#and the more you engage with those kind of people it’s only logical that they’ll push back more

[mywitchyblog]

@shiftmaxxer

masterlist

In response to your post:

Thank you for your thoughtful contribution. It’s refreshing to engage in a counter-argument and have meaningful discussions that don’t devolve into insults or death threats. This kind of respectful dialogue is what allows for growth and understanding, even when we don’t see eye to eye.

Part 1: Clarifying Intent and Addressing Misrepresentation

First and foremost, it seems there may have been some misunderstandings regarding the purpose of my original post and the intentions behind it. I understand that you’re critiquing my previous rant, which I admit was written in a heated moment. In hindsight, I recognize that I should have taken the time to calm down before writing, as it might have conveyed my thoughts more clearly and without the emotional charge.

You mentioned, and I quote: "Calling other people of color 'pathetic' for what I believe to be perfectly understandable reactions to race-changing is reductive." I want to clarify that this was not my intention at all. The individuals I labeled as "pathetic" were those who, unlike you, resort to insults and threats, using logical fallacies as their only arguments—arguments that aren’t even valid to begin with.

The only other instance where I used the word "pathetic" in that post was in reference to certain white individuals who oppose race-changing without providing proper arguments. Here’s the passage in question: "As a person of color, this issue is especially relevant to me, yet the opposition I see frequently comes from individuals who don’t share my lived experiences—often white people who have no stake in the matter, telling me what I should or shouldn’t do. They’ll throw around terms like 'DNI,' 'I don't wanna argue with you,' 'if you support race-changing, block me,' or brand me as a bad person without engaging in any meaningful dialogue. It proves that they are cowards, pathetic, and that their claims hold no weight and reek of insecurity."

This quote is crucial because it explains why I referred to these individuals as insecure and pathetic: they immediately resort to name-calling without providing proper explanations. The "bad person" I referenced is someone who attacks me with labels like "racist" or even "pedophile"—terms that have nothing to do with the actual debate at hand. This is an example of a Strawman Fallacy because it misrepresents my argument by suggesting I called all POC "pathetic," which wasn’t the case. My criticism was aimed specifically at those who rely on insults and threats rather than valid arguments.

Part 2: Addressing Claims of Hostility and Spite

You also pointed out that I "completely dismiss any opposing arguments, calling it 'close-minded.'" Yes, I agree—logical fallacies and insults are indeed close-minded arguments. The only counter-argument I had is the one I mentioned earlier; feel free to check it out. So yes, I called it close-minded because that’s exactly what it is. Furthermore, accusing me of writing with ChatGPT is an Ad Hominem Fallacy, which targets my character rather than engaging with the substance of my arguments.

Regarding your statement: "You've stated yourself that you argue in a way to 'spite' people who oppose your opinion." Let me clarify—spite plays a dual role in my approach. On one hand, I genuinely want to uplift and educate people, sharing knowledge and perspectives that can help others grow and expand their understanding. On the other hand, there’s a part of me that’s driven by a desire to challenge and provoke—to make people think harder and question the status quo. Sometimes, that means making people uncomfortable or challenging their deeply held beliefs, especially when those beliefs are rooted in ignorance or prejudice. It’s about making them confront their biases to the point where their limited thinking is forced to evolve—or at the very least, be exposed.

And yes, I will not budge on the point that ad hominem attacks, threats, and insults are not acceptable forms of argumentation. They don’t contribute to meaningful discourse, and they certainly don’t challenge or strengthen any position.

You mentioned that my tone "is hostile and full of what I see as 'conversation enders' (you argue in a way that shuts down discourse rather than encourages it)." I apologize if my tone came across that way; it was not intended to be hostile. In the future, I’ll make an effort to use better disclaimers and perhaps even include tone tags to ensure that my intent is clear. My aim was never to shut down conversation but to challenge the status quo and encourage intelligent debate, free of ad hominem attacks—much like the approach you’ve taken in your response.

Part 3: Hypocrisy and Nuance in Race-Changing Discussions

You also raised the point that I’m "hypocritical for disregarding the value of people's hurt and frustrations and calling it a desire to be 'empathetic.'" This is not the case. In my essay, I acknowledged that there’s a fine line between empathy and the potential for fetishization, romanticization, and even racism if not handled carefully. For example, I specifically stated that "race-changing in reality shifting can serve as a unique and valuable tool for promoting intercultural understanding, challenging racial prejudices, and fostering a more empathetic and inclusive society" when done thoughtfully and ethically (Essay, Part I). If I were truly disregarding these concerns, I wouldn’t have included the parts of my essay where I emphasized the importance of treading lightly and being considerate.

Initially, I planned to argue that race-changing was entirely okay and not disrespectful at all. However, as I continued writing, I recognized the need to include those critical nuances—because nothing in this world is black and white. Consequently, I changed the direction of my essay to reflect this, and I quote myself: "By maintaining this careful balance, race-changing in reality shifting can serve as a unique and valuable tool for promoting intercultural understanding, challenging racial prejudices, and fostering a more empathetic and inclusive society. As with any powerful tool, its value lies not in the practice itself, but in how we choose to use it."

Originally, I might have said something like "Race-changing is okay and a good thing," but instead, I concluded, "Race-changing can be a good thing, but we need to be careful not to be disrespectful, as we have a duty and responsibility."

Part 4: Loaded Questions and Hasty Generalizations

You asked: "You would rather shift to be another race to 'understand' a race than engage with their media, their lived, documented experiences, or talk to others about their experiences? Are others' experiences meaningless to you unless you physically ARE them? If you lack that amount of empathy that you have to become another race, I don't think empathy was ever in the cards for you." I’m not sure if you’re addressing me directly here, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.

As for me, I never stated or implied that in my previous posts. Moreover, asserting that race-changers shift to another race because the experiences of POC are meaningless to them, ergo they never had any empathy to begin with, is a Hasty Generalization Fallacy. Additionally, the framing of the question is a Loaded Question Fallacy because it presumes a lot about my intentions without evidence, and frames the question in a way that makes any answer seem incriminating. It's an unfair setup.

In my essay, I made it clear that "shifting allows for experiencing life through different perspectives which can be enlightening as fuck" (Essay, Part I). The goal is not to dismiss or undermine anyone’s experiences but to gain a deeper understanding through direct experience in another reality, which is a legitimate and complex method of exploring identity and empathy.

Part 5: The Complexity of Reality Shifting and Allegory in Fiction

You also wrote: "For people from the racial identities being appropriated, witnessing individuals casually adopt and discard their race can be distressing. It can feel as though their experiences and struggles are being reduced to mere fantasy elements rather than being respected and understood. This disregard can contribute to feelings of marginalization and invalidate the real-life challenges faced by those of different races."

I completely agree with you that this can be distressing, and I cannot invalidate your feelings—you are entitled to them. However, I must disagree with the notion that race-changing "invalidates the real-life challenges" faced by those of different races, simply because in the context of reality shifting, the line between "real" and "fake" life blurs. If you meant "OR," then I retract my disagreement.

However, to suggest that some race-changers do this with the intention of causing this effect on POC is reductive. As a POC myself, if someone were to tell me they shifted to a reality where they are the same race as I am and then shared their experiences of discrimination, I would feel a sense of joy that they finally understand my pain—rather than dismissing it in this reality with statements like "Oh, come on, you’re exaggerating," or "It’s not so bad after all." Like, why don’t you walk in my shoes before saying that? Oh wait, they did, and now they get it.

You stated: "Being black and being a 'werewolf' aren't comparable in any version of reality. To trivialize a lived experience of an inconceivable number of people (because remember, this is the multiverse) is extremely bold." I have never trivialized or reduced the pain of other POC or marginalized communities. I merely pointed out that they share some similarities in that they are perceived as monstrous, discriminated against, and persecuted. The difference, of course, is that one is considered fictional in this reality, and the other is not.

It is you who is being bold by claiming they have nothing in common. Consider that some writers create fictional races as allegories for what marginalized communities face in our world. A prime example is the Na’vi from Avatar. James Cameron, the director of Avatar, explicitly stated: "Avatar very pointedly made reference to the colonial period in the Americas, with all its conflict and bloodshed between the military aggressors from Europe and the indigenous peoples. Europe equals Earth. The Native Americans are the Na'vi. It's not meant to be subtle."

In this context, someone shifting to be a Na’vi could be seen as analogous to race-changing to be a Native American, only with a superficial, fantastical layer added on top—a "pink bow" if you will. While the Na’vi might be fictional, their creation is deeply rooted in the real experiences and histories of Native Americans, particularly their suffering at the hands of colonial forces. The narratives of exploitation, resistance, and survival embodied by the Na’vi are direct reflections of those faced by Indigenous peoples.

Thus, shifting to become a Na’vi in a desired reality is not just adopting a fictional identity but engaging with the complex and painful history that the Na’vi represent. Whether or not the person shifting acknowledges this connection, the allegory remains. The act of shifting to a race that is explicitly crafted as a stand-in for a real marginalized group comes with inherent implications, making it far more than a mere fantasy element.

Therefore, equating the Na'vi with werewolves, and dismissing the deeper connections between these fictional and real marginalized groups, misses the point entirely. The comparison trivializes the intent behind these allegories, reducing complex social and historical narratives to mere fantasy. It's not bold to recognize these connections—it's simply understanding the truth of how fiction often reflects reality.

Part 6: Logical Fallacies and the Nature of Empathy

Regarding your statement: "Discrediting one's lived experiences (ergo, attacking their credibility) is not just questioning the validity of their personal story; it's denying the nuanced realities that intertwine us as people. If you can do that so easily, how can you become better and more understanding from rcta alone?" If I were discrediting my fellow POC’s experiences, I wouldn’t have brought a nuanced perspective to the subject. I acknowledged that it’s a topic that requires careful handling and that it’s not black and white, even though I tried to simplify it but couldn’t.

However, your assertion that "It won’t fix or better your empathy because you already lack it from the way you react to those who don’t agree with the practice" is an Ad Hominem Fallacy. You’re attacking my character without providing evidence to support your claim that I lack empathy.

In my essay, I discussed how "morals and ethics are not universal constants but are shaped by cultural, temporal, and situational factors" (Essay, Part I). This underscores the importance of understanding that empathy and moral considerations can vary greatly depending on the context and the reality in which they are applied.

Part 7: Nuanced Perspectives and False Dichotomy

Finally, I want to emphasize that it’s okay to feel offended by those who race-change. I won’t dictate your feelings—you are entitled to them. But you also need to acknowledge that not everything is black and white; not everyone who engages in race-changing does so to invalidate or trivialize the lives and experiences of other people of color.

You said: "But refusing to be accountable for the real reasons you race change (and why at least 50% of us shift) is disingenuous." If I were truly being disingenuous, as you claim, why would I have written in my essay that the issue is nuanced? By acknowledging the fact that we must tread lightly and be careful, I’ve already implicitly stated that those people exist. If I didn’t acknowledge that fact, I wouldn’t have discussed it at all.

You also mentioned: "There is no morality play. People don’t shift races to 'grow' or just because they're 'curious'. You make such an (understandably) loaded and controversial topic more innocent and sweet than it is." Let me stop you right there. I do not make a controversial topic more innocent and sweet than it is—I made it more nuanced.

Stating that race-changing is inherently bad is a False Dichotomy Fallacy; it reduces the topic to two simplistic notions when there are other perspectives. I acknowledge that some POC may be offended by it. But they must also acknowledge that not everyone who engages in race-changing does so to trivialize their experiences—quite the opposite.

How many POC (myself included) have been so sick and tired of having people dismiss our pain, wanting them to understand instead of diminishing it? I can’t recall the number of times I wanted those people to walk a mile in my shoes just to see what it feels like. And with shifting, they can.

Part 8: Conclusion and Invitation for Further Discussion

You concluded with: "It makes you someone who can't and won't make room for those who feel invalidated by those who race-change frivolously." So, what do you propose we should do? I specifically said in my post that we shouldn’t be frivolous about it—that we have a responsibility and a duty when engaging in such practices. And yes, I admit that saying "DNI," or "block me if you support race-changing," may have been too much, but when those same people are the ones who insult and threaten me, I cannot be blamed for making such assumptions about them.

To conclude, I really enjoyed your respectful perspective on the subject. However, stating that people who race-change immediately do it for disrespectful reasons is simply wrong. You should understand that nothing in Reality Shifting is purely good or bad, black or white; it is a spectrum of gray.

I’m also quite curious to hear your stance on bi/multiracial shifters who choose to change or "suppress" one of their races.

Ergo i have to refute those arguments, it was delightful to debate with you.

I wish you good luck and success in your shifting journey

Kind regards,

Luno

[derpymule]

Hey, I don't appreciate you saying what I believe without even knowing me. I'm Ancom, I don't believe Capitalism provides anything but starvation wages for anyone except the rich fucks at the top. However I am pointing out that while we are *stuck* in this situation, stealing from another artist, not some corporation but an artist, is kind of shitty and taking what they could possibly need to survive.

By your logic, Disney could take someone's artwork, copy it and make it their own, with no payment, no need to do anything. Said artist could be surviving paycheck to paycheck, barely scraping by, or not even surviving paycheck to paycheck, needing medical/financial help, and they're desperately trying to get commissions in order to get it. But hey it's just art and it didn't *steal* the original, right? So Disney shouldn't have to pay or do anything, right? That artist should just get fucked because they put all that work into something, and someone else came along, scooped it up, and just claimed it as their own. Personally I'd rather corporations like Disney didn't exist, but this is the world we currently exist in.

My counter is this: what exactly has the artist lost in this situation? Their followers will still know they made the work first, so there’s no loss there. People who would have found it will still find it, and if it’s posted online they’ll have proof to show those people that they made it first. It’s not like the copy entirely replaces the original, both exist and the original will remain exactly as popular as it would have been anyway.

But, there’s an added aspect. These days, if a corporation steals fanart or something, they get massively called out. The company takes a reputation hit and the original artist gains a massive following from the publicity the drama produces. This is, unequivocally, a loss for the copier and a win for the original artist, no copyright law needed. Now, why exactly do you think this wouldn’t happen in a world without copyright law? Companies may try to steal works, but they will basically always get called out on it. And even if they didn’t, they’re still introducing a large amount of people to that specific kind of art, people who may very well search for more of the same and find that original artist. And even if only something like 1 in 1000 people do this, those large corporations regularly get 10s-100s of thousands of engagements, which means 10s-100s of people redirected to this artist.

To follow up on that: is this not a huge gain for the community? If it’s art good enough that a large corporation is willing to associate it with themselves, that means it’s art that will enrich many people who see it. This would have been art only a few people saw, but now it will reach several orders of magnitude more people who may be inspired or encouraged. Imagine if the Mona Lisa, or any other incredibly influential work, had been made by a tiny artist with a negligible following. Would it not be far preferable if a larger artist, one capable of corralling a large audience, displayed it among their own work? Would that not be far, far better for the entire art world? Do you not wonder how much work, how many cultural shifts have been lost to time because a small artist was too protective of their work and so it died with them?

I should clarify, this still isn’t optimal. In the best case scenario, big corporations would take fan works and display them, but they would credit the original artist. And I personally believe this would be how it would generally go in a world without copyright law, out of fear of reputation hits if nothing else (it’s not like it costs corporations anything to credit). But my argument here is that even in the worst case scenario, where corporations “steal” art with absolute abandon, there is still no real loss to the original artist, in fact in most cases there is gain, and there is always gain for the wider community. There is literally zero downside to this scenario for anyone but the corporations themselves, who will lose their stranglehold over IP.

[anonymousewrites]

Logos and Pathos (Book 3) Chapter Thirteen

TOS! Spock x Empath! Reader

Chapter Thirteen: Anger Growing

Summary: Spock and (Y/N) realize a strange entity is manipulating the anger between the Klingons and Enterprise crew, but the danger is only just beginning.

            As (Y/N), Spock, and the rest of the crew watched the viewing screen as the Enterprise flew into space at breakneck speed. (Y/N)’s eyes only left the screen when their communications console beeped. They read the message, and they frowned.

            “Captain, reports coming in from the lower decks. Emergency bulkheads have closed,” said (Y/N). The situation was getting stranger and worse. “Almost four hundred crewmen are trapped down there, sir.”

            For a moment, anger swirled around Kirk, and then he turned around and stormed into the elevator. “Spock, get control of the ship. (L/N), get through to Starfleet Command. I’m going to have a talk with our saboteurs.” He disappeared into the elevator.

            “I doubt that the Klingons are behind these occurrences,” said Spock, taking a seat at the command. “They have been confined for quite some time.”

            “I agree,” said (Y/N). “But everyone seems to be jumping to conclusions.” A beep appeared on their console, and they clicked it on. “Bridge.”

            “Bridge! Klingons are on the loose! They are armed and dangerous!” The urgent officer’s voice switched to a cry and the sound of metal hitting metal.

            No phasers? thought (Y/N). “Understood.” They switched to the general radio. “Attention: Alert, armed Klingons are roaming the Enterprise. Be prepared for every eventuality.” They didn’t approve of violence for no reason, but if there was a battle starting, they knew the crew had to defend themselves.

            The elevator doors slid open, and Kirk, panting, stepped through. He held a sword in his hand and passed it to Spock as he ran to his chair.

            “The Klingons are free—armed as we are, they’ll try to take the ship,” he said urgently. (Y/N) and Spock exchanged a look and took a step closer without thinking while Kirk paged Scotty. “Scotty, how many men do we have?”

            “392 trapped below deck,” said Scotty.

            “Deploy forces to protect your section and the Auxiliary Control Center,” ordered Kirk. “Check the Armory and try and free those trapped crewmen.”

            “The doors and bulkheads won’t budge,” said Scotty. “We’ll have to cut through.”

            “Blow out the bulkheads if you have to, we need numbers!” urged Kirk.

            (Y/N) furrowed their brow. Kirk was behaving more like a general than a Captain. Yes, they needed more people, but the aggression and the anger was very un-Kirk-like. Not to mention, he wasn’t questioning the appearance of swords onboard, and (Y/N) thought that should be addressed.

            “What kind of luck have you had controlling the ship’s speed?” continued Kirk.

            “No, sir,” said Scotty regretfully. “She’s a projectile at warp 9. And don’t ask me what’s holding her together.”

            “Five minute reports, Scotty. Kirk out.” Kirk turned off the radio and turned to (Y/N) and Spock. “(L/N), check for alerts from the crew and for communication to Starfleet Command. Spock, I need a full sensor scan of the ship. Report on any movements by the Klingons.” He faced them both and held up a small dagger he also had with himself. “The Klingon Empire has long maintained a dueling tradition. They think they can beat us with swords.”

            “Captain, neither our nor the Klingon technology can transform phasers into swords,” remarked (Y/N). “I doubt they are responsible.” As they spoke, they felt their phaser turn to a sword at their side. Whatever was happening was spreading.

            Spock nodded in agreement and internally decided that although he always found (Y/N) attractive, there was something especially engaging about them being logical. Or, in plain terms, Spock found that (Y/N) being logical made him fall even deeper in love with them.

            “Any other logical candidate?” said Kirk, the anger still radiating around him.

            “No, but they are not a candidate, either,” said (Y/N).

            Spock nodded. “I concur. If they had such power, would they not have used it to create more effective weapons and only for themselves?”

            (Y/N) and Spock waited for a response, but Kirk just turned away to address Sulu. (Y/N) furrowed their brow. If Kirk wasn’t willing to listen to such basic logic, that didn’t spell out well for the situation.

            “Mr. Sulu, get below,” said Kirk. “Take command of Emergency and Auxiliary Control.”

            “Aye, sir,” said Sulu, leaving the Bridge.

            “Captain!” said Chekov.

            “Mr. Chekov,” replied Kirk.

            “Captain…” Chekov held his sword tightly.

            “As you were, Chekov,” said Kirk, and (Y/N) breathed a sigh of relief. At least Kirk wasn’t letting Chekov, the angriest due to his brother (which was strange to learn about), run around. Chekov ignored him and darted up. “Chekov!”

            “Sir! Let me go, too!” said Chekov. He held the sword in front of himself as Kirk, Spock, and (Y/N) eyed it warily. “I’ve got a personal score to settle with the Klingons.”

            “This is no time for a vendetta. Maintain your post,” ordered Kirk.

            “Captain!” urged Chekov, anger growing hotter, and (Y/N) stepped back.

            “Chekov, maintain your post!” shouted Kirk.

            “Don’t try to stop me, Captain,” warned Chekov. “I saw what they left of Piotr. I swore on his grave I would avenge his murder.” He backed into the elevator and escaped.

            Sulu stared at where his friend had disappeared in surprise. “What’s Chekov’s grudge against the Klingons?”

            “We didn’t know, but apparently he had a brother, Piotr, that was killed by them,” said (Y/N).

            Sulu frowned. “Chekov never had a brother. He’s an only child.”

            (Y/N) raised an eyebrow. Now that was strange. Every bit of this situation was being manipulated by something. It couldn’t be the Klingons, and it wasn’t them. But something was causing all of this to happen. (Y/N) narrowed their eyes. They needed to keep an eye out. It seemed they and Spock were some of the only people left with logical minds.

            “Sulu, get down to Engineering,” said Kirk.

            “Aye, sir.” Sulu left.

            Kirk pressed the communications button. “Security, this is the Captain. Find Mr. Chekov and bring him to the Bridge.”

            “Why would Chekov believe he has a brother?” wondered Uhura, and (Y/N) nearly grinned. Of course they could rely on Uhura to keep her head more than the others.

            “I don’t know,” said (Y/N). “But something is happening, and we need to figure out what it is. He wants revenge for a non-existent loss.” Their eyes swept over the Bridge. “He’s angry like the rest of you.”

            “Angry?” remarked Spock.

            “Not you, dear,” said (Y/N), patting his arm. “But, Captain, can you honestly say you’ve been making decisions not based in anger?”

            “I…” Kirk frowned as if he was struggling to think. “I don’t know.”

            (Y/N)’s eyes narrowed. Whatever was affecting all of them was affecting their minds as well as the physical world. Fine, then. (Y/N) could play that game. If they figured out what was causing this, there was no one better than them to handle it.

            “What are you thinking, T’hy’la?” murmured Spock.

            “I’m thinking something is changing our minds and the Enterprise to make us angry, make us want to fight,” said (Y/N). “I have no proof, but this isn’t natural.”

            “I agree,” said Spock. “You are the authority on the mind. What do you suggest?”

            “Until I know what’s causing this and why, I don’t know how to fight it. However, you and I can try to keep everything from getting worse. We’re the only ones with our minds still,” said (Y/N).

            “Understood,” said Spock. “If you sense anything, alert me.”

            “I will,” said (Y/N).

            “Scott here, sir,” said Scotty over the comms.

            “Kirk here,” responded the Captain.

            “There’s no use trying to free those men down below. The phaser torches, they won’t cut through the bulkheads or the doors or the decks,” said Scotty. “There’s something happened to the metal.”

            Spock glanced at (Y/N). Yet another fact that confirmed that, although the others weren’t seeing it, something was affecting them all.

            “What about the Armory?” asked Kirk.

            “I’m there now, sir,” said Scotty. “And you never saw such a fine collection of antiques in your life.”

            Kirk sighed. “Get back to Engineering. Try and reestablish engine control. And talk to Ordinance about manufacturing phaser replacements.”

            “Aye, sir.” Scotty closed communications.

            Kirk got up and walked over to (Y/N) and Spock’s work stations. “What in the blazes is going on?”

            “(Y/N) suspects something is affecting our moods and the ship itself,” said Spock. “I am inclined to believe them, though we have little proof.”

            Kirk frowned. “Why would something be making this mess? It doesn’t make sense.”

            “Perhaps not, but there does seem to be some form of logic to what is going on. Scans show that our forces and those of the Klingons are exactly equal at thirty-eight each. That is quite a precise number,” said Spock. “The Klingons also control Deck 6 and starboard Deck 7 while we control all sections above.”

            “We’re on equal footing,” said (Y/N).

            “Ah.” Spock straightened from his scanner, and (Y/N) and Kirk looked at him. “I found have an anomaly. There appear to be more life-energy units aboard than can be accounted for by the presence of the Enterprise crew plus the Klingons. A considerable discrepancy.”

            “So we do have something else here,” said (Y/N). They were right.

            “We cannot be quite sure yet, but I shall attempt a compensatory reading to identify if this is a discrepancy or a correct reading,” said Spock. He fiddled with the controls and straightened again. “No, my original readings were correct. And (Y/N)’s theory now has proof. What we have aboard is an alien life force, a single entity. I cannot, however, ascertain a location.”

            “An alien life force,” repeated Kirk. “We must make contact, find out what it wants.”

            “Readings being diverted to the library computer for analysis,” said Spock.

            The computer buzzed. “Alien life force on board is composed of pure energy. Type unknown. Actions indicate intelligence and purpose.”

            “What purpose?” asked (Y/N).

            “Insufficient data for further analysis,” reported the computer.

            “Could it be the cause of the strange occurrences on board, such as the phasers changing into swords?” asked (Y/N).

            “Insufficient data for further analysis,” reported the computer, and (Y/N) sighed in frustration.

            “A nonexistent brother, a phantom colony, imaginary distress calls, the creation of these weapons…I believe you’ve found the pattern, (L/N),” said Kirk. He grimaced. “And now it has control of the Enterprise and is taking us out of the galaxy. But why?”

            “Captain, I am constrained to point out that since minds are evidently being influenced, we cannot know at this moment whether our own memories are completely accurate and true,” said Spock.

            “Then we have to make sure we don’t jump to any conclusions or assumptions,” said (Y/N).

            Kirk nodded. “We must talk to Kang, bury the hatchet.”

            “An appropriate choice of terms, Captain,” remarked Spock. (Y/N) chuckled. “However, it is notoriously difficult to arrange a truce with the Klingons once blood has been drawn.”

            “A truce?” snapped a familiarly grouchy voice. Bones was on the Bridge. “Are you serious? I’ve got men in Sick Bay, some of them dying. Atrocities committed on their persons! And you talk about making peace with these fiends? If our backs were turned, they’d jump us in a minute. And you know what Klingons do with prisoners—slave labor, death planets, experiments!”

            “Bones—”

            Bones cut Kirk off. “While you’re talking, they’re planning attacks. This is a fight to the death! And we’d better start trying to win it.”

            “We’d prefer to end it, Bones,” said (Y/N) firmly.

            “By reason, preferably,” said Spock.

            “There is an alien aboard that created this situation, engineered the fighting,” said (Y/N).

            “Who cares what started it?” snapped Bones. “We’re in it! Those murderers…we should wipe out every one of them!”

            “The alien is the real threat,” said Kirk firmly. Now that there was proof staring him in the face of it, the alien’s manipulations couldn’t affect him as strongly, and he had his priorities back. “That’s the enemy we need to wipe out.”

            “Sick Bay calling, Doctor,” said Uhura, taking Bones’s attention. “There are more wounded men requiring your attention.

            Bones took a final glare at (Y/N), Spock, and Kirk. “How many more men must die before you two begin to act like military men instead of fools?” He spun on his heel and stalked out of the room.

            Kirk let out an exhausted breath when the bosun whistled. He wouldn’t get any rest until this mess was sorted out. He pressed the button to answer. “Kirk here.”

            “This is Kang,” came the reply.

            Kirk straightened, looked at (Y/N), and nodded. He knew what he needed to do. “Kang, there’s something important I must discuss with you.”

            “I have captured your Engineering section, and now this ship’s power and life-support systems,” said Kang, ignoring Kirk’s statement.

            (Y/N) tensed, and they, Kirk, and Spock exchanged glances.

            “I have deprived all areas, except our own. You will die of suffocation in the icy cold of space,” sneered Kang. Communications cut off.

            The Bridge crew looked at each other wildly, and (Y/N) touched Spock’s arm. The Enterprise was speeding out of the galaxy, the ship and its people were being influenced by an alien, and the Klingons had the crew’s lives in their hands.

            (Y/N)’s hand slid to Spock’s and gripped it tightly. The situation was hitting rock bottom.

            Kirk leapt into action. “Mr. Sulu.”

            “Captain,” said Sulu, who had returned finally from the skirmish that had overtaken Engineering.

            “Get down to Emergency Manual Control. Try to protect our life-support circuits and auxiliary power,” commanded Kirk.

            “Aye, Captain,” said Sulu, leaving.

            As he exited, Scotty walked onto the Bridge from the elevator.

            “Scotty?” said Kirk, standing as he saw Scotty with a sword in his hand.

            (Y/N) stepped back as a wave of red-hot anger flew around Scotty.

            “Chekov was right, Captain!” cried Scotty.

            “Scotty, I’m glad they found you,” said Kirk thankfully.

            “We should have left those fuzz-faced goons in the transporter. That’s right where they belong!” declared Scotty fervently.

            “Scotty,” said (Y/N), furrowing their brow in horror at his words. That wasn’t Scotty at all.

            “Nonexistence!” cried Scotty. “Now they can study the Enterprise, add our technology to theirs, change the balance of power!” Kirk reached out to calm Scotty, and the Scotsman reared at him. “You’ve jeopardized the Federation!”

            Spock reached out to either calm Scotty or knock him out, whichever was needed, but Scotty jumped back.

            “Keep your Vulcan hands off me!” shouted Scotty.

            “Scotty, we’re your friends, we’re not trying to hurt you,” said (Y/N), speaking calmly.

            “Don’t use your abilities on me!” said Scotty.

            (Y/N) blinked. “Scotty, I wouldn’t.”

            “What are your feelings hurt? Yours, sure, but I doubt he has any ‘feelings,’ the green-blooded half-breed!” shouted Scotty.

            “Scotty!” snapped (Y/N). They knew it was the alien affecting his quickness to anger, but it was still a horrible thing to say to Spock.

            Spock’s gaze hardened imperceptibly. Only (Y/N) saw his emotionless expression had grown colder. “May I say that I have not thoroughly enjoyed serving with humans. I find their illogic and foolish emotions a constant irritant.”

            “Then transfer out, freak,” sneered Scotty.

            Spock took a step closer to Scotty, silent. Scotty raised his sword, and Spock grabbed his wrist and raised his other hand.

            “Spock,” said (Y/N), pushing Scotty back and grabbing Spock’s wrist. For a moment, they let their emotions connect with his, and he blinked as he realized what had happened. “Don’t let the alien manipulate you, too. Scotty doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

            Behind them, Kirk pushed Scotty back and watched warily. Scotty had been shocked from Spock’s attack and gotten scared, driving the height of his anger away. From experience, they all knew Spock was stronger than them, so he was the threat if he were to lose control. Fortunately, (Y/N)’s words, logical and precise while laced with their love for Spock, cleared his mind.

            “Yes, of course. Quite logical.” Spock put down his hands, and (Y/N) let go. “My apologies for the outburst.”

            “What are we saying?” said Kirk, looking around at them all. “What are we doing to each other?”

            “Fascinating. The alien’s power is increasing,” observed Spock. “It seems (Y/N) is the only one relatively unaffected since they are in touch with their emotions in a way we are not.” (Y/N) nodded in confirmation.

            “And it’s left us and the Klingons as equal forces against each other.” Kirk’s eyes widened. “A war has been staged for us, complete with weapons and ideology and patriotic drumbeating. Even…race hatred.”

            Spock nodded. “The alien seems to be set on a magnification of the basic hostilities between humans and Klingons. It is indeed by design that we fight.”

            “It’s all being engineered,” said (Y/N), putting their hands on their hips. “We’re the alien’s pawns.”

            “But what’s the game?” wondered Kirk.

            “I have no idea, but we need to find the alien entity as soon as possible, figure out what it’s doing, and stop it from continuing to manipulate us,” said (Y/N), and Spock nodded in agreement, watching them with pure adoration as they acted on logic so perfectly.

            “Without sensors?” cried Scotty. “All our power down? This thing could go anywhere!”

            “Yes,” said Kirk, frowning. Then, his bosun whistled, and he answered instantly, worried that more things were going wrong.

            “Captain,” said Sulu.

            “Report,” said Kirk.

            “No good, Captain. Circuits are in, but systems just aren’t responding,” said Sulu.

            Nonetheless, the lights returned to the Bridge.

            “We’re getting something,” said Kirk.

            “Aye, Captain,” reported Sulu. “Power and life-support restored. Remotes on standby.”

            “Good work,” said Kirk.

            “But, Captain, I didn’t do it,” pointed out Sulu. “Everything just…came on by itself.”

            The alien had turned it back on. (Y/N) narrowed their eyes. It still needed them alive. It wanted its engineered battle to continue.

            “Captain,” said Spock suddenly as his scanner went off. Kirk and (Y/N)’s heads turned to him. “Alien detected. In the Engineering section, near reactor number three.”

            “Let’s go,” said Kirk.

            Kirk, Spock, and (Y/N) picked up their swords. It was time to act instead of waiting around.

Taglist:

@a-ofzest

@grippleback-galaxy

@genderfluid-anime-goth

@groovy-lady

@im-making-an-effort

@unending-screaming

@h-l-vlovesvintage

@neenieweenie

@keylimeconstellation

@wormwig

@technikerin23

@ilyatan

@nthdarkqueen

[mylordshesacactus]

This got long so it’s become its own post.

I explained this to my seven-year-old cousin once when she expressed distaste over anyone possibly enjoying horror movies, and she understood perfectly, so adults have no excuse: 

People read dark fiction for the same reason they ride roller coasters. 

It’s a simulation of danger without anyone actually being under threat. It gets the brain worked up, releases a bunch of adrenaline into your system, you experience a whole rush of emotions and excitement and fear; but a safe kind of fear, where you know the danger isn’t real and there are dozens of measures in place to protect you. And then it’s over and you can get off the ride.

That doesn’t mean everyone is obligated to ride roller coasters. I, for example, am scared of heights, and most coasters are scary for me in a way that isn’t fun. The fear isn’t that I’ll die, the fear is of experiencing more of the ride and thus it’s not a safe fear, because it’s real and I have no control over it. As such, I don’t ride large roller coasters. But the fact that large coasters are not mentally or emotionally safe for me to ride doesn’t mean they should be illegal, or that there’s “something wrong” with anyone who enjoys them.

Similarly, sometimes accidents happen. Sometimes people have conditions they don’t know about until a coaster aggravates them in the worst possible way because they didn’t know to avoid it...and that’s no one’s fault. People have died or been injured in coaster accidents, and those accidents are pretty much always the result of human error, carelessness, laziness, or poor communication. It’s the responsibility of the amusement park to make sure that basic safety features are built-in and maintained--or at the very least (mangling the metaphor somewhat because this would obviously be illegal in real life) to make it clear that those features don’t exist! I feel like most people would avoid a ride clearly labelled “HAS NEVER HAD A SAFETY INSPECTION! NO RESTRAINT BARS! RIDE STAFF HAVE NOT BEEN TRAINED AND THERE ARE NO EMERGENCY SERVICES ON-SITE! OPEN FLAMES!” but if you click on a fic clearly labelled “author chose not to use warnings” you know the risks and they’ve met their obligation to warn you of them. And sometimes the people providing this content don’t perform that basic due diligence, and people get hurt as a result--but that’s on those specific bad actors, and doesn’t mean we ban all roller coasters. It also doesn’t mean every single ride operator on earth should be tarred with that brush, especially when they’ve openly spoken out against such practices! Furthermore, if you KNOW you have a heart condition and willingly get on a ride that says it is not safe for people with heart conditions, you cannot then blame the amusement park!

What makes roller coasters safe for me? Well, for one, the fact that I’m an adult now so my family has finally stopped trying to force me onto them. Pressure was a constant part of interacting with coasters for me for YEARS, and THAT fucked me up. There was “mild” teasing, frustration when I refused, anger if I changed my mind, and a lot of guilt-tripping about how it was my fault that they couldn’t go on the rides they wanted to because of me. That shit was not okay, and anyone trying to force someone to engage with content they don’t want to is obviously in the wrong.

The OTHER thing that helps me is content warnings the heroes who upload on-ride video of coasters I’m interested in trying. Knowing exactly what to expect--being able to see for myself all the drops so I can judge if they’ll be too much for me, and know in advance where they are so I can brace myself--can turn a ride that otherwise would have been a miserable and stressful experience that I chose not to subject myself to into a really good time. These are especially valuable, because what’s safe for ME is not automatically safe for everyone else. The only thing that makes a ride too much for me--my only hard limit--is extremely tall drops. I love inversions, fast twists and turns, I don’t mind rough coasters, it’s just drop height. But I’ve known people with medical conditions that made rough jolts dangerous, and plenty of people like tall drops but find tight turns and high speed overwhelming. Do I wish more coasters were designed to have the elements I enjoy without the ones I don’t? Yes, and not being able to find many frustrates me. But that doesn’t mean I expect everyone to have the same limits, or that I think people who design tall coasters with big drops and lots of airtime are malicious.

By this logic, actually, darkfic is much safer than roller coasters--once you’ve committed to a coaster you have to ride it out even if you change your mind. But the moment a dark fic or horror movie takes a turn you don’t like or becomes suddenly too real, you can turn it off and walk away.

And if you think enjoying roller coasters means someone will conclude that it’s okay to fling people off cliffs without their consent, then, well, in that case you’re just ungodly fucking stupid. Sorry you had to find out this way.

Have fun on those hypercoasters, you crazy bastards. Keep uploading ride videos for me.

[crystal-moon-101]

Since I saw people talking about Ben's little big chill kids, I thought I'd finally do some headshots of my ones, who are also a part of my Ben 10 Next Gen. For me, I've always imagined that for young necrofriggians, they all start out looking the same (Beyond some size difference), but as they grow older, they'll start to develop their own patterns, small body traits and shades of colour, as showcased here. I'll share the little info on each sibling, and the basics of who they are as a person. When Ben first found them again, saving them from poachers and going full mum mode, they had been developing these different psychical traits, but not enough to identify each properly on their own, so while giving them names, Gwen used bandana pieces to colour code them, and each kid still wears theirs to this day, slightly modified. So here they are now, as full grown young adults. You can follow from left to right each row, or just the colours next to their names. -North (Black)- The largest and physically strongest of the kids, North acts as the leading member when Ben isn't around, doing their best to watch out for their siblings and be a middle ground to them. It's been this way since they were born, looking out for them and doing whatever they can to protect the others. This has resulted in North collecting quite a few scars and wing tears, though they wear them with pride, wanting to display how strong they are to others. They often looks up to Ben when it comes to being a hero, in how their mumdad protects others and the galaxy, and wants to be a fighter like him one day, often asking to train with their mumdad whenever he's around. Ben has suggested Plumber training for North, but they're still thinking about that. -Tundra (Red)- Tundra is a very curious one, and is known to wander off when things catch their interest. They prefer using experience to learn from, thus making them quick on their feet when something happens, and good at thinking logical. When the siblings are struggling with something, or come across some kind of problem, it's often Tundra who provides the quickest answers that should go well for them. That being said, due to their wandering, they gave gotten into trouble a few times and need to be saved by their siblings or Ben, as despite how smart they are, they can be a bit of a ditz when something catches their interest. -Grey (Silver)- Having a connection to the earth bellow, Grey often spends their time searching caves, and any hidden areas they can find. They especially love to research and find minerals of any kind, ranging from metals to gems, sometimes even studying their metal lunch for the day before eating it. Because of this, they can be carelessly dirty, and aren't the cleanest of people, but does pick up after themself when reminded. Grey is also pretty close with their sibling Storm, and surprising Gwen and Ben when first hearing the two call each other "Dweeb" and "Doofas", when first meeting them again. -Storm (Brown)- As someone who likes to spend a lot of time flying and high in the clouds, Storm is fascinated by the weather and how it behaves, and feeling the cold fresh air and challenging themself with flight training. This has provided them to have the most agility in the air, and knows the best ways to build up speeds, while also not draining themself. Whenever they aren't flying around, they're doing research on the weather, very keen to be a meteorologist one day. Whenever Ben visits, they will often ask him about the weather on other planets, and any adventures he's had in the sky. Storm is also pretty close with their sibling Grey, and surprising Gwen and Ben when first hearing the two call each other "Dweeb" and "Doofas", when first meeting them again. -Crystal (Blue)- Graceful on their feet, Crystal is a charming and gentle person, with a keenness for the art of dancing, especially when hovering in the air. This was something sparked in them when seeing how the patches in their wings, which are see through, glittered and reflected light through them, making Crystal often move around to see what they could get them to do, and the introduction of dancing was something they latched onto as a result. They are one of the hardest of the siblings to get angry, upset or rile up, and often goes with the flow and speaks in a slow and soft voice. Because of their kind nature and beautiful display of their wings, Crystal has attracted many others who are interested in them, many falling for them after meeting Crystal for a mere minute, though they tend to pretend not to notice, and turn down those who ask. -Orion (Orange)- Having an eye for art, Orion is a skilled painter and drawer, while also dabbling into other art forms to create things, their room filled with their works of art, and often creating gifts for others. From when they were little, Orion has always admired their auntie Gwen, and are always keen and eager to hang out with her when she visits, showing every new drawing and painting they have made while she was away. In fact their fondness for auntie Gwen is why they picked the orange bandana, as it reminded them of her hair. -Neva (Green)- Fashion focused and head strong, Neva is a keen one, who knows exactly what they like and isn't afraid to say it. They love designing things to wear, especially since fashion isn't that big on Kylmyys, and Ben brings them fabrics and items they request from earth whenever he comes by on a visit. Though, despite Neva's expensive tastes, they are most certainly aren't a snob, and more often than not create outfits and accessories for others that Neva knows they'd like, and wants to bring out the best beauty in them. Though admittedly, they can get a bit carried away if someone asks for fashion advice, or even brings up the idea of something related to it. Neva also a bit of a business mind too, having gotten some clients recently on their homeworld after seeing what Neva could make. -Raine (Aqua)- A very sweet young one, Raine has a keen eye for collecting things, particularly shiny or unknown stuff. From gemstones to simple earth utensil, if something interests them, Raine is known to take it with them, sometimes snatching without thinking. They don't mean any harm, and just sometimes think before acting, and will give something back if they've realized what they've done, but if it's clear they can keep it, then they aren't one to share, though do like to show off what they have with joy. They are also very well organized, knowing where everything they own is, and even when their siblings misplace something, having a photography memory and mental list of things. They may own a lot of stuff, but that doesn't mean they want to live in a pigsty. -Vale (Yellow)- Being one of the quiet ones, Vale likes to keep a lot to themself, and don't speak very often, only when they need to. They spend a lot of time outside, observing nature as it passes by them, using a little diary to note down what they see, hear, feel, smell and even taste. They like to appreciate silence and the world around them, and the beauty of nature, and collect little things to store away in their diary as memory. Whenever they visit earth, they love to visit the forests in the spring and summer, seeing the range of colours blooming from flowers, and has many flower prints because of this. -Lux (Beige)- Quite the basic of people, Lux likes to live life in a simple way, and tends to try and stare clear of any chaos, which is quite hard when you have 13 wild siblings. Because of them, they can come across as annoyed and frustrated at times, and can be blunt and honest, but they do love their siblings, and is often the one that says what's needed to be said. Lux also have massive wings compared to their body, a ratio none of the others have, and use to trip over their feet a lot growing up. Now, their massive wings are a great way to hide away when they're not in the mood to talk to read a book, or to hug a family member when seeing them down. -Micha (Pink)- Bubbly and sneaky, Micha has been dubbed the "Pink Ninja" for a reason, someone almost always able to hide away and sneak up on others. They love to jump scare people, and has found more and more crafty ways to get around without being noticed, even without their ability to go invisible. They love to pull jokes and get a laugh out of people, and Micha is known to have a snort with their own laughter. It's always their mission to catch Ben off guard when he visits, as each time it gets trickier due to him knowing it's coming, and his training and skills build up over the years, but Micha always finds a way in the end. -Zodiac (Gold)- Patient and often neutral toned, Zodiac is often seen to be pretty wise. From a young age, they've always loved stories from history, especially those about myths and legends they hear from around the galaxy, and spend a lot of their time reading and researching anything they hear about, always keen to hear a new story they may have never heard about before. It always fascinates them how much Ben has seen and done, and the stories he tells, Zodiac is practically fond of those about Alien X and Celestialsapians, and wants to meet one one day. -Alaska (White)- High on energy 99% of the time, Alaska is always zooming around and never has time to stop. They rarely sit still for long, and it takes a lot to drain them of their endless energy, always moving in a blink of an eye. Because of this, Alaska is the fastest of the crew, which has come in handy often. But they can be easily bored, and a little frustrating to deal with when they don't pay attention, but they do like to spend that energy by jumping around each sibling to spend the day with, and wants to engage in all of their activities to support them. -Arlo (Purple- The smallest of them, Arlo was born the runt of the group, but thanks to their siblings, especially North, they managed to survive childhood when most other necrofriggian runts would have died. This makes Arlo the baby of the group, and the one they all want to protect, even if it can be a little baring at much, wanting to prove they can be strong on their own. And Arlo somewhat got their wish, when reaching a certain age and Ben learning that one of his children had the spark, thus meaning Arlo is an Anodite, and is able to use magic, though they're far from being perfect at it, and their small body sometimes struggles to keep up. But each day Arlo practices, wanting to feel more than just the tiny one, but they are generally kind and great with emotions, being very supportive and just trying their hardest.

[rosesastrology]

THE MOON SIGNS

In astrology, your moon sign represents your emotional nature, habits, reactions, wants and needs. The way your moon sign manifests will differ because of the house it's in and any applying aspects to the moon. If you don't relate to the description, that can be why. The whole chart should be taken into account, nonetheless if listed things I’ve seen commonly represented by these Moon signs!

Click here for part 2 (Libra - Pisces)

— By @rosesastrology on Tumblr.

Aries Moon

Very emotional, but may choose to show another exterior (Sun/rising).

Usually grows more mature as time passes, but keeps their intense emotions and occasional childlike energy. They often want to do things on their own, without help. Even when they're growing up, they're quite independent.

Anger is explosive but often short-lived, although they can be the type to want revenge and hold a grudge- the actual anger doesn't last long. It comes up in waves. They can be quite nasty during that short time though, often saying things they don't actually mean just because they're in the heat of the moment.

They have waves of sudden inspiration and deep passion, but also of nostalgia and deep sadness. Their mood can change quite quickly.

Often, these people will be inclined to do some sort of physical activity because they want to see the best version of themselves and vent those intense emotions. This can also manifest in a fast-paced, busy lifestyle or just a brisk walking pace.

Their careers are often a form of self-expression.

They tend to go with whatever feels right in the moment, which can make them quite impulsive.

Their humour is quite childlike. They also tend to get embarrassed quickly (but they'll say embarrassing things all the same).

Tend to start working at a young age, or do something else that you’d usually expect from an older person.

They have a big sense of pride and ego, which can make it almost impossible for them to ask for help. The way to comfort them is often just by listening to them. Talking is not needed, unless you're reflecting back what they said. They enjoy feeling heard. They don't want you to make it better, they want to be heard.

They want to be recognized and acknowledged. They enjoy helping, even if it's just for them to feel better. They stand up for themselves, they will defend their emotions. They refuse to get crushed. In the same sense, this will make them help the underdogs.

Often, they have a sense of empathy but only if the mood is apparent. They can become very ticked off or confused by things like passive aggression. It can be difficult for them to put themselves in someone else's shoes, unless the other person reminds them of it. Then they will be more than glad to help. Direct communication and reflection books the most results with them.

They have a tendency to only help if you ask them directly.

They're quick to jump into things and tend to have strong opinions (feelings) even if they don't show them outwardly. Most do show them outwardly and can seem temperamental.

They tend not to have a filter and can seem quite savage, often immediately saying what's on their mind (whether good or bad). This is not to say that they can't control themselves, though.

Tend to feel impatient.

Are actually very undiplomatic.

They go through fire for those they're close to, and won't hesitate to sacrifice themselves. They tend to want to be someone's saviour or hero. This can come forward in their career, too.

They always want to keep moving. They want to make progress and continue. This is why letting go is often not the easiest for them, especially if they have a prevalence of air and earth in their natal chart.

Later in their life, they can be very autonomous and great leaders.

They can almost seem to be drunk on their own self and pride but in reality they’re just confident.

Thoughts tend to be superficial, thinking about practicalities or beauty unless other topics are stimulated.

Can be insecure, especially early in life.

Good at performing. Often their talents lie here.

They don’t necessarily struggle with letting go, but with loss itself.

They’re do-ers.

Persistent to reach goals. Very motivated.

Taurus Moon

Often, these people are artistic or at least have an appreciation for the arts.

They often enjoy cooking, if not they will enjoy eating. They have a very peculiar taste and opinion about how food should be. Often it's not too complex, and they tend to order the same thing at restaurants. They enjoy those types of routines, even if they like variety in their daily life.

They can come across as soft-spoken, sheltered people who enjoy staying in.

They tend to fixate on the past, or at least do a lot of reflection. Reflecting is their source of motivation.

Sacrifice breaks them apart. It's one of the things that will truly, truly touch them.

They just have a general sense of maturity and kindness, even if they have a childlike humour (depending on their placements), they will always have a sense of reliability and resilience.

They always strive for greater heights and can be hard on their past self, often linking their worth to their skill.

It's hard for them to shake off their emotions.

Not as materialistic as everyone makes them seem. Most Taurus Moons I know are actually the crash and burn type of people and have no attachment to their materials. Comfort goes above anything for them, they don't need much- they just need the right things. They tend to have strong opinions about that.

They always seek to understand their partners, even if it's in a situation where they didn't do anything wrong.

Can seem distant or hard to reach.

They're very sentimental and nostalgic.

Tend to have a pleasant voice.

They can have a very hard time letting things, people or experiences go.

They're very hard to convince.

They have a lot of emotional strength and resilience. They're always growth-orientated.

Escapism can be an issue because of their emotional need for comfort. However, this tends to lessen eventually.

They have a great love for nature. Animals, plants, space, people- they love all these things. They are fascinated by things that are bigger than them, the whole picture. That's why nature and space fit so well with them.

They tend to be mature and laid-back in relationships- some will find this boring but it actually gives a sense of home and comfort that you won't find anywhere else. Compromise is key.

They tend to believe that humanity as a whole can improve. They want to make the world a better place in a tangible way. This is why they're the type to donate to direct charities- they're generous and love seeing a form of tangible improvement. Tangible good.

Extremely loyal.

Direct in communication, often they talk about their past. Past experiences and nostalgia stand central in their emotions. They focus on growth.

If someone says they can’t do something, they will go out of their way to do it just to prove the other person wrong.

Self-sufficient. Good at handling criticism.

They can actually be quite moody.

They often talk about their past.

Grounded but they tend to want to know reasons. This includes reasons for their feelings.

Gemini Moon

Emotions and actions are rationalized.

They think before they talk (although they can snap).

They can be more unruly with their emotion when they're young, as well as when they're very stressed or feel as though their conclusions contradict one another.

Their intelligence is admiring, even when it's not traditional.

Tend to be apolitical because they see it as a promotion show rather than an exchange of ideas.

They find education/their work very important and prioritize this above their health.

They often follow traditions when it comes to the educational path, but tend to be more extravagant when it comes to creativity and self-expression.

They often enjoy reading one way or another, whether it's literature, poetry or manga or visual novels doesn't matter.

Very communication-orientated.

They tend to know a lot of psychological facts and tricks, which they use for self-betterment but also on others.

Confidence comes and goes as it pleases.

Doesn't do well with contradictions, especially if it's a contradiction about their own issues. They need reasons and conclusions to fix the issue, even if it's about emotions. This is both a blessing- they are focused on fixing the issue to grow, and a curse- they rarely ever go with the flow or go with what they truly desire.

Strong opinions that they love to discuss. They're not necessarily the type to start the discussion, but they will engage.

They’re extremely curious about a wide variety of topics.

Everything is based on their logic, so if it's faulty they feel like a failure.

Tend to be uncomfortable with risks and change, although they enjoy variety.

They're planners, they're generally not spontaneous.

They have a lot of different sides that they show to different people, it's like their personality has archetypes- but it's still all them.

They tend to know a lot of random facts.

Often enjoy mental stimuli in the form of media, movies, videos, video games, reading, studying, etc.

Quick-witted yet scatter-brained, they tend to confuse themselves.

Not the most organized people, even though they're planners, it doesn't directly correlate to their surroundings.

If they can't find a viable solution they can end up feeling as though they're crazy.

Inventive although they'd never call themselves that.

Can be the tough love type of people, which doesn't work well with everyone.

Because they're so good at analysing and articulating their emotions, they give good advice.

Flighty.

Will close themselves off if they're hurt.

Has a need to find comfort within their daily commute, whether that's through family, friends or a cafe doesn't matter.

They are connected to the sky- the intelligent yet structured patterns of life give them their smarts. Their intelligence is practical and physical, whereas Sagittarius' intelligence is surrounded around the higher conscience, Gemini revolves around earthly concepts.

The house where the Moon resides often shows what the individual struggles with but will eventually grow immensely through.

They tend to understand themselves better if they write down, or say their conclusions- even if they are very obvious.

They don't want to be controlled by their emotions, but it doesn't mean they don't honour them.

They tend to analyse everyone and enjoy being able to openly talk to someone about that. There is an inherent need to understand everything.

Sensitivity for the abstract.

Defensive over their opinions.

It's hard for them to just feel emotions and be in the moment or go with the flow.

Cancer Moon

Actually very secretive about their emotions, especially towards strangers and people they're not close with.

Changes their personality to fit with the people around them, even if that mans compensating low confidence for seemingly high confidence. Although they do this, they don’t see those friends as true friends, they know it’s fake and see through that.

Will act nice if they want something from you, like buying something for you or straight-up begging.

Family-orientated even if they don’t seem like it. Family means a lot to them. If their home is unstable they’ll be more likely to stay away from their homes, trying to find love and company elsewhere. Nonetheless, the situations hurt them deeply on the inside.

Can be quite moody.

They have a very nurturing and caring side but they won’t show it if they don’t have a connection, in fact they can seem very detached to strangers.

This supposed detachment is solely because they seek to protect themselves.

If they’re not convinced about your intentions or can’t gauge you, they’ll put up a front or wall. This can lead them to ignore people, even if they actually like them. Another reason is because they don’t want to disrupt someone’s life with.. their presence or the depth of their emotions.

They can play push and pull, like how the moon pulls on the ocean.

They go with the flow and the moment which is one of their best skills.

They believe what they believe, they trust their feelings and intuition. This makes it easier for them to understand things on a deeper level, rather than a superficial one. They can persevere very well through hardships because of this too.

They have great memory.

Tend to be very

They apologise for everything.

Tendency towards introversion, they actually prefer quieter places but when they’re younger this is not always apparent because they want to fit in.

Criticism tends to hurt them because they feel like they know best, criticism seems to devalue them in their eyes.

They don’t have a lot of true friends often. Even those who are very popular only see few of their friends as true friends they can count on.

They get antsy when they have to open up because they feel so deeply, they’re often misunderstood.

They’re very responsive to their environment.

Very proctective and defensive (on guard) about their emotions. You may notice they’re upset but they won’t vent. They’re emotionally quite mysterious (outwardly).

If they don’t like you or something you said, you will notice it.

Deep down they’re very emotional.

They often become more family-orientated after having children themselves.

They’re not weak, whatsoever. Mentally, they’re some of the strongest people I know.

They use their emotional resilience to their advantage.

Need a lot of validation and reassurance to truly feel self-sufficient.

Their anger is like a wave and it lasts longer than you’d expect it to. It takes a lot to push them past their limit, but watch out if you do.

Sensitive to outward stimuli such as bright lights or bright noises.

Often attracted to water or the sea in some way.

Can become very selfish when they’re in a bad mental space.

In time, they find their true emotions to be deep and more human than most, in a way. They can deal with these emotions, which is what makes them so resilient.

Can actually accept and feel their feelings without having to understand them which is very admirable. They can just be and feel.

They feel everything on a deeper level, which is why they can also manifest deep happiness into their life.

Leo Moon

They’re very creative and tend to be talented at many things.

Often, they’re good at acting or doing impressions.

Performing is one of their vocal points, whether it’s through music, acting, sports, or their individual talent doesn’t matter.

They can be very insecure and feel as though they don’t matter, aren’t good enough, aren’t pretty enough, etc. In fact, superficial (physical) inscecurity is a real issue with them.

They’ll only be outward (performing, being in the spotlight) when they’re confident. If they’re insecure, it’ll be quite the opposite. They’ll still enjoy attention, but in lesser doses and often with less people.

They’re very empathetic.

They’re generous, giving to others makes them feel better as well (whereas Taurus moons do it to leave something good behind that’s tangible).

Enjoy sharing their forms of self-expression with others.

They can be extremely motivated and persistent to achieve their goals. “Someone has to do it, so why not you?” because of this attitude, they can achieve great things.

Very endearing because they’re so childlike, they’re just so lovable yet bratty.

Validation makes them thrive harder and insults tend to wear them down. They often expect validation, and forget to give it back at times but not out of malicious intent- just out of cluelessness.

Can be a bit dramatic and vain.

They’ll throw a tantrum and then pout and honestly you can’t deny their apologies.

Have an aura of warmth and genuineness. Their warmth just spreads happiness and it’s magical.

Bad at handling criticism, even if it’s constructive it still tends to hurt their feelings. It makes them feel like they’re failures, often because they take things very personally.

Sensitive.

Can be passive-aggressive but won’t admit it.

Can be arrogant but in a way it’s endearing because they’re so forgiving and generous.

Enjoys looking nice physically.

Often, they’re hopeless romantics.

Hard to stay mad at because they’re very charming.

Can be very cruel when they’re angry.

They feel very powerful a lot, you’ll hear them say “How dare you?!” quite a bit.

Doesn’t and cannot hold back if something pisses them off. Very feisty.

Often they have a lot of friends despite their insecurities.

Very energetic and passionate.

They’re like an adult child. They carry all that childlike charm and wit with them. They’re so endearing and kind, yet just as sensitive. This is not to mean that they can’t be mature and serious, because they can and if you treat them like a child then they’ll likely say you’re infantializing them.

The unfortunate sides of the ego can take over when they’re upset. They tend to be straightforward, yet they want to people-please as well. When their ego takes over, they can be annoyed very easily.

They’re impatient for results, better things, people, etc. Practicing patience can help calm their ego.

Rich imagination.

They tend to get annoyed easily, but with the right people they’re annoyed very rarely.

They get especially angry if they feel the action was personal and purposeful.

Virgo Moon

High standards, especially when it comes to themselves.

Extremely sceptical of everything and everyone. They can have big trust issues.

Sensitive to outward stimuli such as people’s energies.

Destructive perfectionism and anxiety is common here.

They’re not emotionless but it’s very difficult for them to express emotions outwardly because they can’t understand them. Since they can’t understand it, it’s difficult for them to articulate those emotions without getting stuck. As such, they tend to repress their true emotions and sometimes motives.

Pets and kids tend to love them.

They’re extremely attentive to every flaw, regardless of if it’s truly a flaw or not.

A big pro of Virgo Moons is their power to pick up on any flaw or difficulty and change it or themselves. As such, they can work on themselves more easily. They’re always changing, growing and striving for the best version of themselves. That’s the true power of Virgo Moons.

They’re very critical, and judge themselves a lot.

Because they’re so analytical, they can pick up on cues, signs and little things other people won’t notice. This serves them greatly in their quest to be useful.

They want to serve or at least help others in one way or another because it makes them feel useful and fulfilled. Even if they’re leaders or performers, in their head they’re working for the purpose or future of someone else. If they’re bosses, they’ll still feel as though they’re working for their employees or family. Performers with this placement tend to feel as though they work for their fans.

They’re intelligent and seek intellectual stimulation through material things like fitness, health and work.

They live from day-to-day, hence why it’s important for them to feel useful in their work.

They naturally give of a reclusive energy. This is partly because they have a tendency to feel that they are better than someone else because they did something better or in a neater matter.

They’re generally mature at a young age and were forced to go and grow through many difficulties.

They feel like they have to control their emotions, or at least something or someone. Whether it’s health, a relationship, education or something else.

It’s hard for them to let loose completely, unless they have a fire sun sign.

Extremely dependable in crises.

They have a very dry, sarcastic and dark sense of humour that doesn’t work with everyone. They can overcompensate humour to feel more liked.

They’re always focused on their health and weight.

Actually very neat and generally organised.

Can be very on guard about their emotions.

Rather than rational, I’d describe them as reasonable. There’s a reason behind all their actions, and they seek reason behind actions of others.

They make boundaries for themselves, but at the same time they have a tendency to limit themselves.

They seek to always be useful and needed; to be auto-sufficient.

They seek for functionality and practical efficiency.

Methodical.

Have very soft skin.

They follow routines and systems as well as having a tendency to follow routine, they tend not to believe or follow the “impossible”.

They let their skill and work do the talking, whereas Gemini Moons tend to talk a lot about their skills and intellect.

Incredibly self-aware.

They don’t want to make their internal struggle seem apparent on the outside. They express their emotions in private, and seek to control them for the sake of their image.

They don’t want to repress their emotions but at the same time they don’t want to make it a big deal. They want remain “strong” and “under control” because otherwise they feel vulnerable, which makes them uncomfortable.

They spend a lot of time analysing other people’s emotions.

They often spiral into self-criticism because they find their emotions irrational.

Sensitive to scents and outward stimuli.

They make to-do lists when they’re stressed.

They often feel as though their emotions are a burden to others.

They feel distressed and lost when they can’t find the words to express themselves or their emotions.

Even though they put on a smile, they often seem like an open book aside from their anxieties or sadness.

It takes long for them to open up and they feel stressed when pushed, it works best to wait for them instead.

They crave emotional stability from others.

They always feel the need to be productive and learn new information.

Quite conservative in how they come across.

They often just think about their emotions.

[makeste]

nah fam he’s just mad that Dabi is deliberately using his admittedly-fucked-up family history in order to attack not just Endeavor, but all of hero society.--Yeah but hero society played a part in letting all this happen. It's like abuse in law enforcement or major league sports. Hero society directly and indirectly allowed Endeavor to get away with this shit. He bought his wife with his money and fame something he was only able to do as a top hero and a society that let's this stuff slide.

I mean, the whole reason Dabi’s strategy worked here is that no one actually seemed to know any of this, which is why he was able to blindside everyone with the reveal. if Horikoshi gives us evidence that there was a coverup and that other heroes and authorities were aware of Endeavor’s abuses and purposely hid them in order to preserve his reputation, this argument might be more convincing to me; but as it is, I’m not sure I follow the logic of this all the way through to the same conclusion as you. any person with power and influence in any given society is capable of doing what Endeavor did, and hiding it. that on its own isn’t necessarily an indictment of that entire society.

Dabi is taking one valid example of hypocrisy and abuse among the top hero ranks, and using it to declare the entire system corrupt beyond the possibility of repair. I’m not saying the system is perfect, because that’s very plainly not the case and we have clearly seen many examples of that throughout the series. but the specific allegation that Dabi is making -- that all heroes are just as fundamentally corrupt as Endeavor -- is blatantly not true. and he knows it, which is why he was so careful about how and when he finally chose to tell his story. he’s being very deliberately manipulative in revealing this in such a way so that it implicates an entire group of people as being complicit in the crimes of a single man.

and he’s not doing it out of a sincere, idealistic desire for people to gain a healthy skepticism and be more politically informed and engaged. he doesn’t want people to come to their own conclusions; he wants them to come to the very specific conclusion that he wants. he’s accusing the heroes of corruption and deceit, but he’s not above being deceitful and manipulative himself to achieve his ends. by pleading with society to “open its eyes”, what he really means is “you should agree with me that all heroes are bad and beyond the possibility of redemption.” 

there’s no room for nuance or discussion or reason in the world that Dabi wants; his views are just as black and white as the most indoctrinated heroes’ are. it’s just that he takes the complete opposite stance as them. he wants a world with no heroes in it at all. it’s all well and good to try and root out corruption, but the villains want to replace that system with one that’s equally corrupt (not to mention extremely murdery), except that this time they’ll be the ones on top. and the heroes aren’t wrong for calling them out on their shit and trying to stop that from happening.

okay but we really have to drop this pretense that the villains are some kind of noble revolutionaries here though. the reason they want to tear down the hero system is so they can run around rampant doing whatever they want, taking whatever they want, and hurting and killing whoever they want, with no one left who will be able to stop them. the only people who would be better off under the villains’ rule are the villains. they’re not magically going to solve all of the problems endemic to hero society by getting rid of heroes, because the heroes aren’t actually the cause of those problems; they’re just the scapegoats.

BnHA Society didn’t invent the problems of prejudice and societal apathy. these problems have always been around, and aren’t going to go away by simply murdering the group that’s currently in charge and installing a new group and saying “these ones are better” without actually doing anything to fix the things that are actually at the root of these issues. the truth is that these problems are extremely complex and don’t have easy answers. and all societies struggle with them. but that doesn’t mean the solution is to just get rid of society altogether and assume that people are going to be any better off.

and look, it’s fine to agree with some of the villains’ ideals, because they do in fact have some good points. but I think fandom believes in those ideals a lot more sincerely than most of the actual villains do, unfortunately. and even if we were to assume that the villains are 100% sincere and well-intentioned -- which they canonically are not -- there’s still the problem of them not having any plan to actually solve the problems they’re lambasting. to rehash an analogy I’ve used in the past because I’m too lazy to come up with a fresh one, this argument of “heroes are not perfect, therefore they should be eliminated” to me is akin to saying that because your house has a leaky roof, you need to tear the whole thing down and never build another house again because houses are inherently flawed. when it’s more like, okay you definitely do need to fix the roof because that can lead to mold and rotting wood and electrical problems and shit, but you don’t necessarily need to tear the whole place down. and even if you do, there’s nothing stopping you from building another, better house using the knowledge you obtained from your experience with the first one! and also, the one thing you definitely do not need to do under any circumstances is to tear down the house, and then go and murder everyone in your town. 

but again, that part of it boils down to the villains not actually being sincere as far as their stated motivations go. they’re not looking to make the world a better place here. they’re just looking for revenge. which I understand, given their histories (and I’m still waiting to learn more about Touya’s past btw, because I think Horikoshi is holding back on us). but all the sympathetic backstories in the world aren’t going to make it so that they’re actually in the right here. they’re in it to cause pain and suffering to people. that’s it. and so yeah, I don’t feel particularly conflicted about continuing to root for the heroes to stop that. there’s gonna be a ton of backlash against them after this arc, and that will be very interesting to see, but as a reader I think it’s pretty clear who the good guys are here still.

[onrainynights]

why you can't compare buddie to destiel (from someone who ships both)

this is kind of addressing the recent negativity in the buddie tag, but it's also a collection of my thoughts and reasoning for being buddie-positive despite my experiences with destiel and spn in general. the text of 911 is not really discussed at all, and this is relatively spoiler-free, so if you're thinking of watching 911 I encourage you to read it. if you haven't seen both shows it probably won't make perfect sense, but I wrote this with spn fans who haven't seen 911 in mind, since that's most of my followers (and also seems to be where much of the negativity was coming from) pretty long post under the cut to save your dash

I just want to prepare y'all for the fact that buddie could be the slow burn will they/won't they mlm romance we've been waiting for practically forever.

at this point it's not fair to call it queerbait because where their relationship is now fits the characters and their development. this is not like destiel, where there were many moments over the years that could've ended with them getting together and it would've made sense with the story. buddie right now is in this sweet, wholesome pre-relationship kind of place, which on its own is a compelling dynamic and so fun and good to see. a resolution of it right now would feel out of character—they both still have some development to do before that would feel natural. and so, I don't think we can really call it queerbaiting unless the characters get to that point and there is still no resolution.

also I'd like to point out the overall positivity from the cast when it comes to buddie. both Eddie's and Buck's actors have said (I'm paraphrasing cast statements in this post unless they are in quotations) positive things about the pairing, and Buck's actor has said that he likes the interpretation of Buck as queer, and he would be happy if the writers took his character in that direction. also Eddie's actor with "that's what they all say" when buddie was referred to as a "bromance". Jennifer Love Hewitt, who plays Buck's sister (another main character), is very supportive of buddie, saying she's "rooting for it", that it would be "amazing", she doesn't "see how it couldn't happen one day". this was in response to hearing that a fan insists Buck and Eddie will be a couple. She flat-out said "I think so, too." She jokes about buddie with Buck's and Eddie's actors all the time. Also, my favorite bit from the video of her saying all this, "Let's manifest it together!"

It's safe to say this is a VERY different environment to spn. I don't think I've ever seen a cast this positive about a show's main non-canon queer ship before. NEVER. I think it's safe to say that if/when buddie is canonized, the cast will be just as excited as the fans—at least JLH will be! Add into the fact that the show's PR seems to be leaning into bi buck and buddie right now, it's a VERY different vibe than spn had, definitely. There's no gaslighting of the fans here, at least not that I've seen. also, although 911 has a large casual viewership, I think it's safe to say the GA would not be upset by buddie—there are only 3 serious, long-term romantic relationships involving main characters in this show, and one of them is a lesbian marriage with two children. And yes, the characters are shown being lesbians, it's not just a stated fact; the audience is privy to their relationship (and their interactions with their adorable kids). I think it's safe to say that buddie would go over well with the fans, even the casual viewers (of which there are many). buddie doesn't seem to be a huge divider in fandom like destiel is, either. reactions generally seem to be either "I ship it" or "I don't care either way."

Also I'd like to point out that while yes, it's possible that buddie is only bait (which would be disappointing), there's a reason queerbaiting works. people WANT to be queerbaited, because it's nearly indistinguishable from a slow burn will they/won't they queer romance. queerbaiting allows fans to make theories, create fan content (including fic), and keeps them engaged with the dynamic and the show. fans who are vulnerable to queerbaiting want a slow burn will they/won't they queer romance, which is currently an almost completely untapped market. spn could've tapped it, but despite the huge fandom they did not. there are SO MANY people outside of spn fandom who want a slow burn mlm romance, one that keeps the audience guessing, one that's will they/won't they, one that is not guaranteed, and that is why queerbaiting works so well. the audience doesn't just want the payoff, they also want the build-up. the longer the build-up, the higher the payoff, and the suspense of the build-up is gone if you know from the start that the payoff is definitely coming. that's part of why malec from shadowhunters didn't fully tap this market—there was no question of if, only the question of when (which wasn't really a question either, given there was an episode in season 1 literally titled "malec" when they got together.) the characters were always queer, the show being an adaptation of a book series where they were in a relationship and eventually had children together.

this was why November 5th was such a big deal—fans were so far past the will they/won't they aspect of destiel, firmly believing that destiel would always end as a "won't they" and not a "will they" that when cas confessed his romantic love for dean, destiel trended on Twitter over the US election. you all know that story, but maybe not everyone reading this knows that after Nov. 5 there was a case of hundreds if not thousands of spn fans experiencing love sickness because of the confession scene. the payoff of making destiel fully canon (and reciprocated, in English) would've been huge. fans would've been throwing their money at the c/w.

which leads me to the possibility (this is not at all me saying that I think this happened or even is likely, just that it's one possibility that /could/ have happened) that buddie started as bait, that the writers never intended for them to be a couple, but saw fan reactions to buddie during season 2 and started to lean into it in season 3 (and 4 so far, but it just started so I don't want to make any generalized statements about it) possibly still as bait or maybe not deciding yet if they'll go anywhere with it. and then maybe they saw destiel trending on November 5th, realized just how BIG the market for a slow burn will they/won't they mlm romance is, and said "hey, we already have the foundations for one of those. why not go for it and draw in all those viewers who clearly want one so badly?"

if buddie goes canon, because the cast and PR have been so positive about it, unlike spn, and because of the text of the show itself, the show's creatives could VERY EASILY claim that they were never baiting, that it was all an intentional slow burn will they/won't they romance from the beginning, and most people would believe them; there isn't really any evidence to the contrary, although I am sure there would be at least a few fans convinced it started as queerbaiting, and there might not be any evidence to refute that, either.

the point is that 911 is currently sitting on a gold mine. if they play their cards right, and execute buddie well, they will monopolize this market that old straight white men serving as network executives have failed so far to really tap into. they queerbait without the payoff, which gives the show a reputation among those in the market who haven't seen it, guaranteeing they will never watch it. shows in this vein: sherlock (huge reputation for queerbaiting and a finale fans didn't like) and spn (huge reputation for queerbaiting and a finale fans didn't like). spn got so, so close with cas's confession but then continued to gaslight its fans, and PR did not lean into destiel AT ALL. if 911 did buddie? the PR team would be all over it. it would be a moneymaker, big time, and Fox knows it. if buddie, or even just bi buck, went canon, tumblr would be all over it. viewership for the show, which is already impressive, would skyrocket. 911 would monopolize this market, because fans wary of queerbaiting would watch it with the knowledge that the payoff is there, and there really wouldn't be a competitor until other shows saw the success of buddie and followed suit with their own pairings, and given the fact that the market specifically wants /slow burn/ queer romances, that might take a couple years. that puts 911 in a really good position, where suddenly the fandom of the show, not just the GA, is very large and likely very dedicated to the show. the success of canon buddie might just change the landscape of TV in the coming years, showing execs that while queerbaiting does work, actually going through with it is really where the money is. 911 would not just monopolize the market for a while; it would pioneer it.

if buddie never goes canon, I would probably be a bit disappointed at the wasted potential, but unless the characters get to that point where canon buddie seems like the most logical outcome and they /don't/ go for it, I won't be truly upset because I don't think it's fair to claim its queerbaiting until then. I can't tell you how likely it is that buddie will be canon at some point, but it seems FAR more likely than destiel /ever/ did, and we ended up getting cas's confession in the end. I have hope, despite being hurt so badly by spn. 911 is a genuinely great show with some fantastic writing, and they don't leave chekov's gun unfired, unlike spn.

really, it comes down to this: if Jennifer Love Hewitt is allowed to clown for buddie, then so am I, and I'll enjoy this show—which is amazing even without canon buddie—while I apply my clown makeup.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

This Needs To Stop.

Trigger warning: Sensitive topics, p*dopilia, grooming, mental health and r*cism. 

Ok so this is a bit of a rant so apologies for that, I usually try to stay away from sensitive or controversial topics but this is something that I am passionate about and that I think is important. Also I just want to say that I am in no way directing this to the entirety of the M*lina fandom, I know most are just enjoying their ship, but there are those few who are deliberately seeking out darklina posts or are cross tagging and coming into darklina’s asks and just generally harassing the fandom which sadly I am seeing happen more and more often. Also I do feel like this can apply to all fandoms not just exclusively shadow and bone/ grishaverse, its just this is the one I am experiencing it in right now.   

I’ve seen antis call darkling/darklina fans many problematic things, delusional, mentally ill, ab*se apologists. They also like throwing around words like grooming and p*dophile. The thing that makes me angry about this is that they are taking sensitive topics, topics that many users have been effected by and they are using them to attack shippers merely for liking a character or ship that they don’t. What is even more frustrating is they seem to be throwing these words around without evening fully understanding what they even mean. For example the claim that the Darkling is a p*dophile because Alina is only 17 in the books. Well p*dophilia is a psychiatric disorder where adults are attracted to children and in order for it to be classed as p*dophilia the child involved has to be 13 or younger. A 16 year old can be diagnosed as a p*dophile if they become attracted to a child that is five years or more younger than them. So the relationship between the Darkling and Alina does not meet the criteria to be categorised this way as Alina is over the age of 13. As for it being a case of Alina is underaged, well, for one that depends on where in the world you are. This is based on imperial russia, in russia the age of consent is 16. This means that a 16 year old can have a sexual relationship with a 30 year old, a 70 year old or a 500 year old immortal and in a court of law it is still legal, whatever your own moral issues around age gaps might be. Even then it can be argued that it is irrelevant because, as with most historical literature where young girls marry older men, you cannot put modern day concepts onto them. Like I said this story is based on Imperial Russia, the life expectancy of a person in that time was around 30 years old. That means a 15 year old girl is already half way through her life, she is literally middle aged. It is at this point usually that girls started to prepare to get married and have children and yes sometimes it was to an older man because men were expected to provide for their wife and family which means having a house and job and means to support a family which an older man was more likely to have. My point is a 15-17 year old in say Imperial Russia is not the same as a 15-17 year old in modern day therefore you can’t take modern day laws and morals and place them onto that situation, it doesn’t work, they lived completely different lives. In Alina’s world, she is at the age where girls might get married and her being courted by a man of the general’s status would have been a normal occurrence, for her to have caught the attention of someone with his standing would have been considered very advantageous for her. I mean she literally gets two marriage proposals in book 2, where I believe she is still 17, and Nikolai is talking about how if she marries him it’ll be in name only and they can make Mal her guard so she can do the horizontal tango with him whenever she feels like it, so clearly the characters themselves feel like Alina is at an age where she can, one get married, and two be engaging in a sexual relationship. 

So why does all of this matter? Well it matters because people reading these posts, asks and comments left on posts, may be victims of p*dophilia and grooming. A lot of these comments don’t have trigger warnings and when you are talking about sensitive and triggering topics like this you need to be careful and when you are talking about them without even really understanding them, and where they can’t apply to the characters you are talking about anyway, then you are potentially triggering someone needlessly because you didn’t need to be talking about it in the first place, I hope I am making sense there. I am not saying don’t talk about these subjects if you do think they are relevant, I am saying make sure you do the research, that you understand the subject you are addressing and when you do talk about it do it in a respectful manner, don’t throw it out there in an angry spew accompanied by alot of other derogatory words because that won’t help anyone.     

Another subject I want to talk about is I am also seeing a lot of posts about how darklinas must be delusional or mentally unwell. This, again, is hurtful and harmful. Mental illness for a very long time has had a stigma around it, one that makes the person suffering from it feel weak and ashamed. There was always the attitude of if you are mentally ill then there is something wrong with you, or the attitude of oh just get over it, cheer up, think a different way. But mental illness isn’t just a state of emotion its often caused by hormonal imbalances and chemicals. Genetics can also play a part. There is nothing wrong with someone who is mentally ill their brain is just wired a different way. I also find it problematic when people throw around the word delusional. Maybe its nothing to you, just a word, but alot of mental illnesses have actual delusions as one of their symptoms. These can be scary and upsetting and are outside the control of the person experiencing them. Making the suggestion that liking a particular ships means you are delusional is potentially very triggering to those who do battle delusions and have fought to overcome them. The stigma around mental illness has prevented alot of people suffering from mental illness from seeking help out of shame or embarrassment or even out of fear of being judged and although I do feel like as a society we’ve become alot more open about mental health and alot more accepting there is still a long way to go. When antis start saying things like ‘I can’t believe people ship this, they must be mentally ill,’ or ‘they must be sick in the head’, or ‘if you like this ship than you must be delusional’ not only are they being incredibly prejudice against people who have mental illnesses but it is also so harmful because if there is someone reading that post who is struggling with their mental health and are considering seeking help then you’ve just made them feel more ashamed, more like there is something wrong with them which will make them even less likely to seek out help and as I said before there isn’t anything wrong with a person who has a mental health condition they are just different from you. That doesn’t give you the right to make them feel like they are less capable of deciding what they do or do not like or even what they should or should not like to be classified as a ‘normal’ person. 

The most latest problematic statements I’ve seen have been those accusing Darklina’s of being r*cist. This one I found a bit funny in a it’s not funny kind of way. I just don’t think there is much logic behind this view point. I’m not sure I understand the antis reasoning here. Mostly because I’m pretty sure the majority of the Darklina fandom comes from the books where Mal is described as being a white, brown haired, blue eyed guy. Funnily enough the Darkling is described as being able to pass for Shu, though to be clear it isn’t confirmed that he is a POC, but out of the two in the books the Darkling is more likely to be a POC than Mal. On top of that whilst many darklina fans have made it clear they are not a fan of Mal in the books many have said they like the show version of Mal who, as we all know, the actor Archie is a POC. So by anti logic darklinas are all r*cist because they don’t like book Mal who is depicted as white but we do like show Mal who is a POC. It just doesn’t make sense to me. I do understand that there were some ‘fans’ who made inappropriate and r*cist comments to some cast members including Archie and I would never ever condone that no matter who I ship. But you also can’t condemn an entire fandom just because of the actions of a select few. I don’t judge all M*linas for that one fan who accused Ben of being a pr*dator and p*dophile because of his friendship with Jessie. Once again my point is r*cism is a serious topic and not something someone should use as a retort or comeback to someone not shipping your ship. When we use these words casually it makes it less likely that they’ll be taking seriously when they really do need to be taken seriously, when they really are relevant to what is happening. If we keep using them so casually then when we really do need to talk about them, when it really matters, people will just shrug and go ‘its just antis being antis.’ 

I think it is possible for people to like different things, to debate and analyse different relationships and characters and talk about what flaws they may have in a respectful manner. I wouldn’t say I am anti m*lina but at the same time there are things about them that I find problematic but when I talk about those things I hope I do so in a way that doesn’t demean those who do like the ship. I understand that people will have a different interpretation than me and whilst I might not understand where their thinking comes from or why they have a particular opinion I would never make the assumption that they are mentally unwell or make judgements on their character or morals. I try to think about the words I am writing. I know how easy it can be to just throw a word out there without thinking about it. I used to use the word delusional to describe fans of certain ships, but when I recognised how damaging and problematic that was I stopped and I changed my behaviour because it was never my intention to hurt others. I guess the main message I am trying to convey here is we need to be careful with our words they’re not as insignificant as we might think.                

[concealeddarkness13]

All’s Fair In Love And War (Especially When It’s Both) Powerpoint!

I finally made one for the worldbuilding and main characters! Tagging: @ratracechronicler​, @merigreenleaf​, @maple-writes​, @half-litpersonas​, and @incandescent-creativity​ (since you want to be tagged in Powerpoints)! Here, here, and here are other info posts about this story.

[Image Description: a page titled: All’s Fair In Love an War (Especially When It’s Both)

AKA: The story I already want to start writing, even though I already have plenty of stories. End Description]

[Image Description: a page titled: Overview

One bit happy world

Except the fact that humans are stuck in a fairly small enclosure because they tried to conquer the other species centuries ago

At that time so long ago, a scientist made prosthetics that gave elemental magic to people but also adversely affected their bodies

More info on the magic in a later slide

So, humans aren’t very happy about being in the enclosure

Some humans have come to believe that being 100% peaceful and ignoring the victims of the magical cyborg experiments (because they’re still going on) is the best way to convince the species to let them out

While other humans are convinced that a show of force and violence is the only way to get out

But this group has shady connections with the magical cyborg experiments

So, both groups are iffy

Good thing there’s one POV protagonist who couldn’t care less and just wants to live her life. End Description]

[Image Description: a page titled: The Species (almost all these names are temporary)

Humans: Just regular, old, plain humans, nothing to see here, they certainly don’t have any inherent magic (that the author still knows nothing about), just the magic that is given to them through the prosthetics

The Shades: (Yes, this is the home world of the Shades from Bring Me That Horizon) the Shades eat human emotions, and they’re shapeshifters

The Snakes: This species feeds on human blood, they have snake scales, longer limbs in proportion to their body, large eyes, slit pupils, and snake scales all over their bodies; they have paralyzing toxins that are aerosols and are secreted by their hair; these toxins only paralyze humans

The Venus Girdles: This species feeds on human souls, they have hair that looks like a lot of Venus Girdle jellyfish fused to their head, they glow slightly, and they just have an ethereal feel; they feed using their Venus Girdle hair coming into contact with the prey’s skin and sucking up the life force, so a human can still live, and their soul will replenish the life force after a while; the feeding isn’t painful, just makes the human feel really tired

The Crabs (I suppose): This species claims to feed on human logic, they have carapace that grows over their skin, especially on their chest to protect their hearts, they’re usually faster and stronger than humans, and they have slit pupils; they actually feed on the inherent magic humans have (surprise, surprise the prosthetics are not even needed), and their carapace is especially anti-magic

The Celestials: This is a species no one has ever seen, but there’s a whole belief system around them, and they are actually real; I don’t know what they eat, but they live out in space around the planet, they protect the planet from invaders, their skin looks like the night sky, their hair and clothes are all flowy and wave in an ever-present wind, and they can change their body’s make-up to fit the atmosphere of the planet or space. End Description]

[Image Description: a page titled: The Magic from the Prosthetics

It’s elemental magic...with a nefarious twist!

The fire magic lets a person control fire, but the source of their fire resides in their lungs, and if they exercise too much or get stressed out, the fire stokes and burns their throat (but they can breathe fire), and occasionally, they’ll have to cough up smoke

The water magic allows a person to control water and swim really well, but after a year, they grow gills, and that’s a painful process, and randomly, their bodies will forget how to use lungs, so they will have to breathe through their gills for an unspecified amount of time, which sucks if there isn’t a good water source around

The wind magic allows a person to control air, but they grow wings, which sounds great, but it takes two to three years to grow those wings, and it’s very painful throughout the whole process, and they hurt more than they should even after the wings are fully grown

Finally, the lightning magic allows a person to control lightning, but they basically have lightning in their bodies the whole time, which means that they have 24/7 static electricity that makes their hair stand on end, and the energy the lightning gives their bodes means they really can’t sleep, which really sucks, so they’re chronically tired. End Description]

[Image Description: a page titled: Characters

I have way too many characters

Seriously, there are a lot of them

So, I’ll only talk about the really main characters

But I’m having fun, so it’s ok! End Description]

[Image Description: a page titled: Chess

One of the POV characters

She was part of the most recent cyborg experiments (which are still going on), but she doesn’t remember any of it; her right arm and left leg are prosthetics

Actually, she doesn’t remember anything past two years ago, so she doesn’t know who she was before that

Because she was part of the cyborg experiments, people don’t particularly like to see her if they can identify her prosthetics

So, she keeps moving from city to city once people start to recognize her prosthetics

Survivor; the only time she doesn’t prioritize survival is when she goes to a bar and picks up someone so she doesn’t have to sleep alone

She doesn’t believe anyone would do anything for reasons other than selfish ones

Doesn’t trust anyone

Chill, though; she could see some alien she can’t explain and she’d just shrug; she also has no opinion on either of the different sides

One night, she’s found kissing the son of the leaders, and that causes a scandal

So, the leaders decide to cover it up by trying to say she’s really human and had been engaged to their son the whole time

Creed, their son, decides to cause some mischief, and she agrees

She keeps claiming that soon she’ll have to leave, but she never does

“I put my head down keep running away from it, anywhere I’m going can’t be worse than this, I need to get away before it pulls me in, I’m never ever getting close to anyone again.” (Right Left Wrong by Three Days Grace). End Description]

[Image Description: a page titled: Creed

He’s the son of the leaders

...But is he?

He’s known as Callum Miro Rey, but he likes the nickname Creed (spoiler reasons why)

When they met at the bar, he seemed to recognize Chess from somewhere, but of course, she doesn’t remember

He is genderfluid, and I’m still figuring that out; he likes he/him, they/them, and she/her on different days, and it changes every couple days normally

He seems to be easily amused and doesn’t have an opinion on whether peace or violence is the best way to go

He just likes to watch humans bicker about the different sides

Doesn’t seem to care about much, but he does seem to actually have some kind of fond feelings for Chess

They become partners in mischief, to more? Possibly.

“And now the silence screams that you are gone, you’ve tuned me out, I’ve lost your frequency.” (Frequency by Starset). End Description]

[Image Description: a page titled: Vesper

She is an important member of the peace group; she gives speeches about the logic of staying peaceful to get out of the enclosure

She grew up with parents who were hosts to the various ambassadors the different species would send inside the enclosure

Her parents always taught her to bury her emotions and never show that something affected her

While observing the ambassadors, she came to the conclusion that there was no way to fight the different species and expect to get out of the enclosure, that the only way to get out is to make the other species see humans as such a non-threat that they wouldn’t care about letting them out

Because she’s such a high rank in the peace movement, the violence movement sends the infamous demon twins, Thorne and Jude, to capture her

She’s logical, but she does have emotions, and she actually feels them very deeply, she just never shows them

And she’s also self sacrificial, very much so

“No one is coming to save you, the enemy means only to play you, and they take and they take and they give just a little.” (Save You by Manafest) End Description]

[Image Description: a page titled: Thorne

His full name is Thorne Ragnik (and I’m only saying this because I’m proud I actually thought up last names)

He’s part of the violence movement, one of the demon twins (even though they aren’t twins)

He grew up poor because both of his parents were part of the previous cyborg experiments, so they were ignored by society (because the leaders are part of the peace movement), and now he’s an orphan

As such, he stole to survive, and one day, he stole from Jude’s parents’ house, and Jude caught him

But instead of raising the alarm, Jude decided to help Thorne because he wanted to and also because of the mischief

They’ve both been part of the violence movement for a few years, and they’ve become infamous for capturing opponents to the violence movement in their special way

Which means dancing with their prey until the prey is thoroughly confused and dazed

Thorne is more of the serious one, but he also gets dryly dramatic really quick

He wears a normal suit most of the time. End Description]

[Image Description: a page titled: Jude

His full name is Jude Laynor

His parents are nobles that believe in the peace movement

And he’s a trickster who loves mischief

So, he doesn’t get along with his parents much

And when he was young, he met Thorne when Thorne tried to steal from his parets’ house, and he didn’t care

He actually hangs out with Thorne a lot after that, and he’s one of the reasons Thorne becomes more lighthearted

He joined the violence movement with Thorne at the same time, and they quickly became known as the demon twins

He’s more playful and teasing, and he wears fancy, flashy stuff

He grins all the time. End Description]

[Image Description: a page titled: Maisa

He’s a Shade who has taken an interest in Vesper

He’s actually part of a group of different species that are working to make sure the humans never leave the enclosure, and in fact, they want to control humans even more

Vesper came to the conclusion that peace is the only way on her own, but once Maisa took an interest in her, he started manipulating her to make her believe even more in the peace movement

He manipulates her by seducing her, because of course

And Vesper knows Maisa’s horrible, but she thinks her sacrifice is worth it to let other people out of the enclosure

Maisa’s selfish, possessive, and a jerk

He’s a shapeshifter, and he does change between male and female sometimes

He basically feels he’s entitled to Vesper (he’s so interested in her because she does feel deep emotions even though she doesn’t show them), so when Thorne and Jude capture her, he’s going to send minions after them. End Description]

[Image Description: a page titled: Quin

He’s the final POV character, but he won’t show up as a POV right away

That’s because neither Chess nor Vesper know that there are humans living on the outside of the enclosure, so that reveal should be hidden a little

I’m not sure how yet, but Quin was captured by the group of different species that want humans to stay in the enclosure sometime before the story starts

They keep him as basically an animal in a small cage: they show him off to the other species to convince them that humans aren’t sentient (which the group knows isn’t correct, but they want the others to believe so)

The species speak in their language around him (that he doesn’t speak), but one day, while they’re showing him off, he speaks back to them in their language because he learned a few phrases from them talking it around him so much

Which leads to him getting tortured for interrupting their plans

Which then leads to the totally not inherent magic in humans coming to the surface for Quin and helping him escape

He’s scared and doesn’t trust people much

Which leads him to the becoming a part of a small group of one human and a few different species or half-species, who is moving around outside the enclosure (I don’t know all of the characters, so they’ll go on the extra characters powerpoint if I make one)

I’m not sure all that he’ll do in this story, but he’ll be fun! End Description]

[Image Description: a page titled: Aeflin

She is a human antagonist, she’s the scientist that is conducting the magic cyborg experiments now

She’s bubbly and happy, and she actually gives really good life advice

She just also doesn’t have very good ethics when she’s being a scientist

Very curious and will ask you tons of questions if she doesn’t understand what’s going on

She is with the other antagonist on the next slide, and they’re in a loving relationship. End Description]

[Image Description: a page titled: Naivi

She’s the second human antagonist, she’s working on the outside of the enclosure to destroy the other species

She’s charming and teasing, at least to people who aren’t her enemies

I don’t know all of her backstory, but she’s a victim, while she also does some horrible things

Duality!

I already know she’s going to be a fun character. End Description]

[beetleboo]

long post. one i’ve been trying to make for a while now. hell, i wrote this like... third week of may. didn’t post it until now because i didn’t know if I wanted to.

but something i want to lay out, been wanting to lay out for months. dont want to talk to anyone about it, just want to put the info out there for it to be seen.

if you re/blog this i will block you. i may put this on the relevant sideblog at some point.

because 2020 was the worst year on record for me for a number of reasons, and it’s torn me down to the lowest point i’ve been in a long time, and this is just. everything that’s gone down. not a callout post, no one gets named, but these are all the events

partially in relation to my fandom sideblog, because that’s where i had community, and where it’s all just. gone. doesnt exist anymore.

i started up a server, ages ago now. somewhere i curated to be a positive and safe space for things, and for a while, it was that.

around the end of 2019, spilling over to the start of 2020 when it picked up, i found, both on my blog and in discord spaces, in particular the server i ran, that people no longer talked to me. no one would hold a conversation with me past a few basic responses, no one replied to anything i shared, no one engaged when i tried to start discussions. so i pulled back from the main server - S1. thought it was just a lull in activity. stayed that way for weeks, months, and I just muted the server. no one ever cared about anything i had to say. was lucky if anything i posted got even a token emoji react

was in another, smaller server - S2. people i talked to damn near every day, even in voice. played games together - that became... no fun simply because everyone else was so much better/further ahead in the game. i was completely useless, so didn’t server a function in game and never really felt like anyone actively wanted me around, but i still participated in chat.

but again, no one ever responded to anything I posted beyond maybe a token react

couple people discussing something one day. I contributed with Theory A, and quite immediately got that shut down. few minutes later, they rephrased exactly what I said and happily nattered away. so whatever I said wasn’t worth it when it came out of my mouth but if they talked about it, it was all well and valid. so again, between that specific experience and no one interacting with me, nor anything I post. server muted. treatment taught me no one cared about my presence there.

gave admin rights to S1, my server, to someone I trusted. two requests only: dont delete channels and let me know if you want to invite anyone (since I kept it private)

RYE (i’m just assigning random three letter names to people to keep this straight) posted public invites several times. never asked me. one of the two things i asked. brought it up with them that it bothered me, just got vague noncomittal responses. more public invites. eventually, after having the server muted for months, i handed over full control and left. that was almost a full year ago. none of the people have talked to me in that entire year, through discord or here or anything.

except RYE who sent me a message after a couple months like ‘wow i havent heard from you in a while hope you’re doing ok’. i wasn’t. after a bit but still the same day, i said as much. that i wasn’t doing well. they never responded. and i don’t mean like, they didn’t respond that day. i mean i literally never heard from them until months later when they sent me a meme and also didn’t respond to me commenting on that meme.

and this is one side of things. all of the above was the first half of the year. this next bit happened about. march2020? I was in another server - S3. another place that was a good space at the time. was in voice chat with two other people. started talking about one thing. MIN very suddenly said something along the lines of ‘i don’t care about this i’ll come back when you’re done’

this is one of the very few things that can trigger me - i’ve had a lot of people talk down to me if I dare look excited about anything. when they came back, i asked if they could try to just. depart conversations more softly. MIN always said ‘if i do anything hurtful to you just tell me! i dont want to do that kind of thing!’

this was clearly a lie as they exploded on me, telling me they always have to walk on eggshells around me, that I ask so many things from them. before what I asked them that day, I can only recall one other thing i asked (which was not to talk about a person who was abusive towards me, and they were like ‘yea sure np’ about that, over a year prior’)

the whole thing turned into basically me having to shut down the fact that i was hurt by what they did, had to ignore that now and i had to fawn and placate them and the only thing i got out of that was that my feelings were irrelevant, only theirs.

(incidentally, I have had two other people turn on me in similar ways, accusing me of doing shifty/bad/terrible things, and not being willing to tell me what they are when I ask, only saying that ‘i should know what i did’ so that’s also now a Fun New Bit Of Trauma.)

and that entire weeklong event lead me straight to a breakdown. literal genuine breakdown i cannot convey how devastating that entire scenario was without going into far too many details.

so between all of these things happening in less than six months, with three different community spaces folding and collapsing and fading away from me, with many of the friends i thought i had just. moving on to other things and dropping me. people i talked to every day just not bothering with me anymore. they all have gone on to other stuff and no one ever went ‘hey beets wanna see what i’m up to’ or ‘wanna do this thing with me’

a handful of instances of me saying ‘yeah i’m dealing with these fears that have been reinforced lately that people aren’t safe to deal with, even thought part of me knows they’re probably irrational it feels like i have evidence to back it up’ and people immediately take it personally like i’m saying they’re not safe. despite. me outright saying. i know logically it should be irrational. but their reactions just reinforce it so it’s just a loop and tells me, again, never to bring up any of my problems with anyone.

so this all just reinforces that there’s something wrong with me. couple years back i spoke to a friend and how i was frustrated that I seemed to end up in bad spaces and they said ‘well you’re the one thing in common so its probably your fault’ and obviously they’re not my friend anymore but that has affected me so deeply. i can’t do anything without overthinking, whenever anything goes wrong i tear apart everything i’ve done and everything i’ve said or thought and i don’t know why things keep going bad. i try so hard but i’m just. not right.

so it all teaches me that there’s no point in reaching out in trying to talk to people because if i say ‘hey this hurt me’ i get ignored at best or torn down, yelled at, scolded. no point in trying to talk to new people because everyone just walks away at some point. not even a natural drift apart, i can handle that. but just very suddenly, they’re gone, off with better people doing better things.

roundabout, ties back to ‘consumption versus community’ - this is why i’ve been struggling so hard with lack of engagement on my sideblog. lucky to get a dozen notes on anything i make, unless it’s something other people can use (like mods) and even THEN it’s rare to see much activity. and that was FINE because i had people to talk to elsewhere, who would ask questions and we could back and forth and i shared my stuff and they shared those and it didnt matter if my posts only got a dozen notes because i had friends to talk to.

now i get (example) seven notes, six of which are likes and one is a reblog with no commentary. when i have something with a ton of notes, still, minimal commentary, no one talks to me. even on a mod with five hundred notes it just feels like i went ‘hey i made something :)’ and everyone picked it up and walked away with it, no one went ‘hey this is cool i want to talk to the person who made it.’

and it just feels like 95% of the time, i’m just overlooked. 

and it’s worse than it’s ever been in my entire life, and I wonder, what’s the point of any of this anymore.

why bother to make the posts to share when it all just gets passed by. what’s the point in trying to reach out to new people and make friends when i get lashed out at or left behind? the social is gone out of my social media. i had community, and now it’s gone.

so this has all been going on for months and months and months and hey! suffering. and i dont expect it to get any better, don’t expect this post to fix these issues, but i’ve been trying to say something about all of this for fucking months and i think just, laying it all out is all I can do about it. i’m sure i’ve forgotten some things to touch on but as it is, all these events, all of it happening all together. new traumas, old traumas reawoken, reinforced, i’ve been torn to pieces i don’t know how to function, i can’t remember the last time i felt like even half a real person. taught that the safe, positive spaces that meant so much to me don’t actually exist and they’ll all turn on me and be torn away. nowhere is safe anymore, and trying to make it safe is just going to ruin me again.

people aren’t safe, places aren’t safe, been proven to me time and time again so i just. stay away.

no matter how much i try to fight that, it just doesnt work.

anyway tl;dr beets needs therapy probably

[frostiifae]

Why do we hate Nintendo?

Today, organizers of the The Big House online tournament announced that they received a cease and desist order from Nintendo. 

What is Slippi?

Project Slippi is, essentially, an add-on to the existing Dolphin emulator for Gamecube games. Its purpose is to bring the features of modern online gaming to Super Smash Brothers Melee, a game which was released very nearly 20 years ago and is no longer in production, but remains a popular competitive game with an active scene. 

Slippi has been a godsend to the Melee community during the pandemic. It offers incredibly high-fidelity gameplay with random matchmaking and tournament support, and the developers have emphasized making the game experience itself as close to local play as possible. It’s been so successful that the Big House - a series of major annual tournaments that have been running for almost a decade - decided to host their 2020 tournament purely online using Slippi. 

Who care about Melee? Why aren’t they just playing Ultimate instead?

If you ask a Melee player, they will go on and on about the improved framerate, responsiveness, and other such technical advantages Melee has over Ultimate. I’m going to talk about something else instead. 

It’s culturally expected nowadays that when a new game in a franchise comes out, you stop playing the old game and play the new game instead. But if you apply this way of thinking to any other form of media it’s completely ridiculous. It’s like saying there’s no reason to watch documentaries from the 80s and 90s, because documentaries about the same subjects have been remade more recently. Media exists as a product of its time. It might contain valuable historical insight that remains precious to us for centuries to come. Or, it might just be better. Maybe the older documentaries are more informative, or maybe they’re more engaging to watch. Games work the same way; people will always have their preferences about which game in a series is their favorite, and choosing to play an older game you prefer - especially if you’ve got a lot of friends to play with you - isn’t at all an entitled thing to do. 

The problem with digital media is that having a movie or game by itself isn’t useful. Me owning a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is useless if I don’t also have a Sega Genesis to run it on - and that system is useless if I don’t have a working controller to use to interface with the game. Melee has been facing this problem for years now, as copies of Melee itself and Gamecube systems and controllers become more exclusive and more scarce. There aren’t new games or systems coming onto the market to replace what’s being lost - there are only a finite number left, and when the last one breaks, Melee will effectively cease to exist. 

Ok, well, that’s sad and all, but Slippi is an emulator, right? And emulating is illegal!

Emulating is legal... sort of. Emulation has hidden behind a vague phrasing of copyright law that suggests that, when you own a piece of digital media, you have the right to make copies of it for your own personal use - you just can’t distribute those copies. Owning an emulator, or the ROMs needed to play games on that emulator, isn’t strictly illegal... but distributing those things is. 

The idea here is, in theory, you could very thoroughly mod your Gamecube to connect to the Internet and play with modded firmware using Project Slippi. Modding isn’t illegal, so if you have your own GameCube and your own copy of Melee, which you purchased legitimately, then doing this is absolutely legal. And it probably is what people are doing! Definitely, probably. I’m sure it’s not as hard as I make it sound. Don’t worry about it!

Point is; distributing ROMs is what’s illegal, not playing them. The Big House isn’t distributing ROMs, so they’re not doing anything illegal. And Nintendo knows that; they took a different approach. Instead of claiming that using Project Slippi is against the law, they instead simply informed TBH that they don’t have permission to stream or host a tournament using their game. 

Obviously, Nintendo owns the rights to Melee, and that means they have the right to decide who is and isn’t allowed to stream their game and why. The Big House didn’t break the law, but that doesn’t mean they have the legal standing to challenge Nintendo’s order - let alone the financial resources or emotional stamina needed to get into a legal battle with a company of that size.

I don’t see the problem. Nintendo has the right to do this. Isn’t this what everybody does?

No.

Age of Empires 2 came out in September of ‘99, and it has remained a niche but thriving competitive RTS game over 20 years since then. Fans had to keep the game fresh on their own via modding in new map support and even new civilizations. 

In 2012, Microsoft decided that the game’s consistent support from its fans deserved an offering, and they decided to make an HD rerelease. That’s really cool of them! They also contacted the developers of one of the most popular fanmade expansions, Forgotten Empires, and worked it into an official expansion, called The Forgotten! AOE2 has continued to grow and thrive ever since, receiving enough attention to call for TWO MORE EXPANSION PACKS, and of course leading to the Definitive Edition release last year. Embracing fan support of their outdated product has given Microsoft the opportunity to make money off of something that should be long dead, and now it’s bigger and better than ever before. 

If you ask folks within the fighting game community, you’ll find this isn’t an isolated story - for example, Arcsystems notably once incoporated a fanmade mod that improved netplay into an official patch, lending official developer resources to the group to help them get the job done. When your fans care so much about a game you’ve made that they’ll put in the time and the effort to make that game better and more accessible for everyone, a lot of developers are happy to honor and embrace that effort, and in doing so, they stand a lot to benefit - their games get better, and they might even be able to make enough money back on those improvements to keep growing the game even further.

So if other developers aren’t doing this, why is Nintendo doing it? Simple: They don’t like the idea that people are playing old games. They want everyone playing the most recent offerings, no questions asked. To them, “rereleasing” Melee is out of the question; Smash Ultimate is the only “canonical” version of Smash. Don’t play anything else. Don’t try to buy anything else. This is the only game that exists. 

So what? I don’t care at all about Melee. Why does it matter that Nintendo wants people to stop playing a 20-year old game?

The short answer is because it sucks that Nintendo holds the rights to something they don’t care about and aren’t using, and that they’re using those rights to legally bully people who love their games and want to make them better and more accessible to other people. Regardless of how you feel about Melee or its community, it’s a simple fact that the people who are building Project Slippi and running tournaments love the game more than just about anybody else. For Nintendo to order a C&D against a passionate fan project is a bummer - but for them to do so in regards to a game that they’re not making anymore is downright unfair. They would rather protect their ability to maybe make more money on Melee later, than allow the existing scene to thrive in a way that does literally no harm to them.

Nintendo’s well-known and aggressive policy of shutting down fan-made projects and communities of all kinds has only one objective in mind: they want absolute control over everything that they’ve made. From a certain naive point of view, this is fair, right? But if you take this to its logical extreme, then that means Nintendo has the right to prohibit things like fanart or fanfiction, which doesn’t really seem that fair. Where should the line be drawn?

This is just another battle in a war that has been fought over the last 200 years regarding the idea of a “copyright”, and what gives a person the right to decide how other people will consume media they publish. It has never been about the rights of writers, musicians, or game developers - it has always been about publishing rights. Publishers want exclusive control over the things they publish, because holding exclusive control makes it much easier for them to make money from their products. 

We have a legal term for when a single entity has exclusive control over a commodity in high demand - that’s called a monopoly, and it is illegal. Monopolies pose a serious threat to consumers because they can price their goods however they like, extorting their consumerbase or simply making their product inaccessible except to an elite few, which isn’t considered fair. So if that’s the case, why aren’t video game publishers considered monopolies? It turns out some people in the past believed they should be, and publishing companies have been doing all sorts of legal acrobatics for years to avoid it. Free Culture makes for a good read on the subject, if you’ve got time. (Chapters 6 through 9 are particularly relevant to today’s issues with streaming games and music.)

A lot of people don’t seem to understand the damage that Nintendo’s ridiculous monopolizing practices have done to their own gaming community. It’s absurd of them to expect people to continue to pay for new releases of the same games on virtual console, not just once but every time a new generation of “virtual console” is released - and yet they keep doing it, and it’s just one of many ways they continually screw over their customers at a chance for a few more bucks, and somehow most of their audience thanks them for it. 

So what exactly do you want me to do?

Nintendo’s tried to suppress Melee tournaments in the past, but were forced to reverse their decisions following massive public outcry by the competitors and their fans. Regardless of how you feel about Melee in particular, what Nintendo is doing is scummy and actively malicious to the people that love their games, and the fact that they’re doing it again proves that they’re not interested in learning their lesson. Folks on twitter are using the tag #FreeMelee to protest; lending your voice for a tweet or two can only help. 

More generally, though, all we can really do is be critical of Nintendo’s games and actions, and to ask ourselves whether we’re really getting what we’re paying for. Nintendo will continue to take everything you offer them and will never be satisfied; they will do whatever they think they can get away with - and if their fans never challenge them, they’ll assume they can get away with anything, and that’s bad for everybody - but it’s worst of all for the people who ostensibly love and support Nintendo the most.

[some-dr-writings]

Kokichi and Kiibo x the SHSL Strategist

Kokichi Oma:

·       You were a fascinating case to Kokichi. Despite being called the Super High School Level Strategist, no matter how hard he looked, he saw no sign of your talent anywhere. You never went about doing things in the most efficient way, you seemed to only be average in games like chess or backgammon, you didn’t even seem interested in anything that used much cognitive activity, most daydreaming in class, the teacher having to go to extremes to regain your attention. Your eyes were never focused, always just staring off in the distance at something only you perceived. You were also oblivious of your surroundings, often bumping into things or tripping and falling over. What exactly were you always day dreaming of he wondered.

·       At first he pulled some pranks on you, quickly escalating in intensity, but you never seemed to notice. He soon just started following you. Mimicking your actions, wondering if he could understand you better through this. Well, he learned you walked a lot. You’d often wander off campus, just going wherever your feet lead you. Sometimes you’d find your way onto a construction site and balance along those surprisingly thin beams, other times you’d slip onto a ship, sit on the railing and lean back, looking to the sky or the bridges the boat passed under. When you’d inevitably get caught, you never acted guilty of sneaking aboard, nor did you act like you had no idea where you were, “I just happen to be here.” Was the only explanation you’d ever give.

·       You never spoke much either, you’d only answer questions, and those questions were always met with no response or single sentences.

·       It was so strange it was as if you were here, yet not at the same time. You were aware of your surroundings, and not.

·       Wanting to learn more, he kept following you, wherever you went, no matter how far or downright dangerous the path you tread or how long it had been since either of you last slept or ate. He kept following. You found so many beautiful sights in the most unexpected of places. Some hidden grove in a park, amongst the scaffolding of a draw up bridge, atop the roof of some person’s house, hidden away in an abandoned town where plants had begun to take over, a railway that ran along a lake where the city in the distance appeared to float atop it.

·       One time the pair of you sat atop a tram for a while. Kokichi reflect on his time with you. You had met a lot of people, many were very kind, some not so, but… those kind acts outshone the bad so much. It was rather nice seeing. “Sometimes, you need to be reminded the world is not as bad as others try to make you think.” Kokichi’s gaze snapped to you. For a moment he thought he was hearing things before you turned to him. “Thanks for reminding me of that.” You smiled, holding you hand out to him. “Uh, you know my name, but I never introduced myself. My name, it’s Y/N.” With a beaming smile, and wide sparkling eyes Kokichi took your hand into both of his. “I’m Oma Kokichi!”

·       You began to talk sometimes, mostly little comments about your surroundings. At school you started approaching him, but you’d simply watch mindlessly. “Hey, Y/N, what do you think?” Laying on his bed, crayon in hand he turned to you, presenting his sketch book. You looked to him inquisitively before pointing to yourself. “Yeah silly! Show me your talent! I want to see the ultimate strategist at work!” “… But it won’t be fun anymore.” “Huh?” You pointed to the sketchbook. “If I think, if my head’s not empty, you won’t have fun. Making the plan is fun, but if I think, I’ll get everything done in the best way, there’ll be no surprises or challenges. I’ll forget people are people and not board pieces again.”

·       So that was why…

·       After that Kokichi started asking for your input more and more. He’d keep you up all night, making scheme after scheme together. Eventually you gave in and went all out when planning. You were brilliant, terrifyingly, spine-chillingly so, getting the most amount of victims while using the least amount of materials, even sketching out escape routes. If Kokichi didn’t know any better, he would have thought you were a completely different person with how you so logically chatted away, going through your thinking processes and explaining everything in such detail while still being engaging, but… Kokichi knew you. This was the side of yourself you feared, always trying to run away from. After all, in a world of pure logic, if your mind was always buzzing with how most efficiently to do things, likely, you’d be awfully bored and lonely, you could maybe even do something crazy because of that maddening boredom like destroy the whole world over night.

·       Kokichi would follow your plans, but sometimes, he’d add some twist, not tell you completely what he was planning, and he managed to even catch you off guard a few times and you became his sole victim. You soon took to trying to out smart him, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing. You were much more present after that. You’d freely speak with others, always so cheerily smiling. Sometimes you overly pragmatic side would seep out, which when left unchecked could scare others and yourself with how little regard you held for others, but you managed to hold it back most of the time.

·       One day during one of your many escapades off the campus you and Kokichi were loving the view sitting atop the bus, that was till some cops spotted you. Kokichi took your hand and the pair of you ran. The pair of you used your surroundings to your advantage and managed to lose then, but your excited laughter kept giving your location away. You only managed to escape when you dashed into a train just as it was leaving the station. You and Kokichi kept giggling to yourselves watching as you sped past the cops. “That was so exciting!” “Yeah, yeah! We should do that again!” “Great idea! My goodness we should have started this long ago! We could have been running all this time instead of just being caught, but I guess the younger me probably wouldn’t have seen the point, but I had no idea this could be so fun!” You looked to him, a light blush spreading on your cheeks as you hesitantly squeezed his hand. “Everything is always so fun and exciting with you. No matter what it is. Heh, heh. At this point I can’t tell if it’s just because you are you or because I have a crush on you.” You chuckled at yourself, finding this situation rather silly, not noticing how Kokichi was a giggling mess, hugging and nuzzling into you. “Aw~ Y/N~ You just made the WORST mistake in your life. You’re stuck with me now! I like you too.”

   Kiibo:

·       You hummed thinking over the question. “Well, Humans as a whole, as a collective are predictable. That’s how I can misdirect people, lead them away so I can be the only person in line and just get my shopping done with. Such predictability is so boring, and sad. The only excitement I can find anymore is interacting with others on an individual basis, learn of their past, see if they’ll open up to me, find out what makes them tick, when in the context of interpersonal relationships, each person is so unique and unpredictable. It’s the only excitement I can find anymore honestly. Connecting with others. It may seem cold, like I only see others as entertainment, but… Hmm, I’m not sure how to explain it any other way. Even if I don’t like a person, I still want to get to know them, who knows, maybe I’ll find some trait in them I could admire, you’ll never know till you try! So, even if I’m more fond of certain individuals, I want to know everyone, and everyone deserves to be treated with decency, you never know what exactly others have been through, it could possibly make their day if you treat them like a fellow human being.”

·       You were a social butterfly, always smiling and friends or were at least on friendly terms with just about everyone. You always were able to read people. You were everyone’s confidant, their best friend. Kiibo was quite impressed with how you were able to keep up with everyone. It did get him to wonder though… Did you like anyone more than the other? Like, say, have a crush on anyone, like how he had a crush on you? You didn’t seem to have a biases towards anyone, but… could you maybe? And that was your answer, the answer of the Super High School Level Strategist.

·       You were so smart, able to manipulate people. You weren’t that great at battle tactics or making plans or at board games, but you absolutely knew how to control the masses. You understood people, their emotions, their thoughts. This fascinated Kiibo, you seemed to be what Kiibo wished he were. He was still learning about people and himself, about emotions and how it could relate too and affected logic. Kiibo was desperate to learn all he could from you, and about you. You seemed to see emotions in a logical way, a way most other people didn’t seem to perceive it as. “Oh, well, a good way to start is to see things from their perspective and position.”

·       It was not often, but when Kiibo got a moment alone with you, he always learned so much and had fun. In the moment he didn’t think of it, but he wondered. Since you treated everyone the same, even those you didn’t like… Was he your friend? Did you, in fact, not like him at all? He certainly liked you, but… he had no idea what you thought of him, at all. And would you even tell him the truth if he asked? Would you lie so you could still be with him and learn more about him? The more he thought about it, he soon realized that he had a crush on the you he had made in his mind, not… not the real you, whoever that was. Then as he thought more on it, he wondered if you were lonely. If you had any real friends. Were you happy like this? You said that connecting with others was the only excitement you had anymore, so what if you weren’t happy, but this was just the best you could find…

·       How were you… the real you, he wondered.

·       And so he had a new resolve to know you. “You connect with others, but what about the other way around? Do others know you?” “Well, people are more inclined to open up if the other does so too.” “But how deep is that connection! Does anyone really know you?” “… What’s gotten you so curious?” You leaned your elbows on your desk, resting your chin on the back of your interlaced fingers. “I want to know you, the mastermind behind the strategist seeking excitement.” Your gaze sharpened, turning to something dark. It wasn’t much, so simple, just the tiniest shift in expression and yet that single look terrified him. You also smiled, a smile practically inviting him with how naturally kind it was. “I’d like to see you try.” There was a light chuckle bubbling up in your voice as you spoke. It was deadly serious and threatening, yet playful.

·       Though slightly confused and scared Kiibo went ahead befriending you again. You wondered what Kiibo would find out. What he would think of you. This was certainly not a development you were expecting, you were curious to see where this would lead.

·       And so this sort of game between you and Kiibo began. And well… Kiibo only fell for you the more and more he got to know you. Nothing about you was fake. You were able to appease others and get to know them while still being honest with yourself. You used your skill set so much without other’s notice, mostly stopping fights before they could even begin. You also acted a little differently with Kiibo than with others. You were a bit colder and more methodical while still having that warmth in your voice. Everything, your entire world, was logical. Every last aspect was like that.

·       It was a bit of a slow process through. Despite being able to so fluidly move through any social situation, you didn’t feed off of it, in fact it drained you being an introvert. You liked people, but you couldn’t stand to be with too many for too long. It was also a very slow process for you to open up. You were blunt and honest, like Kiibo himself, but you didn’t just freely share yourself, a sort of unspoken trust had to be built up before you’d go into more detail.

·       With Kiibo and you spending so much time with one another everyone just sort of assumed the pair of you just started dating. It also certainly didn’t help that Kiibo became a flustered, blushing mess when you were teased about it. “I mean, it only makes sense, ANYONE can see we’re crushing on each other.” “W-w-w-w-wait! Hold on a second! You, you know, and like me too!?” You smiled, leaning over and kissing his forehead. “What do you think?” Your smile only grew as you started to snicker seeing Kiibo’s blush grow.

[rpbetter]

I often see multis post that they want to make a new muse, at the same time as they're backed up on threads and asks, and they get their followers to "enable" them to make that muse in the post replies. What is your take on this? Is it a they-can-do-what-they-want situation, or is it reasonable to be annoyed when I see this? Or both?

Hey, Anon!

Both.

I mean, as usual, this is my opinion of an opinion-based matter. This isn't an equation that has an objectively right to wrong scale, it isn't actually hurting any living person or thing. But...it is incredibly annoying and can be hurtful.

They can totally do what they want, and much of the nature of genuine creativity is exactly that - the allowance of doing whatever you so desire. It's something I support rather adamantly, but it's also something I support trying our best to do responsibly and without being hurtful to anyone in a hobby that involves more than ourselves.

This isn't deciding to write another fic when you've not finished the previous four or five that others were interested in, or never finishing any of your original fiction, but continually starting new projects. While others might be enjoying those things as well, you didn't agree to interact with them. They're audience members, not participants.

When others are participants in a hobby that has to work both ways, it's different. Your actions do affect other, real human beings.

So, I totally feel like you've a right to be annoyed every time you see that happening. I do. I tend to unfollow people who do that repeatedly, as we're not pursuing the hobby in the same way. I'll argue all day that someone has a right to their, sometimes literally, eighty-plus muses they never develop or stick to, but that doesn't mean I want to engage with them as a writing partner.

For those of us who want long-term writing partners with the same, well-developed muses, this kind of thing just is annoying. As is everything else that comes with it.

As in...

They're constantly posting "talk me out of adding x" as code for "talk me into writing x."

No one actually wants to be talked out of it, which was probably more obvious to everyone else here than it was me for a little while lmao I tend to take things rather literally. This was, as one can imagine, not appreciated! Telling someone in total earnestness, "I really don't think that's a good choice. You're always saying how overwhelmed you are and just dropped multiple threads yesterday, so adding another muse is going to make you feel worse eventually. Don't do it! :)" is so not what they were looking for. As was evident by the return meltdown over how they could do what they wanted, like I said they couldn't or had any authority over what they're doing with their time.

It's an obnoxious bit of pandering for a foregone conclusion.

Have you ever seen anyone who posts that sort of thing not pick up that muse? I haven't. I've only seen muns who are legitimately on the fence about it asking others in private conversations or testing out the muse decide against it. The thing that makes this incredibly irritating is the attention-seeking and need to validate something they must know isn't a great choice, otherwise, they'd just do it. They're aware that they're behind on drafts, asks, and other things - aware that this is maybe a dick move when they owe everyone already. So, they're seeking "permission" with full knowledge that multiple mutuals are going to hop on that post with encouragement, even some of the ones being messed over by this choice.

It puts people in a bad situation.

Some of those people genuinely don't care, they just want to interact with any muse, and I'm going to be awful and say it - they don't care about totally interchangeable muses and have them themselves. That's fine, this isn't a problem for them. It is for the mutuals who are hoping that maybe if their writing partner gets into this new muse, they'll get a reply to their threads with that energy, or that they'll stick to this one and they can have consistent interactions with them. It is for the mutuals who feel pressured to respond positively because they fear not responding at all will make them seem like bad rpers.

One more thing playing into the counter logic excuse for shitty behavior of "it's just a hobby" is one more thing too many, and it does exactly that.

No one wants to be accused of being remotely too invested in RP anymore, of taking it too seriously, or having any emotional investment in muses, stories, or muns. Not accepting every choice someone makes that negatively impacts you with a grin on your face while you dump confetti on them for it just isn't a comfortable option for a lot of muns anymore. Honesty isn't a comfortable option. While the other option isn't either, it seems better than that mutual noticing you're the only writing partner who didn't hop onto that post with support any of the multiple times they reblogged it. It's only a hobby in which everyone can do what they want until what one wants clashes. Then, you're getting a callout for being addicted to RP.

And the way it tends to clash most is in having expectations of others. Ones that would be totally normal in any other hobby requiring interaction with other people.

Like not overburdening yourself at the expense not only of yourself but those on your "team." That's what is being done when someone knows they cannot keep up with themselves, but continues to add to the situation with new muses.

Not only are you no longer getting responses already while they're intending to add even more to their overflowing plate, you'll be dropped again when they have to "fresh start" their blog because they're burned out.

I have to put that in quotations because I don't know how it's a fresh start when you keep everything but the blog layout the same. All the muses and all the behaviors, including adding a new one despite not having the time or interest necessary to do so, is inevitably maintaining the problems that led to burnout. Dropping every thread, changing the URL, a new blog layout, new aesthetics, isn't fixing the issue even if it temporarily reinvigorates the mun.

The mun is definitely doing things that are not helpful to them, it's stressful and upsetting to experience burnout, but it's at least that mun's choice. Both to do it and to become defensive over fixing it, thus, never fixing it. It isn't anyone else's choice to be repeatedly dropped or ignored, though...unless they just keep sticking around for it.

Again, we're supposed to respect everyone's choices. That's fine when it really works that way, when it is truly everyone. But it's not an acceptable decision to see a multimuse of twenty or more muses and say that's your limit, that you've experienced too many muns who are serial muse-adders not being able to keep up with themselves, so you don't interact with these blogs. If one feels that way, they had better not put it in their rules or ever be upfront about this as a reason, when one is demanded, for not following back or interacting.

It's not acceptable to see a writing partner adding another muse after they've owed you for months, just wiped their inbox, and keep expressing being overwhelmed/behind and become annoyed. Let alone dropping them or explaining to them why you are doing so.

The only "acceptable" course of action is hoping that they totally forget you exist so you can quietly slip away.

I don't feel like that's especially fair or mature. It certainly isn't helping the communication problem we absolutely do have here in the RPC when only one party is allowed to communicate without fear of being labeled, rather ironically, as a bad RP partner.

While this problem seems to be most prevalent in more casual RPers, it's certainly not isolated there. I feel like it's necessary to say that I've had muns I both interacted with and were simply on my dash alike who were not on that more casual side who went from being multis to being muse collectors. Once they hit over fifteen of them or so, they stopped even bothering to try to refrain from picking up at least one muse from every new piece of media they consumed or were inspired by.

It was more annoying because they had been capable of writing truly unique characters they stuck to, and even if they were, with full and upfront admission before interaction, slower to respond, those responses were well worth any wait for the quality of writing and storytelling going on. That's so much worse than someone who was always at a lower skill level as a writer, didn't have a good grasp on characterization, and wasn't especially dedicated to anything. It's depressing and disappointing, but it's also not what you think you're getting into when trying to carefully pick who to write with. Like everyone else, my time to enjoy this hobby is far from twenty-four-seven as well. It's important to me to try to choose muns I'll work out with well so that neither of us is wasting the other's time. And that's what it feels like - the investment of time was a waste because their hobby became adding infinite muses, or rather, the idea of muses.

So, yes, while it is fully everyone's right to write what and how they want to (even if it amounts to not writing at all), it'd be nice if we were all as committed to doing so in a way that was adult enough to respect commitments we've made to each other as we are, as a RPC, to losing our minds when someone merely drops the words "commitments" or "respect."

For the inevitable muse-collectors running across this:

Fiction is inspiring! That doesn't mean you needn't be inspired by anything, just that picking up or creating a whole other muse might not be the best way to follow this inspiration.

If you're considering another muse, but you find yourself already behind and/or overwhelmed? Try one of these instead:

create a plot based on it! Write up the idea and put it in your wanted plots/wishlist tag. Bring it up to partners you think might be interested in it as well, or seek out a crossover from that fandom

make it a new verse for an existing muse! This is as close as you get to creating a new muse without actually doing so, and in many ways, it takes even more creativity. How is your muse different in this AU than they are in canon, how are they the same? In the ways that they are the same, what similar events but done in a way that is natural/logical to this universe have happened to maintain that? Get really creative!

for either/both of these, make some moodboards and aesthetics with that energy while you're waiting on someone to take you up on these new things. Answer some HC asks or tag games using your new verse, or write an independent HC for the verse or plot

talk to writing partners who already love that muse about their new verse/your desired plot! No, not pressuring talk, just normal conversation between friends, but maybe they will be interested in starting a thread

simply be inspired to include some aspect of what you liked in an existent thread. A particular scene you could pull ideas from, the overall mood of a film, or the way something was written in a book - include that in your replies somehow! RP is creative writing, be creative

There are so many, honestly more organic, directions to take inspiration than bluntly adding a new muse. Especially when you're already overburdened, not holding up your end of replies, and/or not able to portray each muse as their own character properly.

Sometimes, it's not just not a great idea to add a whole new muse, and that's alright. There seems to be a serious problem with fomo going on with this whole issue, too. You're not going to miss out if you do not immediately add this character to your multi, and you're never going to fully keep up with what is trending anyway. Do it because you still want to write this muse in four months instead, they're obviously not going anywhere if that's the case, and they'll be a better developed, interesting portrayal for that.

And people do have a right to be annoyed when they feel sidelined by you seeing a shiny object and repeatedly pandering for validation in dropping them for it. Particularly if you're a mun who, further, expects everyone to be just as interested in every new muse you make as the last. As in, you're annoyed when you keep creating muses no one is falling over themselves to interact with, guilting, shaming, or outright demanding that this new muse is interacted with before they have access to the previous ones.

They don't have a right to be mean you to, but they have a right to be annoyed and to drop you. They even have a right to politely decline explaining this to you if they feel unsafe, or to politely explain it to you before they move on.

Absolutely everyone's right to pursue RP and every facet of it as they so please, but no one else has to like what you're doing.

If this response grates on some of you out there? Consider the other options you have, how you might be making others feel, and that it's actually completely okay to tell yourself no. You won't perish if you tell yourself no to taking on a new muse when you, honestly, should not! It'll be okay! Maybe, you just need to evaluate if there is another muse, or more than one, you should remove before adding one. Maybe, you just need some time to reorganize how you reply before you add this one. "No" when told to yourself can simply mean "no, not right now, it isn't a good time/situation."

[melsie-sims]

This challenge was originally created by Melsie-Sims on January 11th, 2021. Please use the #Among Us Challenge tag to share your progress! This challenge is inspired by the Human Enough Challenge by the wonderful @squeamishsims​! It’s meant to be a longer challenge spanning at least two generations so buckle up! 

To take part you will need Get to Work installed, as your main character will be an alien sim. Other useful (but not mandatory) packs include: City Living, Parenthood, Strangerville and University. Your challenge can be as story-driven as you wish, or not at all. The rules definitely allow some creative freedom. 

In the Among Us Challenge, your alien sim starts out on an empty residential lot of your choosing. The general premise is that their rocket ship crashed on Earth and they are now stranded, without the ability to communicate with their home-world.

With their rocket ship completely destroyed, they must adapt to their strange new surroundings and blend in with the townies. No one can know there is an alien among them.

Create an Alien in CAS and make them a Young Adult.

Their human disguise can have as many outfits as you’d like. Your alien’s natural form is only allowed to wear the alien bodysuit from Get to Work. Please use it for every outfit category. If you have custom content for alien suits feel free to use them. 

You have the choice between five aspirations: Friend of the World, Renaissance Sim, Soulmate, Successful Lineage or The Curator. Choose wisely because you’ll have to complete the aspiration for the challenge!

You must have aging on, but feel free to play on either Normal or Long lifespan. You can even edit your lifespan using MCCC if you’d like.

Start off on an empty lot. You can choose one from any world, but please be aware that you cannot move lots for the duration of the challenge.

Go into build mode and purchase the rocket ship (Steampunk Flyamajig) for 5,000 simoleons. It’s the only item you’re allowed to start with.

Once you’ve done that, use the cheat “money 0”. Oh yes, it’s that kind of challenge. You’ll have to make money by any means possible... but no cheating!

Now you’re good to go! 

Your alien cannot start rebuilding their rocket ship until they have 10,000 simoleons, handiness level 5, logic level 3 and programming level 3. It might take a while so they better make themselves comfortable... They’re stuck on this planet, they have no way to communicate with Sixam and they don’t have the parts to fix their damaged ship. It isn’t ideal, but their only option is to try and make a life for themselves here until they can go home.

Your alien sim cannot wear their disguise and may only use mean interactions with other sims until they reach charisma level 3. They just crash landed on a strange planet. They don’t know anything about the inhabitants. They are confused and scared. They must figure out the language and culture of Sims before they can properly assimilate.

Your alien sim can only eat quick meals until they’ve reached either gardening level 2 or fishing level 2. The quick meals are meant to be dehydrated food packets native to Sixam, which your alien scavenged from their ship. They don’t know if the food on this planet will be harmful to them. They must do research to find out.

If another sim sees your alien without their disguise, you must either erase their memory... or kill them. It’s your choice which of the two options you pick. Regardless, your alien’s identity must remain safe at all costs.

Your sim may reveal their alien identity to another sim without any consequences once they’ve become Good Friends with them. Be careful, if the relationship bar goes down too much they may become a threat to your alien’s safety. If the relationship goes below the Good Friends range, your alien will have to eliminate them. They’ve known your alien’s secret for too long. Their memory can no longer be modified without doing serious psychological damage. 

Please note, the above rule is actually from SqueamishSims’ Human Enough Challenge. I just loved it too much not to include it here!

Your alien sim can travel to lots in their own world, but if they want to go somewhere else they will have to pay 50 simoleons per visit. They don’t have the means to travel around! They must purchase a bus ticket or pay someone for a lift if they want to travel to other worlds.

Your alien can change out of their space suit and wear regular clothes when they’ve made their first 1,000 simoleons and reached level 3 of logic. At this point, feel free to give your alien a makeover. You can change outfits whenever you want after that without any limitations.

Your alien cannot have walls or floors anywhere on their lot until they’ve reached handiness level 3 and paid a property tax fee of 5,000 simoleons. They can only have one room to start off with. Your alien is starting from nothing and building from the ground up. They don’t have access to a contractor and need to learn about sims architecture.

For every extra room (i.e. a bathroom or a bedroom) your sim must pay 1,000 simoleons. Please subtract from your household funds using the “money #” cheat. Home-owning is expensive! Your alien sim is learning that the hard way! 

Your alien cannot use romance interactions until they’re at charisma level 5 and they have three Good Friends. At this point, your alien sim is probably still under the impression that they’ll be flying back home very soon. They’re hesitant to pursue a relationship with a human if it isn’t meant to last... 

Your alien can also be part of clubs when they’ve reached charisma level 5 and made three Good Friends. At least one of those friends must be part of the club your alien wishes to create/join. These sims know your alien inside and out and would protect them with their lives. They’re good people to have around.

Your sim cannot have a proper job until they reach charisma level 6 as well as handiness level 3 and logic level 3. This includes part-time jobs, odd jobs and freelance gigs. If your alien hardly has any social skills, how are they supposed to know how the economy works?  

Your alien can only get engaged/married once they’ve reached charisma level 8, logic level 5, rocket science level 3 and have three separate rooms in their house (see above for the house-building rules). Your alien is beginning to realize this might be a bit more permanent than they originally thought. They’re finally allowing themselves to fall in love and imagine the possibility of settling down.

Bonus: If you have City Living, your alien must attend the Romance Festival to learn more about the odd social construct that is marriage.

Have your spouse join either the scientist, secret agent, tech guru, astronaut, politician or military career. They’ve made it their mission in life to protect your alien sim and help keep their secret safe from potential foes. However, the new job comes at a cost.

Your alien sim is now on the government’s radar. They have a chance of getting imprisoned by scientists or S.I.M.S. agents! If your alien sim encounters a scientist, secret agent, politician or military staff you must imprison them in a 4x6 cell on your lot. Inside you may place the cheapest toilet, refrigerator, single bed and sink. They must remain there until their spouse has paid 10,000 simoleons for your alien’s safe return... and murdered the abductor(s) responsible. As this particular rule is a bit more dramatic, it’s totally OPTIONAL!

Your alien sim has to have charisma level 9, rocket science level 5, parenting level 3 and cooking level 3 before they/their partner can become pregnant. They must also have a proper kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom and nursery/toddler room. They must be on level 3 of their chosen career. Making a baby is the easy part. Being a parent is hard work, and your alien sim needs to be prepared!

If you have risky woohoo enabled and your alien and/or their partner becomes pregnant before meeting the requirements, please deduct 5,000 simoleons from your household funds. If you don’t have enough, sell items in your home until you’ve paid off your debt. Welcome to parenthood!

At least one child must be conceived in the rocket ship. You can’t have a challenge focusing on aliens without some rocket ship woohoo! Come on now!

Have your alien return to Sixam with their offspring, but only for a visit. They’ve spent such a long time on another planet and have built so many good relationships. They’ve decided they want to stay. 

Note: Your alien may have to return to Sixam a few times to obtain collectibles as those are part of the challenge.

To complete the challenge, one of your alien’s children must be a Young Adult. You can age up your toddlers when all of their skills are at level 3. You can age up your children and teens when they have an A in school.

Bonus: Send one of your alien sim’s children to university so that they can get a proper human education. It’s not actually part of the challenge. You’ll just have bragging rights. 

You can use reward potions and traits, including the Potion of Youth. You can use lot traits. Once you’ve unlocked the ability to join clubs, you can benefit from their bonuses. Is the challenge too hard? Are you struggling? Hahaha good!

Have fun! Feel free to @ me if you’re posting this challenge on Tumblr or making a YouTube series, I’d love to see it! You can follow me on Twitter or support me on Ko-Fi if you’d like. No pressure!

You’ve completed the challenge when...

Your alien has maxed out three different skills. One of them must be rocket science.

Your alien has at least 5 Good Friends, not including their children. Their spouse does count toward the total! Pets do not count!

They’ve completed their aspiration.

They’ve “repaired” their rocket ship.

They’ve been married and had offspring. At least one child must be conceived in the rocket ship.

They have a home worth 60,000 simoleons.

They have a top secret alien lab in their basement.

In the alien lab you must have at least one fang flower, one glow orb, one quill fruit, one unidentified fruit object, one blutonium, one solarium, one crandestine and one nitelite.

One of the children of your alien has grown into a young adult and visited Sixam to learn about their parent’s world.

If your alien passes away before completing all of the objectives, it’s up to their offspring to complete the rest of the challenge. 

[midnightactual]

Yoruichi and Co. & Kaien (Part 1)

It’s an established fact that Yoruichi grew up alongside Kisuke and Tessai in the Shihōin Manor when they were all kids. She and Kisuke entered the Onmitsukidō and Gotei 13 at roughly the same time. She became friends with Kūkaku sometime very early on as well. (This is unsurprising given the interactions of the Five Great Noble Clans: she visited the Kuchiki, thus meeting Byakuya, and Byakuya had a lot of interactions with Kaien, which you wouldn’t expect to occur on the job; you can infer she was around the Shiba a lot as well.) Kūkaku also clearly had a lot of interactions with Kisuke to trust him implicitly..

The exact nature of the history of those four would require its own post to speculate on. What we’re here to do today is to see how they were influenced by Kaien. For Kūkaku that’s obvious: he was her older brother. But I think it’s very clear that he had quite the effect on Yoruichi and Kisuke (and by proxy Tessai) as well... one that fundamentally shaped the plot going forward.

I’ve previously conjectured that the entirety of Bleach pre-timeskip, revolving around combating Aizen, was not so much the story of Aizen and Kisuke as it was the story of the maneuverings of the Hōgyoku. I stand by that. However, I would also suggest that if there was an opposite to Aizen in that time period, it wasn’t Kisuke...

... It was Kaien.

You could easily say that what the Urahara Shōten does, it does in the name of the example set by Kaien. They are, if anything, his disciples. And what they engage in with regard to Rukia and Ichigo (and other matters) only truly makes sense in my estimation when viewed from that perspective. In many ways, you might say that their efforts to build up Ichigo and Rukia are a direct effort to reconstitute Kaien.

A bold claim, but what evidence is there for this? Well, buckle up, because it’s a long ride...

Yoruichi & Kaien

In chapter 62, Yoruichi is starting to train Chad and Orihime. She says:

Cut to chapter 268, where Rukia is reflecting on Kaien during the Aaroniero fight:

Going back to Yoruichi in chapters 62 and 70:

I personally think that this congruence in philosophy is too exacting to be dismissed as mere coincidence, whether it’s the focusing on protecting or on ‘the heart’. While protecting might be the dogma of the Gotei 13, the emphasis on ‘the heart’ is Kaien’s alone. Where did Yoruichi get it from? Given she was good friends with Kūkaku, and the Princess and later Clan Head of the Shihōin, the obvious answer is... from Kaien, the Clan Head of the Shiba. Yoruichi has most likely adopted and internalized Kaien’s ethos. 

Doesn’t Kaien seem oddly practiced at this speech too, when he gives it to Rukia? Almost like he’s done it before... You can thus imagine a much younger and vulnerable Yoruichi getting more or less the same speech as Rukia did. (In my own personal headcanons, this would be part of what grounded Yoruichi against the influence of her father. I think it also fits neatly into @saranel​‘s thoughts on Yoruichi at one time having confidence issues, as she notes here and here, but that too should probably be its own post.) 

Okay, so let’s take it for granted that Yoruichi knew Kaien and was personally greatly influenced by him. What sort of knock-on effects does this have?

Ichigo & Kaien 1

Well, let’s go to Ichigo for a moment. We know that others see Kaien in Ichigo. Byakuya (and Rukia) do in chapter 56, in the fight in Karakura:

 Rukia does in chapter 117 on the Senzaikyū bridge : 

Immediately thereafter Jūshirō (and Byakuya) do too, also in chapter 117:

And, most concretely, Byakuya does in chapter 167, but we’ll come back to that later because it’s rather important for other reasons.

Yoruichi & Ichigo, Rukia, and Jūshirō

Instead, let’s focus on chapter 117 (and 118) for a moment. Who else shows up there right as everyone is suddenly thinking of Kaien? Yoruichi. And she is none too happy:

She is cold, calm, and on a mission, which is very unlike her demeanor throughout the rest of the Soul Society arc, whether it be before this (more on that in a bit) or later when she’s training Ichigo and fighting Soifon (where she is much more emotive). We see it come to an end once she’s successfully knocked Ichigo out:

She still looks resolved, but there’s a different kind of determination in her eyes... like she’s crossed a threshold. Until she hears Jūshirō. And then her expression becomes rather different again: almost wistful or sad? Why? Because, as Kaien told us earlier, and as Jūshirō told us himself in chapter 135:

@saranel, in her post PSA: Urahara Kisuke and Shihōin Yoruichi are NOT nice people, notes that:

Ichigo expressly told her he doesn’t want the help, but Yoruichi knows the fool is about to die a painful death, so she drugs him, violently incapacitates him and carries him away, despite his wishes. There were also a million different things Yoruichi could’ve done here, but as she herself explains to Ichigo later, none of the rest were real options, so damn his pride.

One of the (lesser) reasons I believe people never took offense to this scene, but did in Kisuke and Yoruichi’s case, is that Yoruichi has a mentor/student relationship with Ichigo.  And I get that, but let me remind you that calling each other out on their bullshit is a cornerstone of Kisuke and Yoruichi’s dynamic:

True friends don’t shy away from calling their friends out when they’re being idiots. And when they’re about to make massive, life-threatening mistakes, then you can damn well bet consent flies out the window. Especially when it comes to war; don’t forget that Kisuke and Yoruichi are soldiers.

Bold emphasis is mine. Yoruichi does on the Senzaikyū bridge to Ichigo what Rukia will later wish she’d done in Metastacia’s lair to Kaien: she saves him from his own pride. Rukia, previously in chapter 135, had declared to Jūshirō:

And as that post intones, Yoruichi doesn’t just advance the same argument as Rukia, she acts on it, as she goes on to explain in chapter 120:

Yoruichi’s look to Jūshirō on the Senzaikyū bridge signifies exactly two things, in my estimation: 1. “Your philosophy was wrong,” and 2. “I’m not letting another Shiba die for no good goddamn reason.” The fact that she seems to be calling him just “Ukitake,” and not “Ukitake-senpai,” or “Ukitake-san,” or “Jūshirō,” as well as the way she describes him to Ichigo, also seems significant to me: she does not hold him as especially close, or with all that much respect given his age and station, and their past history, presumably exactly because she still holds him somewhat responsible for Kaien’s death. We’ll come back to Jūshirō later, however.

Ichigo & Kaien 2

Would you believe me if I told you that Rukia, Byakuya, and Jūshirō weren’t the only people to recognize Ichigo’s similarities with Kaien? Let’s start with Yoruichi, since her narrative feeds directly into the points just addressed. But first we have to rewind a little. When the Ryoka are leaving for Soul Society, in chapter 70, just after her reminder about heart, Yoruichi gets a small monologue:

There’s a lot to unpack here. First, Yoruichi’s words of “Do not stop. Do not look back. Do not think of those you are leaving behind. Just... go forward. Those who can do that, follow me,” tell you that she is capable of doing exactly that, and that should be read as a guide for understanding her departure from the Urahara Shōten for a long time: she was on a mission to go forward in her own way (but that’s a topic for a different post).

Second, notice Ichigo is the one who first steps forward (quite far forward, although they all clearly move around and advance in his wake). This isn’t surprising, but notice that Yoruichi focuses in on and addresses him specifically. This won’t be the last time this happens. That he speaks for all of them makes him the leader, and unsurprisingly Yoruichi goes to him after his fight with Kenpachi to retrieve him in particular. He is already, as of this moment, special within her consideration.

So, to return to just before the events on the Senzaikyū bridge, in chapter 116:

Byakuya’s reiatsu flares when he uses his shikai on Ganju. Notice how pissed Yoruichi looks at it. But once Ichigo explains himself, her expression completely transforms. This is a look of recognition and it is, I think, Yoruichi seeing two things: 1. Seeing Kaien in Ichigo’s behavior, and 2. seeing herself in Ichigo’s behavior. This was exactly the logic she used when rescuing Kisuke and Tessai (and the future Vizard) a hundred years earlier. Ichigo is living up to her model, which we already established was founded on Kaien’s. The moment is short-lived as:

She runs after him and shows off one of the most frustrated and annoyed expressions she has in the manga, because she knows he’s running off to his doom and they’ll lose yet another Shiba for no good reason. This is why she shows up at the Senzaikyū bridge acting like a cold killer: because she’s on a mission to save his dumb ass after she’s truly recognized him as being Kaien-esque.

Kūkaku’s recognition of Ichigo is similar to that of Jūshirō, and occurs in chapter 78:

That we have a sudden close-up of her eye, and then a panel focused in on Ichigo even as she says “these kids,” tells you that she’s looking at him in particular. This isn’t a coincidence. The resemblance hasn’t escaped her, and she likely knew from the moment they’d entered that room.

Kisuke’s recognition of Ichigo is a little harder to pin down, given he knows exactly what’s going on with Isshin, but I think that we see it during the battle alongside Don Kanonji at the abandoned hospital, in chapters 30 and 31:

Ichigo and Don Kanonji are confronting the Hollow in front of the crowd that’s there to watch the filming, putting everyone in danger; Ichigo then hauls Don Kanonji (who’s refusing to retreat) into the hospital, drawing the Hollow away from everyone else and minimizing the number of people at risk. Kisuke isn’t surprised by this action, and seems to have entirely expected it... as though it reminds him of someone.

And finally, we come back to Byakuya in chapter 167:

Not only does Byakuya compare Ichigo to Kaien here, he seems to imply that Kaien has bested him in combat before. That Byakuya makes special note of the duties of the Four Great Noble Clans to provide an “example” for all Shinigami is probably itself a continuing dig at the Shiba, the demoted Fifth Great Noble Clan, who did not do such a thing, in his estimation (thus his animosity toward Ganju, a Shiba, on the Senzaikyū bridge).

But he also tells us that Ichigo, like Kaien, had made an enemy out of “the laws of Soul Society.” Do you know of any other member of the Four Great Noble Clans who not only didn’t uphold the law of Soul Society, but made an enemy of the laws themselves? I do: Yoruichi Shihōin! We see, yet again, the parallelism established not just between Ichigo & Kaien, and Yoruichi & Ichigo, but Yoruichi & Kaien as well.

Jūshirō & Kaien, Yoruichi, Ichigo, and Rukia

To return to Jūshirō, he will, fairly soon after the incident on the Senzaikyū bridge, confront Byakuya over Rukia’s execution date being moved up,in chapter 134. Byakuya will taunt him, leaving him fuming:

Do you think that Jūshirō’s remembrance of Kaien here is based purely upon having seen Ichigo? I don’t. I think it was partially if not largely based upon having seen what Yoruichi did with Ichigo. I think it was seeing Yoruichi’s example of, in Ichigo’s later words to Byakuya, “fight[ing] the law,” in Kaien’s image, which put this thought in his head. (Especially as, at this time, no one knew of Ichigo’s shared lineage with Kaien.)

And when Jūshirō decides to fight the law himself (along with Shunsui) after his request to Central 46 (being run by Aizen) is turned down, what does he somehow have in his possession in chapter 149?

A Shihōin artifact. Isn’t that curious? How do you suppose he got hold of such a thing? Do you imagine it just randomly happened to be in his possession? That’d be a very fortuitous coincidence. I don’t believe in it after everything else that’s been pointed out.

(This is an aside, but isn’t the timing of Jūshirō’s plan to use Fullbringers and Ginjō in particular kind of odd? It only happened some 20 or so years at most before the start of the series. He and the Gotei 13 has been around for at least 2,000 years, and this is the first time it occurred to him? Isn’t it suspicious... that it came so comparatively soon after Kaien’s death, and that the plan seems to have rather resembled that of Sōken Ishida?)

...

But I’ve hit the image limit, so read on for Part 2!