#and what the Council was discussing

[infinitethree]

Hi San! Simple question here, but can you tell where people are if they're invisible? Like, can you feel where they walk, or you sense them?

As always, being addressed makes San burst into a flurry of attempts to convey their response to Lucid.

Sunlight on his skin; candy fizzing on his tongue; and a wet dog nose on his arm and the smell of yellow.

In simpler terms: happiness, delight, and curiosity.

It takes him a few more minutes to decipher their answer. He relays, “Uh, kind of? The subtler signs of someone being invisible are hard to notice if they’re not focused on that exact area and looking for them. San just has the benefit of being able to go back and look for clues, y’know?”

Not that it’s impossible to evade their gaze. Hell, it’s one of the key pieces of information given during orientation; blackstone and obsidian block the sight of the perpetual security camera that otherwise sees everything.

Yeah, he’s not terribly surprised there have been more than a few people who couldn’t cope with the idea of that. He’s glad they could help them relocate to less…upsetting homes.

Given that San can still be iffy on respecting boundaries– like not randomly showing Lucid things they really shouldn’t be showing him– he can’t even be upset that pretty much everyone has a secret room or even bunker they can relax in.

Rather, he’s relieved that he doesn’t have to keep the truths of being an admin hidden…but that he can still offer them privacy when they decide they want it.

Though he does feel a bit guilty that because blackstone and obsidian are literally dangerous for him to be around for extended periods of time, Zephyr and Iatros had to build their hidden areas a bit further out.

He does know that the meeting room for the Syndicate had been retrofitted into one such place. And…it’s one that Iatros sometimes uses to have his appointments with Day in.

…Also, another one is in what used to be the wither vault, for some unholy reason.

‘Tros has a weird sense of humor sometimes.

He makes a confused face at that statement.

Not a lot of people consider him their favorite. Hell, even Aver– for as much as he loves to pester Lucid and drop by to spend time with him– has stated that, sorry, his favorite Dream is actually Lee.

That statement had been followed up with a rambling, “He’s the second poggest kid on the server! N’ I’m not just saying that ‘cause his fuckin’ family n’ dedicated army would murder me otherwise. Or ‘cause he’s apparently gonna get deep in the fuckin’ weeds about poison, n’ frankly with how scary the people around him are I really don’t wanna get on his bad side–”

At which point Lucid had told him that he wasn’t going to be mad that he liked the kid.

Hell– Lee has wormed his way into pretty much everyone’s heart. To…perhaps a concerning degree, given the aforementioned Swords & Shields.

Yeah, if it were for anyone else, he’d be worried. He’d also be worried if it were helmed by anyone other than Aster.

The guy is basically a zealot vis-a-vis his dedication towards the absurdly overpowered kid. From the glimpses he’s gotten or been unwillingly shown, Aster does not fuck around when it comes to Lee.

Which is nice. He’s glad that his probable future co-admin has a dogmatically loyal person at his side.

More importantly, though– at least for the moment– he can smell lemongrass and pine. The tell-tale sign of his server getting indignant at him.

Right, he hasn’t answered or conveyed their response.

Dutifully, he says, “Sorry, got lost in thought. Uh, we’re good? And San likes cats owned by players. They kind of made do when not many people had cats, but now that there’s a ton owned by various people…they’re having the time of their life.”

His head tilts to the side. The person– Observer, he thinks they’re called?-- just spoke, and yet is talking like they left and came back.

Hmm. Are…the messages not being given immediately?

Definitely something he should bring up with the T3. Nobody is really positive whose authority all this weirdness falls under, but the three of them are definitely the most affected.

He parses the rest of the message and blinks several times.

“...Instincts? That sounds wrong. I’m not a hybrid, and neither is Day…?”

Upon directing his mental attention to San, his world gives him the equivalent of a shrug.

Great. That’s…comforting.

The rest of the message is even less welcome to hear. He really hopes whatever the hell the Observer is talking about, it’s not something that’s going to bother him any time soon.

A sudden knock at the door distracts him from his thoughts. He’s not expecting anyone, but few people bother making appointments with him anyway. If he’s needed, he gets called or they just show up.

He’s more than a little surprised to see Daz at his doorstep. The guy smiles at him, but it’s not as bright as it usually is. “Hey, Lucy,” the head of the Welcome Wagon says.

By now the nickname doesn’t bother him. It’s a sign of friendliness, and given how messed up Daz had been when he first got to Sanctuary…

Well, the fact that Lucid got such a cutesy nickname so quickly is pretty much a miracle.

Since it looks like Daz has a lot he wants to say, he opens the door for him. “Thanks,” the guy says, smile growing just a little. He politely wipes his shoes off and then flops onto one of the overstuffed armchairs.

Daz seems to steel himself and takes a deep breath, and declaring, “I– I want to be trained as an admin. Not instead of Lee, but alongside him.”

That’s…a surprise. Lucid slowly sits down in his usual spot, and Hope immediately climbs into his lap.

“What brought this on?”

Daz is quiet for several long moments, anxiously messing with the many gold earrings crammed into his left ear.

Eventually, he says, “I think…I think that’s– that’s why everything happened to me. The– the stuff that brought me here. I think it was– I think he needed another admin.”

That had been something Lucid had thought might be the case, but he still winces. “I don’t know how rare admins were where you are, but…” “I didn’t even know I was one. I, uh– I also didn’t get out much. I see more people at the average Welcome Wagon picnic than I did in my entire life up until Sanctuary.”

There’s a slight shake of his head, and Daz sits up straighter. “But, I can help. And I want to do it! Even if I might not become a full admin– I still haven’t really wrapped my head around that…I can still help. And I’m good at explaining things! Maybe if I figure stuff out with code and it’s not clicking for Lee, I can help him.”

If this had been before Daz had proven himself over and over again with the Welcome Wagon, Lucid might have hesitated more. But…for all his bubbly, somewhat ditziness, Daz is also full-throatedly dedicated to helping others.

In every action that Lucid has seen him take, Daz has been determined to make the server a better, happier place.

A lot of other people, he might suspect of making some kind of weird power play. But…Daz?

There’s no way in hell that the guy has a malicious bone in his body.

“I mean– it’s not really up to just me. But…I’ll talk to Day about it.” He glances out the window, and stands up again. “It’s getting a little late, though. I don’t want you to get stuck outside at night. Respawns still kinda suck.”

Daz stands up and hugs him tightly. “Thanks, Lucy! I knew I could count on you. Uhm, I can make my case to Day if you want? Since it’s kinda…”

He huffs and awkwardly pats the guy’s back. “Nah, it’s probably better if I do it myself. Nothing’s decided yet, though, so don’t get your hopes up too much.”

There’s a bubbly laugh, and Daz grins at him. “You underestimate my capacity for hope,” he teases, before breaking away. “I’ll go, then. Thanks again! Have a good night– and you too, San!”

Just as quickly as he had showed up, the abnormally upbeat Tommy leaves. In fact, he does so so quickly that Lucid isn’t able to convey the flurry of delight from his server at the prospect of having one of their favorites as another admin.

“I guess things are gonna get even more interesting,” Lucid sighs, rubbing the back of his neck.

[mollysunder]

I have a problem with the idea of a Jinx redemption arc. It's not that I have any issue with the fact that Jinx will be viewed as a hero to the people of Zaun. It's pretty obvious Jinx would be admired, she did a thing the people of Zaun wanted en masse for a long time. The thing about Jinx being the savior of Zaun is that it isn't really a redemption arc, because that's still just Jinx being militantly opposed to Piltover, a thing she always has been.

My problem is that the insistence that Jinx NEEDS to have a redemption arc takes away from the larger complexity of Arcane's worldbuilding. What does Jinx have to apologize for in order to be redeemed? Why is there so much emphasis on Jinx's character specifically to rectify her wrongs? And the way the fandom often defines Jinx's wrongdoings centers around a vague discomfort in her acts of violence and general instability.

What does it look like for Jinx to be "good", when the actions of many well-intentioned characters that the audience has an easier time being morally-aligned with either generates very little benefit or actual harm? No one in the cast sans Jinx and Silco have taken the material steps (as controversial as they may be) to deal with the problem that is Piltover, and Piltover has always been THE problem for Zaun.

The concept of a redemption arc for Jinx is so backwards because it asks Jinx as an individual to do "better" when it should be demanded of Piltover instead. How do you live to a standard that makes you morally good when the environment around you necessitates violence as it's own form of capital?

Sidenote: This all leads to the one real worry I have about Jinx and Ekko's inevitable partnership. Ekko is the character the showrunners treat as a guiding light in Zaun, which unfortunately makes Ekko an agent of the showrunners' biases. Case in point, Ekko's friendship with Heimerdinger, the architect of Zaun's despair.

If Jinx and Ekko team up, there's a chance she'd up end up working with Heimerdinger too. And it's like, "C'mon, really????"

[wonder-worker]

"[Elizabeth Woodville] was the only member of [Crown Prince Edward of Westminster's] original 1471 council not already on the king’s council and her name headed the list of those appointed as administrators in Wales during Edward’s minority. [She remained on the council after it was expanded in 1473 and granted significant new governing and judicial powers]."

"In 1478 Prince Richard [of Shrewsbury] married the Mowbray heiress. Like his elder brother he had a chancellor, seal, household and council to manage his estates. His council, like that of Prince Edward, comprised the queen [Elizabeth Woodville] and a group of magnates and bishops, few of whom were Woodville supporters [...] It was Elizabeth who mattered, for Richard resided with her and Rivers treated his affairs as their own."

-J.L. Laynesmith, The Last Medieval Queens: English Queenship 1445-1503 / Michael Hicks, Richard III and his Rivals: Magnates and their Motives in the Wars of the Roses

[vrailaru]

very self indulgent thing

[elftwink]

have to work on a project today and an unrelated thing happened that just made me so so so so so mad (just some irl personal stuff), which normally derails my entire day because i find it so hard to come out of the angry/upset state and tend to just circle back and obsess over whatever triggered it but! today after 20 minutes of that i had a council meeting about it (<- what i call my decision making process) the outcome of which was putting it aside (!!!) for later when i could actually talk about it and resolve it (!!!) & in the meantime we could just do other stuff.

local man exuberant and jubilated to achieve feats of basic emotional self-regulation and was seen excitedly telling reporters he "never thought this day would come" and began giving a thank you speech to nobody in particular. more on this story as it develops

[navii-blaze]

Royalty designs wips

[iguessitsjustme]

This just in: I am NOT okay.

[icewindandboringhorror]

Recent game related things .. hrmm...

[darabeatha]

/ I don't know why I just find it so funny that L.ucifer has like,, councils with the other fallen angels to discuss his plans and stuff, and the way that he even takes other's suggestions into consideration its like, corporate cartoon villain kind of stuff

[rlconasty]

I think the first thing I’m going to bake with nick will probably be cookies or something just because it’s simple. Then we can delve into making soufflés

[m0e-ru]

today three years ago was the day my life changed for better or worse I remember very vividly the moment I was minding my own damn business in the living room and my dad booted up this godforsaken game and all I had to say was 'oh it's another persona game I like its music choice' and I looked at this idiot made up of three polygons straight in the eyes. theoretically. if he didn't wear a hat that obscured his face in every single ps2 limited camera angle possible. then felt something silently and so fervently change inside me like a bomb was planted in my brain that would not explode until a less than a month from that day

[digirainebow]

hi i just pulled off my first timeline where flulu lives and ger doesnt and im immensely fucked up.

[adragonsfriend]

^^^several excellent points

Look at this point I just gotta say that--despite the overall tone of this post being dictated by the jokey meme format and it therefore being unreasonable to assume it covers all nuances of opinion like an essay format might--my phrasing "the council didn’t want to give Anakin whatever exceptions he wanted" was very deliberate--Anakin is the recipient of a big exception in the very first movie, literally as soon as that exception became the safest course of action for him an others. The exceptions he wanted but didn't get are being married (and depending on your interpretation of clone wars this one may have been granted via plausible deniability anyway), becoming a master when he was unqualified, (at times) being able to do whatever he wanted without consequence, and probably some other more specific examples in clone wars i'm forgetting.

The phrasing "the council is perfectly willing to make exceptions when the person asking for them is trustworthy and responsible enough to handle them" therefore absolutely includes Anakin in many circumstances

Choke (and die): Mace Windu is inherently more violent than other Jedi and that’s why he’s good at fighting

Broke: Mace Windu uses Vaapad as the main mechanism to manage his anger

Woke: Mace Windu is cooler than everyone, and that’s why he can use Vaapad where other people can’t

Bespoke: Mace Windu spent many years learning to manage his emotions, including an especially complicated relationship with protective anger, before ever thinking about developing a new lightsaber form, and that’s why the council was willing to grant him the exception to study Juyo and why he was able to develop Vaapad and use it better than anyone else

Also,

Broke: the Jedi council is rigid and unwilling to make reasonable exceptions

Even more broke: Mace Windu and Ki-Adi Mundi were both the recipients of massive exceptions but this is because of favouritism. The reason the council didn’t want to give Anakin whatever exceptions he wanted is because they hate him

Woke: the council is perfectly willing to make exceptions when the person asking for them is trustworthy and responsible enough to handle them

[wonder-worker]

are there any books you'd recommend for Isabelle of Angouleme?

Hi! I’m really not an expert on Isabella of Angouleme so I'm probably not the best person to ask for recommendations for her. Here are some I've heard of, though I haven't read all of them:

"Isabella of Angouleme: John's Jezebel" by Nicholas Vincent (King John: New Interpretations). I haven't read it myself but I've heard good things!

“Maternal Abandonment and Surrogate Caregivers: Isabella of Angoulême and Her Children by King John” by Louise J. Wilkinson (Virtuous or Villainess? The Image of the Royal Mother from the Early Medieval to the Early Modern Era). It focuses more-so on Isabella's tenure as queen, the period shortly after John's death, and her decision to leave England. Despite what the title may imply, it's sympathetic to Isabella and analyzes her situation in detail.

“Co-Operation, Co-Rulership and Competition: Queenship in the Angevin Domains 1135-1230” by Gabrielle Storey, her PHD thesis which collectively focuses on Isabella of Angouleme along with Empress Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Berengaria of Navarre. You can read/download it here, it's an excellent piece for all four women.

Sally Spong has written/is writing:

Isabella of Angouleme: The Vanished Queen (Norman to Early Plantagenet Consorts). You can see her conclusion here. It's nuanced and sympathetic, though not without its issues and pre-conceived notions.

Isabella of Gloucester and Isabella of Angouleme: Female Lordship, Queenship, Power, and Authority 1189-1220 (PHD thesis University of East Anglia).

“Isabelle d’Angouleme, By the Grace of God, Queen” by William Chester Jordan. You can read it online here, though I will say that it's ... very very questionable, accepting the sensational claims of lot of unreliable sources (including the idea of John abducting Isabella in a fit of uncontrollable infatuation) entirely at face-value.

“The Marriage and Coronation of Isabelle of Angouleme” by H.G. Richardson, available here on JSTOR.

Isabella has also been the subject of two complete French biographies till date:

"Isabelle d’Angoulême, reine d’Angleterre" (Aquitaine: 1998) by Sophie Fougere.

"Isabelle d’Angoulême, comtesse-reine et son temps (1186-1246)" [Actes du colloque tenu à Lusignan, 8 au 10 novembre 1996] by Gabriel Biancotto, Robert Favreau and Piotr Skubiszewski.

There are also a few blog posts about her (here and here) which may help if you want a brief overview of her life, though they can get a little sensationalistic sometimes.

Hope this helps! If anyone knows any others, please feel free to add on!

[vivalasthedas]

every time i rewatch charmed and get to the episode where they're forced to experience either, their own brutal and slow death, or watch the brutal and slow death of their sister, because they messed with an awful neighbor

its like

they really never did fully explore how fucked up the elders were huh? That was. That was never something they actually really got into in a meaningful and not handwaved or stupid way, was it?

Cause that's fucked up.

That's make your kid slaughter their pet rabbit because you caught them stealing a cookie fucked up. Especially of people you give nothing to and ask for everything in return.

[mogai-sunflowers]

this will be a bit of a long post but i ask that you please please read the full thing if you want to know more about Sudan- i feel like not enough people ACTUALLY know what's going on in Sudan. a lot of people have a vague idea that a 'war' and genocide is going on, but it's important to know the specifics as well.

there is extremely little coverage of Sudan from non-Sudanese sources, and even those that DO cover it often paint it as a war between two different generals for power over a country- and to a certain extent, without context, that IS what's happening. for those unaware, the two 'warring factions' in Sudan are the official Sudanese military- the SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) and the RSF (Rapid Support Forces).

in April 2019, during the Sudanese Revolution, Islamist dictator Omar al-Bashir was deposed by the SAF in response to a mass wave of revolutionary organizing, protests, and sit-ins. Immediately after, the TMC (Transitionary Military Council) was established, with SAF general inspector Abdel Fattah al-Burhan being appointed as the chairman. for a brief time, protestors engaged in negotiations with Burhan, and many believed that he was being ernest in his promises of a true civilian democratic government- but it soon became clear to protestors that he was not actually taking their demands seriously, so demonstrations once again intensified. on June 3, 2019, it was under Burhan's command that the Khartoum Massacre was committed, killing 118 protestors while they were participating in a sit-in at the military headquarters in Khartoum.

as the next few months went by, agreements came about to dissolve the TMC and form a Transitional Sovereignty Council based on a draft of a constitutional declaration. it was supposed to be that a military official would be the chairman for 21 months, then transitioning to a civilian chairman for the next 18 months- but Burhan staged a coup in October of 2021, and dissolved the council and effectively turned the Sudanese government back into a military junta, which was the cause of further protesting.

i want to emphasize the crimes and horrors of the SAF because they are often forgotten in these discussions due to the absolute atrocities committed by the RSF. there is no good guy here- both the SAF and the RSF are vying for dictatorial power. so let's talk about the RSF.

headed by genocidal war criminal Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known more widely as "Hemedti", the RSF formed around 2014 due to reorginization of the Janjaweed militias- which were the militias that formed across the Darfuri regions of southwestern Sudan to suppress demonstrations against Bashir's oppressive and racist regime which carried out the first genocide of Massalit and other ethnically non-Arab peoples across Darfur in the early 2000s. so to be succinct- the RSF has direct roots in dictatorial suppression of Sudanis protesting against ethnic cleansing, genocide, and oppression.

for around a decade, the RSF and SAF were different factions of the Sudanese military- both have their roots and a pattern of supporting dictatorial violence and anti-Black genocide. and, on April 15, 2023, these two dictatorial Arab-colonialist powers began fighting out of the blue. fighting has been most intense around Khartoum, the central state and capital city of Sudan, where now an estimated 35% of its residents have been forced to flee, with the rest trapped in the middle of an active war zone.

the RSF has been actively continuing the genocide of non-Arab Darfuri Sudanis that its predecessor the Janjaweed committed 20 years prior. they have been consistently launching attacks against Massalit villages in Darfur and El Geneina. Recently, they have completely ethnically cleansed several Massalit villages, killing hundreds in each one of them. in addition, they are committing so many other war crimes, like sexual violence, blocking access to humanitarian aid, occupying civilian homes and kicking the residents out, along with blatant ethnic cleansing campaigns, mass murder, and targeting of civilians.

but don't think that this is a 'civil war' as many are calling it. a civil war is an internal dispute, but this is far from that. both the SAF and the RSF are supported by external powers, namely the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Russia, who all provide funding to these groups IN EXCHANGE FOR SUDANESE RESOURCES LIKE GOLD AND OIL. this is, ultimately, not just some random war between two different military groups- it is a war funded by and for foreign colonial powers who have a vested interest in colonizing Sudan for its resources. as an example- the UAE's- and especially Dubai's- infamous gold and jewelry industry, is only made possible by the fact that the UAE illegally smuggles 80% of Sudan's gold- they fund this by sending weapons AND SOLDIERS to the RSF. Several of the gold mines in Sudan are owned and operated by the Russian government.

all of this, both the 'internal' AND the external, colonial aspects of this war and genocide, has led to the world's current WORST humanitarian crisis. not only do LOW estimates place the total murdered in the past year at 150,000, but out of Sudan's population of nearly 47 million, over half (25 million) are in severe need of humanitarian aid, and of those 25 million, over half are children. fighting between the RSF and SAF has lead to severe blockage of aid, and the UN's initial proposed budget of $1.5 billion in April of 2023 has not only not increased to accommodate the severe worsening of the crisis, but ALSO has not even been funded 20%.

2.5 MILLION PEOPLE ARE EXPECTED TO STARVE TO DEATH IN SUDAN BY THIS FUCKING SEPTEMBER. THAT IS LESS THAN 2 MONTHS AWAY.

additionally, due to both western colonization and the Sudanese governments' deliberate cutting of internet access across the entirety of Sudan, there is a huge lack of the proper infrastructure for generating awareness and spreading videos and info from on the ground in Sudan. this means that not only are people unable to effectively crowdfund support to leave, but they are also barred from accessing social media to spread awareness, and they're unable to contact loved ones outside of Sudan most of the time.

also, Sudan is HUGE- in order for displaced people to escape fighting, they usually have to walk, on foot, for hundreds of miles, often across literal deserts, with extremely little access to water. there has also been a surge of internally displaced people dying due to illness and scorpion stings in displacement camps. 70% of Sudan's hospitals have stopped functioning entirely. and even if they DO make it to a neighboring country, most of the options there are just as bad, if not worse- Egypt is extremely anti-Black, and doesn't allow work permits to most Black refugees, meaning they are relegated to being houseless and jobless if they go to Egypt- and westward in Chad, there is also crisis with food and resources, so the government of Chad quite literally can not materially support anymore Sudanese refugees. In South Sudan, there is also conflict, war, and crisis, and in Ethiopia, where the genocide is taking place in Tigray, the government is extremely hostile to Sudanese refugees. there are currently more than 6,000 Sudanese refugees stranded in the forests because of the hostilities they faced while in UNHCR camps.

and everyday that we're not doing something, this genocide, war, and humanitarian crisis is getting worse. doing something starts with being educated. i urge y'all to look more into this, don't just take what i'm saying and roll with it- truly learn and listen to Sudanese activists on this. i highly recommend following these accounts on Instagram:

@/red_maat , @/bsonblast , @/sudansolidaritycollective, @/forsudaneseliberation, @/darfurwomenaction, @/liberatesudan, @/zzeirra, @/yousraelbagir, @/modathirzainalabdeen, @/sdn.world, @/nasalsudan, @/sudanuntold, @/kandakamagazine, and @/almigdadhassan0

IF ANYTHING I'VE SAID IS INACCURATE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

i'd like to spread this post for some education. could you reblog this @decolonize-the-left @incorrectmadrigalfamilyquotes @homoidiotic @heritageposts @el-shab-hussein

@fairuzfan @palipunk @silicacid @sissa-arrows @apollos-olives @

@northgazaupdates @our-queer-experience @intersexfairy @genderqueerdykes