#but that's always been their general shape

[euthymiya]

You believe in soulmates. Alhaitham does not. It’s not as though he loves you any less for his beliefs, but he certainly doesn’t entertain your baseless theories.

You’re determined to change his mind.

“What would you do if we never met?” You ask, staring up at him with your cheek pressed against his chest.

He glances down at you, sighing as he shakes his head. Here we go, he thinks silently. “I probably wouldn’t do anything, considering I wouldn’t know you existed.”

“You wouldn’t be sad?” You frown.

“How can I be sad about something that I don’t know exists?”

“Well, you could know of me,” you insist, “just because you don’t know me doesn’t mean you don’t know I exist.”

“In that case, I probably would not do anything,” he snorts. You don’t like that answer, glaring up at him as he adds, “I wouldn’t know what I’m missing if we never met.”

“You’re a real romantic, has anyone ever told you that?” You grumble. There’s a vibration of his chuckle through his chest, right under your cheek in a soft, rhythmic feeling that you’re so used to, you think it might be familiar from another life.

Over the course of the Akademiya’s years, there have been two prominent theories that have been debunked about soulmates:

1. The law of conservation of mass-energy states that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed—but only transformed. When a person dies, their body decomposes, breaking down into atoms that return to the earth, air, and water. These atoms then get recycled by nature, eventually becoming part of other living organisms, thus reincarnating from their previous life forms. It is possible, then, that two individuals could fundamentally be linked to reincarnate together from the same set of atoms in every lifetime.

It was later debunked by a scholar named Lamiya. Atoms themselves don’t retain information about where they’ve been or what they’ve been part of. They are interchangeable at a fundamental level, which means there is no difference between an atom in a human and a rock.

2. The heart and brain generate electromagnetic fields that extend outward from the body, with the heart’s field reaching several feet. Studies suggest these fields may be sensed by others nearby, subtly shaping feelings of comfort, attraction, and connection. It is possible that certain individuals’ frequencies may naturally align, creating a sense of harmony between electromagnetic fields, thus indicating that two individuals are naturally connected and could be labeled soulmates.

This theory was later disproven by a scholar named Dharmakirti. While human bodies do generate electromagnetic fields, there is no evidence that these fields influence interpersonal attractions or emotional resonance. Fields produced by the heart and brain are exceptionally weak and rapidly diminish with distance, making it unlikely they could be sensed or create harmony between individuals in measurable ways.

They fascinate you enough that Alhaitham pulls strings to allow you access to the archived files, but it doesn’t go unnoticed by you how he scrunches his nose in distaste as he sifts through them himself.

Soulmates have no plausible evidence of existing, he argues.

Lots of things have no plausible evidence, yet they exist, you always argue back.

You like to think despite all the differences, you and Alhaitham are soulmates—that some form of you, outside of your physical bodies, exists for each other and each other alone.

You think it must be the case when your eyes seem to find his in a crowd without even trying. What are the odds that in a sea of people, they always happen to come across his by chance? And what other explanation would there be for the way he always seems to just know you’re staring at him while he sleeps every morning, waking up not too long after your eyes fall on his face in admiration? And how else would you rationalize the fact that you could tell his presence apart from anyone. You’re certain that if two bodies were standing behind you from a distance, your heart would know which one belonged to him.

Soulmates, you argue. That has to be the answer.

“I think we were always meant to meet,” you murmur quietly, tracing a finger along the pale skin of his chest. “Don’t you?”

“We’ve shared numerous classes together and have offices within within the same hall,” he states blandly, “I think the chances of not meeting would be rather improbable.”

“Or maybe,” you huff, “we were always meant to meet because we’re soulmates.”

“I think that theory has been sufficiently disproven—”

“You never know! We believe in the divine even if we’ve never seen them, haven’t we? Who’s to say Celestia aren’t fake—”

“The Archons have spoken of them multiple times, and The Gods, in fact, do exist for us to see, so I think we can trust—”

“Maybe Celestia decide soulmates,” you reason, raising a pointed brow at him, “how will you disprove that? There’s no evidence that they haven’t, and you can’t collect much evidence about them, so I think it’s safe to say that it’s possible.”

“But then it’s equally as safe to say it’s not possible by that logic, as well,” he says smugly.

“Fine,” you huff, glowering up at him through puffed cheeks, “I guess you’re just too stubborn to convince.”

“I’m not stubborn,” he argues (which he does quite stubbornly, you want to say), “I apply logic and reasoning to my theories. Which is why they are hardly disproven.”

“Do you at least think we’d be soulmates in another world if they did exist?” You ask hopefully.

He looks like he wants to argue about the likelihood of another world existing altogether—it irritates you enough that it pulls a frown on your face before you grumble a quiet forget it, shuffling out of his arms and turning away to face your back at him.

He chuckles, shaking his head. Something fond blooms in his chest, like a fresh padisarah in May.

“If,” he emphasizes as his arms wrap around you from behind, pulling you flush against his chest once more, “if in another world we existed where soulmates were real, then yes. I do think it would be you and I.”

“Really?” You ask quietly.

“Yes,” he whispers. Suddenly, he sounds rather sure about a theory he never even believed in the first place.

“I wonder what we’re doing in that other world,” you hum thoughtfully.

He sighs, bringing the blanket back up to cover both of your bodies and mumbles, “I would hope we’d be sleeping at a reasonable hour before a work day.”

—————

Stay tuned for them being soulmates after all in another world *wink wink* ;)

[former-leftist-jew]

It reminds me of an anecdote from Sam Harris's "The Bright Line Between Good vs Evil:

A friend of mine was just at an art opening, where they were passing hors d’oeuves, and someone she knew came up to her and asked if she had any food in her teeth. And my friend said, “no, your teeth are perfectly white and beautiful.” Unfortunately, the woman herself was black and considered the association of the terms “white” and “beautiful” to be a microaggression. She got greatly offended and stormed off. What, did she want brown teeth? I know nothing more about this person apart from this anecdote, but I guarantee you that this prodigy of social justice is completely confused about Israel and Hamas and jihadism. This is the sort of person for whom words are violence, but massacring women and children with knives, or burning them alive, is a completely defensible response to “oppression.” Most elite circles in the West—academia, Hollywood, the media, nonprofits—have been poisoned, to one degree or another, by this social justice psychosis—where imaginary harms are seized upon as though they were existential concerns, and pure evil is easily shrugged off, or even celebrated as a moral victory.

This phenomena is also explored in Ronald W. Dworkin's "The New American Anarchists," where he examines how a whole generation being raised on pictures and symbols on screens walk away thinking that an offensive image or words on a screen is a greater existential threat than flesh-and-blood human beings beating and butchering other flesh-and-blood human beings:

Rahman spent much of her life amid abstract concepts. She spoke “the language of abolitionist Twitter,” one writer observed. She was “steeped in the language of social justice and racial politics.” Ill-defined terms such as “race,” “gender,” “LGBTQI,” and “environmentalism” seem to have shaped her crude perception of reality. Life for her became a theater in which her own little plot, built upon abstract words, was always being played. The old American students who celebrated the purposeful killing of innocent Israeli civilians revealed a similar obsession with abstract words, constantly referring to phrases such as “colonialism,” “apartheid,” “humanitarian,” and “identity.” The words reflect the same creepy simplicity of mind that chills the blood.

[mortiskiller]

Becoming a Pile

Content warning: nonconsensual feedism and gaining, force feeding, immobility

You have been gaining for years, the last five years have made you 958 pounds.

Helpless is a generous term for you. Utterly incapable of caring for yourself beyond eating the food I shove in your mouth. A TV plays all your favorite brain rotting content. Other people talk about their lives or current events, but you can barely utter more then a few words between food, a funnel, and the nearly half ton of lard weighing you down. Years of weed, booze, and hormones have lowered your IQ enough that thinking makes you confused. A barely awake wheezing like that himself into this. Every window of your pen is covered in black out curtains so you never can track time. Nice low led strings give you enough light to see, but not enough to stop you sleeping. Your eyes are used to the low light of staying up for 20 hours eating till you pass out for a day or two from eating 40k calories. Time has no meaning as you gorge non stop, I just plop food on your chest and force it into your mouth. No meals, just sleeping and eating.

A bright light from the window wakes you up. Light sears your eyes the first sunlight in five years washes over the pile of fat you have become.

Groaning and whimpering like a scared puppy waiting for me to comfort you. So used to eating before your eyes even open, the 60 seconds of awareness causes your gut to rumble. Blurry fat caked eyes try to look around and make sense of this new sensation.

The sound of me moving around the room causes you to look across the room. Well, try to look. Your brain says you should be looking to the right side of the room, but bunching fat rolls stop your neck from moving more than a few inches.

I move a large tarp covered object in front of you. In your desperate state to feel my hands keep your gluttonous needs satisfied you reach out to grab my attention. Again you know you are trying to move your arms but nothing happens. Years of inactivity have left nearly nothing but lard covering every inch of you. If you could see your hand it would look cartoonish, a ball of a plan with fingers so far they mash together.

Staring at me, I smile. Walking just past your vision, sounds of wheels creaking filters into your deep fried brain. A round pale shape enters your vision. Rewired instincts cause puckered lips to open, wet desperate whimpers drip out of your mouth.

I push it deep into your mouth, hunger you have not felt in years drives you to shallow it, deeper and deeper. Till it stops, I pull it back slightly so you can't take it anymore. The straps start to dig into your face and head, the mask tightening around your head.

I walk back to the mirror and pull the tarp away. All you can see is a wide bulbous shape, blurry around the edges as your fat forehead hangs down blocking your vision.

I hold back the lard closing around your eyes, the sight before cannot register with your brain. The shape grows clearer as your vision focuses.

A head lost in fat, with arms resting on mountains of blubber, legs and feet poking out from a curtain of lard, a pure pile of obesity.

Hot breath fills your ears, "It is you. That utter useless fat slobby pile is you. And know you are stuck forever with that feeding tube in place".

Heart pounding so fast you can hear it in your ears. The heat of the sun gives you a glean from sweat.

"I took everything away from you. You can't even try to close your mouth and stop me from feeding you. A jock that got hard from being owned and fattened like live stock to a dumb, useless, that cannot even close his mouth."

As a pulse sparks from your long buried cock, a dripping leaking clit buried deep in inches of warm soft fat. It's what you always wanted. To have no control. Zero ability to stop a feeder from making you uncomfortably obese.

"Now every calorie of slop goes right in your stomach. No need to think or even shallow. Just sit here, and feel yourself being absolutely lost in your growing body."

A firm slap to your piling sack of lard brings a wet warm feeling on cock. An orgasm of indescribable primal feeling sends a wave across your body. You stare at the quivering bed bound body. It can't be you, you can't be this owned.

The feeling of the first cycle of the machine pushing a half gallon into you makes your eyes roll back, another spurt of cum pooling in your fat pad. It was over for you. Your last coherent thoughts fade as you stare at your growing body.

Hunger, hunger, hunger.....

[bharv]

Personally? I’ve consumed all the wider media for draggy age (yay autism) and I still think at a line-level and general how people react level, some of the writing isn’t it.

There’s a lot of mixed feelings and always has been about the franchise having a lot of lore across different mediums and I think it’s fair to criticise it, a whole boss only meaning something if you played DLC from a prior game was a huge point of contention for example.

But also even though some things have changed over the decades in game and it is only fair that they do (all societies change over decades) there’s still some things that wouldn’t change that quickly across WHOLE societies. I think it’s one of my biggest gripes. Thedas is not a global society, it is still a highly religious society, and the control of information for political reasons would still be more controlled than we see. And on a sillier level, I don’t care how developed we are, if a woman turns from a bird into a person, I’m gonna be surprised about that! Apostasy is still a thing in a good few of the cultures and shape-shifting is not a common area of magic use.

Also more to the point. A lot of the dialogue level exposition has been designed to be a particular way. It’s not “bad” in an indication of incompetence. It’s unsatisfying because it’s designed to be a certain level for more casual and new players who might not be so interested in the depth. It’s intentional, and it doesn’t serve the franchise as far as artistic quality. It serves the franchise to broaden it as much as possible to try and bring in more money.

Again. Personal opinion! With a little professional background informing it!

[whencyclopedia]

Desert Kites

Desert Kites are mega-constructions that consist of two long walls converging upon an enclosed space that has on its periphery small stone constructions called cells. Seen from the sky, their shape suggests that of a windborne kite; they were thus called kites by pilots who flew over the arid regions of the Near East in the time of the French and British mandates of the first half of the 20th century CE. These kites combine various characteristics which in archaeology have been the object of particular research. However, most classical methods of investigation are useless because of the nature of these constructions.

In spite of many studies, kites remain a mystery in many respects, although recent research has advanced their knowledge. We are beginning to better understand their geographic extension, their age and their function, crucial questions still under discussion a short time ago. From the beginning of the 2010s CE, the access to high-resolution satellite images stimulated research by revealing that there are many more kites than were thought a few years ago. From this new data source and more classical information, multidisciplinary investigations were launched in conjunction with the organization of field expeditions.

Morphological Description

Kites are large archaeological remains, generally quite well preserved. They are dry stone constructions, composed of an enclosure and more or less continuous walls which converge towards an entrance; these walls can sometimes be absent but are usually two in number and sometimes three, four or more. Their length is commonly several hundred meters and can even reach several kilometres, while their height is no more than a few decimetres. The enclosures are variable in shape (circular, triangular, star-shaped, etc.) and their size, far larger than pastoral enclosures, varies from a few hundred square meters to more than ten hectares.

The small stone constructions or cells that are joined to the external part of the enclosure are the most sophisticated part of the device, always carefully constructed. Their number varies from a single cell to several dozen. The variability among the kites makes it difficult to propose a typology. Several often-observed attributes are considered, such as a disposition of the cells near the entrance, the existence of cells at the extremity of pointed appendices and the particular shapes of the entrance. These features are most often shared by kites from the same region, thus forming homogeneous groups circumscribed at the regional scale. Kites are found in arid environments, steppes and desert margins and their topographical location is clearly the result of a definite choice. A break in the slope is the most often observed at the position of the entrance and various topographic configurations were preferred to flat topography.

Continue reading...

[uramitashi]

sometimes i mourn the fact i'll never get to have the relationship i wanted. the fact that men basically care just about getting sex, and everything else is secondary at best; the fact they will never be an ally of our class for all my lifetime; the way they talk about our body, the way they discredit our minds, the lack of genuine interest and the pure sense of possession they feel instead of the tenderness that love should be. i cant stop thinking about the fact that brothels have existed for longer than women's right to vote, because access to our bodies has always been more important than our social contribute. even the most perfect of all men has his sexuality shaped by porn and the general sexual objectification of women, and has grown up surrounded by a misogynistic society; he still has a privilege he doesn't care to address.

and although i am so so happy to be 4b sometimes it feels so weird - right by my side there should be half of the human population, other human beings, someone I can learn to love and with whom to explore the world. and yet they are as of now the biggest threat to me, to my sex class. unable to see me as anything than a mean to an end.

i am not making a logical discussion but a sappy, emotional vent: it hurts to be constantly aware. it hurts distrusting half the people i know. and yet i am proven more and more to be in the right. but why couldnt they just enjoy our presence as equals? in a dumb way, i take it on biology for making our gametes so different milions (bilions?) of years ago. i say maybe, if we evolved differently, all this would have never happened: i would not have to treat feminism as my ultimate end because feminism isnt needed, and i can instead focus my energies somewhere else. i wouldnt waste my efforts in protecting myself from a sex that actively hates me. i would be able to explore love and sexuality in a healthy, carefree way and enjoy the laughter of friends and relatives and of my life-long partner.

but a male relative of mine has pedophiliac tendencies, and my male "friends" got contaminated with andrew tate parasites, and "life-long" male partners abuse and kill their girlfriends and wives, cheat on them, financially neglect them. a prostitute is richer than a wife: i know where men's priorities lie.

and yet in a humiliating to admit, sad way, it's disheartening. maybe in another lifetime we evolved differently and none of this happens; maybe it's just the bad timeline

[derangedfujoshi]

What makes, say, a pokemon "shota"-coded? And is it harder or easier to clock compared to human shotas? You've really enthralled me and I'd appreciate any answer! No pressure, though, I just like to learn as much as I can on any given subject and you're so consise and understandable! Thank you either way!

OMG! I'm super glad to hear the way I explain things makes sense to others too and not only to me! I always try to be very concise and simple when yapping because I want my inner reasoning to come through but I always fear sounding crazy so qhaidkfkf really thank you for your kind and reassuring words!

NOW shotamon are EXTREMELY difficult to categorise! With humans it's super easy (aside from a few odd cases) but with critters can be UGHHH A PAIN!! Because you see, unlike with humans, here height has little to no relevance because we go on design alone since at times a pkmn that looks like a shota turns out to be super tall or so small no human could be that height. For example:

Ledian (left) is 140cm tall!! WOULD YOU HAVE GUESSED THAT THAT THING WAS ONLY 16cm SHORTER THAN ME???? While Ribombee (right) is 20cm!! Yet they both classify as shotas to me because they have those cute proportions with big heads huge eyes and LOOK smol enough!

One thing that is pretty easy to do is spot a pkmn that's clearly "too adult like", for example:

Inteleon (left) and Obstagoon (right) are NOT shota shaped, we can ascertain that by their limbs for example! They both have equally long arms and legs and their torso is pretty long too! Not to mention their heads are more well proportioned compared to the rest of their bodies! For instance here's what an "adult" looking pkmn looks like next to one I'd call a shota

You can see how proportions play a key part in their designs and of course this was intentional, Mew needed to look cute and adorable whilst Mew Two more like an intimidating version resembling vaguely the original! Again, note how the heads are one well proportioned to the body and another is way too big. A bigger head is always used in animation to represent kids and child-like characters, you see one and connect it to youth, the same as bigger eyes are made like that to make a character look cuter and more child-like!

One other reason why I did not look for height when sorting pkmn is because at times, some of those with a height that would've been perfect on a human, just did NOT look like shotas at all. For example:

Mienshao (left) and Sneasel (right) are respectively 140cm and 90cm, both heights would've qualified a human character to be a shota but they just don't LOOK like ones. They both have very long limbs and a sharp edge to them that you can see in their faces/eyes/paws(?) they lack that softness that is so typical of shotas. Maybe Sneasel could still be considered one but honestly I can't see it.

Next up is the fact that some pkmn just... Looks like animals (or Stuff)! For example:

Regular Ponyta doesn't look like a shota to me, it looks like a horse GALARIAN Ponyta on the other hand absolutely reads like a shota! And if you look closely the Galarian one has shorter, more stylised limbs, a bigger head and huuuge eyes compared to the og one!

Lastly, how did I differentiate between PokéShota and PokéKodo? Let me tell you it was difficult at times! Generally for a Kodo I tried to go for those designs that seemed more... Compressed? Like, those that had NO legs at all, not much limbs' length? Here's an example:

Whismur (left) was categorised as a kodo while Alolan Vulpix as a shota. See how Whismur has essentially no limbs? Just a big head with paws? Vulpix on the other hand still has a "normal" aspect with short but there limbs attached to the body.

And yes, I did put Eevee in the kodo section instead of the shota because... It gave off child-like wonder, I don't know really, one could probably put in the shota section as well because, again, with critters the lines kinda blur at times and a lot is based on vibes although there's still some logic and patterns to it!!

I really hope I explained my self thoroughly and that I didn't bore you, Anny! Thank you so much for giving me a reason to yap yap yap about my thought process, I hope you liked it and that you'll have a wonderful day \⁠(⁠๑⁠╹⁠◡⁠╹⁠๑⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠♬

[rotzaprachim]

one thing that’s being missed out a lot in everything from the American center to the American left’s election loss nitpicking is that imho if you use the terms “working class” or “class consciousness” to describe America or even Americans in a positive way, YOU are one of them famous elitest out of touch urban professionals that you’re also currently bagging on the right now because, while those terms are extremely established in economics and the global news sphere, they are not that popular or established among the actual trump voting communities you are talking about. you are one of them hated overeducated elites who might have watched a college lecture on YouTube or cracked an Econ 101 textbook from the library! You are one of the elites! Instead you hear a lot of “middle class,” the supposed party of the common man, and “blue collar,” which hasn’t described the whole or even likely majority of the American working class basically forever, or the “working man,” as if the vast majority of the country… doesn’t work. And that’s a loaded distinction. There’s loaded aspects of every one of those terms. America imho suffers from an incredible degree of classism, but it’s also an internalized classicism because of how many people believe there is something fundamentally more honest, hardworking, and real about being middle class then one of them Bad Poors, no matter what their actual income is. The middle class, after all, isn’t the working class- they could never be the people who need to pay for universal school lunch because THEIR child isn’t hungry. And the “blue collar” is fundamentally not the pink collar, the genuinely hated and more highly educated positions more often held by women, like teachers and nurses, and it isn’t the white collar positions like office workers and civil servants and social workers that are more disproportionately held by liberal voting city slickers. And it’s a working man, a real working man, not like those bad poor and illegals who aren’t working and take what’s mine anyway.

And these terms matter, these distinctions matter, because they tell you a lot about why votes for who and why. Key fact: a lot of analysis of the democrats “abandoning the working class,” and while I think it’s a) far more complex than that and b) a genuine problem that the democrats ARE too centrist and should shape themselves into more of a general social welfare liberal party, what’s often being missed is what the actual white working class - I’m sorry, middle class- who is abandoning the Democratic Party wants, and moreover, who they imagine to be “elite.” Because elite, here, is absolutely not in general and absolute class terms, but a miasma of factors that include education level, cultural markers, ethnicity, and some simple factors of straight up geography where cities are disproportionately liberal and where almost the entirety of the actual American left lives as well. If it WAS in absolute class terms Donald trump would not be the face of this discontent. Money is not sole, or even main, issue here.

and furthermore comes this: the hints of even white male working class political sentiment have not been popular when they’ve been tied even a little bit to progressive policy or Other People Getting Things. Check sherrod brown losing his seat, or the fact tim walz’s campaign didn’t pummel trump and vance into the electoral ground. And that comes back to the class distinction: pro-working class policy is not always popular among the conservative regions that went to trump because they believe they are not the working class and that these policies are never things that they could be so poor as to need. We don’t need free school lunch - I work hard enough to provide for my child. We don’t need childcare - our family can scrape through! We don’t need national infrastructure bills - we’re doing just fine! Instead is a mass rage that what people would be paying for is other people, that the working class is other people, who are not then, who are undocumented, who are not working, who are grifters. (A hell of a lot of this kind of sentiment was established in hillbilly elegy. A shit ton of white working class Americans voted for the guy who wrote the book on white working class Americans being dumb and lazy in a way he personally was fundamentally better than.) why should a hardworking middle class voter pay for freeloaders who could do something so embarrassing as be poor? To understand America, you have to understand that there’s a hell of a lot of upper class rage amongst people who are at the bottom of the heap themselves that lights on fire when issues of race, sexuality, and gender are brought into it.

so that’s my big take on what’s wrong with Class Politics among Conservative Americans that people are missing the fuck out on, and it’s backed up by both stats and organizing experience, but I would fucking love a lot of people being very loud right now to take their socialism a cake for everyone into some of the famously red regions and see how that actually goes over. I don’t think America has to be this way, forever, but it’s pointless to ignore the way it is. And I think there’s another important irony here to remember: people genuinely feel that there is something immoral and also dumb about voting for democrats, but they use their policies anyway. You think the conservative women who voted against abortion never got one? As if. But the same policy applies more generally - Biden’s infrastructure bills were absolutely used in very red counties. People who voted Republican still use Democratic policies in favour of social security to feed their children. It’s just that, well, on paper they don’t actually need them, because they are middle class.

[apexulansis]

ardaka's ear scarification (ignoring the tattered ear for the sake of a clearer reference)

[haxxydraws]

[talvis0ta-art]

im working on a drawing of victor from fallout: new vegas, and i got the face done today! so i can't not post it!

date drawn: may 27th, 2024

[cathalbravecog]

MISTER BEAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ser-zoras]

I really do believe that Daenys had that dream for Dany. Time is a flat circle, and the world was going to need her someday, so everything fell into place and let this family could pillage the world just so the last one, their last daughter, perfect, flawed, miraculous fifteen-year-old Daenerys could start to rebuild it. If she looks back she is lost because her entire family in all of their madness and cruelty was looking forward for her. They thought it was for them or their sons or their wives but it wasn’t! It was for her! It was all for her!

[nomairuins]

i like overthink everything now it makes me feel so dumb. i used 2 be able to just talk 2 ppl but nowadays every single thing im like Is that actually going to make them hate me. Yes probably. and then i just dont respond which makes ppl hate me. this is how it is

[microwaving-tesilid-argente]

oh to have a patron god who unconditionally loves you to bits.....

//

[reploidbuddy]

I'm feeling a small victory this morning