not be yellow!") (Die sind zu gelb, das darf nicht sein!) Elisabeth: Tammalla saa! ("Mare's [teeth] may!") (Bin ich ein Pferd?) So... Instead of asking why they're treating her like a horse, Elisabeth thinks she is a horse and can therefore have yellow teeth? Oddly, "Bellaria" was significantly better translated than rest of the musical and actually sounded beautiful and made sense. There were also factual errors, like Rudolf complaining to Elisabeth that he must get married, when at that point of the story he had, in fact, been married for several years. The translator passed away half a year after the derniere, though, so maybe he wasn't at his best anymore when he did the translation.

As for me, I don't know the Finnish translation by heart, but some of my favourite songs (well, mostly Schatten 2) which I do know by heart also had the ball dropped on them... in that song, Rudolf complains that the court is wasting money on parties (woah good job working in the "dancing around the golden calf" metaphor, I'm sure the original author didn't mean it metaphorically to go with the pied piper thing, he meant literal dancing - though I guess this is accidentally accurate to irl rudolf and his ranty pamphlet on the idle nobility xD) and it's just quite clunky and repetitive overall without getting the main point across too well. Which is such a pity! I mean, translations are hard, but Kunze's work has since been translated into Finnish well, with the references and thematic messages intact, it's not impossible. So in a way, I think this one is a case of someone well-established in the industry getting the job because he happened to be there and have an extensive track record, not because he actually had the skills to make the best possible translation...

Ahsdhsfhfs so yeah. There's no proof that he didn't speak German, but it's my personal theory. Also, according to a few sources, Kunze himself hated this translation......

[furiousgoldfish]

i was also incredibly isolated as a kid (not to the same extent, and now i am an adult and moved out, but i was also homeschooled, heavily [and only really] involved with the church, and i also moved regularly as my dad was in the military)

i’m still working on reconciling the idea that i might have been abused with the knowledge that my parents loved and still love me deeply, and that most of what they did was based in fear for me, or in their own insecurities. and still, i cannot deny the long lasting effects of their “overprotectiveness.”

i don’t know what i’m really trying to say… only that, i’m grateful to see the isolation and confinement acknowledged. that i’m not one person blowing it out of proportion, and that it truly did have the ability to hurt me that much. thank you for giving us that space to recognise that <3

It is very hard to reconcile the idea that your parents both loved you deeply and harmed you on a very deep level at the same time. I think, even if it's based on insecurities, they are responsible for their child's safety, happiness, health, emotional well being and all of the skills to happily live in the world, and if they failed you in all or most of these area, then they failed, insecure or not. The responsibility cannot be on you, you had absolutely no say in any of it. You were the one who was out of experience, who couldn't know what was being done to you, or how badly it would damage you. They were adults, they had time to learn and grow, and if they didn't do that, and ended up putting you in danger, abuse and harm, then that is on them, not you.

I can tell that you love your parents deeply, and that putting any responsibility for your pain on them feels counter-intuitive, ridden with guilt and pain. And that is true for a lot of children of abusive parents, they really know how to make us feel so much compassion, consideration, understanding and love for them, we cannot bear to make them feel guilty or like they've done anything wrong, even when we're drowning in trauma symptoms. But, they never extend the same courtesy to us, do they? When we're drowning in trauma, they have the upper hand to help us, to acknowledge what they did, to admit all of it, to tell us it wasn't our fault, to let us know they're sorry, that they should have known better, that they were in the wrong, that they are responsible for putting us in this state. They have the ability to try and make amends and to put the pressure off of us, to take over that guilt for the things they themselves have caused.

But they never do that, do they? Instead they act incapable of handling what they did, and expect us, the children, to bear all of it, to forgive without being asked forgiveness, to suffer whatever new abuse they have in the store for us.

I mean, I'm assuming a lot here, I don't know if this really is your situation or not. But I do want you to have as much consideration, understanding, kindness and compassion for yourself, as you do for your parents right now. You're struggling, and you deserve to feel like your feelings are important, and to be taken seriously. You deserve to be acknowledged. You deserved to be protected from the evils of both church and military, and it was none of your fault that you were exposed to it. Your parents could have figured it out before giving birth to you, and you've ended up paying for their mistakes, and that is not okay. I am so sorry these people put you thru all of this.

But this doesn't mean you have to do anything, or force yourself to feel anything. If my words feel too painful, you are free to ignore them, and conclude that you know and understand your situation better than I ever will. I hope you take it slow, and that you go easy on yourself, and give yourself time to settle on how you really feel, without any pressure, without feeling like anyone else's feelings matter more than yours in this. I'm glad you came to talk to me about this, and I hope you get more experiences where you get compassion and acknowledgment, because based on what you wrote, I can tell that you did not get a lot of situations where you were allowed to feel like your experience matters. But it does.

[skeletondoggy]

okay writing down my SMTV:V (world's funniest abbreviation btw) thoughts here before I forget. Full spoilers for the original SMT V you've been warned.

OKAY. SO. FIRST OFF WOW I am so so glad they are taking another stab at an alternative scenario instead of just doing either a base Maniax version or the route stuff Redux did. I really appreciate the first game's scenario (as controversial it is) and I wanna talk about what the director said about The Bull and The Snake.

SMT V vanilla is, to me (and friend's I've discussed it with) a game about bonds, the destruction of set standards, and most importantly Being Forced To Go Against Your Own Ideals. The way SMT V twists and distorts alignments and breaks them down is EXTREMELY interesting, but more importantly I think it's important that they don't necessarily Reflect What's Given.

Time and time again the game lets you know this is not the Nahobino's choice. This is a choice of an auxiliary force, and even at the end things don't really land on where they might have. The protagonist is an unwilling figured dragged along in the plans of others to the very, very end. A character that nothing works out for, because they have a fate they must choose.

This is also reflected in Tao's character as well and her lack of agency near the end. While joining Naho is her choice she's...kinda a victim of it all. A saint chosen by Bethel who is used as a martyr figure who then only comes back later, to reveal that she is going to disappear. Everything that makes Tao herself is taken from her, as she becomes a function in the wheel of life and not her own.

The Naho and Tao as figures have the power and fate to change the world, but never for themselves or their own ideals. Never for a better tomorrow, and even when that's chosen they must reckon with a broken throne. Even when Naho desires a normal, peaceful life without divinity in the true route he cannot get it. He is trapped. With Tao as the throne, and him as the lone overseer of all.

This is the bull! It's easy to see, how the horned king sits atop with nothing to share, nothing to love. And this where I'm really interested with Vengeance. Especially considering (guess who) LILITH! Because, in an interesting twist, LUCIFER actually represents the snake who offered knowledge to people in the context of SMT V!

Assuming the other figures within the group will follow suit, I think this is going to be a story about lashing out at the set systems and the snake represents a place of dis-empowerment. A place of rejection, and one where I think many characters are gonna see themselves way, way more active.

In the trailer, Tao says this very interesting line. "You're not along, if you want revenge I'll help you get it." We're then shown a shot of her with Sahori, which means this line is being said there or is probably from another part of the game. But IMMEDIATELY I think it's a very very very big deal to talk about!

Tao as a character is someone who's set into a complacent position through Bethel (and tbh the game too a little), so a self declaration like this could mean a lot of things! On top of this, we see her WELL and alive during the Lahmu section (with Atsuda replacing Lahmus place? Hello?)

Miyazu as well seems to be more directly bitter in the trailer (pleaseee let Khonsu stuff be in the main story lol) which indicates a more direct active role as well! Both her and Tao are very much characters who've been hurt or exposed as weak in the systems that they're trapped in. And fucking hell I'm curious what they're gonna do.

The Bull is a representation of given power, but a lack of control. Thus thematically, I like to think this may mean the snake represents gained power through one's own control. SMT V is a game about the people and their struggles, the way the universe has dealt them unfortunate hands, and how they must brunt this fate even if it is to make them miserable and they never "win". So perhaps this is a story of victory, or clawing for victory as hard as one may.

oh also i think yoko and lilith are def a naho pair lol THANKS FOR READING

[ruthlesslistener]

Yeah I get what you mean. I do find other people's more animal based analysis of the HK gods really interesting but my knowledge on animal behaviour is very limited so I can't engage in it much, typically leaning more into the Man Vs god side of analysis because of that.

I wasn't raised Christian either but I always found that Christian symbolism is an easy way to discuss religious trauma without really going into specifics of my own bullshit. But one of the big things that I grew up with was the importance of submission before the almighty so I decided that thk should have that, as a treat.

Also the Jesus Vs Adam comparison was based on how (from my knowledge) Jesus is a part of god separated temporarily while Adam is an imperfect replica of god, with his imperfection shown through his ability to sin (this may differ depending on denominations so if any Christian disagrees shut up). This comparison was drawn because while hollow is fully a god created from pk (and White lady) they view themselves as an imperfect reflection of godliness due to their sin of thought.

Sorry if I'm not very coherent, what I'm saying is that your analysis is really cool I just don't understand bugs despite being really into this bug game

It's actually something that has hindered my enjoyment of xenofiction on a whole despite thinking xenofiction is really cool? The different ways of understanding and perception between species is rather difficult for me to wrap my head around (honestly just different people having different perception is wack) .

It's one of the reasons I enjoyed hollow knight so much, because it attached religious coding and these themes of death, rebirth, stagnation and eternity that different faiths have pondered to these big territorial animals that are the higher beings and that helped me gain a better understanding of the conflicts presented.

Tldr: them

Again, sorry for answering this so late! This quarter has been going really fast for me so it's a bit difficult to form long responses on time.

I wouldn't worry too much about not understanding bugs much, honestly, because despite you explaining the Jesus-Adam comparison, I still don't really understand it. I mean, I understand it in the context of Hollow Knight, but not in an overlapping religious theme- the thought of lumping Jesus in with God when he's technically a demigod son is a bit mind-boggling to me in an irl context (I was taught that Jesus was holy but not to pray to him bc hes simply the son of God, and he has enough problems to deal with already- why go to the prince when you should address the king in his house) so I'm just gonna go with the flow here and say 👍I get that there's a Christian mythos element in Hollow Knight's storytelling and the overall themes going on in the game, but I'll never be able to fully explain it/intimatly understand it- and that's okay! It means that I have a different perspective and reading on it than what others do, so reading other's analysis remains as interesting for me as mine do for others. It's a win-win scenario!

So! I'm basically where you are about religion in terms of knowing bug/animal behavior and perspectives. That's the view that makes the most sense for me, an evolutionary biologist, but that doesn't mean that it has to make sense for you, because in all honesty animal behavior and the evolutionary reasoning behind it is super complex and variable. Again, the fun is that our gaps in knowledge leads to two different interpretations of the same topic, each which give an engaging, deep, and thoughtful starting point for discussion about Hollow Knight. And hey! A biological perspective on the game doesn't necessarily have to be entirely seperate from a theological one. It's all good and interesting and all contributions are important as long as they're considered deeply and done in good faith. We still end up getting the end result of a traumitized Hollow either way, lol

So yeah. Them :)

[cleverthylacine]

That good old interest-based advertising. Also, Headmasters. And my brother.

I have a confession to make and that is that I actually do allow interest-based advertising because:

I don't have much to hide

If they don't take my interests into account, the things they try to sell me because I'm a lady (albeit an NB one) over the age of 50 make me so fucking depressed I could scream but I don't have the energy. I would rather they know way too much about my Hot Topic purchases and robot and doll collections than get ads for ... what advertisers think old people stuff is. By all means display your incredibly unsettling knowledge of my id and sell me robots and things that look like robot dicks and fashion dolls and fancy clothes...instead of trying to sell me adult diapers and cheap insurance that actually isn't. And homeopathic remedies for problems that I may or may not actually have, but I also know that homeopathy is BULL$HIT.

Anyhow this is brought to you today by;

"Yes, shopping app, I would absolutely love to have that self-transforming remote control Grimlock, he is hella cool and very cute and I really do want him but....first you're going to have to find me the $1700 plus taxes and shipping that I will need to acquire before I can hit that button."

G-d help me if they ever do Soundwave with a little Ravage that comes out of his chest and also transforms.

In other news, Headmasters is still fucking stupid and I still fucking love it.

IDW did all this binary bonding with aliens stuff. I actually do find "Fortress Maximus can turn into a giant head and make his spaceship sapient" much easier to understand.

It's just the plots of this show that are dumb.

Giant Venus Flytrap in a San Francisco office building

Let's blow up Mars

Let's make a big important detailed plan and not tell Scourge and Cyclonus about it, because it's not like they're guaranteed to fuck everything up if we don't.

Kiss Players had a better plot than Headmasters, when they actually like, were doing the plot and not panty jokes.

Also I still after 20-odd years want to scream at Carly and Arcee in this show. I know it's a product of 1980s japan but like, if the grown men/male mecha are unable to do a job, it's frustrating to watch Carly send Daniel or Arcee send Wheelie to do it, because those are children and Arcee and Carly are not.

As a non-Chromedome-liker, I am also amused at how dumb he is in this show.

My brother has developed a new and annoying way of asking for money that I've already told him I don't have. He calls my mom and tells her that I won't help him, so then I have to tell her, too, that yes I just got paid, but they raised the price for the medicine I need to brain from $5 to $40 because they don't like the dosage my doctor prescribes, and the landlord has my rent cheque in hand and is presumably going to cash it, and I also need to eat.

She understands this, at least. I just feel bad for her.

I feel bad for him too, but nobody told him that he needed to rent a U-Haul and move the second he got his new lease without asking either of us if we could afford to help pay for it (we can't.)

[emblazons]

I like reading theories here (and i like to theorize on my own too) but I just kinda wish there was more "realistic" Bylers here who theorize about what actually migh happen in terms of character arcs and story and relationships in the next season. Because when it all comes down to it, we will have to arrange our expectations regarding what is most likely to appear on our screens in S5. And I just feel like there are not many blogs doing or considering that. I especially agree with you on this-- reading Bylers' analyses and theories before vol2 really meddled with my expectations and it feels like the majority of our fandomside just went overboard and focused on what they wanted to see instead of what was likely going to happen or happening in story's direction and that is why the majority of Bylers misunderstood things or just got very disappointed or got shocked by what happened.

I feel like majority of the Bylers are still misreading some things in the plot (that being Mike's characterization most of all) and that because of that reason, many people will get blindsided again in S5 like they have in vol2. Because people expect and want to see certain and specific things about characters and plot, and they are setting themselves up, so it kinda feels like ppl just going to be disappointed again by certain things due to them not actually considering Duffers' intentions and writing style/choices.

That is why I wish there were more "realistic" Byler blogs in this fandom who do not go overboard or do not get too attached to their headcanons and do not build up way too specific expectations based on those-- i feel like it would honestly be the best way to get ready for S5 and arrange our expectations in this community for what is likely to come in the next season.

I agree! Honestly, I can appreciate people wanting characters to be the kind of people they can relate to or enjoy (or more specifically fleshed out than this ensemble cast of characters allots for sometimes), but when you combine that with a sense of "I know better than the writers" a lot of people have, it leads to either vast disappointment or bitterness, which...idk. Maybe I'm just good at managing my hyper-fixations with logic/ who The Duffers are as people, which makes me more lenient LMAO

Especially in terms of the Mike characterization bit / how a lot of theories don't really align with the narrative so much as their desired characterization of him...I can deeply empathize with why people think certain things about him, but the way I see a lot of people still analyzing based on single looks from Finn in S1 scenes or off of another post where someone cherrypicked 45 seconds of a scene without the whole episode or season as context...like, I just feel like they're setting themselves up for upset. I obviously also have my own preferred interpretations and I do definitely think some people are better at pulling and synthesizing important bits of the narrative / details into a sensical way than others, but...like I said in another ask, I'm not holding anything with an iron fist.

Lately I've just stopped waiting for other people's analyses for any new knowledge + have started working on my own Mike analysis (kind of a companion / extension of this concept I started for Will + Dustin) where I talk through the narrative setup of his character for S5, less so than whether or not I want him to be gay/bi/end up acting first etc (just because....be the change you wanna see in the world LMFAO). I've already written several posts about my perception of Mike's arc + his characterization outside of any strict interpretation of things like Finn's looks or his labeled sexuality, and...that's how I'll continue to process his character for as long as it makes sense to lol.

--I'm also entirely unsure how I became the spot people went to talk through their feeling weird about how theories are made in this fandom, but! I appreciate you all trusting me with your honest opinions haha

[quietwingsinthesky]

Wait now I'm curious, which characters would you bring back for your fun self-indulgent fic?

first and foremost is that by the end, all angels have been restored to life. they're a little fucked up and traumatized and disoriented by all of it, but they're alive and ready and willing to start fixing heaven to not be a torture cult. archangels especially. this is mostly their mess, they're gonna fix it. special mentions go to uriel because i need his interactions with lucifer's children, that would be insane.

second and also obviously to me is charlie and kevin. they're. they're fine. they're literally fine, their deaths were stupid and pointless and they're fine. i guess by nature of the rewrite rowena hasn't died yet but like. she also falls under this category. crowley too.

oh! and meg! absolutely meg! very important to me that if this is a story about lucifer's kids, that we address the elephant in the room of demons Also Being That, Sort Of. and like. megstiel endgame. megstiel endgame is so real to me. they get each other. they have both done some fucked up shit but they tried to be better and waaah. there is no castiel confession scene in this au because things do not get that dire but if there were, he'd be giving his confession to meg.

now we get to the slightly more complicated choices. first up, bobby & rufus. because they are a pair, do not separate, ect ect. i love death's door as an episode but. i feel like we all have to admit that without bobby there was a huge hole in the show that logistically they filled with the bunker (home base + knowledge) but like. fuck that, man. let that old man live. let him be grumpy gay married with rufus. let him meet his grandkids who are technically lucifer's kids but whatever, it counts.

and jo and ellen. jo. and ellen. and. on the one hand, by s13 where do they fit, is it cruel to bring someone back after that long dead, but on the other, they deserve a chance. plus, maybe ellen and mary can bond over the whole dying and coming back and being moms thing, even if ellen's was a significantly shorter tenure in death. and jo trying to fit in with sam and dean when she's still so young... yeah. i think they should come back.

(and also nick should be. around. but like. very much not how he was written in s14 im so sorry my poor meow meow murder man but i find you significantly less interesting the more the writers pushed for you to be evil)

that's all the characters i can think of rn, but yeah. moral of the story is that Everyone's Fine. Highly highly traumatized, and that's part of the point, but like. they're alive. they have the chance to keep going. that is what matters.

[a-tiny-frog-girl]

greetings

your ghost files au,,,,

do you have any hcs for it, or maybe just general g/t ghoul boy thoughts? :0

- brick

Yes!! Thank you for the ask!!

For the uninitiated, my ghost files au is a g/t story wip I'm currently working on in my free time!! The plot is based off the hc that the reason the ghoul boys are never finding anything is because Shane is actually a very powerful supernatural being himself. The story is basically that Shane is a demon and has to go back to his realm of hell every now and again but this time Ryan follows him. Demons are gigantic compared to humans and that's where the g/t comes from :)

disclaimer: I am not christian and all my knowledge of this sort of thing comes from people retelling me stuff

NOW FOR THE HCS

:readmore:

Shane is a chaos boi. Originally as a young demon he did a lot of crazy stuff (that's why he has so much power today) but kinda settled down over time. He took a trip into the human world to get some ideas and became fascinated at the free will of humans and the absolutely ridiculous things they do with it and decides to protect them as best he can.

Then Shane meets Ryan and he starts spending more time in the human world than in hell because by the gods he thinks he's found the most chaotic human and he is in awe of his new best friend!!

(extra lil secret hc, Ryan causes much random shockwaves of chaos that Shane just takes credit for back in hell. Hell thinks Shane is back to how he used to be when he was younger.)

Shane also has to do a good amount of redirecting the demons' hatred of humans. The demons all think they're better than everyone, especially humans, so fraternizing with them would be a sign of weakness and any crack in the armor can let in a weapon.

So back in hell, Shane has to pretend to be this evil human hating guy to control his underlings while also keeping them from doing anything too shitty.

Some world building: Demons have an incredible amount of power in hell, but a lot less in the human world. Their whole deal is trying to cause as much chaos/harm as they can with only tiny amounts of power and without blowing their cover. They also want to trick as many humans into giving themselves to hell as possible, because then they can mess with that human to the full extent of their power.

Bonus angst: Shane is an immortal being that lives in hell and is best friends with a human that he wants to go to heaven when he dies. The demonic nature of Shane's being constantly flares up and tries to convince him to keep Ryan for himself so they can be best friends for all of eternity, but Shane fights it because he wants better for his buddy.

random hc: hell looks like a giant but otherwise normal office building

Demons are born, not made, so Shane is basically a completely different type of being than Ryan. He doesn't need to eat or sleep, it's more of a habit or an indulgence.

A good amount of the time, a shit ton of immortal beings above Shane's level of power have their eye on Ryan. Shane is aware of this but can't do much about it so he just shields Ryan from what he can.

i.e. Shane and Ryan go to Starbucks together before filming and Shane takes one look at the barista ('s holy glow that only he can see) and goes "Hey Ryan, why don't you wait in the car, this might take a sec."

Ryan thinks he's the most normal guy in the world, but he's consistently being tracked by the most powerful demons AND angels because Shane follows him around like a lost puppy

luckily for Shane, the more powerful a demon/angel, the less they care about the specifics of how things are done. Basically, as long as their side comes out on top, they don't give a shit if one of their guys is being incredibly unconventional. They have more important things to worry about. Shane just has to make sure he doesn't get too high up on the importance list.

[qllie]

people who don't understand ai in the slightest talking about it oh...

like my english class was talking about ai yesterday and jesus christ. like people talk about ai like it's a guy in the computer and like. no. if you think about ai like a person you're gonna be really stupid about it regardless of whether you're for/against it....

like ai doesn't lie to you, it doesn't "make stuff up." because ai doesn't "understand" your question. when you say "ai research this for me" it generates what would appear to be an appropriate answer to your question based on what's in it's database. so basically it's not doing "here is the answer to your question based on my research" it's doing "here is what seems to be something you would want me to say in response to your question." so that's why it "makes up sources" because its like "this is what a source would look like" not "ah this is the website i got my information from."

i feel like that's why a lot of people say really stupid stuff about ai. "ai teaches me physics" okay it can. but you'd be better off with pretty much any semi-reputable online tutorial (or just talking to your professor during office hours or going to tutoring). because ai doesn't "know" physics. it's giving you what looks like the correct response to "teach me physics." so it could be completely factually incorrect because it's NOT A TEACHER!!!!

also stuff about "what if ai takes over the world????" sounds really stupid once you realize it's not really "computer thinking for it's self" and it's actually "computer generating sentences based on it's database." like ai can't take over the world just unplug it lol... also i don't think ai is being used for anything currently where it would even have the capability to make incorrect decisions that would massively negatively effect The World.

like idk it's very frustrating to have people talking about benefits/negatives of ai without realizing what the hell ai is....

like i think some of the internet AI panic comes from not knowing what it is. like the "all ai is bad guys it's gonna take us all over" is very dumb and bad!!! like ai mapping the ocean or ai working medically is cool and good!!!! because those aren't things humans could do anyways!!!! (or at least like. quickly/in the scope of a lifetime like super repetitive calculations or whatever).

I think there's also an issue with people who fucking love ai like crazy not really paying attention to where the data comes from. like first of all i don't think your work (artwork, writing, even genshin shitposts on tumblr) should be thrown into an ai database without your say so. but also the data set is important because it has the biases of it's dataset!!!! i mean i know this was a thing with facial recognition a while back where it would largely falsely identify black people because the dataset was mostly white. and like that's a thing that matters!!! so like the ai that you feed the internet is not a "rational unbiased machine with limitless knowledge" it's a computer trained on human bias!!!! so it'll have that too!!!!!

also part of my thing with ai for certain things. like writing essays really (thinking about this cuz we were talking about this in class). is like. don't you want to do your own work? like idk i don't love writing, but do i really want ai to write my research outline for me? my book report? like i want to express my own opinions i want to think for myself!!!! actually!!!! like they were basically saying in my english class "let ai write the outline but not your paper you have to write the paper" but like. the outline is the fun part!!!! that's where you think about the problem and put your ideas together!!!!

like i'm always reminded of that one tumblr post (i'll find it and reblog it after i write this) where someone asks the tattoo artist "do you let ai design tattoos for you" and they're like "do i let ai eat my dinner? do i let ai sleep with my wife?" and it's like yeah. why would i let ai do the things i want to do myself? and like if ai is writing your paper outlines in school are you even really doing anything?

like sure I'm an engineering student so writing an essay about themes in a book is not really applicable to my career or whatever. but i think.... well i think being able to think critically is important to my career or whatever. but even ignoring that IT'S NICE TO THINK ABOUT ART AND WRITE OPINIONS ON HOW IT SPOKE TO YOU!!!! IT'S NICE TO RESEARCH A TOPIC AND PUT TOGETHER YOUR OPINION ON IT!!!! YOU KNOW? like also those are probably important skills? maybe researching lung cancer or whatever isn't necessarily applicable but learning to identify reliable sources and synthesize what they say is important!!! for like. for example looking for best appliances/headphones/computer whatever!!!!!!

i mean this is more of a rant about people who don't ever want to get anything out of their school work not really ai at this point (you could do the same thing with cliffnotes or something) but idk i just Don't Get It.

also there was kind of a very short discussion at the end about ethics of ai with stuff like child labor, explotative pictures of children in data sets, requiring massive amount of energy (pollution also more computers and computers are made of chips that generally require child labor in dangerous conditions). and it was kind of pushed aside. and i was thinking about that. like why are we able to push that aside?

like for me personally when i open my phone im not thinking "oh the poor child slaves that died to make this" im thinking "time to text my sister" right? and it feels normal but it seems like it should be really weird???? like why don't we care about these people suffering in favor of "new awesome technology"? why is it so easy to push them aside? this is more of a philosophical question i don't actually know the answer. but it's so odd right? like we (note i am including myself) get so excited about new technology and stuff without thinking about WHO HAS TO BE HURT TO MAKE IT. like idk i feel like having shittier computers would probably be good if it meant less child labor?

i mean even for things like strikes or whatever you'll always see people like "this is inconveniencing me idc about the workers being hurt i want to use the trains or whatever." and everyone will get mad at those people for being assholes or whatever. which to be clear i do think they are assholes. but like aren't we all doing that to some extent? i mean i have a phone you have a phone.... but i guess phones have kind of been made necessary to function in society. well in some countries. the one i'm in. like without a phone you can't get a job (they have to call you) you can't sign up for most email addresses, you can't do a lot of things...

well this is more about living in a Society than anything. i hope you enjoyed my rant i guess. i always end things like these with questions i don't know the answers to.

[psychelis-new]

Hello! Hope you’re doing well.

I wanted your opinion on how accurate you think a personal tarot reading is?? There’s this tarot reader I was acquainted with on YT, loved her content & when she shifted to IG I begun Following her. She replies to everyone when they comment under her readings & so we would kind of chat too. I took a chance & asked her about a question that was nagging me & it’s no problem at all if she can’t, but would be nice to have an answer etc. She vv sweetly gave me the answer to that Q in a tarot reading!! Without being asked! As I’ve been supportive of her & her journey etc. since the beginning… Anyway, my Q to you is, how accurate do you think personal tarot readings are?? And do you feel that when your energy changes, so will your tarot reading??

Hello! It was very nice of her, indeed. I think that, after some time, it becomes natural to be willing to give back to those who really believe in your work and support you constantly. So glad she did that for you!

As I was mentioning in the last reply, I think a reading's accuracy depends on the connection between querent and reader. And by this I don't mean how much/deeply you two interact (ofc this can strengthen your connection anyway; even just continuosly being around their work/consuming their work can already help them pick up your energy better), but also on how good they actually are at picking up your energy and what you need to know at that time (=your answer). I mean: a reader you may have been interacting with for a while (not just about readings but like even messaging about whatever) may not be able to give you answers on something you need to know at a specific time, while another you may never have interacted with may be able to. Not to mention at times some readers are simply blocked out of some energies, like they cannot read them or get too accurate answers for whatever reason as well.

So yeah energies work in very weird ways: some readers may just work better for us (also at a specific time in our life) than others. For example I had been following this reader on YT for a while, but then I suddenly had to give up, half cause I didn't feel her readings were resonating anymore half for other reasons (I think I was being triggered and needed to heal something even if it was just energy-wise mostly). Anyway after a year or two, one of her videos popped up in my feed again and I decided to give it a try: now I am following her work again as she's resonating a lot with me even if it's only pacs. And I have never interacted with her in no way. My explanation to this is: it depends on if and how well our (querent & reader) energies are on the same plane at a certain moment in our life. This includes personal experiences too: we readers also base ourselves on our personal experiences/knowledge to express what we get during readings, so if we're not enough aware about a matter, we may have difficulties at picking it up correctly, we may miss the main point and result not too accurate; but it's also about the querent and how able is to grasp/welcome a specific answer and give it a chance. At times accuracy depends also on the querent's feelings/opennes about a message (ofc it depends on the subject of the question, some things may just be objective).

In my case, the more I make experiences and try different things, the more I learn/read about anything I feel like and gain knowledge, and the more I know myself (which is pretty important imo for readers, also to separate their own energy and problems from the querent and build boundaries with them too), the more my readings grow and may get more specific/particular messages too. At the core, they're still trying to share positivity and guidance in most cases, but I feel they can give more in some ways. It may be just an idea ofc.

Anyway, with the second question I think you may also mean if a reading may change in accuracy whether I'm doing good or feeling down? I generally don't do readings if I'm not in a at-least-okay mental state: it's of no use to drain my last bits of energy (which I need to get better), it won't help the querent nor me. And for sure I would struggle being accurate. But if I do pacs when I have something slightly troubling me and I just want to distract myself, it's not a big deal: I am channeling other people so I'm not in there. Knowing myself (and after some years of practice), I can understand when I have to say no cause reading could affect me (even potentially trigger me) and what I channel or when I can do it anyway and know it won't have consequences. I can also ask my Guides if it's okay for me to read and what/how and get guidance myself about it (it happened that I felt like doing a reading but they blocked me and it turned out I suddenly got tired or I needed to do something else -bless them). But anyway when I'm reading for other people, my energy is not included so it doesn't change anything.

Hope this helps somehow! Have a good day/night :)

[faithisleaping]

You don't need to disagree

When coming out to friends and family members or talking to them about my gender quest, I keep hearing some variation of, "We probably disagree but I still love you." I think what people intend to communicate when they say this is that they value our relationship and love is more important than an opinion. In reality, those three little words "we probably disagree" carry far more weight than the words that follow and the opposite is communicated. It's a clear indication that you're afraid to fully engage because doing so might scuff your perfect little worldview. It's betrayal with a kiss. It's a stab in the back while giving a hug and saying "I love you". Sure, you can make up a movie plot in which someone really is stabbing their friend out of love but this is life, not the movies. If you really love me more than your opinion, change your damn opinion!

Am I taking it too personally? I don't know. Should Neil Armstrong take it personally if you think the moon landing was fake? Should the families of the Sandy Hook victims take it personally that Alex Jones told all his listeners that the shooting was made up? Should a black person take it personally if you think that white people are inherently superior? Should a female scientist or engineer take it personally when they're told that girls just aren't as good at math and science? Should a def person take it personally if you think their inability to communicate verbally is because they're stupid? Yes, they all should. For you, as a cis/het white abled person who's never been to the moon, those are merely opinions that you can have and argue about at no personal cost. For them, they're life-defining things that definitely happened and there's no room for disagreement. As such, that contrary opinion, which costs you nothing, has the potential to do them great harm. Your pride may even be putting their life and well-being at stake.

Also, exactly what is it that you think we disagree about? Leaving it nebulous doesn't really help. If anything, that's worse because now I can't even have a discussion or try to educate you or defend myself. I've been told you think I'm wrong but not what you think I'm wrong about.

Do you disagree about whether or not I'm trans or have gender dysphoria? Upon what, exactly, would you base your contrary opinion? You're not in my head. You don't know what thoughts are playing up there. How are you to form an opinion without that knowledge? All you have is what I tell you and if you're coming to different conclusions, then you're either claiming to be a psychiatrist or you're saying you don't believe me. That I'm lying.

Or do you think gender dysphoria isn't real? That it's just my sinful mind lusting after some kink. Well, I can guarantee you that's not what it is. I've spent decades trying to explain it away that way and I've examined it from every possible angle. If there's one thing I'm absolutely sure of, it's that it's not a kink and it's not the sin of lust. Maybe you're not sure what sin it is but you're still pretty sure it's wrong. Then on what grounds do you condemn it? Are you really willing to bet your soul and my life (or at least our relationship) on that "pretty sure"? There's a lot that's unclear in the Bible but I'm 100% sure that no one is going to hell for loving too much. You don't need that opinion. You'll be fine.

Are you disagreeing with how I'm handling it? Are you really ready to say that you would definitely do differently, better even, if our roles were reversed? What exactly should I be doing differently? Clearly you know, oh great sage. Enlighten me with your great wisdom from beyond time. Maybe you don't know that you'd do better but you're still sure I'm doing it wrong. In that case, you're just being arrogant and judgemental. That's not love.

Maybe you think we disagree about the ontology of gender and what it means to be a woman or a man. That would be pretty hard given that I don't have an opinion for you to disagree with. The ontology is ridiculously hard and there are no clean answers. I certainly don't have any. Or do you think you have the ontology of womanhood all sorted and it clearly doesn't include me? If so, I'd love to put your ontology to the test. I guarantee you I can blow it to bits in under 5 minutes.

I know this all may sound aggressive but I have to be. I've already spent decades locked in a prison of guilt and shame because of those opinions—because I gaslit myself—and it was slowly killing me. No more! If I am to live, I must live free.

Or maybe you think I'd be better off dead with your definition of an intact soul than alive with whatever you think it is that I have. I'm not going to respond to that one. I'm just going to let you sit with it.

Or maybe you foolishly think I'm exaggerating and that I can somehow find some sort of contentment while still not upsetting your morals. In other words, that I should just try harder. If that's the case, allow me to ask a counter question: How much must I suffer before you believe me? I've already been through decades of hell on earth. To how much more of that hell would you sentence me in order to satisfy your disbelief and pride? How much of my suffering is your pride worth? If there were a reasonable alternative, I would have already taken it and we wouldn't be having this discussion. Every trans person I know would tell you the same. No one wants this.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to one question: Do you believe me? If you do, you'll be willing to either set aside your foibles or put in the work to reconcile them with what I've told you. If you're holding out and leaving room for disagreement, then you don't. Maybe we haven't talked enough to know what you think I'm lying about but there's something you don't believe.

If you're struggling to understand, that's okay. I get it. It's okay to struggle. I've spent years, decades even, struggling with these things. I still don't have satisfactory answers on a lot of things and I certainly don't expect others to somehow magically sort it out faster. What I do want is for you to engage and struggle through it together with me rather than hold me at a distance because you don't want to get your hands dirty. If you don't want to struggle through every issue, that's okay too and there's a path for that: just don't care. Contrary to popular opinion, you don't need an opinion on everything. The final state of your immortal soul isn't dependent on having correct opinions on everything. It's okay to say "I don't get it but I believe you" and take what I say at face value and carry on. You won't burn in hell for it. But when you say you disagree, you're claiming to have an opinion which is in conflict with my existence or freedom and which you're not willing to lay down. That hurts.

That's lesson 1 in loving queer people: take what they say at face value and love them for who they are. (Lesson 0 is that we exist, whether you like it or not.) More than that, lean in and learn to love them for their queerness rather than in spite of it. I think you'll find that variety really is the spice of life and that having their queerness in your life makes your own life better and brighter.

[theimaginatrix27]

@cloud-frost said:

My friend was a teenager living in a super white rural area of the UK so I don’t really blame him. I doubt he had ever met someone called Bashir. But also you ought to gain enough general knowledge at a certain point in your life to realise that someone with that name probably is Arab.

Okay, for clarification's sake, because I do feel this does need it.

I live in Australia, and I had met children from non-white families who had emigrated to my country in School. I did not grock this, I was blind. My brain would go "Oh, that's a pretty name, that's a nice accent, oh they're a nice person, friend!" I didn't think about skin colour of people I met, I wasn't taught that was a thing to be thought about when talking to a person. Imagine if I had, and I'd just randomly asked someone I'd just met, "Hey, is your skin brown? Because you have this name I've never heard before and I wanna know." I dunno about you, but that sounds rude AF to me.

I think I did grasp that Bashir was an Arabic name early on. But, and here's the thing, because I didn't think about this as often as a sighted person would, I didn't associate Arabic with brown skin. I associated it with particular accents. I hope this isn't making me sound worse, but I'm explaining it as best I can.

So I'd hear an accent. I'd go, "Okay, this person is English. That person is American, that one is French, that one is Indian," based on accents. Unless some context clues were given telling me "Oh, this person is the kid of that one and they have this accent 'cause they grew up in X location."

I'm a lot better about this than I was as a teenager, but before I came online, I didn't have many people to discuss shows I liked with, and when I was watching things, I'd just. Pay more attention to the story. With Julian I was not thinking "His surname is Bashir, which means he's Arab, which means he's brown," I was thinking "Oh, I like his name, it is pretty. Oh, he has a nice voice, I will just listen to that. Ah, plot is happening! Gotta pay attention to that! Wow, he's really clever! And he annoys people sometimes but I like him! Oh no, he has a tragic past! Now I'm invested!"

And I never talked to anyone about his nationality because for the most part, it was not plot-relevant. He was Julian Bashir and I loved him and I wouldn't have cared what he looked like at the time if I'd been told, but I wasn't told, because I didn't ask, because if I was watching the show with anyone, it was because I was at my dad's and it was important to not talk much during his shows. And I was too interested to talk much anyway. And the rest of the time I just watched the show alone!

This isn't the only fandom I did this in, I did it in Yu-Gi-Oh, with the Ishtars. Then came up with a story idea that required many cast members to be siblings for story reasons, and was gonna add the Ishtars to the big family, but one of my friends, who I then had only just met, gently explained, "Honey, no, they're Egyptian, they're brown, you can't just make them related to lighter characters even in an AU." (Paraphrasing.)

I must reiterate that I never intended to erase someone's race by thinking this way. It just wasn't a question I asked. It wasn't something I actively thought about. I got to know characters, and people, as people first, without ever seeing their faces.

Of course, now I'm extremely very mindful to keep track of the race/ethnicity of any character I'm going to write about, because I have entered the online fanfiction community, and have many stories planned, and am scrupulous about details because if I'm writing about something, I want to do it right. And I do care, deeply, about the possibility of fucking something like Julian Bashir's race up, because I am working on myself all the time to make sure I don't hurt someone else in any way. I am as anti-racist as my mother, who raised me, but I am also a flawed human being and I can, and have, fucked up. I would like to do it as little as possible, especially in online spaces.

@saturnsexual and @cloud-frost

I want you both to know I saw your replies on the post about character descriptions in wikis! I also wished to respond to a couple points without derailing the post in question. :D

I freaked out when I first started realising everyone was all "Cardassians are totes lizards!" because I have an OC in one of my Trek AU ideas who is a quarter Cardassian and I was like "So when do the scales stop being scales with mixed-race descendants?" (The answer is probably "Egg-laying lizard aliens breeding with mammalian humanoids is already biologically weird, you are over-thinking this, dear.") Thanks for the clarification about the make-up though! I knew there was make-up involved, just not how much detail was provided with it. Appreciate clarity regardless!

*shifts awkwardly* So, real talk, and please don't judge, I was a baby (teenager really), but I, too, once believed Julian Bashir to be white. I blame the accent. It's not a good excuse, there are people of colour in the UK, but I'm pretty sure that was my reasoning for the assumption. Of course the surname is obviously very not-white, and Julian is a lovely shade of brown, and his eyes are pretty, and I know this thanks to fanfics and helpful friends, and I love him so very much. TLDR, sometimes (a lot of the time) us blind folks can make stupid assumptions, and if we're trying, that can get better with age. It certainly has for me.

[sapphireswimming]

The Empty Moon Is Now Awake

send me a made-up fic title and i’ll tell you what i would write to go with it

Well this definitely seems like a Gundam 00 fic haha.

But I can’t decide if it would be about the Innovades, centering around Ribbons’ moon base in season 2 and all of the planning and plotting and intrigue and betrayals happening there

Or around Celestial Being’s base at Krung Thep, looking at a lot of background behind the scenes work necessary to keep the strike team running. It would probably focus on the interim through the events of season 2, although it should honestly be a lot further reaching than that, going back to pre-show stuff, to really get the feeling I think it should have to fit this title

But I just don’t know enough about the rest of Celestial Being (or the Innovades either, honestly) to be able ot really flesh this out the way I’d want

At least not yet

[fangirl-erdariel]

Ok this is just me overthinking things that were never meant to be thought through and are just a result from the Shire being inspired by a much more recent time period than the rest of Middle-Earth, but. It just occurred to me that in both the Hobbit and the LOTR, there's a mention of there being a clock on the mantelpiece in Bag End.

Which just makes me wonder who made it? Like, correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is that clockmaking historically was (and still is) a highly skilled, specialized trade that required a lot of specialist tools, plus pieces of clockwork are quite small, intricate, and need to be made very precisely to be useful/function right.

So I just wonder, were clocks something that hobbits imported from dwarves? After all, dwarves seem to have that level of craftsmanship that I'd find it plausible for them to have the know-how to make clocks. And we know that dwarves did sometimes travel through the Shire, and Blue Mountains, which aren't unreasonably far from the Shire, still had some dwarf cities by the end of the Third Age, so trade between hobbits and dwarves seems plausible in terms of that too. But on the other hand, at least as far as I recall, the dwarves don't seem to have/use clocks themselves, or have any other clockwork-based mechanisms in regular use, which kind of speaks against this theory. On the other other hand, though, we don't really get to know a lot about dwarves or their technology, so the fact that we don't know any examples of them undeniably having clockwork-based mechanisms in use might not mean much.

Or did the hobbits invent mechanical clocks themselves? As a people, they're not really known for skill at craftsmanship, so one could argue that clocks would have been beyond their skill, but they have to have had the skill and knowledge to make at least everyday things required, from scythe-blades and door hinges to watermill parts and such, as well as equipment needed to make those, because having to import those would not be very practical. And all things considered, aside from a few specific instances, Shire was left in relative peace for most of its history, and looks to have on some occasions weathered troubled times better than most other societies in the same part of the continent. So that prosperity would give people the time and leisure to tinker and try things out and innovate, so maybe at some point some hobbit with the necessary skill set tinkered out of curiosity with the right things to come up with clockwork mechanisms, and someone else at some point figured out how to make it useful, or something

And then there's of course the borderline crack theory possibility that the Númenoreans had some technology similar to the Antikythera Mechanism, and that knowledge/technology remained among the dúnedain in Arnor long enough for the hobbits to get it from them, decide they didn't really have that much use for knowing the positions of the stars in the sky on a given date in the future, but they found a way to build on top of the technology to make a clock for showing the time of the day, and the technology was lost among northern dúnedain when Arthedain fell, or something. But this one opens up the possibility that the technology was not lost in Gondor and was possibly improved upon/taken to its own direction there, and I don't want to be the one to try and go through the possibilities that could lead to

Anyway, please tell me your theories on this and feel free to build on this, this is just dumb rambling without any head or tail about things I was probably never meant to think this much about in the first place, because I'm procrastinating on actually doing any useful shit rn, but I was just randomly struck with the thought of "hold on, where did hobbits get clocks from anyway when no one else seems to have them?", so, yeah. If you have thoughts or headcanons on how common clockwork-based mechanisms are in various cultures in Middle-Earth, I'd be curious to hear them :D