#but like why is our society one where looks are emphasized SO MUCH

[kabutone]

i’ve been on a huge like self improvement kick today so i’ve been looking at skincare stuff and like the way beauty standards have infected the minds of everyone especially young women is so scary . like what are we doing to our beautiful queens

[rosenotactuallyquartz]

so many people emphasize the importance of mental health representation in fiction, & i completely agree. likewise, many feel sympathy for characters showing typical symptoms of mental illness—the ones that are often talked about openly, such as feeling nervous & sad.

but what about the characters showing more stigmatized symptoms? the behaviours that are complicated, the trauma responses that aren’t talked about often?

countless steven universe fans refer to pearl as “insane” for being self-sacrificing. but they say this without acknowledging the fact that she was carrying many distressing secrets at the time & she grew up in a society where all pearls were seen as replaceable, inferior objects.

rose is impulsive & she lies often, which many fans quickly label as “malicious,” ignoring the anxiety, self-hatred, guilt, & trauma that may have influenced her habits & behaviours.

pearl & rose had a mutually codependent relationship with a handful of other ongoing issues, & therefore some people claim that “they never loved each other.” some say rose’s unstable relationships are because she’s “incapable of love,” completely missing the fact that she was a very loving person who didn’t love herself.

pearl is called “petty” for flaunting her relationship with rose in we need to talk. but what if showing off her boldness was easier than admitting her fear of being replaced—just like being extra intimidating on the battlefield forced homeworld gems to take her seriously instead of laughing at her for being “just a pearl”? talking about her insecurities likely made pearl feel as small as she did on homeworld.

unhealed wounds don’t just hurt the person—they can hurt others & strain relationships too.

this doesn’t mean we should excuse everything pearl & rose have done or claim they’ve done nothing wrong

that’s harmful in its own way; we shouldn’t say that those actions are positive & don’t need to be worked on in any way.

at the same time, these issues don’t make them bad people, they’re just… people

that’s why i love them.

they displayed all kinds of trauma responses & symptoms of mental illnesses, not just the ones that are discussed often or stereotypical or considered “acceptable.”

lots of us look back at the times when we were struggling & we regret a lot of the things we did. it’s important to recognize when we were wrong so we can grow & take accountability, but it’s also important to have self-compassion & understand that many of those regrettable actions were reflections of our pain, not our character. this is why we regret them & why growth is possible. this is why we can say that we are filled with love that we’ve always had—it’s just difficult to properly show that love when we’re not only filled with pain, but overwhelmed by it.

i have so much compassion for pearl + rose. they’re both extremely caring & strong and they have so much love for each other—that’s who they are. their pain is also very complex & they have mental health struggles. nothing is glorified, nothing is brushed aside, and their healing is nonlinear & just as complicated as everything they’ve been through. i think that’s amazing. having empathy for characters like pearl and rose can make you learn a lot about yourself.

they’re not meant to be angels or villains—they’re meant to be something much better: complicated & relatable

[fairuzfan]

Sorry one more thing I wasn't going to talk about but if you had asked me about the binational state/land thing maybe... in 2016, I might have given a somewhat positive answer but I think that since then, Israeli society has become exponentially more racist and anti-Palestinian. Since then we had the Abraham Accords, Sheikh Jarrah, Massafir Yatta, the highest child martyr count in years, and now finally a full blown genocide. Many Palestinians who previously advocated for equality in a single state look at all this, especially in recent months and think "how can I live side by side with these people?"

The vast majority of Israeli society is not against war for the sake of the Palestinians, they're against war for their own safety. They say as much. Hell, look at standing together. The founder guy says "our security is tied in with the Palestinians'". So if it wasn't tied with the Palestinians', you wouldn't care? And I get sometimes you need to introduce people to ideas gently, but their entire organization language emphasizes "shared pain" when there is an oppressor/oppressed dynamic they aren't even hinting at. How can anyone achieve safety if you won't even admit you have power over your Palestinian org members?

Even Brothers in Arms claims to want to "strengthen democracy" but they completely ignore Palestinians have never experienced democracy in "Israel". So what's the point strengthening your own standing when the most disadvantaged still are at rock bottom?? Plus your whole group represents the IOF reservists/members, you have no intention of helping Palestinians when you are the primary oppressors. And this is not an insignificant group in israel!

Not many Israelis are willing to put themselves on the line to protect or even advocate for Palestinians. I mean 7+ months into a genocide and what did israeli society do other than protest *netanyahu*? Hold up flour bags during the flour massacre??? The people serving in the idf are your friends and family and community. Tel Aviv is an hour away from Gaza. Surely you can do *something* physical!! They had people at their Gaza borders starving Palestinians on purpose and people just... watched it happen. Not to mention the IOF, which many Israelis are a part of, participates in the genocide and has been lauded for their "heroism". I look at that and I think "how can I expect you to seriously consider my rights as a person? How do I know you won't miss your old status and reclaim it?"

We've seen Israelis *celebrate* and *ridicule* our martyrs and people. So like where us the good faith in all this? Where can we work with some of these people and think "Yeah I believe they'll respect my inherent dignity as a person"?

Which binationalism relies on this. You need to have good faith between communities for this to actually happen. But when one community won't even acknowledge it's status as an oppressor at the height of oppression? Then what?

Israel as a country has never faced any retribution for its actions for 75 years. No one is holding them accountable. The country teaches propaganda in its schools about the Nakba. There is not serious consideration for Palestinian rights in Israeli society. Why would they suddenly decide to participate in a project that puts Palestinians as equal to Israelis when they learned all their lives that Palestinians are ruthless, unreasonable people who can't be reasoned with, and Israelis are logical, poor victims who are actually the ones who need protection from the Palestinians!

It just is mind boggling because I see people constantly complain about the way they hear things from Palestinians these days like "all Israelis need to leave". And they go on to say "why would you be so hateful/why would you say that" and don't think for a minute they're experiencing a televised genocide of their people (which they could have ended up in their shoes! People forget that Gaza has multiple refugee camps! Any one of us could have lived there!) And conversely are looking to Israeli society for them to do anything and they see nothing. At least think for a moment why they would say these things given the context of the situation. There's a genocide going on! And you're worried about what the people who are experiencing their people's genocide are saying because you're worried for the society conducting said genocide?? Let's deal with the matter at hand first!!!!!!

[phoenixyfriend]

I'm having thoughts about the Jedi and romance and UGH

Listen to me

Listen

(This is a shitpost, please do not reblog to argue with me, it's not for that. This is me, an a-spec individual with a lot of feelings on how society affects the things we view as important, venting in stream of consciousness.)

"Missing out on love" isn't something that matters as much when your society isn't amatonormative

"But they aren't allowed to get married" what if they don't want to?

"But they aren't allowed to romance" what if they don't want to?

When your culture is one that emphasizes compassion for all, and the most important bond is that of child and teacher... Don't you think that people might just not think of marriage as something worth striving for?

And from @jebiknights:

Honestly the only reason it bothers Anakin is bc he already met Padmé when he became a Jedi tbh i bet it wouldn't even bother him as much if he hadn't met her and already had visions of marrying her In general though yeah lol, that's one of the things i kind of miss about legends, is they didn't always deal with the attachment/romance/marriage thing well but you consistently had obi wan exes even before satine where they were like yeah we love each other and always will but we have no need or desire to get married or continue this

When the world around you doesn't emphasize marriage and romance and all that, then wouldn't you view cultures that do as a tad odd? Not weird in a bad way, just different.

I just keep thinking about the real world and how so much of the obsession with marriage and so on is a sociocultural thing. You don't want a big white dress because it's a bit white dress: you want it because it is the symbol that your culture has been pushing on you since you were two. Girls are taught to fantasize about weddings and marriage and to like A Certain Look for it, sometimes to such a degree that they can spend decades in denial about things like their sexualities.

And we're unlearning that as a society, people are being more critical of the institution and how they engage with it, are starting to question what it is that our media teaches us, asking 'why is marriage the most important thing in a girl's life, or in anyone's life' and generally moving towards a world where marriage exists but is not treated as a universal life goal

But the Jedi are just. Already doing that. They are already Not Teaching their children 'you should want this.'

And when you aren't pressured into wanting something like marriage... why would you be offended that your community says "you can have that Legal And Religious Status, but not with us. We'll still be your friends, but we as a community are not compatible with that legal and religious status barring a handful of specific and necessary exemptions."

Just

Marriage is not an inherent human/sapient want

Companionship is! We are biologically wired to be social creatures! We are biologically wired to, on the average, want sex, as well! That's how a species continues!

But marriage? A signed sheet of paper? That's not... inherent.

Fidelity and monamory? Sure, maybe. Plenty of species mate for life. But... humans have been proving that's a choice for most of history.

Other species are other things but anyway

Even if we remove marriage, specifically, and go to discuss attachment as being fidelity and exclusivity and devotion to another...

IDK how to talk about this without just going "devoting your life to a single person for companionship, romance, and sex is not only not necessary, but actually kind of mentally draining and a bad way to support yourself, we all need support systems and if you value one person's friendship or companionship more than others, that's not inherently a bad thing, but if you define yourself around each other or start doing shit like Covering Up Major Crimes That Hurt Real Innocent People (or committing said crimes) then. Uh. That's a problem."

[rainbow-sunshine-unicorn]

Bridgerton Season 3 and the dichotomy of understandable vs justifiable

This is going to be a long post and possibly incomprehensible but I've been thinking about the narrative choices of season 3 for way too long to not talk about it.

When a character takes any decisions or does an action, it has two facets- understandable and justifiable. Understandable actions are those where the audience knows why a character is doing what they are doing. Some common ways to establish this sort of knowledge is having flashbacks, by showcasing backstories or through narrative foreshadowing. Justifiable actions are those where the audience is meant to support the actions of a character, they don't merely understand the course of action but agree with it. Of course, actions can be both understandable and justifiable, but they don't always have to be. It's perfectly possible to have characters do things that are completely understandable but not even remotely justifiable.

(It's a bit more difficult to have actions that are justifiable but not understandable, because often justification comes from understanding, but with enough plot maneuvering, it can be done but I'll talk about that some other time)

And that's what I want to talk about. In season 2, there were plenty of characters who did things that were narratively framed as understandable but not justifiable. Anthony in particular is a great example of this. Like when he proposes to Edwina after Daphne confronts him about his feelings for Kate. His conversation with Violet on the in 2x03 has already established his absolute terror for love and why he is so insistent on having a pleasant marriage as opposed to a passionate one. And the flashbacks to Edmund's death have further established how much he suffered and saw his mother suffer. So when his reaction to Daphne driving home the point that he feels something intense for Kate, even if he calls it aggravation, it's something very far from rationality, we can understand why he chooses to propose to Edwina. But it's never framed as a justifiable choice. Whether it's through Kate's "Yes, my lord?" thinking he's coming to talk to her or the events that unfold, it is established that it was not the right course of action.

Another good example of this is Edwina's "half sister" comment to Kate. The long lingering shots of Kate and Anthony, the bracelet scene, the shots of the guests looking confused, all help us understand exactly where Edwina is coming from. She's hurt and lashes out at Kate to hurt her. But, is this ever framed as a justifiable choice? We constantly hear Kate emphasize their sisterhood, add to it her "this shall pass" speech to Anthony, her desire to go to India to physically remove herself from the situation, and it all show us that it was Kate's self-sacrificial nature that led her to her course of action, not because her loyalty towards Edwina was diluted by the lack of a full blood relation. Edwina's comments are never framed as justifiable.

And this brings me to Penelope. Until season 2, her actions were framed as understandable but not justifiable. Her mother and sister's casual cruel comments, Cressida's open meanness towards her, the comments she overhears from Colin, all help us understand exactly why Lady Whistledown has become such an outlet for her. Those shots of her at the periphery of ballrooms help us see why she sees the gossip as a silver lining in her situation. But what happens to Eloise and Penelope's explosive monologue to Eloise all work towards helping us understand that her actions are not exactly justifiable. It's not something the audience should throw unwavering support behind. And that's part of what makes her such a deliciously complex character. She forces us to contend with our own ideas of fairness and loyalty, in an especially unfair society.

However in season 3, the narrative choices seem geared towards framing Penelope's actions as both understandable and justifiable. The shots of Penelope staring as Cressida and Eloise walk away are framed to elicit pity from us. Similarly the shot of Penelope and Eloise at the modiste, with Penelope framed softly compared to the harsher positioning of Eloise is clearly intended for the audience to know that there's a sympathetic character vs a sterner one. And at least in part 1 it's established, narratively and cinematically, that we, as an audience, are supposed to view Eloise's grudge towards Penelope as unreasonable or 'doing too much'.

This is honestly a baffling narrative choice by the writers that downplays the complexity of Penelope as a character. Penelope is not meant to be a straight up victim, that's the whole point of Lady Whistledown. And if Penelope's actions are both understandable and justifiable, so much of the intensity of the reveal is lost, because if there's a "right side" then there's nothing for the audience to contend with. The whole point of Lady Whistledown being morally grey is that it makes the audiences think and agonize over different kinds of reactions to the reveal, whether those are understandable and justifiable or merely understand.

The fun of the reveal in the books is that we can understand Penelope, but we can also understand the disgruntled ton and I understand that the show is narratively quite far from the books, but even then to take out the complex nuance of Penelope and work towards this one dimensional narrative is a very strange decision.

[charmedreincarnation]

My shift to Bnha

I’ll start with the basics. For starters my reality is a bit different. The legal age is 25, so therefore school duration is longer, and our ages are different. I start UA when I was 19 years old, which made me a year 1 student. my parents are both prominent figures in hero society, and I was an only child to them. I only add this because I think it’s important to acknowledge background information because it shapes your experience and your placement in society, especially in a world filled with heroes everything is ranked and merit based.

UA .⋅ ۵♡۵ ⋅.

Contrary to popular belief, at least in my reality school is very much emphasized and just as important as hero work. For me a typical day looked like, getting up at 7:45 to prepare for classes that started at 8:30 and ending at 5. We do have a one hour lunch break, and a specific period to work on our specific quirks alone any way we see fit. A lot of people do use that time to slack off and hang out with friends, but they’ve recently become very strict about it. Credits to to Tenya Ida for informing the board of what people were really doing ! A lot of people were mad but honestly I am a teachers pet in this reality so I kind of appreciated it.

I can’t speak for the other classes, maybe it’s because of everything we went to, but we are not a class we are genuinely family. I am closest to Izuku, Sui, Ochacho, Mina, Todoroki and MoMo! Not in any particular order. I’m not going to talk about everyone but here are some of the reasons I love them <3

•Mina is just as extroverted quirky and bubbly as you would expect. Shes one of those people you meet and you can’t help but adore because they energy is so welcoming and they’re so loving. She’s kind of a prankster and a rumor starter and I find it hilarious. You can’t keep anything from her, though but once she has a narrative she has narrowed upon, you have a better chance of changing the devils mind.

For example i talked about this in a different post, but she started a rumour that bakugo is in love with izuku and that’s why he’s mad all the time. It got back to bakugo and he threatened to turn the cafeteria into a live bake oven. It’s honestly hilarious how she can make a whole room laugh. Or make anyone mad.. I guess it’s a talent regardless.

•Sui is the sweetest girl ever. She kind of keeps to herself but she’s honest and what you see is what you get. She’s also kind of emotional and I am kind of a cry baby too there so we get each other. We really just want to do our best and see everyone succeed. I would say both of us made friendships are bigger priority than hero training and we have both been called out for it too.

•Ochacho is very similar to Mina but she can also get down to business when she needs to. Everyone loves her, and her powers are super helpful in any situation, like for sneaking out quietly… but I wouldn’t know anything about that. I vividly remember having a conversation about our hero progress and she’s deeply insecure. She grew up impoverished and Monterey compensation is one of the reasons that really encouraged her to be a hero. I remember one time she was telling me how impressive I was during the first few weeks of school because I had a better handle on my quirk than her. She said something of how I was meant to be a hero. It made me sad because I admired her will and determination more than anyone. I had so many factors that put me ahead in some of my peers. My mother is a pro hero and I went to a profound middle school that molded me to be ready. I told her she was born to be a hero and I was made to be a hero. I was being honest and I didn’t think it meant anything but she always reminds me of how she thinks about that anytime she’s in a situation where she needs help. Nothing made me happier

•Momo and my quirks are very similar. My quirk is called clairvoyance somnium, and my hero name is dreamer. Kind of what she can do but I visualize whatever I need. I can also do more things that I won’t get into but a lot of it, I was inspired by my shifting methods ! Anyways she’s the sweetest and we live pretty close to each other so I’ve seen her around for a while. She’s honestly very gorgeous and we both struggle with insecurities and anxiety, so she really is someone I relate and rely on. Maybe it’s because our quirks or so similar or we have similar backgrounds and personalities but… she’s probably the person I am closest with! But I really do love everyone equally

Bakugo .⋅ ۵♡۵ ⋅.

Ok lots of people ask about him so let’s go.

Yes he’s so loud and always angry. You know I thought i would be scared of him but I honestly even I even give him snarky remarks sometimes (in a nice way because I am so nice in this dr) but wow he is the loudest person I’ve ever met in any dr but his powers are amazing we all respect it

Contrary to popular belief..no one is scared of him. As angry, loud and aggressive as he is he has proven time and time again all he wants to do is be a hero. Honestly it surprised some of us but everyone knows he has kind of good intentions under his wrath ??

He also makes everything a competition and he’s actually good at eveything. He’s good at school I’m pretty sure he placed after me in mid terms ! I got third and he got fourth. He’s a great cook and baker. We had a baking competition and he placed after sato. We made ramen and he made the best ramen ! Like he’s not as dumb as he looks. He’s also in a one sided competition with Todoroki but as we have all noticed he doesn’t give a fuck.

Powers .⋅ ۵♡۵ ⋅.

This may be egotistical but I could not imagine not being a hero in a world with 80% hero. Don’t let the league of villains hear this it will fuel their fire. 🥲 in all seriousness we are lectured that we are not better than anyone, and we are simply stronger than other people and that is it so we shouldn’t let it conflate our egos. The only way we would be given the green flag to pat our own backs is when are abilities begin to save millions of lives. But then I guess if we’re only being heroes to look good then would that really make us heroes. At least that’s what I wrote about in my English essay. Present mic did in fact eat it up, I got an amazing grade on it. But that’s not the point. The point is it’s easy to get a big head but we were simply genetically lucky, not better, smarter, etc.

Now that philosophy is behind us, having powers is so cool and coming back here the limits of other realities having no bounds never fails to amaze me. Our quirks are an extension of ourselves and literally are us. It’s not second nature, it’s first nature after having these abilities for so long. Especially my quirk, if I wanted I could “dream” 500 million yen, and well I wouldn’t be able to put it in the bank but I digress. Finding out what your quirk can do and how far your cbs push your limits always allows us to be going through moments of self discovery. Having a quirk is honestly it’s own life alone, and I genuinely could not be happier.

My favorite classes .⋅ ۵♡۵ ⋅.

As a student in this incredible universe, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to pursue many amazing topics of study.

One class I took was Hero Studies, where we learned about the many different hero theories and methods of justice, as well as what it takes to become an effective hero. We also discussed the history of the hero world and its evolution throughout the years. It was a fascinating subject and definitely one of my favorites!

The next class I took was Quirk Studies. Here we learned all about quirks, their effects on people and how they can be used to help protect civilians and stop villains. We even discussed how to best work with a partner with a different quirk, and how to combine two quirks to create a unique and powerful attack.

Finally, I also took a class called Combat Training. This class taught us all about combat techniques and how to use the environment and our natural abilities in order to survive any situation. We learned how to effectively dodge and block attacks, as well as how to use our quirks to create powerful attacks.

We of course also had the general classes of math, English, science, math, and music

The classes at UA High were some of the most interesting classes I have ever taken and I am so grateful for having the opportunity to explore them. Not only did I learn a lot about the world of My Hero Academia, but I also grew as a person and as a hero.

Random funny story .⋅ ۵♡۵ ⋅.

I’m going to tell you one of the funniest most embarrassing things that happened during the UA sports festive. This happened during the third event, when we were in teaams.

I was with Izuku, mei, Ochako, and fumikage. Everyone is trying to steal the headband from us because Izuku has all the points ! Everyone was targeting us and it was so unfair. during the last few seconds I started running to dream us a tower so we can hide and to grow into to the skies. Then someone came so they threw me the headband and i I was waiting for them but then they got attacked and they told me just go without them !?? I was literally shaking and my anxiety was at an all time high time so I quirked my tower or whatever and made it grow and then the time ran out! I had the headband and we thought we won and we were cheering but umm no. I was the only winner technically because I wasn’t with my team. BUT because that took away FROM the point of the team work part I was deducted points from my own Individual points because that wasn’t the point of the challenge. Honestly you win some you lose some. It was a fun experience regardless.

Also honestly i shifted here around the time of the World Cup, which I could not care less about, but I get the hype of sports witnessing Izuku’s fight against Shinso (manipulation guy.) it was so awesome !!! I was at the edge of my seat the entire time!!! So I guess Now I understand how some people feel about sports lol. By the end of the festival, I got third place overall and my mom was so proud of me. It was the honestly a great feeling.

Random dump with no correlation

my mother (Uwabami’s) Quirk gives her a trio of live snakes growing from her head. One of the snakes have acute senses, allowing her to locate hidden criminals and disaster victims.one snakes also has a scent that can make her victims mindless slaves, one snake produces poison and attacks her victims.

my father who also attended UA with my mom has Squirmy Fingers (can precisely bend and control his fingers, giving him great dexterity) As well as a High Scientific knowledge Skills IQ in engineering. I found this interesting because usually children are a combination of their parents quirks or either or, and mine has nothing to do with either lol.

Todoroki’s pretty smart though he places after Bakugou in the mid terms. he also loves to read ! He’s also politically educated and actually had profound knowledge on the history of heroes and how and why he believe hero’s and villains came to be so.. surprisingly he is more philosophical than I would think. He doesn’t really talk about it or bring it up because if you have a good conversation with him and get him to open up it is always worth.

Food

Tbh to no surprise the food options were eclectic and varied. There was something for everyone! I had everything from traditional Japanese dishes such as ramen and sushi, to western and American-style dishes like pizza and burgers. I even had access to a variety of international cuisines like Indian, Chinese, and Korean.

One of my favorite places to get a good meal was the school cafeteria. Every day it was full of delicious options, from freshly-cooked dishes to the convenience of pre-packaged items. There were also lots of drinks and snacks available. On certain days, the cafeteria also served special meals such as curry or tonkatsu.

If I was looking for something a bit more fast-paced, there were several food stalls and restaurants around town. I could find an assortment of things like ramen, takoyaki, and okonomiyaki. There were also locations that offered more unique dishes such as Japanese-style hamburgers or omurice (Omelette Rice).

Although I often ate at restaurants, I also cooked meals in my dorm room. I could make simple dishes with ingredients from the local grocery store, like fried rice, or make something more complicated with ingredients from the nearby specialty grocery store. I even tried my hand (well with sato as well) at making dango, the traditional Japanese dessert.

Tbh No matter what type of food I was looking for, UA had it though. With all of the different options available, there was something to satisfy whatever cravings I had.

I also write and speak in English so don’t ask any language questions because I do not know

[rametarin]

Yall young people have so much to look forwards.

Yeah, if you're environmentally and ecologically conscientous, it has never been a better time. Do you know why we didn't already have electric cars?

It's not because of some massive coverup and greedy oily oil barons. The energy barons have always maintained desire to invest in and reap benefits from anything that reaps dividends. Energy will always reap dividends. Renewable energy, if even worth investing in, will reap dividends like the expensive, hard process of mining and drilling for oil and then refining and selling it.

It's because the technology and the science simply wasn't there. Not enough to practically and economically provide for our needs. When you see people screaming about how "It already existed!! We just need to.. rethink our needs!" You've likely come across someone that takes a radically bad stance on exactly what an individual's needs are.

There exists a kind of crunchy, borderline totalitarian asshole that, believe it or not, isn't the usual kind of totalitarian asshole, which is often associated with the right wing and Nazis! This totalitarian asshole asks, "What does a person need, really?" And their answer is, "An overarching state and society to govern for The People, and provide for them what has been determined to be their Needs."

When they say, The People, they don't mean you and your individual requirements. They mean the abstract, conceptual, platonic Man, the conceptual human person, and then they ignore you and try to interact with this conceptual ideal. And then they determine how to ration for you. They'll demand you conform to their plan, and then maybe you'll get X amount of a thing to live on, no more no less, as they brag about providing for The People.

Shortages will inevitably happen from this approach, and then you'll survive on half of that, which has been determined to be your new needs. That's the sort of person that thinks you can survive on X-much of resources, if only they can huddle you and a hundred other someodd people onto public transportation that operates on a timer and engineer cities to have a maximum capacity (which will inevitably be overcapacity as more people than they expected arrive to exist there) and their carefully conceived brave new world where they've used shitty math to shortchange people comes back to bite everybody.

Need housing? They deign to stick you into a locker sized Chinese style apartment and think, great, I've created livable housing for millions of people in the same space as used to house hundreds! Yay me!

Need food? Oh, simple; they'll just feed you food that's as simple as possible and emphasize vegetables because they're non-controversial and don't require as complicated a growing cycle or as messy as what happens when their needs aren't met and there's cruelty or unsanitary conditions to worry about. No one goes to court advocating on behalf of pumpkins. So, "wouldn't it just be easier if you were vegetarian or vegan? Your needs would be so much easier to mee! C:"

That sort of person believes if you just "make personal choices" to be as low maintenance and nonmobile and rock eating as possible, the little electrical power generated for transportation and heating and keeping the lights on should be enough to design a whole society around NOW! Don't you want that!? Me neither.

This is why we didn't switch to 100% renewables. The technology and science just does not exist, yet. Yes if we have absurd amounts of (currently toxic, currently difficult to develop and acquire components for solar cells) solar power, we're going to use it, but outside of using giant flywheels or liquid salt heat batteries to power things when the sun isn't shining, we just do not have base load coverage for the needs of society without shortchanging and radically redefining society and how it functions.

The way they would propose society to function is very centralized, top down and authoritarian. That does not meet our needs for personal liberty. But they don't care about that.

And this is important, because the science and technology ARE creeping up to the minimum by which we'll be able to generate enough mega or giga amps required for every individual person. We finally will have the battery capacity to actually store and DO something with all that renewable and nuclear fission derived power!

THAT is the secret sauce, people under 25. THAT is the beauty of this era! It isn't that humanity is "finally sloughing off the yoke of the aristocrats." It's that the actual science and technology is close to fruition where it isn't a violation of physics and entropy to actually have nigh infinite, free electrical power, without either polluting the atmosphere with particulates until it's unbreathable mess, polluting the land and sea until everything dies in the eco-system, or trying to live "within the means" of what renewables can do and rationing our power consumption to one hour a day.

Just having the ability to switch out a fuel powered jet engine with a rechargable solid state battery for turbofan jet engined flight, just having electrically driven boats, we save so much pollution and inefficient energy consumption from even happening. I can't emphasize enough just how big a game changer sufficiently powerful and capacitied batteries are and how essential they are to address power needs.

They change EVERYTHING. They make it possible so residential solar and wind can charge up a house battery, making it possible to function with emergency energy during hard times. They make it possible to outperform internal combustion engines by just simply not consuming enormous amounts of power while idling in traffic. They make transporting power easy peasy, rather than using large pipes or driving it on trains or truck convoys to deliver it.

You kind of came in at the last second of the game and you're probably horrified at the prospects of the world just plain collapsing from climate change and pollution. The Greta Thunbergs of the world didn't help, and then the reactionary Andrew Tates performing by arguing with them really didn't help.

Alternatives to plastic that either are biodegradable or actually recyclable have been developing since the 90s. Plasma wands for particulate free garbage incineration have been available for some time, dealing with our toxic materials can't go in incinerator problems. Heavy metals and carcinogen pollutant areas can be cleaned via use of specific kinds of grubs and earthworms, which rend the materials inert. Biodegradable biomass can be handled before it becomes methane, or the methane captured and put to use.

The biggest alarmists promising unless we "radically do something NOW" are often the kinds of people that believe if you'd just surrender personal autonomy, personal liberty, personal mobility, expectations of actually having a home of your own to live in, then they could have their Brave New World they want. They hate nuclear power because, "it's not radically upsetting to the status quo enough."

It's important to realize solutions are either there, or have been worked on since decades before you were born and either are already being employed, are in the process of getting employed, or are almost ready for the system to capitalize on and solve big problems. And the people screaming about how "no one is doing anything/ they're doing nothing because of greed/ short sighted selfishness" have a very particular bridge to sell you.

[soracities]

Hi! So I tried not to say anything about some anti makeup posts I saw on your blog but I need to say this. I think you're very wise and I agree it's very important for us to love ourselves as we are. But some people like myself doesn't care about 'empowering' of makeup or whatever but we just have fun with it and we just love it. I say we because I know there is a lot of people like me. Yeah, we are feeding capitalism or whatever, but world is beautiful and it's also terrible so people trying make themselves feel good, have fun, ect. I see a lot of people who don't wear makeup and i'm happy for them! I didn't wear makeup until i turned 20 i think and felt good.

One thing I wanted to add is in response of post about feminine girls. I think everything needs balance and sometimes people tend to overreact in their opinion and divide everything in black and white. Personally I never cared how women around me looked and what they were wearing. But I would like to have same treatment, and not to feel silly for wearing pink or feminine clothes.

Sorry, I don't know English very well so maybe I can't translate my idea entirely. What I'm trying to say i think everyone should do what they like and leave each other in peace.

Sorry for this essay, just wanted to share my point of view.

Hi, anon! I'm sorry for the delay in getting to this, but I appreciate you writing this (and your English was fine, don't worry)

I think the main argument of those posts (and my own feelings about this) is not about makeup on its own, or even judgement about who does and doesn't choose to wear it--what they are criticizing is a particular part of the society we live in which puts a huge emphasis on women's beauty and appearance in order to fulfill an idea of what a woman "should" be, and the role that makeup plays in that as a result. Because whether we like it or not, whether we believe in them or not, whether we feel pressured by them or not, these expectations do exist. How we personally respond to them does not change that.

I personally don't have an issue with makeup or the concept of it (in almost every culture on earth, humans have been using makeup of some kind for literally thousands of years)--but what I do have a problem with is when we treat makeup, or other traditionally "feminine" forms of expression as neutral things when they are not. A comb or a hair tie is neutral--it's just a thing. Lipstick and eyeliner are also just things, but only when they exist by themselves--and in reality they don't exist by themselves: they exist in a world where we value women on their physical appearance before we value them for anything else--lipstick and eyeliner exist to emphasise parts of your appearance, to make you look a certain way--and in a society where we put so much importance on women looking a certain way, they aren't just ordinary things you toy around with for fun. You can have fun with them, but it doesn't change their role. They can't be treated as exceptions from the world they are used in.

I think sometimes people assume that being anti-makeup is the same as being anti-women-who-wear-makeup, which misses the point (and also suggests a very dangerous idea which I think, sometimes, is why people respond so angrily to these criticisms: because if we believe that being anti-makeup = being anti-women, then therefore makeup = womanhood, and this is simply not true). Whether you wear these things just for fun and to enjoy yourself isn't what is being talked about because these criticisms are not about you on a personal level: they are about looking at a society that is as image-obsessed as ours, and asking why makeup has the role that it has when 1) it is almost exclusively aimed at women--women who, as a group, have been historically marginalised, and whose value, historically, has almost always been measured in terms of their beauty before anything else and 2) the makeup that is emphasized, the trends and styles that come and go, are often not so much about self-expression (if they were, people would be freely wearing all sorts of wild colours and styles: when we talk about "makeup culture" it's not the same kind of makeup used in the goth, punk, or alt scenes for example where makeup plays a very different role) but almost always about achieving or aspiring towards a type of beauty that is valued or expected: to make you look younger, to make your eyes brighter or larger, to make your lips bigger or sexier, your cheekbones more prominent etc--again, on their own, these things may not be a big deal, but they exist in a world where having these looks means you are valued in a certain way as a woman. And when this exists in our kind of world, where the power dynamics we have automatically mean women's perceived power is through beauty, and where we insist so much on women being a particular kind of beautiful (and this starts in childhood) we have to ask and investigate WHY that is--why this type of beauty and not another? why (almost only) women? who benefits from this? who suffers as a result?

The argument of "not all women" wear makeup for empowerment misses the point of these criticism, because it is focusing on a person's individual choices in a way that suggests our choices can define the world we live in, and they can't. We are deeply social animals. Therefore, how we appear to each other and to ourselves is a socially influenced phenomenon. This applies for race, for sexuality, and for gender. How women are perceived at large, in different social structures, is a social phenomenon influenced by the societies we exist in and the values of those societies. These criticisms are about the society we make those choices in and how that can affect us. For you, makeup may be something fun and enjoyable and that's fine. I'm not saying that's untrue or that people don't feel this way or that you are wrong for feeling this way. It's also not saying that you are brain-washed or oppressing yourself for it. But it doesn't change the world we live in. Someone feeling perfectly happy to go out with makeup or without makeup, and feeling no pressure to do either, is great--but it doesn't mean there aren't a lot of women who do feel pressured into wearing it, and that pressure is a social one. It doesn't change the inequality that exists between how women's physical appearances are judged compared to men's. It doesn't change the fact that almost every childhood story most kids hear (that aren't about animals) have a "beautiful princess" (and very little else is said about her except that she is beautiful) and a "brave" knight/prince/king/whichever: the princess (or maiden or whatever young woman) is defined by how she looks; the male in the story by how he acts.

It also doesn't change the fact that so many young girls grow up hearing the women around them criticize various parts of their bodies and that they carry this into their lives. It doesn't change the fact that we expect (in Western countries at least) for women to have criticisms about their appearance and they are "stuck-up" or "full of themselves" if they don't. It doesn't change the fact that magazines photos, red carpet photos, films, tv shows etc., feature actresses who are beautiful in a way that is absolutely above and beyond exceptional (and who either have had work done cosmetically, or are wealthy enough to be able to afford to look the way they do through top-class makeup artists, personal trainers etc) but who we think are within the "normal" range of beauty because faces like theirs are all that we see--how many famous actors / entertainers can you name who look like they could be someone's random uncle, or "just some guy" (writing this, I can think of 5). Now how many actresses, equally famous, can you think of that are the same? Very, very, very few.

The point of those posts, and why I feel so strongly about this, is that we have a deeply skewed view of beauty when it comes to women, because, as a society, we place so much on how they look in such a way that it is not, and was never meant to be, achievable: therefore anything that contributes to how women look, that markets itself in the way that the makeup industry does in this day and age, needs to be questioned and looked at in relation to that. No one is saying don't wear eyeliner or blush--what they are trying to say is that we need to be aware of the kind of world eyeliner and blush exists in, what their particular functions as eyeliner and blush do in the world that they exist in, that we exist in, and how this does impact the view we have on makeup as a result. Your personal enjoyment may be true to you and others, but this doesn't change the role of female beauty in the world because, again, our personal choices don't define the world in this way. Often, it's the other way around. And we cannot deny this fact because, while it may not affect you negatively, it does affect others.

I absolutely agree with you because I don't care how other women around me choose to dress or express themselves, either--that's their freedom to wear what they want and enjoy themselves and I want them to have that freedom. But my view is not the world's view, and it's certainly not the view of a lot of other people, either. I don't care if another woman loves pink and wearing skirts and dresses--but, like makeup, pink, skirts, and dresses, are not neutral things either. They're tied to a particular image of 'femininity' which means they are tied to a particular way of "being a woman" in this world. I'm not saying, at all, that it's wrong to wear these things. But I'm saying we can't treat them as though these are choices as simple as choosing what kind of socks to wear, because they aren't. They are choices that have baggage. If a woman is seen as being silly, childish, or treated unequally because she enjoys cute tops and ribbons and sundresses, that's not because we are demonizing her choices, or because being anti-makeup is being anti-woman (again, it is absolutely not): it's because we as a society demonize women for any choice. That isn't because of anti-makeup stances--that's because of sexism.

You mentioned that you want to be treated the same as anyone else for wearing feminine clothes--but the fear that you wouldn't be isn't because of the discussions critiquing makeup and other traditionally "feminine" things--it's because we live in a society where women are constantly defined by how they appear on the outside, and no amount of our personal choices will make this untrue. Whether you are a girly-girl or a tomboy, you'll always be judged. And, in reality, when women follow certain beauty standards they do get treated better--but this doesn't mean much in a society where the standards are so high you can never reach them, and where the basic regard for women is so low to begin with (not to mention the hypocrisy that exists within those standards). This is what all those criticisms towards makeup and "empowerment" are about: it's about interrogating a society that is built on this kind of logic and asking why we should insist on leaving it as it is when it does so much damage. It's saying that that if we want everyone to truly feel free in how they choose to present themselves we have to go deeper than just defining freedom by these choices on their own, and look at the environment those choices are made in. And that involves some deeply uncomfortable but necessary conversations.

Also, and I think this important to remember, views on makeup and the social place of makeup will also depend on culture and where you are, and the beauty expectations you grew up with. And when it comes to the internet, and given American dominance online, a lot of these posts criticizing makeup and the way makeup is being used to sell an idea that wearing it is "empowering" to the woman (which is basically saying: you are MORE of a woman when you wear it; you are stronger and more powerful because, in our society, beauty is portrayed as a form of power: it tells you, you can battle the inequality women face by embracing the role beauty plays in our lives but it doesn't tell you this emphasis on beauty is part of that inequality), are based on the way makeup is portrayed in mostly English-speaking Western countries. My views are shaped by what I grew up seeing, and while a full face of makeup (concealer, primer, foundation, mascara, highlighter, contour, blush, brow tint, brow gel etc) may not be daily practice or even embraced in a place like France or maybe other places in mainland Europe (but that doesn't mean they don't have their own expectations of feminine beauty), they are daily practice in places like the US and Britain, and this is what most of those posts and criticisms are responding to.

We can argue as much as we want about makeup, but when you grow up in a society where women feel the need to put on makeup before going to the gym there is something seriously wrong. Embracing makeup and enjoying makeup is one thing, but it cannot be a neutral thing when so much of it is about looking like you're not wearing makeup at all, or when we assume a woman is better qualified for a job or more professional when she wears it. It cannot be a neutral thing when a singer like Alicia Keys goes makeup-free for a red carpet event and it causes a stir online because people think she looks sick (what she looks like is normal--I would argue above normal--but wearing makeup to cover up "flaws" is so normal now that we genuinely don't know what normal skin is supposed to look like because the beauty of these celebrities is part of their appeal: they are something to aspire to). It is absolutely very normal for me, where I am, to see young girls with fake lashes and filled in brows: it's not every girl I pass, but it is enough. I'm not saying they are miserable, or brain-washed, or should be judged. I can believe that for them it's something enjoyable--but how am I supposed to see something like that and not be aware of the kind of celebrities and makeup tutorials that are everywhere on TikTok and YouTube, and that they are seeing everyday? How am I not supposed to have doubts when people tell me "it's their choice!" when the choices being offered are so limited and focused on one thing?

I never wore makeup as a teenager and I still don't, but a lot of that is because I grew up surrounded by people who just didn't. Makeup was never portrayed as anything bad or forbidden (and I don't see it like that either)--it was just this thing that, for me growing up, was never made to be a necessity not even for special occasions. I saw airbrushed photos and magazines all around me, for sure, and I definitely felt the beauty pressure and the body pressure (for example, I definitely felt my confidence would be better if I wore concealer to deal with my uneven skintone, and I felt this for years). But I also know that, growing up, I saw both sides. No makeup was the default I saw at home, while makeup was the default I saw outside. And that does play a part, not just in the choices you make, but in the choices that you feel you are allowed to make. No makeup was an option for me because it was what I saw everyday, even with my own insecurities; but if you do not see that as an option around you (and I know for most girls my age, where I grew up, it probably wasn't) then how can we fully argue that the decision you make is a real choice?

If I wanted to wear a cute skirt outside, for example, and decided to shave my legs--that isn't a real choice. And it cannot ever be a real choice, no matter how much I say "this is for me" or "I prefer it like this" because going out in public with hairy legs and going out in public with shaved legs will cause two completely different reactions. How can I separate what I think is "my choice" from a choice I make because I want to avoid the negative looks and comments? And how can I argue that choosing to shave is a freely made choice when the alternative has such negativity? If you feel pressured into choosing one thing over another, that's not a choice. Does this make sense?

This is how I feel about makeup most of the time, and what I want more than anything else is for us to be able to have a conversation about why we make the choices we do beyond saying "it makes me feel good" and ending the conversation there. Again, I'm not saying people need to stop wearing makeup or stop finding enjoyment in wearing it, but I think we tend to get so focused on our own feelings about this and forget that there is a bigger picture and this picture is a deeply unequal one. That is what this conversation is about. I hope this explains some things, anon, and if I misinterpreted anything please feel free to message me again. x

[krugkorien]

Happy New Year everyone! Today I want to show you my main setting: the Divine World. It’s a dark fantasy world that combines both epic (gods, monsters, magic, saving the world) and mundane (death, decay, bigotry, oppression) aspects of the genre. Worldbuilding and lore is a very important part of DW, to a point where if I could write everything I want about DW it would be one of the biggest books in the history of mankind. But this is an introductory post, so I’ll try to keep it brief!

1. While I’m not going to get into any unpleasant details here let’s still get some trigger warnings out of the way first. As I said DW is dark fantasy, and it’s so dark that Marena came up with the name Macabre Fantasy in order to emphasize how dark DW is and how the aforementioned themes of death and decay play a huge role in it, as well as many other sensitive topics. Aside from what has been already mentioned there's also a lot of cruelty & violence (both interpersonal & socio-political) and also topical problems: sexism, nazism, colonialism, etc. All of this, of course, is not for the sake of being edgy, but to make a lot of important points.

2. The inhabitants of the Divine World are appropriately called Divine Humans [1], aka Homo Mirandum. While they look a lot like regular humans, there are a lot of differences between us and them! They have horns, claws, different hair textures and skin tones, three spinal cords instead of one and are also bigger than us: it depends on a lot of factors and the shortest men are actually not that big, being only 166 cm tall, but the tallest women can go up to 350 cm! And yes, you’ve read it correctly, women are taller! Divine sexual dimorphism is somewhat flipped compared to ours and Divine women are tall, muscular and hairy, while men are short, thin and mostly hairless. Meanwhile their voices are pretty similar and androgynous, and also have a metal (as in material not music) vibe to them.

Physically Divine humans are, for the lack of better word, monumental: they are strong, capable of surviving wounds that would kill a regular human ten times over, have a great memory, but are also stiff and slow, both physically & mentally, for physiological reasons as well simply because they can afford to be — their lifespans can be measured in multiple Earth centuries. However Divine humans rarely enjoy their longevity to its full extent. Outside dangers aside, their illnesses and disabilities are just as monumental as they are. For example, Divine albinism means fully transparent flesh which in turn means complete blindness and high vulnerability towards radiation (levels of which are very high on Mirabilis).

Divine souls are just as physical as anything else. They are also Aetheric in nature, and are another example of Divine sexual dimorphism: white souls belong to men and black to women (with rare exceptions). This plays a huge role in Divine society and became one of the reasons why most Divine societies are patriarchal: men, despite being physically weak, can literally mind-control women when needed. It doesn’t help that too much contact with an aether opposite to your soul can lead to death.

While Divine humans are technically the only race of Mirabilis, thanks to magic they can turn into many various creatures: Demons, Angels, Chorts (lesser Demons, roughly speaking), Bieses (lesser Chorts), Beatas, Vampires, Turnskins (Divine equivalent of werewolves), Beasts, Chimeras, Nocturnals, Urials, Cadavredaxes and so on, many of them having sub-types (for example vampires being living and undead).

4. Technology & society-wise Divine civilization can be compared to 19th century Earth: imperialism and nationalism are at their peak, proto-industrial society, recently invented trains & electricity. However Divine civilization also possesses traits more associated with our Middle Ages: religion being the most important social institute, no concept of humanism, plate armor & melee weapons still being main tools of war.

5. Like Divine humans themselves Mirabilis looks somewhat Earth-ish but is actually very different. For starters, when I say that DW is a dark and oppressive world I mean it a bit literally! Mirabilis has high atmospheric pressure (~8 higher than Earth), it’s a much colder and wetter planet, and most noticeably — it has no sun. Despite this, Mirabilis still has light and heat, even if not as much as we do, all that thanks to the White Aether (a very important magic substance) that fills the space around the planet. A Sun’s fire isn’t the only kind Mirabilis lacks — due to the low oxygen level of 15% fire simply cannot exist in normal conditions on Mirabilis.

If the word “normal” can even be used towards Mirabilis — all of the planet’s flora are technically mushrooms and much closer to the meat-side of things, so stuff like bleeding human-eating trees isn’t exactly shocking to Divine humans. Animals are technically the same as on Earth but with a huge caveat — their appearance is based on the medieval depictions of them which means animals like hyperagressive fishes with limbs, talking horses with human teeth, owls with human faces, giant non-arthropodic insects and so on.

While Mirabilis is bigger than Earth, it has only one continent that is sliced in half by the so-called Black Wall —an  impassable wall of Black Aether. The stories I write take place on the western half of the continent, and its inhabitants can’t just cross the ocean to explore the East because of the atrament — a deadly substance that fills the sea and is so dangerous only two western races out of twelve have any level of resistance to it.

The explorers of Mirabilis would be very upset about this if not for the Remnants, mysterious ruins that are both more ancient than anything they have ever seen yet more advanced than anything they could dream of. Exploring Remnants is an incredibly dangerous, often illegal job, but what’s that compared to a chance to learn more about the world? More materialistic folks are attracted by the artifacts that are capable of granting incredible miracles and, of course, even more incredible horrors.

And I think that’s pretty much it for the introductory post! From now on I’m going to repost the stuff I’ve previously posted on my Twitter before but now with all kinds of lore tidbits. There’s other projects we’ll talk about, especially Neon-23, Marena’s cyberpunk setting (that has a crossover with DW we made for fun!) but that’s it for now. Thank you for reading all this! And thanks to @goldporces & ippoteq @ Twitter for beta-reading this text!

[1] — In Russian I call them Дивнолюди, based on an archaic Russian word for “miracle” — диво. “Divine” is a very lucky translation because it sounds similar to the original word and also points at the, well, divine nature of the Divine Humans.

[nonchalantatall]

PRSK Kamikou Phantom Thief/Detective AU

For any issue that gets brushed off by the state, any personal problem too embarrassing to file a legal report for, or anything too small, simple, or mundane to bother paying actual professionals a different business to handle, there’s a member of the White Rock Detective Agency—or R-A-D-W for short—ready to assist you!

(Don’t ask why the letters are out of order, it’s a touchy subject among the staff.)

Explanation of the AU under the cut

All of the relationships are ambiguous, so you can apply your own connotation headcanons as you wish. There are strong mizuan, mizurui, and mizuena vibes lol

The explanation includes mild fic spoilers, but you can read it before the fic if you want and be fine. Although if you want to figure out the mystery while reading, then I recommend coming back to read the explanation after. The plot in the fic is very vague in the scenes I wrote, and I also don't really feel like writing any more, so you may need to come back to get the full picture afterwards

I know I said it's a kamikou au, and the fic itself technically is, but Mafuyu, Shizuku, and Emu are all kinda important to what little plot actually exists in the fic, but they really aren't mentioned by name except for Mafuyu at the very end (K also gets a name drop at one point). I left all of it kinda vague on purpose to emphasize the kamikou characters since it was based on a kamikou event to begin with.

The full story starts with the disappearance of an Aristocrat’s daughter (Mafuyu). This daughter had a fond friend within the aristocracy (Shizuku) who became seriously worried when she disappeared. Shizuku hired a high-class private investigator (Emu) to find her.

But Emu doesn’t work alone. There’s only so much she can do when there's so many people looking at her in high society. She can get away with more than the usual aristocrat, being the 4th youngest in her moderately prominent family, but she has 3 officers (WxS) running more of the dirty work out in public. Emu took the case of Mafuyu's disappearance seriously because she's also emotionally involved like Shizuku is.

WxS quickly realized Mafuyu covered a lot of her bases when she vanished. It was almost as if she never existed at all. It doesn't help that Mafuyu's parents don't want to talk with WxS despite trying to find their daughter. They're lower class, no-name, prying eyes who are sticking their noses in someone else's business where they don't belong.

Despite being backed by Emu, they needed to get access to a detective agency's credibility to go searching in more places for any clues as to where she could've gone all while without giving themselves away to mafuparents who grew to be strongly against WxS' involvement in their daughter's case.

They heard of R-A-D-W (White Rock Detective Agency), a "new" office trying to get its feet off the ground, and they saw an opening. They're posing as rookie detectives there while still investigating the missing daughter on the side and keeping it a secret from the agency owners (VBS).

It's important to me that you know Emu is WxS' sponsor while living on her family’s estate, and Kohane has a real job that pays for VBS's room and board (me, coping with not including them)

VBS... they're just trying to do their jobs man, they had no business getting wrapped up in this but oh well. "White Rock" is a direct translation of An's last name (Shiraishi, 白石). The White Rock Detective Agency or R-A-D-W (please notice how I stupidly rearranged the letters to make it close to rad weekend) is her family’s agency that fell off a few years ago after a tragic loss, but she is determined to restore the agency name to its former glory with a few other aspiring detectives--particularly two young gentlemen who have been helped by R-A-D-W in the past and are determined to repay that debt.

As you can probably guess, Mafuyu is being hidden by Niigo. More specifically, she's being sheltered by Kanade, while Ena makes their money with her art, and Mizuki steals back things Mafuyu used to own. In the months buliding up to her breaking point and running away from her abusive household, Mafuyu's mother took things from her that she deemed to be a distraction as punishment for not focusing on her studies and family affairs. The other 3 are enraged by what mafumom has done to her and will keep Mafuyu safe and hidden from her old life, no matter the cost.

This AU has been a great source of brainrot for me the past few months so if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer 🥹

[dailyautophagy]

do you ever feel like you are doing the right things

that sentence is kinda different depending on which word you emphasize

but please emphasize Ever cause that’s what I did lol

I will shower for the second day in a row today

It feels wasteful lol but also like I can’t just keep leaving the day on me and then be shocked when I get a pimple lol like 👍 hey retard, your pores need to get cleaned out, they are tiny gutters. How many pores do we have?

You ever type a question and then highlight it to look it up instead of actually opening a different app and typing it again

Look lol

you ever do that?? It just OPENS safari for you lol

iPhones are a drop of evil in the bucket of WORLD EVIL so like stfu about the child slaves like who’s making androids because I think my iPhone maker kid is probably friends with your android maker kid. And I can’t worry about everything happening in the world or I’ll implode, so…. TRAFFICKING IS WORSE. These kids just have to hurt their hands. BOTH ARE NOT OKAY. But there are levels to the evil shit… there are levels to everything

Like scale of 1-10 where 1 is got no dessert and 10 is got molested how bad was your childhood

….. anyway lol so you know how some things just do not feel right lol

How do we do things we know are wrong

Not even WHY but literally how lol what brain function is that

we aren’t just input/output creatures??…. I mean, we are lol input food, output waste, but with thoughts it’s like - input information, scumbag brain decides to ignore half that information and run with some part of it, output action…

it just doesn’t make sense that I KNOW going to sleep early and getting up early is good for my literal brain chemistry - and still don’t do it consistently

like amyloid plaque cannot build up if you sleep correctly because our body CLEANS ITSELF INTERNALLY at night lol so yo if you eat late and your body has to DO DIGESTION guess the fuck what your scumbag brain is like hey I know if I don’t digest this food it will rot and kill you so I have to do this BEFORE i can start all of the other INTERNAL CLEANING sooo - oopsie if we don’t get to everything. and then we wonder why Alzheimer’s and dementia are a problem.

Barbara O’Neill taught me more about the brain than fucking …. Any class. Granted I didn’t take brain chemistry classes lol but do you know how many prerequisites I would have to take before I could get to this information lol idk if that’s how shit works anymore - I remember more of highschool than college tbh because I didn’t smoke weed until the senior year of highschool and then NEVER STOPPED like how do I have a job lol paperwork, is how. DO YOUR PAPERWORK. Cover your ass. Everything will be okay.

usually going back to sleep feels good so i assume it’s the right thing but alas sometimes just because something feels good does not mean it is the right thing lol like doing DRUGS

Also this man mowed the lawn yesterday and I didn’t even suck on his penis about it

That

Is

Unacceptable

I have take not one but two large shits so now I am going to shower instead of laying back down til 630 lol

Can I just say how much I love not having kids

But I do have the time to make kids breakfast like set up a school room lol like teachers can’t even imagine a class size of single digits let alone 1-2 lol it would be SO EASY no wonder home school kids seem weird they know everything before everyone else and then probably look around at society like ‘these stupid fucks’ lol

There was a kid in my neighborhood named Walter and we played with k’nex and he didn’t have a TV and I think my parents knew his parents were doing a better job than them …. They were lol

Okay time to shower for another 40 minutes :D

Kidding, should be less time cause I don’t need to scrape off layers of dead skin from my AGING FACE. Castor oil you bitch, rub it on you after shower, why you never remember to do it????

I guess morning rambles are my thing now

[nightswithkookmin]

Goldie, for God's sake, answer me just this once. Please, like I told you before, I'm not a shipper and i have a reason why but i can't descussion it here. I'm just Jimin Stan.And all I care about is the comfort of this boy who took my mind called Park Jimin. Just a question if Jikook is real. Why do I feel that Jimin is always unhappy? He complains about loneliness and not getting and making friends. Does one live in illusion only and imagines that he is happy while he is always insinuating and complaining about loneliness and gloom? Don't you understand his feelings through his album? Is it logical that this side appears when you are happy with the one you love, or does the one you love not treat you well?Please, I don't want to accuse anyone, but it seems that Jimin has changed a lot since before He became shrunken in himself and shy too much. Where is the bold and flirtatious Jimin? Something must have happened to him. Something last. Did you read the Weverse magazine article about him because it made me cry so much?

Sigh

Ever heard the saying the higher you go the lonelier you become? Dude literally released an album that addresses his struggles with fame and being in the spotlight- as big as Jungkook's dick is and as sharp as his thrusts are- big dick don't cure everything so let's not lay it on him okay?

I don't know if he's become shrunken in himself and shy when Jungkook has been saying for years Jimin is the most shy member of bts he knows. He is extroverted sure but he's quiet demure and graceful elegant and pretty too. Don't confuse is public persona for his actual persona. He's used to performing his extroversion and playing up his daring character for TV.

Jimin the artist is not the same as Park Jimin the brother, son, friend and human others know and that's what he's been saying for years. So if you ask what happened to the old Jimin I'd say FUCK IT HE'S FINALLY FREE BOTTOMS UP

Like he said, raise a glass to the old him- emphasizes on old. He keeps trying to break loose from old habits and behaviors that hold him back and don't serve him. I'd wager one of such habits was keeping up with his public imagine of constantly being a spectacle.

His duality is part of who he is. We should give him room to express and explore himself without attaching vehemently to our single lensed view of him. There's nothing wrong with him.

But I understand your concern. I used to be like this too. for years he had said bulking up and building his body wasn't his thing. I nearly- well who am I kidding, I had an actual melt down when he started working out and building his body again because I thought he was being coerced into doing it again- turns out he just wanted to look ripped in jeans🥴

Dude was tryna get laid and I was out here cussing hybe out for oppressing him💀

I don't know if he's always unhappy when he's only opening up about his struggles which I think is a good thing for him and his fans. For me it helps me understand him more, empathize with him more and grow more closer to him.

Jimin is not the melancholic type.

The shit he deals with is real. I've heard many western artists complain of similar struggles and some of them are happily married with kids. Relationships are not a magic cure for loneliness especially if the feeling of loneliness IS NOT STEMMING FROM LACK OF HUMAN CONNECTION.

Do you actually thing Park jimin is lonely because he lacks intimacy and human connection? Loneliness is a complex issue and many things can lead to a person feeling this way. For me, I think he's inability to be who he really is was his biggest emotional trigger. He lives in a conformist society surrounded by people who constantly expect maturity and discipline from him, with a fan base that will desert him and unstan him if he says the wrong thing, dates the wrong person or make the move. There's no room for mistakes and that can be pretty dehumanizing.

Social expectations can alienate people and I'm afraid jimin is no exception. And in case you aren't aware, life sucks and hits every body including Jimin.

I don't appreciate you demanding my attention in this way. It makes me feel I have to rush my response so if this feels rushed it's on you🙃

[hanzajesthanza]

i just finished your newest video essay and again you did not disappoint!! i love how your essays talk about the things no one else seems to even think about, and in such depth as well. as someone for whom the witcher is like. probably the most important story i’ve ever come across (plus i’m polish so it’s even more meaningful and personal lol), seeing the work you’ve put into researching all this genuinely warms my heart 💞 congrats and thank you!!!!!!

aw, thank you! tbh i was a little worried when i put it up because i thought maybe it wouldn't do well and i'd be a "one-hit wonder" 😅... also i didn't know if the subject would be interesting to everyone :x

so i'm really glad it resonated with you and people seem to be enjoying it!! i'm especially grateful you see how i try to look at things "no one else seems to think about," that's indeed the case... or, well, maybe not "think" about (because idk what other people have in their minds), but at least, "talk about": the witcher has an absolutely interesting story, and on top of that i find it just as interesting as a cultural phenomenon, which affects how we understand its story!

(this turned into a long ramble :p no pressure to read all of this, just thinking out loud)

there's a broader context to everything we discuss "as a fandom"; and how witcher has been added to, modified, re-interpreted, and changed for international audiences (which isn't inherently "bad," but is definitely something that exists and should be considered) has created a lot of fragmentation in how it's understood, which leads to confusion (and some very passionate arguments) online.

it's kind of meta, because witcher itself (in my interpretation of it) is (in part) all about how "we live in a society" and none of our decisions, views, or ideas are truly "our own," because they've been influenced by our experiences and those around us - emphasizing the role of society in individual identity, and calling into question individual agency to make decisions. at least that's how it seems to me, in my view which is probably affected by how the US is a very individualist society and has been from its very conception. (though -okay really going on a tangent here- i'd be interested to read on how individualism and collectivism present themselves in poland, as central europe but also a post-soviet bloc country, because what i studied about collectivism focused on only the US, the mediterranean, and east asia).

back to topic, i feel like most american interpretations of the witcher, both on the scale of the company (orbit, netflix) and consumer (readers, audiences), have not only been divorced of its polish context, but that most readers are not going to be aware of that that context even exists, much less go to seek that context on their own. (by 'context,' i don't only mean the cultural, historic, and mythological references in the witcher, but stuff like when/where witcher was written, how it was written (short stories to saga), andrzej sapkowski's background and perspective, how witcher presented itself as a pop culture phenomenon in poland). to most american readers, it's just "another fantasy series" with no context as to who or where it came from, which leads to confusion, upset, and even dislike, when they come across something which they don't understand the context or reasoning for.

though i guess take these statements with a grain of salt, because this is really based on my own personal experiences with the series and my experiences are not universal. but this is what happened to me when i first read the witcher: i had very little context for it, so didn't understand why the books were supposed to be such a big deal, nor most of the messages their author was conveying with them. (and i guess i'm a creature of emotion too, and there's something very moving about disconnect between generations and cultures which makes me want to investigate, learn and try to understand different perspectives. i don't like resentment and arguments, when they are the result of miscommunication)

total rant lmao, but, yes, you're correct and i'm grateful for this ask because i feel seen by it!

a key motivation of mine in making these essays is absolutely that most audiences are not innately, if they know about or have heard of the witcher, going to think about this big-picture stuff: the morphing and changing of the witcher over time, across countries and languages, and in different authors' hands... and yet, they (and their fan experiences) will be affected by these broad cultural understandings all the same.

and, though i will eventually like to make some casual, more insular videos (like character analysis, book review, fun games and discussions) i just feel like it's absolutely necessary to look at this huge context behind it all first!!

[chaotic---calm]

I Have Left the Hearth that I Know is an AWESOME series (as is Scenes from a Marriage)! Also one of my firsts XiCheng fics! *bunny tries to go for a hi-five but slips and faceplants on the floor instead*

ajdhad Knowing this, I can't help but think about your fic and the parallel between it and this series, the whole political marriage (the relevance of expectations! the effects of outsiders in their marriage!), the HOW and WHY of the choices (I love how JC is the one reaching out in both stories, it says *so* much about who he is at his core), sexism and ableism (with varied degrees of attention given, but never not significant!), the contrast between the characters with power in both situations (in one LXC embracing sexuality while keeping emotional distance even while falling in love, in the other JC promising physical distance as a form of respect, eventually emphasizing their emotional connection —or lack of it), it makes me so so so excited (more than I already was!) to see where your fic will go when it comes to the Jin's actions against XiCheng (you know I'm here for the politics).

It also makes me very curious about the future smut! I Have Left the Hearth that I Know says *so* much about XiCheng using the smut for character and relationship exploration (the evolution of the characters shown through the activities they allow themselves to do, enjoy, submerge themselves into —eg: THE SHIFTING NATURE OF BOUNDARIES—! kink as a safe way to explore things that otherwise harm them!), I'm not really good at analysing that kind of text (or rather, I'm particularly bad at doing so, but I read the comments of those who can) and I absolutely look forward to what you will do with the sexual scenes knowing that you've read and enjoyed this series and it's relevance to you liking this ship (not that I'm implying your story is meant to respond to this series in any way! just saying that it's fun to compare the common points knowing it's relevance to you! but of course your fic is its own story and if it goes completely somewhere else with the characters and themes even when similarities occur —it already has with the very format!— I'm all in for it, I love it for what it already is after all).

Anyway, time to go! Bunny hugs if you want them! Bye! *hops out* 🐰💛

(context post for this ask)

*offers bunny ice pack for bonked noggin*

Those two series really are some of the most well-written, well-crafted stories I've ever read.

There are arguably some parallels between our stories, though I want to be up front now that I didn't conceive this idea and start writing it with any intention to tie it to the other stories or to take from either authors' ideas. I just love the angst and awkwardness that comes with political alliance marriage stories, issues of power imbalance, issues of trust and vulnerability, etc.

I do agree with you that JC making the first movie in both narratives is indicative of his character. He is exceptionally courageous and will do what he must for those he loves and those he must protect.

In the other stories, a large part of the initiation comes from JC as well, which makes sense given that LXC holds more power both socially and physically, so he restrains himself to ensure he doesn't do harm (and all the inner turmoil about that is delicious). In my fic, conversely, though LXC is physically stronger, JC is the one who holds social and gender power by being a sect leader and an alpha, so he's the one who holds himself back, thus leaving LXC to take most of the lead so far. And I also think it says something about their society and also LXC as a character that his physicality (at least so far) is never something that he considers as a weapon he could use against JC.

On the smut, for mine we'll just have to wait and see...and I really hope it doesn't end up disappointing given how excited you are, lol. 😅 It'll be a very long time coming, though there will be varieties of intimacy before the "big event." You are right, though, that the other story does a beautiful job establishing a blossoming relationship through sex and intimacy and kink; it's masterfully crafted and very endearing and sweet (and of course sultry and hot too, lol).

Thanks for the ask!

(My Fic)

[onthemerits]

i've been seeing so many videos about how "we pretend episode 8 doesn't exist" from wednesday-tyler shippers and so many people on tiktok are using the audio from that scene where wednesday "pushes him away" and tells him to "snap out of it" but tyler "calls her on her bs" and "fights for her."

and i feel like we're collectively falling into the trap that the show intentionally sets. the point is that the "good boy looks past dark parts of angsty introvert" trope is inherently manipulative and misleading.

the idea that someone could see us pushing them away and fight for us against our own self-destructive tendencies is admittedly appealing, which is why we see it so often in media. the idea that someone could know us and our feelings better than we know ourselves is romantic and comforting.

but in reality its patronizing, controlling, and undercuts our autonomy. and the show's writers make a point to emphasize this. the 8th episode can't just "be ignored" because it gives us the perspective of seeing tyler's ulterior motives clearly. he's holding wednesday there as a distraction and is trying to lure her into trusting him. the "he really loves her in his heart" argument is just not vibing with me because true love wouldn't disrespect someone's decisions and wishes, even if those decisions are "self-destructive" or come from a place of emotional constipation.

and part of it is that the show signals "evil" in untraditional ways. it pays homage to the addams family in that it abandons the dark and stormy evil and opts for other "toxic tropes" of society. and a lot of wednesday focuses on subverting classic teen drama tropes in the same way that the original movies focused on subverting american suburbanism.

and in this sense, the classic romance tropes (a lot of what people on tumblr are cringing about) were the ones that signaled dishonesty and ill-intent. and that was intentional on the writers' part. there's a reason why the love triangle feels so poorly written-- it is!!!

tangentially: this is why i fundamentally believe that the emotional build-up between enid and wednesday was intentional (whether it was explicitly romantic or not) since their relationship is the core driving force of good in the story

for example, there is the parallel between tyler as the hyde saving wednesday from a psycho who wanted to kill her based on a misinterpretation of a prophecy versus enid saving wednesday from almost the exact same position (pinned up against a tree) where tyler was trying to kill wednesday because she understood too much

also this was as enid "came out" and found herself (letting her inner 'monster' out) versus tyler choosing to turn into the more monstrous and dangerous part of himself-- it directly compares the two relationships.

FINALLY: there is a lot of symbolism in the hyde "saving" wednesday at first-- giving the illusion that the monster cares for her -- only to be ruthless in the end when it becomes clear she wont play by his rules

(ALSO theres the fact that wednesday insists on the hyde being xavier because he's the one that she sees as the "dangerous love interest" when in reality its the "nice guy" who has always been the problem)

[nyc-on-tv]

The Man (and People) Who Tried to Sell the World: Mad Men

In 2018, I started grad school and I started Mad Men. This wasn’t my first time watching, or to be clear, it wasn’t my first time trying to watch it. I tried for five years prior to that. But like many people who don’t venture into older media, I found it hard to get into because it was a period drama (which is funny because most people think of corsets and top hats and old British people talking as period dramas, but its really anything that takes place in another time). Mad Men was in a time I would never live in and felt outdated. But I think that initial mentality was my youthful outlook making me think I could never understand the appeal of the past (despite the fact that I love music from the 80’s and other generations that I was not a part of). It’s just a show about the 60s. But like the show’s deuteragonist Peggy, I had to try something different, and it really helped me. I chose to watch it as a character study for everyone involved. I found myself making mental checklists of how I wanted each character to grow if I was gonna keep watching and with that perspective the show kept getting better.

The show takes place in 60’s Manhattan at what I imagine was the height of advertising (I haven’t investigated the truth in that perspective). Companies were booming, creativity was on the rise, and the future was Coming with a capital C for everyone but Don Draper.

Don Draper, as an aside, was the real man of myth and legend in the show, we saw him coming to grips with his identity, making himself his biggest advertising challenge to sell himself the world. And what I mean by that is every move this man makes is calculated so he can achieve what he deems the life a white man like him should want. But, later on, in the back of his mind we can see he struggles with a multi-layered imposter syndrome that no one can really help him with (which as a new grad student, imposter syndrome was a wildly familiar feeling). Because of his status and problems (often caused by himself), every decision he makes changes the course of the show, granted he is the protagonist but truly getting to see how his actions affect everyone else makes watching everyone else a bit more interesting. In my mind, it actually makes watching the show for Peggy Olson the better watch than for Don Draper. Peggy starts as his first assistant in the show and becomes an astronaut of

advertising due, in part, to how Don molds her and guides her, but later as a character independent of him.

The show really takes advantage of its 1960’s setting to show off 60’s fashion, food, and New York culture. Unfortunately, the show also emphasizes civil rights issues of the time and (rampant, as my girlfriend likes to say) misogyny are also highlighted in 1960’s U.S. culture. I say unfortunately because these aren’t moments in our history, we like to revisit because of how much wrongdoing occurred to women and/or people of color. But really, I think, revisiting such moments emphasizes why changes in society are important even if it takes long to get there. This show takes place during the assassinations and rallies of important historical figures and it’s interesting to see how the characters react to (or ignore) such events. It’s also important to imagine how we would react if certain figures we looked up to came and went in our lifetimes.

Overall, this show is a character study I enjoy revisiting... because I see it as an era where people truly started questioning changing things for the better and how advertising can be a reflection of it.

(Speaking of changes, this post was proofread and partially editted by my partner. Her grammar and diction help to articulate my initial thoughts behind this post.)