#and this is a whole new community! way bigger than my current one!

[e77y]

It’s almost a new school year and I’m moving to campus! You know what that means 😁 (time to send a billion emails to student organizations and ensembles and scholarship applications and set myself up for burnout in a few months ❤️)

[betty-bourgeoisie]

The thing I find most concerning about the sudden and rapid declines of platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and to a lesser extent Discord and Facebook, is the loss of digital third places that will result from it.

[Definition: a Third Place is a space outside of work or the home that you spend a significant amount of time in. Usually a social gathering place like a church, library, park, or gym]

It's a known issue that physical third places are disappearing. Cities, malls, and shopping centers have cracked down hard on loitering, resulting in a lack of public space for people to just hang out in. Parks exist, but their use is usually dependent on weather conditions. Church attendance has been in decline for decades for a lot of reasons I won't get into here. Libraries exist but they're not a good place to talk with friends. And pretty much every other third place I can think of (bars, game stores, bookstores, coffee shops, etc) requires you to spend money if you want to be there. None of these are new observations, smarter people than myself have written whole books on the loss of in-person third places.

Social media has been filling in the gap left by these third places for the last couple of decades. As physical space has become less accessible we've migrated online to find community - and especially during COVID, social media was really the only place you could socialize with others. None of this is new information either.

But the current issue, that I've seen very few people talking about, is that companies are starting to price and bully people out of those digital third places the same way they did with physical third places. The difference is that it's happening much faster, and usually at the whim of just one or two people. These are not broader sociological trends slowly shutting down social spaces like what we saw with the decline of shopping malls. There will be no slow adjustment to another social medium. We are seeing individual billionaires making a choice in real time to monetize people out of some of the only public social spaces we have left.

I've seen people bemoaning the loss of information that comes with these sites collapsing, but personally, I am far more concerned with the loss of social space. Don't get me wrong, social media of all kinds is an absolute nightmare, but for many people (and especially for teenagers who have more restrictions on where they can go and what money they can spend) online space is one of the only places they can reliably go to socialize.

In a country like the U.S. where the federal government is calling loneliness an epidemic this is actually a much bigger concern than I think a lot of people realize. How many people have more online friends than in-person ones? What happens to rates of loneliness as social media platforms become inaccessible and people lose those connections?

Obviously, the preferred answer is that people will go make more friends in person, but remember that in-person social spaces have already been severely limited. This is not the easy option that you might hope it is.

My actual call to action on this is to fucking fight to get your in-person third places back. Talk to your local representatives about repealing loitering laws - organize protests or ballot initiatives about it if you have to. Work with rotary clubs and parks departments to fund new public restrooms and park shelters. If there are places in your community that provide free workshop spaces/ game nights/ art walks/ etc go to them and support them financially when and if you're able. Go to your local library and check out a book so they get more funding! I know this shit can be boring, but things are only going to get worse if people don't have places where they can connect with each other. We can't keep letting capitalists take community spaces from us.

[neonacity]

Elysium Ch.1: The Beginning of the End

Summary: What do you get when demigods are sent to the human realm as punishment for wreaking havoc on Olympus? Chaos. And a whole lot of trouble the mundane world is probably not ready to face, ever.

PROLOGUE: The Beginning

DRABBLES: Son of Shadows (JENO) | Of Love & Lust (JAEMIN)

NOTE: I know Percy Jackson has picked up again with its new series, but despite some similarities, this fic is not inspired by the lore. I have never read any of the books. All real people mentioned in the story are only my uses. I do not imply any likeness between them and my characters. A lot of the concepts from the original mythology might also be changed to fit the plot. I do not allow any of my works to be shared anywhere else. I only have Tumblr.

© neonacity 2023 - 2024

*******

“Say you’re given a chance to sit down with any deity and just talk to them for five minutes, who would you choose?”

You crinkled your nose and peered at your best friend from the comfort of the faded bean bag you are slumped on. The room was warm and the weather was making your eyelids droop, but you managed to shift a little on your seat to look at the boy who was currently playing self-catch by throwing a baseball against the wall. Yangyang looked equally bored as he flicked his wrist lazily with ease.

“Should it be a deity?”

“Well, yeah. It’s not like you see them every day.”

“You don’t get to see Princess Diana every day. Or Beyonce.”

Yangyang gave a snort. 

“Beyonce’s still alive, Nugget.” 

You reached out for the closest cushion pillow and threw it at the boy who effortlessly ducked to avoid it. You glared, but he simply laughed to brush you off.

“My point is that, why ask for a deity if there are aspiring people who I can get a chance to talk to?”

“Do you really hate the gods that much,” Yangyang asked with a slight frown creasing the top of his nose. 

“Do you really love them that much, Beep?” 

Now, it was his turn to scoff at the mention of his childhood nickname. Yangyang rolled his eyes before fully turning on his seat to face you. 

“For someone who studies at Rosewood, you treat the celestial world with so much irony.”

That made you pause. Rosewood Institute… An academy that had centuries of history riding on its back. In the eyes of the world, it is a regular boarding school, albeit a shadowy one. For the chosen—or as what they call it—it is a fort that means so much more than any earthly concept. 

Rosewood Institute is the frontier in the mortal world that serves as the learning nest of demigods and half-bloods.

Half-deities and children of anyone connected to the world beyond all pass through the halls of the school. While humanity has since moved on and cut ties with their connection to the gods, their legacy remains and walks among them secretly under shadows. The only exception from the half-bloods housed within the academy were the 'darlings of Olympus,' namely the children of the big honchos residing in Elysium itself. 

For many, being a part of the community of demigods is a badge they wear with pride.

Well, except for you. 

You don’t want to call it hatred, but as the daughter of a humble forest nymph, you stand in a place that still puts you in the viewpoint of someone destined to look up to those with ‘bigger lineages.’ Alas, big names can come with big egos, and so it has tarnished the way you live your life at the Institute every single day.

You slumped back in your seat now and stared at the dusty, aged ceiling of the room you and Yangyang call the Journalism Club. You wished his question was rhetoric, but the hanging silence told you that he is actually expecting an answer. 

“I am just not all hot and excited about it. You already know why.”

Your best friend sighed. The sound of a ball bouncing against the wall started again from his side.

“Not all of them are bad, you know.”

“I’m not saying anyone is ba—”

The crashing sound of something heavy, followed by the shattering boom of breaking glass made you stop. Pulling yourself up from your seat in panic, you stared in shock at Yangyang who also looked frozen from surprise. It didn’t take long for the both of you to get what was happening, and soon enough, you were both scrambling out of the room without another word.

Scratch that. Every single one of these demigods ARE trouble.

*******

“What on earth is going on here?!” The billowing smoke from the room made you cough out your words as you barged through the door. You couldn’t see way past a few feet from the dust that was still settling, but you could make out moving shapes from behind the smoke screen. You squinted hard to make out what was happening when you saw an arm shoot out of nowhere to grab at something.

“What the hell, Haechan. You said you knew what you were doing!” 

A few coughs came a little ways from your right.

“I was, I swear! I followed everything that was written in the book.”

“If you did, then how come you blew up half of the room?!”

“I might have read one of the words wrong—”

“You what?!”

“I'm dyslexic, okay!” 

You blinked away the sting that was already making you start to tear up to properly make out what was in front of you. Now with more of the dust settled, you could finally put a face on the voices. 

Huang Renjun, son of Ares, the God of War. 

And Lee Haechan, child of Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare. 

Both locked up in what seemed to be a deathly grip—well, with more of the latter being strangled by the former.

“I am going to kick your a—”

“Hey. Stop. Is everyone okay?” 

You jumped a little as a sudden creak came off from the corner followed by the sudden burst of light into the room. Somebody had enough sense to open a window, which made the rest of the smoke finally escape outside. Standing beside it was a boy with blonde hair that almost glowed like the sunlight. 

Mark Lee. The heir of Zeus, ruler of the sky… and the God of all Gods.

“We’re good. But I don’t think the room is,” a dark-haired boy answered on behalf of the group as he toed a fallen chunk of plank from the ceiling. He turned it over with his booted foot, which only made the wood break into pieces again.

“You think? Everything is scorched off. I liked this room. Now we have to—oh… hello there, Princess.” 

“Uh-oh…” Haechan whispered under his breath as he pushed back his skewed glasses up his nose bridge. Renjun, despite himself, finally let go of the other’s collar as his eyes shifted towards the other three. Mark cleared his throat and reached out to scratch the back of his neck, so instead you turned to the only two boys who are yet to avoid your withering look. 

You froze in your place and glared at the other boy with silver platinum hair who smiled sweetly at you from where he stood. Upon his greeting, everyone in the group turned to look at you, as if it was their first time to notice you there.

Lee Jeno, son of Hades, God of the Underworld; and Na Jaemin, beloved child of Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty; looked like the poster children of light and shadows. Their current expressions drove the imagery well, too. 

“Can somebody tell me why half the room melted off?” You asked through gritted teeth, your eyes boring holes at Jaemin who was still smiling so pleasantly at you—a fact that, to be honest, only made your blood boil more. 

“Haechan tried to make a spell that he got from one of the books in the library. He… wanted to make the room cooler,” Jeno answered. 

“What do you mean ‘he’? You were all in on the act too! Didn’t you say the heat here was much worse than Uncle Hades’ second circle of the Underworld?!” The brown-haired boy in question bristled. 

“Book? What book?” Yangyang, who had run after you, but was too shocked to speak before, echoed from behind. Renjun shifted a little guiltily on his feet. 

“Well about that…”

“He got it from the Restricted Section,” Jaemin said, still looking unbothered about everything. 

You felt seconds away from an aneurysm. 

“You mean he stole it?” You emphasized the word as you shifted your gaze to the thief in question. Haechan slightly frowned and looked away.

“I just borrowed it.. “

“You are not allowed to borrow it, let alone touch it. That’s why it is in the Restricted Section!” 

“We weren’t even supposed to use it, but Renjun and the rest—”

“Me?!” 

“Is it really not possible to have any of you stay out of trouble for at least one day?!”

You wish you were overreacting, but you couldn't really be as close to the truth as you are. In fact, you are almost ready to sacrifice Yangyang's blood just to go back to the time before the 'golden heirs' of Olympus stepped foot into your life.

It had almost been a month since the boys arrived in Rosewood. As the chosen heirs of their godly parents, they stayed in their respective domains to be trained and raised differently from the rest. When news broke that they were banished temporarily to the mortal realm as punishment for a gaffe, the Academy was thrown into excitement and chaos—well, mostly chaos from your perspective. 

You’ve been wanting to know what it is exactly that these men did to be exiled from Olympus, but to be honest, they have also been keeping you up almost every single day with their antics. It’s almost like trouble is always hovering around them, and since then, you have never known peace.

“We apologize. We really didn’t mean it this time. We were just trying to learn new things,” Mark, the eldest of the group, told you placatingly. You turned to look at him with your lips in a tight line. 

“This is a school for the demigods, Mr. Lee. Not Hogwarts. You can’t try spells here.”

Jaemin frowned, his curiosity genuine. 

“What’s Hogwarts?”

“You can try spells there?” Haechan seconded. 

“To the office, all of you,” you said as you pinched the bridge of your nose. You have just turned on your heel when someone else stepped into the room, his eyes silently roaming the mess stretched out in front of him. 

Mark straightened at the sight of the man. You did the same, slight surprise marking your features.

“Headmaster.”

“Papa?”

Your father, looking the least bit troubled by the mess, turned to give all of you a smile. 

“Hello kids, it seems like you are having quite an interesting afternoon.”

“Sir, we can explain—”

“They used a spell to—!”

Both you and Mark stopped mid-sentence as he raised a hand.

“I’d love to know the full story, but for now I need to talk to all of you. Can you all please come to my office?”

*******

The boys looked around silently as they settled on their seats at the Headmaster’s office. You, not being a stranger to the place anymore, sat on the closest one to your father’s table, your fingers fidgeting slightly on your side. The man in front was peacefully making coffee as if he has not a care in the world, but you could sense in the air in the room that something was up. That was the thing about your father. Nothing ever seems to ruffle him up.

You know, having been raised by him in the walls of the Institute himself since you were a kid. Even before you officially became a student here, you have seen the way he had handled all kinds of matters in Rosewood. After all, being the Headmaster of one of the select places in the mortal world where the offspring of gods and otherworldly creatures reside does come with its fair share of trouble. 

“Is something the matter?” You braved to ask the question that everyone in the room was itching to voice out. He turned to all of you with a smile and lifted the coffee pot he just finished brewing. 

“Coffee, anyone?” 

You and Mark caught each other’s gazes before slightly shaking your heads. The rest did the same.

“Mm. More for me then,” your father murmured more to himself with a chuckle as he settled behind the ancient-looking oak table. You all watched nervously as he took his time to sip on his drink. The whole room seemed to be holding its breath. Off on your other side, Haechan seems on the verge of chewing his fingers off.

“Papa—”

“We might have to temporarily close off Rosewood,” the Headmaster said to gently cut you off. You froze, processing what he just said for a few seconds. You expected everything, except for this. 

“What??”

“There has been a little bit of trouble brewing in the borders of our world and Elysium. Today, I am going to make an announcement that students and their families have the choice to go home or stay here if they want.”

None of what he is saying makes sense. Beside you, the boys looked paler under the light.

“What do you mean we are closing down Rosewood? We never close the Institute ever!” You blurted out, unable to keep yourself quiet anymore. 

“We have never done it, yes, darling. But this time, the case is a little bit different,” the man replied to you kindly and under control still. He then turned to his other visitors with the same even temperament.

“I have been in touch with all of your parents to tell them about the changes in the Academy. They are yet to give me their answer as to when you will go back to Olympus.” 

Mark fidgeted a little on his seat and gave the boys beside him a quick look. 

“Uhm… About that…”

“Can you at least tell us what’s happening?” You said through gritted teeth as you turned to your father again. The man in question paused a little as if to study you… weighing whether to answer your question or not. Finally, he leaned back against his seat and removed his wire-framed glasses.

“Several places in the mortal world had been under attack. Monsters and beasts have been roaming the place. The celestial army has been keeping the cases down, but we expect the events to… grow.” 

That is the second time you were speechless today. You felt your palms turn cold as you stared at him, mouth open. The headmaster met all of your gazes evenly, his usually warm facade finally showing a glimpse of the seriousness of the situation. 

“What…”

“Tartarus is collapsing on itself and the world, I’m afraid, is not ready for it.” 

Your heart dropped to your stomach. 

Tartarus, the deepest place of the Underworld. 

Tartarus…

The prison of the gods’ greatest enemies. 

You stared breathlessly at your father until something clicked. Slowly, you turned to the boys sitting beside you who seemed to have turned to stone. One look and you knew. One look and the question was drawn automatically from your lips. 

A/N: Look who's back... I know I haven't been active in this account for months, but 2024 is literally just a few hours away and I wanted to close the year (and hopefully start the new one) by picking up writing again. I have no promises, but I hope this little chapter can do its magic. Happy New Year, everyone!

“You… What have you all done?” 

*******

[abcd-adventures]

Ugh.

So, obviously, being a human, I screw up regularly at my job. That's to be expected, and it's usually fine. I have zero problems owning up to mistakes/missteps/misunderstandings/whatever. And, I think in relationships, it usually only makes things stronger when you go through those things and come out on the other side with a new understanding and stronger communication and bond. But yesterday...wow...I had this whole idea of this big therapeutic moment that I was going to have with this client and it went SO, SO BADLY...I mean were I watching it on tv or something it would be comedically bad.

I took one of my clients to the cemetery to visit his grandmother's grave yesterday. I could go into all the reasons this was a huge deal, but that's a whole other post. But, it's been something that was a long time coming and was supposed to be this big moment...annnnnnd we get there, and the cemetery is HUGE and it was one of those things where, of course, you THINK you remember exactly where you need to go, but then the place is a zillion times bigger than in your memory and everything looks kind of the same, so then it's overwhelming. Well, he remembered that they have maps there, so I volunteered to go in and request one since it was packed in the office and my client didn't want to walk into a room full of dressed up, grieving, white people. I finally get someone to help me and she looks up the name and is like, "No, we don't have anyone here by that name. Sorry. We have other cemeteries, maybe try there." The other ones are all the way across town. So, I go back out and talk to my client, but he is sure that this is the right cemetery, so then he goes in with me, and the woman immediately becomes WAY more rude and argues with him that he is wrong because her "system" could never be wrong, and I have to get him out of there before things escalate after he starts getting pissed and giving her some choice words and we start disrupting whatever is going on with all the well-dressed white people. We go back out to the car and he is shaking with rage and I look online and there's apparently a website called Find a Grave, and I look up his grandmother and sure enough, she is there at the cemetery we are currently at, and it has some code and even a PICTURE of the headstone. So, with phone and PICTURE in hand, we go back in. The woman is pissed at us at this point and hands my client a clipboad with a stack of papers on it that he is supposed to fill out for an inquiry?? And, he was...to be concise...like, "Fuck you and fuck that," and I asked to speak to someone in charge because the all-knowing internet is telling us his grandmother is in this cemetery and we are not filling out an inquiry, we just want a map!!!! So, the manager comes out and I show him the website and the photo and the code thing, and oh, magically, such a place exists! And, he brings us a map, but then he insists on ESCORTING US over there. I told him that was unnecessary, but he insisted, so then we get there and things are not in the best shape and this fucking guy is fussing around trying to tidy things up while my client is seconds from exploding and I was just like, "PLEASE leave. Thank you for your help, but please, please leave now and let us have a minute." Thank God he did as I asked. But, wow. what a nightmare. It took us an hour and fifteen minutes after arriving at the cemetery to get to the actual gravesite. Nothing therapeutic was happening at that point.

We did tidy up a little and leave her flowers, and we sat for a minute, but between the anger and frustration and the sadness and everything that was brought up by the whole...thing...it was just a mess, and he just wanted to leave. I felt HORRIBLE. I do not have a ton of experience with this kind of thing, but I have another client who we have been working up to visiting his son's grave, but now I know that I will 100% go by on my own first and make sure we know WHERE THE FUCK THE GRAVE IS beforehand so nothing like this happens again.

Were this to have happened a few months ago, I don't think this client would have come back to see me ever again. I'm very, very grateful that he was willing to give me grace and not hold this clusterfuck against me, but I still feel absolutely awful that it happened.

[likesomanywrecksdo]

blitzø + moon symbolism

okay so the music video "Just Look My Way" takes place in Stolas' space-esque personal chamber somewhere in his castle. The music video repeatedly relate Stolas' feelings towards Blitzø with the moon. During the line "let me hold you, keep you close to me, i long to hear your voice" Stolas is seen trying his best to keep the tiny moon in his hands and preventing it from floating away. Again in the line "the walls you've conjured up to live" the moon rotates and we can see Blitzø stuck inside the black space or "dark side of the moon".

the moon symbolism can mean many things in regards to how Stolas feels about Blitzø.

Firstly, it could be a manifestation of how Stolas is always drawn back to those "dazzling moonlit nights", how he constantly tries to grasp for good moments within their time together (the only ones he can find being the full moon meetings) and so he relates Blitzø and the full moon "rendez-vous" directly as a way of coping with their less than ideal experiences outside of that structured and guaranteed time spent alone tgt.

Secondly, it could be a way of showing how Blitzø acts/how stolas views him. As per astrology, the moon is romance, pleasant nights (tying back to my previous points), intense moments, loneliness and mood swings. The last three are a pretty accurate depiction of how Blitzø acts around Stolas. He's hot-headed, closed-off and Stolitz is very much prone to intense moments on both sides, so it's possible Stolas made that connection, believing that holding the moon is the closest he can currently get to holding Blitzø.

Finally, the last image (above) shows Blitzø with his head buried in his legs trapped inside the "dark side of the moon". This could symbolise how Stolas sees this dark and isolated version of Blitzø but also sees the potential for him to open up, be romantic and love Stolas.

the apology tour switch up

In Stolas' apology tour emotional ballad, the two frames above appear (i'm guessing bc the outfit is literally the exactly same as him singing onstage wth Verosika + Tex, the cute ass choker and all). Now there is a change in the background between the moon and the sun, which is a huge switch-up from "Just Look My Way". The significance of which is also very multifaceted.

Stolas could be expressing how he wants more from Blitzø, finally expressing his feelings instead of constantly worrying about how Blitzø will feel. This is probably bc Stolas fears the relationship is over while this open communication and validation that Stolas wants more than just sex is exactly what Blitzø wanted from the start. Additionally, the second frame coul be referencing how in "Just Look My Way", Stolas says "i don't care that your of lower station" and that he wants to be seen with him and be loved by him everywhere. He's tired of keeping it a secret but also has a lot of things to lose if he does.

Secondly, the sun, in astrology, is seen to represent one's sense of self and individuality. This could hint to Stolas having his whole awakening and a whole new idea of who he is because Blitzø came into his life. Because of Blitzø, he's found out so many more things about himself and is capable of doing what is doing (divorcing Stella, giving up Blitzø, the one slightly good thing he's ever had) all because Blitzø showed him how to be free ("showed me this world was bigger than us, then sent me back where i came from'" -Down Bad" by Taylor Swift).

Finally, the switch-up from moon to sun from Blitzø's pov could be a way of showing how his feelings for stolas have changed. This song is the obvious turning point of the Stolitz ship, where Blitzø isn't in denial anymore and knows he's in love with Stolas. As discussed before, the sun represents self-image and in some cases self-esteem. Considering confession of any kind of emotions are not Blitzø strong suit and don't have a huge effect on him (don't evoke much a huge outward response from him). This revelation hitting him so fast would be a huge self-awakening for him as he has not let himself love anyone for a long time.

In conclusion, Stolitz is sun x moon and nobody can convince me otherwise.

[endangered-aquarium-fish]

Toba betta (Betta rubra)

Endangered

One of the domestic betta's 74+ wild relatives!!! The Toba Betta is just a tiny little guy at only 2 inches long, and it's only found around lake Toba on the island of Sumatra, under a canopy of tropical pine forests. It's known for being very expressive, with just as much personality as domestic bettas- theyre goofy little guys, always exploring and interacting and showing off (or squabbling) with other fish and people, and changing colors to communicate - males seem to glow with a stunningly bright crimson when they're ready to mate.

Betta rubra is one of the more adaptable wild bettas, living both in stagnant peat swamps and fast flowing hillstreams, but always in soft, acidic water. It's one of the best fish for someone who wants to get into wild bettas for the first time.

Most fish in its family build bubble nests to raise their fry, which is such a wonderful thing that anyone who keeps them would recognize, but the Toba Betta has its own way- it comes from an ancestor that only lived in fast currents that would pick up the whole nest and carry it away if they could, so it came up with a new strategy called mouthbrooding - the males just hold the whole clutch inside their cavernous mouths!!! the eggs can take a couple weeks to hatch and the fish holding them goes that entire time without ever eating. Toba bettas can be very aggressive about constantly mating, sometimes doing it right as the fry from last time are released, so they sometimes go for months without any food 0.0

And that's not the only one of its clever tricks either!! Like other fish in the gourami family, Toba bettas have an entire unique organ to help them adapt to stagnant swamps and pools without oxygen. It's called a labyrinth organ after its mazelike fractal structure - and that structure is used to breathe air. Yeah!!! Air breathing fish!!!! They've gotten to the point where they actually need access to both air and water to breathe from or they drown.

Overall they're a lot like a more chill and funky version of a domesticated betta :3

Make sure you have at least a 5-10 gallon tank for your bettas, and 15-20 gallons is really best for a pair or small group - they're normally peaceful but it's important that they can get away from each other if there's a conflict. They jump a lot, so it's also very important that the tank has a lid, and that the water level is about an inch or more below it so they have enough oxygen to breathe (make sure the lid isn't completely airtight - you can poke holes in it or something)

Toba bettas love soft, warm (70-80 F), acidic water with a gentle current and some tannins from decaying leaves, wood, and seed pods. If your tap water isn't naturally soft this may not be the best fish for you. The tannins are medicinal, help grow food for the babies, and help the fish feel a bit safer. My favorite way to get them is from oak leaves and twigs and acorns since they're tannin rich and readily available where I am.

Like most wild bettas, Toba bettas love to have plenty of shade and cover from aquatic plants, rocks, and wood. Some of my favorite plants to use for this are pearlweed, susswassertang, frogbit, banana lilies, and Cryptocorynes- they'll all help your bettas feel safe and at home :3 (and they help the water quality a lot!!! do not underestimate the power of photosynthesis >:3)

Bettas have a reputation for being aggressive, but not these!! They're a bit more peaceful and can be kept in pairs or trios, and with other small, slow moving, peaceful fish if you give everyone enough space and cover, but males are very territorial to each other so only add one unless its a large tank. The one other thing they won't get along with is shrimp - they love eating crustaceans and their adaptation for mouthbrooding means they have a bigger mouth than you think.

They're really easy to feed - other than your shrimp, they love to eat most protein rich foods, like fluval bug bites and freeze dried or frozen blood worms, mysis shrimp, etc., but they really prefer live foods like mosquito larvae and daphnia if you can provide that to them.

They're easy to breed too, just put a male and a female together and keep them happy and well fed and you'll have babies in no time. The male will wrap around the female and squeeze out all her eggs before fertilizing them and scooping them up into his mouth until they hatch a couple weeks later. Keep a separate tank ready so you can move the female after breeding or she's likely to eat the babies once they're free, and don't move or stress the male while he has eggs or he might swallow them. The male should be removed too once the fry are swimming - they don't usually eat their own young, but they certainly can. The fry need humid air, like 90% or more, otherwise their labyrinth organ won't develop properly and they can die - luckily it's pretty easy to just put some plastic wrap or a good lid over the tank. They're super tiny and they love super tiny foods, including the millions of little creatures already living in the substrate, dead leaves, and plants. Some of their favorites are microworms, daphnia, and baby brine shrimp. As long as you keep the water clean and feed them well you'll have lots of new thriving colorful bettas in a couple months :3

Toba bettas are endangered in the wild from habitat destruction/degredation, invasive species, overexploitation, and climate change. So go keep them alive at home!!!!! its fun i promise :3

[phantalgia]

We Need Community Care Not Self Care and Why Current Community Sucks

TW: Talk of unaliving oneself and some violence!

Self-care is quite the buzzword. It's everywhere and it's a term, along with self-love, that I don’t get. There isn't anything unique to self-care as a concept. Taking care of yourself isn't anything new. You take a walk, you take a nice bath, you play a cute cozy game. What is so unique about it? Why is it all the talk?

Self-Care Creates a Docile Class

One of the most disheartening conversations I had with someone was someone who works in education who had a co-worker take their own life from being overworked. This person then became a big advocate for self-care. But I had to ask why they aren't challenging the structures at be that require people to work themselves up to that point? Again, there is nothing wrong with a break, that's not the point. Perhaps at the time I didn't quite have the words to properly convey what I meant.

My concern had been that they deflected a systemic problem onto an individual one that can only be solved through taking care of oneself. Sometimes even practicing consumerism as a form of self care or meeting certain beauty standards via the beauty industry.

Self-care is a new form of rugged individualism and engaging the affected individual in crisis through consumerism or further alienation. Again, nothing wrong with needing time away from people. Capitalism deprives humanity from people, it strips away at any semblence of concious awareness of other people.

Capitalist industries find new ways to integrate and maintain a docile class of people by reconciling with human needs and production needs. This is what the self-care industrial complex does. It also goes into a greater critique of the role of psychiatry as a whole within the capitalist framework, which I will save for another time.

I was disappointed with the conversation I was having with this person. I was sympathetic to their cause and I think their heart is in the right place but they just were not thinking bigger, beyond themselves. There didn't seem to be an awareness at all that human beings are mutually dependent on each other.

We must break free from this self-care system. Again, not breaking free from the very need for people to take breaks as needed, but that system and line of thinking. Self-care becomes a tool to focus on the 'I' that is damaged rather than the society, the 'us', that is deeply damaged.

Community Care Not Self-Care

Now that I have removed self-care from being associated with the natural need for humans to take breaks. And have discussed that self-care is more of a tool to maintain the status quo. We need an alternative.

I think community care is of the upmost importance. This can indirectly impact the individual as well. Community care should emphasize the rights of individuals in working spaces to take the time off they need while maintaining a greater sense of control over their environment.

Community care can manifest in other ways besides worker agency. Mutual aid efforts such as crisis intervention, community respect and understanding of individual needs, fostering a healthy social ecosystem to rely on when needed, more alternatives than just indulging in consumerism.

So what would community care do for the individual?

Worker autonomy and control over their work which would allow them to decide when they need a break (worker self management)

Disentanglement from oppressive and heirarchal structures that reduce human beings to robots

A community to rely on for mutual aid assistance

A sense of agency and control over ones life

The ability to free oneself and feel their own self growth and community growth

But I have some concerns about our vision of community...

Community is Not What it Once Was Nor Ever Was

Over the past few decades it has been recorded that communities were dying. Less and less people were going out and seeing each other. This has been documented by Robert D. Putnam in his book "Bowling Alone" and you can watch a video here from the Gravel Institute:

Community seems to have always been soured, however. Community just can't be taken away from the fact that people grow up in liberal democracies and capitalist cultures. So therefore, they really can't see any alternative in structuring themselves. This is why many Hippie communes have failed in the 60s - 70s. Community soon then became what brands or subcultures you belonged to which are still extensions of the capitalist culture.

With the rise of the internet in the middle of the neoliberal New Democrat era of the 90s, it seems as though community found itself a home on the World Wide Web.

The Californian Ideology

Amidst the backlash against the bureaucratic New Deal era, there seemed to be fear of a State Socialist model coming soon to America. This can be seen from the New Left and New Right movements at the time. What eventually came out of it was "The Californian Ideology". It's an essay to be exact, critiqueing 1990s Silicon Valley for its mishmash of neoliberal policies combining with New Left and New Right ideals. What came out of it can be best summed up by the late Carmen Hermosillo's essay 'Pandora's Vox: On Community in Cyberspace':

"i have seen many people spill their guts on-line, and i did so myself until, at last, i began to see that i had commodified myself. commodification means that you turn something into a product which has a money-value" - Carmen Hermosillo

It's a scathing critique on the fakeness of cyberspace, and the transfer of power to corporations. It holds prophetic to what would become in the future as the internet grew and became fundamental in the development of Gen Z and now Gen Alpha.

You can see more about "The Californian Ideology" in the following:

Adam Curtis' "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace"

Then and Now's video:

The Community Just Isn't Right Online

I have in my experience been in a lot of communities online and noticed a pattern. Many of these communities and even people often mimic the real world or reflect it. Not just in the way they structure themselves like liberal democracies or a corporation, but often culturally and socially.

These communities and the people in them can often be toxic or "too nice". I often believe that this is both a form of escapism and to feel a sense of control in their lives. The troll wants to escape the real world by being an exaggeration of how they feel about the real world. Angry and frustrated. Or maybe they lack control and power in their lives so they like to make people feel bad. Then you have the opposite side. The toxic positivity. They want to escape the real world and create a vision of the world too beautiful that it's unrealistic. Or they want to feel like they can control people and make them feel good about themselves.

The inception of the internet and its communities on it require the context of real world history and social conditions. I have yet to see online communities and people as anything but an extention of these systems. And this is further fueled by free-market principles and corporate power.

Algorithms Are Stripping Us of Humanity

The other day on Twitter (Not calling it the other name) I got randomly recommended a fighting video. I got so mesmerized by it that I wanted more and more and kept digging myself further into this rabbit hole until I snapped out of it.

These algorithms and just internet culture in general is filled with this toxic garbage. How many times do I need to see the some dumb internet micro-celebrity get canceled? How many times do I need to see a 'Red Pilled' podcast of men talking about how men are becoming too weak? How many times do I need to see the next internet drama? The next guru who "has it all figured out"?

I just don’t think anyone has stepped back for a moment and went "Holy shit, this is insane and not good". And big tech companies are profiting off these algorithms that take advantage of these human vulnerabilities. Dividing us further, enducing us with ragebait, and shortening the attention spans of Gen Alpha.

Worse yet, it's stripping us of our own ability to make quality judgements and proper justice. Instead things become spectecle, we become commodities, brands. Whether if that's literally or metaphorically.

Free-market principles, corporate power have stripped away our humanity, it's turned the internet into a place where people express how they REALLY feel about the world. And this sours creativity within community structure and culture online. The internet has become a place of gaining status, a meritocracy of the most vile or the biggest "saints". It's allowed for people to be cyberbullied into ending their lives, massacred people in Myanmar, incited riots, and on and on. The belief that the internet is not real life is just not true.

If You're a Hammer Every Problem Looks Like a Nail

I think another problem that comes out from the fact that these social media companies and communities just mimick the real world is they don’t give out proper tools to create alternatives. So essentially, everyone is a hammer looking at problems as nails. If these platforms actually gave us the means to create alternative structures maybe things would be different and we'd have some progress.

I have dreamt of a day in which Discord would allow individuals to structure their servers in a decentralized manner. It can be sort of done with bots but not to such a great degree. Instead, it's you’re a moderator or not. But how cool would it be if they gave us the tools to create a server in which individuals with shared interests could be in their own space and create their own micro corners within that server. They still could be beholden to the greater rules of the server.

This is sort of how Mastadon works, an alternative to Twitter that allows users to be apart of servers with their own privacy rules and guidelines while still being connected to the larger Mastadon feed.

Imagining Community

I think generally speaking, when we want to create new communities whether in real life or online, it requires a heterodoxic approach in both the mind, systems, and social relations. Being aware of the fact you are a mutually dependent human being is a good place to start. But the next part requires our systems and social relations reflect that.

Next I think is to recognize that human beings have no natural objective human nature quality outside of mutuality. We're not good, we're not bad. We want personal autonomy and we want community. We should allow ourselves to associate with who we want, however we want and be held accountable by those around us.

We need to find new ways of reconciling with differences, and again I think this can take many forms from just choosing who you want to associate with, to mediation or reconciliation. A new concious culture that can do these things might be a good one.

We must break free from the entrapment that big tech, capitalists, and government has on us. We can decide for ourselves how we want to live as long as we recognize another human being behind a person's eyes or a screen. We don’t need to be friends with each other but we can recognize the fact we're all a work in progress till the end and can live life with the peace of mind that when things go wrong we have the power and control to make a difference. Not a technocrat, a politician, a bussinessman, nor a bureaucrat.

Wrapping Up and Closing Thoughts

This is quite a crudely written post, honestly I feel it's not a complete thought and actually turned into something else completely. Initially it was supposed to be my personal critisisms of self-care and why it bothered me. But I also saw the flaws in what community is in the 21st century. So, I felt a need to cover that as well. I think for me, I noticed I ended up rambling off onto a completely other tangent unrelated to the topic at hand but was loosely related. I haven't really explored too much in terms of the future of community nor mental health either. So really, this is just a crudely made post on some things bugging the hell out of me that I needed to get out of my head. I will probably improve upon this as time goes on.

The Bottom Line

Essentially, self care as a movement or a cultural phenomenon is what my issue is. It's not the practice itself. There is nothing unique about taking care of oneself. What is unique is how much this has skyrocketed in popularity and has overtaken much needed critisims of systems that need to be critiqued that cause people to feel the way they do. And the need for more collective care to heal individual wounds.

Other Movements and People For Mental Health

There's also a lot of work in alternatives for mental health care and other forms of analysis of mental health such as:

Decolonization (returning indigenous forms of healing)

Post-psychiatry

Mad Pride

Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health (A podcast you can find on Spotify)

Freudo-Marxism

pat.radical.therapist (on Instagram)

connectwithoumou (on instagram)

There are plenty of other things to look into but they all cover similar topics.

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

A few days ago @little-smartass tagged me to self rec 5 of my fics so here we are! Out of 84 fics published to AO3, here are the 5 (and a bonus sixth lol) in no particular order that I'd like to highlight 🥰

The Sculptor (WangXian, 27.6k)

This fic was inspired by a fabulous piece of fanart by @ceru-draws and I wrote it in a 3-day sprint/fugue state. I'm still really proud of it mostly because I think it's the tightest narrative I've managed to write yet so far, and I really enjoyed creating a modern AU but set in the American 1970's, with some of the little undercurrents of queer/counter culture that that entails. It was really fun to write, the art it's based on is beautiful, and I think it's a nice little read. (It's also part of a series, so if you like it there's more to the universe!)

2. Outta Time (3zun, 4.7k)

Okay so this one is relatively short, less than 5k words, but it's about the ✨vibes✨, alright, and they're immaculate if I do say so myself. @little-smartass and I realized last summer right about this time that we both love Orville Peck and I said I'd always pictured 3zun so vividly for the line in Outta Time that goes "Drag me to the party guess I got nowhere to go / Got a man to my left and one on my right and they're tellin' me 'bout what they know". And aren't I just a lucky duck - she had great ideas for writing a whole fic AND she drew that scene that sparked it all 😭 This fic is also the start of the Orville Peck Cinematic Universe, which is currently only 2 published fics but there are many more in the works! This is the fic for you if you like soft gay cowboys.

3. Tales From Jianghu Shopping Center (Wangxian, NieLan (implied), SangCheng (unestablished), 6.6k)

This is another one that's all about The Vibes, this time inspired by a post by @lansplaining reimagining all of the Great Sects as businesses in a seedy strip mall. It's the 90's, it's summer, it's fluffy fun and low-stakes drama for everyone! I wrote this one partially out of homesickness when I was missing the boiling hot Southeast American summers I'm used to, but also I just really have a deep love for shitty little strip malls and the weird shit you find in them so this was bound to happen either way once I saw that absolutely INSPIRED post. This is also another one that's part of a larger universe (are you sensing a theme?) and they're all slice-of-life fluffy little summer things focusing on various ships within the community. And I have more in the works!

4. After Each Midnight Begins A New Day (3zun, Wangxian (background), 54.4k)

The one that started it all! This is not only my first chaptered fic for The Untamed, it's the first chaptered fic I've ever finished in my life, and I'd been writing fic for a decade by then. I feel like I can't really rec things I've written without including this one, which was a turning point for me in the fandom both in terms of starting to really actively participate by sharing stuff I'd written (outside of tags and short one-shots) and in really letting 3zun take over my brain for what would be the next three-ish years and counting. I still go back and reread this fic every now and again and of course there are things I would change now with so much practice under my belt since I wrote it, but I do still love it as it is. (This one is also part of a larger universe with plenty of extra scenes, some of which are chaptered fics themselves....shocking, I know.)

5: You Need Tending (12k) and You Are Of Their Ilk (44k+/WIP) (Baby Wangxian)

I'm putting these two fics together for number 5 because this is my post and I make the rules now lol. I wrote the first fic and then decided that I wanted to explore the sort of ripple effects of what happens after the Lan save WWX from the streets, and then it really got away from me, so the sequel is much bigger and more emotionally fraught than the first (at least in my opinion). It just feels weird to recommend either of them without the other when they're so closely linked! It's been ages, I know, since I last updated You Are Of Their Ilk but I'm still claiming that it's a WIP - I will finish it one day, I just don't know exactly when. So if you love it and want to see it finished, don't give up hope!

So there we go! I know this is more than 5 (a LOT more than five if you include the extras and stuff for all the fics lol) but oh well. As per usual I'm terrible at knowing who to tag for these things but I'm going to give it a shot (and if you see this and you're not tagged but you want to play then consider yourself tagged by me!)

@wei--wuxian @omgpurplefattie @iamwestiec @rhysiana and/or anyone else who wants to play!

[ratsoh-writes]

:)

The flyer monster was screeching and hissing his metaphorical lungs out as he slowly sank in the wall. Sea, on the other hand, was panicking. She was sure that there weren't any new flayer monsters close to her family, she was sure of it. But as always, there is a small margin of error and maybe she didn't look deep enough.

But above all those thoughts, she felt angry just looking at him. She wasn't fond of flayer mages, ever since she met her cousin, she started to have a deep resentment for them. And when it came to flyer monsters... well, she didn't find any difference, only that they had it much easier to read anyone's mind with much precision.

"Well? Don't you have anything to... say..."

Ah. Right. These monsters couldn't speak. They communicated via telepathy, and she'd rather die than let anyone read her mind.

What a shame, she would have to just dust him right there-

"Maverick!"

She turned around, finding a little wolf monster and a slightly taller flayer monster.

"What is happening!?"

The little wolf shouted, eyes worried at seeing the flayer monster sinking in the wall. Sea was mentally preparing herself to either talk herself out of this situation or curse these two kids.

.

"Apologize to the mage!"

The smaller flayer monster was making the bigger one, Maverick, bow down while the wolf monster was shouting for him to apologize. Apparently Maverick had a habit of reading people's minds without consent, that was why the two kids found it perfectly reasonable when Maverick was being held against a wall by a seemingly angry mage. And... well, they weren't wrong, he had tried to read her thoughts. Key word: tried

Sea did feel how the monster was trying to communicate telepathically, but she wasn't going to let him.

"It's ok. I won't hold it against him, I have a few flayer cousins myself so... I just hope he didn't get grossed out while reading about my period."

Bless the kids', and Maverick's, hearts. They didn't know what a period was, and out of pity for the kids Sea just told them it was a human thing.

.

She felt less angry now, still stressed but less angry, after that whole exchange with the monsters. She was sure to have come off as an understanding person once there was an explanation on the table.

Sea had her father and mother's folders in front of her as she thought about that. There were black and thick from all the papers and photos she had gathered over the years. She was currently thinking of a safe way to finally run from this hellhole with her grandpa, but her brain was so burnt out right now, that even mustering an idea of what to have for dinner was hard.

Maybe, if she just got a little shut-eye, she would feel better.

Just a little bit...

Just a little...

Just...

"Cousiiiin, they are gonna dust the monste- Oooh, what is that?"

As if by miracle, Sea suddenly regained all her strength. Getting up from her chair and quickly changing the folders with previously prepared fakes. Luckily she was sitting with her back towards the door, so when Oscar barged in, she had time to change the folders and put up her mental barriers.

"Say that again?"

"What's thaaaat?"

"The other thing"

"Ah. Your mother was tasked to dust the monste-"

.

Her head was pounding, as if someone was hitting it with a hammer. She didn't think things through, she only acted out of instinct when she heard those words from Oscar, she didn't even consider that he might have been lying. There was only one thing in her mind: protecting her grandpa.

And if she had to kill her mother for that, then so be it.

"MOTHER!"

She teleported herself to the basement, already preparing for the worst case scenario. She ran through the corridor, eyes full of tears as the dust was making them itch. She was already summoning an orange gun when she saw her mother, three cells away from Herald's

"Ah, my child~ Did you come here to see me work?"

Her mother's face was covered in dust, as well as her hands. She had a sweet smile on her, as she dusted off her clothes.

"T- this cell was..."

"The skeleton. Yeah. An aunt of yours got three more under her spells, metaphorically speaking of course, so I was told to just make more room."

She momentarily glanced at Herald's cell at the end of the hallway, he was looking right back at her, fearful.

"You do know that... that we can't go back to our old ways. Now that the monsters' numbers are bigger than humans'. It is too risky to keep monsters down here."

"Yeah. Yeah, I know. But the family heads haven't realized that, so... we gotta follow their orders"

"Right... follow their orders..."

She inhaled deeply.

"You know. I... I have been thinking that I was rude to you all these years. I mean, I know you were only trying to spend time with me after I became an adult... and I was wondering if we could... spend a little time together..."

She suppressed the urge to vomit as she forced herself to sound apologetic and hopeful. It was sickening. But that was all it took for her mother to forget her task and run to hug her daughter, tears ran down her eyes as she smiled

"Oh, Sea. But of course! I really missed spending time with you. Just let me finish this and then we'll-"

"You know? I think you did enough, I mean... look at your clothes. And it's been so long since I applied the torture methods that you taught me. Do you mind if I-?"

"No! No, go ahead. They are all yours. I'll go up to change clothes and then we could grab a cup of coffee"

"I'd love that... mom."

.

"There there kid"

"Bleeeeegh"

Sea had broken the barriers that had his grandpa and the two remaining elder monsters, albeit those two were still very sedated. And upon taking a step forward, she couldn't suppress the urge to throw up. She felt dirty after saying all those things to the joke of a mother that she had. Even worse, she had promised some quality time together. Disgusting.

"You had to do what you had to do, child..."

"Ugh, don't even talk about it..."

After she calmed down, she had given Herald a few teleportation marbles so that he could escape with the other two monsters. They couldn't wait any longer now, they had to run away that night.

"My room is full of protection spells, you already know what it looks like. Just take those two monsters with you and wait there until I get you. Okay?"

"..."

"Herald?"

"... okay"

.

Upon getting out of the basement, she found herself dodging a magic bullet...

(8/???)

Oh dang!! Was it her brother or Oscar??? Oscar us already suspicious of her so I’m betting him

And how in the heck did Maverick become friends with sea if that’s their first meeting. Ahdhdhdhhdhd I gotta know!!!

[arenabreadandbiscuits]

Been thinking and..

It'd be fun to do book commissions right? Where instead of just one shots we could make a story together that basically YOU make up and I just write. You can whatever you want however you want it if you pay.

Considering I'll need the money for when I rehabilitate further I love dough but even when I do eventually heal I'll still do commissions. Usually I fold to do requests just to get more attention but I'm gonna stand my ground this time.

So if interested in working with me for multiple periods of time just to get the story done then come and chat with me.

Prices would be based off my commission sheet already but to give a few examples of how I see this going lets say you want a 10 chapter story with 500 words each chapter. By the end of the book (chapter ten) that'll be 5,000 words which in total for what it is the whole book would cost $50.

Example 2:

10 chapter story with 5,000 words each would be $550.

Basically I'm doing my current prices by ten for these examples so you all should do that too when picking word count AND chapters. I'll allow up to 30 chapters though depending on circumstances and such this could be a monthly between me and you, the buyer.

More Examples:

5,000 words per chapter for a 20 chapter book would equal $1,100 by the end of the book.

5,000 words per chapter for a 30 chapter book would equal $1,650

Now I'm only going to say this once! If you don't have the money either wait till you do or find someone who will help accommodate you. I wish you luck on that.

You can set the timing!!

Granted at minimum these can be done by a month but be prepared for bigger orders to take just a bit more time than the smaller ones. With that said bigger stories could take longer than just a month but it all depends of course on how I'm feeling, the story we're making, characters, etc etc. Honestly you can keep up with me at any point and time and check in on the progress of things whenever you want.

~

I only take cash up front and before I start new chapters so you'll pay for the first, I'll show it to you when I'm done with it and if you want to continue you'll go ahead and pay for the next chapter and we can repeat that process. For people big banking though you could pay it all up front and I'll do everything without waiting on anything.

You can also post your story on your OWN account as long as you mention me (@ me) so people can find my account. Either you'll post it or I will and I'll mention you in the story as the one who paid for it. Either way is fine.

A lot of this stuff will take communication and adjusting, especially since this is my first time taking a step like this but if you all are willing to be patient with me I promise I'll make your story as perfect to you as I can.

Anyway,

I think I explained what I needed to BUT if confused anyone and everyone is always allowed to hit up my ask box or dm me personally.

Options available:

10 chapter story

20 chapter story

30 chapter story

Prices WILL change and WILL vary based on original pricing time word count of the chapters.

Available:

Canon x Readers

Canon x ocs

OCS x OCS

Canon x canon (depending on if I also like the ship or not.)

For more information look at my commission sheet HERE and if you have any questions PLEASE ask them. Considering commissions like these will make us partners for a while I want to make sure we both know exactly what we're doing and hoping into because I DO NOT allow refunds.

Let's have fun guys considering that's all fanfic is about! I also do art commissions but currently I'm more focused on the writing though if you want art you can always commission that as well.

If you've made it this far thank you for reading! Reblog, like and share if you can't give me money but still want me to grow my platform.

Everyone PLEASE have a lovely day!

~

[batsplat]

how has the motogp fan community grown/changed since you became a follower? can i get your thoughts on more fans coming in especially from f1? or on liberty media taking over? what are we hoping/bracing ourselves for?

honestly, I'm not the best person to answer the first question, because I've really not engaged all that much with the motogp fan community over the years... motogp isn't a massive thing in either the country I'm from or the country in which I currently reside, and I've only very rarely come across people irl who have any sort of interest in it. it's really just been through reddit, other forums, comments under blog posts on popular motogp sites, that sort of thing. I don't think reddit is a bad way to follow the sport - you've got all the hot topics but also stuff that's a little... broader than you'd get say on tumblr, about the more technical side or folks talking about less-discussed riders from the past, anecdotes from older fans, that sort of thing. it's also free and easy to not click on any post about sepang 2015, though admittedly there have been times where all these sites were quasi-unusable (hey ho argentina 2018). but I don't really feel like that community has massively changed, apart from maybe becoming a bit bigger and just having... more posts in general? you definitely get shifting opinions over time, sometimes it's a bit of a hive mind in terms of which riders are flavour of the month... so for instance bez was a lot more well-liked twelve months ago. but that kind of thing is common across all sports-oriented subreddits in my experience

I have checked in with the twitter fandom a few times in recent years just to see if, you know, it exists, and sure there's a few journalists and commentators it's worth keeping up with, but beyond that? there is a kernel of motogp-flavoured stan twt but a) many of them are primarily f1 fans, and b) their way of engaging with the sport is so alien to me that I generally take one look and then very much look away. as for the tumblr fandom, I can't speak to that at all though I'm sure others on here could tell you a lot more. I realised this bit of tumblr existed by complete accident at the start of the year. never even crossed my mind that this is a sport that would have an actual fandom on tumblr, god knows sports I follow I would consider a lot more mainstream barely do

as for new fans from f1... you know, what can you do, really. it's a good thing if the sport's fanbase as a whole becomes younger and more diverse, even if personally I am not a dorna shareholder and don't really care all that much about 'growing the sport'. new fans will bring their own biases and preconceptions and mostly not care about the bits of the sport that I care about... but that's how it's supposed to be, no? get them invested in the new riders, find all these young acosta and aldeguer and alonso fans to liven up the sport in the future. at a certain point you just have to learn not to care about what the wider fandom thinks about a lot of things. I have seen countless wildly inaccurate takes on this sport for years - which, yes, often there are howlers from newer fans who are clearly missing a lot of context, but also older fans can be flat out wrong about plenty of stuff. new fans migrating from f1 or whatever will create what... well, it's essentially fanon lol, based on how other fans introduce them to the sport as well as to certain historical events. but, you know, that already exists on here, and there's plenty of popular interpretations of these riders and past events and the current landscape of the sport that I personally strongly disagree with or are just... not true. plus ça change. stop worrying about a foreign takeover and just be careful to curate your space, imo - you can avoid most of the truly annoying stuff if you exercise self-control

generally speaking, I imagine more fans in a space like tumblr will lead to more polarisation and fragmentation in a way you can't quite afford in the same way in a smaller community. more drama, more controversy with more people who can potentially set it off and more people inclined to drag it out. corners that are based increasingly around specific riders or specific sets of riders. there's always upsides and downsides to that kind of thing in any fan space... you get more stuff created by fans, more art and fic and fanvids and essays about two decade old rivalries (funnily enough I'm not massively expecting an uptick in that particular market). more fans for riders who don't currently get a lot of attention. you do also get more discourse and more controversy... hopefully the most conflict-happy new fans stick to twitter. but at the end of the day, everyone starts out as the fan others want to gatekeep against, and it's not like you can actually stop them from joining, so. whatever. also, who knows if the sport really will actually 'take off'. I follow a sport for which a netflix show was announced and a lot of people were expecting something along the lines of the drive to survive-effect. so much posting and think pieces a dozen about whether the new fans would have the wrong opinions on all manner of hot topic issue. in the end, the show flopped and we got fuck all new fans, so that was a massive waste of everyone's time lol. motogp has itself been through something similar with the ill-fated prime show where they bungled the release... you never really know

that being said, it is quite likely that if the liberty media purchase goes through, they will do a pretty good job of attracting new fans. they've broadly done a good job with f1 - and it's not like they can really be blamed for most of the problems with the actual racing. it wouldn't be a bad thing to get new races in the states, as long as they're good ones (my problem with the newer races certainly isn't location but is with some of the rather drab circuit layouts) - and if f1 is anything to go by, I doubt we're going to lose any of the series' gems. quite frankly, if we need to cut a few european circuits, not wanting to name any names but I do have a bit of a shortlist. further calendar bloating is a worry, but for various reasons it's not going to happen in the short- to medium-term. and unlike in f1 there's less enthusiasm at the prospect on the part of the actual teams (also, crucially, the tyre supplier). obviously street circuits aren't going to happen. hopefully, some aspects of the way the sport is presented to audiences will be improved - from the actual television product, to what footage is released to fans, to how much we see of riders further down the field, and so on. hopefully, the sport will become more accessible to more fans in terms of viewing options... but yeah, how riders lower down the field are treated is I think the main thing I'd like to see change. hey, maybe we'll finally have access to more on-board cameras. maybe they'll finally show us the controversial and presumably interesting incidents happening outside of the top ten in any given race. my main worry just from a selfish perspective is any change to the videopass product (unless they'd like to make it a wee bit cheaper). I'm just about willing to shell out the amount I currently do given I heavily make use of the archives and think it's a fantastic resource, but for instance in f1 there's geo-restrictions to the kind of f1.tv you have access to... there's always the slight concern what new tv deals might change. still, this is all pretty minor stuff, and really I don't expect liberty media to be either able or willing to come in and make radical changes to how the sport currently works. concerns about ticket prices and fan experiences are also reasonable, though as someone who hasn't had the money/opportunity to visit any races myself, I really can't bring a lot to the table to that discussion beyond 'I hope it doesn't become prohibitively expensive'

of course, there's some things I very much want to see retained, for instance I'd hate it if liberty pushes for riders to speak english more often. also, we need to petition them to bring back the press conference table. overall, though... some of the changes will probably be bad, a lot of them will hopefully be good. change is necessary and motogp needs to finally adapt to a post-rossi world. it's unhealthy for a sport to continue to rely on the second hand glow from a man who retired years ago, to pray that the fans he created are somehow going to continue to care if you don't give them a reason to. rossi revolutionalised the sport, but eventually you need a new revolution. anecdotally and according to various podcasts, there's finally been a shift this year away from just crowds of yellow at all these circuits... which is categorically a good thing. above all, you need fans to care about the current product, make them fans of the current racing, the current riders, while also providing them opportunity to get interested and emotionally invested in the history of the sport. a lot of them will ignore that history... but eventually, that's how the cycle goes with everything. you don't get much discussion of, say, doohan these days on tumblr, and time will creep up on all these riders. you see it on here with how many newer fans say they went back to watch races starting from 2013 - because they care about the marquez era and are less interested (if at all) in either rossi's golden years or the alien era. which is how it should be... you cannot expect new fans to care about over twenty years of racing when they're just getting started (if they ever will). all you can do as a sport is hook them with whatever they're willing to be hooked with, and gently nudge them wherever they're willing to be gently nudged to. and if the end product of all that change is something that's more palpable to the masses but less suited to your personal tastes... well, you can always watch the old stuff

[nabipenda-blog]

BOOKS I READ IN JANUARY.

1. Perks of being a wallflower - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟.

We follow Charlie in highschool as he writes letters to a friend about his life and experiences.

This book is very short thus a quick read and is written in epistolary format and is very slice of life. We just see Charlie through his days in Highschool.

What I loved about this book is our main protagonist who is socially awkward but still very relatable. I also loved the other characters like his friends and family. I loved the music references and currently working on adding them to my playlist.

Highly recommend

2. Apothecary diaries light novel vol 1 and manga vol 1,2 and 3- 🌟🌟🌟🌟.25 ( average rating).

Set in ancient Asia, we follow Maomao as she is kidnapped and sold to the royal palace as a servant girl. She quickly gains attention of the higher-ups as an apothecary after solving a mystery involving the king's infant children.

I am actually a sucker for period pieces and this scratched an itch I had and was very satisfied. Loved Maomao and Jinshi's relationship as they helped each other solving this mysteries in the rear palace.

The light novel vol 1 is a combination of the manga volumes 1,2,3 and 4.

The anime is currently airing and I have just started watching it and so excited to experience this story more.

3. Komi can't communicate vol 1 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟.

Komi is a beautiful girl who is admired by everyone for her looks but is socially awkward and has social anxiety to the point where she cannot talk to anyone. We follow her as she joins highschool and meets Tadano who is a very regular student and helps her make 100 friends.

This manga was such a breath of fresh air for me. I loved Komi and her budding friendship with Tadano and the journey she is undertaking to make 100 friends. We meet a few of the friends she makes along the way and all are interesting characters.

This is a slice of life comedy with lessons about friendship and life in general.

4. Billy bat vol 1 - 🌟🌟🌟.75.

Kevin Yamagata is a mangaka who writes a manga called Billy bat but soon he realizes that he might be copying an image from Japan that he saw while working in the military. This forces him to go back to Japan to look for the original creator and while there he realizes that this is a conspiracy bigger than what he could imagine.

I started reading this manga because I wanted to get into Urasawa's work and this one intrigued me because it was about art and I enjoy media that explore art. This manga does expand into conspiracies of it's own as we see Billy bat as an entity on its own. It also takes real life major world events in history and incoporates them into the story.

5. The murder of Roger Ackroyd- 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟.

This is a Hercule Poirot murder mystery. We follow Hercule Poirot as he is tasked with investigating the murder of a good friend.

It is so hard to give a proper synopsis of this book because of spoilers but I loved this book. It is a very typical murder mystery but the twist and how it was revealed was so shocking that I saw this book in a whole new light.

This is not my first Agatha Christie book and it will not be my last.

6. Heartstopper vol 2 - 🌟🌟🌟🌟.

We follow schoolmates Nick and Charlie who become friends after they meet in a class. This is a love story between two boys from different backgrounds.

Vol 2 begins immediately after vol 1 and in this one we see Nick coming to terms with his sexual identity and the blossoming love between him and Charlie.

[darknebula85]

My favorite fnf mods:

(This list has been updated on March 7, 2024)

I started playing friday night funkin since Sarvente's mod came out, but got interested in the game thanks to a remix of Dad battle made by Retrospecter. I have been playing from then until now, and although the game has dropped in popularity I still enjoy it a lot. It's one of my favorite games in general, I haven't gotten so addicted to a game since geometry dash came out hahaha (one of my favorites too) By the way, currently the mods I look forward to the most are: Fnf Classified, vs Cartoon cat, immumus showdown, vs Mario pc port, arcade archives, blank pages and crimson carnival. When they come out we'll see if this list changes or gets bigger… unless they are canceled as usually happens :v

There are some mods like indie cross and vs Impostor that I haven't been able to play because my PC is a potato, but someday when I have money to buy a new computer I'll play them and probably update this list.

These are also my favorites, so I couldn't leave them out:

20- Cassette girl. 19- vs V-TAN. 18- Livid lycanthrope. 17- Flavor rave. 16- Classified. 15- Antiphaty. 14- Twimsomnia. 13- Doki doki take over. 12- Vs Fnaf 1, 2 and 3.

11- Spooky Saturday scare:

This mod exceeded all my expectations, especially since I had no expectations XD. I didn't even know it existed so I downloaded it out of curiosity when it came out, and wow, it was extremely good. My favorite part was the whole process to unlock the song "Imscared", it was a lot of fun to investigate, I really look forward to the next update.

10-Fnf graffiti grooving:

I played it a few days ago, and wow, I liked it more than I expected. One thing I really like about fnf is the huge number of characters, both original and those created by the community, and when they appear as cameos in a mod I always feel a little emotional hahaha. Aesthetically it is beautiful, the part of the train in the dark is top tier, and Sinester is one of the songs that I liked playing the most, and one of my favorites in general.

9-Lofi funkin:

I really don't have much to say here, I played this mod the same day it came out, at home it was 12 and something, so I finished playing it at 2:30 in the morning, that day was not the best and the mod made me forget the bad moment of that day, so I really enjoyed playing it. And well, the mod is very beautiful, the songs are very funny and, honestly, it is a good de-stresser.

8-Fnf Funkscop:

Ok, I had to edit this, because what I just played is amazing… I mean, how come this mod has gone so under the radar? The songs are too good, and it perfectly adapts the style of the playstation 1. I liked it a lot, I didn't expect much and it ended up being one of the best I've ever played.

Edit (30/11): Ok I'm editing this again, it's only been two days since I posted this and I've already changed it 3 times lol. Today while I was working I watched a 2-hour video about the history of petscop... and my friend, what a great crap, whoever thought of such a story has talent.

7-Viernes noche webiando:

Aquí voy a hablar español al chile (nunca mejor dicho :v). Bueno este mod lo jugué cuando salio hace como un año, y en su momento me pareció entretenido sin más, nada muy destacable tampoco, pero hermano, con la actualización paso de ser un 7 a un 100 nmms. El esfuerzo que le pusieron a este mod es una cosa de locos, si hasta los actores de voz de pulentos colaboraron, además del pinche derker que me sorprendió mucho verlo haciendo la voz de Bodoque XD, y es que el amor que desprende por todos lados es una cosa muy bonita. El mod en si es de altísimo calidad, los sprites y diseño de personajes son espectaculares, pero para mi lo mejor fueron las canciones, amigo, QUE BUENAS SON LAS CANCIONES DE ESTE MOD, no hay ni una que no suene mal. Así que si, puesto 6 para CHILE y su increíble mod!!!

6-Fnf Funk mix:

Well, we got to the heavyweights, I loved this mod, I played it two months ago I think, and I thought it was super fun, I liked all the retro aesthetics they worked with, and my friend, the songs are very good, besides Mario bros it's an important part of my childhood, and seeing it so well represented here was a nice gift. I only find one problem with this mod, and it is that it is very difficult for those who are just starting to play, dying if you miss 3 notes is very difficult, but with practice you can do it.

5-Fnf hololivefunk:

It's one of the first mods I played, and I only wanted to play it because of killer scream :v . Honestly, I follow few vtubers, the one I followed the most was Rushia (D':) and it was because I liked her character, but going back to the mod, I liked the story a lot, it has a simple but very beautiful story, and well, at some point I grew fond of the character of Aloe, so on that side they hit the nail on the head. On the other hand, it was the first time I completed a song that was impossible for me, when I finished red and black after playing for almost 3 hours… I felt an impressive satisfaction XD. Very good mod… it also has a killer scream so it adds more points. Now with the update that they released I must say that it is one of the best mods that I have played, it is extremely entertaining.

4-Fnf baddies:

A similar case to that of graffiti groovin, I really like it when I see characters I know making cameos, and in the case of this mod, week 1 is the one I liked the most, I loved the tremendous lore they invented hahaha. Although it is true that when this mod came out there were all kinds of controversies, I focused more on the gameplay and the quality with which they do things, and in the case of baddies, they do that part very well. Por cierto soy Latino, de paso Venezolano, así que la semana de Jasmine me hizo sentir como cuando estas en una de esas fiestas familiares raras a altas horas de la madrugada XD.

3-Hotline 024:

I've been waiting for this mod for months, I've been following saruky on all her social networks waiting for her to announce the release of the demo… and when she announced it and it was available… I ran to download it. And honestly, in general terms, this seems to me the best mod that has come out with indie cross. It has everything I like, very good design and quality, crossovers and music, THE MUSIC IS BRUTAL. And well, I don't have much more to say, it's too good and fun.

2- Mario´s Madness:

Well, this wasn't expected. Unlike many other people, I enjoy horror mods. It's true that there's an oversaturation of them, but there are many that are really good, and in this case, we have the perfect example of a well-made horror mod. Mario's Madness never caught my attention; I played V1 and didn't think much of it, so I wasn't eagerly awaiting its return. I'm more excited for Rerun, but the day came, the mod was released, and I downloaded it, and I can only say that it's a masterpiece of this community. The story is incredibly well told, the songs are spectacular, and the mechanics, brother, the mechanics are insane. Each song is different from the others, especially Paranoia; that song has been one of the most incredible things I've seen in this community. The final battle was brutal; the entire introduction to the fight, the sections, and especially the unexpected ending it had. EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS MOD IS TOO GOOD! EVEN THE CREDIT SONG IS AMAZING, IT MAKES NO SENSE. For all the experience this mod left me with (and because I've been listening to the songs for 2 months now), it takes second place. We just need Rerun to come out, and we'll see if Mario holds his place against Sonic.

1-Friday night crunchin:

Please give support to this mod, I beg you :v , it seems to me that it has little support compared to what the mod offers. I mean friend, HOW GOOD IS THIS MOD!!! The first time I played it I completely fell in love with Legacy (my favorite song in all fnf with morten obire), and with the latest update that brought Threat and Rumor I just like the mod even more. I just don't know how to explain it, everything in this mod seems so good to me, the menu, the sprites, how they tell the story, and the freeplay songs, which is the best I've played since this game came out. I don't know, fnf crunchin is my favorite mod, I just love it. Interesting fact, I've been hearing rumor since I started doing this.

[qwanderer]

Joined a new discord server today, and apparently my experiences with the muses are extremely relatable to plural systems. I can't say I'm surprised, it seems like the mechanics would be similar, but plural is not a label I relate to.

Was thinking about why, and from the outset my instincts said that the distinction is more about who and what I am than about who and what the muses are. And I think I'm starting to get a handle on how that works.

My sensory experience, my body, my consciousness, and my identity are all very tightly intertwined. On Saturday when I was hanging out with the family, we were discussing body pain and ways of dealing with it, and when I described the ways I deal with stress and pain in my body, my sister commented that my consciousness of my body is exceptionally well integrated.

To me, the label "plural" sounds like there is more than one person inside a body. But my body is me, and my muses aren't in my body.

My muses have their own bodies in their stories. They are separate people with their own shapes, identities, sensory experiences and consciousnesses (if they can be said to have consciousness at all).

The world I inhabit is distinctly different from the worlds they inhabit. I asked Parker about whether she wanted to exist in this world and she just shrugged and said, "I can't, my body's not there."

I introduced the concept that she might inhabit my body.

"Literally can't," she told me. "You're in there. Like, all the way in there. No space for me. And I can slip in any little space. I'd have to, like, turn off the whole brain. Basically, kill you. And that seems counterproductive."

And my "me-ness" is very attached to my body, but then there's the larger mental landscape, which is my calling to be a storyteller, and that's several orders of magnitude bigger than my-body-me, and can hold all the characters I've ever read about, written about, seen on TV, thought of, ever will think of. That's where the muses live.

To some extent I think it is a philosophical difference, the perspective on whether or not that whole place is "me," because I have a lot of interesting religious ideas I acquired in my childhood, and my current spirituality is very closely tied to those ideas.

I think of stories and myths and communities and fandoms and dreams and spirits as all part of a larger continuum, the backing fabric of the universe, I guess. And all of that is only "me" if I become stretched thin enough to encompass the entire universe. It would be a sort of godhood, and I don't feel any call to claim godhood myself.

The me in my body is enough me to be getting on with. I'm only borrowing the muses from the universe.

[breserker]

Cosigning all of this! For me the thing that taught me to remove deadwood the most is, unironically, learning a new context-heavy language like Japanese. That's kind of a tall order! But it really helped me understand what I could or couldn't cut in order to get the point across, and I think any bilingualism helps with that since you're essentially translating your thoughts to the page. It could be big like they're saying up there, or small, like in my current draft I didn't realize I weirdly start describing a character's physical looks in a scene that really didn't need that and thus it feels jarring. Keep what you wrote even if you cut it! It may come back later!

AND

Every time you come across a writing advice that has a big bold DON'T across it, think to yourself what sort of story would that DON'T be? Because, for as much as I understand what OP is saying in the twitter thread, there is a story where a multipage meticulous description of starbucks works. Off the top of my head it could be a very damning story about depression, or being a service worker, or routine.

Is that your story?

As a longtime fan of Brian Jacques, many of his feasting scenes and food scenes are I think technically things that don't need to be as extravagant as they are. Yet they're so a part of the story I bet you money a fair chunk of people would consider it part of the worldbuilding. Why have a Redwall story without an intricate homey feast? Or the Guosim rowing songs? Unfeasible!

Farmer Maggot and Tom Bombadil are such effectively unimportant characters to the larger narrative of Lord of the Rings that it's easy to write them out of adaptations or despair when you get to their parts upon a reread. So, why did Tolkien include them?

Perhaps the fact that they're not important to the greater narrative was the point to him--and his decision to include them thus became important to the telling of the story. One could argue (and I do) that while it's not feasible for a film adaptation (every line of script is limited time borrowed and you have scant few minutes for it), Farmer Maggot embodies what Frodo loves of the Shire--childhood scamping days being forgiven by being an adult in the community and learning and pre-grieving a lost intergenerational friendship in the days and long journey ahead. Tom Bombadil is immensely important to the idea that Sauron is, in fact, not the ultimate big bad evil guy in the whole world--there are forces both good and bad outside of his influence that have nothing to do with him. Sauron is just the focus of the story of The Lord of the Rings, specifically. The world is bigger than him. Kinder, more evil in places, but bigger than him. The war at the end of the Third Age was important yes, but even moreso that there would always be a world around it too.

What is the story you want to tell?

What would help the story you want to tell?

If it doesn't help, cut it. If it does, somehow, in some way...even if it's in ways these big DON'Ts tell you not to do, keep it around for a while. See how it meets you in a few months.

40 pages describing a starbucks probably wouldn't help a cozy mystery story. Or....it could, if that's part of the mystery. In a way. If yes you'd have to find ways to chew gum and walk as they say. But any idea isn't inherently a bad one, it might just be the wrong one.

PACING IS ABOUT LOAD BEARING WALLS.

*staples violently to my own forehead*

[qnewsau]

Everyone is welcome at the PAX Together Lounge this weekend

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/everyone-is-welcome-at-the-pax-together-lounge-this-weekend/

Everyone is welcome at the PAX Together Lounge this weekend

Over 3 days this weekend, PAX Aus celebrates gaming and gaming culture as the PAX Together Lounge returns bigger than ever – because games are for everyone.

The expo has panels, tournaments, demos, and more under one roof at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

It’s a chance for people to interact with game developers, publishers and brands, but also make friends and connections.

Now in its tenth year, the PAX Together Lounge is a gaming space that celebrates various backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences within gaming, especially from minority groups.

“We had one very small room which was less than half the size of our current lounge in our first year.” Alice Clarke told us.

“We had the community rooms, did the panels, had the board games and the video games. But it was small.”

“When we had talks we had about 50 people outside in the hallway because there physically wasn’t enough space to stand in that room.”

“Now we’ve got the community booths in a large area kind of outside the lounge.”

“Our lounge is more than double the size of the old lounge and we’ve got our separate theatre.”

The PAX Together Lounge is located on the second floor of the Convention Centre near the Cosplay Lounge.

“I’m proud that we’re able to create a space that people seem to be responding to enough that we can expand on it and make it be what it is,” Alice said.

“The community creates this space with us, and I feel so lucky I get to be a part of it.”

Supplied aus.paxsite.com

A place to find your community

Games should be for everyone and also made by anyone.

Whether your game of choice is board, card, console or computer, there is a place for all at PAX Together.

With organisations like Transgender Victoria, Melbourne Gaymers and Checkpoint in the Community Lounge, PAX Together has also become a place for connection and information.

“I love how many parents come with their kids, whether they’ve kids recently come out and the parents are trying to wrap their heads around it,” Alice told us.

“Coming to the Lounge with their kids has also become a way that parents can make sure they let them know that they’re supported and have this community.”

“Having organisations like Transgender Victoria lets them know they are supported and safe and there are other people like them.”

“Now that I’m a mother, I’m excited that my daughter gets to grow up around this community and meet these people and know that she’s a part of so many more things.”

“You can experience so many different stories and so many different lives through gaming in ways that you just can’t in any other mediums.”

The Meet up Schedule at the Lounge is huge.

There is a place and space for every game and gaming tribe.

Where you can play along, learn something new or just find your people.

A packed schedule of gaming fun

From meet-ups to a host of talks and conversations, games and more, there is something for everyone as part of the PAX Together schedule.

“I’m excited about the whole program.”

“We have a lip sync roulette drag show on Friday night which will be pretty spectacular.”

“On Saturday, DJ Matt Frequencies is doing an RPG DJ show where everybody in the room is playing and you determine what happens to the music and the story.

“On a personal note, I’m posting the 10th edition of our Xena Nintendo 64 Fighting Game tournament.”

“It is the worst fighting game of all time in the best possible way, and I’ve gone massively overboard in the prizes this year, so  show up early so you can be a part of that.”

“And we are hosting Nerd Quiz again, which is always one of my highlights.”

“It’s a queer comedy trivia show which has segments such as ‘dead, evil, pregnant’.”

“It’s a mash-up of the queer female character and the trope she ended up in.”

You can check out the full schedule here.

Whether you’re heading to PAX  to meet old friends or find new favs there is something for all.

Be sure to check out PAX Together, which celebrates a space where everyone can be their authentic self when it comes to games and gaming.

Find out more about the PAX Together Lounge here.

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, and community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.