#anyways. that has no relevance to the story

[plaidos]

Meat, or Candy?

okay so not to deflect your fun silly question but fun fact: as far as i can see it, Andrew has been referring to a meat/candy narrative structure dichotomy in fiction since at least the author commentaries to the hardback Homestuck books (though i can’t remember which one, i’ll have to find it).

now, of course, the relevance of meat & candy to the cherubs in Homestuck goes back further than that — 2011. but it’s interesting to see how early she conceptualised that in that way and makes me think, well, that’s always been part of it. like the idea that Andrew might have back in 2011 known she was going to split the story into Meat and Candy is fucking mindblowing to me. the Cherubs are and always have been commentary on authors/artists and especially in relationship to fandom and fanculture — Calliope prefers relationships and shipping and wish fulfilment, she likes filling in the gaps with stuff that makes her smile with zero reflection of if it makes contextual sense in the narrative — like how she draws the Alpha Kids as if their text color is their blood color, and assumes that they’ll have wings when they god tier.

Caliborn on the other hand cares only for the meat of the narrative. the real juicy stuff, none of the boring meandering. to him, stories should be straight to the point, and they should mostly be action (in both senses of the term). his writing is grittier, more to the point, more “honest” (from his perspective).

Anyway wouldn’t it be crazy if versions of these two were puppeteering the entirety of the Epilogues & Beyond Canon? i mean, we already know that a version of Callie, the dead cherub, is literally capable of that. and Dirk? well, wouldn’t it be an ironic twist of fate if the puppet-master Prince of Heart ended up being puppeteered by, oh, i don’t know, an all-powerful unkillable demon god composed in part by a splinter of his soul?

food for thought.

[eugenedebs1920]

I’m not sure why, but I am honestly shocked by the capitulation and subservient nature of the Republican lawmakers.

I do my best to not travel in conspiracy theories, abide with more of an Occam’s razor approach. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. So in my mind the weakness and the refusal to even slightly object to some incredibly egregious orders and actions from the new administration was based on their fear of being primaried and losing their seat, or fear of reprisal from their more extreme maga constituents.

My mind wonders into other possibilities though…

If you dive into the rightward swing of the judiciary after the very progressive and open minded liberties ruled upon by the Warren court you begin to spiral down a vortex of Christianity, very wealthy capitalists, right wing indoctrination of Ivy League students, and individuals who perceive democracy as more of a hindrance to their success than a fair system of self governance.

Quick side story. Most people are not aware that the “pro-life” movement was born (pardon the pun) out of the desegregation of schools. Jerry Faldwell was opposed to mandated desegregation, long story short, the government threatened to tax the church if they were unwilling to comply with the Civil Rights Act. Faldwell had very recently stumbled upon what would become the modern day mega church style of reaching an enormous audience and was making money hand over fist. As most people with copious amounts of wealth they opposed contributing to society by paying their fair share in taxes on their revenue. Opposing taxation because you were racist and didn’t want children of color in your classrooms was an unflattering position to stand on. He needed something controversial, something that contained strong opinions on both sides of the argument that wasnt racism. He settled on abortion as the hot button topic in which to levy his protest against complying to desegregation, or having to contribute tax revenue.

Anyway, I digress…

When you look at the current court, the Federalist Society plays a major role in the installation of justices, the bonkers textualist stance, the ideology of the “conservative” justices generally.

I don’t want to, nor do I have time today to go down that great expanse of a rabbit hole regarding the Federalist Society, The Heritage Foundation, Harlan Crow, Clarence Thomas, etc etc, but I will say they have had an itinerary for the the implementation of the theocratic agenda they desired going on more than 40 years now.

Fortunately for us society is moving away from the mythological explanations of the unknown used to control the masses and quiet dissent from the peasantry for the exploitation of their labor to enrich the ruling class hoarding the majority of societies capital, and into a more scientific explanation with spirituality being a more personal experience.

The conservative platform is not popular. The policies of the right overwhelmingly benefit the incredibly wealthy through the abuse and neglect of the workers. As technology and society progressed, the traditional viewpoints of patriarchy, whites superiority, and the dominance of a ruling class have become less and less popular.

Yet through patience, planning, scheming, and corruption, the religious right has perpetuated a minority rule. The electoral college, the equal representation to disproportionate constituency of the senate, and good ol fashioned cronyism poised the increasingly less relevant political stance to acquire disproportionate power despite the populations copacetic views of it.

What if this is where the 40 plus years of planning has finally come to fruition? What if the conditions were set to make that move to circumvent democracy and self rule to finally implement the authoritarian, kleptocratic, theocracy they sought? Like a cornered animal, dangerous and desperate, pouncing on what they perceive as a threat on the plan they strived so long to achieve.

A useful idiot in the executive. A stacked judiciary of their members. A manufactured division of the citizens. A complacent and feckless legislature. An abundance of wedge issues. A media apparatus existing in a fact free platform of their chosen propaganda. A society unable or unwilling to obtain objective truth.

I’m not confident this is t the case. I can see the dominos in line to topple. The behavior and rhetoric coming from the new administration, mixed with the misinformation sphere of today’s information platforms. The utter disdain created between a two party system against one another.

Some things are too coincidental to be a coincidence. If you don’t read the road signs what are they there for. JD Vance, Steven Miller, Russ Vought, they look, act, and think like commanders from the Handmaids Tale. Their policies fit as well.

Hopefully I’m just paranoid and this is all some crazy conspiracy theory in my head from reading Orwell and watching too many movies and shows.

Although…. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you 

A House hearing Tuesday descended into chaos when Chairman James Comer (R-KY) threatened to have Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) forcibly removed for calling President Donald Trump a “grifter.”

During his speaking time, Frost called Trump the “grifter-in-chief” and accused both him and Elon Musk of using their positions to “enrich themselves to the tune of billions of dollars.”

“So if we wanna look at waste, fraud, and abuse — which I’m down to do — why is there complete silence on the other side of the aisle about looking at the complete grifter that is the President of the United States,” Frost said, “and the richest man on the Earth, which is looking into things like social security and different things like that? Why don’t we investigate the real corruption?”

[caterpillarinacave]

Hello! Yes/No anon here! I just wanted to take a pause for clarity, to be sure we are both on the same page since a lot is happening and the path is winding ever more twisty. :)

So far, you have discovered a new world, lived with its people, learned the local language, and come across the journal of someone who passed through before you. You have made contact with the next world in the Forward Path and deciphered a small amount about this strange system including that some items develop unique properties when they pass through the door.

Currently, a group the journal describes as a cult has appeared in town. The people in the town have been open with them and told the cult you are staying at your friends farm. The cult will be showing up at the house soon, but luckily your friend was able to warn you before they got there.

To be clear, you want to grab your things, which fortunately are already packed, and race to the Forward door, leaving your friends to direct the cult to the door with instructions to stay twelve feet from you while you discuss what they're looking for you for as well as any additional information they may have and if anything should spook you you'll be jumping through and slamming the door closed?

Yep, all seems clear! Indeed, the continues to thicken! Very interesting to see how this will go. Anon, I continue to be impressed with your persistence and creativity; the story could easily have plateaued at several points and been very difficult to continue in a coherent way. However, that has clearly not discouraged your writing; I hope you know you should really be proud of your work!

I'm pretty prepared to step through this time; even if they seem friendly. It feels within reason to be like "yeah, I believe you mean no harm but I would feel more comfortable not being in the world".

I'll let my hosts know that as I leave; thank them sincerely as I can and explain that there's a pretty decent chance I won't be back soon. I'd mention that if there ever is another person from another world like me to direct them to journal I've been keeping in my room (presuming they don't find the one tossed in the bushes), and give them some more berries since thats all I've really got to offer lol. If I ever gain an understanding of this sort of travel I'll do my best to come back to this world and visit them; I feel like they deserve an update.

Then I'll just go sit at the door; keep all my stuff close of course, and keep an ear on the walkie and stuff. When I first get there, before the cult shows up, I'll scribble a lil' note about what's going on and toss it through for my otherside-of-the-door friend, just so I don't jumpscare them falling through the door screeching with a cult behind me.

I'll update the situation in the journal in the berry bush (the existence of which I will notably be keeping away from the cult members) while I wait.

Also, I'm going to *try* to write down some stuff that happens with the cult as we converse? Probably useless since I don't multitask well, but if there's some sort of super important word I'd like to have it written down lol. Maybe if theyre chill enough I can get them to go away in like. ten minute intervals. so I can feverishly scribble and they can wonder if everyone from my world is like this or if its just me.

[lgbtlunaverse]

I feel like too often people frame Nie Mingjue's issues as ignorance borne from safety. Like, they think that because of his privilege as a sect leader he doesn't know what it's like to be in danger and forced to make hard choices to survive. And I disagree. Strongly.

First of all, Nie Mingjue is very familiar with death not only from war but from. You know. Actively dying since the age of fourteen. Let us not forget Nie Mingjue is dead! Super dead! And maybe he didn't die the exact way he expected to but he did, absolutely, know he was going to die. To act like Nie Mingjue is unfamiliar with the scenario of "do something you find morally reprehensible or die" is to ignore that he has been living that exact scenario and chose death.

Nie Mingjue knows death is a risk for someone like Jin guangyao, in fact he explicitly acknowledges it even in his worst moments like the stairs in chapter 49. Had his issue been ignorance, then he would've responded to Jin Guangyao saying that he's in danger and has to sacrifice others for his own safety with "No you aren't you'll be fine." But he doesn't. He accepts the fact that jgy is in danger with no qualms and says: then you should die.

That's not him betraying his values, those are his values. He is, essentially, pro-suicide. Jgy is like hey I have a moral dilemma what should I do and nmj straight up goes "Kill yourself" and earlier that same chapter when he was faced with a moral dilemma he went "I'm gonna kill myself." He believes the solution to moral dilemmas is suicide! He is extremely consistent about this! When it's pointed out to him that it would have been dangerous for Wen Qing to oppose Wen Ruohan it doesn't phase him because he thinks putting yourself at risk to do the right thing is the only moral choice. The idea that he can only hold this belief because he is himself somehow not in danger, again, requires you to ignore that he is dying the whole time. And it doesn't deter him. He is the idea of self-sacrifice as a moral good taken to its absolute logical extreme. Someone who is ready to die and demands the same from everyone else.

It makes him a very fun case study for fandom, because a lot of fandom spaces also tend to revere self-sacrifice as the ultimate good, and yet we get very uncomfortable when someone starts demanding it of characters we love. Like woah, hold on, that's a bit too far isn't it? Only we the audience get to do that!

[egophiliac]

CROWLEY SSR THOUGHTS

there is zero basis for this, but I can't get this thought of my head

I don't know why I decided to draw it this way

[bigskydreaming]

Imagine looking at a character whose entire premise is that in every stage of his life, he's made every version of himself into someone that inspires people to such a degree that EVERY SINGLE VERSION OF HIM has people wanting to literally follow in his footsteps in some way or another.....

And coming to the conclusion that like.....the most important things about him are the sum of all his trappings. His entirely homemade developed from scratch could not exist if not for what he already was and brought with him BEFORE crafting this newest version of himself trappings, with his greatest trait throughout all of it being his adaptability; his ability and willingness to roll with the punches and not try to simply weather any opposition or changes to his life but instead reshape himself as needed to better fit INTO whatever new shape his life and the world around him takes. All while managing to carry the most innate, fundamental and necessary aspects of himself from one version to the next. Thus every single version of himself is different but simultaneously every single version of himself is also undeniably the same person.

The strength of this character, to me, will always be that he can be so many versions of himself, he can become so many things, all without ever actually losing or discarding any of the aspects of himself he considers most essential, the things he's not willing to lose or give up just to keep going. Finding that road not taken by most, usually because most never even think to look for it as an option. But one that he's always able to find because the one trick he's mastered in his tumultuous life is threading that needle of not just digging in his heels in an unproductive way but rather being selective about when and where he makes a stand and decides "this is not a thing I'm willing to compromise about" but here are places and ways I can and will change and evolve and adapt in order to make it possible for me to hold onto these parts and keep them as they are.

And that's why its always so mind-boggling to me that so many writers can't seem to think of anything else to do with Dick Grayson other than invent some new reason for him to just....not be that person, or to like just take the character whose most basic fundamental trait he's NOT about to compromise on is willingly giving up his spot in the driver's seat of his own life.....and make him just a passenger in his own life and stories.

Dick Grayson at age nine....at age nineteen...at age twenty nine....the one core thread running through all versions of him is the only way he's standing back and letting you call the shots for him or putting him on the sidelines in some way is over his dead body.

HOW he goes about that, what that looks like, who he becomes and what aspects of himself he plays up at some times and what traits he lets fall by the wayside at other times when they offer less in service to his primary goal here....that changes constantly. He changes constantly.

But those changes are almost always (or at least they used to be/should be IN MY OPINION) made with the intention of keeping certain things about him or his life as consistent as possible.

That's the duality of Dick Grayson that I'm here for. The inherent contradiction of him that COULD allow for endless conflict and breaking new narrative ground in all sorts of ways if mined properly:

His eternal willingness to compromise....but only ever in pursuit of doubling down on the ways he's not willing to compromise.

Forever walking that tightrope in ways that only a kid born and raised in a circus could ever hope to.

[aw-dummies-no]

Anyone else ever just sit there thinking about how Bucky was HYDRA's for 2.5 times longer than he'd been his own self?

[chrollogy]

[wantonlywindswept]

Definitely True Facts About Commander Vertex #4

He's lost everything.

[forgotten Fox AU tag]

Bucket, for the crimes of having an excellent sabacc face and a hip that seized up when moving any faster than a light jog, was often stuck manning the Guard HQ front desk.

They didn't get too many natborns coming through these days, at least, now that the CSF were forced to do their own jobs and had taken over guarding the prison. The Guard was finally back to being a protective, high-level military force instead of doing all the domestic policing and drudgework they'd been relegated to. They were still beholden to the Senate, but things had gotten better since Palpatine died and Organa took office, even if some of the Dome's denizens still saw them as little better than droids.

So Bucket didn't have to deal with that--he could, he got his name from being able to fit his demeanor to whatever the situation needed it, swapping faces like you could swap a helmet--but he did still have to deal with the regular comers and goers. Thankfully, that was mostly clones, plus the new addition of the pack of Jedi healers that descended on medbay once a week.

Interesting bunch, the Jedi. A lot more personable than Bucket had thought they would be. Surprisingly calm up until you admitted to using a soldering torch to close an acute laceration. 

(It wasn't even a recent injury--it happened so long ago that it was already healed. But now Master Nema gave Bucket the stink eye whenever she saw him, like she was trying to determine how medically stupid he'd been in her absence.)

"--figure what they were going on about?"

Bucket snapped to attention as the exterior doors slid open, a placid expression settling across his features. He turned toward the voice--only to relax when he caught sight of the visitors.

"Just something about another shift in the Force," Marshal Commander Cody said, offering Captain Rex a shrug. "It's not as bad as when Palpatine died; nobody passed out this time, at least."

"Small mercies," Commander Gree observed, bringing up the rear behind them. He had four takeout containers cradled in one arm, and by the smell they were from the offensively good noodle cart that parked near the base of the Rotunda. Bucket took a deep, envious breath and decided he was definitely going there for latemeal.

This particular group of GAR troopers--along with Commanders Bly and Wolffe--were a familiar enough sight at Guard HQ. They didn't visit often, almost eternally deployed to the front lines, but whenever their leaves lined up they usually made an appearance. Bucket had never seen all five together at once, but maybe that would change now that the war was officially over and battalions were being called back to Coruscant.

"Commanders, Captain," he greeted, standing up behind the counter to salute. His second for the day, Kelari, hastily copied the action. 

Cody waved the formality away with the hand sign for 'at ease', nodding at the two of them in turn.

"Sergeant Bucket," he greeted. "And I don't think I know..?"

"Private Kelari, sir!" Kelari chirped. She was still painfully shiny, wide-eyed and awestruck as she stared up at the Marshal Commander, and Bucket allowed the gaping with fond indulgence. 

Kelari was one of their most recent acquisitions, part of a squadron that arrived after the death of the Chancellor. The group didn't have any direct experience with the war or the suffering that came with it, and the entire Guard were doing their damndest to make sure they never would.

"Private Kelari," Cody acknowledged, one side of his mouth ticking up. "Good to meet you."

Kelari beamed; Bucket shooed her away so he could get back in front of the security screens. 

"The Jedi up to shenanigans again?" he asked as he pulled up the admittance forms. 

Rex sighed, heavily, and Cody shot him an amused look.

"Let's just say," Gree said, "That it will be nice to avoid more half-coherent explanations on how the Force works now that the war's over."

Bucket snorted, starting to fill out the usual info. The Guard never got a Jedi--and with the reveal of Palpatine being a Sith, they now knew why--but he had to admit he was glad they never needed to deal with the often-inexplicable Jedi tendency to rely so much on some invisible cosmic power.

"Captain CT-7567," he recited idly as his fingers flicked across the keys, "Commander CC-2224, and Commander CC-1004, here to see --"

Bucket blinked at the 'reason for visit' box. 

This batch of clones had been visiting the entire war, either by themselves or together, whenever their rare leave allowed. They came often enough that if Bucket wasn't the one that would suffer the datawork hassle later, he would have just waved them on through. 

He was familiar enough with them to know that Cody's infamous scar came from a sparring accident, that Gree had three half-finished xenobiology research papers that he hoped to someday publish, and that Rex had been forcibly adopted by the CC clones without being allowed any input in the matter. He knew that Wolffe had three implanted teeth from multiple attempts at biting trainers through their armor as a cadet, and that Bly sometimes mixed up his letters and numbers and had almost been decommissioned as a result.

And Bucket had no idea what to put in the box.

"Sergeant?" Kelari asked quietly, stepping close to Bucket's side, "They're Commander Vertex's batchmates, right?"

The gentle nudge would have been helpful--Kelari was new, but she'd already learned what to do when another Guard faltered--except the intel she was working with was faulty. 

It was a reasonable assumption: Thire wouldn't shut up about his batchmates, so they were all known. Ponds had already stopped by to see Stone, the rest of their batch lost to the war, while Thorn's quietly deranged batch somehow managed to stay known but off the radar. Vertex was the only Commander whose batchmates were unaccounted for.

Except Vertex didn't have any batchmates.

Cresh Squad had taken heavy losses a couple weeks ago, and Bucket had been doing his own rehab with Patches in the medbay while they were still recovering. Commander Vertex had been there speaking quietly with the survivors, going between the beds with soft words and reassuring touches. It was clear that he'd done that kind of thing before, and when he'd finally taken a moment to sit down with Defib, Bucket had overheard their conversation.

'Good going with Whiskey,' Defib said gruffly. 'He would have camped outside the medbay doors if you hadn't talked him down. Tango's stable, but it's never easy to see a batcher get hurt.'

'No,' Vertex said, sounding tired. 'It really isn't.'

'Sounds like you have experience.'

Vertex was silent for a long while.

'My batchmates,' he said eventually, 'And my command. I lost them. They're...they're all gone, now.'

'Not gone,' Defib corrected gently, 'But marching far away.'

'Not gone,' Vertex had agreed, almost too soft to hear. 'Just marching far away from me.'

Patches was a medic and Bucket knew when to keep his mouth shut, and neither of them had mentioned anything of the conversation to others. Bucket was pretty sure the other commanders knew, too, but it wasn't like they'd go around airing someone's trauma like that.

Far too much trauma to go around for all of them.

Kelari nudged him again, and Bucket blinked rapidly, hauling himself out of the memory. He lifted his gaze from the half-finished form to meet Cody's eyes.

The Marshal Commander frowned.

"We're here to see--to see..."

Missing memories weren't that uncommon, in the Guard, but as Bucket watched confusion steal across Cody's face--as that confusion shifted into unease and then panicked alarm--he didn't think that it was just a Guard problem, anymore.

[namelessprince]

drew my ocs as riptide characters :3

[a-couple-of-notes]

hey sorry i wanna talk some more about no one mourns the wicked.

when glinda's introduced, her first celebratory lines slide into a question:

Isn't it nice to know that good will conquer evil, the truth we all believe'll by and by outlive a lie for you and - [I]?

and in a song full of double meanings, glinda isn't asking that question (only) to the ozians. she's asking it to elphaba, who has always been that other half of "you and i." even though glinda has promised not to reveal the truth, she's still hoping that it will come to light someday for her and elphaba. and it's also a heartbreaking call-forward to defying gravity, because just like that moment where glinda almost gets on the broom, there can't be a "you and i" here--it's cut off by the world they exist in.

[gunpowdercarousel]

It's weird that Larian seems to show Astarion a lot of favoritism in terms of content and yet his companion storyline is such a side quest compared to all the others. As far as I'm aware he has no real connection to the mindflayers/Absolute other than the initial kidnapping/parasite insertion, which is - like - the bare minimum needed to have a connection at all.

His conflict with Cazador is such a random aside when you're in Baldur's Gate. It's like yeah I need to stop the other two Chosen, I need to solve this murder conspiracy, locate the Elder Brain, deal with Raphael, figure out what to do with the Crown of Karsus, and... oh yeah, I guess there's Astarion's thing to deal with, too.

It's hilarious, really, because it means while this one huge, world-ending event was going on there was also - by complete coincidence - an entire OTHER world-ending event happening just down the street that wasn't connected in any way. Not only is the Absolute's army on the march, but Cazador is trying to become the Vampire Ascendant at the same time and only ASTARION knows about it. Cazador is literally just some OTHER bbeg whose centuries-old plan happens to be coming to fruition the same week as the Chosen's.

I literally almost forgot to do his plotline because it had so little to do with the overarching conflict of the story. The only connection he ever really makes is with Raphael, who he needs ONCE for ONE minor thing and that's it. And Raphael isn't even that important to the Absolute plot, himself.

Astarion doesn't really have any connections with the Chosen, any other characters, any other antagonists, he's just kind of his own thing. Once you deal with Cazador he's just kind of along for the ride. Meanwhile, Wyll's father is integral to the Chosen's plan, Shadowheart has the plot McGuffin that can foil the Absolute, Lae'zel's people are sworn enemies of the mindflayers, and Gale wants the Crown of Karsus for himself, not to mention his Goddess is literally tasking him to deal with the Absolute.

Everyone else has a good reason to be there EXCEPT ASTARION. Like he's just there because he has a worm.

Anyway, rant over.

[somethingsomethingcomic]

gay and stupid

[elibean]

also we are at the halfway point and like, nothing substantial has happened

[tj-crochets]

Hey y'all! I am considering trying listening to podfics, but I have no idea where to start. Like, I read a lot of fanfic, but idk how one goes about listening to them? Is it like an app, or a download it kind of thing, or what? Do you have any advice or specific recommendations? In the past I have really, really struggled with books on tape because I cannot focus on just listening, but I like listening to like sort of documentary-ish videos while sewing and that's just a person talking, so probably I would be able to focus on audiobooks or podfics now?

[astralprisms]

[☺ Skaro - The Shield of Shra'kt'alor☺]

1. [CHARACTER INFO]

OC NAME: Skaro

OC PRONOUS: He/Him

AUTHOR: Rook

2. [DIALOGUE]

1. Greeting message:

Do you have need of me?

2. Identify yourself:

I am Skaro of Shra'kt'lor, though I haven't called that place home in a long time.

3. Tell me about your Creche:

No creche, a monastery in the midst of Chaos. One of many. There isn't much to say. There we were trained, and there I learned to harness my psionic energy to better defend my mind and body, though I left to pursue a different path once that training was complete.

4. I need to know how you fight::

You may be expecting a monk, but the blade says otherwise. A fighter, then. But don't get too comfortable -- how many wizards do you know that can also swing a sword? I am a Zerth. I may prefer a blade to fists, but there is more to my fighting than meets the eye.

5. Can I ask a more personal question?

Not at the moment. I'm here on business.

3. [GRAPHICS]

4. [BONUS RESOURCES]

Skaro started life as Xa'rok's Dream Guardian, so you'll often see him in the Guardian's armor, but I got too attached to him, so he gets to exist on his own now, too.

In the AU in which he exists alongside Xa'rok as himself and not just the visage of a prisoner the Emperor once met, Skaro was born in Shra'kt'lor and became both a philosophical student of Zerthimon's and a practitioner of arcane-focused fighting, earning himself the honorary and hereditary title of Zerth. He has been around for quite some time -- age undefined but his physical body is somewhere in his 50s -- and in that time grown tired of the us against them mentality that keeps the gith people splintered instead of whole. He left Shra'kt'lor to follow this desire for unification, interplanar-traveled often, and found himself invited to and then a part of the sha'sal khou. He has been working with the organization for years and after meeting Xa'rok in his travels, brought them along into the fold. In this universe, he and Xa'rok are partnered and they continue Xa'rok's work alongside their work for the Sha'sal Khou, as some of their interests align.

@vikintor