#because you'll get educated on the basics like respect or what not to do as a human being

[songmingisthighs]

it's so funny fighting with delulu hardcore idol worshippers on yt comment section like i literally had to breakdown the concept of "if it's not yours, don't mess with it, don't draw on it, don't even fucking touch it without the owner's consent" bc of the whole eunchae's audacity situation

[sprinkleonthatcriticism]

There's seem to be a lot of people who don't know how to respect people's ocs' boundaries

And no, not just Synnibear03 who was literally writing, drawing and creating selfship stuff (yes, including those fucking r*pe comics) but I'm talking about the situation with Katie (better known for her Fundamental Paper Education series) as well as the creator of Welcome Home, Clown. These creators originally started as simply being ocs of theirs and posting about their ocs just for fun (and ofc, were NOT expecting for their fun project to blow up like wild fire especially Katie who I suspect was not expecting her OCs like Mrs. Circle to gain that amount of attention). But you know the saying, good attention can lead to bad attention.. we have people taking the creators' OCs they basically made and drawing them in stuff like porn, fetish material and nsfw art (or sometimes self-insert/oc x canon art which, nothing wrong with self-insert or oc x canon stuff but, if the creator tells you not to do that then respect them). Obviously, the creators did not like the fact that porn is being made of their ocs (idk about the self-insert/oc x canon stuff, I think one of the creators or both were fine with it but I know that Sock.clip was NOT okay with Synnibear03 and obviously other people making self-insert art and such of Whitty, Boy and/or Girl). I remember Clown (correct me please, memory is shit so if I get the details wrong tell me in the comments ;__; /srs) that He had made a post on twitter kindly asking their fans if they could NOT draw porn/nsfw art of his ocs, and how did some of these so called "fans" react to this information? They ended up harassing Clown, still continue drawing that shit despite them saying 'No', send him some not so nice content and allegedly, Clown was DOXXED.. and reminder, this is all because They simply ask people to not make this sort of content. And I'm pretty sure the same thing happened to Katie (but hopefully minus the doxxing?), the amount of disrespect these huge content creators get is sickening.. I understand it's the internet and on the internet, you can't really control people and such on what they do but that isn't a fucking excuse. Because imagine you try to use that excuse when taking a photo of a woman changing in the changing room, ya know saying "Oh it's the world, you can't control what people do." yOU'LL NOT BE TAKEN SO LIGHTLY AND WOULD END UP ARRESTED--. Like I said, people who call their-selves fans need to show some respect for these creators and learn to respect their boundaries.. when someone say don't do that, you don't do that.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

thank you for your response! i was originally thinking of getting “Σαυτὸν ἴσθι”

but i actually really like “Ηττώ υπέρ δικαίου” i think i may wear jewelry with the phrase carved into it firstly and then going from there. and i have seen your post on the misuse of Hellenismos! luckily; i was already made aware of this misuse of the word thanks to a content creator i like. i’ll definitely be keeping up with this blog to make sure i stay in my lane & respect Greek culture, while i’ve been practicing the Hellenic Polytheistic religion for many years i still have much to learn! such as, i had always been told online that modern Greeks don’t believe in or care about the “old religion” so it’s been really interesting to read about how that isn’t totally the case. :)

Ωωωω! Followup on the tattoo ask! :D Hello again! Hopefully you'll find the best way to carry the tenant with you!

Btw it grinds my gears when I see non-Greeks being so quick to say "modern Greeks don’t believe in or care about the gods anyway, why are they even talking".... Like BABE if it weren't for the Greeks who kept alive a large portion of the ancient texts on religion, philosophy, folk stories etc for more than a thousand years, you wouldn't have Greek myths to obsess over. There was indeed a time when Christians oppressed the Polytheists (also as a payback for the Polytheists doing the same to them in the past) but a few generations later people realized that this destruction would only make our ethnic memory and our heritage poorer, so they started copying and preserving the ancient texts.

Not to mention that Greece today has a huge archaeological sector, a ton of scholars, every town and city has its own archaeological museum, and we are taught the myths in context starting elementary school and analyze the epics and the ancient plays and other texts with classics professors and philologists from highschool already. Magazines frequently gift ancient plays, epics and philosophical texts, and you can find these editions pretty cheap in bookstores too, like 5 euros per play.

Our landscape is marked with ancient stories - everyone knows Zeus' mountains in Crete and Naxos, what Delos is to Apollo, what Cyprus is to Aphrodite, people continue living on Olympos as usual and we know it's considered the home of "our gods". (Instead of "Greek gods" we sometimes say "our gods" because... we are Greeks, so "our" and "Greek" are interchangeable in meaning.) Of course we consider the gods to be our important heritage figures. Even if a Greek feels like they don't have basic respect for the gods, they will still roll their eyes when seeing how the gods are portrayed in USAmerican media -meaning they have absorbed a type of respect for the deities through osmosis in Greece without realizing it.

Our public companies, streets, and groups/teams have names of gods and heroes. There are Christian Greeks baptized with the names of Greek gods, muses, and ancient heroes or play characters (Aphrodite, Athena, Ares, Demetra, Odysseus, Akhilleas, Patroklos, Dione, Thalia, Antigone etc) and that's not just a modern phenomenon. We just... kept our names through the ages.

Not every single Greek will be interested in those things because everyone has different passions and hobbies, but Greece as a whole continues to record and safekeep all things ancient. The Ottoman occupation was harsh for us and we lost access to education and the science of archaeology for a while but we started getting educated again on our past as soon as we were able to offer our people decent public education (when we gained our freedom).

Many Greeks see the ancient religion as a level "behind" in human rights and religious philosophy, and like a stage we have overgrown as a nation. However, this doesn't contradict the basic respect one gets for the gods as soon as they do a basic study of the material readily available all around them, and the whole stance that the country keeps toward our gods.

I didn't intend to write that much but, ya know, I get very irritated just thinking how people with no idea about Greece's history make assumptions about us just to win an argument online.

Thank you for making it this far! It's great you are taking the initiative to ask and learn! Gaining knowledge of a different religion and culture is always a difficult but rewarding journey! For your patience, I will leave you with a few verses of one of our classic poems:

As you set out for Ithaka hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery. Laistrygonians, Cyclops, angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them: you’ll never find things like that on your way as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, as long as a rare excitement stirs your spirit and your body. [...]

Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is what you’re destined for. But don’t hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, so you’re old by the time you reach the island, wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way, not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey. Without her you wouldn't have set out. She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, you’ll have understood by then what Ithakas mean.

(Ithaki , Konstantinos Kavafis, 1911)

[blood-injections]

Ooookay killjoy suitehearts masterpost here we go, been putting this together for a while now since everyone started posting their suitehearts stuff..

So I kinda have two versions of stories for them, i mean thats the great thing about writing and headcanons is that they can varie from story to story but anyway! this is like their main story and what I'll write if I ever get to writing a story focused on them, and varients of it will be similar with some like little changes if theyre more like background characters in something. But the two versions rn are just this main one and a slightly differing one for some other stuff in my drafts bc this main one is focused in the city bc the suitehearts are just such an underground rebel crew to me versus loud and proud killjoys in the desert, while the variation story is one where they are in the desert, or at least theyre like split between the city and desert, you'll see.

Some like basics before I get into their individual stuff, yeah they have, well mostly have their crazy looks, they're a crew of theater kids lol, not really they just have a sense of whimsy. I'll post art of each of my designs for them eventually their outfits arent as crazy because they have to like be able to fight and run and shit in them, but they stick with the colors and facepaint, because facepaint throws off facial recognition scanners so that the cameras cant track them, so they might as well have fun with it, and they turn it into part of their killjoyesque personas, the facepaint becomes them, marks them as crew and their personas kind of become characters in urban legends that everyone in the citys heard of.

ANYWAY

Dr. Benzedrine

Dr. Benzedrine? More like Mr. Medical Malpractice. Kidding. Mostly. He grew up in a wealthy family with parents that were good citizens and he always wanted to be a scientist or a doctor, to help people, and he was smart and they had money, so he was able to get into school and be just that. To learn all about science and medications and surgery and over the years he moved up the ranks, until he was one of the best surgeons in the city, and one thing about doctors, especially surgeons is that they have to be clear minded, not drugged up and foggy headed. And one thing about being good, about being a respected professional? Its like being an exterminator, you're never off the hook but the people in charge? They dont care as much about the state of your head, as long as you're loyal. So Benzedrine has benefits, and one of them is getting clean, of the decidedly mind altering stuff at least. But with clarity of mind for the first time in his life comes horrifying realization, because as a respected surgeon, he sees shit, because hes working in places that screams echo down the halls of and he can just tell that somethings wrong. He snoops and learns of re-education and of what happens to captured killjoys, interrogations and experiments and those are people and hes sickened. The more he digs the more he learns and the more he develops an intense hatred for better living and maybe he starts.. doing experiments of his own. Beause he works on a lot of respected folks, a lot of higher ups. He never botches a surgery but he starts messing with things, fucks with something while hes at the operating table, something that can't be traced back to him but that'll take the patient out in say, a couple months.

He's never disgusted by what hes doing, only finds pride in it, and maybe his hatred has twisted him but he likes himself better that way. The officials catch him snooping, though, eventually, but luckily they don't expect a thing, especially not when hes grown a master at lying. Because he's a respected doctor that has in their minds proven himself loyal, and when he bullshits his way through them finding him snooping about the lower levels of the hospital, they're nothing but happy at the fact he's grown curious about re-education, in fact they show him around, tell him all about it, their words are all propaganda and lies about how they're helping the people there, of course, but he smiles and nods along and makes comments like he agrees wholeheartedly. They say if hes interested in helping these people too, they can get him a position. He asks of he can still be the top surgeon if he takes up this position too and they say of course! As long as he doesn't overwork himself theyd be glad to have him assert himself in different fields of research.

So, he starts working with the prisoners. Because thats what they are. He sees them come in beaten up and hissing and spitting and he gets to see them grow complacent as they forget their whole lives in favor of some made up sob story and how theyll be so much happier once they're introduced back into society after their treatments. They'll only go on to be sanitation workers or office nuts at best, maybe scarecrows if they seem smart, but half of them will probably be plagued with nightmares once thyre released, broken memories trying to break through the chemical haze. They'll relapse, snap, do something drastic and they'll either be dracced or sent right back here to repeat the process all over again. Re-education isn't a complete fix, a guarantee of normalcy. It'll never be, not as long as they're just traumatizing people and praying they stay comatose long enough to get work done.

Hes there when a new batch of them come in, delinquents from the rebel underground, he learns, which flips his world upside down, theres a rebel underground? And they're apparently dangerous enough to be treated like captured killjoys. He sees these new patients come in in bonds, theres five of them captued, some silent and glaring and the others screaming until theres a needle shoved in their neck.

His new position is that of a twisted sort o psychiatrist, they gave him a whole slideshow to get ready for it. It told him to get in their heads, learn the secrets that interrogations couldnt get out and replace them with better living propaganda, until theyre nothing but smiling citizens ready to be let back into society. It's fucking brainwashing, nothing but, he fucking hates it. But they trusted him to do it and now hes here, but since he's here maybe he can help. Not brainwash these people, but help them, and if theyre really part of a rebellion, maybe if he helps them get out they'll take him with them and he can help people that probably actually need it, not just rich assholes from the center city.

Thats his plan, and it works, it takes a while to get the patients to trust him but once they do, they all get out. Sandman, Crab, and Donnie were all part of that group and its how the four meet and bond and start becoming a crew. Dr Benzedrine picks his name and quickly becomes a very valued member of the resistance because theres medics, but no professionals, let alone surgeons.

Mr. Sandman

Street kid, his parents were ritalin rats that stirred up too much trouble and got dracced when he was pretty young. He was hiding under a bed when it happened and Better Living didn't find him, but they didn't bother looking because he was a poor autistic little kid that they saw no use in. So they left him to his empty shitty little apartment in the slums. They never kicked him out, so hes luckier than most that he still had a place to sleep, but once he ran out of food he had to head to the streets, figure out how to either get food or money to survive. He learned and he grew up dealing illegal merchandise, not as low as you could stoop, but pretty low, low enough that if you're busted you could get dracced. But it kept him just afloat enough to not starve.

Illegal merchandise is stuff like outlawed music and media, cds he burned himself off the originals, cassettes, vhs. Just whatever he could get his hands on. And when he could get a signal, he'd play the stuff over the old radio equipment in his basement, making sure to scramble where the signature was coming from, because he'd definitely be dracced if they found out he was putting that stuff on air. Not like it got out of the city, bli has shit that doesn't let any signals in or out, but once in a very rare while, he'll get some faint killjoy frequencies and record whatever he can onto cassettes.

But even though he was dealing in secret and even though he didn't want to be a cog in the machine, even though he wanted to be one of those juvie halls, the rebels on the streets that you can hear hollaring at night, throwing bricks at scarecrows and running off before facial recognition gets them, he strived to get into the Better Living Academy, because it hasn't crosed his mind that he might not be stuck in battery city yet, like most people that rebel, he doesn't want to be on his streets his whole life, so he tries getting in to learn anything, even to get some shitty cubicle job, as long as it means maybe he could actually afford more than the shit slum slop he pawns for. But at he end of the day, he isn't on his pills and he knows they won't like that if they find out, and they keep turning him away anyway for his temperment, for his oddities, because he's still autistic and the bright lights and white expanse of bli spaces make his head scream and he just doesn't get half the questions they ask him and if he has his own questions, they dont explain things furthur for him.

So he gives up on that plan, whatever, at least he's still got his shit to deal out, at least he isnt drugged up like everyone else he saw in the screening rooms for the academy, all empty in the head. He can think, at least. And he has his music, he likes music.

Then he meets Horseshoe Crab, a really weird fellow who takes most of his stock for a hefty handful of carbons that'll get him along for a couple weeks, and the guys so nice he's suspicious, until their deal is interrupted by an ambush, a patrol scarecrows that must've gotten a tip about them, and Horseshoe pulls out a fucking gun, shoots the two closest ones and takes sandmans arm and has him run. At that sandmans convinced the guys not nice at all, hes just fucking crazy, but he runs away after him anyway because the guy just shot two fucking crows, he knows he'll probably live to see morning of he sticks with him. Turns out Horseshoes a juvie hall, like an actual one, not the brash gangs of kids that run around and say they are, actual juvie halls are untraceable, a solid underground, a real rebellion, well hidden from Better Livings watchful eye, its something you have to be smart enough to find and brave enough to join. And sandmans thrust right into the center of it, just a street dealer that followed a crazy guy with a gun that pulled him into a safehouse in the slums that was down a maze of dark alleys, and theres so much illegal shit inside he kind of wants to call it in just for the hefty reward he could get, but he also kind of wants to drop to his knees and worship it all. Theres books, weapons, color. And a few rough looking people that at their sudden entrance, scan them and one goes. "Dammit, Crab."

Long story short, they're members of the fucking rebellion and theres a short but terrifying debate of whether or not to shoot him, but Horseshoe defends him and it turns out the rebellion likes people that risk their lives to deal rock and roll, because he basically gets an invitation. And well, that was his real dream, the one hes had since he was a little kid, wanting to be those unapologetic rebels in the street messing with bli for shits and giggles. This is obviously more than that, but still. So he accepts, and hes thrust into the center of it all. He has to prove he can be trusted by going on so many missions or passing along packages and illegal goods, but once he's proved hes no rat hes showed the base, how to get into the rebellion underground. Its a scattered maze of random apartments that are safehouses, and then the actual underground shit, the tunnels and whole rooms and shit, the stuff from what Battery City used to be that bli just built over and forgot about.

He and Horseshoe become quick friends and he learns that crabs not just a juvie hall but a zonerunner, that he risks his life sneaking in and out of the city to deliver news and supplies to the killjoys out in the desert and vise versa. Sandman turns out to be quite useful, because hes good with computers and especially, radio equipment, since he grew up with that stuff in his basement and copying all that music and playing some over the frequencies when he could, and he fixes up their old shit and becomes the radio operator of the underground rebellion, the voice of the voiceless. He's basically the cherri cola of battery city, as in hes given the task of feeding news to the juvie halls on the streets and so he's always on the air and monolauging what is just weird poetry or random stories to any untrained ears, but while cherri colas thing is actualy just poetry, sandmans is actually speaking entirely in code that only juvie halls will be able to pick apart, because PAX AM isn't some far off station in the zones like WKIL, no, it broadcasts from inside the walls of battery city and better living could always be listening in. Did I make this his thing entirely to play into the lyric all the walls lean in to listen? Maybe.

Hes actually known as Mr Sandman now, took the codename when he became their radio operator, but the suitehearts aren't a thing yet, no, thats still a long way off. Benzedrine isn't even part of the rebellion yet. He also gets his distinct style, encuraged by the juvie halls who just like killjoys push for everyone to be an individual and fuck the citys mandates, so goth gnc bitch it is. The longer hes in the underground the more disconnected from gender he gets.

There's a raid to the underground, someone must have tipped bli off. A solid blow is dealt to the rebellion in the form of a good number of juvie halls being captured, sandman one of them. Now being some low level dealer can get you dracced, but being a real juvie hall gets you something much worse, re-education, because you have to be smart to be a rebel and have survived this long, and bli can use those smarts, as long as they tear you down to a blank slate first. Thats what re-education is, picking you apart piece by piece, drugging you up and pouring propaganda and altered history down your throat until youre a 'functioning member of society'

He's assumed dead or beyond saving from the mindfuck of re-education by the remaining rebellion, who after this bust has to move base to a different part of the city. But about six months after he was taken and the radio went silent, his voice mysteriously reappears, speaking in code about the old base, where the escaped suitehearts went back to and found abandoned as they expected it to be, but had hopes of scrounging old supplies or this, broadcasting their return.

The juvie halls find them and bring them and the radio equipment to the new base, and Mr Sandman is officially the voice of the voiceless again, now with a crew.

Eventually they get fancy tech or an antennae or something thats just strong enough to get a signal out to the zones, and theres always been a slow feed of news between the killjoys and the juvie halls via zonerunners, and the cnnectiom can still be stratchy, but now on the good days Sandman can talk directly to doctor death defying to get news out to the zones and vice versa.

Horseshoe Crab

The only sand pup of the suitehearts, grew in the zones with his dad, who was in the helium wars, but he was dusted when Crab was about eight and he went right to gravel gerties, where he stayed until he joined a group of the older kids when they left gertie to go on their own, and let him tag along even if he was the youngest of them by far. They were all crash queens and glitter brains and he put up with them for a while, but eventually drifted off on his own, and was sixteen when he forst got hired by Tommy to meet with some runners in zone one when they cane outta the walls and to help them get their supplies back to his shop. These jobs always paid well, with either his share of supplies or a handful of carbons, so he kept doing them and eventually tagged along with the runners to go in-city to the rebels there. He liked it there, oddly enough, liked meeting so many different types of rebels, because killjoys are.. killjoys. Theyre all gearheads and glitterbrains but juvie halls tend to be more serious while still having fun. They understand the risk of what they do. Killjoys are just kids with guns, they have growing up to do or things to lose before theyre level headed enoughfor Crab to feel lile he gets them.

So it becomes his thing, zonerunning, getting supplies out to Tommy's and news into the city and vise versa, he makes friends in the underground and eventually meets sandman, then gets caught with him and meets the others too. He isnt around all the time, still does runs, and takes Benzedrine in and out with him if theres someone in the zones that desperately needs a real doctor.

Donnie the Catcher

Hell of an engineer, even figures out robotics, he grew up working in a garage in the neon district, and as he got older, started helping out androids that needed repairs in secret. Its looked down upon to help androids, simce theyre not human and not seen as human, and thats what their service hubs are for, to request repairs, but he knows theres no real help there, not if they're an older model or anything other than some high ups customized pornodroid. Most droids just end up recycled in the incinerators or rusting in the streets, so he does what he can to help when they start falling apart.

He doesn't agree with bli, with how he treats these people, and when a service droid named Jenny that he's helped a handful of times invites him to the underground, because droids can be juvie halls too, theyve gotta be fukin brave to be, because where human juvie halls will be reducated or dracced, rebelling droids will just be shot for going against their programming. Donnie tells Jenny he has to stay and support his family at the garage, but if he can help out he'd be glad to as long as he can get back to the garage at the end of the day. Thats how he becomes a juvie hall. One day down the line he heads to the base and he was there for maybe a half hour when the raid happened and he was captured with the others. He was newer than sandman and crab and had never really crossed paths with them since he didnt spend a whole lot of time in the underground, so hes meeting them for the first time when theyre brought in for re-education. He was one of the ones that stayed quiet and glared, mostly worried about Jenny, that they were there and maybe caught in the raid, becaue she may be all metal but they totally kissed a couple times.

When they all escape he becomes a full time resident in the underground, knowing he can never go back to the garage a fugitive. But not seeing his family is better than the alternative of having been reducated and torn apart at the seams. Besides, once he's got the suitehearts, they're all inseparable.

That's it, once they're a crew, all their experiences and skills combined, they're a unique group for sure. Sandman and Crab already have their own looks and weird relstionships with gender, but Donnie and Benz have never put much thought into the individuality stuff, Benz a slave to Better Living his whole life and Donnie focused on working and surviving. Eventually they find their weird styles, colors theyre fond of as a fuck you to bli, and then the facepaint, it marks them as a crew and as people ready to fight for their cause. Anyway what if I said Donnie transfem she/he(and yes. rocking the beard) :3

------

As for the second version, its mostly the same, its just like.. the zones version for stories where they know they fab four. They're all younger and they're basically split between the city and the zones. Their backstories are pretty much the same except Benzedrine got out before he was even really a surgeon, hes still a damn good doctor though, and Sandman left to be a killjoy instead of sticking around the underground. Crabs still a zonerunner that gets Benz in and out to help people and when hes in the desert he bunks with sandman in his concession stand turned weird little trailer in the outskirts of zone two. And Donnies zoneborn too instead of Mrs androidfucker in the city, shes Sandman's good friend and mechanic when he gets into racing at the crash track. They're all good friends and still very much a crew, theyre based out of he zones, Benz too, theyre just still a bit spread out at times when someone in the underground needs help.

Ugh man is there anything missing idk well if there is I guess I can add it later. Okay the end 👍

[dootznbootz]

hello, sorry it's me again, you've basically become my comfort blog-

I was on reddit and out of curiosity typed in "Circe rant" because idk, I was feeling salty about the book.

I saw a post that had some legitimately good reasons and indicated that this is all just the person's opinion.

But when I checked the replies everyone was just disagreeing with them and being very rude?

Like, they complained about how the book doesn't feel feministic because Circe isn't that likable of a character? And then half the replies were "Uhh she's supposed to be morally gray" "I disagree, Madeline told her story very well." "What gave you the impression this book was supposed to be feministic??"

(Disregarding half the reviews on the cover are calling it a "great feministic piece")

I was kinda pissed so I went to post my own thought about why I really dislike Miller's take on Circe. And 80 present of the replies were just flaming me-

Some guy said people can interpret her anyway they want because she's not real. Someone said I should be more humble and that I just don't like Circe as a character (which is not true). And so on.

Something I've seen is that the Circe book fans are so sensitive good god- Whenever someone criticizes their book they go full defensive mode. Trying to reason with you when most of the time you're the one who actually knows more about the actual character-

They act like all of our concerns on the book actually have a reason and make sense? Honestly, props to us for being bold enough to voice our concerns on a book that basically has a cult following-

Again, really sorry for coming here to bother you. I'm just salty and I genuinely really like your takes

That's really sweet that you feel safe and comfy on my blog. That's what I'm trying to be. Thank you 🥹

You're not bothering me <3 I can understand being salty about the book. It makes me salty too. It's why it's honestly good to block the tags and avoid most of that stuff. Make friends and find the community that actually understand what actually went down in the Odyssey and what happened to Odysseus. There are plenty on here! :D Also quite a few who have really neat and fun stuff about Odyssey Circe while still being respectful of Odysseus!

I don't recommend trying to fight with these folks. It's frustrating but they're not gonna change their mind. As they don't want to. Inform and educate sometimes especially if people ask but don't waste so much energy on it. It's not good for you. It's okay to vent and rant but I don't recommend searching it out. <3 You'll just stress yourself out :D

I think the book is almost like, the most "basic angry feminist shlock in a bland and easy to consume can for pre-teens" book, you know? And that's why so many people cling to it. I can see SOME people taking comfort in the anger maybe?? But idk. Anyways it has so many classic "YA shit". Girlboss who has "no flaws and can do no wrong" who actually isn't a very nice person (what's with so many characters being so mean and moody???), the mean, MEAN men who are just soooo awful to her and try to push her down. The other women who are just slutty and so dumb. They don't get it. etc. etc.

I think it's a lot of younger fans who are JUST starting to see a lot of "adult shit" and it's scary so it's nice to have...idk this?? I don't understand it. As I was never really one to be into that or really even behave that way. Odysseus is much relatable and hopeful as insane as that is.

[pinksaphira11]

The Appeal of Linked Universe

Been thinking about this for a little while; why is Linked Universe so well liked? I mean, there's plenty of other 'Links meet' AUs out there, and yet this is the one that got popular. Granted some of the others probably popped up because of LU but still; why? Well, I think I've figured it out.

Adherence to source material.

This is it, the whole thing making everyone love LU more than other AUs. (Probably.) Let me explain; it's fun to put your own spin on things, right? To change things up as you like and tweak things to fit your headcanons. Everyone does it, it's fun and makes things interesting and different. But in the case of these 'Links meet' AUs, I think it's hurting them. Why? Because it's not canon.

Now, I'm not saying adding all your own things is a bad thing. Quite the opposite, I love seeing what other people come up with! The creative ways they take things and the fun ideas they have can add a lot to the fandom and make things even more fun, so I'd like to encourage people to continue to add their own spins! But that doesn't change the fact that it's simply not going to resonate with quite as many people.

This is because they've changed too much. Some people simply won't like those changes, and so they won't read it. That's fine, they can just go read other stories that have the things they do want. But it does mean there will be less readers. That's where Linked Universe shines; it has only the source material, and that's it. Their designs may be a little different, with certain things exaggerated and what not, but that's just to get them to be more recognizable from each other. Besides their redesigns, nothing has changed. They're just Link.

That's the heart of it; all of them are just their respective Links. No added abilities. No added lore. No need to go read an in-depth page of backstory in order to know what's doing on. All you need to know is that the Links have all come together. That's it. You don't even need to know how or why. Heck, that hasn't even been explained yet. It's just more visually distinct Links hanging out for some reason. On some sorta adventure. And you let your imagination run wild from there. The only material that might be nice to know before reading it is it's source material; the games. That's all the context you'll need for why each Link behaves the way they do, and even then you really only need to know one game to be able to enjoy it. That's how I started, although I've since educated myself with more games.

There are SO MANY fics that have been made just based on the base concept alone. At first it was just Jojo doing little snippets too, just for fun, of things that could happen if they were traveling together. It's just, the normal Links from their games meeting. It's as simple as that. Granted a story has now been put into the works for it, but you can still enjoy the basic idea of it without needing to heed the story Jojo has come up with. Because at the end of the day it's just all the protagonists getting to interact and it's so fun getting to compare and contrast them with each other.

There's of course other things going for it; like Jojo's great art, characterization of the Links, and the splendid way it all flows, among other things I'm probably forgetting at the moment because it's getting late. (Late night thoughts strike again!) But I really do feel like the heart of it is that it's simple. Nothing complex or convoluted to the general, basic idea of it. They're just the Links you already love and know from the games. They happen to meet. And then whatever the heck you can imagine can happen, or you could read the story Jojo made for them instead. It's just a good time, particularly with some of the ideas the fandom has come up with for the AU.

That's why I think LU is more appealing than any other 'Links meet' AU out there. It's simple but effective and I think Jojo is doing great with it, she loves treating her fans and always adds little things in the background. Just, Jojo is great and Linked Universe is great and I wouldn't have this going any other way. Thank you Jojo. If you haven't checked out Linked Universe yet and are a Zelda fan, I highly recommend it! Fun to be had for every type of fan, no matter what your favorite game or Link is.

[nothorses]

I'm curious if you have any further thoughts re; not generally liking the concept of discipline!

oh you know I do.

So okay, to preface, this is a subject that is very central to, like, my entire- and ongoing- education in education. I have read and talked and practiced about this a lot. I am very sorry for how wordy I'm about to get, and I'm sorry if I make any leaps or assumptions about where other folks are gonna be at in terms of familiarity with these ideas. (I am also approaching this, obv, from the perspective of education- not like, self-discipline as a skill).

There are two core arguments here: efficacy, and ethics. We first ask the question, "is it ethical?", and then we ask, "is it effective?", and if it's both of those things, it's probably a good idea!

Now, these questions can get a little complicated in practice... but discipline fails them both.

The "goal" of disciplining someone is to, essentially, end and prevent a behavior. Discipline does a few things to this end; it:

Establishes a boundary

Provides motivation not to cross the boundary

Provides consequences for crossing the boundary.

Establishing the boundary is, I would argue, not inherently a part of discipline itself- and oftentimes discipline comes without any kind of warning or boundary-establishing at all ("you know what you did", contradictory or nonsensical punishment, etc.- abuse, basically).

The motivation discipline provides is fear. Discipline doesn't need to be physical- oftentimes it's something like grounding, taking things away, or even just a stern conversation- but the goal of those threats is to create a sense of fear regardless. Fear of losing something you care about, fear of feeling guilt or shame, fear of being embarrassed in front of others, etc.

And the consequences for crossing the boundary are always going to be manufactured; someone has to follow through on the threat and implement them, because discipline necessarily is not natural. It is person-created and person-enforced.

Which leads to my next point:

Discipline has proven, again and again, to be a band-aid solution at best. Yes, there is motivation and there are consequences, and oftentimes it does dissuade people from crossing boundaries. But here's the thing: people are inconsistent, and people are not omnipresent. If a boundary is crossed and the enforcer doesn't know about it, there is no consequence. The threat is, at least partially, empty.

The other issue with efficacy are the lessons discipline imparts: that consequences are avoidable and/or arbitrary, and that person-enforced consequences are the only reason you should avoid crossing boundaries in the first place.

What if you can get around the consequences? What if you just decide not to care? There are other reasons to respect these boundaries, but discipline distracts from and says, if those consequences aren't enough for me to trust that you'll respect them on their own, then there is no reason for you to respect them on their own.

Discipline also demonstrates a cruel behavior and presents it as altruistic and necessary; "it's okay to treat people like this if you're enforcing a boundary". The impact of that will vary depending on the kinds of consequences we're talking about here, and whether this is imposed internally ("I can treat people like this"), or externally ("it's okay for others to treat me like this"), or both, will often depend on the person. But the core message remains the same.

It's common because it's the easiest solution, not the best one; if someone does something you don't like, just fucking fight them using whatever weapons you have until they stop. Be it physical pain, fear, shame, or guilt, the concept is the same and it is widely-applicable with pretty minimal need to adjust.

But there are alternatives, and those alternatives are not only more ethical- they are genuinely more effective as well.

First: the most effective way of preventing boundary-crossing is to avoid situations where it might happen in the first place. Whatever is motivating someone to cross a boundary, you should want to understand that. If you have the power to prevent it, you should try.

(ex: I plan the first day of outdoor ed so that my students can play freely for the last hour or so, which avoids a lot of problems that crop up if I try to get them to do anything mentally strenuous during that time instead.)

If you're at the point that you need to react rather than be proactive, your central goal should be to teach people:

What the boundary is

Why it's there

Why they should respect it.

This is most straightforward as a conversation, but it doesn't always have to be. Sometimes it's allowing people to find the boundary and learn what the consequences are, and acting as a support system, ready to step in and help if they're in any danger of being hurt. Sometimes it's asking questions and helping them think it through. Sometimes it's telling stories, or watching things with them, or even just teaching them how to pause, ask questions, and reflect on these ideas themselves.

When you can't convey all those messages, you can make do in other ways; distract and redirect away from the boundary, give them tools to avoid the boundary on their own, or evaluate natural consequences ("what is the bare minimum that needs to happen in order to stop this?")

There is a lot of theory around this in the field of education, but the gist of it is: just ask yourself why you're doing what you're doing, what messages you might be sending, and pay attention to the impact it has. Is there a better way? Is there another time/place it could happen instead? How could I prevent this from happening next time?

This carries to large-scale issues as well; incarceration and the criminal justice system relies on discipline, and it's fairly common lately to see alternatives discussed. Avoiding situations where discipline is needed at all is pretty core to that; social programs and supports are a major part of those conversations. When that fails, the next steps are to ask what the minimum we need to do to stop it is, and how we can prevent it from happening again: removal from the situation with minimal to no force, then mental health/other support as needed.

Ask yourself why someone might be doing something, and take the time to think of all the reasons you can. Is it really because they just want to do harm, or could it be something else? What kind of help or instruction do they need? What can you reasonably provide right now?

It's tough, and it goes against a lot of core self-preservation instincts- but if you're in a situation where you can decide whether or not to discipline someone, you're in a situation where you have a responsibility to evaluate whether you should in the first place.

[thousandyearphantombunker]

these are just my opinions. I'm not saying we have to get rid of these tropes. I just personally hate them

Tropes I hate: 'bi woman leaves man for a woman because her ex was abusive' she could've just left her ex because they were incompatible. She doesn't need her ex to be abusive in order to get into a relationship with a woman. It has weird implications. Biphobic misandrist misogynistic because honestly misandry and misogyny are two sides of the same shitty coin when it comes to this shit (a lot of misogyny comes from misandry in works like these for some reason) fun fact about bisexuals- they like both genders and don't need a tragic backstory to explain why they aren't with a dude- their sexuality is fluid naturally- this cliche tends to imply the only reason why bisexual characters identify as bi is because of trauma which oof.

Hallmark movie BS- cheating is gross. I don't care that he's your goddamned soulmate break up with boyfriend properly.

'disabled character has a special power that basically negates their disability' or 'inorder for this disabled person to have worth they must have a useful power or skill' or 'severely disabled person is a prop and only exists to be an nuisance or inspiration porn' let your blind character be blind. Let your character who has a chronic illness have symptoms of illness- outside of the ableism wtf was the point of making them disabled? For the aesthetics? Just let disabled characters be disabled. Disabled people should not have to justify existing- a disabled person's worth shouldn't be tied to a special ability that makes them useful or whatever. Disabled people do not exist to serve as inspiration to everyone. It's always 'actually that mentally impaired person is super smart and therefore they're actually worthy of respect- okay but what if they did have a low IQ? Do you still respect them? I do but I know a lot of you don't.

'hes hot so he gets a pass on being a possessive creep' no he doesn't it's gross. Tell me the truth- would you still find it hot if someone who looked like Danny devito was being possessive of you?

'its okay when a man rapes another man because it's gay and sexy' I shouldn't have to explain this one. Rape is evil- yes even if it's a sexy man doing it to another sexy man.

No more depicting racist/homophobic characters as caricatures of Appalachian rednecks or developmentally disabled people or people born of incest. It's classist ableist and perpetuates gross stigmas against these groups of people. Seriously you'll claim to be anti classism and ableism but you depict the people you don't like with those stigmatized developmental disorders or low IQs and you assume coming from poorer rural areas are automatically racist? Go fuck yourself if you write this shit. People who have low IQs aren't morally inferior to you, people who live in poor areas and possibly have worse education than you aren't morally inferior to you. Your not fighting anti intellectualism your not fighting media illiteracy your not fighting racism or homophobia- your being an asshole. People who are born out of incest are human too, stop acting like the way these people where fucking born makes them deficient. Also stop equating deformities with being evil while your at it

[daffodilhorizon]

Vegan Masterpost

Want to make a change for the animals, for the planet and for your fellow humans? Here's how to start: 1. Replace your favorites with plant based ones. Look up vegan recipes + your fav meals. Stop buying animal products and start buying alternatives! That's basically it! You're probably going to start getting exposed to a bunch of new plants and flavors to cook with. Embrace the fun! I'm not going to lie, you will probably crave animal flavors and textures at first. There's nothing wrong with having these cravings, just accept they are normal and will go away. 2. Look up vegan nutrition needs. You will probably need to supplement with B12 (found in fortified foods, such as fortified cereals or nutritional yeast). This is fine. Supplements are a good things! We put iodine in salt, and most carnist cereals and cow's milk are fortified for a reason. Take advantage of modern efficiency and accept that fortified foods and occasional supplementation is normal and healthy. My doctor recommends everyone where i live to take vitamin D daily, due to the lack of sunlight. Getting nutritional needs met in the most efficient and cruelty free way is good, actually. If you have specific needs around allergies or are dealing with an eating disorder, talk to a vegan nutritionist if you can afford it, otherwise consult with the vegan community and do your best.

3. Start using a cronomoter if that feels okay for you mentally. A lot of vegans don't eat enough at first! We need to load up on those delicious carbs and protein rich foods and keep consuming fats. 4. Integrate yourself into the community! Join vegan facebook groups, vegan hobby groups, vegan book clubs, follow the vegan tag. Follow animal sanctuaries on every social media. Seeing animals as animals and not objects is a big step in being vegan and seeing how happy these animals are in fulfilling caring environments is a positive reminder of the difference you're making. The hardest part of being vegan is the reaction from non-vegans. If you feel supported through the vegan community, you're much less likely to feel strong in the face of non-vegan pressure to conform or "cheat". A lot of us are genuinely pretty welcoming, probably because vegans are more likely to be liberal, poor, nonwhite, and lgbt+ than average. 5. Educate yourself! Read through vegan books, watch educational videos about what animals go through, and/or look at the vegan boot-camp. You are not required or expected to put yourself through watching animal violence, but if you have trouble connecting to the animals and think you can deal with it, it can help you realize how horrible and violent their lives and deaths are. I personally have not seen Dominion nor do i plan to, i have no need. The only people who need to be watching that stuff is non-vegans who are dismissive of the suffering animals go through. 6. Prepare yourself for a lot of unprompted excuses and defensiveness around non-vegans! Here's some lists of common "gotchas". You'll have them memorized within the first 3 months because of how often you'll hear them. There's also vegan debaters on youtube if that's your jam. Remember, you can always disengage and say "honoring my personal values is important to me and you should respect that" if you don't know what to say or don't want to argue. NOW FOR THE FUN PART Replace WHAT with WHAT? TEXTURES: make sure to get extra firm tofu! ground beef -> textured vegetable protein steak -> seitan steak recipes shredded chicken -> jackfruit sliced chicken -> soy curls, Tofu Fish textures -> watermelon (seriously) Unagi -> eggplant Bacon -> Tofu or rice paper Popcorn Chicken -> breaded soy curls lunchmeat -> vegan lunchmeat, or make your own with seitan/tofu Tuna or chicken salad -> chickpea salad Fried Chicken -> Fried Oyster Mushrooms or Tofu pulled pork --> Jackfruit Cow's milk -> any non-dairy milk! You can also make your own very easily Butter -> margarine Cheese -> vegan cheese, or make your own! Eggs -> Tofu, or mung bean egg, eggy yolk recipe In Recipes: Replace eggs with flax seeds or yoghurt, aquafaba, silken tofu, applesauce, banana, pumpkin, chia, baking soda & vinegar Flavors! Beefy -> Basically just salt with some umami Chickeny -> kinda salty, kinda herby Bacony -> liquid smoke, salt, and some sweetness Eggy -> use black salt Cheesy -> nooch please! Sweet -> maple, agave

7. If you drink alcohol, check barnivore to make sure your wines and beers weren't processed using fish guts! 8. Don't purchase any new products made from taking from animals. This means looking for cruelty free grooming items, cruelty free textiles, and avoiding animal exploitation like purchasing from breeders or riding horses. Obviously, necessary medication is the exception. 9. Be extra kind to animals in your real life :) They deserve extra love. Learn to put spiders outside and how to deal with "pests" by preventing them. 10. You are now vegan! Welcome! We're happy to have you! :D You will probably stumble a little bit or not know things like how some sugar is processed with charr from animal bones! That's okay, just keep learning and keep your eye on the positives.

[anonymouspuzzler]

I MIGHT BE A BIT LATE BUT I MUST ALSO HAVE ANSWERS /nf

For the ask game!! Questions 1, 5, 21, 35 (for da entire Trio™) !! And Question A for you :3c

combining these for ease of answerin'! thank you All for Question's... (some of these i answered before but I went and dug up the answers to combine/add/etc! readmore for length also)

1. What’s the maximum amount of time your character can sit still with nothing to do?

Very Very Little for all of them. Davey fares the best, but only barely, and only because if you have him sit still with nothing to do he'll just fully doze off. Minnie's the next best, though she gets fidgety and annoyed very quickly, and meanwhile Buck I think will Actually have a breakdown and/or panic attack if you leave him sitting still with nothing to do for any significant amount of time.

2. How easy is it for your character to laugh?

Minnie and Buck are both extremely guarded with their emotions (laughter included) and, publicly, are more prone to their Practiced Performative Villain Laughs than anything actually genuine. Of the two Minnie is much tougher to crack when it comes to genuinely laughing; Buck at least will loosen up for Davey Specifically (who can get him to crack up fairly consistently).

5. How easy is it to earn their mistrust?

Extremely, extremely easy for all three, though it manifests in very different ways. Between "She Is 13 and thus Thinks She Knows Better Than Everyone" and her general upbringing, Minnie tends to default to distrusting everyone around her, and it's very difficult to convince her otherwise (in part because she's not self-aware enough to recognize how distrusting she is or how much that kind of behavior ultimately harms her). Buck, similarly, has lived the kind of life where vulnerability is Extremely dangerous for him, and defaults to distrusting people as a rule (Davey being the major hard-won exception to the rule). Davey's mistrust is subtler because he's a generally amicable and sociable guy, but if you look close you'll realize he really doesn't give up any kind of personal or vulnerable information, and while he mostly tries to give people the benefit of the doubt, if you do anything to give him significant reason to feel unsafe with you he will NOT let that go easily.

11. How do they cope with confusion (seek clarification, pretend they understand, etc)?

Minnie's a stubborn thing who's the exact age to be most Well I Know Everything am Basically A Grownup Actually, so she usually pretends she understands and attempts to brute force her way through. results of this approach may vary wildly.

14. What animal do they fear most?

she doesn't really fear Any, specifically because she knows a lot about animals! like, I think she would have a healthy caution-slash-respect for Large Creatures What Which Can Kill You, but nothing she's particularly afraid of. Probably the closest thing would be the Bioengineered Monster Hybrids of side character Animal, since those are very much Not natural animals she's learned about, and thus she can't really make educated guesses about their behavior.

19. What is their favorite number?

I don't know if she would have one! I don't think she'd think too hard about that kind of thing. she'd probably call you a nerd if you asked her this because she's a little shit

21. Why do they get up in the morning? 

I think all three would answer something along the lines of "because I have to". Like, what's the alternative? Not getting up? (I think Buck and Davey definitely use each other, and little by little Minnie, as motivation on this front, Davey especially - he gets up because he's got a family to take care of, y'know?) Minnie's also excited to learn the Villain Lifestyle, especially early on, so that keeps her getting up every morning too.

32. Do they have a go-to story in conversation? Or a joke? 

I don't think any of them do, for exact opposite reasons - Buck and Minnie are both Extremely socially inept and don't like sharing a lot about themselves in conversation, so they don't have a good go-to, meanwhile Davey is a conversationalist so he likes to vary things up based on the audience more. (He's also deceptively private about his life, so also not a lot to share there that makes for a funny casual convo story.)

35. How do they treat the things their friends come to them excited about? Are they supportive? 

It varies wildly depending on the thing and the friend. Buck and Minnie are both very under-socialized and very socially inept as a result, and Minnie in particular is kind of a little shithead, so I think if someone was talking about something they're excited about but Buck and/or Minnie weren't, they'd be kind of blunt about it, like, hey, I don't care about that actually. (Buck's at least slightly less actively malicious about it than Minnie, and has gotten better about it with age - though mostly with Davey, who, like. he's in love with that man. Davey could talk about Basically Anything and Buck would be down.) Davey, on the other hand, LOVES to hear people talk about things they love, especially people he cares about - listening to Buck ramble on about cars for hours on end is like his Favorite Activity - so he's generally VERY engaged and supportive in such scenarios.

A. Why are you excited about this character?

I Just Think They're Neat :) (but seriously, I think their dynamics with each other and the world around them are really interesting and fun to explore, and I'm a sucker for Family Of Choice and Becoming Better Thanks To Your Bonds With People Who Love You shit, so.)

[lookslikethatsallthetimewehave]

l'm no child psychologist, so l'm just guessing here:

The devs probably believe that kids today would just be running around the map, clicking random stuff and not knowing what to do. When they do make progress by doing such, they wouldn't know how to find the next story beat. Then they'd get frustrated at the "boring game" and quit. If they had something to guide them, like a push in the right direction, maybe they would know how to play it.

But Poptropica already does that indirectly. Character dialogue, setup of the map, the story leads you to complete the game. It's especially true for the simpler islands. Overall they don't tell you when you'll complete the island, and imo they shouldn't. That's like doing a word search with the answers already underlined.

It takes patience, a whole lot of patience. I can see some good in a progress bar (keeping track of how much you've completed)... but the map already does that! And they don't spoil the island by turning it into a string of side quests!

Simplifying the puzzles also feels like assuming your audience doesn't have the patience and the willpower to complete them. Yea most popular video games among kids now are straightforward and quick to learn. But the thing is, those games aren't puzzles. Puzzles are meant to be challenging, to encourage problem solving. This was why Poptropica was considered an educational game in the first place!

(Also, we already have a lot of running “easy” islands that new players can complete swiftly. There’s no point to nerf the “hard” islands, the ones known for being difficult, to be “beginner-friendly”)

TL;DR I do get wanting to give everyone a fair chance without having to look up tutorials, but basically (unnecessarily) child-proofing and watering down the game as a whole is... kinda insulting to newcomers.

(Sorry for the long send again)

You hit the nail right on the head. Now the nail hurts.

I mean, I guess I could see why they think kids nowadays need the hand-holding. They use TikTok, they're probably not that smart /hj

But yeah, you're 100% right. The fact that Poptropica is a problem solving game is what made so many people love it. The user got to run around and figure out clues and items that they will deduce for themselves how and where to use them. Kids love being able to figure things out on their own, figuring things out on their own is one of the things that makes games like Poptropica so much fun.

And the fact that there were islands back in the day that offered a real challenge, like Mythology, Skullduggery, Steamworks, etc shows that they respected children's intelligence.

I don't know much about what kids like nowadays (except for toy reviews, weird meme videos and the like, based on what my 10 year old cousin watches), but the least people can do is just... try to give them something that has actual substance XD

Not only that, but the newer islands don't have a lot of room for the user to run around. Some of them only have three areas. And even some of the older islands that only had a few areas, there was still plenty to do.

You wanna know what I think? I think because it takes longer to make islands now, due to Flash being gone and the limited amount of people working at Poptropica due to layoffs and whatnot, that's most likely one of the contributing factors to this new change of pace. I get the feeling that if they had more people and money, things might get better. But that's just my two-cents.

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Personally I often wonder about the extent that bioessentialism is baked into our ideologies and how to combat it, because bioessentialism is basically the gateway drug to transmisogyny and transmisandry. We discuss differences between the genders are immutable facts rather than topics that should be fully explored.

The desire to find social answers to our problems, to discuss the ways in which what we teach and say influence how we think and feel, I believe has been kind of painted over with a desire for quick and easy answers. Obviously this manifests in completely ridiculous ways like people insisting that women are just dumber than men and hence can't reasonably compete against them in chess.

But I often think about this gets expressed in other, more insidious ways. If I asked "Do het men and gay men feel attraction differently?" outside of the obvious answer of "They're attracted to different genders", I feel like the answer would probably overwhelmingly be yes. But if I asked "Do het women and gay women feel attraction differently?", I'm honestly not sure if the response would be as overwhelming. There would be more hemming and hawing.

Now flip the script even further. Do gay men and het women feel attraction differently? It might obvious to some people to immediately say yes, but consider what stereotypes exist out there. The trope of the token gay guy of an otherwise straight friend group, who often just says what the women are thinking outloud. The stereotype of the feminine gay man in media. While my ultimate these here is "attraction is more than just man vs woman", I feel like it be remiss to say that we have on some level internalized that the two groups are at least similar.

Now what about het men and gay women? Does being attracted to women, no matter what your gender, make you susceptible to the messages regarding female sexuality that are broadcasted? Does it matter how masculine you choose to present and identify yourself?

This ultimately is part of why I feel a lot of trans lesbians face a shitton of harassment for being themselves and being open sexual: it gets viewed as male sexuality because of their transness. That a woman couldn't possibly ever have been susceptible to that in the first place. Do you see the issue? Or about how lesbian sexuality is often suppressed and discarded, seen as ultimately fetishistic. Write something raunchy enough and anonymously enough, and you'll get dismissed out of hand as a man (welcome to the wonderful world of yuri discourse).

At the end of the day, interrogating the matter mostly just reveals that a lot of our beliefs about attraction are entirely social. Men are not hard-wired to see women as sex objects. Het men can be entirely loving, respectful partners, and gay men and women can be the exact opposite. It's not immutable fact at the end of the day. Part of my internal self-reflection as I transitioned was coming to grasp with the different beliefs I held to be true (and ultimately, learning about feminism, genuinely a lot of people could benefit from a more formal education about it). Were they true? Were they things I believed to be true? Were they things I could unlearn?

[ciaossu-imagines]

I was scrolling through  you list of things that hadn’t been done yet for your mini event and saw that Naruto was still up for grabs and then I just thought of such an interesting (and possibly funny) combination. Deidara and the Royalty AU.

C

Of course, dear! Thank you for sending this in - I had fun thinking it out and deciding what direction to go! I hope you'll enjoy the headcanons :)

Okay, so well you did say there are possible funny ways this could be taken and I definitely agree with you on that, that is not exactly the direction this AU turned out. Because, ya know…I'm me and because of that, this is definitely angsty but in a very surprising twist, by the end, the whole thing has also kind of become a love story, something I don't do often so I hope everyone enjoys!

So this AU is set very much, in my mind, in kind of a historically very incorrect medieval style setting. Deidara was born the second son to a very powerful king. As a royal prince, he was raised in extreme wealth and privilege, but because he was the second son, the 'spare', he didn't have as much pressure and expectations put on him.

Now, I do need to properly set up his family though. His mother, the Queen, was very much a subservient woman, taking her husband's lead on everything, and a very bitter woman because honestly, she had never wanted to marry her husband but had been forced to do so because of an arranged woman. She's not terribly loving and really has very little to do with their sons, leaving that largely to tutors and governesses and such, but if anything does come up with her children, she always supports and goes along with what the King decides and wants for his sons.

The King, Deidara's father, is really the most important part of the set-up to this world though. Because I'm trash at naming things, he'll always just be referred to as 'The King' but feel free to give him any name you want in your mind while reading this. The King is really a warrior at heart, is known for his brutality on the battlefield and his hunger for not only battle but conquest. He has made his nation one of war, amassing and leading a huge army in his attempts to take over and conquer various other nations. Attempts that mostly turn out in his favour and he has subjugated many nations.

Deidara's brother, and Deidara himself, grow up with war, battle, death being a very real and normal thing to them. And while Deidara isn't pushed quite as much as his brother to become a true warrior, there is still that expectation, pressure and demand from his father to learn to respect the art of battle and killing.

Deidara, because of the privilege he does grow up in, does become a little spoiled, especially as his father does teach him to view the servants, the tutors, everyone who is not royal or a high-ranking member of the army, as very much inferior to Deidara himself. Deidara gets a fabulous education, learning history, strategy, tactics, arithmetic, how to read and write, cartography…you name it, the prince is taught at least the basics. Of course, because of his father's demand, Deidara is taught to fight, both boxing and swordsmanship. He's taught to ride a horse. And, especially important to Deidara, who grows to really love it and to adore his tutor for this subject, Deidara is taught art and culture at his mother's tentative request to her husband.

As Deidara grows older, his father's expectations for him do grow to be more strict and I will say that I do see the relationship between Deidara's father and his children to be an abusive one on many levels. Like, there will be times when The King comes across one of Deidara's boxing lessons and he sees Deidara take a blow that The King figures he should have been able to easily duck…Deidara not only hears about it later, but does get physically very much punished by his father, who doesn't stop beating the child until he's satisfied Deidara can duck ninety percent of his blows. Or The King sits in on one of Deidara's swordsmanship lessons and while the boy does get his opponent, his tutor at that time, to yield, The King gets pissed by how much mercy Deidara shows the tutor, even going so far as to turn his back on his opponent once Deidara thinks he has the win, and does demand his son full out kill his tutor to learn not to show any mercy. Besides, tutors can always be replaced, The King teaches Deidara.

But even with all the abuse, I do think Deidara does love his father, respects him, wants to please him. And even if the abuse gets really bad at times, Deidara is really close to his brother, who always treats him well, and he always has his daily art lessons to look forward to.

Deidara really does flourish as an artist. It's something he lives and breathes and loves; it's something that relaxes him and takes him out of even the worst moments, makes everything okay. His art teacher really becomes a huge mentor to Deidara and almost a father-like figure to him. Even throughout the years, even as Deidara grows older and his father demands more and more from the boy, art is always his safe place, with sculpting being a real passion of Deidara's.

But all those safe places for Deidara? They vanish in his early teens when, on the campaign to conquer the distant land of Uclary, his brother dies in battle. Not only does Deidara lose one of his precious sources of comfort and has to grieve his beloved brother, but his brother's death makes Deidara the new heir apparent and The King's expectations grow even more brutal. Deidara now has no choice but to become a full-fledged warrior and to make sure his son knows that, The King makes Deidara sacrifice the thing he knows his son loves the most…Deidara is forced, under the eye of The King, to slaughter not only his precious art tutor and mentor, but the man's entire family.

I think it's around this time that Deidara comes across some of the soldiers goofing off a little, stealing and using some of the army's supply of gunpowder to create fireworks and little explosions. Grieving so much but with no choice but to become almost a soulless killer to satisfy his father, Deidara really seizes upon those fireworks, finds so much beauty in those, an art in the explosions and he demands the soldiers teach him the art of explosives.

Deidara becomes an expert in explosives that are not only deadly, and help on the battlefield, but are colourful, beautiful, works of art in his opinion. It's only through focusing on this new art that he is able to survive.

The war with Uclary rages on for years, neither side really winning. It's when Deidara turns nineteen, after years now of being the perfect soldier, commanding armies, killing thousands, seeing thousands of his own soldiers die, that his world gets turned upside down once again.

Instead of the war with Uclary continuing, it turns out The King had decided to meet with the queen of Uclary and a compromise had been drawn. The two lands would join forces and co-exist as ruling countries, in a tentative agreement, through the marriage of both of their heirs. Deidara not only views this very much as his beloved father growing soft, but he hates his new betrothed on principal.

Deidara cannot get over this betrayal and, because his father's approval is all he has ever really wanted, Deidara seeks to bring sense to his father, to get The King to realize that he had become too soft, that Deidara was the perfect son, not soft at all, and that The King need not bow down. Deidara would not let the war against Uclary die, not until they were completely under his kingdom's control so, on the night before they were to be wed, Deidara kidnaps his own betrothed, planning on making them accompany and help him with precious intel as Deidara plots to single-handly bring down the court of Uclary. He figures once he takes down the Queen and her court and servants, he'll kill his betrothed and gain full control of the country, which he can then turn over as a fitting gift for his father. The King cannot think Deidara weak after that.

And I really see this story being of Deidara really trying to fight that war himself, his betrothed by his side. They fight, they bicker, but through the story, the two of them learn to first find common ground, to grow a grudging respect towards each other, then to understand each other, to like each other and then to truly fall in love with each other and his betrothed helps Deidara not only process some of that childhood trauma and abuse but helps him properly grieve, as he helps them with their issues and in the end, I see them both abdicating their thrones to travel the world together.

[queencoldart]

Help with naming a (not-so) Chinese princess

I should have done this a lot sooner but I could really use some help naming a character of mine.

Context: the character in question is a lóng(龙) princess of the second rank in a fictional, Chinese-inspired setting contained within a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan-based universe. Characters within the setting typically refer to her as "212th princess". That isn't a typo. Her father is ancient and has hundreds of kids.

The princess usually has a calm disposition. Overall she tends to be good-natured and open-minded. Because of her family history she has the ability to bend weather. She is intelligent and was cultivated from a young age to be a well-educated and well-rounded princess of many talents. Her mother is just competitive enough to retain a fairly comfortable position in the palace, but unambitious enough to keep a low profile. Because of this, the princess and her little brother enjoy a relatively carefree upbringing, as far as a prince and princess in the forbidden city are concerned. When the princess is faced with adversity, she endures it well. This, and the fact that she hatched during the latter half of the winter, earned her an association with plum blossoms. Her dresses often feature a plum blossom motif.

The mother of the princess is an Imperial Concubine(嬪) and her father is the Tiānlóng(天龙) Emperor. Because Tiānlóng sounds sort of like Qiánlóng—at least to my western ears—I decided to loosely base the empire these dragons are from on the Qīng dynasty. (I know lóng aren't really "dragons")

If you are familiar with MLP:FiM, you'll know what this entails. Equestria is not the United States of America, but it has cities like Manehattan, Baltimare, Fillydelphia and Las Pegasus, it has Wild West and Bayou Country locations, and it even features characters that have/had real-life counterparts, like the Hooffields and McColts and a not-Elvis impersonator.

Manechuria, which is the "Ponish" name for the empire my lóng princess character is from, is like that too; there is a forbidden city, there is a concubinage system that functions basically the same way as the system that was implemented by the Kāngxī Emperor, there is a service period for palace maids, silver "talons" (based on taels) are used as currency, the court system works similarly, etc... But even with those elements there, Manechuria is not imperial Manchu-led China and there are marked differences; for example, the empress is nowhere near as tragic as poor Empress Xiàoxiánchún and the lóng aren't quite the same legendary creatures as they are in Chinese culture, though I am doing my best to be respectful with the creative liberties I am taking.

The naming conventions of the Manechurian dragons do not match those of modern or imperial China, though a few possible names for the princess I came up with would have probably worked in real life. We'll get to that later. Many of the characters' names follow a theme instead: palace maids are named after musical instruments like Pípá, Xīqín or Èrhú. Concubines are named after Chinese weapons and have names like Jǐ Pín(Imperial Concubine Polearm), Gùn Guìfēi (Noble Consort Staff), Qiāng Fēi (Consort Spear), Chuí Pín (Imperial Concubine Mace) and Jiàn Fēi (Consort double-edged straight sword).

By the way, I am aware that combining certain characters and sounds in Chinese makes them take on excessively weird or bad meanings/connotations, or just plain makes them sound bad. If you have a good grasp of Chinese and see that I combined characters or sounds that I probably shouldn't combine, please let me know.

This brings me to names for the emperor's children. I would like to have generational names for them, but I also recognize that this is probably a tall order if we are sticking with a theme and have to account for so many princes and princesses. I don't plan on naming them all for sure! I want to primarily focus on the 212th princess, too.

Some themes I considered were: Natural phenomena and scenery: Yìngyuè(映月), Yuèhuá(月华), Xiáyún(霞云), Xiálù(霞露), Bīngwén(冰纹) Flora: Xiǎolián(小莲), Liánxiāng(莲香), Lǜméi(绿梅), Méihuā(梅花; I really dislike this option, though) Cultural crafts, skills and items on China's intangible cultural heritage list: Xìqǔ(戲曲), Yīnyuè(音樂), Jīngxiù(京繡), Rónghuā(绒花) Gems/jewels: Zhēnzhū(珍珠), Línglóng(玲珑; I really like this one but I'm afraid racists will ruin it. Should I stop caring about what they might ruin?)

I would really like to hear thoughts and suggestions from people who understand Chinese.

Here is a picture of the character:

[clairelutra]

That's not what skilled vs unskilled means.

Don't get me wrong, if you can't feed a small family, pay a mortgage, and still have money left over for fun things working 40 hours a week and trust that you'll be treated with basic respect and decency while working, that needs to change, no matter how "unskilled" you may be.

But that's not what skilled vs unskilled means.

What unskilled vs skilled means is how much background education do you need to do this job.

"Unskilled" means you can walk into an establishment, use training videos and mentorship to understand your job over the course of weeks or months, and do your job correctly. You can teach most able-bodied/able-minded people how to roll a sandwich wrapper and talk to customers and work a till. They're straightforward jobs with simple explanations. They don't rely on your having years of training and practice in whatever you're expected to do.

"Skilled" means you can walk into an establishment, have someone show you what the code on the inside of a computer looks like, and you'll know what that code roughly stands for and is expected to do, because you spent 4+ years learning Python and Java and Basic, memorizing best practices and industry standards, building a portfolio of projects and experience to show off how much you know—all of that. It's "skilled" labor because you're supposed to arrive with years worth of skill and knowledge that they can't afford to walk you through.

(Artists absolutely are skilled labor btw. That part is correct. You can't give a rando two months of practice and instruction and expect them to be up to professional standard.)

Someone who spent years at culinary school learning the ins and outs of the business, food safety, history, etc. absolutely should be paid more than the waitress, but the waitress should still be able to make rent and feed her family on her base salary.

They're separate issues, and the terms "skilled" and "unskilled" in themselves aren't classist, because even in a world where education was free and unbarred and anyone could feasibly go if they wanted to, everyone would still need those years of practicing and apprenticing and studying their asses off to work the "skilled" jobs, and not need it for the "unskilled" jobs.

[potatoes83]

So I mean, I've changed my mind about a LOT of things, since the election, since covid, whatever... I am significantly more distrustful of quite a number of issues and norms than I used to be. One of these is higher education. I maintain that the public school system did this country a grave injustice by, at least when I was in school, pushing a four year degree on the populace. This was twofold: get a degree in computers and you'll get a job doing computers and make fat cash because that's the future... yeah, those jobs were widely outsourced, and your degree was completely irrelevant at time of graduation because the tech was developing just SO fast at the time... like seriously, think about this, a four-year degree is the period between Windows 3.11 running under DOS 6.2, and Windows 98. And the evergreen "go to school so you can get a good job; after all, you don't want to end up being a PLUMBER/MECHANIC/GARBAGEMAN/any other honorable and hard-working labor type job"...

So you have an entire working generation of people with useless four-year degrees, student loan debt, and an elitist attitude that they are far too good to work for a living... Yeah. That's not gonna be biting us in the ass 20 years later.

I went to school, and I got my degree because I had to. Period. It was the biggest waste of time, and I'm going to be paying for it over the next decade. Yes, things have worked out very well for me and my position... but there is just so much training and experience I could have obtained which would have been so much more relevant. I'm not saying this just to be contrary, I am not using fuck all from that degree. I managed to advance in my career in spite of my education, not because of it. It took a lot of time and resources that could have been much better spent elsewhere. Point is, I have absolutely zero respect for the hallowed halls of higher education anymore. That is anathema to everything I learned, everything that I was taught at a very young age. I remember our schools had put up these signs, this is elementary school for crying out loud, that said "learning zone, enter with pride". And I made the comment, at the precocious age of like what, nine, something like that, that I had no pride entering this place. My dad about kicked my ass. He was furious, and entered this long diatribe about how lucky I was to live in a country that offered public education of this caliber, and so on...

Yeah, I expect he's changed his tune too these days.

My point is, higher education is a sham. The student loans are subsidized, which means that's the lowest tuition is ever going to be. If you as a student are guaranteed $400 an hour, school is going to cost at least $400 an hour. That's basic economics. Subsidizing loans that no one in this world would ever be able to get were it under any other circumstance; you sure the hell aren't going to get one to start a small business or go to trade school. And for what? To take a bunch of ridiculous electives and general ed classes, to be taught that you are racist, bigoted, that your country is some sort of hellscape, the founders and framers are worse than hitler, you're probably trapped in the wrong body, and your parents are terrible people and don't need to know this??? And then culminating with some self-important asshole like Tony Fauci, or Oprah Winfrey, or even let's go Brandon standing up and reiterating all these points, that America sucks, you're a racist, etc etc. That's right. You made it through, you're getting your piece of paper, presumably printed on gold with a carbon fiber sleeve for what it cost you... and you get the privilege of your learned elders telling you just what a piece of shit you are...

And you have an entire generation, hell, coming on two generations, who are, with their preposterously expensive degrees, qualified to do absolutely nothing except ponder their racism / be perpetual victims of racism, as the case may be. Good luck paying those loans off with that skill set! 🥔