#cannot overstate how much of an option that is

[forlorn-plushie]

@femboty2k put me in the Saw trap so here we go

[dailyadventureprompts]

Overhauling Exploration with the Illuminated Room System

Artsource

Despite playing D&D for over 20 years, every so often I'll encounter a bit of DM advice that completely changes the way I run my games. When it happens, it often feels like I've discovered a way we were always SUPPOSED to be playing, solving a problem that I'd had for years and sending me into a rage spiral about why no one seemed to figure this out back when I was first learning the game.

Lo and behold, two of my favourite online DM channels happen to hit upon the same idea mere months apart.

TLDR: To improve the efficiency and clarity of our exploration based gameplay, we should borrow from videogame UI design which makes it easy for players to know what to do by highlighting things players can interact with. From there, escape room design takes over, as interaction reveals new information, challenges, and puzzles. 

More ideas about how to use this system (and my own ideas about spicing it up) under the cut.

Again, I cannot overstate how much this technique has overhauled my games, improving everything from dungeoncrawls to mystery investigations. It’s succinct, it’s direct, it’s easy to both design around and run at the table.  It helps focus the party on what’s been prepped without restricting their options, and it’s even communicable to other games like MOTW. 

One of the things I like most about it is that it’s scalable: while the system works to describe individual rooms, you can also use it to describe entire floors in larger structures, or even regions of wilderness for far ranging adventures.  You can even mix and match, detailing the exterior region around the dungeon as the party searches for an entrance before zooming in to smaller and smaller areas. 

Tips and tricks:

Since this system is all about revealing information, it’s important you know what that information is pointing to. What’s your party’s goal in the dungeon? Are they exploring ? Give them information about the background of the area? Are they looking for something specific? Hints and clues towards its actual location (though they may need to connect the dots).  You can also use this hidden information to forecast future threats, or tempt them onto exploration sidetracks.  

On that same topic, you can give your dungeons a sense of life and history by connecting a few of these points of interest into their own narrative threads. Escalate the threat of a haunted tomb by leaving clues about a group of thieves who tried to delve it beforehand. Play up the chaos and comedy of an absentminded mage by leaving his research notes scattered about. Players are completionist by nature, and humanizing the lore will only make them want to know the endings even more. 

MIx minor hazards into your investigation to keep things interesting. A chance for minor damage or afflictions every couple of “rooms” will keep the party on edge without punishing them for their curiosity. You can also through a more major threat in there (room level trap, lurking combat encounter, debilitating curse), but in this instance the “highlighting” should give the party a chance of not getting ambushed. 

I like to pair the illuminated room system with my framework for random encounters, having every “round” of exploration adding a unit of time. I also let my players spend time to  “brute force” any of the failed rolls they might have suffered, (fully tossing a room looking for a single journal, trying every combination on a safe etc.)

You can even have illuminated room exploration in the aftermath of the battle, mixing clues dropped by the party’s foes with things that were already in the area.  This is a great way to double up during the dungeon design process, designing a setpiece combat arena as a place of investigation and viceversa. 

[nartml]

I'm stressing about the US elections. And I'm not even there.

I cannot possibly overstate the importance of voting for Kamala Harris. If you guys fumble this, it's over.

And it will have catastrophic consequences for all of us.

I can't believe this is even a fucking debate.

Why on fuck's green earth are there people discouraging others from voting Kamala? I'm actually laughing in despair.

Are we really going to discuss Kamala's faults when your only other option is motherfucking goddamn Donald Trump?

What do you not understand about how racist, sexist, homophobic, narcissistic, disgusting that convicted felon is?

Do you want him anywhere near office?

No?

Then shut the fuck up.

Edit: Coming back a few days later, I feel it's important to clarify that discussing Kamala's faults, contrary to how I came off in the above post, is okay.

I honestly didn't realize how much I made it seem as if saying anything remotely critical of her is some kind of crime.

What I actually take issue with is the people who criticize her while coming from a "don't vote for her" perspective.

She is not beyond criticism.

But if Trump makes it then both the people who live in the US and the people who are fighting for their lives in Palestine will all be a trillion times worse off.

Not to mention any possible ripple effects his potential election will have to the rest of us.

Also, a friendly reminder that "I'm not voting" is an incredibly privileged take.

[yikesy]

I cannot overstate how much the people who think apollo should've stayed human are completely missing the point

don't you get how sad that is? how tragic??

after eons of defiance, after stubbornly clinging to his identity in the face of someone who would love nothing more than to see him fall, to have apollo, finally, break, and give up, have him finally let go of the world, to conclude that it's not worth it, that nothing he does will ever make a difference and just try to enjoy this short term happiness and completely forsake the future

To say "yes" "gods indeed cannot change" not because of an inherent incapability to but because the system is just,, so big it's not worth even trying to fight it, and if you really cannot accept it anymore, then your best option truly is to lay down and wait to die

to have zeus finally succeed in completely breaking apollo, to make his little scheme with taking away apollo's identity work and to, at long last, find a way to neatly remove him and his threat and his influence and power and to take him completely out of the picture, to fully cement his absolute control and authority over the other olympians and take away any hope they may have had for good

to have zeus win is that what you want?

[prettyboykatsuki-moved]

i really cannot overstate how utterly pathetic gale is. i say this with so much affection and love. it's just so bad. he had a good upbringing. he is a prodigy of magic. very talented, very intelligent, a loving mother. he even has a tressym that looks after him (not the other way around) he's relatively handsome too. he's had other relationships. but he fumbles his own relationship with a goddess (extremely unethical) and traps himself in a tower for a year. he grows out his beard and his cat has to basically force him to be a normal human. he has to eat your magical boots and doesn't tell you why until he feels guilty about it. you find out that not only does he have a BOMB in his chest, it's basically at risk of exploding if he dies and he has special instructions for resurrection. but then you ask, whats with the bomb? and he goes "oh it was because of a failed gift to my ex lover, the goddess of magic?" and feels WORSE about FUMBLING HIS EX than the pain. and then later, one of the most powerful wizards of the land comes to tell him news from said ex. half-way through the game and this bearded old man grips him by the shoulder and says "sonny your ex wants you to kill yourself. sonny boy its for the greater good." AND INSTEAD OF BEING UPSET ? HE JUST CONSIDERS IT? AND YOU HAVE TO TALK HIM DOWN AND SHAKE HIM TO HAVE SOME SELF WORTH BECAUSE HE REALLY WANTS HER TO FORGIVE HIM THAT BADLY!!!!

so you play the game after that and in your menu you have Blow That Wizard Up Option. where in a major or minor battle you can blow him up. but it pretty discouraged to do because it cuts the game off very early if you do it in the second act. but lets say you do it at the Final Boss. you let gale Blow Himself Up. it creates fucking aurora borealis, which doesn't exist in the game. the one he makes for you to share earlier in the game. he is the first and only instance of it ever. and then as if that wasn't enough to make you want to throw up, if you're ROMANCING HIM and he explodes - his fucking hologram finds you!!!!!!!! and says "i can see why i loved you" and you just have to live with that shit forever!!!!! fuck off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mosoderbergh]

Fade Conversations (Dreadrook Week)

I can’t help but think about a version of the fade prison where, at some point of the story, there is a <hug Solas> option. Or something of the sort, at least. Because I think there are so many different versions of this (some sweet or sad, sure, but some also hilarious).

I picture the weeks ticking by with Rook spending every night in Solas’ company. And Solas never quite drops that Dread Wolf persona, but the cliff scenery gets boring after a while. So at some point, they switch to walks.

And even though Solas remains cordial at best, scathing at worst, Rook… well. They know Varric’s tales of Solas - gentle, thoughtful, a hero at heart - and Varric is a great judge of character, isn’t he? With that as groundwork, and a sometimes self-destructive tendency to see the best in people, they find themselves warming up to Solas. Perhaps, in time, some of the softer parts of his personality shine through in their talks. The parts of him that the Inquisition got to know. In Rook’s head, they begin to think of him as a friend - though they would never say this out loud, neither to him nor to the others at the lighthouse.

Intellectually, they know who he is. They know he has every incentive to manipulate them. They tend to go back and forth with themselves a lot about all this. But then comes their run-in with Elgar’nan. And Solas jumps to the rescue. The relief they felt at the sound of his voice still sits deep in their bones. They’ve had a long, hard, scary day. And at the end of all of it, he hits them with “And I suppose I had you.”

Solas means it, moreso than he would care to admit. Still, it is spoken in jest. The only way he can bring himself to say something nice to them. He thinks Rook must loathe him - why ever would they not? The fact that he enjoys their conversations, well - there is not much else to enjoy in his prison. He tries not to think about it too hard.

Again: Rook, in this moment, is so tired. They are grateful. They are still terrified, with the voice of yet another god still ringing in their ears. They are not in the best headspace to interpret social cues. And so what Solas intends as both a genuine statement of respect and a way to needle them into further debate, Rook interprets as: “I’m glad to have you.”

And so they hug him. Arms wrapped around him, face pressed against his chestplate (my Rook is a short king). They tear up a little from exhaustion and emotional whiplash.

It cannot be overstated that this was not how Solas imagined their interaction going from this point forward. He stands silent and unmoving for a few heartbeats, entirely lost on what to do next. Eventually, he puts single a hand on their shoulder, as if he is trying to wake them from a dream.

“Rook?”

But now Rook is too busy trying to not cry from sheer stress. They don’t immediately respond. If anything, they squeeze him.

And Solas has not been hugged in a very, very long time. His hand remains on their shoulder, his thumb unthinkingly brushing slow circles, and soon enough he is fighting to keep his composure, as well. Because he knows what comes next. And he never particularly wanted to hurt them to begin with, but it gets a little harder every day to keep pushing forward.

(edit: forgot to @ @thelighthouse-server, my bad!)

[hillbillyoracle]

Chronic illness is hell don't get me wrong, but I don't necessarily envy people without it.

I've experienced such powerful blissful states from meditating with my pain that outstrip any drug I've ever taken - with no side effects once I'm done.

It was through working with my pain that I first got some glimpses into non-self and emptiness and the peace that has come from that really cannot be overstated.

I have this aspect of me that demands I come back to the body and be mindful of it, it is non-optional. This has deepened my relationship with my body and with sensing itself. It continually calls me back to my path.

I'm deeply DEEPLY aware of how temporary everything is. People who think they can eat or exercise their way to controlling their health are often the folks who handle the reality of illness the worst. I'm thankful that when things are good, I'm very aware that it's borrowed and it's as not personal as the pain is.

It's expanded my empathy so much. Because I'm always suffering on some level, I interact with people with an assumption that they're suffering as well. It's lead to many nice moments of connection.

Through meditation and chronic illness, I'm intimately aware that my happiness does not lie outside of me but rather inside of me. I've been able to release a lot of the striving that I see plaguing other people. I can access that happiness even in some dire circumstances and that capacity is growing all the time.

People will look at me with this expression of pity and gratitude that they aren't me but I look back at them and I don't really wish to be them in all honesty.

I've lost a lot of my physical independence but I've grown my spiritual, intellectual, and emotional independence exponentially. I pity the folks who don't have that.

[ajastu]

Ok here we go. On the topic of the overstated significance of the evil choices present in the DA games.

DISCLAIMER this is purely my personal opinion and isn't intended as a serious analysis or anything like that. just exploring my own thoughts on the topic👍

also another mini disclaimer. i will be honest my dai replay is at a standstill, and i dont want to go thru like 100 hours of gameplay just for a simple post. if anyone remembers dai better than i do feel free to contribute to the discussion etc etc

With that out of the way.

So here’s my hot take. I do not think that a DA game absolutely NEEDS to give you the option to do some atrocities. That is not what inherently makes them RPG games, or Dragon Age™ games.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I'm not arguing that these options shouldn't be in the games. My main point is that their absence is not as terrible as people like to say it is.

Of course, the more options there are, the more types of player character you can develop. And I’m an OC guy, i love that shit, i get it. But i also tend to make the same damn choices in each of my playthroughs, and that hasn’t stopped me from developing several very different protagonists for DAO alone. 

The power to make a compelling character does not lie solely in the options the game provides you. It also lies in this thing called ‘imagination’. But i digress.

Thing is, mostly the cruel options don't really contribute anything special to the narrative. There are no real consequences in the overall arc of the game. The Warden is still going to save Ferelden. Hawke is still going to be the Champion, and is still going to defeat Meredith. The Inquisitor is still going to seal the breach and kill Corypheus.

You have some consequences re: companions, but that's about it. You cannot FAIL because of the choices you make.

And, another hot take? I think that playing a cruel character in DA is actually less interesting/compelling than playing a kind one. 

It is easy to be cruel or indifferent in the shoes of the Warden/Hawke/the Inquisitor. It makes things more straightforward, less complicated. It is much harder to be kind, to be hurt each time you fail to save someone, and persevering anyway. 

I think what a lot of people who argue that ‘kindness doesn’t mean much if you don’t have a choice not to give it’ miss, is that kindness does not need to come in the same package every time. There are many ways to be kind, and for it to shape you. Kindness absolutely has value and complexity on it’s own.

BUT. That is me taking a detour. Let’s get back on point. 

And to do that, let’s talk about the first Dishonored game. There will be spoilers.

For those who don’t know, Dishonored has a chaos system that is affected by how many people the protagonist, Corvo, kills during the game. The more you kill, the higher the chaos rises. It starts affecting gameplay, too: more guards, more corpses in the street, more disease and more infected. The city reacts to your actions. Violence breeds more violence, and at the end it all but forces your hand to keep killing.

On the other hand, you have low chaos. It is possible to go through the game without killing a single person, even the main targets you need to eliminate to advance the plot. The less death there is, the less the city itself suffers.

On the surface, this is kind of very straightforward. Killing bad, the game says. 

But let’s look at one of the non-lethal options the game offers. 

First target. High Overseer Campbell, the head of the main religious organization of the Dh setting. Despite holding this position, the man is rotten to the core (or, perhaps, it is exactly why he holds this position). He blackmails, he kills, he conspires. Killing him is the right thing to do. And if you don’t care about all that moral stuff, killing him is going to be revenge. 

For the non-lethal elimination, however, you can brand him as a heretic. By quite literally burning the heretic brand onto his face. 

It leads to him becoming a total outcast, because even offering food to him is counted as a crime. You meet him later in the game as a weeper - someone so far in the plague stages, he is practically a zombie. 

But! That is not all. 

I once wanted to do a playthrough where i only kill the main targets. I killed Campbell, all was well. 

At the start of the next mission, there was an announcement throughout the city about the passing of their beloved High Overseer Campbell, who was a righteous man taken from this world too early- and other such nonsense. 

And i couldn’t do it. I reloaded the game and branded that motherfucker instead. 

If you kill him, he does not suffer. He is remembered fondly. 

If you ‘spare’ him, he suffers for months before succumbing to the plague, and his crimes and rotten nature are revealed to the city. 

So, the message isn’t as simple as ‘killing bad’, after all. There’s nuance here. 

And, most importantly. One of the things that i love about Dishonored’s handling of the chaos system and how it contributes to the gameplay and the overall narrative.

Is the fact that Corvo can fail. 

In the high chaos ending, if you don’t do it carefully, Emily, THE person Corvo is supposed to save and protect, can die. Corvo fails. The one thing that was the goal of the game, and he can fail. 

There’s way more nuance to Dishonored as a whole that i am NOT going to get into right now, or else we will be here all day. But my point here is, compared to that narrative significance of cruel/kind choices? DA could never compare. 

What happens if you take away the chaos system in Dh? The game becomes a shell of itself. Everything complex or interesting is immediately gone.

What happens if you take away the cruel OR the kind options in each of the DA games? Nothing much, really. The story stays largely the same. You just get there in slightly different ways. 

Of course, comparing Dishonored to DA is kind of an unfair thing to do. The genres are different, for one. The approach to continuity in the following games is different, too (with Dh using it's own canon for the sequel, while DA has to account for player choices). 

But i used that comparison mainly to illustrate that the significance of the cruel options in DA is…really overblown. 

The choices they offer are not complex. It’s easy to understand which is the morally better option: sell people into slavery or Not Do That. It’s not a grey choice, it’s pretty black and white. 

Genocide a people for the benefit of another or broker peace between them? Ohhh what a hard moral dilemma. 

Kill a lot of innocent people just in casies or come to their defense? Hmmm, however can i tell which one is the morally good choice here….

I can’t say that no one should ever enjoy playing the villain in an RPG game, nor do i want to say that. Go, be free, do whatever you want! I am also not saying that DA games are made worse by the presence of these choices. 

What i AM saying is that a lot of people mistake the mere presence of cruelty for complexity, and that Veilguard not having cruel choices (besides that one with the mayor i guess) does not make it less of a dragon age game than the other three. 

I love DA, i really do. Fucking. Look at my blog. 

But they’re just games, at the end of the day. They’re flawed, and some of them really don’t age well. But each one of them was made by people who care about the setting, the series, and the story being told in each game. You can feel that care as you play. So, what makes a dragon age game…a dragon age game? It’s not the cruelty available, that’s for sure.

I don’t know how coherent my point with this post is. My eyes kind of hurt so that definitely isn’t helping me concentrate. I think it’s silly to uphold the presence of cruelty as THE hallmark of a series, or what makes a good game. Sometimes it’s not about the cruelty. Sometimes it’s about people, and perseverance. 

Maybe one day I will actually go through the games with a fine tooth comb and make a proper analysis. But other people probably did that already, and better than i could.

At the end of the day, everyone has their own opinions and preferences. But these? These are MY onions <3 🧅🧅

[lily-alphonse]

Please hear me out Sebastian x Elliott.

I cannot overstate how I absolutely lost my mind receiving this ask because TELL ME WHY IVE NEVER CONSIDERED THIS I literally love these men. They are my husbands. I know I marry Sebastian every time but if he wasn't an option I would marry Elliott in a heartbeat I am so down bad for him. (Have yall seen how much poetry I've written for him like come on). So this was mind-bending, earth-shattering, all of the above.

I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO MAKE THIS WORK THO FUCK lmao rein it in Lily you got this

Lets build the gothic romance of our dreams all in this the year of 2024.

Elliott likes to do something some people might find odd. Which is part of the reason he keeps it to himself. But he’s always found the idea of messages in a bottle charming. What if there was such a thing as fate? Would it not bring his love letter to his soulmate? He lives on the beach now; he has the perfect opportunity.

So he bottles his love and sets it free on the ocean, just every few months when he’s feeling whimsical. Sometimes it washes right back up in the next few days, and he takes it as a gift from himself, or the universe. Something like that. Either way it makes him smile, and he recollects the bottle and sticks the scrap of love letter in one of his books at random.

One rainy day, Sebastian stumbles on a bottle. It looks like it has something inside so he takes it home. Part of him thinks he’s being silly. The other part of him is giddy. A quest! A mystery! His geeky ass is all over this.

He takes it home and carefully removes the paper inside. It doesn’t look old, just regular notebook scrap.

Perhaps Im only built to seek you And never really see Fumbling, reaching, I feel the truth But what if my eyes laid upon thee I fear no feeling could compare Instead I close my eyes and imagine you and me

The writer signed it “a dreamer.” Sebastian isn’t sure how to feel about it. It’s intriguing, still. He already suspects Elliott right away, though it is entirely possible the bottle washed up from elsewhere. He rolls the bottle in his hands and considers the man. He imagines him writing these words and for some reason his heart clenches. He feels flushed suddenly.

It feels like an invasion of privacy, almost, to read something so heartfelt.

Maybe that’s why he writes him back. Some kind of guilt, a feeling like he has to bare his soul in the same way.

The words of the letter tumble in his mind, only getting sharper with time. It feels like nothing he could come up with would ever be enough.

He watches Elliott at the saloon. How his hands grip his beer. How his eyes close when he laughs.

Open your eyes

The words come to him suddenly and he jots them in his phone. When he gets home from the saloon he finally writes his letter back.

In reality Id like to have a few letters back and forth before Elliott discovers its Sebastian, but for the sake of this lets say he signs his letter with his actual name.

Open your eyes Touch me I am as real as you imagine Are you? -Sebastian

He takes a chance. If fate worked once, maybe it would again. Because what if it wasn’t Elliott? Maybe the bottle would be carried back on the waves where it needed to be.

Of course it finds its way back. Elliott smiles and picks it up, fully expecting his own words inside. His heart races when he sees that isn't the case.

It is an agonizing few days before Sebastian comes back to the ocean in the haze of a drizzle. Elliott finds him in the rain but he doesn’t have the words to address him.

Sebastian smiles at him. “Are you my dreamer?”

“I— yes,” he laughs breathlessly, slowly getting soaked from the rain. “Yes, I suppose I am.”

“And what do you make of my proposal?” he asks, stepping closer so Elliott has to look down at him.

Elliott swallows. He decides to take a chance and continue this poetry between them. “I fear if I touch you, nothing will ever feel the same again.”

Sebastian takes a moment to consider, inspecting his face and the grey horizon beyond. Finally he responds, part poem, part just himself because he’s never been much of a poet.

He smiles at him. “I don't know about you, but I'd be happy with that."

Send me any Stardew Valley rarepair and I will tell you how I would make them work! (Even non-marriage npcs) If youre lucky you may get a mini fic out of it. Check the list below to see if Ive already answered yours

Rarepair Masterlist

@totallyhumanexe

[starlightnecromancer]

I know everyone here who is moving off of tumblr (and I've largely stopped using it unless i'm truly bored and need something to look at) is going to Cohost

But I'd honestly like to also offer Pillowfort as a companion blogging spot. Not "instead of", but "in addition to".

While I lurk on Cohost its still got a lot of design features in terms of how its supposed to be used that I just kind of don't like, and since its supposed to be "anti-social media" that is kind of by design. Pillowfort has been my jam and its been a lot easier for me to actually

I have a lot of codes to give out because its still invite only due to a handful of factors, but I cannot overstate that I have. A lot of codes. There's also a rolling waiting list and its supposed to be fast.

Pros

There is no algorithm. If you want to go find something in a tag, you go find something in a tag. Likewise this means that a lot of fandom conventions are able to be workable because PF (nor Cohost it should be added) will just randomly pull a post into a tag because you mentioned something else.

Edited posts show up on everyone's reblogged version. If OP changes the post you reblogged 4 months ago it will be updated

Community is fairly tight-knit

There's already a strong site culture dedicated to sharing and conversing even within its limitations to make sure others can see it

Native image hosting, you just upload and done!

Communities means you can have a place dedicated to a particular topic, and if you don't like the way one is run you can simply make another one! During April there's applications to take over abandoned communities as well through the Staff

Strong comment culture

Porn is allowed

AI is flatly banned

Cons

Doesn't have a lot in the way of accessibility tools, there's no option to do alt-text like on Cohost or Bluesky so you have to do it the way we used to here on tumblr

No native video hosting, but given how expensive that is I personally don't want it

UI can be clunky and outdated to some users

Activity, even if you follow a fair amount of people and join a high pop communities, will be slow. As people trickle in this may change but as it stands. The feed is slow.

Sometimes communities are abandoned and there's not much you can do about that outside of when Staff opens up applications to take it over.

The site community is tight-knit, because it is small (for now)

Some fandoms, even huge fandoms, have absolutely barren tags because the bulk of the fanbase simply isnt there. (For example, I am the entire Warhammer 40k tag on Pillowfort for several months)

Reblogs do not work the way they do here or on Cohost, a reblog on Pillowfort works more like a Retweet on Twitter or Bluesky, if you want to add commentary you either have to comment it or make a new post, linking back to the original.

Likewise I've made some communities for my fandoms, as well as joined the ones that already existed, and I hope that folks drop in.

Hyper Light Drifter

Max Steel

Web Novels (in general)

Warhammer 40K: Darktide + the General Warhammer 40K community

Transformers

If you want a code send me an ask and i'll yeet it your way.

[monstermoviedean]

i don't like dean's plan for jack. i don't like that he and sam tricked jack into it. i wish they hadn't done it. i am not interested in defending those decisions. i do see why dean did it though. i think dean feels at this point like someone has to stop jack. the apocalypse world hunters are going to try to kill him. the angels are manipulating him. the demons would try, if they could get to him. and i think in a very awful, twisted way, dean thinks it is a mercy to seal jack away. it spares him from death or injury or being used as a weapon. it is not actually a mercy! but i think dean is thinking there are many outcomes for jack, none of them good, and this is the least bad option.

i also think he is remembering the reason he originally built the ma'lak box (which frankly wasn't that long ago), and how he was not allowed to lock himself away so he couldn't hurt anyone. how he was treated for even suggesting it. how much guilt he felt for the people that were hurt while michael was still free. and i think he believed that some small part of jack was still the jack who was afraid of hurting people, and felt some empathy there. that if it were dean, he would want to be locked away, so maybe jack would want that too.

i cannot overstate this enough: this does not make locking jack up okay. i am not excusing the decision. but i can see how in dean's head, when he's still reeling from mary's death and from being possessed for months, he thinks he's doing the right thing. he also thinks he is the only one who will do the right thing - sam is too stuck in his grief to make any sort of plan, and cas is in "jack is a blameless child" mode and won't hear any suggestion that jack might be dangerous. so like dean predicted, he has to be the one to do it. he doesn't want to. he doesn't enjoy it. but in his mind, someone has to, and that someone will always be him.

[townsenddecades]

1334 – Day 3 – Windermere Castle

Further to the south of England, Josephine, Baron Elbenhawke’s sister, now a countess herself, gives birth to her first child a mere year after her marriage. She has only turned seventeen a month ago herself, but the joy her husband expresses over finally having a second heir – because her child is a boy – cannot be overstated.

Josephine herself is content to have done her duty.

Her marriage wasn’t a love match – few unions among the nobility are – and she still wishes she could have married a lord her own age, but he treats her well enough, and she feels real tenderness towards their son. Even her fears regarding her stepchildren have remained unfounded. Young Lady Viviane, who is twelve, seems to be glad to have another lady of her standing in the castle, and Vincent, her husband’s heir, has been away squiring for most of the past year. But he has been very courteous to her at the wedding.

Josephine doesn’t doubt that her husband will wish for more children – the mere fact that their son, Matthew, is alive now doesn’t mean that he will remain so – but for the moment, he seems content to let her be. She is out of confinement now but still spends whatever time she is not occupied by her duties as lady of the castle in her chambers with her son, looking at his little face and cuddling him.

She is doing exactly that one day when she hears the door open and two faces peek in – her stepchildren: tall, blond Vincent and dark-haired Lady Viviane. When he sees her, Vincent inclines his head.

“I’m sorry for the interruption, but my lady sister would not stop pestering me until I took her to see our brother.”

“It’s no problem at all”, Josephine says with a soft smile, seeing perfectly well with how much interest Vincent is eying the baby in her arms. “Come in.”

Both of her stepchildren – which is still a somewhat strange term for Josephine to think about a youth nearly her own age – approach her full of curiosity. Vincent, who has only returned home three days ago, hasn’t seen his new half-brother at all yet, and Lady Viviane has only done so two times. Josephine is delighted to present Matthew to them, even getting on her knees, which is quite difficult with a baby in her arms, so Viviane can get a better look at her little brother.

“He’s so tiny!”, she comments, fascinated.

“Of course he is. He is a baby”, responds her older brother, which earns him a scowl.

“I know that, Vincent.”

Her brother mutters something which even Josephine can’t catch but then returns to studying his baby brother. “I’m sure it’s a great comfort to father to now have a spare heir”, he comments, thoughtfully. “Even if he is only a baby now.”

“He said as much, yes”, Josephine replies diplomatically. It is the reason he married her, in fact, but her stepson knows that. She wonders if he feels that this line might threaten his own descendants one day, or if he is glad that the continuation of his family line doesn’t hinge solely on him anymore. But she doesn’t ask.

They spend some more time together, but eventually Vincent takes his leave, citing that he is expected in the practice yard. Viviane stays behind, looking at her baby brother just as thoughtfully as her older one had done. Eventually, she looks up at Josephine, hands clasped tightly together.

“My lady, may I ask you something?”

“Certainly.”

“Is it true that there is talk of me marrying your brother, the baron?”

Josephine looks at her in surprise. “Where have you heard that?”

Her stepdaughter lowers her gaze, the perfect picture of a guilty conscience. She might as well; her husband had mentioned the idea to Josephine before her confinement, but he hasn’t spoken of it since. She can’t believe he would talk to his daughter about it. Which her next words confirm: “I overheard some servants that didn’t know I was there. Is it true?”

For a moment, Josephine wavers, unsure how much she can reveal. She eventually settles on the truth. “Your father is considering many options for your husband, as you should know”, she says. “My brother is among them, yes, but I don’t know that Lord Windermere has chosen one yet.” If he has, he hasn’t mentioned it to her.

Viviane nods, and then asks, quietly: “Is marriage very scary?”

“It has its challenges”, Josephine admits, “but you’re the daughter of an earl. I am sure you will brave them wonderfully.”

She does her best to comfort the girl and even gives her a hug. Watcher willing, she still has a few years left until she is married off, and even if she doesn’t, Josephine vows to herself to do her best to prepare her. She might not be the girl’s actual mother, but she will be damned if she allows that stop her.

Previous: 1334, Day 3, Part 2/3 <--> Next: 1334, Day 4, Part 1/6

[mesetacadre]

Hello!

Firstly, Im USAmerican I’m not trying to be like “oh woe is me,” Im just trying my best to understand what would be the best option for everyone. I’ve heard so many varying things and this is my second time voting, so I just want wanted to know what other people think. This isn’t meant to be malicious or condescending in any way either! I know you can do multiple things at once it’s just that I worry that when I walk into that polling booth, that I’ll be putting more innocent people at stake.

I’ve seen people tell,call,email etc Kamala to say that she isn’t getting their vote unless she stops funding Israel and their assault on the Palestinian people. And I’ve seen some people say that there is literally no point in trying to reason/ransom with her and that she (like all other US presidents) is a monster no matter what.

I’ve seen some other people say that voting 3rd party or not voting at all is the only way to go. But I worry that a 3rd party candidate wouldn’t stand a chance so late in the game. And I also worry that not voting would be a waste of a privilege, especially since so many people don’t have the access to voting inside the US and out.

I’ve also seen people worrying about project 2025 being pushed into place and I’ve also seen other people say Americans are cowards for worrying about such a thing.

I know you don’t live in the US but I also know this election impacts people outside of the states so I just wanted to know your thoughts. I’ve asked this to another blog as well, so if any of your followers have thoughts Id like to hear them too! I just feel a little pulled in every direction and I figured asking around would be a good idea.

Thank you so much and have a nice day!

If I were in your position I would stop going back and forth about who to vote for and start organizing. Were social rights protected with Biden? Very clearly not, since people are already suffering from things that are in that think tank's document. Abortion is no longer protected, trans people are begin targeted across a good portion of the states, the border is going to keep getting bloodier regardless of who wins, etc. Sure, you might argue that these things are not in control of the president, like the Supreme Court or the individual states. So then, how are elections supposed to help? And this is just talking about domestic policy, but the imperialist cogs of the US hegemon will keep turning no matter who's in DC, and you really cannot fucking ignore the current genocide in Palestine, plus the US' entire history of foreign interventions and the suffering that has come from that. You all should really realize the scale of the situation and stop engaging with the US on its own terms. There are class interests to which every mechanism of liberal democracy are subordinated to.

It is extremely unique for you USAmericans to spend this much fucking time and energy on your elections, you can't overstate it. Practically every year is filled with election bullshit. Election periods in basically the rest of the world only last like a month at most, where I live it takes two weeks. Elections aren't even the only or most important way to participate in politics within the very basic framework of liberal democracy. But you're all constantly acting like it's a team sport, always with the election. Don't take this personally anon, I'm not annoyed at you specifically and I appreciate the effort in your ask, but it's so incredibly childish to every single time spend 2 years or more hueing and crying about the upcoming election. Do something about it then! stop hyperfocusing on a single day every 4 years! People were already talking about the 2020 election after Trump won in 2016, that's absurd!

Read Lenin and read decolonial theory, organize yourself and the working class, build political-revolutionary consciousness amongst your class, do whatever you can to strike at the stability of the empire which you live under without getting arrested or killed, and stop legitimizing this pantomime by making it the exclusive vehicle of your political thought. Voting is just a single day, and the run-up (not 3 years!) should be spent campaigning for your own interests, denouncing this bullshit system you all keep saying you also don't "like". "Surviving", which is what some left liberals keep saying they're trying to do (I know you did not say that, anon), looks like organizing yourself and everybody you can to stop relying on the scraps the managers of capitalism and imperialism sometimes throw at you.

Voting as an action and voting as a strategy are two different things. What you're worried about, as I understand it, is the action of going to a booth and putting your choice of ballot in the box. Voting as a strategy, is the decoration and structure so many people build around it. I can't recall exactly who I saw doing this, but a USAmerican mutual of mine who's also a communist got an ask about who they're voting for. This mutual laid out the options in their state, went over their policies, and explained why they'll vote for the candidate they disliked less (I think it was an independent but don't quote me on that). You know why none of us "election interfering foreign agents" jumped at them for this? because they understand the very limited potential for voting, spent a little bit of their time researching each candidate avaliable to them, and then spend the entire rest of their political energy focusing on other things outside electoralism.

Yeah, shit's fucked for social rights, so is basically anywhere else in the world right now. I also don't have good choices in my elections, half the parliament is talking about the islamization of Spain and plans to gut any public service, and the other actively anesthesizes and absorbs any social movement that could combat reactionarism. So I stop worrying too much about who I'm casting my ballot for and I dedicate all my political energy to militancy in my communist party, slowly creating class consciousness and setting up ways to eventually protect our own class from the inevitable strike. All of this while being the 12th economy in the world, and consequently, an integral part of the imperialist NATO and EU, facts that no sector of our liberal democracy even questions. And do you think our siblings in the countries victim of the imperialist doctrine of NATO have it any better? When entire elections and governments have been interfered with not by "social media bots", but by actual bloodshed and terror? They don't spend years yelling at each other about who to vote for, they also organize themselves and attempt to emancipate their own class

[kingxxlink]

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[smolsleepyfox]

I cannot overstate how much of an accessibility issue online bookings for doctors are (aside from the massive time saving for both patients and the offices?)

I've been "procrastinating" making several Fairly Important appointments because I'm in a new city and don't have the option to start calling five-ten offices that May or May Not take new patients.

Half of them are closed when I get home from work. I have a half hour break that I need to use to, y'know, eat. The time it takes to call several offices, including wait times, calling back if they're busy etc is astronomical. And that doesn't include the energy spent.

I used an online booking service to make three appointments in fifteen minutes during a lull in the office, one of which is later today (for a semi-urgent issue I've been hoping goes away but didn't).

If I hear someone moan about millennials afraid of phone calls again I'm gonna start throwing eggs at them.

[skiptomy]

Y'all I don't know what the fuck to do right now. My cat Avalene, who I've had since she was a kitten, has started to get so anxious around our other two cats. We're not sure what started it but it's gotten worse over the last six months.

We've taken her to the vet a bunch, we've gotten her a special diet, had her on meds, got pheromone plug ins, made sure all the cats had plenty of play time, they have fancy litter boxes and they are cleaned regularly.

But she clearly has a bladder issue and won't stop peeing on the floor, on any clothes or towels or blankets she can find, she pees on the couch, and worst of all, on beds, even when you are in them.

She's still eating, she drinks normally, she's active and still just as loving as ever. I cannot overstate how much I love this cat and how much it breaks my heart that we are even starting to consider that she just might need to be re-homed. If she would be happier and healthier in a single pet home that's just what we need to do.

Our only other option is probably surgery and daily anxiety meds, but that's not something we can afford. Right now I'm late on rent and haven't had money to buy groceries except like ramen and canned chicken at the dollar store. I would give my whole fuckin world for this cat but there's no saying that she'll be okay after all that. I just feel so hopeless about everything, and I don't know what to do.