#and in the op of that posts defense. at the time they made it the comics hadnt actually said how surge and kit were created

[stealingyourbones]

Out of all of the people The Ghost King Phantom expected to relate to, it definitely wasn’t the scrawny red headed photographer of the Daily Planet. Jimmy Olsen has gotten so many temporary superpowers over his time being Superman’s friend. Hell, he once gained a 4th dimensional being’s reality warping abilities when he was given said dimensional being’s powers during a fight. Sure there’s a dozen or so heroes with the same amount of powers he has, but none as suddenly granted to them as a all powerful god that can relate to a teenager.

[sonknuxadow]

tbh the most annoying part about that whole sonic is canonically trans because he has a girl clone thing that gets spread constantly is that the misinformation can be traced back to one specific tumblr post that went viral and got reposted a bunch of places. if that one person hadnt made that post i wouldnt be seeing this particular piece of sonic misinfo being spread on every site ever

[space-station-nursery]

◜ ❗𓂃 Space Station Reports ‧ ❕ ◞

⁺　　◍ 　 . 　 ⁺　　☆　　⁺ 　 . 　 ◍　　⁺

DO NOT INTERACT WITH @KODASWRLD

now that that's out of the way, we will be discussing NSFW briefly in this post, please make sure you are reading when in a safe mindset. All moots will be tagged at the end for further reach, i apologize to anyone i ping who does not like to be pinged[/g] however this is a serious topic to me and i want this to reach as far as possible

⁺　　◍ 　 . 　 ⁺　　☆　　⁺ 　 . 　 ◍　　⁺

Beforehand:

Hello kiddos, this is a more in-depth report from the one we made [here] about the up and growing agere creator Kodaswrld. I found their[i cant remember their pronouns rn] blog a few months ago, and absolutely fell in love. I loved their dividers, their text posts, and all the freestyling on their blog!

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September:

On september 10th, 2024, we created a post called "Agere Backpack ideas"! The next day [Sep 11th, 24], while scrolling through a creator i also thoroughly enjoy, i saw a post they had reblogged.... It was our backpack ideas, but it wasnt written by me... in fact, it was re-uploaded by someone who i thought created interesting content. I commented under the original post to take it down as we did not consent to our work getting re-uploaded. They deleted our comment. A few days later after fd calmed me from my panic attack, we sent an ask to take down our post as we did not consent to our content being reposted. At the start of our blog, i did have "do not rewrite" on our blog, however because nothing ever happened, i took it away when we changed into the space station nursery. They deleted our ask. a week or more later [unfortunately i dont remember at this point anymore] They closed asks under the guise of "getting hate"

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Current:

After everything happened, fd scoured around to create a blacklist. At this time, i had finally calmed down, and was ready to blacklist. Before we got to it tho, i saw a post created by another agere creator in which Koda had stolen from. This creator asks that all followers or people interacting report if their content was being reposted, as koda had taken one of their posts, and it got SIGNIFICANTLY more notes, as well as Koda copying their DNI banner, just changing the font and small images on the side:

Original post that Koda stole, at the time, post had at max 200 notes, minimum 150. OP name and pfp covered for privacy

Copied post made by Koda. Notice the amount of notes it has [if you check] 740 notes

---

This is not the only instance of this happening with Koda, and no "but they add credits" is not a viable defense here. We did not tell them they could do this, and they did not ask, by the looks of all posts, they didnt ask ANYONE to use their posts. The little credits at the bottom is also hard to see, especially by those who are visually impaired. I had an almost blind friend check out their post, and that friend couldnt even see the credits without us zooming in and circling it for the friend to see. Thats a problem. And people who see it but dont think much of it [like me] will not click the credits. I didnt. and i apologize to those whom i contributed to as apart of the problem

⁺　　◍ 　 . 　 ⁺　　☆　　⁺ 　 . 　 ◍　　⁺

So what else needs to be discussed?

Well, before we get to the NSFW they interact with, lets go with the tracing and stealing. Thank you to the person that sent us this [will not name for the safey of the individual but they are free to comment and let you guys know! They sent a non anonymous ask but still, yknow?]

So-.... Proof?

This is a screenshot sent to us that shows a user by the name of @/b4bybear_ , crediting their BF and CG @/SEABUNE for creating an image we all know and love, and have MOST LIKELY SEEN amongst agere intros [all blue markings have been made by me]

As you can see in the second image, the user is written on the bottom, exactly how its written on the twitter post. This image is widely available, and many many individuals use it..... However, Koda didnt seem to care

As you can see, Koda NOT ONLY traced, changed a singular item, and erased the original creators credits, they then wrote their own name on the bottom and claimed this post as their own. And no, changing one thing on an art post while still tracing everything else is not "creating your own content" or "taking inspo" This is blatant copying. This is further than just stealing text posts, they are stealing

ART from other sources [nsfw below]

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And now, the NSFW....

Kodaswrld does have their following open, meaning that littles, middles, and anyone visiting their blog can see who they interact with. These are some of the blogs they currently follow, and content they post/reblog:

@/slvttyfied

@/firstladyofjuicycouture12

Whilst being 18+, there is nothing wrong with interacting and following NSFW content and blogs. However if you are running a blog with a minor following [not small amount of people, minors. people 17 and under] you should not have your follows seen if you are interacting with this kind of content. Minors are curious, and you are exposing them to things they do not yet need to see or know about. Especially when kinks/hard kinds are involved. I am 21 and fd is 22. We will NEVER, allow nsfw blogs or rebloggers to interact with our content

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Final thoughts:

Through our mini blacklist, we have found out that koda knows what they are doing, and are actively avoiding discussing it. We also learned that they ship real people [called rps or "real people shipping"], and for having almost 800 followers, do not deserve it. Please, spread this far and wide, show your friends, you moots, reblog it even if it doesnt fit your aesthetic. This person NEEDS to be stopped.

⁺　　◍ 　 . 　 ⁺　　☆　　⁺ 　 . 　 ◍　　⁺

Our moots: @oftlunarialmoon @nostalgic-woodwind , @zimswife , @deesblanketfort , @angel-bunnie @aprilsmabelmaple , @diaryofalittlestar , @h3ll0everybby1 , @xx-raines-space-kindergarten-xx [hi raaaaine]

[pseudophan]

mods deleted the reddit post lmaoooo 😭😭😭 thank u for screenshotting while it was still up

yeah the rundown is basically people ran to the post from twitter and tumblr to argue with her, she kept copy pasting the same responses as she got progressively more defensive and transparent (lol a lot of 'you only disagree with me bc you're all lgbt' and some weird complaints about buzzwords and anti-leftist bullshit), the mods finally locked and deleted the post with some horseshit about how they don't tolerate namecalling to which people were like ? ok first of all what took you so long and also are you just not gonna mention the homophobia? which first made the mod in question defensive like "we have our own lives" etc etc and then said posts critiquing dan and phil are allowed lmao? which again made people mad because okay sure it took awhile whatever we can see past that but fuck do you mean critiquing them. how is "they talk too much about being gay" a valid critique. so then in the end the mod was like okay yeah bad wording we locked it bc of the homophobia and the fighting that broke loose in the replies, and the namecalling in question was largely caught by the automod so it wasn't visible in the thread itself. sure, cool, whatever. op got banned and the post is gone i guess that was the main goal

poorly handled in classic reddit mod fashion but i'm just gonna let it go and hope if there's a next time (hopefully not but) they'll be less spineless about it

[badaziraphaletakes]

We've got a wriggly one

Love a good "Ooh I'm probably going to make myself unpopular here" at the opening of an offensive post. We're off to a very good start.

If you have to preface your take with four paragraphs of disclaimers explaining how not-ableist you are, then I Have Got Some News For You

"Before you accuse me of being ableist"... I have literally never heard this phrase not followed immediately by a giant ableism, and this is no exception

"I'm not." That's not how this works. It's something we all have to fight against every day. No one is just "not ableist". We all have ableist biases that we need to work hard to be aware of and keep in check. If you think you're just "not ableist", period, end of story, that's concerning in itself.

Disabled people can literally still be ableist (and saying otherwise is in itself ableist). We’re all products of an ableist society, so we all have structural internalized ableism inside us. Just because you are not aware that you’re doing it doesn’t mean it’s not happening. It can be unconscious. It very often is.

"I've been a disability advocate for years, so I'm entitled to tell other Disabled people how to feel about their own representation" quit weaponizing your Disabled identity to oppress other Disabled people, also, I can already tell I literally never want this person as my advocate, ever

7. The Autistics never, ever need or want alltistics to speak on our behalf, so if you're not Autistic then you are most welcome to shut absolutely and completely up at your earliest convenience

8. “This is as close as I can come to being gentle"... I have an alternative theory, which is that OP could, in fact, manage to be gentle if they really tried. For example, I do not have to be scathing right now in this reply. I am doing it because that is a choice I have actively made.

9. "I say things that people misunderstand" is never a defense. Most of the time, it's victim-blaming. And by the way, if this isn't a defense for Autistic people (spoiler alert: it's definitely not), then it sure as hell isn't a defense for alltistics.

10. "This isn't meant to invalidate people's opinions" *Spends the whole post invalidating people's opinions*

11. "Unless the book specifically says x, y, or z, you're not allowed to... say that something is ableist" umm wow

12. If Autistic people say a character (a character written by an Autistic author, no less) is Autistic-coded, then yelling "no they're not" at us is a very concerning thing for someone to be doing. To anyone doing this, just think about a. Why you feel the need to talk over Autistic people about that and b. why it bothers you to have people say that character is Autistic. Seriously, take some time and think about it. And also - if you can't see how Aziraphale is Autistic-coded - how did you miss that lol? Also also - how is thinking a character isn't Autistic your "personal experience" of that character that you feel the need to cling to? ...That gives me the ick.

13. Calling someone out for doing something ableist is not "name-calling".

14. "If someone read one of my [books?]..." I'm assuming this sentence ends "I wouldn't want people deciding one of my characters was x, y, or z". Well, guess what? - If it's a book you're finished with, then it's out of your hands what people do with it now. And if everyone from the autism community is saying your character is Autistic-coded, then guess what? Congratulations, you inadvertently (or, I suspect, advertently in NG's case ^^) wrote an Autistic-coded character! Seriously, take some time to read about what "coded" means and how characters are coded as Autistic. We're not saying Azi and the Starmaker are literally, conically Autistic. We're saying they're Autistic coded. And we’re saying he has autistic traits that autistic people identify with, and calling him selfish or cruel or lacking empathy or emotionally unintelligent (just a few of the common autism stereotypes that people have flung at Aziraphale) or things like that BECAUSE OF THOSE TRAITS is ableist.

When Aziraphale struggles socially and people call him selfish or stupid because of it, how am I (someonewho struggles socially every damn day) supposed to take that?

IN CONCLUSION: In trying to tell marginalized communities why we're wrong to think certain takes are offensive, people invariably end up just saying a bunch more offensive things - and in doing so, prove exactly the point we were trying to make in the first place.

[yannaryartside]

Sydney is also trapped in the freeze response.

She is permanently on the brakes. Like Rooster in Top Gun

Let me explain. (Spoilers for top gun maverick)

The character arc of Rooster in the movie revolves around the fact that he is always stuck on “defensive, preventive flying” in the sense that he lacks the initiative to make the risky decisions that are necessary in combat scenarios. The root of this issue is obviously fear, because his father died on someone else’s choices, and he doesn’t want to make a decision that could cost someone’s life.

I am starting to think Syd may have the same issue. I was reading a post about Sydney’s inability to make a decision on the partnership agreement (I can’t remember now I will tag it if I find it).

But the op expressed very well how Sydney has basically been offered the opportunity she has always dreamed of (Shapiro's offer was better but came in later). Still, she postponed the decision while she played the resistance game the whole season against Carmy’s antics. It's like a boxer trying to fight the distance. The conversation she had with Luca in the last episode about “a friend you went through a battle with” seems to connect with this idea. Then, in the end, she has a panic attack and thinks about the people she cares for at the Bear, how they have grown, and the battles they have endured.

I am going to say something that may be controversial: I think Syd has not grown significantly since she came to the Bear. Or, to put it in another way, she has not reached the version of herself that can make it in this industry on her own. The version that could conquer the obstacles of the plot that are designed to change her. There is a reason we don’t see a new version of her in comparison to when she came to the Bear for her first day.

She has taken on new responsibilities and has conquered them. But I believe she has not shown us anything that was not already inside her. She did not change like Richie (that went from unreliable to indispensable and caring, specially with her) or Nat that accepted the restaurant being a good thing for her family and herself, or even Fak, Marcus and Tina, that once thought of themselves incapable of the things they have accomplished.

Whatever beliefs Sydney has about herself that pull the ultimate brakes for redefining herself, she still has them.

She is and has been for a long while a patient, honest person that extends grace to others. And because they were given accountability, support and understanding, people around her were able to grow. That is what the flashback is about. She made a difference. She built something, and yet, nothing seems to feel solid for her.

I wonder what all of this could mean

The brakes analogy

There is plenty of analogies about driving in the show. We have Donna crashing her car on her family’s home, the dream of Cicero about driving out of control and crashing with Carmy’s dad in it (there is something there). Claire's reckless driving, the mentions of her being an adrenaline junkie in some aspects (she used to shoplifting, her job). Like a comparison to people that live life like reckless driving (addiction and other issues).

Meanwhile, Syd was a professional driver. She has a tattoo of her mothers car in her back. She described what “crashed” her business as “going too far, too fast” She even drives Richie because he got his license suspended (reckless behavior). Sydney is perceived as reasonable, mesaaured and reliablee. A good driver (metaphoricaly), but…

Is the show trying to tell us that she is a person who may have a hand in the brakes too often, in the sense that she may freeze in a moment when acceleration is required? In creative careers, you often have to take risks, and you will fail most of them, but what is she a fraud to lose this time? What has she been afraid to lose this whole time?

She even acts like “the brakes” of the plot in moments of chaos. She asked Tina to slow down and completed her task on Doors, and does her own, putting the pace of the kitchen in a “under the speed limit”

She makes Carmy slow down and stop his spiraling thoughts. Yeah, she is the brakes if the car, but she applies them too much on herself. Hope that makes sense.

[matan4il]

Most of the time, I don't bother talking about the hate and harassment I get, because I don't think haters deserve the attention. The person I'm gonna write about definitely doesn't deserve any, but they've started harassing others that I know of, not just me.

So this is basically a warning post for Jewish bloggers and bloggers who are allies to Jews, and a request for anyone who can, to report and block this person (if you want to warn other bloggers, then please consider a reblog, too). @staff, This is also for you, proof of a pattern of harassment and abuse. Please do something and protect your Jewish users and their allies.

They first commented here, denying the antisemitism of Hamas, with the url @grizzlyismyspiritanimal and they seem to change their url quite frequently. For now it's @fancowboy but expect that to change again. Since IDK if Tumblr will let the mention (@'ing their url) hyperlink to their blog, here's how you can check out what their current url is, so you can report and block them. Go to this post where they're tagged as @grizzlyismyspiritanimal and hover your mouse over their url, you'll see their blog pop up no matter what new url they changed to. Here's a screenshot of what that looks like:

Here's their first comment on my post, along with my reply. Tumblr arranges these comments with the oldest at the bottom, click to see the image better:

Of course they never provided a link sourcing their claim, instead they provided a link to an op ed, which was not written by anyone affiliated with Hamas. This link did not support their claim that "Hamas specifically stated," but that didn't stop them from ignoring the fact that they couldn't prove their claim. Next, they repeated an already refuted antisemitic conspiracy theory (and I linked them to a refuting source, which they just ignored), while using strawmen arguments (attacking statements I didn't make). Obviously, none of this addresses the point actually made in the post they were commenting on.

When I called them out on the antisemitism of their whole narrative, they pulled the "I can't be antisemitic, because I'm Jewish" line of defense, while also bragging in the same comment about not going the easy route by doing that:

I no longer believe people who say antisemitic things, and then use this defense, after several have been proven to have lied about being Jewish, but more importantly, and this is the point I made to @fancowboy, Jews are not immune to internalizing antisemitism, and repeating antisemitic narratives. But I was curious whether there was any sign of this person having any sense of a significant Jewish identity on their blog. When I went on there, one of the first posts I came acorss was an antisemitic one, claiming that Jews have stolen the Star of David from the Muslims... I know there are a lot of anti-Zionist Jews out there, and that many of them are very capable of saying antisemitic things, but I don't think even they would endorse this false claim.

What's ironic is that the post shares a screenshot from Wikipedia, which explicitly mentions that this Muslim kingdom that existed in the 13th century AD (roughly 700 years ago), adopted the six-pointed star, due to the Muslim belief that it was a symbol on the ring ("seal") of King Solomon, a Jewish king who lived about 3,000 years ago. In other words, this post literally points out that Muslims borrowed this symbol from Jews, not the other way around. And just for historical interest, the first archeological find of Jews using the Star of David is dated to the 6th century BC (around 2,600 years ago).

I pointed out to @grizzlyismyspiritanimal / @fancowboy that I no longer believe they're Jewish, because I don't believe any Jew would reblog this antisemitic lie. In response, not long after, this "I'm not a coward" and "you would've blocked me (aka fanatic)" person blocked me. Instead of addressing what I said, or taking responsibility for their wrongdoing, and deleting this antisemitic post. Our exchange started on Jan 5 IIRC, this post was reblogged by them on Jan 4, and as of Jan 25 it is still on their blog, as you can see here (post and current date highlighted in this screenshot):

A minute after they blocked me from the above blog, they commented on my pinned post with links to my fandom content from another blog, @verygardenerland and this comment made it clear that it was the same person. I made a mistake, I wanted my fandom space free from antisemitic harassment, so I deleted that comment, which means I don't have that piece of evidence that it's the same person, but I do have another bit of proof. Remember how this person claimed to be Jewish? This is how they presented it:

(again, using a strawmen, I never said all Muslims are terrorists, and never would, because it's simply not true, and if anyone made that claim to me, I would be correcting them)

Well, this is the VERY similar way @verygardenerland talked about their supposed Jewish identity, in a post they made solely to harass and DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) me:

Jews were almost completely ethnically cleansed from Muslim majority countries, so the likelihood of a random online stranger being a Jew from a Muslim country is generally incredibly low to almost non-existent, and two who just so happen to both harass me on my blog one minute apart is probably less statistically likely than winning the lottery.

It's poetic irony that the one comment the above post got from another blogger, is someone else also calling this person out on the antisemitism of what they're saying:

Gotta love the bonus misogyny with "bitch."

I'm also going to offer you this following antisemitic comment (which distorts the Holocaust, and refers to Jews insultingly as "the chosen ones"), which I also don't believe any person with an actual Jewish identity would make:

And here's also one of the last comments this person made from @fancowboy before blocking me on that blog and continuing from @verygardenerland. Just notice how we have the same antisemitic abuse themes from both of these blogs:

Once more, extra touch of misogyny with "that much of a pussy."

(I have to address the white phosphorus claim. There are 2 ways of using it in battle, one legal, the other's not. Israel stated that when using it, that's only in the legal way. There is no record to show the contrary. People just exploit the fact it's used, to pretend it's automatically illegal. But I accept this is an antisemitic libel against the Jewish state, that sadly some Jews might repeat. The rest is what makes me think this person isn't Jewish)

@verygardenerland noticed I write fandom meta, and harassed me on these posts. Here's one example:

Then they searched related tag/s, and proceeded to harass me by calling me names in comments they left on random posts from other fandom members. These are posts that had nothing to do with me. One of the people on whose post they were calling me a Nazi is someone I have never even spoken to. The OP deleted the harassing comment, but this time I did get a screenshot before that, so here it is, as an example:

Now, on top of all of the above, @verygardenerland also started stalking my main blog at the same time they made their first comment from this url, as well as my two back up blogs. One's last post was on Mar 2022, the other's on Apr 2021, so it's completely pointless to follow them, other than as an intimidation tactic:

And they sent me anon hate. The thing is, they made it explicitly clear through what they said and the language they used, that it's them. They sent more than one message, but the one I'll attach here was obviously meant to freak me out the most, because it falsely starts out as a fandom ask, and then transitions into abusive language, as well as telling me there's more blogs they're stalking me from, basically making it clear that even if I block this url, I'll still not be safe from their stalking and abuse:

From a certain point on, I told them that whenever they make a comment to me, all I'll do is just remind them repeatedly that they're an antisemite, which is exactly what I've kept to. That's when I even bothered to respond. I postponed blocking their second blog, 'coz I wanted to put this post together first. Now I'm done with them.

To wrap this up, here are some final screenshots of their antisemitic abuse, how they obsessively comment on my posts, or posts that in their mind are related to me, and how they have started directly addressing random people who are commenting on my posts, telling them not to talk to "it," meaning they're also using de-humanizing language when referring to me, and of course once more employing the DARVO tactic by accusing me of that which they're guilty of:

My activity feed yesterday:

And not just yesterday. Love the bonus hateful language towards those who are disabled...

And this is just one of their comments on a post simply mourning the death of Israeli soldiers, and putting it in the context of multi-generational Jewish trauma:

To summarize again, please:

report and block this person

reblog this post if you feel comfortable to, in order to warn others

@staff please do something to stop the abuse. Thank you in advance!

[canon-can-fight-me]

TFONE s/i lore dump 🫶

There might be TFONE spoilers so if you’re planning on seeing it, skip this one!

Okay so you know that post I made a few months ago where I explained that some iterations of my TF s/i are a reincarnation? Well…meet Karina! You’ll be seeing more of her when I learn how to draw TFONE OP who is on the backlog because of all the other versions I’m learning to draw.

Lore dump under the cut!

Aaaanyways, currently Karina only exists in two continuities, one of which is the Oneverse. So this applies to the film only, though there are similarities between her and TFP Karina.

- Despite Kaiyo being her reincarnation, she and Karina and quite different. Karina is an alien from other planet (don’t ask me the name I haven’t thought about it too hard 😭). Her appearance changed drastically as when her was on her home planet she was one of their top soldiers, and even went by a different name. She had short, cropped black hair.

- She didn’t really enjoy her life there, as she was mainly a soldier because of her natural talent and because she struggled to think of anything else to do with her life.

- She is jaded and pretty closed off, using snark as a defense mechanism basically because her feelings were always shut down.

- So basically how she meets OP is she becomes part of a travel program (think like studying abroad) and absolutely falls in love with Cy.bertron’s inhabitants and environment. Finally, a chance to start anew on a different planet, one where she can leave her past behind!

- However, unbeknownst to her, she is part of an effort to form a military alliance with other planets, so the seemingly innocent travel program is darker than what’s on the surface. Also she has a complicated relationship with Sen.tinel that I haven’t flesh out quite yet it’s very toxic.

Anyway, enough angst, let’s get into how she meets/gets together with O.rion! ☺️💖 (again, some minor TFONE spoilers)

- Okay so the film starts with O.rion sneaking into the archives, right? That actually happens to be where he and Karina meet in both continuities (under different circumstances). Karina was given partial access to the archives, so she was able to bail O.rion out one time when he was sneaking in there.

- At first, she was very blunt and closed off with him, but he quickly wore her down with his cheery and genuine personality. Like that chair video I rbed yesterday is their dynamic. She’s relucatantly charmed by him and finds him refreshing. Finally, someone who isn’t just interested in her usefulness. Someone who doesn’t ask for anything in return for kindness.

- He, being the curious guy he is, is fascinated to meet someone from a different planet and offers to show her around, and they quickly become friends. She also becomes close with D-1.6 (which makes his betrayal hit even harder because she considered him a good friend too).

- Once they start dating, O.rion is always trying to do sweet things for her, which Karina is not used to. She tries to reciprocate in her own way, but she’s not used to it. Agh I don’t have everything fleshed out right now but they’re both really cute at the start of their relationship.

- I’m not sure how their relationship changes once he becomes a P.rime, so stay tuned for that because there is only tragedy ahead for Karina. It’s okay though because they’ll find each other again in a few millions years ☺️💖

[sleepisapriviligethatidonthave]

MegOp Week 2024

Day 1: Memory/Gift

Continuity: Generation One

Rating: General Audiences

Relationships: Megatron/Optimus Prime

Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence,

Idiots in love, Enemies to Lovers, Established relationship, Fluff, Domestic Fluff

Summary: Optimus is being sneaky and Megatron is annoyed.

In the end, both of them get what they wanted

Also posted on: AO3

Check it out on ao3 if you want to see the Notes

Enjoy! ^^

Megatron leaned against the railing of the balcony and sighed.

It had been a rough decacycle, but luckily, it was his off shift tomorrow. If he had to listen to Starscream's screeching one more time, he would need to find himself a new SIC.

He had gotten home just in time to watch the sunset. It painted the horizon in colours that made it look ethereal. The balcony had the prefect view of the newly reconstructed parts of Iacon, which shone beautifully, a stark contrast to their still ruined counterparts. It never failed to make him proud to see the bots on the streets hard at work during the day and socialising during the night.

If Optimus was here, he would've let out one of his melancholic sighs as he tried and failed miserably at not being sentimental.

'Heh, always the fool.' Megatron thought to himself, chuckling softly. Where was his conjux anyway? He ought to have come home earlier than him. After all, he had slipped away from the last meeting for the day with some lousy excuse that he wasn't feeling well, and Megatron knew damn well that was a lie. The glitch refused to ever get sick, and it somehow always worked.

He contemplated on comming his mate, but decided against it, he wanted to catch him 'red handed' as those humans said.

Megatron huffed, he never understood Optimus' infatuation with those ugly little fleshings. They brought nothing but helmaches to them all.

It made him smirk, he could almost hear the defensive tone of his Prime as he valiantly defended the pests.

In the end he decided on reaching through their bond, feeling the emotions of his mate, which were...giddiness? What was Optimus up to?

His curiosity got the better of him

::What did you do?::

::Whatever do you mean, love?:: came the innocent sound of his lover's voice through the comm line.

::You know damn well what I mean, now spill it.:: his words held no actual malice aside from his annoyance. He was way too tired for this.

::Don't be a killjoy Megatron. You'll learn soon enough. Also, if you are hungry, don't wait for me.:: Optimus sent waves of reassurance and love through their bond, soothing Megatron's souring mood.

He chose to stop the conversation and instead wait for his mate's return. Slowly he made his way into the kitchen, taking a cube and filling it up almost to the brim, before moving to sprinkle a generous amount of tritium flakes. Hook would have his helm if he found out, but oh well, you only live once, right?

He sat himself on one of the stools around the island behind him and took out one of his personal datapads from his subspace. Might as well do something for himself.

_____________

A joor later he heard the sound of the entrance door open, inviting in a suspiciously happy Optimus Prime with a plastic bag in servo.

"Look who decided to finally show up." teased Megatron, setting down his datapad and stylus.

"I got held up, apologies for that." He made his way to Megatron and kissed his helm crest.

"I see that you listened to me for a change." Remarked Optimus and set the bag on the counter right beside Megatron's empty cube, before making his way to the energon dispenser to make one for himself.

"Do pray tell Prime, what took so much of your time?" Megatron made no move to touch the bag, instead opting for a facade of indifference.

"A few days ago, I had to go to the hospital, remember?" Megatron gave a grunt in acknowledgement, urging him to continue.

"Well, on the way there I saw the most peculiar sight," Optimus made his way back to the counter and opened the bag, pulling out a box with a silver bow tie on it, "a confectionery shop." said the Prime happily.

"When I was heading back, I made detour and went in there. The owner told me that she had set up the place not too long ago and I ended up placing an order for today." He took the lid off of the box and gave it to his mate.

Inside there were quite a few different assortments of sweets, it took all of Megatron's self control not to drool all over them.

"What's the occasion?" asked the ex-warlord suspiciously, ever the cautious one, all the while not tearing his optics away from the candy.

"No occasion, I just remembered your love for everything sweet and decided to treat you to something nice." admitted Optimus and let his field wrap around his stunned mate, letting his unspoken feelings of adoration known. "After working so hard I thought that you deserved a reward."

Megatron looked at his Prime silently, contemplating him as he hesitantly took one of the green jelly-like sweets and popped it into his moth, he almost moaned at the sickeningly sweet taste of what was apparently a magnesium flavored one.

It had been so long since he'd had the chance to indulge with such things that he couldn't help but stuff another one of the candies into his intake, this time, one with a hard outer shell and a gooey inside, that tasted like lithium infused with cobalt.

Optimus settled on the stool right beside Megatron, sipping his energon silently as he admired the sight of his mate's optics, alight up with happiness.

'I ought to do this more often.' thought Optimus to himself.

After half the contents of the box had disappeared into Megatron's tank he finally slowed down. He leaned back on his stool and let out a content sigh while he nibbled on a bismuth covered copper cake.

"Enjoying yourself?" asked Optimus as he took one of his Megatron's servos and intertwined it with his, stroking it with his thumb.

"Very much so." Admitted Megatron as he finally swallowed the remains of the treat in his servo. "Though I do wonder why you haven't touched a single one yourself."

"I didn't want to take one that you might enjoy, and besides," Optimus opened his subspace and took out another two boxes, "I brought plenty."

The way that his sparkmate's optics sparked with happiness made him feel like the luckiest mech on Cybertron. He took a few quick snapshots and saved them to a folder named 'Sparkmate: beloved'.

"Oh, how thoughtful of you." muttered Megatron, as he attacked the rest of the sweets with such viciousness, one would think they had done something to offend him.

Optimus let out a low chuckle, catching the attention of his mate whose intake was full of rust sticks. Megatron cocked a brow ridge at him, looking puzzled.

"It's nothing, I'm just reminiscing."

_____________

The first time he got a glimpse of Megatron's love for sweets had been an accident.

It had happened some time after the official end of the war, the leaders and their entourage were wrapping up a trading deal with another species on their home planet.

Prowl had advised him against going and leaving Cybertron without its leaders, but he had persisted.

The aliens themselves had been very respectful, welcoming even. They had given them accommodations that were their size and had even supplied them with decent energon.

One late night he and Megatron had stayed up, arguing over some clause of the agreement, entirely inconsequential, but Megatron had persisted that it was important.

After joors of arguing, they finally came to something resembling an agreeable compromise. While Optimus was clearing out the carelessly discarded datapads, from the corner of his optic he saw Megatron reach for one of the sweets which the aliens had so kindly gifted them with.

He stared silently at his soon to be mate as he bit into the sweet.

If he had been a less observant mech he would've missed the way his frame had relaxed a fraction and his optics hooded. It had been a surprising sight, bit not an unwelcome one.

Megatron froze in place, seemingly remembering that he was not alone in the room. Optimus made the split nanoklik decision to play dumb, "Are you ready to go? We spent way too much time on this, and I wish to retire for the night.”

Megatron gave a grunt in response, grabbed his datapads and made his way to the door, not waiting for Prime.

When he knew that he was out of audialshot Optimus couldn't help but let out a chuckle. That had been an interesting reaction. He debated silently with himself whether he should try and replicate that again, this time on purpose.

_____________

Optimus let his EM field envelop Megatron again, assuring him of the truthfulness of the statement. He only got a huff in return before the mech turned his attention back to the now almost empty box of sweets.

'Yes,' thought Optimus to himself, 'I really should do this more often.'

[cthulhubert]

Reading the original Vampire Hunter D novels was a very fascinating experience that I can't actually recommend to anyone.

In most ways, they're very straight-forward pulpy adventure stories. Nothing about the plots or dialogue are compelling. The translation is competent at least.

But the world building is fascinating, rife with fun little details.It's like the author, Hideyuki Kikuchi thought of some off the wall stuff and threw it in for aesthetics, but then comes up with background to explains it, and then actually builds on that explanation, rather than leave it as a fig leaf.

The books are set post post post apocalypse. Humanity nearly wiped themselves out in a nuclear war, so the vampires and other creatures of the night came out of hiding and ruled for ten thousand years... and then started slowly but steadily declining. No longer strong enough to have total control over the world, but more than powerful enough to topple humanity's attempts to organize.

Humanity is in this weird pseudo-medieval state except they also have stuff like cyber-horses. Why? Because that's how the Aristocracy (the v-word is gauche) liked it!

Humanity has been genetically engineered with psychological blocks, such that if they ever learn about the vampires' great weaknesses (other than the sun: garlic, crosses, holy water) they'll immediately forget them!

It's ostensibly "pure sci-fi" because there's no magic. The story is clear about this. Vampires just have novel biology. That gives them telekinesis. (And hemokinesis too. I've always thought that should be a fundamental vampire ability. It's how they slurp every last drop of blood out of a human without needing to like suspend the body and let them bleed out. They also soak cloaks with the blood of virgins over the course of decades and end up with one they can control, to turn into shield or sword.)

D is your classic pulp-y OP protagonist (I compare him in my mind to Doc Savage). Made from the gametes of the Aristocracy's greatest scientist and genetic engineer (whose name also starts with D, wink wink nudge nudge), and his lover: humanity's greatest psychic. He was implanted with a parasite engineered to not take over his body and be helpful instead. He inherited an indestructible sword crafted by the greatest swordsmith who ever lived. He's equipped with a supercomputer in a pendent that can auto-hack most technological locks and defenses. He uses the same cyber-horses as everyone else, but because of his "ability to commune with their inner natures" can wring double performance out of them.

What started me thinking about this is the dhampir like protagonist of yet another forgettable Isekai story (actually, this was a "Returner" manhwa, a genre much more popular in Korea now, which involves people reincarnating back from isekai worlds, or traveling back in time, etc). This guy, like the protagonists of many stories, is so overpowered he is a geopolitical super-power embodied in a single person. That always takes me out of the story, because I can only think about how much responsibility that would entail in my mind, and these guys just use it to fuck around.

[blankd]

The Common Language(TM)

Saw a post trying to explain how Common (a... common language) exists in fantasy settings and (I assume) DnD. I personally disagreed with OP's interpretations as they funneled explanations into two camps:

-Humans are so imperialist they made everyone else speak it (a travesty to act like humans are the center of the universe again)

-All languages form Common out of trade necessity, BUT the words contributed retreat into fantasy stereotypes (orcs are warriors, elves are artisan waifs, etc.). Which, IDK guys, at best it comes across as over-explaining US English with extra steps and baggage.

Now personally, I treat languages in my own campaign as mostly geological*- because I'm running a campaign, not writing a book/wiki/conlang.

*A few languages are bound to their speakers simply because they don't have humanoid mouths, eg: Primordial is spoken by Elementals, AKA sentient elements, etc.

Naturally, this led to wondering how the existence of Common could be a larger feature that could be interacted with. While conlangs can be fun, they are often treated as fossils when players probably prefer to walk among dinosaurs.

Note: This is written through the lens of DnD/a fantasy TTRPG, but it could probably function elsewhere with mindful tweaks., build according to your preferences.

In this scenario, all cultural languages exist, but a reverse tower of babel situation occurred. So now the world has a large magical tower that gifts all sentient humanoids (PCs/NPCs) with Common.

For World Flavor:

The immediate obvious possibility is that several nations/peoples agreed to collaborate on this, it's up to you if any individuals are named. But since it was so long ago, that might be lost to time. Or maybe it was recently completed! Regardless, is the tower a Wonder that is communally protected or does this responsibility fall on a certain group?

Or is the Tower Divine? A gift from a god of language, a god of peace or something else entirely (a god of venom who wanted to afford all mortals the ability to hurt each other with words, etc.)? If it is divine, what is the story that explains it? Is there a faith that worships the Tower (and its god)? How do people who may dislike this god reconcile the benefits of the Tower with their distaste for the deity?

Or is it an (inter)national archaeological mystery that is currently being studied? What has been hindering progress? Is it people (who has right over this) or something more otherworldly (supernatural defenses)?

Or maybe it really is just a funny little quirk of the world- a team of wizards bestowed the world with a lingua franca for an easier conference since they don't have time to learn other languages, back to other stuff!

For Conflicts/Hooks:

Is it housed in the current world's seat of power (or was a superpower built around it)? Is this fact used as a Divine Right to be an Authority over others?

Are new words added? Does this affect magic with Verbal Components? Is this how the world's spells are created? Are expeditions sent into the Tower to attempt to add more spells? Have magical words (spells) been lost (or removed)? Does this mean the Tower is ALSO the world's seat of magic?

Can Mundane words be lost? Does this somehow erase *all* instances of this written word? Or does it remove their inherent meaning and Essence (eg: if the word Sweet was lost, would all things cease to be sweet or would sweetness slowly bleed out of the world as sweet and its synonyms are eroded? How would the remaining languages try to preserve this concept in reaction to the Tower?

Was this word loss an accident or intentional?

Is this aspect abused? Is/has it been used as a political weapon/threat? How does exterior damage to the tower, if it can suffer any, affect the language it actively imbues in people? Or does it merely impact how effective its power is?

Or is the Tower decaying and there is a lingual epidemic where communication is collapsing in places that have become overly reliant on the Common provided by the Tower? What do attempts to fix the Tower look like? If the Tower is Divine in origin, how do the pious interpret this development (a test, malice from another god, etc)?

Is a lack of Common in a person used as a pretense to do harm to them? Is it used as 'evidence' to strip them of rights/dignit? Or is speaking Common a litmus for adulthood (eg: babies babble, adults converse, etc.)? How does this belief affect Mute or Deaf people?

Are there people that believe in the superiority of a Cultural Language (since they equate effort to value and Common requires 'no effort')? Are there people that consider Common to be a mark of a lack of intelligence?

Is there an effective range to the Tower? Is there a material or other phenomena that interferes with the Tower's effect on people? How would the PCs react to suddenly being unable to speak Common within their own party for a scenario?

How would anyone react if mundane livestock suddenly spoke? What if fields of plants started screaming?

Would anyone seek a way to sever the tower's influence from themselves (or others)? If the Tower can magically/divinely influence people with the ability to use Common, what else can it do? Would someone ever seek to alter this aspect of the Tower? Could they use it to continuously, universally emit healing? What about silence? (Is the Tower simply automatically converting all words to Common, effectively robbing all the intricacies of natural cultural languages?)

Would there be a reason to destroy this tower? Who would benefit from it (culturally/politically/etc.)? How would the world be changed if it was suddenly destroyed? Who would attempt to fix it? Could it even be fixed?

For Mechanics:

Some challenge uses have already been suggested above with Common Language and/or Verbal Magic dead zones.

But more cut and dry mechanics could tie to how Silence, Comprehend Languages and other linguistically-tied spells tap into/invoke the Tower and even require a nonstandard component.

Additionally, maybe this is where the Power Words (Kill, Heal, Stun, etc.) originated from and can only be found there- and what if there are more?

If you wanted to get cheeky you could probably attribute other word/language spells (Healing Word, etc.) to the Tower, but every table is different.

Hopefully this inspires some fun at the table. Or if you're already running a campaign, you can downsize this effect to a dungeon/wizard's tower/town.

This idea is of course free for use, and if you do use it, please share your story of how it played out! Have fun o/

[sorikufeels]

https://www.tumblr.com/pondrea/748403783611105280/dont-you-recognise-me

amazing art by pondrea (link above!!!) got me feeling things (the art is so good op!!!!!! 💚) and now i need to yap about this scene lol it’s of the moment zexion disguised himself as sora to riku in com.

(i hope it’s ok to post the link here! let me know if not!)

i’m CONVINCED what zexion said to riku as sora this still haunts riku to this day. it wasn’t even sora who said all that, but i’m sure the fear of how it played out in com actually playing out with the real sora scared riku to death. the fear of this happening led to him walking away from sora first, not even giving him the chance just in case there was a repeat scenario. sure, there was a lot of self hatred and feeling like he didn’t deserve to see sora as well, but the look on riku’s face tells you that this scarred him. this was his biggest fear. he rather fade to darkness than go through this again and isn’t even willing to risk that it could go another way.

anyway, this is just context for what i actually want to talk about lmao

so this is probably one of worst moments for riku right? utterly rejected by his best friend and now that friend was willing to kill him for who he is now. and it wasn’t even real.

but you know who that was real for? sora. in hollow bastion. utterly rejected by riku. his only means of defense taken, basically left to die. and then riku fought him tooth and nail until he lost and sora let him run away.

you know who got closure for their version of this scene? riku. he got it when sora fell to the ground on his knees in the world that never was, when he said he looked everywhere for him and told him he was still riku no matter what. sora told him exactly what he needed to hear to reassure him that sora didn’t think any of things riku feared he did. sora telling him specifically that he was still riku no matter what showed riku that sora stills wants him around. even if he looks like their enemy and even if he did some real awful things, he’s still riku and that’s enough. riku as he is is enough for sora. always has been.

you know who never got anything like that? sora. in fact, the conclusion that sora found to get him through is that he’s not enough. his friends are his power. alone, he has no strength. he only made it through by relying on a complete stranger he managed to befriend. if beast wasn’t there or if he refused to go with sora, would he have survived? he had magic but that would run out eventually. would he have even made it to the room he fights riku in?

i don’t think he thinks he would’ve. in kh3, he says alone, he’s worthless. he’s held that sentiment this entire time. no one told him otherwise. (until riku’s sacrifice but it’s murky about whether sora even remembers that at this point. but even if he does, it wasn’t like the scene in the world that never was. sora was able to dictate exactly what riku needed to hear with no imminent threat and riku was not emotionally compromised like sora was in the keyblade graveyard. riku was able to process everything sora said. that is a far cry to sora screaming in agony over all his friends dying, sora believing wholeheartedly that he's nothing without them, and riku just saying he believes in him. sure, thats what sora needed in that moment to save everyone, but it's not a response to his fears and insecurities established in kh1 like how what sora says to riku is a response to his fears and insecurities established in com.)

at this point, i think it’s obvious that sora knows riku’s changed from kh1 and that he doesn’t believe the same things. sora knows he cares based on his actions and how he saved him too and we know as an audience how dedicated he is to him. but it fucks me up to think that riku got that verbal closure while sora never did. that riku got to start healing from that awful moment but sora really never did.

just,,,, please please please please let them talk about what happened in kh1 i am on my knees begging

extra thoughts: didn’t think of this at first so sorry it’s a little disconnected, but maybe the reason riku is so horrified in that moment in com is because he realizes this is what he put sora through. maybe he made this connection himself and feeling what it was like to be on the other side of it, on sora’s side, horrified him. what’s worse, in riku’s mind, is that riku deserves to be in this position and deserves to be rejected due to his past actions. but sora never deserved it. maybe that contributed to why the self loathing spiral got worse after com.

[shadowqueenjude]

Lorcan defense: The Maeve scene

I'd seen a post that said some of this and I can't remember who'd posted it but I thought it was really well worded and if you ever see this op feel free to comment who you are. Anyway... The Maeve scene in EOS. I NEVER HATED LORCAN FOR THIS AND I'LL EXPLAIN WHY:

We have everyone hating Lorcan because he doesn’t like Aelin and isn’t loyal to her. We have everyone acting like Lorcan betrayed Aelin by calling to Maeve— as if everyone wasn’t fully aware (because Lorcan has never once tried to hide it) that he is fully loyal to Maeve. You cannot betray your enemy by aiding with your master.

Am I saying that he has good judgement? Hell no! Maeve is a scheming evil Valg queen. But Gavriel is ALSO still loyal to her. And so are the other Cadre, excluding Fenrys. Lorcan merely showed Maeve the same loyalty that Aedion would show Aelin. A blind loyalty that isn’t good for anyone to possess. And yes, Lorcan royally fucked Aelin over by getting her captured by Maeve, and since Aelin is the main character, it is natural to side with her.

But honestly, Lorcan did everything a good soldier would do. He is trying to save his queen’s soul by destroying the Wyrdkeys. He is trying to save the girl he promised to protect. He is staying true to his blood oaths and promises and he has promised NOTHING to Aelin. And Aelin royally fucked up by not telling anyone her plans and letting them all sweat thinking they were about to be under attack. And yes, she did it because she didn’t want to disappoint anyone, but she still made a mistake in not confiding in her court.

That being said, Rowan has every right to want to murder Lorcan for her capture. But there’s a certain level of bias to that that I think is good to remember as readers. We are angry at Lorcan for hurting a character we love, but I don’t think he’s done anything morally unforgivable. He did what he thought he had to for his people, his queen, and the girl he loves. ...and Elide punished him enough (but Lorcan still helped her during her periods because she might hate him but he still wanted his girl to be ok *sobs*), plus Lorcan did everything in his power to make up for it. He SOBBED when Rowan said, "Where is my wife?" THIS BATTLE-HARDENED 500 YO WARRIOR SOBBED. HE LOVES HIS BROTHER ROWAN. HE KNOWS HOW MUCH LOSING LYRIA HURT. HE NEVER WANTED THIS FOR HIM. NEVER. THEN WHEN HE SAW AELIN AGAIN HE SOBBED. AGAIN. THE FIRST TWO TIMES HE HAD SOBBED IN HUNDREDS OF YEARS AND IT WAS FOR ROWAN AND AELIN. *and now I'm crying because I remember Elide called him a monster despite all that and he did not deserve that idc I'm a Lorcan apologist*

[carnelianwings]

Something I find really funny is how for all the rumors that Seed’s staff/writers don’t like Cagalli, Orb under her leadership just keeps ending up in a better (political) position with each addition - Seed Destiny ends with Logos wiped out, Blue Cosmos severely hampered, and the entire Seiran family wiped out, including Yuna. This leaves Cagalli with almost no political opposition in Orb (since the second Battle of Orb would’ve flushed out a majority of the Blue Cosmos/Logos sympathizers within the government/military), along with giving her a boost in popular and military support thanks to her actions and field leadership during the battle.

(Cutting for me just rambling on a bit about the in-universe politics after Seed Freedom)

You can tell with how much she’s managed to get done in the years between Seed Destiny and Seed Freedom - in that short year and a half to two years, she was able to propose and found COMPASS, secret away and upgrade the Impulse, Destiny, Strike Freedom, and Infinite Justice, arrange for ties between Orb and Terminal to investigate/exchange intel (Athrun and Meyrin), and put into place all the evacuation/defensive protocols in case of another attack on Orb (as seen vs Foundation and Requiem, even if she needed Kira to pull an “I lived, bitch” to Aura 😅).

And it doesn’t end there - thanks to Foundation, Cagalli arguably has an easier time internationally now, because the Eurasian Federation leadership also got hit and the Eurasian Federation, while not necessarily Blue Cosmos sympathizers like the Atlantic Federation, was very staunchly anti-PLANT, which I think would’ve caused some problems for Cagalli, especially post Seed Destiny with Lacus joining her for that broadcast.

I actually think Orb probably has fairly decent diplomatic relations with PLANT (I think Chairman Lament mostly cut off that call after everything went south in Eldore because of the whole nuke situation), especially since Lacus is COMPASS’s inaugural president, plus the time both Dearka and Waltfeld (I’m not sure if he’s in Orb or PLANT as of Seed Freedom since his silent cameo has him helping to stop the coup in PLANT in Seed Freedom) spent there. And we have a very prominent all-Coordinator team with the Yamato Team - truth be told I actually wonder how much the Earth Alliance invested into COMPASS because everything we see on screen is either contributed by Orb (Archangel, Murrue and crew, Kira, Mu, and the Murasame Kais), PLANT/ZAFT (Millenium, Konoe and crew, Heinlein, Shinn, Lunamaria, Agnes, Gelgoog, and Gyan), or arguably both (namely, Rising Freedom and Immortal Justice). Unless I missed a minor crew member along the way. Which is possible.

Also pure speculation on my part on this - but the fact Seed Freedom has Athrun going into intelligence with Terminal (which we first see as having a presence in the PLANTS) from the Orb side and Yzak and Dearka going into intelligence from the PLANT side can’t be a coincidence. I want to think the three of them decided on it together because being in intelligence/covert ops gives them the chance to work together without having to force anyone to change their current loyalties - I don’t think Athrun can be truly loyal to anyone except Cagalli after Seed Destiny, and Yzak was always loyal to PLANT, and if Dearka hadn’t been captured and made to realize how extreme PLANT had become under Patrick Zala he wouldn’t have switched sides to Orb/Three Ships Alliance during Seed either. Which also indirectly feeds into Orb and PLANT having better political relations than Orb and Earth Alliance.

Which brings me to my final point - I would be very surprised if Orb isn’t the primary target for the antagonists in a Seed Freedom sequel. At this point Orb’s capable of doing too much with the limited resources it has as a small nation with too much military strength at its command. And there is room for a sequel (setting-wise) because while Earth Alliance took another major hit with during the Foundation Conflict, the ideologies that led to the First and Second Earth Alliance-PLANT wars still exist - even if Blue Cosmos lost another leader, even if the believers of Coordinator Supremacy lost another leader (in Jagannath) those ideologies still fundamentally exist. All the Foundation Conflict did was serve to take down the military leadership of those ideologies - even if the public on both sides see those views negatively it doesn’t make them go away.

[wienersmosh]

If you spend any time on Twitter you would understand why he was being so defensive. He was probably getting death threats and only had a problem with op cuz she didnt remove the post after talking things out. He would have let the situation go but leaving that post up means he would be getting hateful comments even after apologizing sincerely.

zayna said she didn't delete the post bc she thought it would be important for context. why is it HER responsibility if other people were sending him hate for things that HE said out of his own free will that no one was asking him to say? if he really wanted her to delete the posts, why not just ask her outright? why bring up her follower count and accuse her of having malicious intent? he could've just left it at the apology but instead he felt the need to have the last word and block her, negating his apology.

at the end of the day, idgaf if he had "reason" to be defensive. he's a public figure with a dedicated fanbase whom he has now galvanized to attack some palestinian teenager who had every right to be upset about a joke he made. i really need you damien stans to take a step back and look at the bigger context. bc why are you so up in arms over defending a 33-year-old famous white man playing the victim against a palestinian teenager currently facing a genocide? holy shit.

[penny-anna]

feel like i saw this recipe in a tumblr post a while ago but don't have it to hand anymore. oh well!! made this soup ^^ today.

i used a mix of chicken & veggie stock since i had some of each to use up. & i used black treacle in place of molasses.

i didn't use any onion bcos im the rare onion hater. i did season it w onion salt tho. the actual recipe says to add tomatoes but the transcript in the blog post left that out - i also really don't like fresh tomatoes so would have skipped those but if i'd noticed probably would have added some tomato paste

the full recipe also says you can add herbs at the end but again the transcript left that out. i added some bay leaves at the beginning + a couple of big sprigs of thyme with the vegetables + some fresh coriander at the very end

all in all i'd recommend looking at the screenshot of the OG recipe as it has quite a lot of useful info that's not in the blog post oops!!

the recipe doesn't actually say how long to simmer for after adding the vegetables so i took it at its word & just left it till dinner time. all in all i simmered it for about 8 hours (10am-6pm)

both the OP of the blog post and one of the commenters mentioned that the liquid boiled away too quickly so I added some extra stock + topped it up periodically with salted water. after the first hour or so however ig the lentils hit Saturation and it stopped needing more liquid & after that it was pretty low maintenance.

i didn't taste it before adding the wine etc at the end so not actually sure how much flavour it added but the final step defo made it a more appealing colour!!

VERDICT: 'gentle lentil' is a very good description!! its very mild and very very creamy. its mild but doesn't just taste like wet lentils (not a pleasant flavour experience IMO). the lentils got boiled to the point that they basically became one with the stock. celery also fully disappeared. if i'd added onions i imagine they'd have been imperceptible by the end. very comforting & easy on the tummy. if you like your soups stronger tasting u could add all kinds of things along the way. if u like your soups milder OR are looking for something extra gentle for the tummy then its the soup for you!

here ends my excessively long soup post. in my defense ive been Souping literally all day. its good!!