#and they're just there... because. no particular reason for it

[discoursedumpster]

Ok, so wait.

We have literally hundreds of fundraisers going around, often getting thousands of dollars in donations and tens of thousands of notes here.

I've personally seen many fundraisers that said they were vetted by el-shab-hussein or 90s-ghost or were on the list of vetted fundraisers, BUT which nevertheless had completely contradictory statements in their own blog posts and their fundraisers. Just for starters.

On one hand, above, we have

* obvious pornbot behavior from a supposedly vetted blog

* an explanation of how easy it would be for a scammer to get through the ways this one was supposedly vetted (and seriously, naming a place someone could be displaced to in Gaza is not a high bar, that's basic news headlines stuff)

* not to mention a statement about obvious harassment of anyone that says any of these fundraisers are fake.

There are also more reasons to disbelieve this one in the notes, e.g. that that blog used to be a porn blog, which is consistent with sending pornbot asks like these.

And on the other hand, we have

* the claim that people's scrutiny isn't because there are literally hundreds of similar fundraisers going around, it's because they're Palestinian

* and the claim that this particular thread is part of a hate/harassment campaign against Palestinian bloggers.

Just... Giving people some kind of evidence ought to be a bare minimum courtesy for a claim like "don't believe anything this person is saying." I mean, even el-shab-hussein did that.

Link

This is a well-known Palestinian user and vetter explaining that they are completely confident that the pornbotlike ask sent by an account with a verified fundraiser was a result of "embarrassing behavior/a mistake in online interactions."

This would be more plausible if it was a one time occurrence, but this blog sent the exact same ask to (at minimum) three separate accounts:

Link

Link

Link

These asks are all identical, to the letter - that's how I found them. This is, needless to say, very strange for any person to do on tumblr, least of all someone who is raising money to try and protect their family from a genocide. glitzyboo, for example, does not post images of themselves or reblog anything remotely close to NSFW, so it's very very odd behavior for someone to tell them they are "pretty enough" for anything. It is even more suspicious when you consider the very long history of porn bots sending sugar daddy scam asks on this site.

I don't know what is going wrong here - who is mistaken about what, what part of the process is breaking down, but the story told in the above post, that this was an embarrassing social faux pas that happened one time and was sent by a real person who was horny, does not hold up to scrutiny.

[thessaralka]

DAI, DA2, DAO are flawed masterpieces but they all thematically feel deeply similar.

veilguard dookied all over the dark spiritual/ moral/ religious themes of DA by erasing slavery, the bigotry of and towards the elves (dalish in particular), sidelining andrastianism, ignoring the dwarves apart from harding's questline, and HR-ifying the writing.

where was slavery in tevinter, the literal slave capital of thedas, apart from the existence off the shadow dragons (who must be doing a really good job btw bc slavery and the impact of it is basically not a thing), and in scenes w venatori where they're using slaves as benches in this weirdly-comical-dismissive way?

where was the nuance and moral greyness in how some people sell themselves into slavery or join the qun to escape poverty and lives that would otherwise be a lot less structured and even comfortable, and the cognitive dissonance that fact gives us? where was the "slaves are illiterate so they communicate with symbols" underground slave rebellion?

the most we get of solas and his thousands-of-years-long slave-freeing mission is a comment from neve about the chains in his hideout, we see nothing about how fen'harel freed slaves as basically a lifelong purpose of his, and how many of those freed-people dedicated their lives to that mission, joining him in his cause. solas would have had other people helping him out with this, he would have had a structured slave-freeing organization, he probably would still be using the lighthouse for this, but the most we get is "crusty wifeless bachelor pad" solas all alone. did he tell everyone to fuck off, like what happened there? why was solas soooooo alone, when he literally had cultists in trespasser and logically would have EVEN MORE cultists now? i understand he's mentally and emotionally alone, but an ancient elven god who has built a slave-freeing operation he would not be so physically alone, he'd have tons of people obsessed w his mission.

making the only dalish we encounter these veil jumpers that we have no connection or care for unless we read some books is lazy, and these dalish don't seem to care that their thousands-of-years-old faith that their entire culture is founded on is being demolished before their eyes, the DREAD FUCKING WOLF is back (one of their literal gods, and he's been back for like 12 years and many of them have joined him - where are thooooose dalish?), the dalish in VG are perfectly fine working with humans (the very ones who exalted-marched all over them, humans that rape and pillage them, humans that oppress and subjugate them, humans the dalish have canonically hunted down and killed - just for being human - in past games). the dalish are canonically shitty people who are also massively subjugated, are victims of their own hubris, victims of a war they started and lost and never got over, victims of their own bigotry, victims of their own misinterpreted and forgotten lore. while they have a right to be victims, it's never talked about how fucking revolutionary it is if any dalish/ elven hero of the past games (warden or inquisitor) was able to overcome the biases of their culture and heal, and work together with humans (inquisition did this really well for Dalish Inquisitors btw). the dalish being as forgiving and open as the veil jumpers are should be a bigger deal and have a major story reason behind it because healing thousands of years of trauma in a decade is impressive (fake).

[astronicht]

I love the very subtle but important presences of bez and pecco in tavullia radio!! and also everything else about it obviously. would love to know if you had any more thoughts about like what they're doing thinking seeing feeling! the image of pecco running into freshly fucked and sucked marc at the espresso machine he can't use and making him a tiny coffee enchants and delights me. in my mind he is suffering horrors. thank you for such a perfect fic!!

thank you Leah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 <3 So in my head etc Pecco and Marc are already technically or already have been teammates. I was thinking as I wrote it "is this next month? or is this december after the 2025 season?" haha. Either way Pecco is like. In a phase of life where he has decided that he is professionally obligated to have some form of rapport with Marc. And if they've been working together for a bit, they awkwardly kind of already DO, just not. NOT in this setting. Always on neutral Ducati ground. THIS scenario (freshly fucked and sucked marc at vale's ranch, in pecco's friendly ranch kitchen, where he was NOT expecting visitors) is NOT part of this carefully polite professional rapport. Unlike the rest of the guys Pecco can't just grunt and shuffle past (he totally could have; Marc did not want to talk to anyone). He's forcing himself to try to be normal and thus extending everyone's suffering lol. They don't even dislike each other. This somehow makes it all worse.

Pecco made Marc a Turkish coffee instead of just getting out one of the 3-5 mokas kicking around because he has gotten into foodie youtube and Turkish coffee came up, and he carefully bought the correct little cup to boil it in and the correct finely ground coffee and he has like, watched videos on how to get the foam right. Very much your friend who gets really into foodie youtube and is suddenly making what you think of as simple staple dishes with all the right utensils and the correct dipping sauce that no one in ur family ever bothered with. He actually had come in to make a coffee for himself before practice (i think he's considering doing a little mentoring? which never interested him much. Marc appears in moments of Pecco identity or professional crisis, in this universe) so you have to picture Pecco out there somewhere with a little cup of Turkish coffee and haunted eyes, wondering if he can drink it.

Marc actually wanted tea, or to have the balls to wander around the ranch in boxer briefs and a t-shirt smelling violently like sex, but he saw the giant fuck-off luxury espresso machine and was like. the look of it annoyed him so he was definitely going to force it to work or just break it. a little bit his instinct to push at vale a little, to try to figure out where the lines are, or to know for sure that vale isn't going to snap over something normal again.

So that was the mood and then pecco came in and was like oh god. oh god he's going to touch the espresso machine and we'll have to have it repaired again. oh god we won't be able to tell vale that marc did it and we'll have to blame celestino again. Just polite Pecco voice being sooo normal like Hi Marc Would You Like A Coffee :) [intense suffering]. He is overcompensating and being as normal as possible bc marc looks fucked ouuuuut and also is doing the terrifying dead fish eyes and slight grin he does when in extreme physical pain and forced to converse, bc he's dissasociating and also does not care enough to make nice expressions for pecco. (Vale used to fuck himself to sleep despite insomnia -- like he just did -- all the time when Marc was 22 and the memory is a bit much.)

Bez meanwhile is having a total gay... crisis isn't the right word. ring of keys dot mp3. the particular egg-cracking feeling of seeing something you didn't know you desperately wanted until you want it violently and think you're gonna cry for no reason. seeing it is both horrifying (for the same reasons pecco is horrified; marc is fucking motorcycle dad) and makes him want so much it fills his mouth with spit, and that scale of desire is weird and confusing and almost a high. but also he LIKES having a grudge against Marc. It's comforting. It's so awful to be jealous of him, while also realizing he's not jealous that Marc is fucking Vale, because in the end Bez is also being forced to realize that he doesn't exactly want to fuck Vale (well, it's complex, but he doesn't want to fuck Vale like Marc wants to fuck Vale and thus Marc even managed to get a win over Bez by being gay in the way Bez would've liked to have been gay).

Anyway!! Bez got wronged in this fic, I don't want to assign him "italian son with sisters who never learned to make coffee". But i did do that. Also he feels twitchy and guilty about the falsely attributed coffee thing for days. Probably vents to Celestino, who is like "why are you talking about coffee bez i am at the club. did i break the espresso machine again bez?? i can't hear u maybe there's better signal on the roof [call dropped as cele's phone dies and isnt' charged for 3 days]"

[localcryptidsteg]

Remember your protest/"enthusiastic" protest etiquette, in no particular order:

-If you MUST have a phone or other smart device, stick it in a faraday bag. Do not remove it from the bag until you are WELL away from the protest area.

-Program your emergency contacts into your phone and write them on a note beforehand, along with any allergies or medical conditions you may have should it become necessary. Make sure it is kept in a safe place on your person at all times

-Bring clean, filtered water with you, or milk in a cooler. You will need it if pepperspray/mace is brought out. If they pull out the skunk, youre fucked. Best bet is to throw any cannisters back the way they came. If you DO get skunked find a chemist buddy. We actually dont have a solid formula to break it down because we dont know its exact chemical makeup, but that can be solved if we get enough mad scientist buddies on it.

-DO NOT damage small businesses. They are not your enemy, they are not your target.

-If you are recording events for posterity make sure you are using a camera that has no wifi capabilities. No phones, as Ive already stressed, but also nothing else that can record location data or connect to wifi. Avoid filming anyone whose face is uncovered. Do not post ANYTHING you film online, spread it analog.

-COVER YOUR DAMN FACE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. Wear bulky clothing and oversized shoes, keep tattoos and other identifying features covered, wear gloves (no leather, those carry a print. Thick suede is fine). If you were there, no the fuck you werent.

-Keep. Your mouth. Shut. If anyone you do not trust completely or was not with you at the protest asks about the protest, you were not there. If law enforcement asks about ANYTHING, tangentially related or otherwise, you are not speaking without legal counsel present. If you went with anyone, no you didn't, because you didnt go. If you saw someone there you knew, no you didn't, because you weren't there in the first place.

-If someone gets sprayed or injured, circle up around them to protect them while your designated medic takes care of it. Do not allow breaches of the protective circle. Moshpit rules apply fully to this but in reverse: if someone tries to get in, you shove them back for all you're worth. If that doesn't stop them, punch. Aim for the face, solar plexus, or sternum.

-If you MUST bring a self defense item: nothing lethal, nothing you cant hide easily on your person, and for fucks sake no mace. Mace/pepperspray is instant aoe friendly fire if you dont have the proper protective covering

-Maybe invest in some kevlar. Most protests shouldnt require it, but you never know. Military-grade plate carriers are also widely and easily available for the average schmuck, go find your local military surplus/consignment store and pay in cash. Failing any of that.... airsoft gear is better than nothing, phonebooks are better than airsoft gear. Im not kidding, btw. Stack two layers of phonebooks and strap them together into some kinda fucked up shield and theyll stop pretty much any caliber a cop is cleared to carry.

-Speaking of shields! You're gonna love this, riot shield are VERY easy to acquire, usually from the stores I just mentioned. Get one. You know you want one.

Stick together. Do not leave the crowd, no matter what. If cops start harrassing people, ignore them as much as possible. If cops start attacking people, get the fuck out of dodge CALMLY. Do not run, do not shove other protestors, and DO NOT break from the group until you're away from the fuzz.

IF A COP GRABS YOU: Do not resist, do not fight. Know your states laws about what is mandatory to answer for a cop and what is not. ONLY answer if silence would catch you another charge. Outside of that you shut the fuck up until your attorney is present. Police are not trained to protect your rights, they're trained to weasel around them in every way possible. The BEST way to combat this is to say nothing.

If, for some reason, you are arrested: Let your lawyer talk for you. Be VERY explicit in asking for a lawyer. "I am invoking my right to a lawyer. I will not answer further questions without my lawyer present." That is your script. If they keep pressing, just keep repeating that line. Detectives will try pretty much anything they can to get you to keep talking or go back on your request for a lawyer. DO NOT answer them.

If you are merely detained: Be compliant, but again, shut the fuck up. Only give the information you are required to give.

On a more lighthearted note: Make sure you're dressing appropriately for the weather (rain gear/snow gear/sun umbrellas) and wear comfy shoes! Protests involve a lot of walking and standing around. Bring at least one case of water with you on top of your emergency bottle to stay hydrated. Take a folding chair so you can sit if you get sick of standing. Bring a blanket and some snacks, have a picnic at the protest, wear a full costume to obscure your identity, go nuts and have fun with it!

Kindly take a break from scrolling to read this, it's important.

Take your time to grieve and come to terms with the election results, but once you've done that, it's time to get to work. We have two months. And a lot to do in that time. We have to prepare, to be ready.

Be careful about what you post or say online. Anything potentially incriminating should be avoided. Threatening language, even if clearly a joke, can be used against you.

Know someone who's trans? Someone who's had an abortion? Someone who's LGBTQIA+? Someone who's an immigrant? Someone who attends protests? Someone who's disabled? Someone who might in any way be at risk due to laws being put into place? No you don't.

Move away from social media platforms and browsers that require you to use your real identity or input a large amount of personal information. Now's a good time to find alternate means of communicating online. Tails, Element, Tor, Mastodon, Firefox, and Lemmy are all decent options.

Find a community. Someone you can talk to, either online or in real life, that you'll have reliable contact with. We need to try and create a network, but one that's as anonymous as possible.

Start scrubbing your trail as much as possible. Get rid of old accounts that can still be traced to you but are no longer used, delete personal data off the internet. There are websites out there that will freely remove your data from the internet, but be careful about which one you use, make sure it's safe and legitimate first.

Change any usernames that you can that contain any personal information. Names, birthdays, anything.

Plan B has a four year shelf life. Stock up, but don't take more than you you'll need. We don't want a COVID repeat where everyone buys an excessive amount of things and leaves none for everybody else.

There are doctors that will sterilize you, if that's the way you want to go.

Stop using online period trackers right now. Delete all data from it if possible first, then delete the app itself. If you must, write it down, but in a subtle manner and on something you keep at home. Don't label it, just put the dates. If you're really worried, discard older records and only keep the most recent few, and label the dates as other random events, like "go to mall" or "chicken salad for dinner this night"

Get your vaccines now.

Save money.

Archive. We have to start collecting records, media, data, books, and articles now. On racism, on fascism, on homophobia, on gender, on self-reliance, on survival, on safe travels routes, on equality, on justice, on anything that may be useful and/or censored soon. We can't let them erase it.

Collect those online resources. Bookmark them, copy files into your storage, Screenshot pages. Create a decentralized library where everyone is working to be part of a whole, storing what they can individually and sharing it between one another. Again, be careful about doing this.

Second-hand bookstores are your best friend. Books are usually very cheap in them, and they often have a decent stock. See what you can find.

When buying ANYTHING I have mentioned above, or anything else that maybe put you in danger, try to use cash to reduce your spending trail.

Check your car information online, many newer models can be remotely tracked.

Turn your phone completely off if you may be at risk due to your location and current activities. Turning off your GPS also helps.

Take note of where you are. Who are your friends? Who's a safe person? Where can you go besides your own home that you know you'll be safe? Establish these connections now.

Who around you is not safe? Who and where do you need to avoid? Do you need to move? If you cannot afford moving but need to, there are fundraisers that can help you. If even that is not an option, at least try to make sure your home is secure. Have someone who can help you. Have a fallback safe place.

And finally, I want anyone with resources to put them in the replies. Flood it with useful links, information, tips, anything. We're in this together. Do not panic. Organize.

EDIT: Please be civil in the replies.

[thewistlingbadger]

I noticed the season 2 is AGGRESSIVELY less political than Season 1. So I'm going to examine the ideologies of three zaunites in order to explore this.

Vander: Vander was the first leader of The Undercity and he was given a special focus in season two, so let's look at his ideology. In the beginning, when Vander was a young man, he believed in the idea of The Undercity being it's own independent nation separate from Piltover. We worked alongside Silco to accomplish this goal, as they shared the exact same vision. The two men spent many years of their lives trying to make this happen. However, on one particular night, one of their demonstrations went south. Enforcers came and killed tons of Zaunites who were protesting on the bridge. One of the people lost on the bridge was Felicia, Vander's best friend. He had known her for years and had been around her children as they were growing up, those same kids who were on the bridge that night. From this point on, Vander's entire viewpoint and ideology completely changes on this night. From this point on, Vander abandons the idea of independency in its entirety. He never tries to pursue it again or even make any major changes to Zaun. He actively discourages people from trying to pursue a "better Zaun" because in his opinion, it's not worth the risk of losing people. As a leader, Vander's goal is to maintain the status quo. Nothing he does actively disrupts Piltover's view on Zaun, everything he does plays into that view. Under Vander, nothing changes in Zaun. They're still poor, they're still oppressed. Vander's biggest value is community and protecting everyone, values that are stitched into the fabric of Zaun. In the flashback we see of young Vander and Silco, we see that the last drop is more or less the exact same as it is in act 1 s1. According to Silco's dialogue in season 1 with chem barons, Zaun has always understood the importance of community. He tells them that before Zaun was anything of substance, the only thing that go them by was their loyalty to each other. So even Vander's importance of community isn't unique to him, it was just something he kept fostering that was already commonplace. Vander thinks that if things just stay the same, if they just stick together and keep their heads down, they'll be ok. That is how he leads. He's willing to do anything to keep the makeshift peace between zaun and piltover, and it's not even real peace. It's more akin to mutual tolerance. He has a deal with the enforcers to keep them away, but it's clear that in that deal, Piltover is the one in charge. And when Vander can't offer up his own people, Piltover breaks that deal and sends enforcers to the lanes.

Viktor: Although Viktor was born a zaunite, we mostly saw him in piltover in season 1. However, he's given a special focus in season 2. He spends the season in Zaun and we see how his presence is impacting The Undercity. With his new powers given by the hexcore, he "heals" the zaunites that have the worse afflictions, whether they be disabilities or addictions. He ends up forming a utopia-like community within Zaun, one where everyone is happy and they're self sufficient. This kind of community does challenge Piltover's view of Zaun. In the commune, there is no danger, no dirt, no suffering. Everyone works together, everyone is peaceful, everyone seems happy. This commune doesn't rely on Piltover for anything, they're relying entirely on Viktor on literally every front. However, this commune isn't Zaun. It's a selective place. Viktor isn't making sure all of Zaun has this community, he's only attracting the worst of the worst in a way. He doesn't care about healing zaun, he cares about healing humanity. In Viktor's mind, society would be better if there was no individuality. If everyone was the exact same, then there would be no prejudice, no reason to suffer, etc. Viktor doesn't actually care about fixing the system or even challenging it. He cares about The Glorious Evolution, a world where everyone is equal in every way. But his evolution wouldn't actually fix problems, it would just mask them.

Silco: Silco had no special focus in season two, but he was a significant character in season 1. As a young man, he dreamed of The Nation of Zaun, a world where The Undercity and its citizen are free from Piltover's influence and prejudice. He works with Vander to achieve this goal. However, on one particular night, one of their demonstrations failed. Violence sparked on bridge, and tons of Zaunies who were protesting on the bridge were killed by enforcers . One of the people that died was Felicia, Silco's best friend. Felicia was the one that encouraged Silco and Vander to pursue The Nation of Zaun. She told them that it was worth fighting tooth and nail for not only for them, but for future generations. Felicia's death was a major loss, but it was also a major inspiration. We can draw this conclusion based off some of the things he said in season 1.

"We came from a world were there was never enough to go around, that is why we fight." "You're too young to remember what the undercity was like before it became an 'enterprise'. We had nothing. You know what bore us through those times? Loyalty. Brothers and sisters back to back against whatever the world threw at us. Now I'm forced to share the air with people like you, who leech off their legacies."

Silco was not deterred by the bridge's failure, and he never gave up on the idea of an independent undercity. Even after Vander brayed him and refused to fight, even when he was cast out by Zaunite society. He kept working on his dream. He spent years of planning to make it a reality, until his opportunity came. Everything Silco does directly contradicts Piltover's view of The Undercity. Under Silco, Zaun managed to gain a bit of wealth, industries were established. We can see that overall, Zaun society advanced while Silco was in charge. Silco doesn't operate like a protector like Vander did, or like a messiah like Viktor does. He operates like a politician, because his goal is a free Zaun. Silco is the worst person out of the three men, but he's also the most political and he's the one that combats Piltover's idea of Zaun the most. He was also the most successful out of the three. When Vander died, his community fell apart. Their loyalty was gone and they all suffered. Viktor ends up being defeated in season 2. Silco managed to actually get an offer of independence while he was alive, and when he died, the council voted YES to Zaun independence.

Things do fall apart once Silco dies, but that's because everything was designed around one man and one goal. Silco was the one holding everything together, which is why everything falls apart in the undercity once he's gone. The most devastating thing about his loss, is that his ideas died with him. We don't see a single person speak of Zaunite independence in season 2. The zaunites in season 2 are just fighting against piltover, they're not fighting for independence, The people of zaun have NO IDEA that Silco actually did manage to get them independence. The fact that Sevika gets a council seat at the end of season two means that Zaun is STILL not it's own nation. It's STILL a state of Piltover.

The Nation of Zaun died with Silco.

I'm not sure why season 2 stays away from politics when season 1 was ALL politics- whether it was from Silco or the council. Maybe they got told to stay away from the subject, or they thought it didn't fit with the direction of season two. I don't know. But personally, I think it's a major loss that the show that centered pollical strife no longer cares for politics.

[pokemonshelterstories]

It seems like a lot of evolved cat type Pokemon are really difficult to own. Are there any fully evolved cat Pokemon who do make good pets?

there's a reason why this is often the case! in the wild, evolution comes with a cost. while it offers greater power, it requires more energy to be a bigger, stronger pokemon. evolved pokemon have a tendency to be more aggressive in order to secure food, and they often need more exercise and mental stimulus to keep them happy. they're just typically more high-needs pokemon than can be easily cared for in a household setting! with cat pokemon in particular, we often see them become less social, because in the wild these evolved forms tend to go off on their own to prevent having too many of them for the area to support.

i've heard that delcatty do well as pets, mostly because they're fairly lackadaisical and are happy to nap and play at their own pace. male meowstic can sometimes do alright in a home setting, but it's not guaranteed; the females really don't make great pets, though.

[transgenderpolls]

i am pre-t transmasc, when a poll you post opens with an identity that i am not ir something like "transmascs on testosterone: ---" i scroll past in instead of clicking "see results." i see lots of polls here where a top answer is "see results" because none of the answers applied to many of the users seeing them, and they just wanted to push a button. i scroll to try and avoid inaccurately representing the sample of people being surveyed, because i am not in the intended sample at all. is this okay for me to do? would you recommend that other people do the same?

it's obviously totally fine for you to just scroll past a poll, but the 'see results' button is there so anyone CAN see the results if they want. you're not inaccurately representing the sample at all by clicking it, because no one should be including the 'see results' bar when looking at the data anyway. it's meaningless. it quite literally represents "disregard this sample." simply look at the rest of the poll as its own thing, and there you go.

also, i don't think people hit see results because they "just want to push a button." they're curious about the results. there's a million good reasons to be curious about information and, imo, almost no bad reasons. in the particular case of a poll directed at "transmascs on T," maybe the results would interest you so that you would know what you're in for when you one day start. i imagine that's the case a lot of the time for ppl who wanna see the results.

and if a see results bar is large enough to ACTUALLY make it difficult to read the rest of the data, that should just tell you that this is the wrong platform to host that poll.

[disco-wyrm]

Honestly, only @cipherbunz would know who any of these OCs are, but it looked fun to do :P if you wanna know more about them, feel free to ask, i will gladly wordvomit about them <3

tw: torture, physical & emotional ab*se, mental health issues and death.

1. I don't really have one in particular for this one? If I had to choose, it'd probably be Swan. She's a tough lady, but she's just not built for deserts and hot environments.

2. Nobu, the man doesn't really even notice most of them anyway. Could definitely see him with a couple injuries he hasn't even noticed/doesn't think they're that much of an issue. Downsides of a really good pain tolerance, I guess?

3. Maverick. Hands down, that poor bastard's been through so much lol. His fiancée gets killed by his own father, his clan is destroyed, he gets dragged into TWO wars, experimented on, and then isolates himself because he's afraid of entering cities for reasons he can't even remember. Oh, and Death won't let him die bc Fate told them to for the plot and didn't elaborate on why so he's stuck surviving all of it.

4. Onyx, by his own adopted brother at that. Arcus didn't really take Onyx's (percieved) abandonment of him very well. Both of them need therapy, yeesh...

5. Leo and his crew. They're my world-hopping pirates, and definitely not of their own choice. Leo has sworn to kill whatever fate or god has damned them to getting yoinked into different dimensions, so I should probably watch my back lol

6. Alexei. Man has a while doomed yaoi thing going on with his ex/bestie for the past millennia or so. I guess both being vampires from Shakespearean times in a cyberpunk future equals some kind of trauma bonding? They don't even realize they're still flirting, it's painful to watch, really.

7. Onyx, he's one of my oldest ocs and i love putting my lil guy in Situations.

8. Leo and his crew again, for obvious reasons

9. Aster, by a young water spirit. She healed him, and he helped care for her in return. She then taught him alchemy, something her species knows instinctively via generational memories. He's now one of the best alchemists in the region.

10. Onyx and Maverick. Both killed by family and revived for different reasons. Maverick was bc of the plot, while Onyx was revived bc his s/o made a deal with Death for him. Maverick is in denial about his immortality, while Onyx is completely unaware that he actually died.

11. Winter/Winniel. Poor guy's scared of being even slightly out of line due to the tyrant king of his homeland. And as the royal alchemist, he's pretty close to the king. The king has convinced him so much of his weakness that he doesn't dare consider rebellion, convinced that he stands no chance even though physically he could definitely take him in a fight.

12. Kipp has compartmentalized his trauma and stress from his work, putting on a cheery and almost innocent persona to put his loved ones (and himself) at ease. At this point, he's not really sure which "him" is the real him anymore.

13. Acheron, constantly. It's technically magic tears that leak out no matter what he tries, and occasionally they form into little blob crows. They are his babies and he loves them dearly.

14. I'll pick Juno for this one. He's stuck in a control spell by an evil sorceress, and she usually gets him to kill people she wants to get rid of, or sometimes even people he comes across. He hates the lack of choice, so often he makes the choice to attack them on his own. Not healthy at all, and he'd rather not, but it's the only way he knows to exert control over his life.

15. Usually "comfort after a nightmare" scenarios are my favorite. Once they're calm(er), it's usually a pretty sweet moment. Easily turns to fluff afterwards.

Torturing your ocs ask game :)

(Delightful, I know. But we all do it sometimes)

1. Which of your ocs do you most often imagine sick? In what ways?

2. Which of them do you most imagine injured in other ways?

3. Who do you put through the most emotional turmoil?

4. Which oc has been tortured? Through what means?

5. Which of them has the worst luck?

6. Who goes through the most relationship conflicts? (applies to any relationships)

7. Who do you put most into stressful situations or other drama?

8. Who ends up in survival situations the most? How do they fair in them?

9. Has any of them had to be saved from the brink of death? Were there any consequences after?

10. Has any of them had to be revived / brought back to life? How did this affect them?

11. Who is afraid the most? How does this effect them?

12. What kind of health repercussions has your oc experienced through intense stress? How do they manage them?

13. Who cries the most often? What are the usual causes?

14. How does your oc cope?

15. To cap off what kind of hurt/comfort scenarios do you put your oc in?

This can be about canon story events or simply rotating scenarios for fun!

[oodlyenough]

more arcane s2 thoughts in no particular order. this is pretty negative. woops

Cait, Vi, Caitvi

despite being what initially got me watching to begin with caitvi just never ended up being my primary interest with this show, so going into s2 it wasn't like I had very well formulated expectations or hopes. I think if I had I would maybe feel disappointed? They had some nice moments, they got the kiss and the sex scene, they're clearly endgame, etc, and that's nice, but it also felt like their relationship was so ... never really the star of the show or focus of the story to the extent I expected it to be. Did they even get a big fight-together battle-couple moment in the last ep, I don't think so? I didn't find the resolution to their Act 1 breakup especially good, I think Caitlyn owed Vi an apology and Vi deserved to be angry for longer than ten seconds.

I generally feel across both seasons that Vi's pain and trauma is rarely given as much weight as other characters', I was pretty underwhelmed by Caitlyn's dictator arc after being extremely interested in it at the end of act 1...

I dunno. I hope their stans liked it and are satisfied getting to see them kiss and have sex and be together and I wouldn't downplay the significance of The Couple in Arcane being a lesbian couple. But I wasn't personally very compelled or moved by it.

Jinx

Like the above I'm not a Jinx academic by any means but I think if I were I would be frustrated by how cyclical her arc was in season 2. And no, having Silco show up to be like "it's a cycle" doesn't really justify the narrative interludes. Isha is a hard sell of a character for me because I don't ... generally want little kid characters around ... and I found Jinx (basically) looking straight into the camera to say "gee you are just like me, Powder, when I was a little kid, which reminds me of being Powder, is this how Silco felt, is this how Vi felt" to be hamfisted. But some of the scenes with the two of 'em and Sevika were cute ... only for Isha to die and Jinx to be depressed, again, and then come through the other side, again, and then "die", again. Like if we wanted to deal with depressed Jinx we started off s2 that way...

I've seen other posts by Jinx fans that articulate much better the ways in which she goes from the driving plot force in s1 and main autonomous actor to just kind of being wafted around by plot in season 2 so I won't repeat them. But I think they are right. I also question the way her mental illness was portrayed -- or rather wasn't... -- in season 2. Powder in the AU showing no sign of illness (despite baby Powder in the main timeline already having some of that going on, pre-Vander death)... I mean, sure, she's got a support system etc in that world, and one can argue we don't spend enough time with AU Powder to necessarily see it, but combined with the Isha stuff it just kind of felt like a weird message.

Sevika

I love Sevika, one of my faves from s1. I was so excited she seemed to get a bigger role in act 1 and then in the first ep of act 2. And then she never spoke again. What the hell man... like damn... really?????!? Not a WORD in act 3? I'm sure this was some of the stuff they trimmed to get that finale down to 50 minutes but god that sucks, so much, in ways a wordless shot of her in the council chamber can't really resolve. Which leads me to

Piltover-Zaun

I have to admit I don't think the class politics in s1 are as good as they were reported to be, so I didn't have high hopes, but MAN is Piltover going "hey we need cannon fodder <3 thanks" not... a reasonable resolution... especially after an indeterminate time of Piltover being EVEN MORE oppressive with Caitlyn enforcing martial law. It was sooooooooo ridiculous. Also, lol @ the show acting like hextech is solely responsible for the suffering of the undercity. If only Vi, Jayce and Viktor weren't around we'd have a equitable utopia. Sure Jan.

Sky

One of the most offensively written female characters I've seen in recent media. A spectacular, zero-effort failure from the writers. What a horrible decision to write this poor girl, a Black woman no less, and give her absolutely no characterization outside of an unrequited crush on a gay white man. In season 1 I could forgive most of it because a show like Arcane needs redshirts and it's just unfortunate they made this particular redshirt a young Black woman. There are so many other complex and developed women in the show, I thought, they can afford to have some minor ones who aren't.

But oh my god season 2. The ghost hallucination which they never even clarify as being "really" Sky or just being the Hexcore or just being his own imagination of guilt because neither the show nor Viktor give enough of a fuck to explain fhglakhdglh. Even posthumously she barely has any dialogue except to reference off-screen conversations with Viktor we never see them have and then die again. "No you won't" ?????? It is ridiculous that they wrote this.

[tobiasdrake]

Everyone is stupid.

We've all had that moment. Oh my god, I can't believe that stupid little thought that came to my brain. I can't believe that stupid thing I said. The stupid thing I did. I am an embarrassment to the world.

But actually, everyone is stupid. We are all dumb little monkeys clambering around a society that is way too complicated for us. Even the ones who will swear up and down that they're not.

Some people are very good at a particular thing. Sometimes that thing is playing the guitar and sometimes it's advanced calculus, but it's all just something they trained their brain to do. The brain acquires new abilities through repetition. You do a thing and you fail and you go to sleep and your brain makes new neural pathways to help you succeed at the thing that you failed at.

The brain sees that this is something that's very important to you, so it builds the connections your body needs to be able to do it.

But those people? Are still dumb little monkeys clambering around a complicated society. They're just monkeys with a skill. Congratulations! You're really good at calculus now! You're still going to put the coffee pot in the fridge because you weren't paying attention.

The reason we could arrive where we are isn't because a few smart people built a society. It's because of history and language. You could not invent the smartphone from scratch. But people are communal puzzle-solvers.

The story of human society is not the story of a genius architect weaving his master plan for a house's construction. It's the story of a thousand monkeys staring at a foundation until one goes, "A BRICK!!! You can put a brick there!" And then another goes, "I FOUND A BRICK!!! I found a brick you can put there!"

Society evolves the way an organism does. Nobody made the smartphone. People stood on the progress of the people who came before them and solved the puzzles in front of them, and then people stood on their shoulders and solved the puzzles in front of them, and then people stood on those people's shoulders and solved the puzzles in front of them, until eventually the smartphone emerged as a societal adaptation.

We have always just... been born into the society that past generations had sculpted and added our own little piece to it.

And the reason that's important is because there are people who will rush to tell you how smart they are. People who will bend over backwards to self-identity as intellectually superior. Who brag on and on about their genius and their IQ.

And you need to understand that it's not intelligence that leads people to behave that way.

It's arrogance. It's self-centered imperialism of thought to believe that any one person, especially yourself, could ever be equipped to solve all of society's problems. Just because you're very good at calculus.

Always remember that we are billions of monkeys working at billions of typewriters, and one of us did write the complete works of Shakespeare. That is a real thing that happened, and that has always been how society evolves.

Think communally. Beware the self-appointed geniuses.

[rosalia-aculeus-romneya]

Nice to see you, Miss Rosalia! I've been tasked with widening my horizons by my Warden today, and decided I should reach out♡

How are you? Enjoying being the perfect balance of terran and affini? The ultimate lifeform?/j

Got a favourite xenodrug class?

Favourite noise that a terran makes?

- I do hope you reply when you're able, Miss Rosalia -

From User: @3-florets-in-a-trenchcoat

it's good to meet you dear! im doing very well.

to your second question, im not a terran at all sweetie, im just an affini. being a floret doesn't make me anything other than an affini and a floret~

my favorite xenodrug class... well that's a difficult question to answer isn't it~ if i had to pick id probably say class e because i love seeing my pretty little flowers all relaxed and dazed while i take care of them, but class z is also so cute for the same reason, and classes d, h and w are lots of fun as well~

my favorite terran noise... goodness i don't even know where to begin. perhaps i'll give you a top 3, in no particular order:

the yelp of surprise at being grabbed suddenly or injected with xenodruggies~

the cute little sighs and hums of relaxation when i pull them in to cuddle~

the way they say "yes miss" in that dazed, floaty, blissful voice (you know the one~) when they're all relaxed and happy and compliant~

once again, im oh so very happy you reached out dear, i do hope you get this message and we can talk again soon! tell your warden that Miss Matricaria and i say hello!

[slotumn]

My hot take is that too many people see female characters as "female" before "characters."

Disregarding everything about canon and using them as paper dolls happens in any fandom and regardless of gender of the characters imo, but for female characters in particular, everything about them and everything they do is treated as being somehow reflective/implicative of women as a whole or how their creator(s)/fans view women instead of being, you know, character traits/narrative tools/etc. They can't ever be allowed to be too complex lest there be something that might have negative implications if applied to women as a whole.

In current era fandom, if you like female characters and want to engage with them you have to sand them off to the safest accepted non-controversial tropes as to not invite insane levels of scrutiny, and if you dislike them you have to come up with a bunch of convoluted moralistic reasons to justify it because otherwise you're a misogynist or something.

The funny part is that a lot of times the "accepted non-controversial tropes" and the convoluted moralistic mental gymnastics often wrap back around to having misogynistic reasonings anyway, because the former relies on shoving them into very narrow boxes of acceptable roles for female characters (emphasis on female over characters), and the latter needs you to do witch-hunt type of shit only for female characters to prove them especially and objectively bad or w/e (instead of just being a normal hater and going "I just don't like this character bc I don't like them")

It's like damn 1. engage with the characters in fiction as characters in fiction instead of acting like they're the Official UN Representative Vessel of Everything Woman Related Ever and 2. realize that you don't need to attach moralistic justifications for everything, least of all your opinions on fictional characters

And if someone does both of the above and still needs to reduce characters down to Insert Any Character type shallow tropes to engage with them, then well that's clearly just a skill issue. Btw I think a lot of people in fandoms have skill issue

So many issues come down to the fact that many people treat female characters as paper dolls that they can dress up however they want with absolutely no depth or complexity

[hellaverse-critical-confessions]

*cracks knuckles* Get ready for a long ask As an animator/artist myself, I have a lot to say about the character designs. I'm sure you've heard this before, but these characters are not animation friendly. More detail just makes it harder to animate. (While Bee is a notorious example, nearly all of the characters suffer from this) When designing a character for animation, you need to pick and choose the key parts of their design, because you're going to be drawing the same thing over and over. Another thing: The characters have so much freaking red to them. I won't dwell on this for long, but they don't stand out from the background because there's so much freaking red (Another thing that bugs me is that the characters don't look like what the artist wanted them to be like) Ex: Charlie doesn't look like a doll Vaggie barely has a moth resemblance Angel Dust doesn't look like a spider Alastor doesn't look like a deer Niffty doesn't look like a bug or B-movie styled aliens Ozzie doesn't look like a rooster Beelzebub doesn't look like an animal trainer (you would think with all the suits and shit she likes to use, an animal trainer's outfit would be perfect for this)

Another thing: Her characters reuse the same design tropes. Bow ties, suits, fingerless gloves, gold tooth, stick thin figure, top hat, etc I'd excuse it if this was a beginner artist (heck, I used to do this, but eventually learned and grew out of it) but this is a woman in her 30's who graduated art school. TL;DR The designs are bad and hard as heck to animate

Couldn't have said it better myself

I feel like, when Viv sits down to design a new character, her personal preferences come first and everything they're actually supposed to represent second. Sort of tacked onto the final product like "yeah sure that'll do it"

As for the details, if I may add on: not long ago I've studied screencaps of a character from Helluva for redesign purposes. The amount of inconsistencies I came across was surprising! I'm pretty sure he didn't even have an official ref sheet (nor has one been posted to date), but I've heard that even for more prevalent characters the animators only have the most basic turnarounds? Also stuff like Millie's hair and spots tend to be inconsistent. With so much gratuitous/weird detail and apparently lack of proper reference, consistency suffers

Everyone is also very spiky and full of triangles; I'd love a more soft or even square character. Also some different body types... I mean, remember Mimzy from Hazbin? I don't know if Viv does. I wonder if she's still gonna appear at some point. But anyway

On a more positive note, there's a lot of background character designs that I find really cool & enjoyable! Maybe I'll make an appreciation post for them sometime

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

By any chance did you draw Xingqiu's training uniform? 🥺

Or any more of the characters? 👀 Baizhu, Ningguang, Ganyu, Xianyun, etc.

I love your drawings and your character design and style in general 💜💜 ever since Cyanide Narwhal I fell in love

honestly you have amazing timing, i'd been sketching and cleaning these up for a while now hahah

edit: just realized baizhu's eyes should be a different color here. oh well. pretend they're red lmao

[bogkeep]

actually i DO need to show everyone the cute moomin bathhouse pitcher i found at a discount

[stiffyck]

YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK I WILL-

I love love love deep relationships that aren't strictly romantic or platonic. I love how open to interpretation the relationship between Jayce and Viktor is. It's very clear that they're very close and that they care about each other very deeply.

They didn't need a kiss to make their relationship deeper or more meaningful, their relationship was already deep and incredibly meaningful without making them explicitly romantic.

Viktor never really expresses any real interest in anyone in a romantic sense, but there are clear parallels between Viktor and Mel when it comes to their relationship with Jayce.

Their story in season 2 was incredibly painful to watch in the best way possible.

The only reason Jayce was willing to kill Viktor was because he didn't see Viktor in him anymore. He even says it in the last episode- his partner died the night during that explosion.

also im incredibly emotional over Viktors song.

this part in particular.

"stay your pretty eyes on course" Viktor obviously felt deeply for Jayce in some way.

"so stay with me because my body's on the line now" Viktor wanted Jayce to be there for him. he wanted his partner at his side. just like Jayce did.

The scene in season 1 comes to mind when Viktor gets sick while Jayce is enjoying his time with Mel.

I dont have any more coherent thoughts right now but hhhh im just really insane about their relationship.

Jayce and Viktor were queerplatonic btw and I will forever stand by that