#anyway consider these notes in the margins etc etc

[a-book-of-creatures]

What notable books (or author) on folklore and/or mythology would you consider to have reliable info, and which ones definitely don't? It's a broad ask, but what are the first names that come to mind?

Very good ask! I'll try to see if I can put my thoughts in words, but if you need any further examples or evaluations let me know.

Here's a general rule: primary sources are Good. Books that directly reference primary sources are Good. The more distance between a book and the primary source, the less reliable it gets. Always ask yourself, where is this book getting its information from? How does it present this information? If you're not dealing with primary sources, always check to see how information is presented and where possible errors could creep in.

For example...

Books like these are the gold standard for reliability. If I was handing out ratings, they would score a perfect 5 out of 5. Everything is extensively cited (the second book is practically all citations). You can't go wrong with these.

In general the more specialized a book is, the more reliable it is. So the excellent Meeting With Monsters gets a very respectable 4.5 out of 5. Very detailed info just about Icelandic monsters. Why not 5? The authors engage in some speculative creature building where they treat the monsters as real animals and invent features for them (the hrosshvalur has dorsal spines teeming with bacteria that infect the wounds it causes, for instance). But these are restricted to marginal notes and do not interfere with the actual information.

More general books generally get less reliable. Again, ask, where are those sources? What are they?

This one is often held up as the encyclopedia of mythical creatures currently in print. It's a decent starting point to start looking for things. It has sources and each entry is linked to its sources. The entries are written in a dry, concise encyclopedic style. But it relies far too much on second and third (and fourth, etc) hand sources. Scratch a little past the surface and you start finding weird mistakes, errors, inaccuracies. Snowballing misinformation. I would consider this to be of average reliability at best. A 2.5 out of 5 or so. Best used as a suggestion to dig into deeper, better things.

This one is a broad introduction to dragons, but instead of an encyclopedia, each "entry" (chapter?) is presented as a retelling of that story. And with that comes very low reliability and heavy use of secondary sources. The retellings make stuff up that isn't anywhere in the originals and miss a lot of the point of the stories - and spread misinformation that continues to propagate online. Also there's plenty of cryptozoology in there so eeehhhh.

This one is obviously aimed at a younger audience, but I'm mentioning it because of one amusing detail. It seems to be a good introduction for children to dragon mythology. Except it presents with a straight face the marsupial dragon as a dragon from Australia. The marsupial dragon, you know, which was written into Dragonology as a joke? And Dragonology wouldn't even have made my primary-source-reliability anyway! Some due-diligence was not duly diligenced, if I may say so.

Then there are books that are just... confusing.

Like anything by Pierre Dubois. On the surface they seem well-researched. But the references and cross-references are more opaque than... uh... a very opaque thing. He clearly has a lot of them, but it's anyone's guess where the information he got came from (no cross-referencing, you see). Combine that with him just making stuff up to pad page numbers and it's never clear what is "true" and what he wrote (and some of it is distasteful, not going to lie). Sometimes he even misses the interesting part of legends just to write his own stories. The most charitable take is that this is literary fantasy, and maybe what he's said can be traced to actual reliable folkloric sources, but after having used him as a source of information I cannot recommend him. You could also argue that Dubois never does claim that this is a scholarly reference, but it sure is presented as one.

I have so far restricted myself to books that claim (or seem to claim) to be references on myth, legend, and folklore. Books that engage in speculative "creature building" (e.g. Dragonology, The Flight of Dragons, etc) would not be reliable as references, but they're still great books. You just wouldn't use them as sources of information.

... or would you? Sometimes non-reference books get treated as such, and then the information they made up gets reified by being parroted uncritically by later books. Like Woodruff's book above. A fake "long-lost expedition journal" by Pliny the Elder, it's an excuse for (gorgeous) art and Latin practice. Except that some of the made-up stuff in there found its way out of the book and - uncited - ended up in supposedly serious works. Like the Pyrallis being a dragon, or the two-headed Hyperborean frogs. Confusing. It even got a minor news mention because people were taking it seriously!

Anyway, how about you? Any books you find reliable or unreliable?

[sergeifyodorov]

now who would be the football (soccer) gretzky… messi? ronaldo? pele? maradona? my personal pick is messi based on career consistency, awards won (he’s won EVERYTHING), worldwide popularity, career longevity, how hard the game is to play now and the level of competition vs in the classic era, etc etc. as with all sports you run into issues with comparing eras (the age old Would gretzky still dominate in today’s era of hockey) and players but.. i’m interested in your take. if you have one?! and a note on f1: you really can’t compare verstappen to hamilton. hamilton and schumacher, yes, but verstappen has accumulated the majority of his wins (i’m thinking across the last 2-3 seasons) in a series of cars that are perhaps the greatest f1 cars ever made. f1 is heavily based on equipment (the whole idea is that these aren’t spec cars - the engineering REALLY matters) more than the other sports u are discussing so it’s tough… yes the driving is a part of it but the car and the setup is so important. also now that other teams have been developing better cars this season hes really fallen back from his performances last year and in 2022, when he had the best car by far and never had to compete for wins as he was almost always in pole position. anyway. some thoughts!

I prefer to measure greats relative to their time -- like, we'll never know if 80's gretzky could compete with 2020s mcdavid, and that kind of speculation isn't really my cup of tea?

also re futbol gretzky -- not all sports have one. to me "the GOAT" and "the Gretzky" are two different (but related) concepts: a GOAT is just a greatest of all time, no matter how slim the margin; a Gretzky is not only a greatest of all time but someone who is so mindblowingly the greatest of all time that only the most pedantic devil's-advocate types will even consider arguing, and even then mostly for angry clicks anyways. MY favourite is messi though the power of a short king who cannot die is immeasurable

also also re f1/car advancement -- this feels like an ancient snow-covered cravasse of discourse several km deep that i'm about to jump into with neither icepick nor parka but i'm legitimately not sure what the difference is between winning because you have the best car in a motorsports race and scoring a million gd points because you have the best hockey-related spatial awareness in a hockey game. what's the separation between man and machine? gordie howe played with no helmet and wooden sticks, connor mcdavid plays with carbon fibre composite and a full helmet-visor. stan mikita was one of the first to bend stick blades and he won hart trophies for it! was that cheating? aren't you the best if you're the best?

[matrixwhore]

IWTV S2 Watch Thoughts EP 1

This is technically a rewatch, but I literally just finished watching this for the first time like yesterday and i'm watching it again 🤭

It's been a while...that is one part intentional and was always going to be the way I approached S2. It was also one part very necessary that I took time away from online and just focus on my life, and one part so much anticipation of the show that I couldn't watch it until I was absolutely ready. This show means a lot to me for a lot of reason beyond just watching it. So yeah I'm gonna just stick with the point of this post. I am watching IWTV from a disability lense. Among the other themes and different angles to look at what's happening on the show I often consider how disability/ableism interacts with blackness, how it interacts with ageism, how it interacts with mental instability, how it interacts with gender, religion, class etc. etc. etc. etc. I'm mostly doing this for me to get my thoughts out, but I love to talk about this show, so I just want people to keep in mind the angle I come to this w if for whatever reason there's something to say about what I got to say (not that, that really matters in the grand scheme). It seems obvious to me why this lens is necessary, but I'll note here that the show literally opens in S1 with an aged disabled man staring down the finality of his life and deciding to chase after the fountain of youth/the fountain of forever that never flows with water (I'll never stop thinking about that conversation on here!) that refreshes no one even as they are imbued with power (supernatural ability).

Season one was structured like a hunt being played out like games. Poker, then chess and then at the end the play (as in the staged play but also as in the hand in the game!) was revealed. In S2 there's a clear interaction with being in a staged play and being on trial and that matters to me because how often trials are like plays especially when you are being judged as a person with intersecting marginalized identities. I think about who is a witness, and who gets to testimony with their voice, and when and why someone is judged as guilty and who is directing the play (and trial), and who gets a speaking role, and what do they get to say when they are allowed to speak. Lynchings for black people were trials fast tracked to executions, they didn't have a say about the supposed "crime" they committed, about their death as as result of their supposed guilt and about the fact that their death existed as entertainment much like these plays, for the white people who attended with their children even. (This too is a conversation about disability. this is a conversation about ableism as the mechanism that keeps every marginalization/"ism" functioning as we know them, but lemme slow down) so...yeah, much to think about.

please this is about s1 but it shows up in the previously ons....the opening of the story Louis is telling that takes place in NOLA "the year was 1910" and we see the Fairplay in lights! AINT NOTHING FAIR ABOUT THIS PLAY! my chest is in knots

also Claudia as a poison, a venom. forbidden both as the forbidden fruit and the snake in the garden... I'll have to come back to this train of thought...maybe, maybe not idk. have we said this already? the thinking pieces are many on here.

anyways!

(9 minutes into the show this is already so long I'm putting this under a read more)

What Can the Damned Really Say to the Damned?

In the title the war is on top (somewhere Beyonce's love on top is playing...I know it is...) bombs being dropped on what would be heaven if not for the fact that they are already in hell. It is not just the vampires with hungry mouths for death, it is also the cities themselves (oh I did say this somewhere already I'm sure)

thinking about their escape from what they perceived as hell equating/being: existing under Lestat and his domination over them, is revealed as just one facet of the hell that has always already existed around them. I wonder sometimes if they had managed to find somewhere that wasn't even more war torn than the life they left behind (leave the battle to join the war. win the battle to lose the war foreshadow foreshadow) what that could have been for their relationship because my heart weeps okay?! But Claudia knows she has to find other vampires. she isn't enough for him no matter what Louis tells himself to dream at night.

_____________

Claudia doesn't dream, she goes after the life she believes she deserves and that's what I think she wants Louis to know when she insists she doesn't dream. That is what she finds he fails in relating to her on i think. it's one of the things anyway. Maybe she's also saying all she has is nightmares. There are no dreams. not in her waking, not in her sleep. Idk im getting ahead of it.

Louis: "She might have said that to shut me up, but yet, she writes it here. So, let's believe it"

Daniel: "Let's."

keeping in mind everything is part of the play/trial. also that the trial that takes her life itself is a spector over their lives. that the journals were and still are Claudia's only voice (the only space she had the ability to express honestly and the only space where they "listen" to her) and how they are used out of context to legitimize or delegitimize her in their (Louis, the court, lestat, Daniel, Armand and on and on.) own experience even with her. ugh so much so much I'll get to it.

_____________

please delainey is already so cute climbing out the ground 🤭 murdering dying soldiers. das my baby fr! nobody touch me! i wanna raise her. i too would have begged to keep her! 😭 (don't remind me of this when I'm on Louis about this....I get to keep truths in the shadow too! I'm ahead of myself!)

thinking about the fact that they dig their own graves for the days, bury themselves to sleep and then every night they crawl out of their graves to keep on enduring hell (foreshadow foreshadow). the imagery of the birth of a vampire in many other vampire lores being crawling out of their own graves comes to mind. and this is kind of their birth seeing as how this is them as vampires officially out on their own for the first time really.

____________

Armand continually cutting in is taking if FOR ME personally. He is so funny like you're 500 year old parent trying to make jokes pleaseee. 🤭 this is followed closely by Claudia throwing Louis the ripped out heart of a dying soldier.

____________

let us take a moment with Louis to ponder Claudia's inability to dream as a deficit. meanwhile he is tormented by his dreams even in his waking. his dreams being made up of dreamlestat makes me think his pondering of her lack of dreaming here is related to his inner belief about whether or not she is capable of love. his nightmares are linked to his love for lestat and the torment it causes him to have been involved in his "demise". so I wonder if he has this view of her lack of dreaming because she was able to kill lestat and would have had he not intervened. and because he doesn't feel she loves him--Louis. and because he doesn't see her anger towards him as rooted in love loss because of the betrayal she feels. love loss would indicate she can and did love him and he lost that love. she is seen as someone who can't love. just like she can't dream. because it's easier to ponder these things as a deficit in Claudia for him. (for now)

Armand likens it to the sleep of an infant while she out there providing for Louis and herself. I have to laugh. Such is her existence. she got the papers, she facilitates the meals, she makes the plans, she learning all the languages, she still the baby! even though she's not. because she is. even when she's not.

(off topic, kind of, but I saw a gif set of Assad saying Armand would love Buffy and it made me so happy. I agree and his favorite episode is Buffy S6 I can't remember the episode number..maybe 5 or 6, but it's the tabula rasa episode! He was on his tablet writing a think piece about why Willow is misunderstood in that episode when he was playing Rashid. He might be writing it right now at the table 😂. I like to think his username was TheRealRashid, because it makes me laugh even more every time Daniel calls the real real Rashid "Real Rashid").

__________

The switch from the very controlled way Armand appeared in S1 as Rashid to the very relaxed way he appears now. Is this the first we see him in white? He wants to be seen as an angel so badly. one thing about Armand he gonna let that chest peak! I like this white button down!

He's not part of the interview but he's at the table, he's not eating bc he is no longer an actor he's directing, the table is part of his home, but his home is the stage, this is all part of the play/trial. viewers included, we are all part of it (the writers did allude to that before the season started, but it's exciting to experience it) the play and are all on trial. the Théâtre des Vampires is also a haunting over their lives.

________

Claudia calling Louis dumb, Louis playing dumb ,made me laugh a little bit. it made me laugh! I'm sorry. but it fascinates me because she cannot get around without an adult, but here she passes him off as an invalid because she is leading this expedition and he is barely useful in this journey. I think it's interesting that Louis doesn't consider she might be too tired to dream when he is under the framework of believing she doesn't dream.

________

She also doesn't talk to him but she writes everything. I have so much to say on Claudia and her journals, but I really want to get into it more when we get to the trials. She can't talk to him and have her full experience considered. Also he literally choked her. He always talks about it like she's angry because he wouldn't let her burn lestat, but he doesn't reflect much on how he stopped her from doing that. he knows it's fucked up enough when lestat did it to her. he doesn't consider that he choked the trust out of their relationship.

ALSO

Louis never drank from black people in NOLA so this, I guess, this is his first time of being confronted with drinking blood as drinking life meaning whatever life the person lived being consumed can be miserable. he is confronted with this now because the inescapable misery of this war. (inescapable misery......) this makes me think about who lestat chooses to kill and how Louis viewed him for who he chose. it makes me think of when they drank from the tenor who mostly led a good life. it makes me think about how lestat is ruled by hedonism in many ways. it also makes me think about this as his abuse and monstrosity doubling as sheltering them from the dreadful scope vampirism. I imagine lestat figured this out on his own and that is something he considered when choosing his victims. he learned to read their minds as part of his hunt and that's what he passed on to Louis. he learned to consider their inner world before drinking from them. they, Louis and Claudia, don't have the luxury of doing that where they are right now. There is no escape from the misery. there is no life untouched by the chill of death in this all consuming war. there's no dreaming. no hope. only surviving. tho I do think the only hope he has is dreamlestat and that is also torment. I think about how Louis' vampirism is an all consuming war. and I do want to jump just a little. just a little!

Claudia staring at that fire like oh we really speaking French now talking about "we're taking it all in." and "we can't get warm." even tho Claudia has only known a life on fire she has never been able to stay warm, but okay Louis.

I really like this scene. Louis talking to himself is a running theme that I'm kind of obsessed with.

_______

Louis knocking off that jaw and it turning to dust means something! It means something!!!! Claudia's hope for a future with vampires better than lestat being a long dead thing. a dead on arrival thing. what he did to them being turned to dust at Louis' touch. I think about that in terms of how the hard truth that they where better off with out him being as good as dust to Louis at this point anyway. even if he can't say it out loud.

_______

I know that dead weight hit, but at least she put it in a journal Louis! he would have never known had he not read it. but you 🫵🏾 Louis! you like to say that quiet part out loud! I can only do so much understanding!

________

"Unworthy in San Francisco, unworthy in Dubai. Disregard!" I'm sure there's something to say here but I cannot stop laughing. He really went from dad jokes to scorned mother talking shit.

_______

Claudia still taking souvenirs. I was gonna ask what does she even need the gun for. I can think of how it can be used even by vampires. but I doubt it's being used.

_________

I know why the caged bird crawls out of lestat's neck and flies away!

__________

bloodletting anyone always used to feel like murder until he murdered lestat (the only one who isn't actually fully dead). do we call this growth? im joking

__________

in romania is really the upfront conversation of what do people believe about what they witness. what do they cast doubt over in order to shield themselves with. and off the strength of even possibility what precautions do they take? I like that this happens before we get to the theater in Paris that makes a show out of this very thin line.

anyways the excitement of possible vampires that aren't lestat (and Louis) break Claudia's silent treatment.

__________

Emilia said "you will make the friends" because vodka surely that is a unifying vice. but they black Emilia. they aren't just American. they are black. I have to laugh.

___________

I just know Claudia is tried of seeing Louis' walls come down, quiver, at the sight of any half decent looking white man with an accent. because what is there to trust about him enough to break character right now??n(that he ends up as the someone untrustworthy by this very same man later on like...)

I need time to think irt to memory and Louis. I'll circle back.

__________

Daniel hanging on to the legitimacy of this interview like a life line. his power lies in the investigation he's more than capable of.

_________

something something about kids turning darkness into song, and Claudia being an eternal morbid child likened to a caged bird singing with clipped wings imprisoned in an eternal night and still not fitting in with these morbid singing children who's wings have been clipped by war and occupation something something and the looming threat of the vampire on them all.

__________

the cover being searching for his wife with a picture of his sister, while he looks for vampires with his daughter/sister now provider. this is so normal. all of this is so so normal.

"up your bum" I am laughing. I am laughing. this is all so normal. Morgan said "I know what you are"

what I have to say about memory and Louis is tied in with something I have to say about Louis being regarded always as exceptionally untrustworthy in comparison to those around him (who also lie). I need to chew on it a bit.

even when he wants to be genuine (giving his real name) he is lying (just looking for his wife). are his intentions nefarious in this lie. not exactly, but by the very nature of being a vampire yes, but not in the way this man is thinking of it, except to this man exactly in the way he is thinking of it. because oh! he is black and it does matter. This white man feels it his duty to keep this black man in line with the rules and the laws (themes motifs we'll see this again, we see this often). never mind what it would mean for him to turn back and take his punishment for his black daughter who this white man has seen and knows would be left alone should this Louis turn back and take his punishment. because they do see her as a child. so does she also go back to take her punishment as well? and what is her crime? and if no crime. isn't it still a punishment she would suffer regardless? isn't her fate always intwined with the ways in which Louis doesn't adhere to laws and rules expected of the black man. expected of the fledgling vampire. I see this in so many ways as Louis still fatally underestimating how his vampirism (and his blackness) separates him from others existing in time and space in a way that he does not.

(preemptive anxieties: anyone with the urge to tell me it's not about Louis being black should remind themselves that they flat out have Louis calling himself the magical vodka negro and keep it.)

_________

delainey is so infectious the way she plays Claudia's excitement. 🥺

Louis said baboons. please this why she told that man you dumb Louis.

_________

something something lestat left in a dump yard to feed on rats. something something them sleeping in where the rats lived, something something the rats at the theater to come and Claudias fate (more later), something something Louis to share a rat meal with lestat. something somethings.

_________

"why you laughing with them giving out your real name?"

like I said, Claudia perceived in her coldness, but her coldness is her awareness of their vampirism and how it separates them and their blackness and how it separates them and her black girlhood/womanhood and how it separates her from Louis.

thinking about the difference between the old vampires with powerful blood running through their veins and options of blood to feed on and the old vampires that are seemingly weak by comparison being sick. sick by the the age maybe? the misery? and maybe the blood they have to survive on...

________

oh yeah Louis is also choking the life out of their "freedom" by carrying lestat with them. there's also that.

I wanna cry that the one vampire that she "finds" that isn't a bastard is one she has to have made and that's so very short lived.....

_______

so this thing with Louis actively working through his memory right. the reveals come in his being able to testimony. Dubai also serves as a trial and here Louis gets to speak. and here Claudia only gets to say what's written in her journal and what we know of her experience is still perceived by the men who pick apart her experience by way of her journals. it's important that Claudia writes down that she doesn't dream. tells Louis that she doesn't dream. but is seen by Louis most likely dreaming. so does she not remember her dreams? does she lie to Louis and her self about those dreams? Does she not qualify them as dreams because they are nightmares? We will never know. We will never know because she does not get to testimony. She does not matter as a witness. Louis as a witness and his testimony is held under the same ableist scrutiny that victims of abuse, survivors of assault, black people, and mentally ill people critically face when it comes to the law. Do they speak of what they remember perfectly? Do they get to speak at all? and when they don't remember perfectely they are liars even if it's just that they are remembering incorrectly. Even if they believe what they remember and tell it that way because they believe it. I know that he does lie, but THEY ALL LIE. everyone. he is seen as exceptional in this often by the viewers included because we are also part of the play and the trial and like the audience at the theater (I do recall the great "Louis is a liar" wave of s1) and by everyone around him even tho he suffers from what is only natural about memory and age as well and memory irt to trauma and mental illness as well as memory irt to the difference of perspectives. This is why it is very important that Daniel is the other side of this memory coin. he is also the other witness that corroborates a truth about San Francisco that is missing for both of them, but we will get to that. Mental illness and blackness (and for Claudia girlhood/womanhood intersecting with blackness) disable credibility. disable worthiness. disable fair play! I want to get into Claudia more, but I will later.

and I think this moment with Louis crying because he is able to uncover a truth beyond his Claudia's diaries and what she says to him, hidden within his own memories is really one of the first times Daniel is forced to confront the full scope of Louis humanity. his experience. he is uncomfortable with the rawness of authenticity not because he hasn't seen Louis cry. I think because he also carried an inner belief that Louis is a liar. that his is not a credible source rather than that his is a traumatized vampire that is reaching back through time to make the monster that is memory reveal what is real and true about what happened all those years ago. I consider his sarcasm when Louis stressed how important it was that they got every detail right. that they got them accurately. this eats at him. and this is the first time Daniel has to sit with viewing Louis as a meal as well.

__________

anyways there's a trial in romania as well. on whether Emilia is a monster for having possibly been bit by one. the very possibility of truth in superstition means her head rolls. the occupying soldiers are the judge, jury, and executioner. and even though this situation does involve a vampire, the fallout and impact of what vampires do to humanity are viewed, by Louis and Claudia, as a separate human issue that they will not involve themselves in. because their aim here to join that issue and make friends with it. in a way they cannot with non-vampire humans.

__________

the caged bird sings to scare the locals! (well in this case not the locals but you get my point)

__________

Forgive me, I keep hearing They Not Like Us every time I see this vampire omg!

he's no good as a vampire anymore because Claudia disabled him by taking his eyes, so he dies. and the vampire who kills him prophesies Claudia's demise it seems, dreams only for a moment a life with them off of Claudia's sweet blood (with the power of lestat coursing through it) and she then jumps in the fire. for the hopelessness and the endless loss, and probably for having been the one to have to kill her own son and also for not being able to make anyone new vampires.

the blood is no good for turning vampires. Louis says "maybe you need better blood" where she gonna get it Louis? where can she get this elusive better blood?

"all those that in darkness go into the darkness" she says this to Claudia specifically. then she jumps into the fire and burns! that means something I know it does. as well as the rest of what she says that feel very much like a warning. dreams give you their names and die right before your very eyes.

__________

I was getting side-eyed for noting that it's (seemingly) been many nights since the warmth of infatuation and the heat of needy fucking transpired in this home of theirs. but there that groan is. in between them. like I am truly a loumand fuck crazy and nasty truther, it's just the chill is right here before my very eyes in the text. that freaky feeding at the dinner table in front of Daniel was a reawakening that's all I was saying. that's all I was saying! 🤭

I wanna believe someone figured out what book that was on Armand's iPad...if someone did. I wanna know.

Armand goes from notes in the margin participation to directing the course of this thing.

He is on the record and now Louis is leading the expedition in the past! I love that their intimacy is always played up when they really get into the act! and we are certainly on a different act.

and now Armand is dressed in grey. just little observations. it means something im sure.

_______

the hard words and soft words from Louis! He really does weave through being brother and father and mother. their relationship is so normal. He wanna believe he's being real with her even with dreamlestat sitting right there. He's choosing and she's choosing to believe him. they both need it.

[qqueenofhades]

One of the most surprising things I learned recently is that Bernie doesn’t do well with Black voters, and I was wondering if you knew why that is? I feel like his platform is fairly popular so I just wonder why he fails to win their votes?

It's because Black Democrats a) like actual Democrats, and b) also don't have time to waste with empty moral posturing when they are intimately aware of how public policy and progressive (or reactive/reactionary) politics affect their everyday life, in a way that a lot of privileged white Bernie Bros were utterly unequipped to consider (and indeed, attacked the Black Democrats for "not knowing what's best for them," which is not paternalistic or racist at all!) Black Democrats also know how important voting is, because of the obvious fact that they were disenfranchised, had their political accomplishments totally dismantled at the end of Reconstruction, had to literally fight through dogs, gas, guns, and screaming white supremacists to exercise their vote and win their civil rights in the 1960s, and are consistently targeted today by white Republicans attempting to gerrymander, restrict, penalize, or otherwise eradicate their rights. Black Democrats don't vote for empty performative politics, they vote for results. Bernie is great at one, and very bad at the other. Three guesses which.

Elderly Black Democrats in South Carolina allegedly "saved" Biden's 2020 campaign (after Bernie had done well in the EXTREMELY white Iowa and New Hampshire primaries; the ordering of the primaries and the excessive prognostications attached to Uber White Midwestern/New England Results is dumb, but anyway). And that was because Black Democrats have good reason to like Biden. He spent eight years willingly supporting and never upstaging the first Black president, he picked the first Black/Asian woman as his vice president, he put the first Black woman on SCOTUS, he has spent years championing their concerns at an actual tangible and legislative level, and they know that they can trust him. By contrast, Bernie is one of those leftists who dismisses all other kinds of oppression as secondary to the class struggle and thinks that racism, sexism, misogyny, etc. are all inferior injustices to economic injustice. And yes! Economic injustice is very much a thing! But if you go around telling marginalized communities to their faces that their many, many years of lived experience with racial oppression isn't as "real" as economic injustice, and/or that racism will magically be solved by economic redress and you don't need to do anything else about it, don't be surprised when that is not a winning message.

Besides, and as noted: Bernie has spent fifty years in politics and achieved nothing really meaningful (unlike Biden, who has also been in politics for fifty years and has real and significant legislative accomplishments as senator, vice president, and president). His policies are on-paper progressive, but Black Democrats and Black people in general aren't a monolithically progressive voting bloc, and have other concerns and issues that intersect with their support (or lack thereof) for him. There are very few Black people who can afford to take their vote for granted, or to vote for somebody who hasn't demonstrated any interest in going through the legislative process to achieve real results, and instead spends most of his time talking loudly to left-leaning white progressives and cultivating a "Only I, Great Bernie, Can Solve Your Problems" political mentality, which then spills into sore loserdom and was an issue in both 2008 and (most visibly and unforgivably) in 2016.

Basically, in my view, Bernie mostly exists to be the totem for a certain subset of privileged white leftists to club the Democratic Party over the head and set impossible standards of what they "should" be doing, which in turn actively undermines support for the Democrats and helps nakedly fascist Republicans win more elections. And despite nominally running as a Democrat, he in fact is not a Democrat (he sits as an independent) and makes no effort to court central Democratic constituencies. Of which, and obviously, African-Americans are one of the greatest parts, due to consistently voting to get this country out of the mess that fascist white people keep trying to plunge it into. Any candidate who does not understand that, and does not make serious efforts to do so, likewise should not be taken seriously. Therefore, no matter how mad it makes his frothing internet stans (who likewise are not serious people with actual political opinions), the Democratic party apparatus has no real need to humor him and his self-aggrandizing constant talking about things that he never, ever actually does shit about.

[brandwhorestarscream]

Seekers have sparklings through slightly translucent eggs

Praxians have them(sparklings) in the form of marsupial pouches

In the decepticons, when Barricade ends up/is carrying, the only explanation that he gives to the seekers, when asked about the eggs, is by showing, very quickly, the pouche

I'm sorry, when you say "have" sparklings, do you mean... like, the actual birthing process? Cuz im onboard with seekerlings being somewhat visible inside their eggs, that's cool

But if Praxians utilize marsupial-esque pouches, they wouldn't be born in there. That's. Not how marsupials work. The baby is born what we would consider incredibly early, a marginally developed fetus without functional limbs, eyes, ears, etc. It then crawls/climbs up its mother's abdomen and makes its way into the pouch, where it'll then attach to a teat and undergo the rest of its development. Fun fact, when the baby emerges from the pouch for the first time, all fuzzy and cute, it's sometimes called a second birth

I raised wallabies for several years 👉👈 I love this subject

ANYWAY. I think that'd definitely be really cool, if praxians did smthn similar with their young. Bitties are born a very short time after conception, but are in no way, shape, or form ready for life on the outside. They spend the next god-knows-how-long developing in a separate incubation chamber that's not actually part of their carrier's internals, which means Praxian births are extremely easy and the carrying cycle isn't all that dangerous or painful. So, W praxians

Side note, I don't think Barricade would just... flash his sparkling pouch to anyone. The baby has no immune system at this point, no temperature regulation, no means of defense. The slightest thing could kill them. Someone might later on notice his pouch pocket is a bit rounder or swollen, and that's the first indication that he's got a passenger onboard 🤭

[botaniqueer]

Forward: This post isn't meant judgmentally, targeted at anyone in particular or as a gotcha and I write in entirely good faith.

A question I have for white folks in particular (but also abled people, cis people, etc, but also everyone in general who votes) when engaging with electoral politics is, are you taking measures to protect the rest of us from your candidates? There's no perfect candidate for sure, but that means people will be hurt, and as voters we have a responsibility to call out and prevent harm that our candidates do; if we aren't then we're directly complicit in that harm. Are you willing to put your bodies and minds on the line to protect those who aren't going to be protected by those candidates? Because of the nature of US politics, our own candidates need to be challenged just as fiercely as if someone else got elected.

Again, I'm not against voting at all! I literally vote blue every time and in every election. I think there's strategic value in it, but we have to actually strategize, which hasn't been getting done. Are we actually engaging with why people are hesitant to vote? People use the "you're damaging your own cause!" whenever people seen as "scary leftists" participate in their actions, but it's never applies to liberal and electoral politics even though the same can be said. Trying to harp on and guilt people into voting when without engaging with why that is just damages the cause and pushes them further away. Also note that the majority of people critical of the way electoral politics are done are BIPOC; this is important to think about.

The democrats are objectively better for more people than the republicans, but there are people who are destitute to the point where those two parties are the same. Palestinians for example! Democrats also fund police measure against homeless folks as we see in the PNW, which is strongly blue. Indigenous people here are another similar group– the way indigeneity is legislated here, they're literally programmed to eventually go extinct from a legal standpoint due to the colonial law of blood quantum. Not to mention that reservations are literally, in their words, concentration camps.

Are you going to make things better for yourself and leave others to fall through the cracks? Or are you going to use that to lift everyone else up? This traditionally hasn't been the case, so if you want BIPOC voters to trust you, you have to demonstrate that you won't get attached to you candidates and hold them on a pedestal.

How are you going to assuage fears when people get anxious (and they will!) without also invalidating their fears (which is common under electoral politics votes). Can you do this without a lot of the manipulative tactics a lot of outlets use? (Blaming disaffected BIPOC for when things go wrong, using the "well the other guy is worse!" line.) Folks ask for 1000 step plans when talking about non-electoral political elements, but when engaging with electoral politics people treat it like magic, and if anyone falls through the cracks and complains, they're just being cantankerous. This is only a small percentage of the things that need to be considered.

Election season is also really retraumatizing for folks who have colonized backgrounds. Are you making sure we feel safe? Are we being thought about as real people, instead of just abstracts or as a resource to generate votes, but who are just being obstinate? (As opposed to again, real people with real motivations)

As a final note, people also comment on "Why abstain anyways when you know it's going to be bad either way?" for particularly marginalized people, and I think the answer (folks in those situations can correct me here) is that it's more cathartic to watch the people who let you slip through the cracks fall with you, than slipping through the cracks and watching those same people have brunch and pretend you and your problems don't exist. It's like being trapped in a room with only crumbs to eat while the people on the other side of the door throw a dinner party, and if you complain, yell at you saying that the other guys wouldn't even give you crumbs.

[pisboy]

as a fellow alopecia haver would you mind if i asked a few questions about how you cope with it? like, do you wear hats or wigs or do clever hairstyles to hide it or do you just let it show? ive tried pills and scalp shots and nothing is reversing mine. im only 26 and i feel like this is the worst thing to ever happen to me and i dont know what to do about it. nobody even thinks balding women exist. nobody considers how it is to actually be one. im so scared no one will ever like me or find me cute again. i used to think i was so cute. this sucks so bad.

For me the back of my head around the nape and up to nearly the top of my scalp has never grown hair, not even when I was born. My father also has alopecia areata and he has a few golfball-to-coin sized patches he loses and regrows at a random basis. So I've had my entire life to contend with hair loss and family that was familiar with it, so I sympathize so incredibly hard to women who develop it later in life. It is probably mortifying.

So yeah, shots and pills and balms and oils and etc have never worked for me. I also lose hair at random basis around the rest of my scalp, mainly around the margins of my crown (losing my bangs) and the sides of the back where I already do not grow hair. I also lose half my left eyebrow on a regular basis. If you go far back enough in my #me tag I've posted what it looks like. I also preface some of my advice might not be helpful if you have afro-textured hair, but I will recommend someone who will be extremely helpful in that respect.

Also I hope you don't mind me doing a shotgun blast of advice but maybe my experience will help someone

Things that worked for me:

I've always been flipping my part as my hair cycles in a growth/loss state for my bangs. Low pony tails tend to hold better than high ones in what is essentially a clever combover. Uhhh and always keep a hair tie around in case there is wind lol I always get self conscious when there's a breeze.

This is kind of vague and probably shitty advice but I've noticed over the years I lose hair when I am stressed, so I've had to make the call (in addition to other factors) to quit jobs that really strain me and I've noticed improvement in hair growth. So depending on your circumstances I say make some effort to reduce your other stress factors while you go through figuring it out. This shit is literally traumatizing.

This thing here is basically a pepper shaker for keratin bits that can color-fill in patches of missing (or really tiny short baby) hair. I can only speak as a brunette but it works pretty damn good as some camouflage for your skin poking out where you can't cover it. Do note it kind of has an ashy texture so it's something to wash out at night like makeup. Scalp makeup lol.

Hats are good. I wore trucker hats for most of my teen years, but I don't wear them much anymore, especially being out of the stress of school. However - a piece of advice from a mentor of mine, Jamie Elmore, is to call hats, bands, scarves, wigs, anything under an umbrella term "accessory." It's kind of corny but sometimes conceptualizing these things that way helps coping with the impulse of a world that demands you hide your hair loss and another where you can freely express yourself without fear of judgement. Anyway, I recommend looking her up, she has a magazine and works hard for the alopecia community, particularly for black alopecians.

Oh yeah if you can find those hippy chick silk hair bands that have the elastic around the back, I love those. Regular bandanas are also good.

Uhhh shorter hair also tends to weigh and pull less, which I think everyone has varying sensitivity to, but to anyone considering a bob, why not might help lol. I also lose my hair in the largest amounts in the shower, so like, if you develop a weird complex about showering I know allllllll about it.

I have tried partial wigs, which are custom cut out and adhered to your head, and it's nice if you want to do hairstyles you otherwise could not, but it's high maintenance, very itchy, and gets gummy after about a week.

But yeah it's been a very slow and steady process to get used to going out in public without putting effort in camouflaging my alopecia, and that mostly has to do with tuning people out. The existential stuff gets personal so I save those conversations for a 1-to-1. *Holds you by the shoulder* we are all coping out here.

I look at that sword of Damocles hanging over my head and if my scalp gets wiped out beyond all sidepart repair, I'll go full wig-wearing. I once had a hair stylist who was giddy at the idea of shaving my head when I explained it to her, which was comforting in a silly way.

Anyway, it's been years since I've dipped my toes into the greater Alopecia Community, the ones with all the acronyms, but there are NAAF chapter groups that you can meet and hopefully find people to connect with. I think you need to join an email group though. Anyway. For the longest time the only people I knew with it was just my dad and a cousin who had it for 1 year and never again and seeing a group of people with patchy/full baldness in person for the first time made me cry.

To end on a good note, there have been trials for JAK inhibitors (a treatment for many autoimmune disorders) having really breakthrough success rates at hair regrowth, but I haven't looked into it lately. Seems very promising. A lot better than cortisone shots in the scalp I figure, maybe worth the pain lmao

EDIT: i misremembered it being lupus medication, but it was actually Janus kinase inhibitor trials with success.

[zolupine]

KINGDOM HEARTS X HITACHIIN TWINS : WHY

heres something absolutely no one asked for. this is crossposted on twitter i just need to know someone else understands . my vision? my delusion? whatever. ENJOY! ___

i wanna talk about this because its been on my mind all fucking day.  thus begins the insane hitachiin kingdom hearts thread.

i gave kaoru's keyblade the name twin blade of the early spring in reference to his spring birthday, his ending of his arc with hikaru (two huge flowers will bloom) and the fact that he's considered the mature brother despite being younger. thats just the simple explanation.

moreover the keyblade hes holding is not the one id give him, i drew this in class and literally only know what the kingdom key looks like off the top of my head minus the chain because ive been thinking about the papou fruit a lot recently, but thats besides the point

i kind of go into it in the margins but there are a lot of "twin" narratives within kingdom hearts, or i suppose quintuplets? if we count xion. this will take a minute to explain so i'll do my best to simplify it. the main dude in kh is named sora, in kh one he tried +

to kill himself kind of not really but did anyway and separated his heart and his soul. his HEART became a heartless (which was retconned because kairi- another of the destiny island trio member was like wow i love you bro bro come back to life and he did.) and his nobody-

became a seperate being that will soon be known as roxas. the reaason why he's roxas and not "sora's nobody" is because basically he was manipulated by this dude named Xemnas whos High key EVIL and put a tracking x in his name yes that is the reason behind the x's in all the +

organization XIII members because thats just the way it goes. Thats why axel is lea, etc. MOVING ON! Roxas as Sora's nobody, possesses a striking resemblance to a guy named ventus. this is where it starts to get messy. ventus is ANOTHER parallel to sora, but like way in the past+

hes the protag of one of the games called birth by sleep which contextualizes a lot of the lore in kingdom hearts but whatever thats not important right now, the important thing is that ventus has his "Darkness" extracted by him and thus forms vanitas- who looks suspiciously +

like sora. So now we've established our parallels. Ventus and Sora are the "True" bodies so to speak, and Vanitas and Roxas are offshoots of their original selves. Got it memorized? I would explain more but this is turning into me reciting basic information about kh and not ouran

im also skipping xion because . im Sorry. i dont know where they fit in the narrative im making up on the spot. ok back to hitachiin land i think that it would be completely unfair and a disservice to their characters to make them a nobody and a heartless respectively

also quick note, hikaru also has a keyblade called the twin blade of the late bloom (similar reasoning to kaoru, spring birthday, the tie in to the ending, and late bloom representing hikaru's late development within his narrative, his obliviousness, his rashness, etc.)

i dont think either of the twins parallel any of the residents of sora's heart hotel, but that doesnt mean i can't try. on one hand i could go the route that kaoru is sora and roxas is kaoru. although they no longer posses the "identical" twin trope, something thats very common

within roxas's narrative is that he's constantly confused for sora because he technically, IS sora, he's not real. this mirrors the line in the manga "the one not me is hikaru and the one not hikaru is me. we are seperate individuals, this is absolute"

ok continuing the roxas shit, i think its uber funny because finally there's something outside of the manga that i want to touch on and it's both kaoru's and roxas's  desire to keep their found family despite knowing it'll all fall apart.  that's right. the carriage.

Episode 21 of Ouran, titles “Before it Becomes a Pumpkin,” is all about kaoru and his relationship with the people around him, providing an introspective look on his relationship with the rest of the host club and his reference to cinderella in possibly the best possible way.

kaoru understands more than ANYONE that this isnt permanent. this different with roxas is, is that roxas is forced to forget due to being placed in a simulation, watching xion die, etc. he too experiences that idea of realizing change must come but through his own death

roxas's carriage so to speak is his summer vacation, as seen at the end of kingdom hearts too in which "I guess summer vacation is ... over." in which summer vacation is his idealized life with axel and xion- even as a member of organization xiii, they were his family above all +

else, just in the way that kaoru has his family within the host club, and he doesn't want to let that go. "but still, one of these days, it'll all turn back into a grubby pumpkin again." i think these lines parallel each other ENOUGH to draw a connection, but not something

definitive. its almost a reverse of their narratives which. is pretty goddamn cool. and about hikaru being sora? it's more of a reach than roxas. i think that hikaru is too impulsive and Mean Spirited and self isolating to be sora, who believes his friends are his power

hikaru does too, but he doesn't like opening up to ANYONE. except for mori i guess. i mean if we're taking into consideration the start of hikaru pursuing haruhi arc he doesnt talk to kaoru, tamaki, and does his whole schitchk with haruhi so its whatevs. but yeah

and little sidenote, i think that if haruhi HAD to play a role in this silly narrative ive created, it'd be kiari, or xion : ) yay i'm very tired and this thread is very long! ive you've made it this far- awesome follow me if you like kingdom hearts and or ouran

[doctorodyssey]

okay cool hi lol let's be haters together <3

so my post earlier was abt 3x01 and specifically the pregnant woman gets attacked and has her baby stolen from her body call. it annoyed me on my first watch and then REALLY annoyed me on my second bc that is such a racialized form of violence mostly perpetuated by white women (or a couple) against black and/or indigenous women.

important context i am indigenous and 2s (usamerican specifically mohawk) which is why i feel like maybe i'm overreacting a bit but also fuck that lmao

and we know that sometimes the calls on 911 are inspired by real events right (the milky way call and also maddie telling that dv caller to pretend to order pizza come to mind)? and considering it is such a visceral crime i can't help but assume that they were inspired by one of the real life women that it's happened to. or any number of them. and they're mostly indigenous or black or other women of color!!

and like there's a reason bipoc are targeted for those types of crimes! so to tell a story like that and choose to victimize a white woman... idk leaves a bad taste in my mouth

and this is kinda an ongoing thing in 911 where they either completely avoid racial stuff while still using those stories or make the most milquetoast liberal statement that boils down to "racism bad". the whole michael and may and harry getting stopped and almost being brutalized thing comes to mind!

I know I shouldn't have high expectations for a copaganda show and I wouldn't even want them to touch the topic of racialized violence against bipoc bc they will fuck it up but also. I'm pissed bc violence against native women is PERVASIVE and also never fucking acknowledged by society at large.

Idk I'm salty about it and no one probably even noticed bc it's a small moment overall and maybe I'm being sensitive but also I feel like I deserve to be sensitive about this kind of thing. all I could think of while watching were those indigenous women who probably inspired that call and it sucks

anyway thoughts? LMAO

second part:

oh also to add on to the essay i dropped in your inbox yesterday i don't think the writers were in any way being malicious or bad writers or anything like that. they didn't anything wrong per se, it just made me uncomfortable to watch bc of my perspective as an ndn so i'm being a hater abt it to feel better lol obviously i still love the show

thank you so much for these thoughts!! i've never considered this but i think it makes total sense. you're 100% right that they base calls on real life stories, like a LOT of the calls. (random but i think it's cute that in the blackout episode, the call maddie takes from someone seeing the milky way in the sky is based on real calls from the LA blackouts in the 90s)

i actually just went and rewatched the scenes from 3x01 with the kidnapped mother & stolen baby. you are absolutely not wrong to be frustrated/uncomfortable w this portrayal. they really did it in the most viscerally disturbing way too, with the kidnapper literally removing the baby from the mother herself...definitely trying to play up the sensation in a situation where they could have addressed a deeper issue. instead they just did like "haha this crazy lady is so mentally ill and insane! let's use it as an opportunity for everyone to reflect!" (which, side note - this show does not handle certain mental health issues well either, despite being all pro-therapy for the characters when they're going through stuff....). and then they just used it as a way for chim & maddie to reflect on their own want for kids (and set up the possibility of maddie getting pregnant). the story did not need to be set up that way. like it was all for shock value...but marginalized/vulnerable people's babies being stolen is a real thing that happens (both by individuals and by the state/CPS/etc).

a better way for them to address this would be like, they have a sinister CPS worker who goes rogue and uses their power to take kids away from parents when it's not needed - this would be more interesting/hard-hitting IMO bc it puts the focus more on state-sponsored violence instead of individual harm committed by 1 person, but we do still have one person who is the villain (probably a "sweet" middle-aged white lady).

that said i also completely agree that they would...not do a good job if they tried to address racialized violence against Indigenous women. i feel like we would get one offhand comment about MMIW and maybe like a 10-second black screen at the end with a hotline you can call or something. i'm just thinking about how horrifically anti-Black the Mara/abused dog comparison storyline was...the writers on this show need to be punished tbfh

and also, i totally get you - the writers aren't being malicious, but they CLEEEEEEEAAARLY have blind spots and it shows.

[pickalilywrites]

Zeke is secretly a fan of No Name would be an interesting fic to read lol

thanks! hope you like it :)

for a friend

eren jaeger. zeke jaeger. high school au. 2562 words. read on ao3.

Despite being the younger half-brother of one of the smartest people in the world, Eren Jaeger has never been the best student. In fact, some might consider him to be borderline abysmal. Eren’s aware that traits like being studious and reading comprehension skills are not necessarily inherited, but it’s almost insulting that Zeke is on the track to being valedictorian just like their father was and Eren is always half a point away from getting a C- on his exams. It’s as if their father had poured all his impressive academic prowess into Zeke and left Eren with nothing. Even borrowing Zeke’s old notebooks and hoping he absorbs some of Zeke’s skill by osmosis doesn’t seem to help Eren. 

“Zeke, can I borrow your copy of King Lear?” Eren asks, already inside of Zeke’s room. He doesn’t hear an answer but he wasn’t expecting one anyway. He had heard Zeke enter the bathroom earlier and the sound of the shower running followed soon after. There really wasn’t any reason for Eren to put off asking Zeke to borrow an old (hopefully note-riddled) copy of a Shakespeare play since Zeke tends not to mind either way, but Eren has a habit of doing things too late especially if they’re trivial such as asking for a book.  

Eren bounds across Zeke’s pristine room and towards the smaller bookshelf holding Zeke’s literature books. Eren’s older brother has an interesting way of arranging his books. It’s not enough for him to simply file them away in alphabetical order by last name. No, he has to have them divided into categories: biographies and autobiographies, science fiction and fantasy, historical fiction, classic literature, reference books, etc. Even those might have subcategories and only after each category and their subcategories have been separated properly are the books arranged accordingly by last name of the author and then title (with the exception being series or reference books).  

Eren sits down on the floor to get a better look at the penultimate shelf where the classic literature books are. His eyes scan the spine of these well-worn books, no doubt read lovingly by Zeke. He’s the type of person to do the assigned reading and actually enjoy the book. Eren would rather read the SparkNotes or watch a movie adaptation if possible, but he’s so far found that they’re not substantial equivalents to reading the book, at least not according to his essay grades.  

He sighs and runs his fingers across the top of the Shakespeare section. Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Hamlet, Julius Caesar. His finger finally falls on King Lear and he pulls it from the shelf. The spine is bent and the pages are thin and riddled with notes taken in Zeke’s neat handwriting. Perfect. If only the shear number of notes Zeke had taken weren’t so daunting, but it’s better than having nothing at all.  

Eren shuts the book down with a sigh and returns his gaze to the shelf. Zeke has undoubtedly read all the books on this shelf. From the looks of it, Zeke has Shakespeare’s entire body of work on the shelf. They’re only required to read Romeo and Juliet and King Lear in high school, but it seems Zeke has taken a liking to the famed British playwright and his works. Eren reaches out to take out the copy of Romeo and Juliet, curious as to what thoughts his brother might have scribbled in the margins. It’s then that he notices something strange about the bookshelf.  

Eren stoops down lower to get a closer look at the collection of Shakespeare. They’re all published by the same publishing house and are in the same collection, so their height and width are all the same. They should be sitting evenly on the shelf, but some stick out a little more than others. It’s not something Eren would normally notice, but in this case it’s impossible for him not to notice when Zeke is impeccable with his organization. Seeing the books sitting on the shelf unevenly should annoy Zeke to no end.  

Eren decides to be the sweet, younger brother that he always is and begins to press the books against the shelf so that they all sit evenly the way they should. He’s towards the end of the historical plays (where Shakespeare had apparently lovingly documented the life of many different Henrys) when he notices that he can’t push them as far as the other books. It’s like there’s something stopping it from moving any further.  

Intrigued, Eren pulls out one of the books — a copy of Henry VI Part 1 — to see what is preventing him from pushing the book back against the shelf. He sees a jewel case, but he can’t tell what group the CD belongs to or the name of the album. It’s strange to see an album hidden behind the books, both because it’s not sitting along the other CDs that Zeke owns and because Zeke doesn’t listen to anything except for classical music as far as Eren knows. He only sees an inch of the cover, but just based off the artwork it doesn’t seem like anything Zeke would listen to.  

Eren reaches in and plucks the CD out from behind the books and examines it, eyes widening as he realizes that he recognizes the cover because he has the exact same copy in his own bedroom. Even if Eren didn’t have the album in his room, he would have recognized it. It’s the debut album of the alternative rock group No Name, a group that had risen to prominence after the recent release of their third EP Requiem of the Dawn. That’s not the only reason why it would be recognizable for Eren, though. It’s also because the lead singer of No Name is Levi Ackerman.  

Levi Ackerman is a senior that attends the same high school as Eren and Zeke. Levi and his friends, Hanji and Mike, had started No Name in the garage of Mike’s house and hadn’t intended on skyrocketing to success. They had uploaded a few demos on SoundCloud and captured the attention of the alt rock scene, although you wouldn’t know it just by looking at them. Aside from the number of listens on their tracks climbing steadily upward every day and the shows and radio interviews they book occasionally, all the members of No Name seem relatively unaffected by their fame. Hanji makes a few jokes about it here and there, but otherwise remains as humble as ever as do the remaining bandmates. Levi in particular doesn’t seem interested in his newfound fame, choosing to keep to himself even when crowds of people flock towards him when he’s doing mundane things like walking to school or stopping by the convenience store to pick something up on the way home.  

For reasons Eren can’t comprehend, Zeke despises Levi. Eren has only encountered Levi a handful of times. He’s found that Levi isn’t very friendly, but he’s not an asshole either. He’s just kind of grumpy and not very conversational. He doesn’t run in the same circles as Zeke, who chooses to network with other top students like himself, so Eren doesn’t know what Levi has done to offend Zeke. From what Eren can tell, Levi doesn’t have any feelings, positive or negative, towards Zeke, but it doesn’t stop Zeke from glowering whenever he hears any mention of Levi’s name. 

The CD seems to be in mint condition. There aren’t any scratches or cracks in the jewel case, and the lyric book inside looks new when Eren opens the case to inspect it. He pops out the CD and inspects the back. It also looks new, hardly played if it was ever played at all, without any scratches in the back. There isn’t any chance that Zeke doesn’t know that Levi is the vocalist of No Name. Everyone knows that Levi’s the lead vocal. Eren wonders if Zeke is planning on taking the CD out to burn it later.  

“What are you doing?” a voice says, startling Eren into nearly dropping the CD. 

Eren had been so intrigued in his discovery that he hadn’t noticed the shower had stopped running earlier. He hastily jams the CD back into it’s case and closes the case. He turns back to face his brother, hiding the CD behind his back although he doesn’t know why. Zeke was the one hiding the CD in the first place for reasons that are still unknown to Eren.  

“Eren, why are you snooping through my stuff?” Zeke asks, stepping towards his brother. His hair is still damp from his shower, making his golden hair look almost brown. He’s squinting a little through his fogged up glasses as he tries to see what Eren has hidden behind his back. “If you’re going to borrow something, you can always ask me. You don’t have to go sneaking around.” 

“Oh, you know,” Eren says with a laugh that sounds false even to his ears. He slips around Zeke, keeping his back to his brother so that the CD remains hidden. He gives Zeke a bright smile to keep his brother off his trail. “Just borrowing your copy of King Lear for my English class. Your notes are always super useful, so I thought I’d take your copy instead of getting one from the school library. I asked you, but I think you didn’t hear me over the shower.”  

“King Lear?” Zeke repeats.  

“Yeah, and I got it, so I’ll be going now,” Eren says hastily. He’s almost got one foot out the door — so close to freedom! — and he’s about to bolt for it when Zeke asks a question that makes his blood freeze. 

“If you have my copy of King Lear, then why is it lying on the ground?” Zeke asks, and Eren follows his brother’s gaze to where the Shakespearean play is sitting on the floor beside the bookshelf where Eren had forgotten it. Zeke looks as if he’s about to pick it up when he turns back to Eren, his brow furrowed in confusion. “If my copy of King Lear is here, then what do you have behind your back?” 

“N-nothing,” Eren stammers even though there’s nothing sinister about an alt rock album. He still feels the need to hide it behind him, stumbling backward as his brother approaches him. He laughs nervously and before he can stop himself the confessions spills from his lips. “I was just looking through your Shakespeare collection and I noticed that they weren’t sitting on the shelf right, so I was going to fix it but then I found this CD and I thought it was weird because I didn’t know you listened to No Name.”  

Zeke stops, frozen in place. His lips are pursed together in a thin line and then his shoulders begin to relax as he says a bit too calmly, “It’s for a friend.”  

“Okay,” Eren says slowly. The CD comes out from hiding and he offers it out to Zeke, but he’s not sure why he feels Zeke’s explanation is hollow. “Why are you hiding it behind your bookshelf then?”  

“It’s a gift for a friend,” Zeke says. He snatches the No Name CD from Eren’s hands and glares at his younger brother. “I’m hiding it so they don’t see it if they come over. It’s supposed to be a surprise.” 

Something still doesn’t feel quite right. Eren can’t see Zeke buying a No Name album for a friend even if the friend was the biggest No Name fan in the world. Zeke hates Levi Ackerman too much and wouldn’t want to support him in any way even if it was buying an album for a friend. He could have found another suitable gift. Also... 

“The shrink wrap was already torn off,” Eren points out. “Why would you gift your friend an opened album?”  

Maybe there is an explanation for it, one that doesn’t involve Zeke’s secret affinity for No Name, but Eren doesn’t think there is one based on the way the tips of Zeke’s ears redden and how he’s spluttering to find a plausible defense.  

“If I look behind your other books, are there going to be more No Name albums behind them?” Eren asks as a mischievous grin grows on his face.  

“... No,” Zeke says, but he paused too long and Eren dives towards the shelf.  

Eren ignores his brother’s shouts and pulls the books from the shelves haphazardly, looking for more No Name albums hidden behind them. Zeke attempts to pull him away, but Eren shoves him aside and continues to dig around the shelves, letting the books drop to the floor. Zeke can always organize them later anyway. 

“Do you have all the albums?” Eren says giddily, pulling another album from the shelf. It’s the second EP from No Name, Dedicate Your Heart!. He looks over at Zeke who looks absolutely mortified. “You know you could have just bought their music digitally if you wanted to keep it a secret that you like their music.”  

“It’s for a friend,” Zeke snaps even though he doesn’t have to keep the lie up now that he’s been completely exposed. He snatches the EP from Eren’s hands and glares at his younger brother. “And besides, physical albums are more meaningful than digital albums.” 

“Alright, alright,” Eren snickers. Zeke does seem to be the type to prefer physical copies over digital ones. He doesn’t think Zeke’s ever read an eBook in his life even though it would allow him to have a plethora of literature at his fingertips. Curious, Eren steps towards Zeke’s dresser. He wonders what else his brother is hiding from him. “Do you have any other No Name stuff hidden somewhere?”  

“Don’t you fucking dare go through any more of my things,” Zeke says, pointing a warning finger at his brother. He sighs and sets the album carefully down on his desk before picking up all the books Eren had tossed carelessly on the ground. “And do not tell anyone about this.” 

“I don’t see what the harm is in telling people. No Name is getting really popular,” Eren says, but he quickly shuts up when Zeke shoots him another glare. He leans back against the dresser and watches as his brother continues to pick up the mess he’s made. Eren does think it’s fun to have something to hold over his older brother, but he thinks it’s even better knowing something about his brother that nobody else knows. It makes him feel closer to Zeke in a way. “You know, I can probably get you a signed copy of these albums if you want.” 

“Really?” Zeke asks, his head snapping towards Eren. Realizing that he’s too excited for something he had claimed to have no interest in, Zeke clears his throat and says, “Oh, well. That would be nice. For my friend, I mean.”  

“Of course, for your friend,” Eren says with a grin. Even if he’s not exactly friends with Levi, he’s friendly enough with Hanji and Mike to ask their whole band to sign a few albums. He has a feeling Zeke will appreciate it more than he lets on. “And who should I tell them to write out their message to?”  

“Just … a friend, ” Zeke says weakly. 

“A friend named Zeke?”  

Zeke scowls.  

[judaismandsuch]

A Brilliant Biblical Commentary that I can't Believe

Now, as many of you may know Humanity/ Man is Created twice in Breishit (Genisis) the First time in Breishit 1:27: "And G-d created man in His image....male and female He Created them."

The Second time in Breishit 2:7, and finished in 2:22: "...[G-d] formed man from the dust of the earth.....and Man became a living being." "[HaShem] fashioned the rib He took from man into a woman." (obv a bunch of stuff happens between verse 7 and 22).

Now important notes: 1)There is a lot of established commentary on all of this, but that means there is too much to succinctly summaries other views, so if you are curious about the established interpretations for all this look it up yourself. 2) All the garden of Eden stuff is a cohesive story in chapter 2-3, not mentioned at all in relation to the first creation.

Anyways there is a lot of explanation and reconciiation of these verses, as it is troubling the HaShem would describe the creation of humanity twice, and the stories be very different. There are answers, brilliant ones, bad ones, etc. But I believe I am the first to have this response.

So... it is indeed troubling, until you look a few chapters later, specifically chapter 6.

Now between chapter 2 and 6 a bunch of stuff happens: The garden of Eden, Cain and Abel. Cain taking a wife. The First city builder, the first smiths, the first tent dwellers (more accuaretly the specific ancestor of those, but w/e). The descendents of Cain and Seth, the subtle decrease in life span, etc.

Now aside from the general "Wow this is bullshit, it human civilization didn't progress in that manner." or "Humanity never had a lifespan that long!" Bad faith arguments, you run into an issue.

Who the fuck are they marrying? Hell, it's implied that there are other humans around when Cain kills Abel, where did those guys come from?

Again, loads of commentary but here we are going to my tying all this together:

Chapter 6: The Children of G-d and the Nephilim. 6:2: "The children of G-d saw how beautiful the daughters of Man (or humanity) were, and took wives from among those that pleased them." 6:4:"It was then that the Nephilim (lit. the fallen) appeared on earth when the children of G-d cohabited with the daughters of Man who bore them offspring, they were the Heroes of Old, Men of Great renown."

Now, this has it's own issues, mainly: What the fuck? Who are the children of G-d? Who are the fallen (Nephilim)? And who the hell are the Heroes of Old?

Again, loads of answers for all that already. (BTW, in Numbers/Bamidbar 13:33 Nephilim are mentioned again. by the spies, who use the word to mean 'giant', since that is a quotation of a human speaking, whereas this is not, I can safely ignore "Nephilim means giant" in my exegesis).

Now my commentary (though clever you, you may have already put it together!)

We already have fallen children of G-d mentioned: Adam and Eve. Them getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden can definitely be considered 'Falling'.

And if we consider that there were two separate 'Humans' those in the Garden (Adam and Eve), and those outside from chapter one, we get the answer to who Cain and Seth are marrying.

And then, from Adam's line we get a list of Great Humans: The City Builder, The Smith, The Musician. They could definitely be considered the heroes of old.

Are there issues with this explanation? A couple, none (scripturally) too challenging. Is this explanation original? As far as I know: Yes. But that may just mean my research is garbage.

But the biggest problem with this explanation?

It DEMANDS a fully literal acceptance of that portion of Breishit. If HaShem intended for it to be metaphorical, or a pat explanation b/c creation wasn't important, why would there be an interlock of the two stories?

There wouldn't be.

And I am NOT a (full) biblical literalist. (I do believe that one has to be within a small margin of error a biblical literalist from Avraham to the end of the Torah for Judaism to have validity).

So I have this beautiful, pat, explanation that I can't believe.

Terribly Annoying.

[breithenua]

Note: this post is very much inspired by a brilliant character analysis of Senju Tobirama by Sage's Rain on YT.

Gonna keep this short but I think that part of the reason some people still defend Tobirama's treatment of the Uchiha is that they don't realize the difference between outright bigotry and hatred for the sake of it, and less outright variants of bigotry one justifies to oneself by saying to themselves "It's better for our society as a whole if x group is excluded/shunned/oppressed/kept from gaining too much power/etc". Most people think they're in the right, and believe they're doing what's best. A lot of people are either unwilling or incapable of considering they might be wrong, too. They're incapable of or unwilling to see past their own emotions, biases and assumptions. Many reject the possibility of being wrong because it means a significant portion of their lives, beliefs and way of life is built on lies and self-deceit.

This applies to Tobirama. Tobirama was unfairly biased against the Uchiha. Was this more understandable in his case than a lot of examples of real-life bigotry? Yes, he watched many of his comrades, family members and other loved ones die at the hands of the Uchiha during the Warring States period. Some unresolved trauma and PTSD was probably part of the problem there. But regardless of the reasons, he was unfairly prejudiced against the Uchiha. He took his fear of Madara specifically and the fear of another man like him someday rising up to attack Konoha and lead an Uchiha rebellion, and applied it unfairly to the entire rest of the clan. Marginalizing them from the center of village power, treating them as separate from the rest of the village, making up his mind that the Uchiha were naturally predisposed to evil due to their power being directly linked to their emotions, and by extension, their hatred, etc.

Ironically, it was his own actions that led to the Uchiha planning a coup d'etat years later. This isn't a new thought, the aforementioned Sage's Rain channel made that same point. But that's besides my point.

Tobirama may have been acting out of what he believed was in the best interest of the village, but that doesn't mean he wasn't bigoted and prejudiced in his actions against them. That doesn't mean he wasn't wrong, or undeserving of the label of oppressor of the Uchiha. He is a racist when it comes to his treatment of the Uchiha, and his actions in that regard led to more harm than good, regardless of his intentions being to protect the village.

P.S. I will say though that however flawed Tobirama was and how bigoted towards the Uchiha he was, Danzo was *so much worse* about it. Danzo literally manipulated the circumstances of the village after the Ninetails attack to ostracize them even further, and then manipulated Itachi to massacre his entire clan, and then stole the Sharingan eyes of multiple dead Uchiha, desecrating their bodies. In fact I believe that was Danzo's intention from the very night of the Kyuubi's attack onwards. But that's a different conversation entirely. TL;DR Tobirama was problematic but fuck Danzo to death with a spiked mace. But anyway.

[ofyorkshire]

apropos to really nothing at all, i've decided to add this in fewer words to my guidelines:

please note that bj is not meant to be a reflection of sex work or a perpetuation of stigmas around sex work (ie - sex workers being inherently unhappy or traumatized, as if there aren't sex workers who have a safe, happy, and healthy relationship with their occupation). i don't personally think bj can really be considered a typical, "proper" sex worker when the decision to become one wasn't his own. he's a victim first and foremost and describing him as a "sex worker" is… technically true, but it's a simplification and a shallow understanding of the point of his character. i've said before, bj was created as a vehicle for peace to critique aspects of society. particularly society's tendency as a whole to sweep vulnerable, marginalized people under the rug. in bj's case, he's a young, gay, possibly genderfluid, homeless, orphaned, etc. etc. catchall symbol of people that tend to be ignored or mistreated by the majority, especially in the 1970s-'80s. not saying it's done well in canon, but there is narrative purpose for his misery and it's not "sex workers are fundamentally miserable".

i've just been thinking about how media tends to portray sex workers in a negative, inherently tragic light, andddd, i dunno, i just don't want to accidentally give the impression that the way bj and his relationship with his occupation is like... "standard", i guess. sex work is like any other job, and popular entertainment regularly portraying it in a negative way, i think, isn't very true or kind. i doubt many people are looking to fiction, especially on a tumblr rp blog, for cold, hard, true facts about the world around them, but lol i figured this clarification would be nice anyways. plus, it sorta clears up some important things about my portrayal and how i view/interpret bj's character.

[tessa-quayle]

I just wanted to say I love the positivity around the discussion of age gap fics and fics that don’t have age gaps because both sides have a mutual respect for one another and I think for me personally it all comes down to a preference on what I like (which is what makes fan-fiction so unique because there’s something out there for everyone) and I’m learning more about my own writing and how I am naturally trying to write more non age gap fics not because I don’t like them but just cause I want to make sure all of my readers feel included.

I think positive discussions such as this are so enriched and healthy for the fandom and I hope more of these can take place!

Anyway, enough of my rambling! I hope you have a wonderful rest of your Sunday honey bun 🩷

-Gi

Hello Gi!

Thanks for your lovely message - I am on the periphery of the fandom so I am glad to hear the discussion has been mostly positive and not too contentious.

But I also want to note that disagreement and discomfort are ok? We have our preferences with regard to what we want to consume or create, it’s human.

I see variations of these fandom (not unique to Pedro characters) tensions play out many times in other spheres, and what I hope for is that when people are confronted with reasons why some might find their work problematic (whether we’re debating canon compliant or divergent characterization, issues with age gap, or how some fics may have a colonizer gaze on Javi P, use of Spanish language, etc) or when -isms or issues with representation and inclusivity are pointed out, maybe we just sit with that discomfort (if the criticism is delivered respectfully, constructively) and just consider why it provokes that reaction even if we end up all doing our own thing and/or disagreeing.

(I mean - I write an OFC, everyone clowns on OFCs, I’m basking in my unpopularity knowing I am not entitled to an audience 🤣).

Disagreement or different preferences don’t mean hate, policing, banning, etc. from the beginning I’ve been a broken record framing these resources and fic rec lists as a “yes and” issue, you do you, this is not a zero sum game, let’s resist the scarcity mindset.

To put it in crass economic terms, it’s supply and demand. There’s a demand for a diverse array of fics, and there will be a supply that will attempt to meet it. Not everyone’s gonna buy what you’re selling (you being the collective you, not you personally 😜), and if you’re confident in your product and especially if you enjoy a healthy popularity (think profit) margin, and something else comes on the market? Keep doing you. It shouldn’t be a threat. Cause are we building community or wanting a monopoly?

Sorry for my rambling answer. Thanks for the ask and keep writing all your wonderful stories xo

- D

[bidokja]

re: orv is good but not great - i agree w most of the major beats of the post but i dont think you can say one way or another whether orvs writing style and vocab etc. are intricate or poetic when reading an english fan-translation. to be clear im not arguing that its amazingly worded in korean, just that if youve only read the english version i dont know that its fair to draw conclusions on the quality of the prose when its been translated out of its original language by 2 different translators as a personal project. on a similar note, i wonder if orv is as long in comparison to other korean novels? i know translation can often make things end up longer or shorter than in their original language, especially in languages written in characters like korean or mandarin, although coming in at a million or so words im sure orv is still on the long end, i just wonder if its as insanely long comparatively in korean

that's entirely fair and a very important point that i neglected to fully consider. that is 100% on me and i thank you dearly for pointing it out.

i'm mostly going based off of the e-pub, and some second-hand accounts of people i know who HAVE read it in krn, so my assessment of that aspect is going to reflect that specific experience, which means i'm unable to directly comment on the Original "quality" of orv's writing. my commentary is only meant to reflect my experience, which is unfortunately not comprehensive of the original text.

i Would like to clarify that i don't think orv is Never intricate or poetic, that's definitely Not the point i was making and i hope it didn't come across that way. it definitely has some extremely beautifully written passages in it. i also think it's important for me to say i'm of the belief that it is actually fairly important for written mediums to NOT be poetic and intricate the Entire Time (or even the majority of the time, in some cases) especially if theyre longer. it's important - for pacing and variety and all that jazz - that you have some less intensive writing in between the more intensive bits, in order to highlight said intensive bits. and i think orv does that well, even in the translations.

anyways! additions and clarifications aside, those are by No means meant to be an excuse, tbc. as i said, it's on me for not fully considering and addressing the whole "i can only ever speak from the angle of the translations, Not the original language, which is definitely conveyed in a more clear and intricate way than a translation can hope to achieve" thing. and again, thank you for pointing that out to me! i appreciate it.

as for the second part of your ask, i think orv is prrrobably a lil shorter in krn? but like, marginally so, as far as Word Count is concerned. (not character count, since krn is Definitely more compact in that department)

[awakenedmaiden]

Slides up. Today I'm going to tell you all about the Science;Adventure franchise because I consider them to be quite high quality VNs (I personally put 'em above Higurashi and Umineko but I know that can be a bit contentious) that don't get too much attention.

They are a series of VNs set in a vaguely shared universe (but with little as far as crossover goes) developed by Nitroplus and produced by Spike Chunsoft (The folks that brought us Zero Time Dilema, the Dangan Ronpas, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, AI the Somnium Files, etc).

You've probably already heard of the franchise even if you don't realize it, as the critically acclaimed anime Steins;Gate is an adaption of the second Science;Adventure game (also called Steins;Gate).

Each of the three main lines in the Science;Adventure franchise deal with certain scifi concepts Psychic abilities (Chaos;Head//Child), Time Travel (Steins;Gate), mecha (Robotic;Notes) in what I would describe as fairy fun and introspective ways.

Each story follows a group of nerds, ones you'd probably describe as chunibyou or Otaku, that find themselves thrust way too far over their head into shit that they thought would be cool but that they never should have meddled with.

Each has both light hearted fun moments and dark really impactful sequences. Though as a forewarning the Chaos;Head/Child franchise is notably the darkest and most cynical by a wide margin while Robotic;Notes is the most idealistic. All, however, will have sequences that really feel like heavy emotional gut punches when you get to them.

Yet they also offer the opportunity to immerse yourself into this world of nerd culture. With a handy guide to accompany you that explains most of the nerd shit. For example, the cast is undoutebly going to break out references to classic Gundam or the first parts of Jojo but whenever someone pulls out a weird statement like shouting "BREAST FIRE!" you'll be given a handy little reference note explaining that it's an iconic and memey battle cry from Mazinger Z.

Reading through Steins;Gate back in high school was where I first learned of iconic Tokyo locales like Akihabara (Though the areas of Tokyo are something I only really came to know after the SMT franchise).

But anyways. Playing through the Science;Adventure games you'll be given some serious questions to ask yourself that can prompt ya to think about potential technology in a more philosophical way. Often really well written (but also initially annoying) characters with fun dynamics. And some really great stories.

So I highly recommend checking them out if you've got the time and money for it.