#but it would probably survive and keep an industrial base going

[elbiotipo]

There's a very deep and fascinating alternate history project, Doomsday; 1983, about a WWIII that happens by accident in 1983 and how things go from that, that I've been following for years, and it's very interesting, but they're now cleaning up a lot of crap that grew over the years (like Greece somehow colonizing North Africa and restoring the Byzantine borders, all the monarchies restored for no reason, the Argentina-Uruguay union for no reason with the ugliest flag I've ever seen, I could go on and on) Some things, are, again, very well done, there's a reason why I'm a fan.

But one thing about that setting that always made me laugh is that well, both the US and the USSR (and Europe and lots of other places) get bombed to hell, right? And in the US, every survivor town is like, "oh we survived, time to make a new constitution and a quirky flag and political parties and roleplay and now we're fighting wars against other quirky microstates!"

It's an almost delusional denial of the damage a nuclear war would cause. Millions dying horribly, and the survivors burned, blind, deaf, traumatized both physically and mentally. The complete collapse of any and all institutions and supply chains. No time to heal or feed the millions who somehow survived, no possibility to organize anything beyond small platoons of soldiers. Nuclear plants spewing radioactive waste, like fifty open Chernobyls. With no help forthcoming for years, even decades. And in the long term, who would bring and raise children into this world, if they are even born?

I actually have my doubts if agriculture would be possible at all in the Northern Hemisphere, even assuming survivors get organized enough to plant something. A nuclear war, especially with the arsenals of the 1980s, wouldn't mean towns surviving and making new quirky city states with cute little flags. It would be quite probably the complete extinction of not only civilization, but of the human race, in the Northern Hemisphere.

[arogustus]

Splatband Analysis - Chirpy Chips

(Disclaimer: This analysis is based on what I get out of looking into the character descriptions we have of the splatband characters. If you disagree with what I say, that is fine, we are all beheld to our opinions. Just don't be a jerk about it.)

Splatband Analysis - Chirpy Chips

It’s the autism and ADHD squad! The chiptune chippers, Marie’s and Nintendo’s favorite band and the only one to survive Nine years together without drama (bar that one time), it’s the Chirpy Chips! Love these dudes.

Now, before we go into this, let’s address the Harmony in the room. Specifically that she has a room, in-game, where she exists in the polygonal flesh to interact with as a shopkeeper. Her autistic swag made her popular enough to be the first Splatband character to show up in the games, which means we actually know her and how she behaves. So, I’m gonna leave her for last and go about her like this: First, I’ll look into what we used to know before Splatoon 3 about her, and then we’ll compare that to her appearance in-game to see if it matches up. See if she was done right by the game. Now let’s meet these chips!

The Band

The Chirpy Chips debuted after Squid Squad all the way back in Splatoon 1, nine years ago (God). Dominating the charts thanks to their chiptune rock style, made with the help of multiple Nintendo machines (Gamers), this band has managed to outlast Squid Squad without disbanding all the way to Splatoon 3!.. Ok, actually that’s not true. According to a Famitsu Interview for Splatoon 2, the Chirpy Chips actually disbanded ever so briefly! No word as to why, but they reformed shortly after and wrote and performed Blitz It during the high of joining back. After that they’ve stuck together ever since, only really going on break because Harmony started working at Hotlantis. 

Don’t site that NoA post for Chirpy Chips Splat 3 that said there was drama by the way. The band was just on break, they are fine and NoA is just trying to stir up fake drama. It’s just like real life!

All of these guys are autistic. Like, that’s not a theory, but a fact. None of their descriptions make them sound neurotypical, that’s for sure. The band just seems to vibe perfectly with each other despite some of their issues, and they all go at their own pace. Turns out the secret to surviving in the music industry all along was to make neurodivergent friends. 

One of their performance tricks that they do is to glow in sync during songs. It’s a super cool visual to imagine, though probably done through artificial means, at least for Orion and Sid. As far as I know, there aren’t any bioluminescent crabs or flapjack octopi. Anemone and squid on the other hand do have glowing members, but it doesn’t confirm if they do it naturally or are using artificial means too. Either way these guys are a colorful bunch. And also none of them know how to dance, emphasizing further that these four are all dorks.

Noiji

Noiji is the hyperactive guitarist of the band, a stark contrast to the significantly less energetic rest of the band. He’s described as uncontrollable and bright, with a sunny disposition and an irresistible urge to run up and down slopes. He sounds overwhelming, and maybe impulsive if that slope running thing can be applied to other actions, but somehow he manages to get along well with the others. What is his secret? Also to keep with the neurodivergenceness, he has a special interest for vending machines. He would have loved them in Side Order, that’s for sure. Honestly I love vending machines too, they’re really cool, but just too expensive for someone of my income level (for now, anyway).

He used to be a part of a punk band called BariBari before he joined the Chirpy Chips.Surprising considering his colorfulness, but he seems to either formerly be, or still is, a punk. No word why he left the band though or what happened to it, but during that point he met and befriended Orion and formed the Chirpy Chips with them. They’re described to be on good terms with each other, which makes sense since, again, they knew each other before the rest joined up. 

Orion

The band's bassist and composer, a shy flapjack octopus. Yeah, despite being an octopus, they’re not an octoling, likely because of the fact the flapjack doesn’t naturally produce ink. They must be classified as something different to the inkfish, but what that is is something I don’t know. They’re an introvert, they don’t enjoy standing out or performing in front of crowds, and the compositions they upload independent of the band are done quietly. Makes one wonder how exactly someone like them made friends with Noiji. They’re an intellectual, geeky type, with a taste for outdated and strange subjects, as well as a preference for chiptune that they ensure the bands music keeps to. 

Surprising us all, Orion also got actual dialogue of sorts in the Splatoon 3 Chill Season 2023 update! Specifically in the form of Harmony reading a letter written by them. As Harmony herself describes, they talk the way they play the bass, EXTRA. Mostly in the form of excited statements and jokes about the band's lack of dancing ability. Kind of a stark difference from what we know of them, either because they’re doing this via text without having to face anyone, or because they’ve become more outgoing over the years. Either way an honor. Also canon they/them! Good for they.

Sid

The band's drummer, and the eldest among them. They’ve been drumming for a while, having performed for several other bands before joining the Chips, and they have a strong reputation in the community because of it. It seems that because of this, they’ve taken something of a silent mentor role to the others, supporting them in the background without ever taking the lead. Sort of a big brother style relationship going on. 

They’re described as easygoing, but with a hidden temper that only ever surfaces once a year, where they become way crabbier. To me it says that they don’t really express their frustrations often, just letting them simmer before they snap and vent it out. And even then they don’t draw a lot of attention that way. 

Harmony (and fish)

The anemone of the hour, the band’s vocalist and visual designer. As said above, I’ll first go over the info we knew of her before her appearance in Splatoon 3, and then compare it to what we’ve learned now to see if it was faithful to her character. 

She’s described as relaxed and going at her own pace, but to the point of being unmotivated. She’s frequently late for practice, and considering the state of her fish, who is “dying” of neglect (quote marks there cause the little guy is still alive somehow), it sounds a lot like executive dysfunction. I would know, I’m like her sometimes. Her singing voice is mentioned to also have been pretty flat and listless, but it seems years of performance has made it change to a much livelier tone in the intervening two years. She talks loosely and moves peculiarly, something the fans secretly enjoy. Why secretly? Is there a stigma against it? Her listless singing is mentioned to be a hot topic, so it might be the case.

We see in the bands’ album art for Splatoon 2 that she’s the one who mixes the chiptune music on nintendo consoles. Easy to say that she’s the pre-requisite in-universe Nintendo fan for this game. There’s one in pretty much every franchise. Skipping to “3” a bit, we can also assume she’s the one who edited the trailer, which shows off a lot of fun visuals and jokes, as well as her just goofing off like the dork that she is. For how reserved she comes off, she’s got an eccentric, goofy side hidden under there.

But now we’ve actually met her as Hotlantis’ shopkeeper! She’s a fan of the place, so despite the threat of having to work retail, she’s staying in the area in the actual manager’s place while he’s gone. She’s a fan of the store and all its useless knick knacks. As for herself as a person, it’s safe to say it all matches what we used to know of her. She’s pretty self-paced and blunt, commenting on your achievements out loud no matter how rude it sounds. She admits to it too if she beats you at tableturf, she doesn’t really know how else to talk. Her lack of motivation shows up anytime she needs to recite something Barry told her to do. She just plain doesn’t want to do any of it. She still does the work she’s willingly doing, she’s just going at her own pace. 

The fish is a fish, no telling what is up with them. Though according to some artbook information in “3” (correct me if I’m wrong), the reason they’re so sick is actually because Harmony’s hair isn’t protecting it very well. They’re still sticking around anyway, granted we’re not sure how clownfish do without an anemone, but it still seems like they’re staying of their own volition.

—

Harmony’s, and later Dedf1shes inclusion, gives us all hope we can see more of our favorite obscure characters in the games themselves. And looking at Harmony, we don’t have to worry too much about them being out of character, since she’s pretty accurate to the info we know.

I love these weird goobers. They should continue showing up. But now we are in the finale. Ω-3 is all that’s left now. See ya next time!

[hlficlibrary]

hello, do you know a few fics that you would say are absolutely must reads?

Hi, anon! Everyone's favorites are different based on preferences, so this list would likely be different if I knew what your own preferences were. However, here are five fics that really blew me away when I read them:

💜 Love After the End of the World by @mercurial-madhouse (E, 168k)

Society shattered when all electricity suddenly cut off across the globe, plunging the world into darkness. Now, Prometheus Industries is the sole remaining supply of power, a saving grace to those who survived Lights Out. As fugitives in no-man’s land struggling to break into Prometheus HQ, death lurks around every corner for Louis and Zayn. Things get complicated when a routine recon falls apart and Louis collides with Harry and his mates Niall and Liam, survivors with their own agenda.

When staying alive is already a constant battle, the deadliest weakness is to be in love. For Harry and Louis, finding each other sits on top of the endless list of What Else Could Go Wrong.

💜 This Multiplicity of Powers by @helloamhere (E, 149k)

Maybe in another universe he isn’t different. Maybe he hadn’t been given an impossible choice. Maybe he wouldn’t have lost everything and broken everything and then fallen impossibly, irrevocably in love with the first next thing that was kind. Maybe in that universe he doesn’t feel like he’s never breathing, always pretending, teaching the kids even though they all have to learn alone, trying hard not to read the headlines, and so afraid, every day, that he won’t be a good enough teammate to the superhero he can’t live without. He knows that love isn’t supposed to feel this way, slid secret under your skin like a surgical razor, an invisible war held close over the tender vein that keeps you alive. On the other hand, Louis wonders, had he ever known how to do it any other way?

Maybe there’s a universe where he doesn’t have to keep all his secrets on the inside.

But this isn’t that universe. //an X-Men AU.

💜 Black with Autumn Rain by whimsicule (T, 93k)

“Thank you,” Geoff says, taking a sip of his tea. “What did you tell him?”

Louis has a sip as well, lets the tea burn down his throat too quickly, too hot, and he feels it all the way down to his stomach. “The truth. Essentially,” he replies after a moment, licking his lips, relishing the slightly bitter taste of the brew that’s never quite strong enough for Louis’ liking. At least it’s not decaf. “That my dog scented it. That I didn’t touch the body. That I came here first thing.”

Geoff nods pensively. “Did he believe you?”

“Probably not. There’s only so many people who can drown on dry land before it gets fishy.”

or: Harry is a journalist, Louis has lots of secrets and the moors aren't exactly the ideal place to rekindle a lost romance.

💜 The Second Hand Unwinds by @kingsofeverything (E, 51k)

Louis Tomlinson is one of the first members of NASA's top secret Chrono Exploration Program. When things go wrong and he's sent further back in time than planned, he has no other option than to show up on his ex-boyfriend's doorstep.

💜 That's What I'm Here For by @taggiecb (E, 43k)

Louis Tomlinson is a dairy farmer on a tiny farm in eastern Canada. His wife of nearly thirty years has left him and his children are all grown up and out of the house. Louis needs help running his business but has no idea where to even start looking. Luckily for him his children know just the man for the job.

[pureasthedrivensn0w]

Forever is the Sweetest Con // Part 1

omgomgomg this is my first time ever posting to tumblr.com and i am nervoussss. i’ve been a lurker for years (literally like since i was 12) and i’ve always wanted to share my writing but i’ve been too scared!!! but i decided to say fuck it and post some of my stuff. i’m obsessed w the hunger games, so that’s what this first post is based on! it’s totally self indulgent, but it’s probably going to turn into a series, so suggestions and feedback is super welcome and appreciated! i prob wont get any readers but that’s ok i just want to get my work out there and continue this hobby! anyway if you’re reading this i love you!!!

TW: Death, slight descriptions of gore, sadness

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆ .　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

The capitol says the dark days are behind us now. We have entered a new era, an era of peace. Any trace of an uprising was squandered. Any small act of defiance, intentional or not, is met with cruel and unusual punishment. We are lucky the capitol hasn’t done more to punish us, given the harm we did. The world could have ended. We should be grateful.

Anyone who steps foot in any of the districts will see that that is not true. Mention peace to a citizen of district eleven and he will laugh in your face. Talk about gratitude to a district eight worker and she will avoid you at all costs. In the districts, there is no such thing as gratitude, peace, tranquility, happiness. There is only survival.

When you think of survival to it’s core, the barren bones, the tired eyes, the heavy limbs, you are picturing the citizens of district twelve. The twelfth district in Panem specialized in coal mining, which is not only an incredibly dangerous industry, but incredibly taxing as well. The men go to the mines from 6 in the morning to 7 at night. Monday through friday. No breaks, no exceptions, the only time you are excused is if you are actively dying.

Roslyn Sage grew up in this environment. But she also grew up in a different world. The world of the covey. She looks back at her early days with fondness, remembering the times she would hold hands with her older sister and cousin and harmonize to the songs their elders taught them. Or braiding grass baskets with her mother. Or sitting on her fathers shoulders while they traveled from district to district.

“Papa, I’m hungry.” She remembers saying, playing with his long hair as he walked with the rest of the band. They didn’t know where they were going, they never did, and they liked it that way. “I know, sweet thing.” he said softly, keeping his eyes trained on the stretch of land in front of them. The covey never looks back, that’s what her papa said.

They were nearing four days of travel. They had just left district 8, spending two months there. They had a few injured, with the war going on all around them. They needed time to reciprocate, recharge. But they were always safest in the trees. That’s what papa said. So they left. Her uncle still needed a walking stick, and her grandfather couldn’t hear out of his left ear, but they needed to leave.

Roslyn Sage didn’t understand the complete reasoning. Her papa said it wasn’t safe, and that was all. They needed to get somewhere where they could sing. And sing they did. As they walked, she could hear her older sister sing one of the band’s favorite songs to pass the time. “Well there’s a dark and a troubled side of life,” Lucy Gray sang, as she held hands with four year old Maude Ivory, “There’s a bright and a sunny side too.”

Roslyn Sage grinned as her papa started to sing along, and then mama. Her uncle joined, then nana. “Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side. Keep on the sunny side of life! It will help us every day, it will brighten all the way if we keep on the sunny-“

Papa stopped so suddenly that Roslyn Sage swore she could’ve fallen off his shoulders. He reached forward and grabbed Lucy Gray’s arm, a silent way to get her to stop singing. “Papa, why’d we-“ “Quiet.” Papa whispered back harshly, as all the grownups looked ahead. When Roslyn Sage finally looked up to see what they were staring at, she felt her heart sink into her stomach. Even at seven years old, she knew this wasn’t good.

Peacekeepers. Sure- just a group of five, not a whole team, but enough. Big, strong, grown men who could take them easily. Everyone in the group knew this. Papa’s hand tightened around Lucy Gray’s arm and mama quickly scooped up Maude Ivory. “Wasn’t expecting to see anyone out here.” One peacekeeper said, a small frown on his face. He couldn’t have been older than 18. In fact- they all looked that young. One stepped forward, deciding to take the lead in the situation. “You’re past boundaries.” He said, his hand resting on the gun in his holster. “That’s against the law now.”

“We don’t want any trouble.” Papa said, his back straight even though Roslyn Sage could feel his heart pounding from here. “We’re traveling folk- we must’ve been away when that law was passed.” But they weren’t, she knew they weren’t. She had been half-asleep one day, cuddled in between Maude Ivory and Lucy Gray, when she heard the grown ups whispering about it. But she knew better than to say that. “Lead us to the nearest district and then-“

A twig snapped and the entire group looked up to see uncle Sam Flint running as fast as he could. He was only 14, he was foolish. Papa almost ran for it, screaming his youngest brothers name, but it was too late. The youngest peacekeeper had already gotten his gun, aimed, and shot. Sam Flint hit the floor in an instant. Even from here, Roslyn Sage could see the blood pouring out of his head.

“Now don’t take that-“ Papa was right back in defense mode, pulling Lucy Gray behind him. They already lost one, they couldn’t lose another. The peacekeeper who had shot Sam Flint looked shaken up but the tragedy only made the one in charge more upset. He held up his gun, and when he did, so did the rest. All five peacekeepers had their fully loaded rifles aimed at the group. “One step and you’re-“ her aunt let out a broken sob, holding her baby to her chest.

It all happened so fast. If you were to ask the covey children about what really happened that day, you wouldn’t get anywhere near a real answer. All Roslyn Sage could really remember was her aunts face as the bullet hit her chest, how her papa tried to catch the baby, mama’s scream as she reached for Lucy Gray before being dragged away, papa’s eyes as he laid in her lap, holding her hand until his last breath.

Lucy Gray tells her that the peacekeepers weren’t willing to kill the children. In a twisted way, they thought they were victims of the covey and not the captiol. After papa was gone, the one who killed Sam Flint picked her up. She was kicking and screaming, too young to comprehend that her father was gone regardless of if she was next to him or not. The punched his back, kicked his stomach, even tried to bite. The boy carrying her had tears streaming down his cheeks. Roslyn had never had any desire to hurt someone in her life, until now.

[redraspberryleaf]

You seem to know a thing or two about wool (and definitely more than I do :D )

Is it possible to use wool in normal fabrics like we use cotton today, or are those too fine to work well with wool?

Because if I could replace some of my cotton T-shirts with ones that have similar properties but are made from wool, that'd be awesome!

(also feel free to post a long ass diatribe about what wool can be used for and what not, I love that shit)

Okay so I'm by no means an expert I just have adhd and knit but the answer to your question is yes but there is a catch.

So wool has finally been having the resurgence it deserves in athletic and technical wear because it already does everything they've been trying to engineer other fabrics to do and poured a ton of money into trying to achieve with synthetics. Wool can keep you cool and keep you warm, it helps regulate temperature and humidity, some sheep produce wool that will absorb moisture off of your body into the fibre itself to wick and achieve evaporative cooling at once while some breeds like Icelandic sheep are entirely waterproof. Wool is amazing! Wool is also stretchy and antibacterial to a degree and just does really well with sweat and body odor in general so it just is a natural fit for athletics and outdoorsmanship.

Because of all this a lot of brands have started to produce wool base layers, tees, and sportswear. Smartwool is an example of a company that's gone all in on wool, but a lot of other companies have small lines of wool garments or one offs.

The problem with most of what is on the market right now is that companies want to make it as easily digestible for consumers as possible. They expect that people aren't going to shell out for the fancy wool tee shirts if the experience isn't the exact same as a cotton tee but slightly elevated. Even if caring for a garment isn't necessarily harder but is just different, generally people won't go for it. Because of this there are two issues I have with how a lot of these are produced.

1. Superwash

Most of these are going to be made with superwash yarns. The websites aren't very clear in listing that but they don't really have to be and most people don't really care about that. Unless you're a fibre artist of some sort you probably don't know or care about what that means so why would they list it?

What they do say is that their garments are machine washable and that you should lay flat to dry. That means that even though these products are listed as 100% wool there is some sort of treatment or coating to seal the scales on the wool and make it so they can survive agitation in the wash and regular detergents.

While I'm not totally against superwash in all contexts and know it has a time and a place for sure I think it's important to recognize that a lot of the properties of wool that we love are achieved BECAUSE of the scales on the wool and when you start messing with those your wool isn't going to perform as well across categories. If you're okay with superwash, then go for it. Just know that your wool isn't going to wool as hard as it could wool.

2. Merino

So merino has somehow become shorthand in recent years for luxurious soft yarn. This isn't totally wrong but it isn't totally right. Merino is probably the most popular bread of wool sheep on the planet. It's heavily used because while the fibre is still relatively cheap it is also very fine and flexible which means it's softer, won't prickle the skin, and can be spun into smaller threads. I think they're some thing like a third of the diameter of a human hair??

While all this is great, it means most of these sheep are coming from industrial farms. If animal welfare is your jam (I hope it's everyone's jam to some degree at least) this is where you're going to start worry about farming practices. Industrial scale farms, even in countries with a lot of protective laws, and where you will have sheep with massive scarring as a means to prevent infection, rough handling, and rougher shearing practices. Now I grew up in a farming area, so I know a lot of things that may seem barbaric actually make a lot of sense in practice, and my roomies family have sheep and have string opinions on which of these practices are important to keep around... but I'm not going to get into that knitty gritty (hehe knitting, get it??).

Outside of animal welfare, when you get into these types of farms shitty shearing and frequent shearing are actually a big issue for wool quality. You see, if you aren't doing a nice smooth shear in one go or are shearing the sheep frequently, you start getting a lot of fibres with shorter than typical staplelengths. While this can mean that some of these fibres are softer because they aren't spending as long being exposed to the elements and sun, it also means that the yarns that are spun up from them will be weaker and more prone to breakage.

Honestly I like merino just fine but it really is the clandestine of the yarns. It does the job and all but it's deeply overhyped by good marketing and has just become the go to because people who generally know textiles but aren't total wool nerds know it will do the job and know it will be recognizable to the consumer as a good material. There are just so many other breeds that produce fibre better suited to all kinds of specific jobs that get passed over for merino and so now passionate hobby farmers and yarn nerds are the only ones keeping all these other breeds alive.

So yea, your tee-shirt will probably still be a great and durable shirt, but the quality won't be exactly what you were dreaming of when you first heard about all the amazing things about wool.

So Yes!!! You absolutely can get wool tee shirts and they will be pretty rad, however they won't be the perfect dream shirt that you imagine when you hear a yarn nerd talk about all of the best properties of wool. I have had wool base layers in the past, and I'm planning on buying a set and a tee that will fit my body these days since I've long grown out of my old ones. Will it be perfect and the most ethical thing? No. Will it be better than something synthetic or a lot of plant based options? I personally think so, but that's for you to decide for yourself:).

[masked-rat]

Space Marine Chapter: The Impalers

Posting this here because I would kind of like it to survive for posterity, and the odds of me coming back to 40k are pretty low.

Going to skip the Index Astartes entry because, let's face it, they're actually Night Lords.

They are *not* "lost in the Warp" or something like that. They're literal heretics who fought against the Imperium in the Heresy. And at some point, they realized that it's hard to enjoy the freedom of being Chaotic if you don't have the logistics. And while Chaos is good for freedom... it really sucks for logistics.

So, they take some old battle barges that can still pass for loyalist, come up with a cock- and- bull story about being a Raven Guard successor chapter that really had gotten lost in the warp, made a big show of dropping off a bunch of daemon weapons and warp artifacts to buy off the Inquisition, "return to their homeworld" which is now an industrial world (as in, 20th century tech, not like a forge world), the whole shebang.

Everybody buys it. And sure, they have to fight for the False Emperor every now and then, but on the other hand, the False Emperor's logistics are worth it. The Mechanicus doesn't even question when they have the industrial world's manufactories start building equipment to *their* specifications. And the gene- seed? Perfectly clean, because Night Lords geneseed is perfectly clean.

So by the time Guilliman returns, they've gone from about a hundred Marines to five and a half companies. Plus dreadnoughts, all that. Nobody cares that they're doing Night Lords shit to the planets they attack, because it's done in the name of the (False) Emperor.

Everything goes swimmingly until the Chapter Master gets summoned to meet Guilliman and receive the chapter's allotment of Primaris.

Guilliman takes one look at him, chokeslams him to the floor, and demands to know why a traitor like him should be let live.

"All hail the False Emperor."

Guilliman listens to his elevator pitch, sighs, and then tells him that he's going to be keeping a eye on that chapter, and sending him back with a different contingent of Primaris.

---

Org- wise, they still have ten standard companies. But that's where the similarity ends. The first squad of each company is terminators and veterans, and the tenth is scouts. And each company's marines are trained as more than tactical- one through four are trained in jump packs, five thru seven in bikes, eight in speeders, and nine and ten as devastators. The training emphasis is on mentorships between the veterans and regular marines, and the regular marines and scouts.

When the Primaris arrive, up to two squads are assigned to each battle company, and they get worked into the mentorships. (Edit: But, about 100 of the "old guard" are *never* up for Crossing the Rubicon. They're the ones who were the original hundred- ish Night Lords.) And those Primaris- of unspecified geneseed- are let in on the secret.

By the end of M41, the first through third, fifth and sixth, and ninth companies are combat- ready. The eighth is at half strength. It's rumored the seventh won't be combat ready until the Imperium is willing to accept jetbikes again.

They really do have a couple of Mk.14 jetbikes, but they're not used because it'd be too much of a lift for even gullible Imperials.

---

Genetic- wise, they're hard to distinguish from Raven Guard other than a mutation to the neuroglottis. Impalers have multiple pheromone- sensitive pits in their tongues, which are attuned to the stress hormones related to fear. So they can taste human fear.

They're also cannibals. They can and will eat humans, under the leadership of their chaplains and apothecaries. They try to play it off as a religious observance, but... I mean, they're really Night Lords so they probably just like doing it.

---

Armor, worth noting they use a weird pattern of armor based on reverse- engineering some Mk.2 and Mk.3 armors they had lying around. They refer to their armor as Mk.2a.

---

I think that's it. Hope someone likes this. It's probably as close as they'll ever get to seeing the tabletop. At this point, if I got back into 40k, I'd probably play Eldar.

[acaciapines]

I just had a thought: do you think that in a world where daemons are out & about as an everyday fact of life, societies would veer more towards largely pedestrian, just because a lot of settled daemons might not be able to fit into vehicles?

okay so i've been thinking about this nonstop since you sent it lol and i am. going to go on a very long answer. so um apologizes in advance??? i'm sure i'll answer the question somewhere. the short answer is do whatever you want forever, and likely in a real-world scenario it would be a sort of case-by-case basis on the local cultural values and historical patterns of settling.

my gut answer is "no," actually, for a few different reasons. i have a few different ways of writing worlds with daemons based on what i want to say with the story, but most of them are sort of based on interrogating the text of his dark materials because it presents a very interesting and incredibly unsatisfying picture of daemons, at least to me. and so because of that, i think a core concept is like, okay, what DO people settle as??

because, like, that's what this question is based on--this idea of, what do people settle as? i think probably early human societies would veer pedestrian, but i also think early human societies wouldnt actually settle young, or maybe even at all. bc of how hard survival is back then, the ability to change form is like, a premium. its sort of a privilege for a daemon to settle as a sparrow, and not, like, need to be a wolf sometimes to defend the town's sheep, or a horse to haul up the materials for building. i think actual animals would still be used for these tasks, but like, if you can turn into a horse, sometimes its easier to just do it yourself, rather than having to build trust with an animal, you know?

but blah blah blah, things keep developing. people want to go further, and keep pushing further. so, we are still going to get ships, because sea travel is still really hard even if half of you can turn into an orca whale. and i think as societies develop so too do like, humans put meanings onto the animals around them, and now settling SAYS something about a person, and i feel like you can come up with all sort of stigmas. like, if you settle as a working animal (think horses, oxen, etc) you're seen as inherently lower class than someone who settles as a lion. and now its a bit easier to keep the predators away, so people dont need to hold out on settling for so long, and now theres MEANING behind settling. and this means you can do it wrong.

so, like, what i'm getting as here is i think most people would end up settling pretty small anyways. like, big dog-sized being the larger end of things. if you look at hdm there's already a mammal bias, if you look at daemonfic as a whole there's a canine and feline bias, and i think this would hold true in a real world situations, too. settled form is (as i write it) influenced very much by what a kid is exposed to growing up--as time goes on the idea is you settle younger, and younger, and you settle as the RIGHT sort of animal, the sorts that are good and noble and say something good. you dont settle as, like, a sea cucumber. and an elephant, well--thats so BIG! you really like to take up space, dont you? how...interesting.

and so as things industrialize i think trains, cars, planes all still come to be. i think the expectation is you settle smaller to make up for it. lowkey i think something like the americans with disabilities act is passed for people with larger daemons, but i think the same sort of stuff happens--like, yeah, this school is accessible for people with bison-daemons! you have to call ahead so somebody can set up the fright elevator for you, and you can't go out in the main halls, and like, maybe it follows the law technically, but. like. its not great.

um. basically i think a world with daemons (if we base it off of HDM, which i do more often than not these days) has a lot of biases and discrimination regarding settled form that would lead to places not really being any better than they are today. because the assumption is you settle small. and if you dont settle small, well thats a you problem, isnt it? its not for the "normal" people to fix.

BUT ALL THAT SAID i think a society that is more pedestrian is also perfectly plausible. i think its just down to what sort of story you want to tell. and right now the most recent daemon au i wrote is my owl house daemon au, wherein the way i built out the human world was entirely based on my issues with hdm, and the entire central conflict on the story is around the idea of settling, so...this.

uh, i hope that answers things! feel free to send in followups lol i have Many Thoughts About Daemons.

[jakethesequel]

I am increasingly frustrated with the failure of anti-civ/post-civ thought to properly engage with issues of disability.

I was looking for research on small scale DIY pharmaceuticals, particularly from an anti-civ lense. Instead, I got "some people are just meant to die earlier." I don't think there's anything ordained or righteous about a world where I die a slow death at 11 years old. We shouldn't just accept the death and pain of innocent people as inevitable and necessary, saying that it's fine for others to die while you live full able-bodied lives.

Anti-civ anarchists get frequently annoyed with being asked about medicine, as if it's a bother to have to consider it. I promise you, it's a lot more of a bother when answering the question is a matter of life and death. Often they brush it off, throwing out non-answers along a similar pattern:

"Civilization causes more diseases than it solves." It probably does. But the question of medicine isn't whether we keep civilization around, anti-civ anarchists should know full well collapse will happen whether or not people support civ or oppose it. The question is what do we do next?

"Anti-civ is a critique, not a program." Well maybe it fucking should be. What do you expect people to say after learning that industrial civ is going to collapse? Post about how doomed everything is? No, they want to know how to best prepare alternative ways of living! How to survive without civ! If you say civ is doomed but offer no alternative the only option for many is to keep investing in civ and hope the collapse is a problem for their grandchildren instead of themselves.

"There's stuff like horse urine based HRT and DIY pharmaceuticals, I'm sure you'll figure it out." This is arguably the most serious reply. It's also woefully underinformed and inconsiderate of the supply lines and infrastructure that would be involved, which is disappointing to see from a group that ought to be very aware of the ways the industrial model influences all production. Do you know how many horses you'd have to keep around to have a standard supply of estrogen? Is that feasible in the local environment? Do you know how many other chemicals are involved in the purification process? Do you know whether the synthesizing equipment can be produced on a non-industrial scale?

Do you even know how to make a hypodermic needle outside of a factory? A single needle?

I'm begging you all, be kinder to the people who you're informing of their own death sentence. It's not a triviality to want to live.

[spoonyglitteraunt]

I wanted to add this onto the previous post about being pro strikes and unions and pro being inconvenienced, but it might derail what is an important post. So I'm making a new one. All of that 100%. A strike means little without it causing an inconvenience and halting normal business. And people deserve fair pay for their work. No arguments there, full on with you. But I do want to make one side note based on some "takes" I've seen this week. And it's disability pride month, so fitting.

Minimum staffing (or whatever it is called in English) for certain things like say hospitals and care homes is important. You can't expect the sick, elderly, disabled, homeless, the vulnerable to no longer need treatment and help. Even when the strike is very important and warranted and will actually improve the overall quality of care in those places in the long run. They still need said care and treatment during. They can't turn their needs off to stand in solidarity, however much they'd like to. And apparently this is a hard concept to grasp for some people.

I would in fact suggest this practice might need to be expanded to more sectors. Because while a lot of people at least understand the previous case, they don't consider that those same needs apply to things outside of hospitals and direct medical care.

I am fully for being inconvenienced on things that we can go without. None of us need new media to survive. There is plenty of old stuff to go rewatch. So I'd be all for WGA and SAG and all the others just entirely shutting down the entertainment industry for however long it takes. But I have seen people in a panic about hearing about the UPS strike. Because for some getting certain supplies to assist with whatever disabilities or health issues they have is more than just being inconvenienced. For some it can even be life threatening.

Now I don't know enough about the US situation on packages to know if there are alternatives. But the fact there were people worried about this means there must be some issues. But it also reminded me of quarantine times. Where similar issues arose because of some things not being seen as vital enough to keep running. Both on medical supplies, assistive devices, but also something like libraries. Where a lot of people for example rely on their internet services, for a host of things those of us with steady internet access take for granted. Like paying bills. Again I'm all pro strikes and unions and being inconvenienced. But I also think we need to realise that there are needs people have that may not be instantly obvious to us when not having to deal with them. Which deserve to be taken seriously and considered when it comes to strikes. In more sectors than is currently happening. And, you know. Maybe if you see someone panicking about not getting their meds or assistive items on time, maybe don't call them a whiny baby and a class traitor. They probably would love to not need to worry about it and just support the strikers.

[centrally-unplanned]

From the most literal ratblr perspective, what do you think comes next for humanity after End of Evangelion? Does your average Joe take the deal and fade into nothingness, or is that more of a niche appeal? Is it an apocalyptic event rivalling/surpassing Second Impact that we never recover from? Is it gonna wreck the economy?

We are gonna ignore the manga where the aftereffects of Third Impact are depicted and its a total status quo reset complete with an amnesia'd global populace I assume? :)

Overall I think this depends a bit on your interpretation of End of Evangelion. For one, Shinji rejects Instrumentality, which while some view as a purely personal decision, I, well...it causes this:

Pretty sure this changes how Instrumentality functions, I don't know, sans gigantic god-mom Rei ruling over earth from her crucifix blood throne I don't think the whole "you exist in eternity connected to your loved ones via an LCL serotonin pump right into the brain" deal is still on the table.

Of course initially everyone did 'take' the instrumentality deal, not sure they had a huge amount of say in it:

(Fun fact, for these shots the background photography on the pane was slightly off kilter, you can see the diagonal black line of the pane in the lower left corner)

So at the end of the film the 'status quo' is everyone is a ghost, probably not happy but also not in pain (this we know for sure, 'since to choose life is to choose pain' is in the text), with the option to return to the earth...which ya know looks like this:

So I think two factors come into play here - Gains From Specialization & The Rawlsian Veil of Ignorance. Shinji & Asuka honestly look pretty fucked, the ocean's being stained red from LCL is probably bad for aquaculture, cities are flooded and destroyed, its probably going to be a real Robinsonade situation for the two of them. To restore any semblance of a functioning civilization, they not only need people to come back but enough people, a minimum threshold of mechanics, farmers, etc. And they all need to come back around the same time, so they don't die out waiting for the rest.

So the mechanics of ghost-dom reign pretty supreme here. I think, status-quo bias ruling, the median human, already being rendered a ghost, is not choosing to come back to this. They would choose their comfortable modern civilization, but I am skeptical they would choose to wander the red-hued deserts of the world God abandoned until they starve to death.

But do they know that? Can they observe the world as it passes? When can they choose to return? If they stay ghosts does their humanity wither over time? Most importantly, *can they observe other people's decisions*? If everyone is placed behind a veil when making the decision, not knowing either the state of the world or the decisions of other people - most of them would *choose a world when most humans come back to life*. That is their own status quo bias behind the veil, thinking in full Hansonian Far Mode, to return to the world they knew where humanity can flourish. Certainly enough would to get at least one functional civilization off the ground and expanding.

But if everyone is making an individual decision, based on actively observing the world around them...you know I think its still possible. I think a minority of people would choose to return, particularly in the Eva world, where a huge amount of society got built around preparing to fight the angels and defend against the apocalypse. Soldiers, politicians, engineers in the defense industry, etc, I think a cadre of at least 1% of humanity could decide to plunge into the hellscape. If the ghosts can *keep* observing, and don't lose their humanity over time, that can cascade as those survivors build something from the rubble. If they can't, if its an "act now or ghost forever" kind of deal, then while that minority cadre might survive, its a bit more of a dice roll, based on where they spawn and the extant food supply and infrastructure conditions. Civilization will take way way longer to recover.

So yeah its a probability tree based on unknown starting conditions;

IF [Rawlsian Veil (RV) = True], THEN [Humanity Flourish Odds (HFO) = High]

IF [RV = False] & [Ghost-Human Decision Window (GHDW) = Long], THEN [HFO = Medium-High]

IF [RV = False] & [GHDW = Short], THEN [HFO = Low]

Hope SEELE thought through the decision tree on this one in their "Shinji's refuses to fuck his cloned mom" crisis simulation they surely ran as part of their strategic planning!

[tetsunabouquet]

Do you think Shaman King has a “morality problem”?

That's a difficult question. For one, at least the original series, was a mixed bag. You've probably read my various posts already about how the series does have a problem with victim blaming kids and the adults getting away easy, but that's just the bad part of the original series. Because there are also good lessons to be drawn from it, like the subject of love, the philosophy and some of the religious aspects. Like Horohoro's stance on hunting and killing animals for personal use, is something I agree with. If we make sure every part of the animal was used, we didn't make it suffer to enjoy its pain and in my personal case, it's also an older animal that has already lived its life and had children to ensure the species survived, then to me it's okay. As much as some people like to deny it, humans are biologically omnivores, there are nutritions that people need in meat which is why most vegans suffer from vitamine deficiencies- a statistic they either deny or will say, "I can take supplements for it". As much as people like to deny it, plants actually do have feelings. Science has proven that plants have a pain reaction and they can keep track of time (at least the Venus Fly Trap does). Meaning going ham on plant-based products actually increases their suffering. As much as people like to deny it, more chemical alternatives to stuff like clothing materials like nylon, are way worse for the climate then using biological material. From the excess waste in clothing production areas to the poisoning of waters through the chemicals used, this is undoubtedly not a good thing either. This is where I really like to point to Yoh's philosophy which seems to stem a lot from zen buddhism (that ironically was inspired by Taoism), 'that what is good for one person, may not be good for the other'. Because when it comes to the killing animal stance, one person might have food digestion issues that makes meat a little more dangerous, to these a more vegan diet with a bit of cheating would be the better lifestyle, but to another person physical needs' another diet would be better. With the clothing industry, one can pick their own poison because every industry has blood on their hands- its just on the person themselves to pick which blood they mind the least. In this, I really like the way Shaman King deals with moral issues because there isn't an absolute truth that is right for everyone. Except for love (at least the healthy kind).

[xexiar]

Sometimes whenever I see MHA (manga and anime) I just can’t help feel certain things. At that, notice a lot of other things.

At face value a lot of things can easily going over someone’s head. Like at face value Deku and Bakugo have reasonably good connections with their respective parents. But there are things I’ve noticed and probably looking at it differently because of my lived experience.

Bakugo has the “picture perfect” life. Where Deku has the “nobody needs to know” life.

For Bakugo, he has both his parents. He has a house. Looks well cared for. And even his home seems to have a personal touch. One would then question why he’s behavior seems so aggressive and unhappy. Besides hero society, there’s also taking into account his parents careers.

I’ve worked with people in the fashion industry. And graphics. Like, the job can be extremely demanding and stressful. Especially when clients are aren’t reasonable. Deadlines. And not to mention last night changes.

In any industry you’re put under a lot of pressure. Sometimes you don’t even go home until extremely late or worse, the very next day.

Who’s to say Bakugo parents are actually home during reasonable times. Who’s to say how his parents reacts to stress and what their coping skills are. Based solely on the few interactions with his mom, they both share similar coping skills. They are outward and aggressive. The only way they’re able to communicate.

Like any coping skill, it’s learned. What if the only way Katsuki is seen and gets his needs met is because he has to be loud, or he’ll be completely ignored. And if we’re drawing parallels that Deku is like Bakugo’s dad, then he also suffers with shutting down under stress.

So to grow up in home where the only way to survive is be loud or be forgotten is a very difficult situation to be in. Then on top of the fact how Katsuki is very on top of his grades, sleeps at an early time, values a clean record. It can easily point out that based on family life he’s pressured to be perfect to not be an added burden to his parents.

Children learn from a young age what is expected of them on how their parents go about treating them. I’m aware of this because of my own upbringing. A lot of times it’s not what is said that is the source of my issues, but how it’s presented. Which makes sense why Katsuki and Izuku struggle with communication.

When it comes to Izuku, even his relationship with his mother doesn’t seem to be a stable one. Besides the father not being there, that is a whole different can of worms. But let’s focus on the mom for a moment.

Even though Deku is relatively quiet, he struggles with self worth. We get multiple key points where this is driven home on. From being bullied at a young age, but also how his mother responds to his emotions.

Instead of trying to comfort her son, Deku’s mom drives home the fact he’s useless. Especially that’s how his young mind took it. Then to learn that Deku’s mom developed an eating disorder because of the stress over her son, that also has a huge negative impact on Izuku.

He’s constantly living in a reminder that he’s a burden. His own mother doesn’t believe in him. His own mother would rather eat away her emotions and neglect his emotions. Izuku isn’t able to escape the reality the one person who should be giving him unconditional love and support is rejecting him.

And so he takes the fact his own father isn’t the picture as another form of rejection. Then to have an outside person that he admires, slowly reject him. That’s 3 people, THREE FUCKING PEOPLE, he has in his life that he’s impacted by.

But because of his escapism into heroes, mainly All Might, is the only thing keeping him grounded from giving up. Even when Katsuki verbally rejects Izuku, he doesn’t fully abandons him. Before and after the whole quirk thing Katsuki still share moments as friends growing up.

Before Katsuki got his quirk his based line personality already demonstrated the kind of person he really is. Very outgoing and kind. So when he did get his quirk, Izuku watched as everyone else changed how they reacted to Kacchan. Before the quirk Kacchan was already amazing in Izuku’s eyes. The quirk was a bonus based on society.

And the only time Katsuki acted different was when he was with other people. Never alone. So it’s easy to assume that Izuku picked up this subtle difference.

The way Izuku presents himself, he latches onto any small piece of happiness he can. And when we see him again as a teen, we see witness him having outbursts and moments where he disassociates. Then we deal with a mother that goes from lack of interest to hovering.

The way Deku reacts to his own mother is frightening. Very disconnected, like she’s a foreign entity. Being touch looks absolutely painful for him. His home also gives off this empty expression.

Then when All Might comes to speak about the dorms, we witness how Izuku deals with his mother. From how he’s downright angry when she says no. Especially when Deku brings up that she said yes to him. So what does Deku do? He shuts down and isolates. Making it painfully obvious this isn’t the first time. This is a learned behavior.

Giving proof that he’s mom isn’t always reliable when it comes to what she says.

….

Might finish this thought later or do a full scale analysis.

[random-movie-ideas]

Batman Villain Movie Ideas, Part I: Poison Ivy

So, Batman doesn't have quite the adaptation problem that Superman has, with every other villain being thrown under the bus for the same two over and over again. However, there is still a bit of a discrepancy, so I'll focus there a bit. Batman's rogues can be divided up into three categories: crazies (Joker, Riddler), criminals (Catwoman, Penguin), and supers (Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze), with a little overlap. For the most part, the movies tend to heavily favor the crazies and criminals over the supers. This makes sense, seeing as Batman is a generally grounded hero without crazy superpowers, it makes sense to use the more grounded villains for a more cohesive contained narrative, but this does mean that the notable supers have suffered adaptation-wise, with Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze sharing the most infamously bad movie of the bunch, and others like Clayface and Man-Bat never appearing at all.

Pamela Isley AKA Poison Ivy is typically presented as a botanist and eco-terrorist driven by hatred at humans for deforestation and environmental devastation, using her knowledge of plants/often plant-based superpowers to attempt full-scale genocide multiple times. She also typically starts her story out being poisoned by a boss but surviving, and she is also known for her friendship-turned-romance with Harley Quinn, thus playing an important role in Quinn's semi-redemption story.

Origin Movie: Obviously, this one's the hardest, given her less-than-grounded abilities, but given that Bruce Wayne is a billionaire with a major company that has possibly contributed to environmental problems in its time, it might be a good way to focus in on the Bruce Wayne side of the Batman mythos, with Bruce having to face his company's responsibilities through her.

Sequel Movie: Like many we covered in the Superman movies, tackling a more out there villain in a sequel helps pacing better, as you can keep the first movie a bit more on the grounded level, then bring in someone like Poison Ivy in the sequel. There are a few characters that deal with hazardous chemicals, like Joker and Scarecrow, so following one of them up with Ivy would work thematically.

Finale Movie: I think if we wanted to use Ivy in a final villain role, we'd have to go for one of the various storylines where she nearly succeeds in overrunning Gotham with vegetation and killing everyone in it, like Arkham Knight or, I believe there was an episode of Harley Quinn where she did that.

Supporting Villain: Her dynamic with Harley Quinn will always be an engaging part of Poison Ivy's character, so possibly in a sequel to a movie featuring the Joker and Harley as villains, Ivy could come in as a new partner for Harley after Joker's defeat or death.

Here's my overall rankings of these:

Supporting Villain: Purely for the Harley/Ivy dynamic.

Sequel Movie: Probably the most natural way to do it.

First Movie: That focus on Wayne Industries could be an interesting angle.

Finale Movie: The full overtaking of Gotham is typically a good plot, but a bit difficult to build up to.

What do you think? Who should I cover next?

[softlyspun]

Costuming Research: Bramley Nubbins

Time to give some outfits to the last of the boys for @ginger-and-mint. Bramley Nubbins (I keep wanting to spell it Brambley, I assume because it sounds like brambles) is probably the most well-adjusted and best-dressed of the boys. Let's look at the reason why under the cut.

See, Bramley is from a large family of shepherds. Now, around the turn of the century, you did sometimes have the raw materials being processed somewhere other than the area where they were produced, but, practically speaking, it makes a lot more sense to have wool produced, washed, carded, spun, and woven/knit all in one area. Bramley, as far as I can tell, worked as a shepherd before he was summoned to be a di-mage, and his parents and siblings would likely have been in the same industry. I'm not sure how far industrialization has gotten in this world, but it seems likely that his mother and sisters are involved in spinning or weaving cloth on a professional scale.

We tend to think of wool as a winter fiber, but it's possible, with the right breed of sheep, and the right thickness of thread, to make lightweight, breathable woolen garments suitable for summer.

(Tangent time! Synthetic fibers robbed us of so many fantastic developments in natural fibers. Wool is a fantastic material! It drinks up dye like a dream! It'll keep you warm, even when wet! It's self-extinguishing! You can make entirely non-woven fabrics from it! If oil-based fibers hasn't taken over, I think we'd see a lot more cool variations in felted garments in the modern day.)

Back on topic. Annoyingly, a lot of daily-wear clothing doesn't survive to the modern day, so I'm frustratingly short on primary examples of farmer's shirts from the turn of the century. I picture Bramley wearing somewhat old-fashioned clothes for the period - not because they're actually old, but because they were made by his mother, and she's using the same mental shirt pattern that was fashionable when she was a girl, or made by his sisters, who learned to sew from his mother. Fashions may change slowly out in the countryside, but his clothes would absolutely be well-made and new, with any damage carefully (and possibly decoratively) mended (His character sheet describes him as "neat and well-groomed"). I would picture him wearing something similar to this 1850's shirt, and high-wasted pants, held up with suspenders.

Alternatively, he might wear something similar to this shirt from 1871. This is formal wear (the blog, witness2fashion, suggests that it's a wedding shirt), so it's fancier than he'd wear in the day-to-day, but it might be appropriate for the midwinter ball. Notice the pretty eyelet embroidery

The suspenders bring us to the fun part of his costume, though. See, while there's always something that needs doing on a farm, there's also quite a lot of downtime. Lambing and shearing season would be extremely busy, but otherwise, you have a lot of long hours of just making sure the sheep don't wander off. And downtime gives people time to be creative. Bored people doodle, and what is embroidery if not doodling with string?

Let's look at some extant examples.

This pair of suspenders came from an auction site, and are attributed to 1873. It's a little early for our time period, but just look at that embroidery! And the beautiful shade of red!

This pair is from the Victoria and Albert museum. If you're not in the mood to doodle your pattern free-hand, you can always follow a cross-stitch chart.

This one is also from the Victoria and Albert museum, and also from the 1850's. I just love the little blue flowers and the swirling, two-toned leaves!

So, while all the examples I threw out here were of suspenders, this kind of embroidery could go just as easily on cuffs and collars, to tack down facings, or to hide darning and mending.

Now, I'm not actually sure if Bramley would embroider himself. His poor eyesight might make it difficult (though certainly not impossible.) However, there are plenty of other people in his household who might take up a needle and doodle on his clothes for him as well.

In the winter, I can just about guarantee that he'd have intricately made home-knit sweaters to wear. Fiber arts are addictive, and if you have the time, you

To close off, I'm going to share a link to an absolute treasure trove of charted embroidery/crochet patterns from early 20th century newspapers. If you're at all into embroidery, crochet, or pixel art, it's worth a browse!

Next time, we'll take a look at some of the girls! Probably Malia Pikolt, who'll give us a chance to look at both practical and fashionable women's clothing!

[eventide-imp]

I know it's probably the depression talking but I have never felt more like a useless motherfucker than I do today. I never got to finish school except for the one trade I got (massage therapy), and I'm too disabled to do that. I don't really have a lot of other 'work skills'. I was supposed to go to school and bust my ass trying to get into the video game industry and we couldn't afford for me to actually try a bunch of things as a kid to see what else i would like and absolutely no one believed I'd have any chance as a musician. So i was either denied because we were poor or because 95% of the people in my life thought my interests were stupid. My mom is once again telling me I need to push myself to be uncomfortable in order to make money (like yeah okay you had to be a secretary at one point, but you are pushing 54 and keep asking me what you should do with your life because you never stopped to think about what you actually want to do with yourself and all your decisions about work was made based on survival).

Like. I know she genuinely thinks I just sit around all day playing games and feeling sorry for myself or whatever but I'm not avoiding a job like SECRETARY for shits and giggles. I actually can't always read. I'm so serious about that too. Sometimes I just stop understanding words on a screen or page. The screen is worse. It's not even a new issue, this has been a problem for me since high school. It's part of what makes it hard for me to learn languages. My mom has even acknowledged that I struggled with visual learning in high school but I guess since I'm an adult that was supposed to go away or something. I can't be a secretary if I can't fucking read intermittently during the day. I can't be a secretary if I can't read because it's fucking raining and my seizure threshold is in the toilet. I can't be a secretary if I get dates backwards because I have undiagnosed dyscalculia and it takes me four checks to type a number in and I still can get it wrong.

(And let's be real. If I pushed myself to "be uncomfortable", which she means injuring my disabled body further, I could just do sex work. If I was really going for discomfort. And at this point the comfort is coming up because it's approaching SPITE, and she would be fucking mortified)

Also I'm so tired of the insincere "How can I support you". Remind me of this task please. I am not asking you to do the task. I am not asking you to take charge of the task or anything else in my life. Literally just send me a text in the morning. Don't forget to do The Task today. That's all I'm asking for. "No, set an alarm in your phone." I've tried that. It DOESN'T WORK. It has never worked. It doesn't fucking work. But keep banging my head against a wall anyway. "It does work you just want to manipulate me into doing it." I literally just want you to send me a goddamn text. This is why I don't ask you for shit. Everything is a trap. It always comes back to bite me.

[daffodilhorizon]

Vegans are asked all the time what we would do a desert island with only a pig, because it’s acceptable to test the logic of our beliefs, even though killing is a lot more extreme than not harming. But anyway, How about i pose an even more likely possible future than someone gets crash landed on a desert island by themselves and a pig and somehow survives. (Which btw i would willingly die rather than harm human or animal :) GUess i’m just built different :) I’d just try to eat with the pig was eating and probably die of dehydration and diarrhea on day 2. That’s fine. Humans are a communal species, very few of us would survive on our own in extreme conditions anyway)

Here we go, since it’s okay to ask absurd questions to vegans, why not to the people actually paying money for abused dead animal flesh: If human meat were the only animal flesh available would you still actually "need" it? Like if the animal pandemics caused by industrial animal factory farming continue and wipe out all nonfarmed animal life (such as how only 4% of the earth is wild animals compared to 96% humans and the animals we create to destroy) and bird flu (and other animal pandemics) keeps spreading to other animals and the rapidly emptying ocean finally runs out and you are literally left with the option of eating human corpses or plants, you’re still saying you WANT AND NEED to human flesh? I’m just interested to see how far this genuine real need seems to go? I’m just wondering like,,,, if you REALLY need it, you’re not just saying it on the internet to come up with reasons to continue to abuse animals that sound better than “i like the way it tastes and it’s easy not to change?” I’ve thought out the logic of my ethics, have you? I’m just like, alright if it’s a real need that means if dead cowflesh becomes $98/lb and stolen eggs were $50/egg due to ongoing animal pandemics that will never stop you would literally still pay for it or start killing animals yourself. And if animals weren’t available you would probably literally just eat some dead prisoner if that was the only option available to you over potatoes and lentils. Incredible Like the per capita meat consumption in burgerland is around 272 lbs a year, that’s not a “wait for a trusted friend to die and ethically consume them after they give their consent beforehand” situation. That’s industrial based farming time, which will of course turn into harvesting people after pressuring them to sign up while alive. So just wondering how that little human harvesting scenario is gonna go after we abolish capitalism, because seems like needing other multiple people to die for you to live per year is probably just going to end up recreating capitalist conditions again for this genuine Need