#and just personally speaking. SO MANY things i do that i used to feel such deep shame about?

[homunculus-argument]

If you don’t mind answering: why is it that when you talk to swedes about Finland it’s generally “that’s our weird little brother <3” but when finns talk about Sweden it’s a lot more hostile might be the wrong word but you probably know what I’m trying to get at?

I understand there’s a lot of history there and stuff but I’m not sure if I get it completely

One funny thing is that Swedish is still an official language in Finland. All public services are legally required to be equally possible to operate in both finnish and swedish, and there are still some older finn-swedes (born and raised finnish natives who speak swedish as a first language) who do not speak a lick of finnish and consider that a matter of pride. Finn-swedes make up about 5% of Finland's population, and while they are just as finnish as finnish-speaking finns, a lot of native finnish speakers who have never met one don't see them that way.

Learning swedish is mandatory in finnish-speaking schools, and it's famously in the top 5 of the most hated school subjects. Many refer to it as "pakkoruotsi", "forced swedish", and see it as a remnant of imperialism, either because the thought of swedish as an official language on its own feels degrading (the thought of swedish-speaking finns existing at all doesn't occur to them, because due to making up 5% of the population, many finnish-speaking finns have literally never met one), or they resent the finn-swedes themselves, grumbling about how the entire country has to learn an entire language just to accommodate such a tiny minority - most of whom speak fluent finnish anyway - like some kind of a slave race.

I had literally never met any swedish-speaking finns in my life before I moved into a town where they used to make up the majority of people just a few generations ago. None of them have ever thought of it odd that the entire country has to fluently speak both, because in their personal experience, everyone they know is bilingual anyway, so using both languages and fluently flipping between them is effortless to them.

There are small bubbles in the country where finnish and swedish are spoken 50-50%, because 5% of the population speak swedish as a first language.

[fromchaostocosmos]

Also America Jews worked really hard to get the Holocaust to be a part the USA curriculum.

There is also the pervasive idea that Holocaust Museums are funded by government and that they were created/founded by the governments.

That is a lie.

Jews fought tooth and nail for Holocaust Education and memorials to the Holocaust.

That included persevering Concentration Camps so that they could be a testament and witness to the history.

Because there were those who advocated razing them.

Jews fought for the memorials to put up in places there were no physical reminders to be the testament to history.

Jews in the USA fund-raised amongst our communities to raise money for Holocaust Museums and applied for grants when and where applicable to teach and educate on the Holocaust.

And when others Genocides have happened such Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan for example information about those as well as the Armenian Genocide have sections within these Holocaust Museums.

No one handed over Holocaust memorials, Holocaust Museums, and Holocaust education. We Jews had to fight a very fraught and bitter fight for it.

And in many countries we are not the ones in charge of the Museums and memorials so you get really not good choices and decisions being made.

Like the Polish government has a lot of control over the Concentration Camps and so official statements that get made by them can be very political and it is not good. Also there are a lot of choices especially in terms of Auschwitz on how they go about things that many Jews are not fans off, myself included, like appearance for example and tone.

The Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam has made choices that again have I don't think would have happened if the majority of those in charge were Jewish.

Also within Europe these places are very tourism and will have gift shops.

For me personally I think it is inappropriate. This is not something that should anyone should make money from. Your countries made your money when you murdered us and pillaged from us. At least treat our dead with a little more respect this time around.

The governments should fund the upkeep and care of these places.

I will not forget being at the Majdanek Death Camp and having to pay to go in and then walking and seeing sign that was a pointed arrow shape and it said in English, Gift Shop.

I felt so sick seeing it. I won't ever forget it. I feel sick when I think about it.

This is not the place for a gift shop.

So if people want to have a serious and honest discussion about how Plantation sites are used in the USA, what should be done with them now, what can be done, and more I am more then willing to have that conversation because I have a lot of thoughts and opinions on the topic coming from the People I come from and the experiences we've had.

I think that there is a lot that the Jewish community have to offer in terms of experience and help to the Black Community on this topic.

I'm just really sick and tired of people who don't really anything about the Holocaust speaking total bullshit and then also making stuff up the USA in terms of the Holocaust.

I'm also sick and tired of seeing the type of shit that we see in the screenshots because for as hurtful and painful as it is for me to see it I have to imagine that it is even more hurtful and painful for Black Jews to see and experience.

Because that type of rhetoric is in essence not just erasing their experiences, but is erasing them entirely. Because it is saying the Jews come at the expense of Black people and if someone ascribes to that kind of hateful ideology then how must the view Black Jews. Do they not think they exist or do they think something even worse and more hateful or somehow both.

And I myself do not want to be Black Jews in position where they ever have to feel like they need to choose between parts of who they are because they shouldn't. They should be able to be all of who they are, fully and wholly.

And to remind or educate those who may not know the USA after the Civil War had a policy of Isolationism in regards to International Affairs. Which meant that whatever was going outside of the USA they were not really getting involved in and didn't want to.

So when WW 1 happened the USA came in later and was kinda pulled in and at the time it war on a level no ever saw before and it was called The Great War not World War (1) and once it officially over the USA was like ok bye.

And went to saying we are gonna stay here and do our thing.

So once World War 2 was going on the USA was yeah no that is a Europe problem leave us out of it.

It is only until Japan bombs Pearl Harbor that the USA gets involved and they are fairly late the party, but they are there and become a major power player.

It Japan never did that and the USA was left alone the USA would not have gotten involved.

So it is once the USA is pulled in because of Pearl Harbor that you have Japanese citizens being forced into interment camps, you have the rationing of food and supplies, the mass of women entering the workforce, vegetable victory gardens, and all of that.

So the USA like to present the retrospective that the poor pathetic Jews needed help and big strong USA came to save the day which is bullshit.

FDR was multiple times presented by his generals ways they could destroy the tracks to Auschwitz and he said no every to it every time.

FDR also made it much harder to apply for refugee status, rules that still exist by the way, in order to prevent Jews from coming into the USA and added quotas too for the same reason.

USA Jews raised money to pay to get Jews in legally to the USA and when that really wasn't working, they wrote to their elected officials and marched in Washington D.C to bring attention to what was going on to get Americans to give a fuck.

And when that didn't happen some USA Jews went to Europe to try and help Jews get out putting their lives on the line and USA Jews also were able to help to pay for some European Jews to get out and go to other countries be it at the time safe European ones, ones in South America, illegally into the USA, British Mandate Palestine, or countries in Central America and the Caribbean Islands.

So what it would like is USA Jew has lets a cousin in Europe so their local community raises funds and however much they raise goes toward paying to get however much of said cousin and family out of the country so fees, bribes, tickets, etc and to cover for as much people they can so it could sometimes cover everyone in the family and sometimes just one or two people. And the family in Europe would have to pick who goes.

So we are not talking about hundreds of thousands of people being saved here maybe not even thousands and thousands, but this is what could be done and so it was.

And often you would send the money and tickets and stuff with someone so someone had to risk their life to bring it to the family in Europe because you couldn't take the chance of it getting lost or stolen in via mail.

So Jews in the USA knew about what was happening and they were doing their best to help.

And while they were doing what they could however they could you had the USA government only getting involved when they had to and the until the USA joined the war in the USA Nazism was super popular. The American Bund Party was popular. Hitler was popular.

Many Americans were not happy about joining the war and having to fight the Nazi. They might not have cared for the Japanese, but they were not happy to fight the Germans.

That is relativity condensed and basic breakdown of what was going on, but yeah so anything or anyone who goes American were like yay lets fight Nazis are lying.

Jews were happy to fight Nazis which is why many Jews volunteered to fight.

Black people I think were probably happy to fight Nazis and I think from what I understand thought that the army would present an opportunity for an actual merit based structure and that was sadly not the case.

I have great respect and הַכָּרַת הַטּוֹב Hakarat HaTov, gratitude, to the many Black soldiers who fought on behalf on the USA army in WW2 because they did not get the recognition they did deserve after the war was over and I doubt they were treated with respect by their fellow white soldiers. I would also imagine that due the anti-Black racism they were forced to due riskier missions and tasks by their white army leaders (commanders?). They helped liberate us and their efforts freed us.

I have great respect and הַכָּרַת הַטּוֹב Hakarat HaTov to the many different peoples who helped in fighting the Nazis even when it meant having endure discrimination and racism from the very army the were helping and fighting on the behalf of.

Because how can I not.

(X)

i’m going to let this video speak for itself. bc i don’t even know what to say anymore. i don’t know how we come back from this level of radicalization among young people to the point where holocaust denial has become the norm.

[carigm]

The “Teaser”, mlvn rooftop convo, and Lord of the Rings parallel…

This is gonna be a long post, so grab some snacks y’all.

First of all, the teaser the Duffers shared at this Netflix shareholders event was basically all BTS stuff, and according to someone that was there, we have mostly seen all of it. The actual clips from the show they showed were so short that most people missed it. However, over those short clips it seems they played a voiceover of part of the mlvn rooftop convo. Notice how the Suffer Sisters are literally incapable of sharing anything new, and the only audio they disclosed is from the ONE scene that’s been leaked to death, and even transcribed multiple times with the help of AI. In any case, Netflix did not share this teaser with the masses, and it’s unlikely they ever will. Stranger Things is not going to the Super Bowl this year (yes you heard that right) and the Tudum Event isn’t until May. Our only hope before that would be them releasing something on Will’s birthday, but whether in March or May, I believe we’ll be getting a proper teaser by then.

People that attended the event reported that El has a voiceover line where she goes “they don’t get to write the ending, we do” and apparently a voiceover Mike line where he goes “we’ll finish this together” (I’m not sure if this was paraphrased or not). Immediately, we all realized that these lines sound pretty close to what Mike is allegedly saying to her during the rooftop scene. Many people in the fandom have taken the time to transcribe that scene, some with AI and some without, and although some things could be wrong here and there, the general idea of it seems pretty clear. I’m attaching an AI reading of the scene here, so I can point out where I think his dialogue might be from…

Around the 1.43 mark, the AI picked up “enjoying it, together”, however I think this is where the “we’ll finish it, together” line comes into play. If anything, this shows AI isn’t 100% accurate, and it does call into question some of these previous lines 😂…I think it’s possible that after this speech from Mike about stories, fantasy endings and heroes, El tries to follow his advice and be positive, and maybe she delivers the “they don’t get to write our ending, we do” line back to him. It’s unfortunate because obviously we can’t see her face in the video, but I think it makes sense she would reply with that because right after it seems like he says “of, course…” and then proceeds to seemingly add that the Party can have a happy ending, without all the fantasy elements he mentioned before.

I find it very interesting that he’s choosing to speak to her with this storytelling analogy, which at first I believed to be a D&D analogy, but the more I think about it, the more I feel like he’s talking about an actual story. And then the lord of the rings parallel hit me, specifically with this scene. If you’re not aware, Finn Wolfhard has mentioned lotr twice now when talking about season 5, and I personally think it’s possible that Mike is using lord of the rings here as a reference to describe the hero’s journey and relate it to what the party has been through. Think about it, he’s trying to cheer El up, who has been stuck in that fuckass radio station for a year, who’s probably extremely tired of everything she has been dealing with for years, and he just wants to offer her some consolation so she can keep going and fighting. Does that sound familiar?

Well my friends, if it does, that’s because it is a direct parallel to Frodo and Sam from Lord of the Rings. I’ve always thought Byler were insanely samfrodo coded (funny enough the last S4 Byler scene is almost identical to this scene too), but it seems the Duffers are paralleling mlvn to them here. In lotr, Frodo bears the biggest burden of the story, as he follows his hero’s journey to Mordor to defeat evil. Along the way, ofc, he becomes increasingly weary and hopeless, and it is up to Sam (his best friend) to cheer him up and provide him with strength to keep him going. How does Sam do this? Interestingly enough, he encourages Frodo by describing all the beautiful things that will come AFTER they have won, what they and their friends will be able to enjoy when they get back home. Basically everything Mike appears to be saying to El in this scene, fantasizing about the end of the battle. To make the parallels even crazier, while on his hero’s journey, Frodo has to remain in hiding because there are multiple forces looking for him, and we know that El is basically hiding away from the government.

Another thing I want to point out is that in lotr (spoilers I guess 😭) good does win in the end, and the main characters get to return back home. However, Frodo is so changed by the journey and all the things he encountered that he simply cannot stay with his friends. Instead, he leaves and goes to the Undying Lands, where he finds peace. He doesn’t die, but he also cannot stay in Middle Earth. Him and Sam have a beautiful goodbye scene and then Sam is left with the literal book of stories Frodo started, and is told by Frodo to “finish it”.

Make of that what you will…

[sirfrogsworth]

2 new things I learned about Mormonism.

Thing the first…

Joseph Smith once held a sorta Mormon Comic-Con where he invited all of his followers and claimed he was going to perform miracles and talk to God and other nonsense. He set up a faith healing demonstration with an audience plant and they pretended to be suddenly stricken deaf and dumb.

Joseph was all, "By the power of Jesus, alakazam, you can now hear and speak again!"

Everyone clapped.

Joseph did not seem to have the foresight to realize other people might want to have their chronic maladies cured. So he was ready to wrap up his little magic show and move on.

But an old dude in the audience was all, "I've got this fucked up hand. Would you mind unfucking it for me?"

In his head, I'm sure Joseph thought, "Well, shit."

But he decided to give it a go. I mean, when I was young I would try to use force powers "just in case." Like, how do you know you don't have force powers if you never try to use them?

So he did his routine again on the fucked up hand and the old man stretched out his fingers for a second and Joseph probably thought "Oh shit, did that really work?" and then they curled back into their fucked up state. He tried his best to make an excuse and hoped that was the end of the faith healing portion of the show.

But then…

A man walks in carrying his little boy.

Who is super dead.

He's like, "Yeah, I was going to take him to a doctor, but everyone said you were coming and I should just wait. Would you mind un-deading my little boy real quick?"

In his head… "Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck..."

Out loud… "Jesus Christ and the almighty Father, restore life to this very dead child!"

And the boy opened his eyes and smiled and everyone clapped…

Would have been a great ending to this story.

But he was still quite dead.

Thing the second…

I knew that when Mormons turned 18 they went on a little mission. I always thought they picked a poverty stricken country somewhere and went to help the poor and build houses and give people food and medicine using the church's immense wealth and resources. That seems like it would humble a young person and give them a valuable life experience.

I suppose I just assumed that considering that's typically how Catholics do missionary work. They do a bunch of good deeds and when people are happy and grateful for their help, they pull out a Bible and start their sales pitch. I always had mixed feelings about this but I thought "at least they were helping people." (Not always the case. Sometimes missionaries do more harm than good. But that is the idea, at least.)

Mormons skip the helping people and just do the sales pitch.

They honestly believe converting them to Mormonism is more valuable than food, shelter, clothing, money.

Being a member should solve all of those things, right?

Well, that is essentially what these young mission kids are told.

And they don't just go to poor countries, they often go to rich areas in the US. One might go to the Congo and the other... Beverly Hills.

These 18 year olds are thrust into an unfamiliar place with a few weeks of language training and are tasked with getting people baptized. They have to pay for this "honor" and are judged by how many people they convert. They are often housed in sketchy places and in order to keep them from going rogue, they are attached to another 18 year old who must stay within sight and sound at all times.

Mormonism relies heavily on tattling to keep people following the rules. Seriously, I think the glue that holds all of it together is "snitches get riches." BYU even has an official snitching office where you can narc on someone for getting coffee.

The point is, no one is helped and these kids are essentially slaves for 2 years. They work 80 hour weeks with no pay just trying to get baptisms.

[rekino2114]

How about 3 with fem kaiser and male reader

I imagine she'd give you a blue rose bouquet

Fem!kaiser giving you a bouquet and chocolate

Valentine's prompt #3

Prompts list

Pairing:fem!Michael kaiser x male reader

A/n:my first Valentine's Day post, and it's with one of my favorite characters to write for

"I-i'm sorry ma'am but we don't carry-"

"Tch"

Kaiser didn't even let the florist finish her sentence, a sentence that she had heard way too many times in a day. She hated when people repeated things to her, especially if it was something she didn't want to hear

"I should have expected that, this place is so trashy anyway"

The woman she was speaking to wanted to say something, but she knew better than to talk back to one of germany's most famous and important football players and people in general which was currently looking at her like she could buy this entire store 5 times and still have enough money to afford the incredibly expensive box of chocolates she was holding, which was actually very true

Kaiser sighed and simply walked outside of the store, not saying anything else. She sat on a bench inside of the mall she was in and ran a hand through her hair sighing even more heavily, she knew she fucked up and this was all just her fault.

She knew she shouldn't have waited until the last day to try to get the bouquet, but she was overconfident just like she was in football except that there her skills backed her confidence up but in this occasion there was no skill she could make use of, just the unpredictable mechanism of luck.

Unlike most holidays (Christmas especially), Michelle actually likes Valentine's day, sure it's cheesy and corny, but she can't deny that ever since she started dating you, she has become a bit cheesy and corny herself, giving you a blue rose bouquet every month with a note entitled to "my emperor💙" constantly showering you in praise and compliments and still using pick up lines even after years of dating but that's what feeling love for the first time ever does to a person. Kaiser loved you, and you deserved nothing short of perfection....which was exactly why she was disappointed that she couldn't give it to you today.

Her usual blue rose supplier had gotten sick and couldn't do his job. She was about to tell him to get up and do it anyway since she would still play a match while sick, but she didn't want to be that mean on a day about love so she just hung up without saying anything and went to look for blue roses in basically all of Munich's flower shops.

Of course, she knew that blue roses were very rare and literally unobtainable in nature. That's the whole reason why she got the tattoo in the first place, but what else could she have done? Give you normal roses? As if! She was the blue rose empress, that was literally her symbol. She wanted to get you blue roses so that every time you looked at them, you would think of her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing. When she took it out of her pocket, she was relieved to see it was you calling her and not someone else to bother her even more.

"Hello, what is it schatz?"

"Hi Michelle, noa wanted me to ask you why you didn't come at practice today"

"Oh, I'm just shopping"

".....really, for what? You usually just send ness to do it or go with me"

".......well-"

"Speaking of ness, where is he? He didn't come either"

"Yeah......i sent him to buy something too"

"So.....you two are trying to buy the same thing but you're not together?"

"......yeah"

"....it must be important"

"It is"

"I see well I'll just tell noa you're busy and not bother you anymore, love you bye"

"Thanks, love you too"

The conversation kaiser had just finished made her feel even more guilty. You were just so sweet and perfect. The roses and chocolates you had given her this morning had already proven it to her among the mountains of other things you did for her.

You knew she didn't like receiving gifts, that she genuinely wouldn't have known how to react, but you still did it, simply telling her that it was just because of tradition and she didn't have to get you anything, but she wanted to, she wanted to get those damn blue roses.

She gritted her teeth as her anger rose. Why today of all days? Somehow, not being able to give you what you deserved felt even worse than getting a goal blocked by isagi

*ring ring*

"What is it?"

This time kaiser didn't even try to hide her frustration at however was on the other side of the phone

"K-kaiser, I found the roses"

"Finally! Where are they?"

"I-it's just-"

"Listen ness, I don't care what's happening there, I'll get the roses even if I have to kill someone to have them"

"But it's 800 euros for a bouquet"

"......ok and?"

"Isn't that......super expensive?"

"Yes and wildly overpriced. Like i told you, I'm getting those roses no matter what ,plus it's not actually that much for me, I can make that back in a match if I play well, and I always do"

"........o-ok"

After going to get the roses, kaiser and Ness went back to the bastard münchen building and were greeted by noa scolding them for not attending practice which Michelle mostly ignored as she told the magician to tell you to come to her room later.

"Hey babe, what-"

You gasped as the first thing you saw when you opened the door was kaiser holding a blue rose bouquet, smiling at you

"Happy valentine's day schatz"

"You didn't have to do this you know?"

"Yes, but I wanted to. You do so much for me. I would have felt terrible not giving you anything back"

She kissed you, wrapping her arms around you and guiding you to her large bed, where she placed the bouquet and opened the chocolate box

"Want some?"

The chocolates all looked amazing....and expensive, some of them had golden wrappers or phrases like I love you written on the chocolates themselves

"How much did this cost?"

"Please schatz don't worry about that"

She grabbed one of the chocolates with her fingers and held it out to you

"Do you need me to feed it to you~"

"I certainly wouldn't complain about that"

You opened your mouth as kaiser fed you the chocolates, you swallowed it, and your eyes lit up at how tasty it was

"So good!"

"Of course, I made sure they were all your favorite flavors. My emperor only deserves the best"

"What did i do to deserve you?"

"Just.....loving me"

Kaiser got close to you once again and hugged you. You hugged back as you let yourself fall on the bed with her on top of you. She kissed you passionately another time and continued kissing your face, leaving blue lipstick marks on it

"I love you so much schatz"

"Me too, I love you so so much"

Kaiser's smile widened as she moved to your right, hugging you even tighter. You were now fully cuddling on the bed

"Should I add the bouquet to the ones you always give me"

"If you want, I'd say this one is special, though. It cost me a lot, both in money and effort"

"Awww and you still brought it for me, you're so sweet"

"It's nothing, I'd do anything for you"

With those final words, kaiser kissed your forehead as you two continued to cuddle in silence. Her love warmed you up as you felt her heartbeat, which you knew was beating for you, the only person who showed kaiser love, her boyfriend, teammate, emperor, soulmate and now her valentine.

[uncleasriel]

I would argue that those modern editions still struggle to deliver on 'narrative' in the same way that, say, a robust 'narrativist' (Ugh, old Forge speak) game of Fate RPG would - or better yet, a game like Kagematsu would.

Looking at 5e D&D - it does make the characters more survivable, so you can create your won little OC and have them act out their own little stories. (A smart-ass comment story I once told a was "I min-maxed my character so they could survive combats long enough to talk about their feelings".) But that very survivability dilutes what earlier editions were good at, and doesn't add many mechanics in concert with it.

But when you look at any other mechanics, they're kind of haphazard - a Background might grant Skill bonuses, or starting equipment, or some Bonds, or even a Special Feature to push (When the Folk Hero uses Rustic Hospitality, the player can get a Safe Place to rest among the Common Folk). But while those are nicely grafted on, how often are they employed? How often do all of these function mechanically? Realistically, how often do folks use Backgrounds for anything other than Skill Proficiencies? Wouldn't it be more narratively compelling if the Bonds had some mechanical benefit (Gain a Hero Point/XP/etc if they cause problem for the character or the GM uses them to Compel the player or Intrude on their plans?)? Wouldn't D&D reward that kind of play more if the Dungeon Master's Guide had a guide on how to effectively set those up? Would is still 'feel' like D&D if it did?

I question whether it was Older D&D Editions proper, or some soft of variation on the Six Cultures of Play that cropped up over time. I think OSR in particular has embrace the 'naturalism' of the environment over concerns like game balance, and reinterpreted into new approaches using older versions of the rulesets (or remixes thereof).

I would personally say that ThyDungeonGal is mostly complaining about how the loudest voices in ttrpg culture of the past 10 years have been through D&D, that most people assume D&D (and its ilk) are the be-all, end-all of TTRPGs and struggle to conceive of ways of playing that aren't implicitly colored by the quietly assume "D&D-isms" like Combat Balance, having to do Lore/Perception/Skill checks to accomplish a thing (instead of just getting the information from the GM), prioritizing mechanical invocation over creative description of actions ("I want to make a perception check for footprints" vs "I check scan the room to look for hidden signs of the suspect's passage"), or the like.

D&D, especially under the age of Streaming Actual Plays, have tried to sell itself as "The Play Pretend With Your Friends Story Vehicle", when the mechanical support for them really isn't as robust as it ought to be. I would argue from as far back as the 2000s (when I got into D&D) folks tried to play it that same way because "it was the game for that" - a core assumption shaped by the availability of what titles you could find at the local game story, most of whose options were either d20 3.5 sourcebooks or White Wolf supplements. Where I am living now, most folks tried to do the same with with Palladium books - forcing them into the shape of "play pretend games" and using some kludges of half-assed homebrew the best brains in the highschool AV club could cobble together.

The point I'm slowly circling is that there are so many more diverse diverse RPG titles and game systems that can emulate specific genres or modes of play, and folks just aren't discovering them because D&D'smarket dominance sucks up all oxygen in the room. There are titles that can do so many more wild and crazy things, from violent crime thrillers like Hollowpoint to playable love stories like The Romance Trilogy to presteige TV simulators like Dramasystem or Prime Time Adventures. There are settings and systems that cover things like Victorian Monster Hunters, Humanistic Occult Horror, Victorian Pulp Adventurers, 1930s Pulp Heroes of various sorts, space opera ... and still so many people entering the TTRPG Space can only ever concieve of things through the lens of D&D. Even half the titles I listed still have many "trad" gaming assumptions, and don't really push what the genre can do.

At the risk of coming off like a grumpy old Marxist...D&D is a cultural hegemony that quietly places limits on what "playing pretend with made-up rules" can be, and most folks don't really question it, or know how to question it.

Well, that's my long, rambling, unformed answer. I hope that was coherent and not too asinine!

One of the funnier manifestations of gleeblor is Pathfinder players: I'll make a post about how D&D will color people's expectations of what RPGs can be like and create a very narrow set of expectations about the medium, and inevitably some Pathfinder player will be like "haha yeah those D&D players should really broaden their horizons, Pathfinder fixes all of their issues," and my friend. I'm sorry to say this but you are not immune to gleeblor and in many regards where it comes to expectations of playstyle created by the game, your favorite game is in fact just another company copying D&D's homework and slightly altering the wording.

[odinsblog]

To peel this apart a little:

Attempts were made to "plug in hard drives" at three separate agencies:

OPM, which oversees hiring and firing procedures, and holds eletronic personnel records, including for employees involved with classified and sensitive programs

GSA, which controls facilities, as well as oversees leases, rentals, purchasing and contracts

The Treasury Department, which controls overall cash flow of the government, bond issues, grants to states and other entities, and much more; if the report is exact, it suggests Musk's representatives were specifically interested in Social Security and Medicare, which comprises some $6 trillion in cash flow annually.

They plugged, or tried to, external hard drives into sensitive, complicated government systems.

They may have been "only" wanting to download masses of data. (Masses so big IIRC, how many drives are we talking about? Or were they after sonething more specific, like certain people?)

They could also have messed with the systems' functioning

They possibly could also have ERASED data

Or redirected funds

Or otherwise mucked these systems up, through ignorance, incompetence, or malice

Musk's people tried to steal data, or whatever their business was, clandestinely. Why? There are laws and regulations about protecting personal privacy. Most likely explanation, they were acting illegally and they knew it. How much Trump or White House staff knew, and whether there was any sort of formal or informal authorization, is an open question.

"were caught"

"were discovered"

Civil servants resisted.

"His staff encountered resistance"

"Tensions escalated"

"employees speaking out"

[From other sources] one top non-political Treasury employee, David Lebryk, has chosen to leave government in response to the demands.

And they responded to resistance aggressively:

"locked civil servants out of computer systems and offices"

"reports of personal items being searched"

There is obviously more to the story. Who were these rogue characters exactly? Did they show ID, presumably? What ID? Did they show written authorization? How did these rogue characters lock out official staff, let alone search their stuff (for what?), did they show up with strongarm security, or take charge of security staff on site?

What were they specifically after, and what was the hard drives' intended destination?

Our members of Congress — even in the minority — have a right to demand answers. And share them, especially if personal info was compromised. In a just world, there'd be a thorough investigation, of course.

It sounds like Lebryk was doing his job to protect the data and got orders from higher up that he couldn't, in conscience, carry out. From whom? What exactly took place? I hope he will feel able to tell us more. (And I hope he'll consult witn attorneys. IANAL, but there is a thing called "constructive discharge," e.g., and if he was given an illegal order that ought to have ramifications.)

How much did they actually get into, what did they do, are the systems okay?

And what now?

Anyone?

(continue reading)

[themattress]

Every Lie Celestia Ludenberg Told in DR1

PROLOGUE:

"I am Celestia Ludenburg." (It's Taeko Yasuhiro).

"Ludenburg. It is my name." (Yasuhiro.)

"Heh-heh. I don't know what you are talking about. Celestia Ludenburg *is* my real name." (Taeko Yasuhiro.)

"I look forward to getting to know you better." (You don't interest me.)

CHAPTER 1:

"Personally, I would love to see what happens when someone breaks one of the rules." (Please don't break the rules.)

"I am just happy, that is all." (I am terrified and despairing.)

"All we can do is adapt. Adapt to living out lives here from now on. A lack of adaptability...is a lack of survivability. Survival is not based on who is the strongest or the smartest. It comes down to who can adapt." (I wanna get out of here.)

"It is almost nighttime. I want to take a shower before it arrives." (I need to be alone; I can only keep up my poise for so long under this kind of stress.)

"Well. Hello. I hope the two of you are having a nice day." (I don't care.)

"Adaptability is survivability. Did I not say so? So you'd better hurry up and adapt to your new life here." (I wanna get out of here.)

"Hmhm. Sure, feel free." (You're being foolish.)

"Speaking of which, I have my own things to take care of. Goodbye." (I am freaking out over my precious kitty and don't want to show it in front of you!)

"It is amazing what some people are capable of." (God damn it, someone caved! I was afraid of this!)

"Continuing to think about and talk about the deceased certainly isn't going to help anything." (That sudden death freaked me out, so I need to push it out of my mind.)

"How many times have I told you? Anyone who can't adapt...will die. Death is the only thing awaiting those who are unable or unwilling to adapt. If that happens, you only have yourself to blame." (I wanna get out of here!)

"Does no one have any other thoughts or questions? It does not matter how trivial they may seem..." (A trivial thought and question will piss me off.)

CHAPTER 2:

"Whatever else is going on, I must admit things have been made much more comfortable for us. If things continue like this, the occasional class trial may not be so bad." (I still want out. And please, no more class trials.)

"There is nothing I hate more than getting water on my face." (I wouldn't mind if I didn't have all this make-up on.)

"Your roundish figure reminds me of the owner of the coffee shop I used to frequent." (You're the easiest to manipulate into servitude.)

"Hmhm. I do so love coercion." (I wasn't coercing, I sincerely lost my temper for a moment there. Things are meant to go Celestia Ludenberg's way, and I hate when they don't.)

"This is why adaptation is so crucial. If those who want to escape were to disappear, there would be no reason to continue playing the game." (I wanna get out of here.)

"It is because I am the same as you. Games are meant to be won." (I'm not the same as you, I just really wish I was.)

"How can you be so cold? You are like a piece of rock candy." (I agree, Toko is annoying.)

"Neither do I. Not because it is unpleasant, but because it is impossible." (It is possible, just severely unpleasant - it exposes who I really am, not what I pretend to be.)

"This warehouse is amazing. It has absolutely everything one might need to live a full life. From food to clothes to towels... There's an endless supply to choose from." (I don't care, I'm just trying to distract myself and you from thinking about our present horrifying reality.)

"If she hadn't broken out rule, none of this ever would have happened....You get what you deserve, I suppose." (I'm saying this coldly, but I am in fact extremely pissed off and anguished about nobody listening to my nighttime rule.)

"So you ignored the nighttime rule, too...Well, I don't particularly care. Please, continue." (Why is nobody listening to my nighttime rule? Why don't I have any control here!?)

CHAPTER 3:

"We simply have to make the best of things--do our best to get along and live here together in peace. Forget about the outside world, and accept this new life. That is the only hope we have now. Here we have every convenience. We have food, clothes, our every need is seen to. Why are you dissatisfied? In fact, let me ask you this? What is it about the outside world that you long for? Competition, discrimination, victimization and violence... As society grows, so does its perversion." (I WANNA GET OUT OF HERE.)

"Hmm... There may well be a discovery waiting for us which may further enrich our life here." (I WANNA GET OUT OF HERE.)

"A recreation room. A place for students to come and relax...Those will certainly be helpful in keeping our boredom at bay." (I WANNA GET OUT OF HERE.)

"Life here would be that much nicer if he could add some new issues once in a while. How disappointing." (I WANNA GET OUT OF HERE.)

"There *is* one piece of good news. There just so happens to be a rec room up on the 3rd floor! I have no doubt that our student life here will be even more enjoyable because of it." (I WANNA GET OUT OF HERE.)

"Whenever Hina lies, the tip of her nose gets just a little bit longer." (She'll be dumb enough to believe this.)

"And you ignored the rule regarding nighttime..." (OBEY ME AND STOP IGNORING IT, GODDAMN IT!)

"We were just talking about going to the bathhouse. We have not had a chance to relax in some time. But unfortunately, the bathhouse is not divided into men and women sections. So we decided to do rock-paper-scissors to decide which group would go first. Hina won the match for us, and that is why we are all so pleased." (Play along, everyone!)

"Personally, I've earned over one million dollars from my gambling efforts. My life is...comfortable." (But THAT amount of money could buy me the life I dream of!)

"Taka has become utterly useless." (I've actually already thought of a use for him...)

"Was it the mastermind? Did they finally notice what we were up to?" (It was me.)

"What good are you if you are too tired? You will be much more effective after a good night's sleep." (I will be keeping you up all night, Hifumi.)

"We will begin our search for Alter Ego in the morning." (No we won't.)

CASE 3 - pretty much everything is a lie until she is exposed and concedes defeat.

"I guess trying to work with someone else was a mistake, after all. Hifumi's ineptitude was beyond all my calculations." (I screwed up too, I just don't want to admit it.)

"My specialty? Don't make me laugh. I didn't have to lie to get him to agree." (I totally did have to lie, several times over.)

"Because you're stupid." (Because I hate having to hear your name.)

"That's a non-issue. I simply did everything in my power to win." (I actually did feel guilt over killing Hifumi in the moment.)

"To live in a European castle. And to gather handsome men from all over the world to server as my butlers-slash-bodyguards. I was going to make them dress up like vampires and satisfy my every need. Once I obtained that, I would have created a perfectly aesthetic world of decadence... Living the rest of my life there was my only dream, my only goal... That's what my life is all ABOUT!" (I just want a life where I can fully be Celestia Ludenberg and forever banish Taeko Yasuhiro from existence).

"Still, I don't have any regrets. I pursued my dream till the very end, so why would I?" (I have regrets. I wish I could have had hope in Alter Ego like everyone else.)

"Are you asking me to feel guilty? That's a pointless endeavor. I think nothing of sacrificing others for my own ends. I feel nothing. That's all there is to me. That's what makes me...complete." (I'm just a normal girl who does feel things, and I hate that.)

"My ability to lie is unrivaled, and I take pride in that. It's not just other people--I can even fool my own emotions. The conscious deceives the unconscious. That's right. I don't fear death. Kill me however you like." (I'm scared to die, especially in a way unbefitting of Celestia Ludenberg. Please don't give me such a death.)

FREE TIME:

"I once played a game of Russian roulette mahjong and won. It was a truly fierce contest, put on by a half-insane billionaire in the basement of his mansion. My opponents were a fierce old man and a silver-haired boy who was said to have the devil's own luck. We played with a modified rule set. I remember well the glass tiles we used... I defeated them both at once. I will never forget the angry, twisted looks on their faces. The crowd that had been invited to watch became positively riotous. Nobody could believe I had won. Hmhmhm. That is one of my fonder memories..." (I read this story in a manga once.)

"No matter how many times I hear it, I never tire of hearing my own name. Isn't it so splendidly charming?" (It's not my name, and I keep repeating it to help make myself believe that it is.)

"I did not *pick* it. My name was given to me by my mother and father..." (I picked it.)

"That's right. My father is French nobility, and my mother is part of a German family of musicians." (They're low class Japanese workers.)

"Oh, there most certainly a shogi gambling circuit.  But it is all underground. It is rather shady, all things considered. I have tried my own hand at it, naturally." (Actually, it was a regular low-stakes game.)

"I didn't really understand, but apparently my final opponent was infamously powerful. She was...rather odd. She was a voluptuous woman who dressed as an exotic French maid." (I read this in a manga once.)

"So let me share with you something... I will tell you about the biggest crisis I ever faced in my gambling life. A shadowy organization was hosting a mysterious tournament... The game in which I participated was called King of Liars. It was quite a severe game. When you enter, they strip you of all your assets. Money, property, everything. You must use your wisdom, cunning, and luck to battle through challenge after challenge. For the final match, I had to face off with an odd duo... They called themselves the Honest Woman and the Liar Genius. During a break, I was careless and spilled some tea on my clothes. I was terrified that the stain would never come out. That was a very difficult time in my life. I was forced to win more quickly than I wanted, so that I could rush to the cleaners. I was able to get the stain out, but it was perilously close...If I had waited even another hour, I would have been forced to throw out my favorite dress." (None of this happened; I invented it from manga I read and a mundane incident of spilling tea on my dress during a game.)

"The worst is F-rank. If you're F-rank...I pay a special organization to have you killed. Your very existence is unforgivable." (Obviously not true, but it makes me seem fearsome.)

"Also, when you become C-rank, you gain the right to become my official servant--a knight. I have knights all across the world. They are all quite obedient." (I have no knights. I've never even left Japan.)

--------

If you fell for a good number of these, then congratulations:

[sonic-au-collision]

SONIC AU SPOTLIGHT

Hello there! Do you have an AU that's pretty much your passion project? You just love and adore this AU you've worked so hard on and you hope others will love it as much as you do as well. But then when you post it, it's like you've sent your AU on a trip to the void and it doesn't get as much attention as you hoped. And of course, you still love creating content for your AU!! But you can't help but feel like that others just don't care about your AU?

Well! I'm here to tell you that there ARE people who care and absolutely adore your AU. Maybe they just don't know it yet because they haven't seen it yet! Speaking from experience, I have found AUs that have been ongoing for years with the exact concepts I've been looking for, but I just didn't know about that the AU existed for the longest time. That's why I created Sonic AU Collision and that's why I'm continuing the spirit of the event through AU Spotlights!! To share and discover the many AUs we've created in this fandom!

Now, you may have noticed that while the Collision is inactive, this blog has been acting as a showcase of sorts by reblogging Sonic AUs of all kinds. These are found under #world entry log instead of #au collision propaganda since they may look kinda similar. The Spotlight takes one step further to ensure that your AU is actually seen among the many other AUs found on this blog. Every other Saturday, the regular showcase queue will be paused and this blog will post and reblog pieces ONLY FOR THE AU IN THE SPOTLIGHT!!

If you're interested, then go on and fill out the form below! If you have multiple AUs, go on and fill out the form again for each AU if you'd like but do not do repeats.

THERE ARE CONDITIONS!! READ THE NEXT PART CAREFULLY!!

In order to be chosen for the spotlight, you need show show other AUs some support first. I ask that you do something to share your appreciation for another person's AU at least three times to submit one AU of your own. You can compliment the same person's AUs three times or compliment three different people. You gotta give some to get some. You could make fanart or fanfics for their AU. Really, whatever you want to show your support! If you spend an extremely high level on time and effort, then that can count as all three of your pieces. More information on this will be on the form itself. You are able to submit the form first and do the three things after if you want.

Now, moving onto your AU. All that's required for the form is the AU's name and a description. The description can be as long or as short as you like. Whatever you write will be placed on your spotlight's pinned post!

Other things you can include but are not required are:

Cover Art/Art Representing Your AU/AU Logo

AU/Character References - If you still want an image to go along with your description but don't have one, the mod will use the references you provide to create something for you. (The level of "completeness" may vary and will most likely be uncolored lined art)

Links! These can be for your AU's tag, masterpost, comic blog, etc.

Same rules as the collision apply.

Have fun!

SUBMIT YOUR AU TO BE FEATURED IN THE SPOTLIGHT HERE!!

[tododeku-or-bust]

Hey I heard that you've been having issues with some friends lately about politics lately and was wondering how you're.... dealing, I guess? I'm not American, but my 3 best friends of seven years are. I've considered these people my platonic soulmates and boxes of gifts are still sitting in my closet addressed to them.

But ever since the US. Elections this year, I've felt really sick thinking about people voting for the Dems after they livestreamed a genocide. And none of my friends particularly *like* the Dems at all and think they're complicit and need to do better, but they also did still vote for them in the hopes of not losing insulin/hormones/welfare money they need to live.

And I don't want my friends to suffer or die, but I also feel really gross thinking about my friends doing that. I've tried explaining to them that the Dems aren't any good for us, but they always retort that they need to try in order to live and I never know what to say.

I'm pretty new to any serious leftist movements and don't think I'd really be ready to meet people in a group like that so like,,,, should I keep trying to get through to them since they agree the Dems aren't good? Is that what you've been doing?

I've tried explaining my feelings to people IRL from my country and they all basically agree that "Americans just want to avoid Trump hurting them" and I feel really isolated and scared. This whole debacle has kind of crushed my belief in love and soulmates (platonic or otherwise) and now I don't see much point in continuing to be alive if I have to just cut off every person I've ever known or loved and be alone until I die.

I really hope you aren't experiencing the same feelings I'm going through and that something that makes you really really happy happens this week. And that your wedding goes well! Don't let anybody say you don't deserve to be happy!

Well I can't really speak on soulmates fr, but you wouldn't have to "be alone until you die" if you found community that thought more like you 😅 and I'm not saying that to be snarky, I am completely genuine. For all the peers whose respect I don't have for my beliefs, I have found people that did, that helped me feel reinforced. You said you're not ready to get serious, but when you are, just know that that's what these movements and groups are for! Maybe you'll find different soulmates there! Maybe it's time to let go of the old ones that served a different time for you.

I'm sorry that your friends are not on the same page as you, though. Me personally, when it comes to these things, I am absolutely a black sheep. But I don't try to convince people in my life anymore. I loudly let it be known where I stand so that they cannot deny there is another reality than what they see, that I will not be moving, and that's it. Convincing people who are more concerned with themselves than they are anything else has not served me. I don't talk to people who aren't trying to listen to me 🤷🏾‍♀️ When they're ready to actually listen, then get ready to talk! But the same way you can't persuade them (as of right now), you don't have to let them pressure you, either. I might just be jaded, though. I've allowed a lot of bridges to slowly burn. If they rebuild it, or stop the fire, then that's how it'll be.

Educating yourself is also a great way to reinforce your perspective; part of the reason I'm so confident is because I take the time to read. The things I can't put into words, a LOT of other people across many cultures have! So I'm not blind! I personally value my integrity above social standing, bc at the end of the day you're gonna die with you, and I'll be damned if I never stood for shit bc "clout" by people who only liked me for conforming lmao. I gotta like ME by the end of my life. And ik that's easier said than done, and it does disappoint very often but... I try to do it.

I wish I had better advice for you; I'm sure that was not the soft answer you needed 😅 I appreciate you reaching out to me, and I hope you find the strength within you to continue. 🙏🏾

[majorproblems77]

Four. By Hylia do Four. Honestly I don't have many ideas for an actual prompt but since I saw that you love Sky, maybe Four looking up to Sky (since he's the hero right after him) and Sky feeling guilty for the curse and the like. Or could be them bonding over it if you want it to be fluffy lol

(this was fun, and good practice for me, I dont write four very often! But this was fun!)

Link It was amazing to hear from you, It calms my soul to know that you are in good company on your quest this time. As for what you've told me, It surprised me to learn that you are travelling with the Skyloftian hero of legend himself. I did a little digging for you and from what Zelda tells me The skyloftian hero was a kind-hearted man who put others before himself in every way.

I understand your concerns, but Sky seems the type to air your concerns too. He doesn't seem the type to not be observant and if you've been avoiding the conversation for long enough he's probably taken note by now. He might even try to speak to you himself. Remember link you're a hero too, and im sure he knows that and trusts you. But your inner thoughts seem to be fighting again. Maybe you should ask your brothers in mind to talk it out for you. Maybe ask him if you can hold that sword you keep telling me about. I've still not found out how exactly he forged that thing with no equipment to speak off but my search continues.

Just keep that in mind. Write soon Grandpa

"Hey four! You got a letter from home again?" Wind bounded over to the smithy as he put the letter back in his bag. Musing over its contents.

"I did, i asked my grandpa for some advice." He said softly, smiling at his bag before facing the sailor. "How can I help you, sailor?"

"Sky's been asking for you. Not sure why, he's doing his 'just do it but nicely' voice again." The sailor sat beside him. "Probably to spar with him. I know pretty much everyone else has by this point."

"I'll go and see him."

Grandpa was right...

"Thanks, smithy!" The sailor shouted as he ran off towards the captain.

He walked through the camp, smiling to the others as he looked to Time expectantly. the man shrugged his shoulders and pointed to a gap in the trees to the other clearing they'd made into another part of camp.

"Sky?"

"Hey, four!" The skyloftian smiled, and picked up a training sword.

"Wind said you were looking for me?" He questioned, crossing his arms as he looked to the skyloftian.

"Yes..." The skyloftian paused, looking behind the smith before smiling again.

'That was weird...'

"Fancy a spar!" He waved the sword in his hand, before throwing it towards the smith. It landed on the ground with a clatter.

"Sure." He looked to the sword on the ground as Sky picked up his own weapon. "Any particular reason Sky?"

"No." He rolled the sword through his hand. "you're the only one I've not had the chance to spar with yet."

A chance to spar with Sky is an opportunity we shouldn't pass up!

"That sounds like fun."

You know he's only doing this to test how good you are. It's the logical choice unless he needs to speak to us.

"Great!" The skyloftian readed his training sword holding it across his body in a defensive stance. "Okay. So I'll maintain a defence, if you try to break through it we can see..."

Why's he doing this in the first place? Does he not think we can do anything?

Sky's seen us fight plenty of times. It dosent make any sense.

Unless he wants us to get in close.

He wants to talk to us. But doesn't know how to approach

We aren't exactly the easiest person to approach.

"Four?" The skyloftains question broke through his inner turmoil. As he blinked back to reality.

"Oh yes!" Focus link... "Ready when you are."

The skyloftian raised his sword, sitting in a defensive stance again.

This is highly irregular.

You think he's still on that conversation we had the other night?

The timeline talk?

Where we very much looked upset that we were second on the list.

Sky's direct successor...

You think we make him proud?

"Four?" Nothing. "Smithy?"

"Link!"

"Im here. Im here." Stupid overthinking. "I'm good."

"If you're not up for it I can ask Wars to spar instead." The skyloftian placed his sword down. "Everything okay?" He approached and sat on the ground. Patting the grass beside him in an invitation to sit down.

"I'm fine Sky." Now isn't the time to make him think you are anything less. He sat beside the skyloftian loth of them looking to the sky above them.

"Okay well now your lying to me." Sky didn't look at him, his eyes tracing a cloud that swam laizly across the sky.

"Im not."

"What is it really?"

"I..."

"I noticed you've been avoiding speaking to me directly. Where you can speak to the rancher easily. Or even the captain, or Hyrule." He sat up, pulling his knees to his chest.

HE KNOWS?

"Did I do something?" The skyloftian asked, his eyes searching for any sense of an answer for the smith.

Sky feel's bad? Why does Sky feel bad?

"You've not done anything directly."

"Then me being here then." The Skyloftian thought back. "You've only been avoiding me since..." Realisation shined in his eyes as he visibly deflated. "Oh..."

That was not the reaction i was expecting

Wait, sky looks sad. Sky looks so sad!

His eyes! Did you see that?

"The only explanation is that now you know where we fall in the timeline. You wish it wasn't me before you."

Where did he get that idea from?

"What? Sky?"

"Or you're ashamed."

"Sky... Sk im not ashamed of you, I. Oh god."

I wish we'd split. I'll give him the talk he needs.

You are the last person I would send into this

And what's that meant to mean?!

"Im sorry. Im sorry I failed to stop the darkness and that you had to live the life you have." The skyloftian looked away, gripping the corners of his sailcloth as he took a steadying breath.

What?

Sky dont say that!

"Sky. My life as a hero has been eventful yeah. But I wouldn't change it for the world. I dont think any of us would."

"But you've gone through so much pain, lost loved ones. Lost friends." He gripped his hand. Covering the back of his right hand with his left.

"If he was here my friend would slap you."

I miss him.

"I've been avoiding you... yeah. But not because of that."

"Then why?"

Come on! We can do this!

Sky is the kindest of us, if anyone gets it it's him

He took a breath before looking the skyloftain square in the face. "Because. I look up to you. I have my whole life."

"What?" The skyloftian sounded genuinely shocked to hear this. His face swam with a mix of emotions.

"The hero of Sun, or the hero of skyloftian legend. is a story that people in my time read to their young before they go to bed." He fiddled through his bag. "I dont have a copy on me now, but Ill ask my grandpa to send me a copy with his next letter."

"It is?" Sky asked. "I'm a story?"

"Yes. It tells of a man from the clouds clad in green chosen by the gods to save the world. He broke a path through the sky itself to defeat a rising evil so dark it would shroud the world in darkness forever." He sighed. "When you told us about your journey, I discovered that I was the only one to know of your legends like that..."

"You figured your place."

"I did."

"So, you're a successor that can't have come much after me. A few generations at most."

"I think so."

They sat in silence for a moment before Sky shifted again, placing his hands behind him as he looked skyward again. "When you get that book from your grandpa, I'd like to read it if that's okay. I'd like to see how history remembered me."

"If we make it to my time you can ask Zelda, I know she's done a lot of research into the hero of old."

Sky gave a laugh as he stood, offering a hand to the smith. "Come on, we should get back."

"Sure thing." He smiled, taking the offered hand and standing. "We should 'spar' more. Helps quiet the thoughts."

"I can agree with you there."

[clowncaraz-journal]

transformation amongst mortals.

rambling on being a physical deity and shapeshifting. messy and unorganized.

____________

my name is Azriel. i have known of my energy being nature for a lot longer than i have been aware of my divine nature. i used the term magickin to describe this identity when in otherkin circles and now i just go by "energy being" to describe my species.

this part of me exists in many facets but the most influential is what kind of energy being i am. i am a shifter and i physically shift to quell species dysphoria. my body is physically nonhuman and cannot be anything other because it is what i make it to be.

in my time after leaving the otherkin community, i met true friends willing to stick by me through my struggle and my pains - as would i for them. this not only aided me in speaking about my identity but finding more just like me. these friends are all shifters and physical nonhumans who experience not just shifting but dysphoria and yearning to return to their homes. even if we don't see eye to eye all the time, the unifying factor is our interests and animality.

this feeling of being alone that i held over my head for months and weeks after leaving the otherkin community had completely disappeared. i helped build terminology and community and ideas alongside so many others - i felt responsible for anything that might misunderstand the labels of physical nonhuman and holothere. i feel as though i must also include the changes i had on physical shifting spaces and my terms there, which many have seemed to recognize. i do my best to share and also give credit where it is due, trying to stay fond of every shifter in the community.

so i say all this to say... I feel strange.

i feel as though i'll look out and see other shifters and physical nonhumans and ill feel.. uncomfortable. not in their identity, but in my ability to be nonhuman.

ill see animals, ill see beasts.. ill see them. yet, im alone in feeling physically fictonal. yes, there are maybe two others just like me that I'd have to reach out to, and i understand that.

yet.. i simply see it as a unique part. acknowledge me as a fictional character, a fictional person. a person in fantasy that exists only in the fantasy of others, that has come to life by the mere will of mortal thought. i am a fictional deity, i am fantasy. treat me as divine, as fiction, as always creative, as always changing, as a myriad of items mixed into one character made to represent something for a story - that is who i am.

and i feel alone in meaning that literally.

so i look to shapeshifting, i look to transspecies HRT, i look to species euphoria. i do these things explicitly to invoke the joy and light of seeing mortals lose themselves in the same struggles i put myself in just for fun. to yall, this isn't fun. to me, im laughing and kicking my feet. im the embodiment of liberty and freewill and emancipation - for good or bad - i am a bringer of change in all forms.

so when i am exhausted from this human vessel, i will shift my senses to my real body and i will feel what i am missing elsewhere. ill get my joy back, my messy hair, my real body, my laughter, my grin. ill get it all back and ill look delirious doing it !

i will shapeshift and i will enter a state of pure ecstacy from just finding simple demeanor worthy of my magickal laugh and song. i will dance and i will prace and jest and i will be physically fictional and feel my senses morph and be permanently altered overtime into who i really am outside of this vessel.

i am a deity.

it is different for everyone, this journey. i believe we should all strive to find joy in knowing our true selves and being authentic, no matter the consequences. i believe in animalistic freedom and no longer withholding sexuality and instinct while reducing harm. i express my blessings and curses through words and magick. i am a deity and have seen my magick work in real time. and you'd think, well, a deity shouldn't be lonely.. you'll have followers and worshippers.

yeah. id hope one day id have someone look at my divinity and decide that it's worth giving offerings and angels to. i dont care if one decides i am to be worshipped, but i have no tolerance for believing myself to be above or sent from the heavens. i am simply divine in ways incomprehensible and fictional and have separated the divinity from the immortality of story to show that i exist in forms beyond my power, beyond godhood, beyond being untouchable.

in this vessel, i am merely weak and fragile and mortal. i have no issue, as everything on this planet dies. yet, ideas and thoughts and fiction is immortalized by the growing existence of life. i am sustained by watching you live and grow and become free from oligarchies and mindless suffering. that is enough worship for me. your willpower to keep living is an offering i would never reject !

so we loop back.

the only escape from this vessel i voluntarily put myself in is shapeshifting. and when i see others who seem to have it easy, i remind myself they are mortal and they are not written in fiction and history. that they will not have incarnations like me for millenia. that they will not return. and that's okay too. it's okay to just.. be here once and be so tired of it. it's okay. i get it. it's not your fault.

and so to take away the means for physical nonhumans and shifters to express themselves, shifting or through any other transformation, is a hindrance on the freewill and joy of so many living beings. some of you are only here once. and i feel at some point responsible for keeping that tradition - the extreme of our community - alive by opening doors and punching clouds to let in the sunshine of transitioning into animalhood. you should be able to experience nonhumanity before you no longer can.

i know im no savior. i know i am not holy. i am far from it i have had my share of issues. and yet. i feel as though because i am fictional, i am immortal in some sense. I'll come back. ill do it all over again. and ill try my best to remedy when i am called upon. i am no savior. i am just fictional.

i feel uncomfortable. i feel alone. and i assume this feeling won't go away. but ive watched and ive loved and im going to be here to do it all over again.

i think transitioning to godhood and animality should begin right now. right when you read this sentence. right now. go research on transspecies hrt and identity. go look at xenic presentations. go transform and shapeshift right now. go experience life. don't let struggle hold you back. go right now and find that light. im blessing the lands you walk upon to spare you and to aide you in finding the freedom you seek. that is all i want when i watch mortals dance and sing. i have no need for worship or praise. this is enough.

[just-horrible-things]

1. What is the main lesson of your story? Why did you choose it?

I feel like a lot of these questions reveal a very different approach to writing to mine. I don’t set out to impart lessons, I’m not interested in writing didactically. 

Unlikely Salvation has I guess some kind of lesson about change or forgiveness or that hurting people radicalises them and helping each other is the only way to mend rifts or something. But all of that grew organically, and there’s also a lot of fucked up stuff in there, a lot of “don’t try this at home”. Alex is way too forgiving early in the story, that’s not coming from a healthy place, that’s not a moral recommendation. It’s just an interesting thing for him as a character to do.

I think my other stories are further from having any “lessons” in them. Shit just happens, in some kind of sequence.

2. What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding?

Large parts of the Resistance ‘verse were made up by my co-author, so I can’t speak to that. The structure and behaviours of the feds are mostly based on reading about real-world fascist organisations.

My BBU works are obviously very heavily inspired by other BBU stories, especially the way @ashintheairlikesnow writes it.

Annihilation is purely vibes. I’m throwing in everything that feels cool to me at the time and I couldn’t name where those ideas are coming from. (I’m more likely to be able to put my finger on it in retrospect, once the shape of it comes clearer.)

3a. What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them?

Ariadne, my prime blorbo, is primarily motivated by seeking atonement, and by seeking Victory for her Cause.

Smith and Spider are mostly just trying to survive. Spider later trying to carve out her own identity.

Nikef is trying to win a war, preferably without losing what’s left of her selfhood along the way. Ahden is trying to keep Nikef alive and sane and not deciding to murder everyone.

I, the writer, am trying to tell interesting stories with characters who feel three-dimensional and textured.

3b. Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness or help the reader grow as a person?

No.

4. How many chapters is your story going to have?

Don’t know, don’t care. I’m not trying to write complete, finished things at this time in my life. Honestly I find the notion a bit intimidating, and while I’m sure I could do it and probably will at some point in the future, at the moment writing is mostly an outlet for random creative energy. I write out of order and at a whim.

5. Is it fan fiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

Original content. Only putting it on tumblr at present. If tumblr went away or became intolerable, I’d probably move it somewhere else, since enough people seem to enjoy it.

6. When did you start writing?

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t, honestly. Probably around the time I learned to, physically, write. There have been years and patches of years where my output was very low, but I’ve always made up stories and scrawled at least some of them down.

7a. Do you have any words of encouragement for fellow writers of writeblr?

It’s been said before, but write whatever you feel like writing. If you enjoy your story, if it matters to you, if it has meaning to you, that stuff will come through in your writing.

Don’t worry too much about quality. You’re always learning, you can always go back and edit stuff if you want it to be better. Stressing too much about the quality of output just gets you stuck in a loop of infinite editing or worse feeling too bad to write at all.

7b. What other writers do you follow?

So many. I’ve recently listed a few favourite stories. I’m following *checks* 279 blogs write now and I’d estimate 90% of them are writers.

—

I’m terrible at coming up with people to tag but uhhhh @mottinthemainpot, @justplainwhump ? No pressure.

Tag Game: Author Ask Tag

thxxxxxxx @sacratos for the tag!

Question Template: 1. What is the main lesson of your story? Why did you choose it? 2. What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding? 3. What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness or help the reader grow as a person? 4. How many chapters is your story going to have? 5. Is it fan fiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it? 6. When did you start writing? 7. Do you have any words of encouragement for fellow writers of writeblr? What other writers do you follow?

1. What is the main lesson of your story? Why did you choose it? 

Don’t be an idiot and actually communicate with those you love, lol. In all seriousness, I don’t know if my story has a main theme, but there are several themes for sure. The importance of having family that loves and supports you (whether found or biological), taking back autonomy of oneself, and the importance of community.

2. What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding? 

Other BBU/pet whump authors! If you have written for the BBU, trust me, I have used some idea of yours as inspiration somewhere. I also use middle school me’s obsession with dystopian novels as inspiration as well.

3. What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness or help the reader grow as a person? 

All my MCs are trying to heal, in one way or another and I want my readers to connect with my characters in some way. Not really teaching a lesson or having some big, major theme, but I want my characters to feel real and connect with the readers (yes, even if you want to kill them you cannot touch Star, he is immune from death)

4. How many chapters is your story going to have? 

Hahahaha ha ha ha. . . yeah, no clue

5. Is it fan fiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it? 

Original content from my brain! I post it here, and only here

6. When did you start writing? 

The minute I learned what stories were. I think I wrote my first “story” (bible fanfiction. No I will not be taking questions about that) when I was about seven or so, then my first full fanfiction at nine and I have not stopped since. 

7. Do you have any words of encouragement for fellow writers of writeblr? What other writers do you follow?

Read! Seriously, I cannot stress this enough! Read! And not just to compare yourselves with other writers–please don’t do that at all–but read to see how others write emotion, descriptions, characters, plots! Take what you like and figure out why you don’t like other kinds of writing, then apply what you want to your own writing. Also, your writing voice will develop in time. Don’t worry about that.

A large chunk of people I follow are writers! Can’t list all of them here, but they know who they are and their writings have inspired and shaped both my style and my content. Ilyasm! 

Tagging (w/o any pressure!) @quietly-by-myself @whump-card @sparrowsage @whumble-beeee @whumpyourdamnpears and anyone else who wants to join in!

[turtleblogatlast]

Something I like about Leo is that he’s honestly really chill? It’s easy to remember the moments where he’s being obnoxious or excitable but I feel like most of the time he’s incredibly “go with the flow” and has an overall affable demeanor.

[millenianthemums]

parents of disabled kids will be like “we know our kid is disabled but we just won’t tell them about it. we don’t want them to think they’re less valuable than other kids. we don’t want them to feel limited by their disability, we want them to know they’re capable of anything.”

meanwhile those kids are growing up thinking “why is everything so much harder for me than it is for everyone else? there’s no reason i shouldn’t be able to just do this. i guess i’m just a failed, broken person.”

[yellowsubiesdance]

i think i’ve learned a lot when it comes to not applying my own values to the media i consume

for my script analysis class yesterday, we discussed two gentleman from verona, and nearly every classmate of mine was up in arms about how sexist the story is.

and i'm not saying it's not, or that it's not infuriating to read. but i'm also not putting my energy into getting upset about something written 500 or so years ago. and i'm not about to put my own beliefs onto these characters that are not me. i'm going to let their choices speak for themselves, and interpret it in the context of the story.

all that said, this now brings me to the point of alastor in episode 5, and how viscerally people are responding to it. those of you up in arms about the choices he’s making, and the violent threat he gave husk, you’re missing the entire point of his character, of this place they’re in, of the story being told. he’s an overlord, and he became an overlord by killing much bigger overlords and broadcasting their deaths over the radio.

HE IS NOT A GOOD PERSON.

if you started this show with the belief that every character working the hotel is a good person, you’re in the wrong place. watch the good place if you’re looking for a good wholesome story about getting dead sinners into heaven, because that’s not what this show is about.

you’re more than welcome to hate him after seeing the way he exerted power over a being whose soul he owns, but you’re doing the media you’re watching a disservice by writing it off so quickly. if you don’t like to be uncomfortable watching media, watch something else. this is an uncomfortable show, it handles uncomfortable topics, and it’s going to be an uncomfortable ride, and if you’re not up for something like that, then you should take a break from it and pick up something else. you don’t have to get online and defend your own ideals while you watch a show that goes against your ideals.