#but the fact that such a system is. definitely very not fun for a large portion of the world's inhabitans is. not fun

[dravidious]

You're seriously very neat

Concept Meant For Fun: Society in which humans being owned be demons is the normal state of things.

Problem: All of the violation of rights and potential mistreatment makes me feel icky.

Solution: Make being owned by a demon a profitable job done by choice.

Result: The introduction of capitalism somehow made this world more ethical.

[ronanlynchdefender]

The political stances of The Raven Cycle characters are so fascinating to me. You got Blue over here who is very much a progressive activist in the making. She recognizes things like misogyny and is not afraid to call those things out even when it concerns her closest friends. Because of that, I definitely see her as the type of activist who would be in the front lines at protests whether that be at the Capitol, college campuses, at the border, or as is the case in the dreamer trilogy, tied to a tree. She is the type of person who demands change in our current system and would demand it loudly and through acts of protest or civil disobedience.

Then you have Adam who displays no strong desire to change the system and whose only desire is to rise up in that system. He wants to climb the social ladder and assimilate to those of higher social status which is partially why he envies Gansey so much in the beginning because Gansey was born into it. Adam still tries to do this in the dreamer trilogy by essentially pretending to be a Gansey-like figure while at Harvard despite hating it. Eventually, Adam gives up on trying to belong within this higher social class and "climbing the ladder" but then strangely enough becomes a fed, which means just integrating into another form of hierarchy and power structure. And I feel like a more interesting arc would've been rejecting being a part of these societal systems altogether.

Which I suppose now leads us to Ronan who is a literal anarchist. He actually rejects all societal systems and rules and it permeates every aspect of his life. But actually, I shouldn't say all because there is one societal institution which he does enjoy partaking in: religion. With the exception of his catholicism, he does not engage in any other societal institution: education, law, politics. He hates it, in fact, It is antithetical to his being which is what makes his characterization so perfect because of course a gay farmer god would hate oppressive rules and structures (except for religion). That's not even mentioning that he is a canonical ecoterrorist that cost the US government a billion dollars. But what is really interesting about his character (and where his and Blue's political stances differ) is that because he rejects these systems he has no interest or stake in changing them. He'd sooner tear down the system than try to reform it.

And then there’s Gansey who doesn't seem to engage in politics and would rather spend his days reading his little Welsh books and going on his fun adventures. Of course, he is able to do this largely because he has the privilege to not worry about politics or social class. It seems that Blue's influence changes this as they are both chaining themselves to trees in protest during the dreamer trilogy. Other than that, I don't really have a lot to say about Gansey and his politics. But I find it very interesting that Maggie has created this close-knit group of characters with such varying relationships to how they view politics and social structures. I tried to draw out a 2-axis grid to show their differences, but I don't know if it really works because I feel like Gansey kinda screws it up but nevertheless I like how they each represent different ends of a spectrum sort of.

[babacontainsmultitudes]

🤔 Admittedly I was a little disappointed by the reveal (but certainly not surprised the foreshadowing was heavy in this episode lol), but not actually against how Beth (and Will) seem to be playing with it thus far- which is to say that I do think it has a lot of potential, and I suspect there's more to what we're seeing).

;) Big ol' ramble below

Mostly the theory has turned me off until now (at least insofar as I've witnessed it transpire in the fandom at large) because it struck me as so painfully ironic to see Trudy, a 1950s housewife, struggle to exist under the system that she's in, fail to fit the mold assigned to her, and be denied her personhood very literally for it (this being ironic insofar as how it mimics how she would have been treated back then). This and because frankly I just think she's a lot less interesting if she's fully a robot LOL, but I'll hopefully get to that in a bit.

Not that the hints at her mechanical nature and the relevance of Tucker's background were lost on me; I can appreciate why those would contribute to a plausible, fun and I think still mostly harmless theory (now fact). However, minus one or two specific posts I've seen on the matter (namely a recent one suggesting that if Trudy is a robot Beth is probably taking inspiration from The Stepford Wives, :( sorry person who made that post I couldn't find it I wanted to credit yoouuu), I've seen the theory just about exclusively presented in a manner that, rather than explore the metaphorical and political significance of Trudy being partially or fully mechanical, at best disregards the parts of her narrative that are at their core about sexism (among other related things), and at worst negates them entirely (i.e. Trudy only thinking and acting how she does because she's a robot malfunctioning and not because the world itself is causing harm and she rightfully wants something more than the role she was forced into, Trudy not even having any real thoughts and feelings of her own, etc.). I just think it kind of sucks to shove all those important things about her aside and say "actually, there's no person suffering here, she's just a robot" and perhaps worse yet to imply that she does have thoughts and feelings but because they result in Weird™ behavior it must be a problem with her code and not at all relate to what women were subjugated to during this point in American history.

CONVERSELY I don't think Trudy being a robot (or at least partially one) at least from what Beth and Will have presented us thus far, inherently suffers from any of these issues? First and foremost because Trudy definitely appears to possess sentience, thoughts, and emotions of her own, matters which immediately complicate her degree of personhood and don't inherently box her behavior in as a bug in her programming rather than an issue with the world she's been put in, quite the opposite in fact! I think they have a very solid groundwork laid out here to make a strong statement with Trudy's narrative (and perhaps ask the question of what is really malfunctioning here), all the more so since [I pull out a Rebecca Swallows-style conspiracy board] I don't think she's entirely robotic in nature? Actually you should just read Mack's tags in this post cause he has great thoughts on the matter (of which those are just some of them), but if I can direct your attention to one thing in particular, it would be Beth's fact (I *believe* from episode 2) about Trudy never graduating high school because of her essay where she suggested that "perhaps women could one day domesticate themselves", a statement that could of course be interpreted a number of ways but ultimately threatened the patriarchal status quo enough (in suggesting women's independence) to cost Trudy her diploma. Taken on its own this fact appears to contradict the theory that Trudy has always been robotic in nature, because it doesn't really make sense that Trudy would have been set up to go through high school (or school at all really) when Tucker's intention was/is for her to be the perfect housewife. You may then suggest that Trudy's memories of this are fabricated and not actually her lived experiences, in which case firstly perhaps you should reread my earlier point on the robot theory being used to actively negate and otherwise disregard the portions of Trudy's narrative that pertain to sexism and feminism, and secondly it really doesn't make any sense to me that Tucker would implant those kind of memories into Trudy's brain? To be completely honest if she's been a robot from the very beginning (rather than someone who became a cyborg, which is what I'm trying to suggest here), then I don't see why Tucker would program her with actual sentience in the first place (suspending my disbelief here with regards to the possibility of programming sentience to begin with). It seems much more likely to me then that Trudy was not always a robot, and instead altered by Tucker to force her into a role of subordination and remedy her """imperfections""". This option is significantly more interesting to me one, because it implies that Trudy has actually lived a life up until the present, full of its own complexities and strife (and dreams, and real actual memories worth exploring, etc.), and hence is not by any means "just a robot", and second because it amplifies the hypothetical statement being made on the lives of the real living women of the era and how they were treated and seen as being "in need of fixing" for not conforming to gender roles or otherwise acting "out of line" with what was expected of them.

OKAY THIS GOT OUT OF HAND SO I'M CUTTING MYSELF OFF HERE but I wanted to my share my current thoughts what with this ending and where I'm at so hopefully that was at least interesting to whoever has chosen to read through this one okay thank you byyyyyyyyye~

[mysticdoodles]

hi i saw a post about the fish playing with the human child and even though your addition to that post is 3 years old by now i would love to hear more about ftm sheephead fish :3 (no pressure btw!)

Fish curiosity, in my inbox?? It's more likely than I think, apparently! xD

First off, there's actually multiple fish dubbed 'sheephead'! There's the sheepshead- note the extra S in there- and they look like this:

And yes those are their teeth. Horrifying tbh, but they're very good at what they do- crushing invertebrates and other shelled snacks! They're an Atlantic species that sticks to temperate and warmer waters, and they max out at about half a meter in length.

That's not the fish we're talking about today. The focus of today is the California sheephead wrasse- note the lack of a second S- also known as the 'sheephead' for short. Not confusing at all! We definitely don't bash our heads into walls over the naming conventions and lack of record-keeping of our scientist predecessors.

THIS is the sheephead wrasse, the species of the lovely and now Tumblr-famous Red! :D With a length of up to a FULL meter, they're a whole different size class of fish! They can be found along the west coast USA from the Baja Peninsula all the way up to Monterey, and dwell almost exclusively in kelp forests and nearby environments. I will use one of Red's pics as an example of female coloration-

The lighting isn't great but you can see how her body is streamlined, and besides the white underside of the jaw, has a salmon-pink coloration! Females can be pink or a dull silver-beige. And much like other large marine wrasse, MALES have a drastically different appearance.

This thing is built like a damn tank!! Sheephead are a species of wrasse that shift colors to gain those striking black scales and physically bulk up when becoming males- because guess what? ALL OF THEM ARE BORN FEMALE! By default, all male California Sheephead are FTM trans :) They use that bulky head and extremely tough set of jaws to not only hunt their preferred prey- mollusks, gastropods, and bivalves, etc- but also to bash and chomp down on rival males. This one has won many battles, look at that scarred up muzzle!

The sex change is determined by several factors, as it's not guaranteed all sheephead will eventually become males. Because sheephead school in a harem system- many females to very few males- in order to maximize pressure of stronger offspring, the biggest and healthiest sheephead male will drive out competition from the school. Naturally, a sheephead that lives longer and gains a greater size will have a much higher chance of shifting from a female to a male, if the conditions are right. Stress induced from competition can suppress the hormones that stimulate this transition in females, so they're less likely to gain size and shift from female to male if there's already strong competition taking place. However, in the event there are too few males to mate with the females, or no males present at all, the biggest female will start transitioning to fill the empty slot! It's a long process that can take as few as a couple months, or up to years, depending on resources available.

Conversely, if there are TOO MANY males, they can revert back into females! This process also takes a long time, and is a lot more rare to witness, especially because right now male California sheephead in particular are being spear-fished into becoming an Endangered species :c Sheephead adult males in good condition are considered a trophy animal in spear-fishing and similar marine trophy hunting off the West coast, and because males in particular are being targeted, the gene pool is being reduced when it wrecks the harem structure of schools.

As a fun fact- they're also an incredibly smart fish, and can form relationships with humans, as demonstrated with me and sweetiepie Red cx There's many documented cases of large marine wrasses forming long-term friendships with divers! Here's a humphead wrasse that made friends with a diver she learned would crack snails open for her with a hammer:

I don't work at the facility with Red anymore, but I currently work with two unnamed adult male sheephead, and once again they both like me and seem to despise all my coworkers, even if I never had the opportunity to train them like I did with little Red xD They pick favorites I guess? Now if only I could make friends with the garibaldi...

[redcurrantarot]

Pick-a-Card Reading: Who is your Future Spouse/Life Partner?

Hello everyone, and welcome to my first PAC reading! Use your intuition/call upon your spirit guides or higher self to choose the image/group that you feel called to as it holds the message meant for you.

Decks Used: Caroline Myss Archetype Cards, Tea Leaf Oracle Cards, Radiant Rider-Waite Tarot

PAC Theme: Howl's Moving Castle

Disclaimer: This is a general tarot reading for entertainment purposes meant for a wide audience and isn't targeted towards every specific person, so not every message will resonate with every person reading 100%. Take what information resonates with you and leave what doesn't. All of the info provided in my readings are my own personal interpretations of the cards and messages that come through. Because of the general nature of the reading, it's best not to take it too seriously and keep in mind this is just for fun!

© redcurrantarot 2023 — all rights reserved. Do not steal, copy, change, or redistribute my content.

Group 1

Cards: hills, caterpillar, elephant, hammock, samaritan, student, beggar, saboteur rx, chariot rx, page of pentacles, 8 of swords, 8 of wands, 2 of cups

Hello and welcome to your reading group 1!

Starting off, your future spouse/life partner is someone who is still figuring out their life and seems to be quite young and is just starting out their journey. Specifically I'm seeing they're still in school (higher education so college or university most likely) they're in a period of their life where they're a student and in a position where they're learning new things, as for what they're interested in or majoring in I feel like it's definitely something related to helping or communicating with others or societal issues. The thing is though, your future spouse at this point in time seems to also be kind of struggling with lacking direction and feeling stuck in life. It's giving me the feeling of being in school but also being confused with how their life is going, what they want to do and where they're headed. There's a lot of feeling trapped in their circumstances and not knowing what to do and feeling aimless. They're giving financially struggling college student, the type to barely make ends meet and might eat instant ramen a lot. It seems like they're probably lacking a support system in their life and feeling kind of helpless. I can also see them working a minimum wage type of job most likely and just trying to survive. I think the main reason for this is because of the fact that they seem to be some type of foreign exchange type student as in they're probably from another country and are attending school in another and have only themselves to depend on money wise. They're honestly working super hard to the point where it can be kind of unhealthy and they might not be able to take care of themselves very well because they're just trying to get by. Things won't always be this way for them though as things seem to be looking up and a change is coming their way. I'm seeing specifically that this is how the two of you meet each other, your person eventually decides to go on a trip or a vacation of some sort maybe back to their home country or wherever but it's definitely somewhere far away and then that's how both of you end up meeting!

Group 2

Cards: bear, coins, boat, heart, messiah rx, prince rx, don juan, angel, knight of cups, 4 of wands rx, 10 of wands, king of wands rx, king of pentacles

Hello and welcome to your reading group 2!

Alright this is interesting, your future spouse/life partner is someone who comes off or acts in a way that is arrogant and they're someone who is also very powerful I'm seeing when it comes to their position in life and their social standing. They're someone who has a very large presence and who gives the impression that they know everything and are pretty intimidating too as if everything is in their control, they have a god complex. But I'm also seeing the reason for why they act this way/give this impression and it's because it is an act/a mask or a defensive mechanism in a way, I don't believe they actually truly believe they are better than others or above them but they take advantage of their power, their charm and attractive qualities to protect themselves because there is a lot of burden on them since they are incredibly connected to money and might be at risk a lot because of this. I'm seeing that this facade they have is because of issues and pressures due to their upbringing/family and because it's likely they come from some sort of generational wealth, in a way it's like they have to serve them which gives me the impression on top of this pressure already, they might be the heir to their family as well which comes with expectations. They might feel like everything is on them to succeed and they carry a lot on their shoulders. There are always people flocking to them and around them, sometimes not with the best intentions because not only do they have wealth from their family, they're also very good at making money and doing business and are held to high expectations by others and also themselves. I also think they're someone who's very smooth and knows how to use their seductive qualities to their advantage. Despite all of this though, underneath it all, this act and this performance they are someone who is truly kind and incredibly caring at heart. I'm seeing that they're someone who is probably pretty sensitive and soft hearted which is even more of a reason to put out a strong front, despite having so much wealth, they're also altruistic too and they definitely use their money for the right reasons and give back to others and to the right causes eg. charities, non profit organizations etc.

Group 3

Cards: torch, july, tree, apple, mediator, king, priest, monk/nun rx, king of swords, king of cups, 5 of pentacles rx, ace of cups, 4 of pentacles

Hello and welcome to your reading group 3!

I'm seeing that for your future spouse/life partner, they're someone who has a talent for connecting with people and has great communication skills which can bring people together. They're someone who can combine their intelligence and perception as well as their emotional sensitivity and compassion to move people and persuade them. I'm seeing that they're also someone who commands a level or respect and they also have some type of authority and are a leader in some way, they're someone people look up to. One thing that comes out very clearly about them is that they're also someone who is incredibly devoted to their spiritual/religious beliefs, they're very pious to the extent where it's something that they're known for and they might dedicate themselves to their religious beliefs to the point that they take priority over material matters at times or become overly concerned with them. They strongly give me the impression that they use their skills to help others in some way and offer them care and compassion. For some people their person might be a counselor of some sort or a therapist but I also can't help but feel like they do in some way use their spiritual/religious beliefs to tie into their work somehow or that it is in some way related. I honestly wouldn't even be surprised if they were some kind of religious/spiritual advisor or even a priest or just someone important in their religious/spiritual community that people turn to for help or guidance. They kind of give me the impression of someone who is good at preaching or might even want to "save" others. Another thing that is coming through is that they have a lot of self control or discipline towards themselves because of their beliefs and seem to be conservative in some way and for some of you, your person might be the type to want to "wait until marriage" or at least further in into the relationship if you get what I mean. One last message that is coming through is that for some of you, you guys might be part of the same religious/spiritual community and your families might know each other and it's possible you'll meet because you're introduced to each other through them and that this could be an arranged marriage/pairing.

Group 4

Cards: mice, broom, camel, tree, healer, child: wounded rx, vampire, mentor, 8 of cups, 10 of pentacles rx, the hermit, 6 of cups 8 of pentacles, the sun

Hello and welcome to your reading group 4!

Your future spouse/life partner is someone who is on a healing journey. They're someone who has experienced a lot of pain and trauma in their past, specifically their childhood and growing up from their family and is finally leaving it all behind in the past and recovering from this. I'm seeing that they've finally walked away from this and probably have cut them out from their life and moved away into a new home and life and have made a lot of effort and spent a lot of time alone to self reflect and introspect on the issues their trauma has caused them. This caused them to become aware and more protective of themselves and to not let others take advantage of them anymore, but I'm also seeing that through this self healing journey they found a new purpose in life that is part of healing their inner child and past wounds. It's really beautiful honestly, not only are they healing from this but they've decided to use their experiences and pain to guide others, specifically other children so that they can give them what they never had. I'm seeing that this person is very likely a teacher of some kind or at least for sure works with children, they could work in a school teaching them or could even be a daycare/kindergarten teacher or a child therapist of some kind or they could work with families, maybe even child protection services, something along those lines. But whatever they do they truly put in a lot of work to be a good mentor to other kids and to help and guide them. It's something that they're truly passionate about and it brings them a lot of joy not only towards themselves and their inner child but to other kids as well, they're someone who is constantly and consistently putting in effort to learn more and heal by working with other children and just spending time with them.

Thank you for enjoying and supporting my PAC readings! I'd love to know your thoughts, please feel free to let me know through my asks. Any feedback is appreciated ♡

© redcurrantarot 2023 — all rights reserved. Do not steal, copy, change, or redistribute my content.

[diiwata]

district 6 headcanons! 🚂

yeah, i'm a d6 fan too!!! sue me! here are my top hcs that i use for worldbuilding. if you've read my fic, "o children", then you'll recognize a lot of these things.

industry things

district 6 has many industries involving transportation. oil rigging companies, vehicle manufacturing factories (that they call 'manu-factories' for short), exporters and importers, etc..

exporters and importers get to travel outside of the district for a few weeks at a time, but their activity is monitored by peacekeepers quite heavily.

exporters and importers have the most access to morphling, and consume it more too. of course, there's rings that trade it and such, but people (and those in different districts) usually get their fixes through them.

i can imagine d6 being a work accident prone district. falling off trains, spilling oil, falling manufactured parts, etc..

as part of my fic, there's also an underground boxing ring ran by the peacekeepers to keep themselves entertained, but also to put money in the pockets of those who might not wanna end up in prison and need an... alternative to jail time. i hc that other districts have it too! maybe in d2?

^ OOH! speaking of which, what if career districts developed it into academies while others had it die down/kept more on the down low?

places

VERY polluted district. like, they have to have air purifiers in their homes and wear "outdoor masks" made out of cloth around their faces type of polluted. i also think districts that manufacture things -- like 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 12 -- also have a smilar problem.

i think the problem is concentrated more on the urban areas or people who live next to the factories/train stations.

apparently their population is larger than the average district, according to the fandom wiki, so i imagine that the poorer section of the district live near the factories in large apartment buildings. a neighborhood that i've created is called "farren heights".

meanwhile, the richer folks lived in townhouses/rowhouses. they have more of their own space, but the houses are still very, very squished together. another neighborhood i've created is called "peregrine court".

between the two is their marketplace/commercial area called "traveler's square". of course, they'll have their own shops in their respective neighborhoods, but it's not as plentiful as traveler's square. they need those spaces to create new apartment units or housing developments for the growing population. TS brings them together as it has all the fun pubs, shops, etc..

i think they travel within the district via a smaller metro/train system!

i also believe that due to their growing population, and because not everyone can afford the rent, they have a group of people they call "vagabonds". they build their own homes, but because of the expenses, they don't have their own purifiers. they are the most affected by the pollution.

cultural influences?!

DISCLAIMER: i don't claim being part of the cultures mentioned, so if anyone wants to drop some info, feel free to comment or send an ask so that i can incorporate it into my d6 lore! <3

german and indigenous algonquin are their dominant cultures. (hugest shout out to @pottershawkinswp and @wxstfulthoughts for helping me with the german stuff TM).

this is b/c there was a big migration of german people in this region some time ago. and the indigenous tribes that occupy these lands are algonquin!

the more minor cultures are black and latino! this is because of the fact that they have a very, very small portion of illinois/chicago according to the fandom wiki 😜

potatoes are their main source of carbs. and they have a lot of german-style foods like cheese soup, cold breakfast, etc..

along with travel/manufacture themed names, i also think some people have german influences in their names or surnames.

as for indigenous influence, i can see the youngsters referring to the older people as "elders". they also definitely pass down cultures through story-telling or word of mouth.

i also think they have a cryptid called the W. nothing else to the name, just the W. it's known today as the w*ndigo, but b/c i'm scared TM of the taboo that saying its name will bring it closer to you, i will not say it 😇 over time, the name was forgotten and just became known as the singular letter!

those of indigenous descent would keep their hair long in braids. i believe beading is implemented into their clothes too :)

these folks definitely line dance, a bit of jazz, bit of freestyling. very lively and very rowdy, free, etc.. they're there for a good time, not a long one!

HEAR ME OUT: district 6 greasers. i'm talking the outsiders, random fights, overly gelled hair, cigarette in mouth, and greaser v. socs battles in very sketchy alleyways.

yeah! that's all i have off the top of my head. this was longer than i thought 😭 feel free to incorporate these into your own d6 lore, but yeah! i 💜 district 6

[frozenjokes]

After years of thinking... I finally want to know what is CUBGUY and his boyfriend's MBTI aka the 16 personalities

You’ve opened Pandora’s box with this one my man because I am a psych major that HATES personality tests however that did not stop me from taking the test three times (this one which I hate specifically because the commercialization of personality tests to measure worth is evil BECAUSE THEY DONT WORK. THEY ARE NOT A GOOD MEASURE OF PERSONALITY OR WORTH AND HAVING TO TAKE THIS FUCKING FOR LITERALY JOB APPLICATIONS INSTEAD OF IT JUST BEING A FUN THING TODO IN YOUR FREE TIME IS FUCKING AURYRHEUSHDHUDUSHDJSHSJAHSUSUSJ KILLING BITING MAIMING GRAGAGSHGEHWDGSHHS I HATE. HER.) anyway. I can be normal about this subject I promise.

normal elsa: haha hey guys! I took the personality test for my ocs! yippeee!!! from left to right we have Cub, Scar, and Grian. thanks for the ask! this was fun!

but it’s not about having fun is it

so anyway I took notes. So you may have noticed some things don’t look quite right here. I mean, Cub looks fine! That’s pretty accurate even! Scar too, look at him go! … wait a minute. Grian’s not nice!!!! Or poetic!!!!!!! Is altruism even real????????????? (It is and I feel strongly about this but altruistic as an adjective to describe a person i believe is doing a disservice to the definition because what they MEAN is ‘selfless’ not altruistic but while we’re on the topic of selflessness Grian is fucking NOT)

So why did this happen. I don’t really care that the personality test got someone wrong, but I am interested in Why that happened, and why a test like this will never get a character like Grian correct.

Put simply, the answer is that this test wants to make you Feel Good. Now, having fun isn’t a crime and oftentimes personality tests are there to have fun, but the danger of something like this is that the MBTI isn’t presented as a low stakes fun activity, it’s presented as fact. Look. This is you! This is a good, objective measure of your personality, aren’t you great? You’re awesome :)! Here’s a list of vague-enough sentiments that probably apply to you based on the questions we asked. Yippee! its a really clever and extremely affective trick.

While the little blurb for Scar describes him relatively well, nearly every description of his ‘personality’ besides extroversion read pretty inaccurately, and that’s because the focus is so positive. The thing is, Grian and Scar are largely very self serving people (/neutral tone). They are often more worried about themselves than others, they’re impulsive, and that’s not all they are, but it’s pretty impossible to get at someone’s actual personality without recognizing what makes people flawed.

The closest I think the MBTI test gets to probing at this idea of potential selfishness are questions that are meant to test thinking versus feeling. Do you consider someone’s sensitivities in if they conflict with reason? Are you more concerned with facts or emotion? Logos versus pathos. That kinda stuff. But ultimately the MBTI test doesn’t really care about selfishness, it doesn’t care about flaws, it just cares about making you feel good baybe! So these neutral questions don’t really come back in any meaningful way. The MBTI is concerned about making caricatures of people, not accurately measuring their personality and that Matters because its so often treated as scientific, at least good enough to be used in consideration for jobs and work and school and all sorts of stuff.

And I could go on but the problem with modern personality tests goes so so so much deeper, even in more controlled, more science oriented fields like psychiatry. The system for diagnosing personality disorders is somewhat similar to a personality tests are at the very least aided by them, falling on a straight lined spectrum of Openness, Consciousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. But this system Sucks and everyone knows it sucks because comorbidity between clusters (A, B, C) of personality disorders is Insanely High. I wish I had the exact percentages, but I can’t quite find the information I’m looking for, but the point is that if the rate of comorbidity between different disorders is So High, how do you know these disorders are correctly defined at all? If a person more often than not has Disorder A and Disorder B at the same time, who’s to say they’re all that different at all? In general, a lot of the criteria for diagnosing a personality disorders is Really similar, so in general it’s a section of the DSM that needs a pretty massive overhaul.

I don’t envy personality psychologists man their job is Tough (and in my opinion, kind of impossible. there’s too many roadblocks in making an objective test. It is. Eugh.)

TLDR: the MBTI test is about as decisive as a fortune cookie and it literally can’t be anything more because then you would realize its lying to you. amen

[adragonsfriend]

Reading Darth Plagueis,

by James Luceno.

Ok I finished this book. It was a wild ride, here are some highlights, (anything in quotes, " ", is in fact, a direct quote). Spoilers, I guess.

———

“At some point, probably when he was focused on murder, a rock or other projectile had pulped a large area of his lower back.”--Plagueis

Yeah man that always happens to me too when I’m focused on murder

———

Me thinking, *Plagueis is way too normal for a sith,* about five seconds before the narration goes *Plagueis was hungry. he thought about eating the eggs of some sentient lizards and also the sentient lizards themselves, but restrained himself*

———

Plagueis, a banker: nOt all mUNns R bAnkErS u kNoW

A pirate who wants a bribe: be better for you if you were some financial wizard

Plagueis, a literal wizard:

———

Captain La (the random pirate): how do u know my name

Plagueis: *truthing* I sliced you ship’s systems,

Plagueis: *lying* it’s not like I’m a telepath or something

———

*at the evil rich people party*

"Republic senators, at least those that weren’t present, would be subjected to ridicule—"

I love how the narration says "subjected" like Bail Organa would give fuck about some assholes making fun of him

———

Plagueis in a business meeting as hego damask:

Repeats himself multiple times conducting experiments in trying to force suggest to a resistant species

His assistant: bro what r u doing ur making us look bad

———

omg young Palpatine is so Anakin coded. Genuinely he throws tantrums it’s perfect

———

Tag this accidental baby acquisition some random dathomiri lady just handed maul over like a sac of potatoes

———

Sidious, about to gaslight, girlboss, gatekeep, mansplain, manipulate, and threaten to manslaughter Nute Gunray within an inch of his life all in the span of a 2 minute zoom call: *wearing his Sith cloak on their holocall* what is up my guy? did u get the rare collectible bird I sent u anonymously a while back?

Nute Gunray: uhh…yes…um… its very nice…who are you and why r u hiding in that hood bro?

Sidious: it's the traditional clothing of my Order

Gunray: ur a cleric?

Sidious: "Do I seem like a holy man to you?"

Me: the only holes I see here are in your logic, morals, ability to feel compassion, and *waves hand all encompassingly* vibes

———

Dooku: if one more Jedi dies because of the indolence of the republic, I’ll leave the Jedi and refuse to look back

Palpatine: *listening attentively*

———

Plagueis & Maul: (separately) gloat about being Sith Lords to people they’re about to kill

Sidious:

Sidious: these idiots cannot keep a secret to save their lives—

———

Plagueis ACTUALLY believes Sidious is about to appoint him co-chancellor. what an idiot.

———

Padme shocking both Sith at every turn during the Naboo crisis is sending me

———

Oooh Sidious' murder rant is incredible. He's like Plagueis you manipulated and abused me, now i'm gonna kill you so I can go do that to other people without you hanging over my shoulder. It's like the evil but still cathartic version of Zuko's speech to Firelord Ozai.

———

Dooku: That zabrak guy was definitely a Sith. There has to be another one, probably the master

Sidious, standing right next to him in a shadowy warehouse wearing a black cloak: “how would one even begin to know where to look for this other Sith?”

———

“For an instant, Palpatine perceived a touch of his younger self in Skywalker”

This book needs to stop. Maybe consider pulling its punches sometime. The only mark of disapproval I have here is that this is portraying Obi-Wan as an asshole for the five seconds he’s present

———

Bad news, the book did indeed stop. I have been gravely injured, but also greatly amused. The experience of reading this book is just constant vacillation between *wow so Sith Lord, so scary, so evil* and *Plagueis, my guy, that is the dumbest ideology I’ve ever heard. maybe if you took a nap (for the first time in 20 years) you’d finally say something that made sense*

I will also confess that I was taking detailed notes about Plagueis for an AU idea I have that I will not be starting for at least another year because I am married to BHOT and I refuse to be like the rest of you sorry fucks with 17 wips (ignoring that fanfic is in fact the only genre of writing I do not have at least 17 wips in)

[moon-of-the-day]

Moon of the Day

Earth’s moon!!!

I’m always too busy thinking about all of the other moons that I always forget about our own moon and how much it does for us, but it definitely deserves to be the first ever moon I talk about on the blog:)

Earth’s moon, sometimes nicknamed Luna is the fifth largest moon in the whole solar system. The main theory of how it was created is- When the Earth was young and there were still a lot more rocky planets that weren’t fully formed yet in our region of the solar system, one theoretical planet named Theia orbited very close to us. Eventually the Earth and Theia crashed into each other, but Theia was the smaller planet and didn’t make it. What it did do was launch a large piece of the Earth into space which then molded into a ball because of gravity and stayed in orbit around us becoming moon.

This theory is believed because, when humans landed of the moon in 1969, they brought back samples of Lunar rock. In the sample, they found that the composition was incredibly similar to the composition of earth rock. This led scientists to think that the moon must have originally been part of the Earth.

(Samples of Lunar rock)

Not only does the moon have a cool history, but it also helps us a lot!!! It stabilizes the tides and provides light during the night time, and a lot of animals rely on the moon for their internal clocks.

Something that just occurred to me is that some people might not know why the moon is bright when it’s dark outside for us, or how the moon phases work.

(Picture from space.com)

Basically, as the moon spins around the Earth, different amounts of surface area will be illuminated by the sun causing the moon phases.

Fun fact: The moon is tidally locked to the Earth, which means that we can only ever see one side of it.

Also, a (not so) fun fact: The moon is moving about 3.78cm away from us every year, so feel lucky that you get to see the moon as it is now, because in the future, people on Earth won’t have that privilege.

Overall, our moon is just really really cool, and I hope that you maybe learned something about the giant piece of rock in the sky:)

[delirious-donna]

tw: blood, period sex… don’t click read more if these things bother you! feat. Kiba Inuzuka, Bakugou Katsuki, Nanami Kento & Alhaitham

Who do you think would be the most open to the idea of period sex? It’s messy, sure but I know personally that I am always horny as hell when it’s my time of the month. Three guesses why I’m thinking about this right now!!

So, I have a few people in mind and they are from different fandoms but I’d be interested in other thoughts, feel free to leave suggestions in the tags.

Kiba Inuzuka - he’s practically a wolfman with his sharp fangs, primal characteristics and that well honed nose. He can track your cycle better than you ever could, scenting the incoming change and preparing for your inevitable mood swings. Kiba definitely strikes me as the type not to be grossed out by a little blood, after all, why would he want to deny himself the pleasure of your warm cunt for up to a week?! It’s nothing a steamy shower can’t fix once you’re boneless on the bed, admiring the golden-skinned man above you and smiling coyly at the deep scratch marks you’ve carved into his shoulders and back.

Katsuki Bakugou - “It’s just blood, dumbass.” This would be his response when you try to shy away from his advances despite the yawning desire curling in your stomach. He’s a practical man, very forthright and straightforward. Katsuki would remind you of all the times you’d ridden him to the floor the second he’s walked in the door from a patrol, covered in cuts and scratches from whatever villain he’d been fighting. It’s always fun to see you wound extra tight, the telltale jump of your knee and your fingers near your mouth as you resist the urge to bite at them. Knowing you’ll be purring like a kitten once he has you creaming around his cock.

Nanami Kento - he just wants you to feel good, to take care of you and again, he isn’t bothered by the sight of blood. Kento knows you can feel less than your usual adorable and happy self when on your period, and he does everything he can to relieve your symptoms. The medicine cabinet is stocked with your preferred pads and tampons, the kitchen houses an inordinate amount of your favourite treats, he brings you hot water bottles when your back aches and he presses his large warm hands to your abdomen when you cramp. So why wouldn’t he take care of the hormones running rampant through your system? Kento knows you’re horny, your glances lingering over him far longer than usual and it’s not difficult to see the gears in your brain turning. He’s sweet with it, soft and gentle as he makes love to you until you’re a sleepy girl tucked up in bed leaving him to clean up any lingering mess.

Alhaitham - he finds it fascinating and simply another opportunity to further his learning and understanding of you. He finds it interesting how your mood, behaviours and even your smells change when it’s your time of the month. I definitely believe that if Alhaitham is used to being the one more often to initiate sex that he’ll be pleasantly surprised with how much more forward you become. The gleam in your eye and the sway of your hips, he misses none of it and the act itself feels all the more primal and animalistic than it usually does. It’s messy, for sure and he’s blunt enough to point it out after all is said and done but he’s quick to assure that it wouldn’t stop him from doing it again. In fact, Alhaitham is very keen to see how much more he can get out of you when your inhibitions are lowered…

[moxpunk]

Moxie's Big-Ass Retrospective on Games She Played This Year

There's going to be a lot of games under the break, and I'm going full-hog on spoilers. Honestly, I'm going stream-of-consciousness with these, so there's not going to be a clear point made for some of them. Just how I remember them and how I feel now looking back.

Final Fantasy XIV This is my current MMO of choice, and it's been this massive part of how I spent my time this year. The patches and content continue to be great, even if I breeze through it all in a few days after the patch when plugins/mods are back up. I've definitely noticed a dip in my interest lately. I think it's because we've hit a good stopping-point for the plot and junk, so most of us are just waiting until the pre-patch of the new expansion next year. RP continues to get fucking worse and worse for someone that plays a lalafell, since the community at-large (especially the modding community) is actively hostile towards lalafells and their players. Having to check every single venue to see if my middle-aged potato is going to be treated like a child by the hosts gets exhausting after the umpteenth time. Still love the game and I poke at it on a regular basis.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom One of my favorite games I've played this year, but also one of the most frustrating in hindsight. There was a ton of lost opportunity in multiple aspects in this game, and it's sorta the thing I keep coming back to in my head. I loved the exploration and fucking around with physics and just getting to play around in Hyrule. It's a magical experience that I think transcends the fact that 2/3rds of the map is essentially re-used. The Underground was a missed opportunity to shove lore of ancient civilizations in there, Ganondorf was a missed opportunity to finally depict him as a tragic hero with Hyrule being the villains for once, and no plans for DLC or even a Hero Mode is a massive miss for me wanting to return to the world.

Baldur's Gate 3 Hands-down my favorite game of the year by a massive margin, but like TOTK, an immensely frustrating experience. The game is half-cooked in so many areas, and the bugs are plentiful to the extent that they can't really be ignored. The pathing system continues to be the Larian Special of being jank as all hell, with my characters running in the opposite direction of the path it lays out for them. I played this one on stream, and I cannot remember a single stream where I didn't have at least a handful of frustrations with the combat system. Hell, I had to completely restart my file in the middle of Act 2 because Karlach's romance bugged out. I continue to be very upset and frustrated at how goblins are treated, doubly so since in order to pursue the Good Route with Halsin, you have to attack fucking children. I don't care if they're goblins, they're kids. Also very disappointing we don't get a single short-race origin character, meanwhile half of the cast is some form of elf. At least it's nice letting me be full-on cock-out trans. Despite that, the writing and characterizations in this game are unparalleled. It's immensely refreshing to finally have a RPG where you fucking roleplay, after years of it being dialogue that doesn't matter in the slightest other than "points towards the good/evil ending". I love the Brain Slug Squad immensely. This game is probably going to become part of my "play this every year" list because there's just so many different ways to play through this game.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Been waiting for this game (or a game like it) for fuckin' years, and it's everything I wanted and expected. I know a lot of people went into the game expecting some massive thing that lasted hours and hours, but my memories of JSR/JSRF was a game that I could reasonably beat in an afternoon or two because I just get into the flow and know what I'm doing. Cyberfunk is the purest successor to JSF that I can thing of where it just adds to the fun formula of the past. Incredible game, love seeing the mods coming out for it, hope we get another game in the universe since Team Reptile said they aren't doing DLC.

Pizza Tower Love this game, adore the movement and the music, absolutely fell off at about the halfway mark. I think it's because a lot of stuff was coming out at the time, and I just kinda played those instead. One of these days, I'll beat it and be very satisfied, but for now my gremlin-brain that demands collecting every single collectable and getting at least an A-rank on every stage gets exhausted just thinking about it.

Elden Ring Opened the game up after upgrading to a new PC, marveled that I could run it on Ultra with the game keeping a smooth framerate, killed a few enemies, remembered about the fucking giant ants in this game and how there are zero mods to remove/change them, and then turned the game off and uninstalled. Begging someone to make a mod that gets rid of the fucking ants. Please. I've already gotten every trophy in the game last year, so any incentive I have to return is predicated on that.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty So, I'm going to give my thoughts about the base game and the DLC, since I played both. The base game continues to be this utter fascination to me where my brain adores just existing in the cyberhell future of nonstop advertising (if I have to hear YO YO YO MY CHEWERS SHROOMERS AND FUMERS! one more time I'm going to fucking strangle someone to death) and ultraviolence. The game continues to ride that weird line of "might as well do every side-quest because they're quick enough to get to and there's hardly any compared to Witcher 3" and "oh my god I do not care about these fucking sidequests other than I have gremlin-brain". Doing anything with sniper rifles or heavy machine guns is an exercise in frustration thanks to there being zero silenced sniper rifle until late-game and there being no unique HMGs.The DLC is... fine. It's fun antagonizing Idris Alba, it's not fun that the DLC is based around a stealth build, it's extremely not fun that the changed ending is deeply unsatisfying from a narrative standpoint.

Pseudoregalia An adorable little game that I enjoyed quite a bit for the very short time I got to fool around with it. Love the movement, love the style of the graphics, love the little pieces of story. Game doesn't get enough love, so here's me giving it some more.

Potionomics I fucking adore this game. I think what helped endear me was getting to do all the voices on-stream, but who cares this is my retrospective and I get to be biased. Loved the romances and characters in there. I absolutely headcanon Xid as being trans, Roxanne turns me into a babbling idiot, and I relate to Luna so hard it almost hurts. I enjoy that characters remain your friend if you already picked a partner, and you have to have a conversation about "hey, you were kinda flirty for a while and I feel a little weird about that now" for each of them. Breaking the economy by the third competition was immensely satisfying.

Paradise Killer I slammed through this game over the course of a single sleepless night thanks to Super Depression. Love the character designs and how bold they are, love the lore behind the world, got kinda sick of it taking so long to travel from place to place, gremlin-brain refused to let me part with the game until I collected everything. Hope to see a prequel/sequel of some sort, because Lady Love Dies is such an interesting character and I liked the bugfuck-weird world.

Peglin It's Peggle, you're a goblin, you get funky ball powerups, adore playing this game on my phone in short bursts. Not much more to say, it's my potato-chip game.

Rimworld Friend gifted this to me and I got horribly obsessed for like a week. It's a lot easier to grok than Dwarf Fortress thanks to the UI and information being easier to comprehend. I never know how to do the crazy shit in these games, I usually peak at having a little self-sustaining settlement with like 4 characters that live their little lives until a plague or bandit raid sweep through and kill everyone.

Halo: Master Chief Collection Another series of games I got obsessed with and pounded out before dropping it. Halo 1 is like twice as long as I remember, Halo 2's remastered cutscenes are fucking gorgeous and it continues to be my favorite out of the series, Halo 3 I'm lukewarm on it's whatever, Halo Reach is... eh I don't care, ODST I petered out of thanks to playing it with an ex that does not understand videogames, Halo 4 is a slog. Didn't do any multiplayer.

Helltaker Finally played it, beat it in like 2 hours, thought the puzzles were fun and the art continues to rattle around in my noggin.

A Hat In Time Another game that I finally beat after owning it for like the better part of a decade. Cute little game, I don't have a clue what any of the updates and junk do these days. The big mountain level is a fucking nightmare to navigate and explore and that's why I fell off last time.

Puzzle Agent Played this one on-stream because I'm Minnesotan as all fuck and I enjoy Professor Layton puzzles. It's just as good as I remember, even if it's incredibly short.

Kingsway Love the premise, adore that it takes me back to the Windows XP era of using my parents' computer. I had like one good run that died in the middle of things, and I never really went back. I should do this game again at some point.

Loop Hero Another procedural game where progress is usually bottlenecked by gathering base resources in each run so you have a fighting chance. All my runs sorta ended up the same by a certain point and I wasn't really having much fun anymore.

Lethal Company Game scares the absolute shit out of me, I cannot play this game for extended periods because I get heartburn from fear. Excellent experience with friends.

Super Mario RPG I didn't have a SNES growing up, so I never got a chance to play the original. So far, I've been greatly enjoying the remake! I don't have much to say because I've only played like four hours of it on stream.

Katamari Reroll Just beat this game again on stream last week. Extremely fun, extremely short, Lonely Rolling Star continues to make me get emotional and cry, my memories get mixed-up with We ♥️ Katamari when it comes to the final sequence of levels.

World of Warcraft I made the return, and holy shit have things changed in-game. The UI actually looks like it's part of a cohesive artstyle, catching up with the story and questlines after bouncing in the middle of Shadowlands is honestly kind of exhausting, and the RP community is still splintered and fractured between Retail and Epsilon. Controller-support has been my biggest gripe since XIV's is fucking stellar and I do not have the wrists/hands for putting my abilities on the keyboard anymore, I either have to use my janked-out mouse buttons or a controller using ConsolePort which is... serviceable but nowhere near good. Uh, I don't particularly care for the dragon-stuff in WoW's lore, and I still haven't done a single dungeon since I play Brewmaster and I'm so out of whack with WoW tanking that I just don't bother. I'm usually doing RP on my endless ranks of characters if I'm not playing with my girlfriend. Season of Discovery has been a fun thing to do with my friend and our guild, it's sorta what I wanted out of Classic when they announced it. The "No Changes" thing was stupid because we'll never get back the lack of information and endless time we had back then, so I'm very happy to have World Of Warcraft Chopped And Screwed Edition. As much as I still have massive, major gripes with Blizzard and ABK in general... Azeroth is still home for me. It's been important to me as a person. Wouldn't have realized I was trans or poly without it.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT My thinks and feelings on all the games I played this year in 2023. I guess to sum up the year in general? It's been a real shit year for me. Went through like three big breakups, my art output's been dogshit in quantity thanks to mental-health issues, and for the first half of the year people just sorta generally treated me poorly which exaserbated a lot of problems. I'm recovering, but I've noticed it's been a lot slower than it has been in the past. Games are a huge hobby of mine, so I'm glad I've gotten to play some bangers this year. Being more active on Tumblr's been good for my mental health, since I finally feel like I've got a community again after not really feeling like I've had one in forever. Love you guys, stay weird. 💖💖💖

Sorry not sorry for this being so long.

[famwhy]

hii i LOVED ur tangerine story it was so good. the ending was fr shocking like i was NOT expecting that whatsoever. i was expecting the reader to fail and for tangerine to die but you really blew it out of the park w that ending. Idk if you write like smut oneshots but if you'd write one where tangerine fingers her in a train seat in a busy carriage that would be cool

Hello! Thank you so much for your compliments,it really means the world to me that you enjoyed the Tangerine fic I wrote after watching the movie recently and growing obsessed with him which made it like 10x more fun to write.

Now, I'm sorry to say, but I don't write explicit smut. Sorry, it's my fault for not confirming it in my bio haha. However, I could write you a quick scenario of him teasing the Reader with a bunch of sexual innuendos.

Also! Please don't let the fact that I don't write smut stop you from requesting Tangerine content because I'm more than happy to provide stories with the angry Brit that I currently have a huge obsession for.

Warning: cussing, mentions of sexual content and sexual innuendos - nothing too explicit however

(This ask is related to this post)

Your eyes lit up; stood at the very tip of your toes in anticipation as the male next to you stuffed his hand into his pocket and pulled out the familiar leather material that contained his riches within.

The day was scorching hot - you could, quite literally, see the heatwaves in the air. It was unbearable and definitely not the conditions one would wish for when going on a date.

Fortunately for both you and Tangerine, there was an ice cream stand nearby the park you decided to take a walk in. Or well, more fortunate for you than Tangerine - who claimed that he 'wasn't in the mood for ice cream'. Absolute bullshit, everyone was always in the mood for ice cream.

Upon voicing your opinion, he scoffed in response before going, 'what? You want it then?' - to which you obviously responded with an enthusiastic 'yes!'.

That brought you to now, waiting in all your excited glory as the man behind the ice cream stand pulled out a frozen popsicle and held his hand out, waiting for payment.

"Can't believe I'm fuckin' doin' this." Grumbled the Brit as he took out his money.

You merely grinned in response, thrilled to finally have something to temporarily distract you from the scorching heat that felt like flames licking against your skin; mere seconds away from burning you alive.

Yeah, not a very nice sensation to say the least.

"Here you go, pretty lady." The ice cream man winked your way, handing the plastic wrapper containing the ice lolly inside while grazing his fingers against your own.

His actions were enough to cause Tangerine's eyes to narrow and, ever the confrontational man, he spoke out regarding his discontent. "Oi, fuck off mate. Are you blind or some'n? She's with me."

Sensing that this was most definitely going to lead into a rather violent exchange, you wrapped your hands around your lover's bicep before tugging him away, a nervous smile growing on your face.

Luckily, he was in a good enough mood to allow you to tug him away without much protest - only a few cusses grumbled under his breath but that was probably the most tame you could get him.

As soon as you got a good amount of distance between the both of you and the ice cream man, you let go of your man in favour of opening up the frozen delight in your hands and shoving it straight into your mouth.

Immediately, an explosion of frost sprayed against the warm cavern - sending a cool feeling down your spine and helping to temporarily rid you of the warmth that overrode your system.

The cool sensation caused you to feel a large amount of relief and you let out a sigh with your eyes closed.

Now this was the perfect way to spend a hot summer day.

"You enjoyin' sucking on that lolly, love?"

The words coated in a smug, cockney tone made their way over to your ears and reminded you of the presence beside you - causing you to glance to your side and witness the large smirk spread across the handsome male's lips.

"'Cause I sure as hell know somethin' else you'd love to suck on."

His half-lidded gaze bore into your own, all but practically telling you that he was over his previous anger in favour of a new sense of desire that flooded through him.

Desire that came way too suddenly for you.

You spluttered, grip weakening around the stick in your hands as your jaw fell even further open; frozen treat barely remaining rested against your tongue.

"Yuh-you-!"

He chuckled. "Can't speak? Don't worry, dahlin', when we get home - you won't be able to stop making sounds for me."

This horny bastard.

[aimportantdragoncollector]

On the setting of werewolfverse / And Then There Was One:

-This takes place in an alternate Earth. The geography is roughly the same but the places have different names. The werewolves have swallowed up the fantasy world equivalents of Africa, Europe, and Asia by the modern day. Now North America, South America, and Australia remain.

-Kazuo's country, Abara, is located in North America. There is no equivalent of United States in this AU. This is partly because without a British Empire, there was no incentive for the states to form a union. It's also because the werewolves have been using their wealth and power to subtly discourage large human countries from forming. They prefer human countries to be in smaller, easily digestible sizes.

-Werewolves live in the Lupercal Empire. Lupercal has no concept of money, people simply request whatever they want and get it. This system would NOT work with humanity and its bottomless capacity for greed. It only works in a society where everyone is forced to feel an empathy that discourages them from resource hoarding. The inner wolf can't lie, allowing the wolves to communicate among themselves about what their people need.

-Everyone in Lupercal is living an upper middle class lifestyle. (At the high end of upper middle class.) Again, this is possible because of magical help. Werewolves have a nature affinity ability that allows them to easily produce large quantities of food, they have superstrength/superspeed, they have telepathy to perfectly coordinate their economy. There's a lot more to go around in werewolf society. Income inequality is very low. It's possible for werewolves to earn more resources by working based on the difficult and time-intensity of the job, that is perceived as only fair, but it's still people moving around in the same general social class rather than being in a different one. The ultra rich do not exist. Werewolves would be appalled at anyone hoarding more resources than they can use.

-Since work is not a necessity, the arts are thriving in werewolf society. All forms of art are highly valued. Werewolves also like to consume human art, but the flow is restricted in the other direction. Any human who had free access to Lupercal art would soon learn about the werewolf mission and how they definitely do not view humans as equals. Lupercal is still trying to keep their invasion plans a secret from the hairless apes. So Lupercal has its own internet that humans cannot access, and any books/art/TV that leaves the empire must be censored before humans can see it. Within Lupercal there is no censorship. They're only keeping secrets from humans.

-Werewolves can run faster than cars, making them obsolete. Some people still have car races. But they are not used for transportation. Even when transporting goods, it's easier to have a werewolf pull a cart.

-Since werewolf decisions are made by group consensus, Lupercal has a thriving tradition of debate. They love their debating events and have built amphitheaters.

-Religion is...weird. Lupercal has freedom of religion in principle, but in practice werewolves don't respect humans enough to listen to any human religious leaders. Basically, werewolves don't respect non-werewolves, not even deities. A lot of werewolves will continue to practice religious cultural traditions and holidays that they enjoy, but for fun and without any sense of obedience. Werewolves do not have their own deity. (Someday I may talk about how werewolves were created, but for now it would be a spoiler for the second story I have planned in this AU.) Humans who are religious are a lot less likely to volunteer for the bite because they have noticed how it erodes faith.

-Werewolves believe in reincarnation, or rather they treat it as a fact. They are correct in the context of this universe. Part of the effects of the bite is claiming a soul for the pack, forever, ensuring that those bitten will reincarnate as werewolves rather than reincarnate as a human or go to any afterlife. Over time werewolves have grown more magically powerful as the pack swallows up more souls.

-Werewolves tend to be constantly knowing about each other's business due to the telepathy and smelling emotions. It's polite to pretend not to know private stuff. However werewolves don't let anyone remain unhappy in the long term without staging an intervention. It's very hard to be a werewolf NEET because someone will come along to drag you out of your room. Whether that is a good thing or bad thing might be open to opinion? Werewolf society doesn't let anyone fall through the cracks, which is good. However it can be harder to get any privacy. Even if a human might be fine alone, the wolves crave contact and will arrange playdates if need be in order to force their people to make friends. On the plus side, every werewolf knows they have a few billion people who will catch them if they fall.

-Some werewolves handle need for privacy by moving to more isolated places. That is acceptable as long as you're happy. The pack doesn't feel the need to intervene if you're happy. Werewolf introverts are plentiful, but everyone has friends because the inner wolf demands it.

-Werewolves have no nudity taboo but they love pretty clothes. Love of art also includes a very thriving fashion industry. Werewolves have loads of spare time on their hands so they run experimental in stuff like clothing and cooking. They also have very enthusiastic sports competitions.

-Werewolves love to learn too, and will often spend their entire lives dropping by college to take classes in stuff that interests them. Scientific advancement is prized for making lives easier. They have heavily automated production with robots to free up leisure time.

-Werewolf society is so wealthy because of their telepathic network, which they can use to prevent waste. Some unpleasant facts: in the USA 30-40% of food gets wasted, and 85% of textiles end up in landfills every year. Werewolves have a huge advantage because they can telepathically poll people to make sure food ends up where it should be instead of the food people don't purchase rotting and expiring in grocery stores. They produce only what clothing they need instead of a lot of it getting thrown out. That is HUGE because their society can ensure everyone gets more while producing less. By human standards, Lupercal is cheating.

-Werewolf leadership is part election part meritocracy, with people who want to be pack leaders undergoing a series of tests and trials that get publicized. Having strong magic is vital to becoming a pack leader, because as I already mentioned, pack leaders are in charge of implementing the decisions of the pack so they must be capable.

[goombasa]

SLARPG and Writing Good Relationships

So originally this was an idea I was going to try and make a video about not long after Super Lesbian Animal RPG came out. Due to a number of factors, that obviously never happened, but it's a topic that I do want to at least talk about, both because I think it's a fun discussion to have, and because I just love this game so much. It's like… it's really, really good, guys.

Super Lesbian Animal RPG (heretoafter referred to as ‘SLARPG’ for simplicity) is a turn-based RPG released in December of 2022. It was created and published by Ponett, largely a one-person development team headed by Bobby Schroeder, someone who I was already familiar with via their blog “Thanks, Ken Penders”, an analysis and retrospective of the various Sonic the Hedgehog comics published by Archie and written by Ken Penders.

The game boasts a banger soundtrack, and beautifully realized world that combines magic and technology together in interesting ways, fun and colorful character designs and a simple combat system that makes you think about what sort of moves you have the resources for in the moment, with a difficulty curve that is just right. Even at the peak of your power by the end of the game, you can't just steamroll everything, and the game wants you to keep paying attention from the start of the game all the way to the end.

But at its heart, the real driving force in its narrative, at least to me, is the relationship between our main character, Melody, and her best friend, now girlfriend, Allison. Their relationship is beautiful in how its portrayed, mostly because it doesn't try to present their romance as anything special. They goof off, they joke with one another, they speak casually, but they aren't dramatic about their own relationship, it feels completely natural. You are very aware of the fact that these two were very close friends before they started dating, just from listening to the two of them chat with one another. It's not only very cute, but it also grounds the two of them as a very normal, relatable couple, despite being adventurers for hire in a world where they regularly fight off slimes and minor nuisances around their own.

Watching their relationship grow as the game goes on, with the stress of an invading, reality-warping force coming after their world, is fascinating, because despite the adventure, a lot of what happens with them is very mundane. We see the two of them confront their personal hang ups, we see the two of them eventually have a full communication breakdown that actually really hurts their relationship for a while, but despite the situation that causes it, the way that they work around it, and how they handle it, it all feels so real. Their observation that they felt like they were tiptoing around each other, worried about upsetting one another before their first big argument was such a massive moment for me especially, that I felt myself kind of deflate in relief in my chair after witnessing it.

(I'd give more context, but I really want anyone who hasn't already to play this game, so please, please, if you want more context for what I'm talking about, go and play this wonderful game!)

Melody and Allison's relationship is also contrasted well with their other party members. Jodie, who is the most experienced adventurer in the group, was already in a relationship pre-game with the Guardian (leader of the paladins), Faith. Her relationship is stable, but the workload placed on faith, and her own job as an adventurer does mean that their professional lives often lead to separation between them, and while they love each other, they do realize that finding a good work/life balance is something they need to adjust to, even after being in a relationship for a while. But because their relationship is more mature, the two of them are pretty good at handling their rockier challenges in their relationship, at least for what we're shown of it.

Then there's Claire, who definitely has one of the bigger character arcs in the game, with her journey being just as much centralized on finding value in herself before she actually ends up in a relationship, which is another good contrast because it relates back to Melody's struggles with her own self image as well. These relationships and stories could have easily just been their own standalone stories with no real bearing on the main plot, but the relationships, both romantic and platonic, are woven into both the main conflict and each other's relationships so well that it feels as though they grow as a group as well as individuals.

Relationships are also woven into gameplay as well. Not so much that they are the major focal point of combat, but in smaller ways that are meant to reinforce the relationships between characters. Characters that are in a relationship for example, can choose to take a turn to smooch their significant other, which gives a temporary buff to the participants' stats. There's even a counter in the pause menu that keeps track of the number of smooches you've given. It doesn't affect anything, but it's a cute addition. This gives certain events in the story more weight when you temporarily lose access to the ability to smooch. It is integration between story and gameplay that I love to see in my RPGs.

The game is really a romance disguised as a traditional, adventurous RPG. It's main focus is on its characters and their building relationships. That is the main focus, and because of that, the romance and everything related to it feels front and center, but not separate from the main plot. The two are woven together wonderfully in their themes and experiences, and that, to me, makes this one of the best written romance games I have played, and I'm counting games where getting into a relationship is the main focus.

If you're looking for some wonderfully written characters, a nostalgic feeling RPG systems from the 16-bit era, some clever writing, and a colorful adventure, Super Lesbian Animal RPG is absolutely something you should play. It is absolutely worth its asking price and I am wondering if we'll see more of this world and these characters down the line. I sure hope so. You can visit the game's steam page HERE (#NotSponsored).

I love these girls.

[raccoonfallsharder]

here are a few sneak previews of what we’ve got going on (this is really more to organize my thoughts and force myself to come up with titles than anything else)

upcoming rocket raccoon fics behind the cut

1. Window Across the Galaxy

aka long&angsty. hoping to start posting on Sunday or Monday.

Slooowww burn + eventual smut. elements of hurt/comfort because rocket is the saddest-angriest boy. Slight AU starting pre-GOTG volume 1 (but will hit most of the same major plot points).

Rocket is captured by a Ravager crew hoping to get rich off the excessively large bounty on his head. Throwing a wrench in everyone’s plans is the Terran girl they hired to do some freelance assessing on a recent haul of goods they’ve seized from a Xandaran luxury liner. Oops.

She looks at the rusted bars, and back to her brute of a tour guide, and sighs heavily. Slowly, she turns back to the cage, swaying toward the bars so she can peer in at eye-level. She’s immediately face-to-face with the creature. His ears are still pressed flat against his head, fur bristling, and he’s gazing back, clearly suspicious and probably - justifiably - feeling more than a little bit mean. She’s suddenly certain that if she got close enough, he’d take out her eyes. There’s no helping herself, is there? One corner of her mouth twists up in exhausted resignation and she nods. “Welp,” she says solemnly to the raccoon, “fuck me, my dude.”

2. Blackmail Material

(codename: pwp???). will probably post part 1 in a week or two.

just pure fucking smut. this was gonna be two parts but I'm leaning toward three now (smut // fuff // smut). probably takes place sometime after endgame but before volume 3? not that it really matters tbh because there is NO FUCKIN PLOT HERE. ur girl's got a praise kink so that'll definitely be featured per usual.

basically: rocket finds your vibrator.

“I’ll tell you what,” he offers up, still grinning that shit-eating grin. “I won’t say a word and I’ll give it back to you. You can even keep whatever batteries are in it.” That sounds too good to be true. You raise a brow and cross your arms in front of your breasts. “If?" “If you let me watch you use it,” he challenges, eyes daring you. “For science.”

3. Domestic Scenes in Space Travel

(codename: ok sweatshirt girl.) i dunno -maybe post the first one by mid-august?

Comics-inspired but not exclusive - just a buncha feel-good fuffy one-shots and equally feel-good smutty one-shots. Series of slice-of-life readerxrocket one-shots following The Very Boring Adventures of Space Pilot & Sweatshirt Girl.

“Just try not to push any buttons or pull any levers till you know what they do.” You snort. “I fully intend to keep my hands completely to myself unless I have your explicit permission to touch.” Rocket leers. “That could be fun.” Your eyes narrow. “Space Pilot, I’m gonna need you to focus on the task at hand so I don’t end up accidentally jettisoning us.”

4. Other Duties As Assigned

(codename: schemers, dreamers, & multicalendar memers) i don't have an intended outcome for this fic yet so while i am VERY much enjoying it, i first need to grapple with whether or not i'm okay posting something that may be unfinished. i usually try to avoid that.

I have no idea whether this will get smutty or not (probably, knowing me?). Begins five months after The Snap.

Natasha Romanoff is an administrative nightmare - a fact that does not go unnoticed by the (interim) captain of the Milano. First she demands that the remaining two Guardians of the Galaxy be reachable via a primitive Terran messaging system, and then she can't be bothered to read the frickin' emails.

Thank fuck she's hired a new assistant.

**THIS MESSAGE IS ENCRYPTED** To: <nromanoff@aee.org> From: &lt;rocket@aee.org> Subj: re: WHAT THE FUCK RED Date: Monday, September 24, 2018 7:34am well that’s probably the nicest message I’ve gotten since I hacked the internet I’m gonna have to kill your boss though

(a super-secret spoiler sidenote - i have a formula and I shamelessly overuse it, so there are no surprises here: girl falls first, raccoons falls harder. every fuckin time friends.)

[visenyaism]

Share with us your Shiera headcanons please 🙏

since shiera is such a nothing character who just happens to have a really cool premise i do have a lot because you can just make stuff up (apart from my goofy shiera hightower theory). so here’s a big ol list under the cut:

-raised primarily by her half brother daeron since her mother died having her and her father died when she was an infant and seeing as how her mom had dubious origins (maybe from lys but no family, maybe a witch) she had literally nowhere else to go. Also because as a GIRL bastard she was just less of a threat. Because she’s just there on the goodwill of her brother the king, internalized from a young age that the only way to get what she wanted was to be extremely self-interested and perform her part very well.

-spent most of her childhood in the library reading political theory and trying to Learn Real Magic to get closer to her mother. fixation on appearance and performance led to her picking glamour magicks as her primary field of study, which is also what she heard they’re into in Lys.

-Spent a lot of time with Aerys I as a result because they had similar special interests and his general disinterest in women meant he was one of the few people who was not Weird to her as a teenager so they just stayed research buddies.

-Everyone at court’s preoccupation with her physical appearance from a weirdly young age (thank u george rr martin very normal and cool) led to teenage shiera just deciding she can say or do pretty much whatever she wants within the confines of the social role she’s been assigned. None of it matters unless she wants it to so the worst thing she can be is bored.

-So as a result of that she manipulates people when she gets bored but can you blame her if it’s the only way to get what she wants as a bastard and they’re probably not listening to what she has to say anyways and also making people fight is really entertaining?

-Not being taken seriously as a bastard AND a girl helps her realize that the entire game of thrones is in fact a made up game—one she enjoys her and her loved ones winning, but not something to stake her whole personhood in—and her family are not literal dragons or serious people.

-Unlike the other great bastards shiera is not wrapped up in the existential identity crisis about whether or not she is a True Targaryen because she’s never been interested in being anyone other than herself. Terminally bored whenever Bloodraven or Aegor or Daemon start doing this.

-Blackfyre rébellion happened when she was sixteen so of course she backed Daeron over her annoying other brother. Definitely made Bloodraven’s arrows that took him and his kids out.

-the blood magic thing WAS true. shiera was maybe not as practiced in it as her notable sisterniece danelle lothston but she did partake

-Eventually fell out with Bloodraven because it was really fun at first to be cooking up schemes nonstop to hold the realm down under Aerys, but then she realized that’s the only thing he wanted to do for the entire rest of his life. and the game is just going to repeat itself over and over again so she got out of there because that’s soooooo critically boring and there are other things in the world.

-accelerationist in that she does not believe things can actually get better for people under a targaryen king unless circumstances get bad enough that the people rise up and take back power, but not in the sense that she’s interested in being the one sparking that. She just has very little faith in the system at large.

-i don’t think she’s quaithe but definitely she spent the rest of her life travelling learning new magic and stuff. Not alive by the main series but no known records of death, she just sort of fell off the map eventually.