#bc of specifically how the university's system works

[tarre-was-right]

@professorscrooge:

Additional Propaganda: Satine has raised (or was some kind of parental role to) a nearly model citizen/future politician who wanted to help people, uphold justice, end corruption etc. From what little we see of him, Satine passed her ideals and drive on to Korkie. Jaster trained/traumatised his adopted son into becoming one of the galaxy's biggest war criminals.

@raspberryzingaaa:

#yeah i dont care im still pro jaster lmfao not sorry #listen you also cant actuallu fully judge what their prowess was bc both had circumstances that were being affected by the sith #satine was only allowed to reign for so long because having a weak mandalore was good for palps #also you cant fully decimate a culture and call it ruling. like not even just the armor but everything alse #and its also very hard to tell what is true based on the cartoons bc were all the mandos blue eyed blonde bc of animation reasons? #bc one of the old mando things was adoption and a broad mix of species. #but yeah we cant really/fully tell bc of the sith influences. but imo i think the guy the sith Really didnt want in power might be best #and i am absolutely not a satine hater. i love her and i repect where shes coming from #but also the rep com books were an influential part of my teenage hood (for better or for worse)

(I did promise to share even the arguments that are based in fanon. Sorry.)

@prankprincess123:

#listen - this is quite possibly an actual political debate that (at least part of) mandalore actually had in canon #cause jaster died just a handful of years before satine came to power and was relevant to the circumstances surrounding such #and in an ideal universe youd have the supercomandos and new-mandalorians finding equal ground #and working together to deal with death watch (who ultimately took down both groups and helped blow up the planet) #but jaster is enough of a mess that he was one of the triggers of the civil war that ultimately put satine in charge #and she took this disaster and turned it into a functional government/culture/system and kept it that way for ~20y #and the only reason it didnt stay functional is because *checks notes* the sith decided they dont like her #like how competent of a ruler must you be for the cult thats been trying to destabilize your rule to turn to evil wizards for help #and how much of a widespread force for good must one be to have an evil wizard cult decide that you specifically need to die #satine should win by a landslide

@ironborealis:

#Mereel's reforms were the stepping stones to Satine's succesful rule #But his vision was too small #Satine and Mereel BOTH struggled with corruption inside their ranks #The way she tears off on a speeder to rescue Kenobi in her first episode? #Satine isn't afraid of a fight #she just wants to prevent unnecessary conflicts #some of y'all don't understand the philosophies of nonviolence at all #Satine can be as ruthless as any other Mando #She will not hesitate to fuck someone up #She literally burned a fucking warehouse full of evidence because she wanted to send a message that corruption was not tolerated

FINALE - You might want to read the propaganda this time. Lots of misinfo in fandom on these two in particular.

Remember, this is NOT about who would win in a fight. This is about who makes the best leader for Mandalore as a whole.

Explanation post

Seeding

Propaganda below the cut! You can submit more on this post and I will reblog it back to here! I was going to keep the text-only bits above the readmore, but we got enough in that it takes up more space than I thought.

Yes, I will even reblog the stuff based on fanon, but I will judge you for it.

SATINE KRYZE

Anon: Satine because she served. Mandalorian fashion week would love her. Manda'slay.

Anon: Satine Propaganda: Was supported by the STRONG MAJORITY, led Mandalore to be in peace for NEARLY 20 YEARS, didn't ban mando'a or armour or any part of the culture like fandom claims, is a good fighter, considered EVERY Mandalorian a Mandalorian and didn't discriminate

@lightsaberwieldingdalek: Satine propaganda: she actually ran a functioning government. Not a mercenary band, or a death cult, or a terrorist extremist organisation, an actual functioning government. Yes there was corruption, corruption she did her best to stop to the point of personally getting in firefights with smugglers, but she took a planet devastated by civil war and by the end of her rule she had schools, public works, and a justice system. - Sure, the rest can run military operations (and we don’t know Satine couldn’t, only that she *won’t*) but can they make the bins get emptied regularly to go to the recycling plants?

@lightsaberwieldingdalek: I understand Jaster has the tacticool appeal, and has the iconic armour, but guys. He did an interpretation of some problematic historical values for the more modern day, led a mercenary band, and under unknown circumstances his group started calling him the historical-cultural title of the ruler of their entire cultural group. I know he’s cool looking, and shoots real good, but at most he’s the equivalent of someone who could be a cult leader but doesn’t want to be. - Meanwhile. Satine. You have issues with her ethical code, and she’s not a cool cause she doesn’t wear the armour. And yet she is the one who *actually ran mandalore*. For 20-ish years, and not only kept it stable but built it up from the ruins of civil war! - Yes yes T-helmet cool and military man competence nice, but that cannot equal taking the ruins of a war torn society and turning it into a mostly peaceful (when terrorism happened it was a big shocking deal, not normalised) urbanised people who eat well, have access to luxury and specialised education (get a offworld Jedi to come lecture) and can ACTUALLY BREATH IN THE ATMOSPHERE RUINED BY ALL THE WARLORDS LIKE JASTER TRYING TO FIGHT THE REPUBLIC TO PROVE THEMSELVES.

Anon: Satine propaganda: she knows what the aftermath of war is like. Jaster knows war from a soldier's perspective, a commander's perspective. But Satine knows it from a noncombatant's perspective. She's seen the aftermath and wreckage it leaves behind. Rebuilding after a war takes far longer and likely costs more than the war itself. I don't think Jaster cares about what happens after the battle. But Satine most certainly does.

@archangelsunited: Efficient and long lasting leader of her faction for years, was able to navigate neutrality with the Republic during the Clone Wars. Excellent Hair pieces.

@publiusmaximum: She allowed her society to experience it's first moment of peace and prosperity in a thousand years. - After she was killed, her society was taken over by fascists and gangsters. In short order Mandalore was razed, made uninhabitable, and her people scattered. - Satine was right about everything.

JASTER MEREEL

Anon: Jaster is the one who should rule Mandalore and all Mandalorians, although he started small he searched to make a new code of conduct for Mandalorian bounty hunters, he tries to keep the culture intact yet keep Mandalore progressive and not stuck in the past and from killing each other.

@spacetime1969: He literally rewrote what it means to be Mandalorian, and he created an entire movement around said philosophy that had a good chance of becoming the controlling party of Mandalore if he hadn't been assassinated. What more do you want?

Anon: Jaster for the win, he's the most recent one who actually knows some shit (as much as I love Din Djarin this poor man doesn't know ANYTHING), besides Jango and Boba but they're both very unstable individuals.

@nerdpickle: Jaster, his philosophy perfectly balanced tradition and reform, keeping the best of both worlds, he was also one of the few people chosen by the people

Mereel is a strong and powerful leader. He defeated the traiter Tor Viszla in battle and even took in a poor, orphaned Concordian child after the battle. No more will Mandalore be forced to consider such petty ideals as peace in order to avoid outright war. Instead, we shall be known throughout the galaxy as the greatest mercenaries the galaxy has ever known. Under his rule, we shall triumph over the foolish savages of planets unconquered and be paid handsomely for it!

Anon: Mereel is a strong and powerful leader. He defeated the traiter Tor Viszla in battle and even took in a poor, orphaned Concordian child after the battle. No more will Mandalore be forced to consider such petty ideals as peace in order to avoid outright war. Instead, we shall be known throughout the galaxy as the greatest mercenaries the galaxy has ever known. Under his rule, we shall triumph over the foolish savages of planets unconquered and be paid handsomely for it!

@archangelsunited: Had a structured document for Mandalorian Culture in the modern (tm) day. He fought with the warriors he sent out and took personal interest in the results of his actions (Jango Fett mentorship). Pissed off Tor Vizla.

@nerdpickle: Satine’s Mandalore was like Switzerland, except without the well trained military, incredibly advantageous terrain, high gun ownership and giant nuclear armed alliance providing a free buffer zone on all sides.

SATINE

@bosooka: Originally here

i wrote way too much for my original draft of this (and it turned into a "fuck jaster mereel" party) so here's an abbreviated version

Why Satine is a Better Ruler Than Jaster in 2 Simple Points

Point #1: Satine actually maintained order on Mandalore for decades

This one is simple. Mereel became Mandalore in ~60BBY and Tor Vizsla tried to overthrow him a mere two years later (and nearly succeeded). He was only in power for six more years before he was betrayed by the very same violent people he allowed to remain by his side because of his belief that a Mandalorian warrior was "merely a highly-paid soldier".

Contrast Satine: ruled from approx. 42BBY until 19BBY, a reign of 23-odd years. For twenty-odd years of her reign New Mandalore was completely peaceful and there were no challengers to her authority among the people or elsewhere. Death Watch only became an issue again when they received Separatist (and ultimately Sith) backing, and Dooku discarded them for being useless. Had Death Watch not allied itself with Maul's Shadow Collective I don't think she would have been overthrown at all.

Point #2: Satine kept Mandalore out of places it didn't belong

As we've established, Mereel had no issues with Mandalorians being mercenaries, used however their clients saw fit. I won't go into the weeds of the ethical implications of mercenaries and why they are illegal under international law on Earth, but in short: letting anyone pay one to kill others is the easiest way to become the cudgel of a fascist. Coincidentally exactly what the Fett clones become when Sidious uses them to exterminate the Jedi. Mereel's "reforms" of the Mandalorian ways did not prevent his troops from getting into a fight they couldn't win against the Jedi on Galidraan (and yes, the Mandalorians shot first:

not that anyone in the fandom remembers this...) after they but an insurrection down on behalf of the corrupt governor of the planet. To be clear, the True Mandos knew that the governor of Galidraan was corrupt and most likely harboring Tor Vizsla, but they still agreed to kill "insurrectionists" for money. Their problems came when Death Watch arranged to make it look like they had also killed women and children. Truly a war between saints and monsters.

Meanwhile Satine: the head of the Council of Neutral Systems, she refused to take sides in a war pushed by the greedy and violent. Yes, she was briefly protected by clones when it comes to light that Death Watch is aligned with the Separatists, but it was immediately followed by the Republic attempting to militarily occupy Mandalore and Satine risking life and limb to keep her people autonomous. Satine refused to become a useful idiot for warmongers, even knowing that it would have been economically advantageous for her to do so. Unlike Jaster Mereel, she has ideals that she values more than credits. He would have accepted an offer from the highest bidder and turned Mandalore into a machine of war for the Sith, just like his Crusader ancestors once did.

Tl;Dr

Satine was actually respected as an authority on Mandalore for literal decades and was only challenged by a miniscule faction of terrorists who had to get foreigners to interfere in their political processes (FML) in order to actually take power from her

Satine kept Mandalore out of conflicts it did not belong in, which largely protected it from military occupation and destruction until the year she died; Mereel made a career out of interfering in the affairs of other planets if they were paid to do so

Unlike Mereel and his successor, Satine had morals to motivate her decisions that were not the pursuit of cold hard cash, including the protection of Mandalorian independence and neutrality

[yardsards]

therapists will be like "what do you think we could do in here that would help you with these struggles?" like bestie if i knew how to fix my problems i wouldn't be in here rn

[beansoup3000]

It's so important to me that Breq does not support either side of Anaander Mianaai's civil war. Like given the events of the first book I half expected her to join forces with the side of Anaander who didn't destroy Justice of Toren against the side that did, but that's not the kind of story it is. Her first priority is to find and protect Lieutenant Awn's family. And by the third book her objective is to keep the residents of Athoek System safe (including Station itself). It's just so helpful to me to have this story where the fabric of society is ripping apart on an incomprehensible scale, and our hero is someone who chooses a specific group of people and says, I will keep them safe. Not "I will save the universe" or "I will prevent collapse" or "I will fix it all," just "I will do what I can to keep this population safe amidst the chaos." So even during big action scenes, harm mitigation is central to Breq's calculus. She's trying to establish trade with the Presgr for medical correctives bc she recognizes the need for medical infrastructure independent of the Radch empire. She's pushing for mundane repairs. She's supporting workers unionizing. It's not sexy it's not action packed it's just a grounded response to crisis. She doesn't waste time engaging in the rhetorical stakes of the intra-Anaander conflict, she just gets to work helping people. I think it's a good example of how to handle problems that feel paralyzingly large.

[olderthannetfic]

Random thought about Steven Universe, bc of how dirty it was done by not just Cartoon network but also fandom.

One of the things I hated about the fandom was how people were so set on the "race coding" that they couldn't even just take the characters as their own entities within their own realm and system. That doesn't mean you can't celebrate the characters, or draw paralells, but the fandom went way the fuck beyond that.

One incident I remember explicitly was when Pearls were first revealed as a servant "slave" class, and instead of viewing it as interesting or whatever world building... guess what people did.

They got angry and ranted about why the "white" gem would be a slave and how it was racist because Garnet the "black" gem was Black-coded, so obviously it was racist because reason... I guess. The fact that the color of a gem is superficial didn't matter.

The fact that Gems have no canonical race, or that, while they may have obvious features, that has no impact on their role in the lore was completely ignored. Or the fact that gems are made for specific work, and that "slave" was a bit of a reach.

Also the fact that, after years of saying that Garnet is black bc her VA is black. Suddenly it didn't matter that Pearl's VA is an Asian-American woman. Then again, Amethyst was also voiced by an Asian-American, but got coded Latina because... well, honestly it was basically just a bunch of stereotypes, especially negative ones: Loud. Glutton. "Obnoxious". Rude. Mean.

Another one was how people cried racism that one of the Diamond characters didn't turn out looking more "Indian" and just ended up as a "basic white" character. Once again, that character, Blue diamond, is a fucking humanoid gemstone, blue everything. Most of the gems didn't have any kind of explicitly cultural clothing. Esp when compared to the human characters, like the Indian main-side character, who apparently was also Hindu... whom people then promptly drew as Muslim in a hijab, which is a whole other can of offensive and really really bad decision worms. Guys if you have an Indian character in a show, especially a Hindu, drawing them as a Muslim is not a good move.

--

There are "What if white people were the real oppressed class?!" bad decision pieces of art, but this doesn't seem like one of them.

[reasonsforhope]

Is it true some parts will be under water in 2025? I'm kinda of worried cause someone told me about it bc it was on the news

Eh, not really. Like, technically, but that's a very dramatic way to put it.

What that person told you about was probably this prediction, which says that some roads on some of the Florida Keys might be underwater by 2025.

Does that suck? Yes. But it's also pretty limited in scope.

(And by the way, that's probably not "underwater all the time." There will probably be a number of years of "the roads will be underwater at high tide specifically." I can't currently find a source on this, but that's how tides work, and the Florida Keys article does specifically mention them as a main problem.)

The areas in danger first are pretty universally small, very low islands. Actually, a dozen or so small islands have already gone underwater in the Pacific Ocean, but very importantly, none of those islands were inhabited.

They were mostly small reef islands (that is, the entire island is exposed coral reef detritus) and other uninhabited shoals. Mostly, they were so small scientists had to check old satellite images to even figure out that they disappeared. Literally, we're talking about chunks of land that are just 100 square meters/300 square feet. Again, not great, but still very limited in scope.

As this Live Science article thankfully explains, it's pretty unlikely that any countries at all will disappear before 2100.

Also, just because land is below sea level doesn't mean it will be underwater, and there are very real steps we can take to defend a lot of endangered cities/islands.

For example:

Much of the Netherlands is already below sea level, but the country isn't disappearing, because the Dutch have put a lot of work into building and maintaining coastal defenses.

Multiple surveys (including the one that found the missing islands in Micronesia) also found that not all low-lying islands are vulnerable to erosion and flooding. This is because many islands are protected by mangrove forests, lagoons, or both

Mangrove reforestation in particular is genuinely a super effective anti-flooding strategy that is being deployed pretty widely, and is expected to increase a lot in the coming years. Mangroves are effective at not only preventing short-term flooding, but also mitigating sea-level increases (in part by preventing erosion)

Some islands, esp Pacific Islands, have actually grown during the past couple decades, not shrunk. It really depends on what the island is made up of. Not all land is automatically doomed

You can read more about how sinking countries are fighting back here, and the lessons we can learn from them:

-via Time, June 13, 2019

And finally, and this is good news for reasons I'll explain in a second:

Some of the largest and wealthiest cities in the world are at the top of the danger list. (Note: the predictions at that link are based on some fairly severe warming predictions. They do NOT necessarily reflect what's going to happen or when.)

The cities that are going to be in danger the soonest (still away btw) include New York, London, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Dubai. Lots of very rich people in those cities! Who would really like to not have to move (any of their ten different homes lol)

So, flooding aside, we're going to (by necessity) get a lot better at figuring out the quickest, cheapest, most scalable, and most effective types of coastal defenses real fast.

Are rich countries going to be way more able to get strong coastal defense systems up quickly? Yes. Does that suck? Sure fucking does!! But these solutions don't all require a lot of money or tech to implement, even at a large scale, especially when it's local communities driving the effort.

And, importantly, when rich countries pour a ton of money into figuring this out, that will hugely expand our understanding of what techniques work best, why, and how best to deploy them in different situations. Unlike physical structures, that's valuable knowledge that can be shared very, very widely.

And any technology that comes out of this is going to work like solar panels and other green energy: as more people use it, it will get cheaper and cheaper. Probably really quickly.

So, all told, no one's going to be swallowed up in the next few years. We have time to work on this and a lot of people are already doing so.

Mostly, experts predict that the first wave of large-scale issues will be happening around 2050.

Three decades doesn't sound like enough time, in the face of something like this. But you know what? Responses to climate change are speeding up exponentially, and different types of responses are multiplying and magnifying each other.

We went from inventing flight to landing on the moon in just 66 years.

I wouldn't count us out of the climate change fight yet.

(...I wouldn't count on retiring to Florida either, though)

[wlwanakin]

I gotta get ur pov on Anakin and Padme after the war(no empire situation) Some ppl seem to think they wouldn’t work out, like divorce, but I don’t agree with that bc Padme didn’t even want to leave him at Mustafar and the only thing that kept her from him was dying and there’s no way Anakin hasnt given her his whole heart to never take back. I think a lot of ppls reasoning is based on wondering how Anakin would handle his mental state(these ppl then ignore Padmes traumas) and how much self sabotage he might do, with a smattering of them never truly getting to be a couple since it had to be so secretive. And then I’ve seen ppl say he wouldn’t be a good dad bc he’s too possessive to a degree of destruction. I dont know tho bc what we got to see was Anakin at his worst and having a mental breakdown. I think abt how he was as a child with his mother and I wonder if he had room to breath and didnt have to lie anymore if he would reconnect to the best of Shmi and what she taught him. Not being groomed by a sith lord anymore would also be a pretty big game changer

this is one of my favorite things to think about!! i don’t think there’s any universe where they aren’t together til the end honestly, though they’ll totally inevitably run into problems because they’d previously spent their marriage not really able to find out how they work as a normal couple. there’s no getting around the fact that they’re both traumatized people who don’t have any experience that lends itself to a non-hierarchical romantic relationship like theirs, especially not under non-strenuous circumstances. but them being able to give each other that escape is what drew them to each other to begin with so it’s a learning curve they’re on together.

anakin specifically is never gonna be 100% mentally healthy because he has led the kind of life that fucks one up forever but plenty of people who are similarly mentally ill are still able to successfully have relationships and be decent/good partners. and the thing about anakin is that he had an unfathomably awful childhood but then when he escaped his old circumstances he never actually stopped being traumatized, but even while getting pretty regularly re-traumatized he was a pretty good husband for the better part of three years. so i don’t see why that would change drastically in a world where that’s not happening and he’s not getting pushed to a breaking point all day every day. he’s constantly stuck in a context that’s enabling pretty much all his worst traits and stunting any healing he could do because you can’t really process childhood trauma while going through even more trauma on the daily that you’re also not processing, so if you took him out of that context he’d pretty automatically be in a better place by nature of no longer having an occupation that traumatizes him faster than he can think about it and requires him to do lots of violence. even if hypothetically he had a full-blown breakdown and self-sabotaged to hell and back in a post-war au, if you remove The War and palpatine from the picture that sabotage is probably going to look a lot less like murdering a bunch of babies and a lot more like regular instability and padmé has proven herself to be so forgiving and understanding of anakin’s issues that she can and will forgive baby murder so long as the motive is sympathetic so why wouldn’t she be understanding about non-mass murder forms of acting out.

i actually think their biggest problem would be that they have pretty polar-opposite relationships with systemic power and hierarchy. they both understand dehumanization and having immense age-inappropriate responsibilities placed upon them, but anakin has spent his entire life in positions of subservience whilst padmé has spent most of hers in positions of power (rather complicated ones where she’s often reduced to a pawn but still). and they’d absolutely clash on those grounds, because they’re stuck in this place of almost understanding each other but not quite and that’s frustrating, and also because they probably have habits related to this that set each other off (i can totally see anakin short-circuiting at padmé slipping into her more authoritative political persona by accident during an argument or something or that turning into an explosive fight). and this is just the kind of thing that would slip out more and more the more time they spend together, but it’s also not relationship-ending.

in general they’d also struggle with working through things because they are both quite stubborn and their previous circumstances forced them into a position of not really being able to linger on any issues or clashes because their time together was so limited and precious, but they love each other so deeply and also just like each other and for two people who want each other in their lives as much as those two do that’s absolutely something they’d learn. it’s really just leaving the honeymoon phase except the honeymoon phase was…war. i really think that especially in a situation where anakin left the order and padmé stepped down as senator they’d have a lot of space to work through it and it’d be more of a matter of learning to be people together after a lifetime of being denied normalcy.

(the question of what kind of parent anakin would be is a more complicated one imo but i do tend to lean towards “decent” because as much as he’s possessive and destructive his ability to be a loving husband and his relative success at training ahsoka tells me he wouldn’t be violently nuclearly bad. you can’t really use darth vader as a basis because his brain looks like swiss cheese at that point and you can’t really call being on the opposite side of a war as your adult son “parenting” even if attempts at creating a familial bond were made. but that’s a whole other convo.)

[sundogsandrainbows]

Hi, I'm sorry to write to you out of the blue, but Of Elves and Humans was the first DA longfic that got me hooked back in 2011 when I, as a dumb teen, happened to pick up DAO. Ever since then, the DA universe has been a constant fixation of mine and my admiration for you as a writer as well as someone who isn’t afraid to call out the franchise's flaws has never wavered. Now that Bioware decided to take a massive shit on everything pre-DAV and their oldest fans specifically, I'm really devastated and feel like a fool for having been so invested in DA and its lore for those past 13 years. It’s incredibly encouraging, however, to see you keep on keeping on. "So since they spat in my face like this I ignore this atrocity of a game even exists" is where I hope to be at soon, too. Thank you.

(First of all apologies for the late reply, I put it in my drafts when i was too tired to complete it, and then my adhd brain forgot it existed due to being distracted by new shinies 😂☠)

But aww omg i cannot believe i was the gateway drug into dragon age, or rather the old version of my story on FFN was. I am so very honored <3 And nonnie, I feel you. I am invested in DA as a series since DA:O's release in 2009, like I bought it on a whim for XBox because I liked Mass Effect 1 sm. So that is 15 yrs of my life i spent loving and discussing a thing while still being critical of the thing, but now i feel so very protective of the world, lore and its characters that "New Bioware" has decided to take a massive dump of shit on, and not only the games but the old fans I feel are treated with disdain too and do not matter to them any longer.

Long, subjective rant about current bioware aka the shambling corpse of its former self and talent incoming. Spoilers for Veilguard bc i don't give a fuck to avoid them :D You (general you, not you in particular dearest nonny <3) should use your time better than to play this shit anyhow 😂

It feels like calculated malice of new Bioware to apply the scorched earth tactics to offscreen destroy everything that old fans and fans of the other games in general held dear, and was supposed to suck out the enjoyment of DAO, DA2 and DAI. Like it is obvious they plan to create a sequel on DA's scorched bones, but jfc, you can do so story-wise without spitting everyone loving what old bioware has built in the face after dropkicking them. But to me that is part of the problem, since if i remember correctly and i wish i could find the bit... they praised Veilguard as "The best Dragon Age game ever", with the most interesting companions and best most improved combat system, comparing it to the other three games in a near smug fashion. There is marketing and there is putting the other games down to prop up your most favorite and only child mattering and they were definitely doing the latter. And don't get me started on the whole "Who is Zevran" debacle or we are gonna here all day.

Bottom line is new/current devs and writer do not give a shit about and very possibly have never played any other game than Inquisition, and you cannot tell me otherwise. And since a lot of devs/writer have left since the start of this project that would become this abysmal game, I also have the impression that there is a lot of underlying resentment toward what these former colleagues have created and so they piss on it in order to make it fully theirs now. Like dogs marking their territory, and well that did not work out, imo. At all.

Ever since they announced respecting our past choices by ignoring them (????) it was clear to me that I would not play Veilguard but just watch a playthrough and all spoilers and then move on. And everything i saw before release was shocking... like i was flabbergasted at how baaaad the dialogue was, which as a writer myself is super important to me in my story. There was no subtext, characters just blurt out everything they think and feel, like a lifeless doll you squeeze and words tumbling out and just as natural. It is stilted, awkward and 80% of it exists for info dump or info dumb rather as they keep repeating the same shit they just told you a few seconds ago as if you as the player are braindead. Here is a good example of what i mean.

Jfc, who edited this crap? There is so much superfluous dialogue that adds nothing to a scene but annoyance for the player and says nothing at all. Just pure senseless yapping in the most cringy way. Why was no one there to trim this nonsense as you should as a writer/editor? Hell, they really disregarded every simple and basic writing rule (everything is told never SHOWN for example especially in dialogue) which really made me question their competence in what they were doing and thus the quality of the upcoming game but i still held out hope for it to not be that bad.

Well shit, it was even worse. In all regards. Especially the writing that cringed this writer into a new dimension with its incoherent incompetence. Jfc. they got paid for that? I'm convinced the majority of fandom writer can do much better, even unpaid. Hell my cat just by walking over the keyboard can manage a better draft and script...💀

But I digress. That is a rant for another time. Point is, nonny, despite my defiant words, I struggled too for days after i got to know the full extent of Bioware's spiteful fuckery to even look at anything da related, in my case my Alistair/Mahariel longfic. I was really down for a few days, ngl. Then again, there is nothing better than spite fueling my creativity to prove "i can write better" soooo in the end and with the help of the much better first version of DA4 in the artbook, I was able to exorcise the demons and feverdream-mindfuck of mediocrity sold to me as a turd with gold-glitter that is this game.

I have successfully now rejected its existence, filled the void with the version that should have been from the artbook and vowed to give no fucks what bioware is doing or saying and infinitely more fucks when writing my own version of thedas and the version of DA4 that should be. REWRITES BBY hell yeah. So OEAH:R is just the beginning of a verse-wise rewrite. But if you need a pick me up, nonny, you are very much welcome to take a trip down memory lane to Dragon 9:30 and see how much this iteration of the story differs from my first one back in the days. Because in this house of mine, we grow and learn as writers, unlike bioware where writer ego reigns surpreme (oh boy and does it ever show in VG) aka eating their own turds and tell themselves it is the finest chocolate 💀

There is still a lot of good about DA out there, but we have to accept it does not come from Bioware any longer. Instead it came, comes and will come from the fans and creators of art and texts and words defying their bullshit with their love and respect for the world, its lore and characters. Also very unlike Bioware.

As we should <3

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Greetings! so I really like all kinds of wizarding objects in HP, like a marauder's map or a sieve. there's also popular hc that James and Sirius invented the mirror, but not for me, bc yk if they did invent it, Sirius would have mentioned it, and the map is actually a normal homunculus spell, so I like the fact that it's more that they thought of using it, and not the map itself but is still fascinating no doubt

but I wonder if there are magical inventions that you like in the HP universe? or maybe popular fanfiction trope like double-sided notebooks (protean charms)? if you were an inventor, what artifacts would you create? will it be magical copy of muggle invention or only wizard itself?

They way Sirius explains it kinda implies they didn't invent the two way mirrors actually.

This is a two-way mirror. I’ve got the other. If you need to speak to me, just say my name into it; you’ll appear in my mirror and I’ll be able to talk in yours. James and I used to use them when we were in separate detentions.

(OotP, 858)

He says this is a two-way mirror like it's something known. Like this isn't the only pair of two-way mirrors out there.

My headcanon about it is that two-way mirrors do exist in general, but they are super rare and hard to make so very few people have them. And I think James and Sirius did make this pair of mirrors. Like, they didn't invent the concept, but they did make these specific ones. At least, in my head.

I also think the Mauraders Map is made with more than just a Homonculus Charm. It has a pretty complex Maapping Charm and as I mentioned in the past, I think the Mauraders Map actually has a bit of the consciousness of the Mauraders, like portraits in HP because of how it reacts to Snape calling himself a professor:

“Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor.”

(PoA, 287)

This line implies it's not just a charm that makes them insult: "Professor Severus Snape" because that's how he introduced himself. It shows intelligence. That the map doesn't just have built-in insults with a gap for [your name]. This is an insult that is actually responsive and suggests sentience.

One of my personal favorite magical artifacts, if we're talking sentient artifacts are portraits.

I just find the magical portraits we see fascinating. It's like, a whole other level of leaving something from yourself after you die and I find myself disappointed Harry never encountered a Potter portrait. I mean, I'm sure Henry Potter (a pretty famous member of the Wizengamot back in the day), or his son Fleamont, the inventor of Sleekeazy's Potion have portraits somewhere. Like, James and Lily died young and I understand how they might've not sat down for portraits, but there's a whole Potter family out there that Harry could hear from. Grandparents and great-grandparents. Maybe even Iolanthe Potter (nee Peverell) has a portrait lying around somewhere (wherever Potter's manor is). Like, think how cool it could've been if in Deathly Hallows they learned about the Deathly Hallows from her. For Harry to have a little chance to connect to his family. (though she would have no clue where the Elder Wand traveled, so you could still keep Xenophilius in the book).

If I had to choose one magical artifact to invent... I guess it'll be either:

1. I guess an instant messaging system, like sending texts on your phone. Owls, as aesthetic as they are, are not very tactical for quick communication. It'll probably function like a more sophisticated version of the DA coins. And it wouldn't really look like a phone, so it could be marketable for wizards. The most difficult part would be to allow the Protean Charm to work for different artifacts.

Like, my best idea is like a magical phone book (but not really). Where each page connects to someone else. And it's like a small binder, so you could add and remove pages at will. Once you read something, the messages disappear from the page, allowing you to write more.

(This binder format also allows you to accidentally write to the wrong people, which I think is fun. Basically, this is how I'd do the fanon double-sided notebook concept. Though I don't think it exists in universe)

2. The thing I'd really like to invent and would probably be easier to do, is a search engine (though it'll be a spell more than an artifact). Now, I don't mean exactly like Google, what I mean is that, say, you walk into the Hogwarts Library and you could cast "accio books written in the 15th century about gnomes," and all these books that fit that description would fly at you. Except, instead of flying at you, they'd just glow or something (because a large amount of books flying at you could end up not great).

The reason I'm saying that's more easy is because I think accio could do this. I mean, "accio firebolt" works, so why not "accio books about dragons", you know?

"Accio" literally translates to "fetch" in Latin, so for my search engine spell, it would probably be something like "Reperio", which means "find" or "detect" (I like it because it would be confusing with "Reparo" and "Revelio").

But that's not really an artifact and more of a spell, but, still, I like this idea.

Honestly, I make up a lot of spells when writing fic sometimes. Because there are spells that are implied to exist but we aren't shown them (Arthur Weasley mentions Weather Charms once) or charms that are likely to exist because they fit in universe but we don't really know, so I just come up with an incantation for them.

What I'm saying is that I come up with charms and rituals more than artifacts.

[lovelyrotter]

okay but i actually kinda wanna know ur take on stridercest being canon compliant O_O <- autism stare

oh hey i am also hitting you with the autism stare. ill try to get my thoughts down in a way that makes sense to more than just me hahaha

bear in mind that im an epilogue lover and i think Meat/Candy are really valuable pieces that further all of the characters and are also hard canon in the sense that we're looking at just 2 post-game universe outcomes out of an uncountable number (the book in the picnic basket representing post-canon fanfic). i think the characters actions in the epilogues make sense and are satisfying to me. yes even jane (i love alpha jane and i will not do her the disservice of 'cleaning her up' w/o showing her work for it. thats not how you depict a character who grew up with fascist programming). i could totally go on a whole tangent about this specifically but thats another post lol we'd be here forever and its also not stridercest

but okay. canon stridercest. under the cut cause it got kinda long

basically it has to do with the cherubs and how their relationships and mating rituals are pretty obviously incestuous leaning even though cherubs dont have the human concept of Siblings or blood family. the cherub who predominates will search across paradox space to mate with another cherub who closely resembles the cherub they predominated which is like textbook Freudian sexuality. theres a lot of Freud and Jungian stuff in HS imo even if im kinda [wobbly hand gesture] at the validity of these theories applied to real life and real people. but theyre super fun tools and lenses to use in fiction and i mean. gestures at all of dave

so the incest aliens cherubs. the whole reason why im talkin about them is bc Caliborn is so incredibly interested and invested in the Striders in particular. caliborn as both Lord English and Lil Cal shapes earth NOT OVERTLY but more so embeds himself in earth society, but again, the Striders lives in particular. dave is full of incest jokes. hes even apparently got a list of his friends arranged in order of how likely theyd incest-elope with each other (thank you epilogues for this amazing factoid). he seems to think about it often enough to, yknow, Do That. have a good solid think about that and construct an organized list about it. bearing in mind dave makes jokes about stuff thats a) bothering him, or b) generally camping out in his brain. hes not even really aware of it most of the time (as we see in one of the openbounds where hes all 'why am i thinking about puppets???' after seeing dirk for the first time in that dream bubble. he is thinking nonstop about dirk at that point and going off his only frame of reference for ANY dirk, which is his bro. his bro who was most likely deeply warped by Lil Cal)

sorry for the long blocky paragraph lol. but now onto the next thing

Caliborn as Lil Cal is the centerpiece in the beta strider apartment. dave cant escape him and beta dirk grew up with him. what the fuck do you do when youre childhood comfort item is also the most evil creature across all of paradox space? if youre a dirk you try to fight it. but how long can you keep fighting something like that. its safe to say that bro was affected by Caliborns particular brand of perversion and sfw kink. i dont think i have to say how insidious abusive and toxic he is about those things. and looking at the truth of beta bro (16yo alpha dirk) you can start to see just how warped beta bro became. beta bro is a false dirk (still a very Real dirk but not the Truth of dirk. beta bro has been toxified and made infinitely worse by an absolute evil influence over decades of life. in 80s fuckin texas. presumably in the system. anyone would be fucked up after that)

so for this analysis/theory im stating beta bro as a false persona. using jungian terms he is apha dirk's shadow

both dave and dirk live with a fake, carefully manicured version of their bros. they live with personas (or shadows of their guardians on the walls. hello platos allegory of the cave). they dont actually know e/o and they dont until the striunion

alpha dirk especially grows up embedded in the Public Persona Of Dave Strider 400 years post mortem and completely alone with unlimited internet access. hes a self admitted expert on his bro and we dont get to see a lot if any of his early childhood but i can hazard a guess at how much he clung to that persona of his bro. he fuckin idolizes dave. he LOVES dave. right off the bat he is in some kind of love with dave and i think if you try to argue against that then thats you slippin. i think youre a fool and have to reread homestuck because i wholeheartedly believe the striders loving eachother is part of the win state

once again this is speculation cause we get barely anything about alpha dave, but from what we already know about him im guessing this bro-persona is

achingly effortlessly cool

oozing masculinity (toxic or not, not really interested in categorizing that although toxic coolboy masculinity IS something the striders contend with & is an important facet in their lives)

a skilled fighter

a dedicated moviegoer (hes a director need i say more. this one is probably the only genuine thing about his on-screen persona)

and now lets look at jake. someone whos grown up on pretty much nothing but movies, whos doubtlessly been influenced by hollywood and its idea of gritty 'main character' masculinity through that, and who also clings to more old-school ideas of manliness (think victorian/edwardian era gentlemanly-but-loves-a-good-scrum kinda manly. moustache twirly with a monocle kinda manly. basically everything that grandpa harley is)

but okay lets look at what jake wants to be. lets take a look at his teenager persona

achingly effortlessly cool (his own 'hollywood star' kind of cool also def influenced by his favourite characters like lara croft who is indeed achingly cool. you see him succeed in inhabiting this hollywood star persona on earth c)

oozing masculinity (the old school manly mans-man kind)

a skilled fighter (two pistoles always. harder to aim cause you cant use a free hand to make up for kickback. that takes skill)

a dedicated moviegoer (again one of the only genuine parts about his persona. his questionable-to-wretched tastes aside. but bearing in mind that the SBaHJ movies are intentionally bad which is what makes them loop around to good. such is the nature of intentionally 'bad' art. jake fuckin lives in this perpetual bad-good art loop. okay enough with the art tangent keep focused man cmon)

because dirk has obviously way more contact with jake i dont doubt he sees through jakes own (admittedly way more flimsy) coolboy persona but the point still stands i think. different flavours but the same kinda guy. dirk has a type and i dont think its a stretch to say that hes looking for aspects of the bro-persona he grew up looking at in other boys, much like the winning cherub looking for the one they lost in the cherub theyll mate with

also wtf is with dirks obvious boner for dave chasing him across paradox space to decapitate him huh?? the last few sentences in Meat are about that very thing. he wants to fuc fight dave sooo bad. haha remember how the cherubic mating ritual is one of the most violent and long running spectacles in paradox space? i sure do

[strwberri-milk]

hello anything that is not linked is bc it exists in the queue/drafts and will be posted via the queue system uwu

Kaeya Alberich: Masterlist - Google Docs

A Snowflake's Journey Home - Fluff, Cuddling - AO3 >>> Kaeya finally returns home after a work trip. Surely you're going to reward him with attention after working so hard, right?

Don't We Have Chemistry? - Fluff, TA!Kaeya, First Meetings - AO3 >>> Kaeya Alberich, local biology lab TA falls in love with the person who almost broke his toe via theory textbook.

Rolled Down Windows - Fluff, Modern Era - AO3 >>> What else is a lab tech supposed to do when he thinks he's in love with someone?

Sewn With Love - Fluff, Uni AU, - AO3 >>> A cold classroom, a cozy boyfriend who can't keep his hands off you, and a piece of fabric all further confirm Kaeya's affections for you.

The Weight of his World - Fluff, Uni AU- AO3 >>> After an exhausting day you decide to collapse in your boyfriend's apartment, showing you a slightly different side to him than you expected.

Your Mark On The Universe - Fluff, Everyone loves Kaeya - AO3 >>>Kaeya's meant to look after Klee for the day but she decides she has other plans when he hands her a handbound book he's made for her specifically. Find out what Klee managed to do as she hunted down members of the Knights (and a certain grouch) to write a certain someone notes.

Sweet Misery - Explicit Smut - AO3 >>>A relationship is fifty/fifty. You fuck the living daylights out of your boyfriend, he does the same for you.

Mirrors - Fluff, Requested >>> You have the same powers as him.

Good Boy - Smut, Requested >>> Female reader rims Kaeya.

The Same Vision - Fluff, Requested >>> Witnessing you get the same vision as them.

Tearful Embrace - Hurt/Comf, Implied Nightmares >>> Hugs make everything better, don't they?

Yours - Hurt/Comf, Jealousy - AO3 >>> Jealousy might be normal but that doesn't mean it makes it any easier to bear.

Some Things Are Better Left Unspoken - Fluff, Comf- AO3 >>> The fact that he can't return those three little words you give to him every day vexes him constantly but the sight of you lessens that burden.

Practise Makes Perfect - Smut - AO3 >>>There's nothing a little bit of effort can't ever solve.

A Kiss of Wine, Pt. 2 - Fluff, First Meetings, Spin the Bottle - AO3 >>> A game of spin the bottle with this stranger you've just met surely can't go that bad can it?

Sweet Dreams - Smut, Wet Dreams - AO3 >>> When Kaeya wakes up just desperate for your attention there's no way you can say no to him.

I Know You'll Always Love Me (And I Wish It'd Be Enough) - Smut, Angst no Comf - AO3 >>> Forever was a promise that you made to him. You just didn't realise how much this version of forever could hurt.

Paper Hearts - Angst/Comf, Smut - AO3 (Pt 2 to ^^) >>> His mind was forever caught on "I love you".

Obedience Pays - Smut, Requested - AO3 >>> Kaeya's request devolves into a fun night for the both of you.

Payback's A Bitch - Smut, Requested - AO3 >>> You really don't think ignoring Kaeya's texts all day is going to end well, do you?

My Sweet Little Thing - Smut, Requested - AO3 >>> After working so hard, you're sure to give Kaeya a warm welcum home.

Kaeya x Virgin Reader - Smut, Requested

Kaeya x Plus Sized Reader - Fluff, Requested

Kaeya Aftercare - Fluff, Rrequested

Kaeya x Reader With Walls Up (Except for Him) - Suggestive, Requested

Kaeya x Reader W/ Period - Fluff, Requested

Kaeya x Jealous Reader - Fluff, Requested

Valentine's Day W/ Kaeya - Fluff, Requested

Valentine's Day W/ Kaeya, But You're Sick - Comfort, Requested

Kaeya W/ Reader Who Can't Handle the Cold - Fluff, Requested

Emperor Kaeya - Requested

Kaeya X Plus Sized Reader - Smut, Requested

Playing WIth Kaeya's Hair - Fluff, Requested

Singer Kaeya x Guitarist GF - Fluff, Requested

Figure Skater Kaeya x Reader - Fluff, Rivals, Requested

Kaeya X Reader From Another Dimension - Fluff, Requested

Kaeya and Lipstick Kisses - Fluff, Requested

Growing Up with a Pining Kaeya - Fluff, Requested

To See the Stars in Your Eyes - Requested >>> Kaeya meets his mom.

Band!Kaeya x Reader - Fluff, Requested

Kaeya and Poetic Rizz - Fluff, Requested

Bitey Kaeya - Fluff, Requested

In Love With Friend's Partner, Pt. 2 - Angst, Angst/Comf, Requested

VampYa - Fluff, Requested

Tattoo Artist Kaeya Fantasizes, Pt. 2 - Smut, Requested

Making Out + Dry Humping - Smut, Requested

Seatmate Kaeya Likes You - Smut, Requested

StreamerYa - Fluff, Requested

Cat Hybrid Reader Scratches Kaeya Up - Smut, Requested

Academic Rivals to Lovers - Fluff, Requested

Sitting on Kaeya's Lap - Fluff, very light Suggestive, Requested

Enemies to Lovers - Requested

Confessing in Khaenri'ahn Secretly Before You Leave - Angst, Requested

Finding Out You Killed Diluc - Angst, Requested

Making You Squirt - Smut, Requested

Musical Reader - Fluff, Requested

Falling in Love After Watching You Dance - Fluff, Requested

Kaeya x Demon Reader - Hurt/Comf, Requested

Intimidating Reader, Pt. 2, Pt. 3 - Fluff, Requested

Curly Haired Reader - Fluff, Requested

Reuniting W/ Childhood Friend + Developing Feelings - Fluff, Requested

Insecure Reader W/ Big Sweater - Fluff, Requested

Hooking Up After A Concert - Smut, Requested

Confessed to By Diluc - Smut, Requested

Trust Issues^2 - Fluff, Requested

Jealous Reader Snaps - Fluff, Requested

Body Swap - Fluff, Requested

Reader Struggles w/ Their Vision - Fluff, Requested

Walking in on you Changing - Fluff, Requested

Kaeya Meets a Fortune Teller - Requested

Enemies With Benefits - Smut, Requested

Gold Rush Coded S/O - Requested

Mind Reader Kaeya - Smut, Requested

[seraphtrevs]

for the ask game…brbabcs? (either the combined universe or whichever of the shows individually) 💕

I'm just going to do a mishmash of whatever happens to come to my mind lol - STREAM OF CONSCIOUS POSTING INCOMING

my favorite female character - over the whole brbabcs, obviously it's Kim. She was a great character from episode one, but they really cemented her as the Character of All Time with her fall from grace in season 6. She's so complicated and layered, achingly human and relatable, but also extraordinary, which makes her compelling to watch.

She's a hard character to sum up because she's so nuanced, but I think what draws me to her the most is her deep rage at injustice. Her fall is ironic because it was that desire to make the world "right" that led her to betray her core values - but honestly, who can blame her? Haven't we all wished that the Howard Hamlins of the world would suffer consequences too, instead of consequences being only reserved for people who were born in the "wrong" race/gender/class? But at the same time, embarrassing one Howard Hamlin is not actually the same thing as making systemic changes, and her desire to punish him was a personal vendetta, not actual justice. I totally get how the two got mixed up in her head, though.

I'm also a big Skyler fan - more on her later

my favorite male character - For BCS, it's Lalo lol. I don't think he's the BEST character, but sometimes it feels like Peter Gould got the gang together and was like, "Listen, tumblr user seraphtrevs has been having a hard time - why don't we write a character that is specifically tailored to all of her deepest, darkest, and horniest desires?" And lo, they did. He's so charming and cheerful and evil and funny and so so SO hot - I was doomed from the very first paca paca paca 😭

Side note, I think i'm such a villain girlie because I'm so anxious. Characters who don't worry about anything except doing what they want are very fun for me to watch. Imagine the bliss of not caring! *_*

For brba, the character I have the most affection for is Jesse, but Jesse is made to be loved. So instead...I'm going to pick Walt. He is the worst man who has ever lived and I completely get why people can't stomach him. My own husband tapped out of brba because he found Walt unbearable IN SEASON ONE.

So as a person, yes, Walt is the worst. But as a character? He's unparalleled. He makes things happen, which I think a very underrated character trait (and one that a lot of writers overlook). Walt is an infernal engine, a perpetual motion machine, a catalyst of catalysts. Things HAPPEN when he's around, which makes him a really fantastic character.

The other thing I really appreciate about Walt is that Vince Gilligan really stuck to his guns. He said he wanted to tell a story about Mr. Chips becoming Scarface, and by god that's what he did. A big problem with a lot of "antihero" shows is that they are often way too sympathetic to their protagonists and fall for their bullshit. And while a lot of the audience for brba fell for walt's bullshit, the writers were always very clear-eyed about what they were doing.

my favorite book/season/etc - an impossible question for bcs. all seasons are tied for best except season 2, which was a little tiny bit less good but only because it was necessary to set up the rest of the show's run, so actually it is also tied for best. I guess if you put a gun to my head, I'd say season 5 because it's the Lalo season

brba is an easier call - it's for sure season 4.

my favorite episode (if its a tv show) - for brba, I'll say The Fly, not necessarily because it's my favorite (too many favorites to choose from) but because I love character work, and that ep is all character work. Also, it's a good illustration of what I was talking about in my walt answer - it's an episode where "nothing" happens (or so claim Fly detractors!)...but making things happen doesn't have to mean making BIG things happen. Walt's monomania and willingness to do whatever it takes to "win" over something as stupid as a little fly shows what makes him such a great character

my favorite cast member - for brba, i think it's pretty widely known that bryan cranston and aaron paul have merged into one being, so I choose bryaaron.

for bcs, it's bob odenkirk. the entire show - or even the entire brbabcs universe, actually - rests on jimmy. like i know i just said that was walt, and it is for brba. but i think that now that bcs is done, you can make the argument that jimmy is actually the character that it was "about" (actually I'd put Kim in there too). Walt was always morally black, but Jimmy was genuinely morally gray for much of the series, and he maintained a human core that Walt lost. I think Jimmy and Kim are more relatable. (Not to leave Jesse out, bc out of the four of them Jesse is the most sympathetic in a lot of ways. But I feel like his story was more of a survival story, like Skyler's, and not so much a story about moral failure. Like yeah for sure jesse had tons of moral failures, but that never seemed to be the POINT of jesse, like it was the point of walt, jimmy, and kim.)

my favorite ship - for bcs, it's a tie between lacho and mcwexler. for brba, it's waltjesse.

i haven't talked about nacho at all so far which seems weird because I have a LOT of nacho thoughts (see my tag #nacho christ superstar). i feel like the cartel plot is like, the heightened version of the lawyer plot. or that's not right exactly - not heightened as in better, but heightened as more dramatic, more extreme, more literal. so lacho to me is like, what if you really were in bed with the devil? (i mean, maybe literal is the wrong word because he's not LITERALLY the devil, but lalo is a much more straightforward, morally UNambiguous character who is the personification of the evils of the cartel. so like. more literal. you know what i mean.) (plus i'm so horny for both of them. 😭😭😭😭😭)

mcwexler is the best on screen, canon romance i've ever seen. period.

as i've said before, waltjesse is the six-in-one shampoo/bodywash/conditioner of toxic relationships. jesse is walt's student/business partner/best friend/worst enemy/mistress/wife/son/dog. how can you NOT love something that twisted?

a character I’d die defending - SKYLER. Fortunately tumblr has the right attitude, but it still blows my mind that anyone could judge her for what she went through. walt destroyed her life - every action she took was her trying to protect herself and her children. what she went through was pure nightmare fuel, and it astonishes me that anyone could think she was ever unsympathetic

a character I just can’t sympathize with/a character I grew to love - someone sent me an ask just about these, so i'll save these for later! this is already so long lmao

my anti otp - I don't really have any for the brbabcs verse! in general, i'm openminded about even off-the-wall ships because fandom is for fun, and no one in this fandom has ever annoyed me with some of the shipping behavior you get from bigger, more annoying fandoms

[gallusrostromegalus]

ok so AEIWAM question bc i just read a tag “kido is a reverse chinese room” on one of your responses and now the AI scientist in me is dying to puzzle this out, but also it’s like 1 AM so holding all the pieces isn’t quite working.

as best i can picture, a reverse chinese room would be the rooms operator writing random words from their symbol book, passing them to the outside, and receiving an intelligent response to the fully articulated question in chinese that they unknowingly asked.

if i’m sliding this metaphor right, would that mean that kido incantations are basically gibberish being fed by casters into the God Machine that just so happen to be successful requests to run Lightning Bolt.exe? if so, how’s the random running of arbitrary system files squaring with the God-Machine’s previously-mentioned energy crisis?

You've got it exactly! All the Kido Spells in Bleach are... random strings of poetic nonsense. They're random strings of words that just so happen to activate specific Universe Cheat Codes!

Aizen is, canonically, GREAT at Kido! He can cast while taking invocation shortcuts, or even coming up with new spells! He thinks it's because he's GREAT at math- so far as Aizen knows, he has been using really advanced statistics to catalogue what random phrases the universe will react to, and what chains of phrases will cause what effects!

Orihime, Intelligent: ...bitch that's just grammar. This is a language? A Learnable Language???

As for the Energy crisis: there's less than a thousand humans that can use Kido with any sort of effectiveness, and the demands they make are laughably small. Every Kido Spell cast since the invention of Kido has taken less energy than rendering every species of Bat does for five minutes.

Granted, there are A LOT of bats, in terms of both species and total population but my point here is that a handful of humans using the occasional cheat code is NOTHING compared to the background data processing that goes into rendering- The Life Machine actually took Reality down a couple notches in simulation processing, because it needs to conserve power- that why it's all anime-style now, with it's limited color palette and simple polygon shapes to make up the characters and heavy reliance on Shonen Tropes to keep the stock character AI simple.

[envy-of-the-apple]

Hi!! This is my first time messaging a writer I really like but I’m high and have enjoyed your work for a while now and just wanted to share my appreciation especially after reading RAST. Sorry in advance for how unorganized this may look.

As a reader, I enjoy your story telling so much. You switch between past and present so fluidly and it makes the “world-building”feel natural while still keeping my interest and moving forward the plot.

I also wanted to compliment you on your ability to story tell so well while also staying true to the personality of the characters you write about. (I have specific examples I will detail later in this message from RAST because you did such a wonderful job of translating dynamics from the JJK universe into a Mafia AU)

I just wanted to share Little Details From RAST I enjoyed/made me really think

1.Grabbing Gojo’s wrist when he reaches for your skirt/panties happens both at the beginning and the end. I like how there’s a difference in Gojo’s reaction. The first time, he lightly dismissing your actions when he doesn’t have any genuine interest in you. The tension between Gojo in Ms. Gem later on is so telling because now Gojo knows all cards have been revealed and expects to be rewarded. It’s like when a dog finally gets their jaws on a toy and growls when you try to take it away.

2.(This detail I noted is an example of themes from the JJK universe translating well into your Mafia AU)In the JJK universe, there is definitely a patriarchal system in place which leads misogyny displayed in characters like Naoya. Your AU does a good job of portraying this culture as well from the start. It’s shared that the men of the organization don’t like women with “nasty attitude. It’s def implied that most men hold higher positions of power. It results in the events where we see other men laughing at Gem when she’s being groped by guards or being humiliated by Geto during his meeting.

3.(This goes for all your SatoSugu fics but especially in RAST) I love love love your characterization of Geto and Gojo. You’re very good at capturing personalities of characters but it’s especially clear in the SatoSugu fics you write because the dialogue is true to how they would speak to their darling AND eachother.

4.Through RAST, I was actually able to understand the personalities of Geto and Gojo in the manga better!It makes sense for Geto to be so controlled in personality because a controlled/calculating demeanor would only way for Geto to move up in ranks within the Yakuza and eventually meet and be on equal footing with Gojo. In the JJK world we see that Gojo really values Geto because Geto is on the same level as Gojo, but I forget that Geto must’ve clearly worked really hard to get to that level both in terms of skill and respect because he was born to a non-sorcerer family.With Gojo being apart of the sorcerer world/yakuza family by blood and always being reminded of how much power he has, it makes sense he would be so uncaring of social norms and so freely in Ms. Gem’s personal space.I can also see why, as you mentioned in another post, Geto doesn’t like to get his hands dirty, he’d be the type to see how to milk a situation for the most benefit rather than lashing out as Gojo would. (i.e. Gojo immediately throwing hands when the other yakuza family member touched Ms. Gem while Getou immediately seeing a chance to push Ms. Gem into their arms without a fit)

5. The car scene is actually lowkey funny bc they really do treat her like a pet on a road trip and ofc Gojo is the one watching cat videos lmaooo

7. You have this pattern in your writing (I like to think of it as a writer’s signature) of having questions by the reader go unanswered by the yandere while having phrases of affections by yanderes be barely acknowledged and I LOVE it. Every time I see it I eat it up because it’s so… akdjsjd

8. I love to see the SEM and EKM make an appearance in the last scene

Please correct me if any of my analysis in my thoughts are wrong and sorry in advance if that happens!! I truly enjoy the effort you put in as a writer

[insert-something-funy-here]

IT HAS BEEN REQUESTED I YAP THE DETAILS AB BIGRAFTS DESING FOR THE AU SO GATHER ROUND

(MAJOR SPOILERS FOR FUTURE WRITING AND POSSIBLY MORE ANIMATION AFTER WHAT'S IN THE WORKS NOW)

Okay so! For a bit of context I headcannon that all the Biografts have a sorta shared network/server they all share data from n stuff (like a kinda hivemind kinda not)! THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR LATER

At the end of the animation, biografts lighting will turn to match the color of medkits crystal! I plan to make this individual Biograft leave Blackrock and fully cut himself of from that network (along with doing a couple other things). Because before Medkit and Biograft get a chance to leave together, Subspace intercepts them and is like, "wonderful job my creation!!" Pretty much reveals he was letting Biograft's sentience develop to get to Medkit, and tells Biograft to come back (think of the scene from Steven Universe where White Diamond is like, "As for this latest little game of yours, thank the stars its over. Did you have fun, did you get all out of your system? Good, good, everyone is so relived, welcome home Pink.")

But Biograft doesn't return to Subspace which upsets him, so he goes temporarily shut him down, so as a last resort he fully disconnects from the network and deletes the kill switches and backdoor n stuff within himself (if he tried to do so while connected to the network it'd take to long to do bc he'd have to go through a bunch of extra code and it'd take way longer to save such a big change). Insert some cool fighting I have to figure out how to write and draw, and the two escape successfully. This specific biograft joins the lost temple, I'm still debating on if he would be allowed in the cult or not, I think Scythe would have mixed feelings but overall be leaning against it, and I think Broker would be chillin.

It's about now that Biograft upsycles his weapons and adjusts his horns, not wanting to be mistaken for his non-sentient counterparts, and also kinda out of defiance towards Subspace. His staff/polearm is literally his sword but put together, lol.

Anyway, not related to the design, but I feel like it'd be funny to have Scythe help him learn his new weapon (or he just analyzes how she uses her scythe and copies some things and she notices). I also this it'd be funny that when he actually gets a chance to sit down and actually process everything that's taken place, it ends up being Scythe he does this with. Cus like at this point he's putting the pieces together, but Scythe just full on slaps in the face with the truth he's been hesitant towards acknowledging and is just like, "you went through all of this because you care about him," and they have some silly back and forth, and that conversation leads Scythe to let Biograft stick around.

ANYWAY, YAPPING OVER LOL!!!

THANKS @monomanspamreblog FOR REQUESTING THIS LOL

[squeakadeeks]

My social media culture professor said I was so good at folklore studies that he asked me to do a thesis so that he could apprentice me. Also said I should go to NFL Canada to do a master's degree. And while this is all very satisfying, I now must ask you, my local academic: I'm the most blue collar tradesman ever, I even have a welding license. How do academics. Like. Make money. The Particles don't pay you. How does someone to a master's-- going to school for a living-- and get.... Paid money

oh shoot can you not answer asks privately now ?? D: well....heres my spiel about grad school funding

getting income as a masters student can be a challenge. in general this is a tough thing to answer bc graduate school funding varies wildly based on country, school, program, and even research group.

however in general, a masters degree can, but will not always provide pay. if your PI has a grant, maybe they will fund you through the grant. If you can find a fellowship, something akin to a grad school scholarship, it can also help either pay or reduce tuition. but most schools treat it as a continued schooling, not a research job and wont provide pay on top of tuition remission automatically. There are other routes like TAships and work study that are still ""second jobs"" but are at least related to your field.

Some programs will fund their masters students automatically, some dont. some provide tuition remission, others dont. some do both, others do neither. that's part of the "it varies wildly" i was talking about.

A lot of Phd students have union contract stipulations that say we have guaranteed funding via research pay, teaching, or fellowships for several years. because phd students have significantly more secure funding on average, ive known of a lot of people who applied as a phd student even though they intended to master's out in their 3rd year anyway to have a stronger employment contract.

that being said, you could still ask a department of interest if they would offer GSR or TAships to masters students, as these are often the most secure way to fund grad school. this is much more likely if its a general program like psychology, chemistry, english, etc as opposed to art history for example since general programs supply service courses that service a ton of students. you might have 3,000 students that need a chemistry TA per year but only 300 who need an art history one, smaller class sizes require smaller TA pools.

but the problem is its really really hard to say because it depends on your situation wildly. this is the system for the schools i know of in STEM specifically, that have union protections, in this university system. some things im willing to bet are fairly common (for example that masters students do not have stable, guaranteed funding) but i have no idea if canada has different employment contracts for masters students. i know of a lot of masters students who have other jobs on campus too, but i'd also look into applicable fellowships for more stable support

[carriesthewind]

a question, if you don't mind it! I read your post about the IA, and it makes a lot of sense, I wasn't aware of how their lending system operated, so thank you for that. I was curious, does there exist/do you know of any digital library that operates fairly and without harming authors? lending on a one to one basis etc? this isn't an "aha, there is not ethical option available to me so I'm allowed to steal, gotcha!", I just genuinely hope something like that exists bc for several reasons I don't have access to a physical library rn. thanks and I hope this isn't a bother <3

Hi Anon!

Unfortunately, I think the answer to what you are looking for is going to boil down to "there are a lot of free online books and resources, but not resources that will allow you to borrow any given book." But it's going to be a little bit of a complicated path to get there.

Part of the problem is the words "fairly" and "without harming authors." Because "fair" does not necessarily equal "legal," and authors can and do disagree about what systems cause them harm. So is "controlled digital lending"(CDL) (where instead of buying or licensing an e-book, the lender digitizes print book and lends the digital copy) that's one-to-one owned-to-loaned fair and not harm authors? Well, as the district court held, it's certainly not legal in the U.S. (because to be clear: while the IA was/is not doing one-to-one owned-to-loaned, the holding of the court was that even it it was, that would violate U.S. copyright law). But is it fair (or more fair and equitable than current digital copyright law) and does it harm authors? As I've said in a previous post, I have not stated and will not state a personal opinion on that. If you want to read more, the statement I previously linked by the National Writer's Union takes a position that it is unfair and harms authors; for a counter-position that it is fair and does not harm authors, here's the memorandum the EFF filed in support of their motion for summary judgement for the IA. And you can find lots and lots more written on both sides of the issue. (If you are struggling with where to start: a google search for "internet archive controlled digital lending" will bring up a lot of articles about the case with links to various statements and opinions.)

If you are looking to avoid illegal or disputed CDL, there are options, but they are limited: that is, there is plenty of digital books and reading material that is legally and fairly available online, but you are unlikely to be able to borrow any specific book. Some options that exist:

On the IA's "Open Library": anything in the public domain (including, as of 2023, anything published or released in the U.S. prior to 1928), as well as anything where the rights-holder has allowed the IA to distribute their work. (If legality matters less to to you "fair" and "harms authors," you might also be ok with works on IA if the author has permitted the IA or another site to loan their work in defiance of an allegedly unfair or exploitative contract.)

If you want to avoid the IA's "Open Library," HathiTrust Digital Library won their copyright case (correctly, imo) and host a bunch (17+ million) of digital books and other items. (By the way: this was a case where the IA - as one of their partner organizations - was on the right side and the Authors Guild, who sued them, was, imo, on the wrong side. Just to emphasize how complicated this is.) But (unless you are a member of one of their partner institutions - mostly universities) your access is limited to reading works that are in the public domain or for which they have been given permission from the copyright holder.

Lots of individuals and organizations post written material for free online! For example, while many journal articles are hidden behind paywalls, many are not; lots of short story magazines (esp. genre fic) have free digital versions; and lots of people post books for free online under a Creative Commons License. I don't know of any universal library for these kinds things though - where to look will depend on what you are looking for.

Beyond that, it depends on where you are and what you are looking for. For example, if you aren't in the U.S., there may be country-specific digital resources (e.g. does your country have a national library, and does it have digital resources)?

You can try looking into:

Local university or resource centers: sometimes, even if you aren't a student or profession, many of these institutions offer resources, including digital resources, to their local communities.

Local museums: same as above.

Local cultural or other kinds of resource centers: sometimes these kinds of organizations will have community libraries. These will often be specific to the interest of the organization in question, but it's worth checking!

Finally, if you are in the U.S.: if your lack of access to a physical library is based on the fact that you can't physically get to or access the library, but you do have a local library, you have options! Even if you can't get there to access a library card, some libraries will allow you to create a card online just for their digital collection. And many libraries have resources to assist home-bound patrons - it's always worth calling and asking.

If anyone else has any other suggestions, please feel free to add them! (Especially if you have information on non-U.S. and/or non-english specific resources)