#capitalism no gud

[nando161mando]

🇫🇷Francia anuncia la ilegalización/disolución del grupo fascista GUD París. Junto a tres grupos de extrema derecha más y uno islamista.

🇫🇷France announces the illegalization/dissolution of the fascist group GUD Paris. Along with three more extreme right groups and one Islamist group.

[succumbingtohandsthatruin]

NEET except i have education, experience, and training

[pandaladie]

i think whats being opposed is the way we get dairy products. just like meat from a factoryfarming environment really fucking sucks for whatever animal is kept there, the milk or eggs that come from those conditions can be objectionable.

and milk has another layer since cows have to be made pregnant to produce any.

so yeah being like "ew animals are gross dont eat their fluids" is a very silly argument. its hardly the one to argue against considering.

Annoying that dairy products are demonized as Unnatural and Disgusting when it's actually kinda neat that humans figured out a way to fulfill omnivorous nutritional requirements without killing any animals (and populations historically dependent on dairy even evolved lactase persistence!). This is biopunk to me

[ars3n1ck]

,,, does anyone know any good hour+ long vids i can watch? ideally 2+ hours but ill settle for less

[blackcatanna]

Before sandwich: GRRRRRR... HRRRRRRRR... BRRRRR... AAAAAAARGH... EUUUUGGGGHHH... AAAAAAAAAAAH!

After sandwich: ^_^

[st4rry-sp1d3r]

I would like to say something about heaven's hierarchy in helluva boss and hazbin hotel. Like,I've made some research (I'm going by the Christian hierarchy from the Chatolic Christian bible) and like.

God on top,clearly

Then Lucifer,the most glorious angel god ever made

Then we have our Archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael,Uriel,Raguel,Remiel and Sariel guardian angels of nations

Seraphim,the burning ones,with the task of taking care of god's throne and worshipping him 24/7

Cherubim, they guard the way to the tree of life and God's throne and there was a huge misunderstanding with Putti,those chubby babies usually associated with cupid,while cherubims have four feet,a lion body with oxen feet and four faces (man,ox,lion or eagle)

Thrones. Those wheel things with wings and eyes, they carry god's throne

Domions/lordship. They look like humans and keep lower angels in line

Virtues/strongholds they carry out miracles and heavenly signs

Powers/authorities just like their name,these angels have enough power to be warriors and carry out wars against angels

Principalities. They deliver heavens blessings

archangels. The use of the capital letter is important here because archangels and angels are the lowest choir of angels,but these gud have higher status in comparison to angels

Finally angels are the lowest rank of all heaven and are those in most contact with living beings on earth and are meant to serve humanity

I have so many pet peeves with this hierarchy in front of my eyes because first if all,it should have been imps vs angels in that episode with the rich bastard who wanted to die in helluva boss,second of all,where did god go? Where did the archangels go? Where are they? Also the plural of cherub is cherubim but of course Viv wouldn't think about that because otherwhise it wouldn't rhyme with that stupid song. I guess it's all for now then.

If there's something you'd like to add I'm more than happy to hear it <3

[gnashingwailing]

Kept notes on a reread I was doing of The Art of Love and War because I am so obsessed with the gay little borrower darkfic... sharing with u @fireflywritesgt

it falls apart at ch12 because that is where i consistently turn into a puddle under my covers kicking my legs and making sounds only audible to shrimps.

I HOPE THIS IS A SMALL TOKEN OF APPRECIATION FOR HOW GUD THIS FIC IS, SINCERELY... LIKE I SAID PUTTING THIS IN SOMEBODY'S INBOX IS PROBABLY A WAR CRIME. SO.

There is soooo muuuuch I want to saaaay. I did a reread and excuse my being verbose but.

Ch10 where Harry reads about how tinies don’t ask for things and prefer to do favors for them — how extra insulting that makes his message in Ch1!! “Just ask” no wonder Joe was so pissed!!

ALSO him feeling “dirty, somehow” about accepting chocolate that didn’t kill him… was he having a little bit of feelings for “the kind man” and it got transmuted into self-loathing… 😭 oh internalized homophobia tag we’re really in it now…

Re: ch2 I would kill for Joe’s pov of this… I’m also so fascinated to pick up the detail that Joe apparently talked to himself regularly, for Harry to hear him through the radiator pipes… one assumes Joe doesn’t have guests. Poor guy! He’s really smart! He likes talking! The assistant job is perfect for himmmm.

Re: ch3, i wonder how much Captain Calloway’s “if you die it’s your own damn fault” has influenced Joe’s life ethos of fucking around and finding out (btw… Harry would be sooo horrified to know Joe had been poisoned 3 times and still tried that chocolate 😭 yet another fun! anecdote of his) … im also kinda curious about Gutters. What’s that guy’s deal. And OF. COURSE. How Captain got all his injuries. It’s also so very sad he feels this tension with the guys, what they’d do to him if they knew more about who he really was. I love this as a metaphor for homophobia…

Ch5 I’m still fixated on the giants who are guarding the place. Hundreds of tinies going there every day… you’d think there’d be snatchers all over the place 👀 and the other great worldbuilding… lab tinies… “they were corralling everyone everywhere and the women and kids went one way…” GOD. also them building tiny capitalism plus tiny race science is just 😭😭😭 noooo… the way Harry reinforces their shared dignity and humanity by showing genuine interest in Joe’s art.. ouuuugh it hits every time.

ALSO I WAS SO SUSPICIOUS OF HILL WHEN I FIRST READ CH6 BUT NOW THST I KNOW HE IS A BONA FIDE WIFEGUY ALL IS REDEEMED. I AM so curious as to why he keeps tiny town schematics in his office if he dislikes it…

Ch7 profoundly funny to me how Hill is like “miniature is the academic term” and Joe is like what. Tinies.

I really appreciate how Harry started off having some uh. Idk. Colonizer savior complex stuff + noble savage ideas about Joe? Like “oh it’s in mother nature’s hands whether he survives then… I see…” as if the tinies social constructs about Pets are some immutable fact of nature instead of. A social construct !! It’s really well-done, how you show him gradually understanding that he needs to listen to Joe, not assume he knows what’s best for him just because he read a 50yr old anthropology book!! It makes me love Harry all the more that he managed to grow through it out of fondness for Joe 🥺

AND OF COURSE. THE G/T GOODNESS. My god. I loooooove that Joe is so creeped out by giants that he has to keep his eyes closed to stomach it… just feels. Hmm. Realistic?? It would be so overwhelming. I love that his trust gets rewarded with the doctor not hurting him…

The rapport they establish being based on talking to one another… it’s just suuuuch a perfect central theme for this story… Joe being able to tame Harry’s anger by reminding him of Joe’s own humanity. “Please don’t do that, doc. This is mean. You’re being mean.” And “you’re treating me like I’m not even… not even…” UGH. RENT FREE IN MY HEAD, WARREN. “Maybe he could do it; maybe he could sit in the same room as a giant for five minutes. He would only have to do it once, and then he would never have to do it again, he reasoned.” Bitch u thought… get loved and cared for idiot…

Joe asking him “why not”, echoing Harry’s words that stuck with him…

And then him being sooo pissed at the phone it’s just absolutely amazing stuff. Wagging his finger at it/Dr Hill lmaooo. I was hootin and hollerin when I realized this foreshadows him being the assistant!!! He can talk on the phone just fine!!!!

His legs threatening to give way from the prospect of Harry seeing him at ground level after he escapes using the phone receiver… ouuugh. It’s SO GOOD. He’s come such a long way…

“Touching every wooden beam he passed for good luck” is INCREDIBLY cute mental imagery.., he’s happy… poor guy has awful luck tho so Harry is just pissed 😭 HIM NEARLY DESTROYING THE PLATES BECSUSE HARRY SCARED HIM SO BAD HAD ME FEELING.. SOME KIND OF WAY…

Ch8 also has the first mention of Joe’s books… I’m sooo curious where he got these.. did he perhaps make them…? 👀 YEAH HARRY SHOULD FEEL LIKE A MONSTER THO. YOU TERRORIZED A LIL MOVIE STAR!!! HE ONLY BROKE A FEW THINGS… Making him hide under his covers like he saw a monster… 😭

I love their first god awful handshake lmao. Incredible subversion of the usual g/t first meetings… Joe’s just like OK 👋 NOW GET THAT THANG OUTTA HERE

And then Joe going “I know about that!” Joe protested, his voice growing stronger. “It’s up to me, doc. If it happens, it happens and it’ll be my own damn fault.” … something tells me when Harry finally comes to understand Joe’s recklessness with his own life and what feelings about its worth may be underpinning that, he will be so sad 😔

Joe losing his toes to frostbite… realizing that could very likely be from when he was kidnapped and enslaved with O’Grady… uuuugh he’s so brave to want to connect with anybody at all let alone with Harry!!

Ch9 professor wifeguy moments… yesss… I love that he wants to hang out with another tiny too 😭 Joe is making friends!! I can’t wait to find out about Lorraine and what “other place” she knows about!!! Lmfao I can tell she’s going to be incredible just from the little bit Joe hears of her. I wonder too if she’s been marked… aahhh I’m so excited to learn more about these two. How interesting of a parallel, too, that Harry noted Dr Hill might also be a former soldier… something-something folks unable to fully integrate into society finding and building community with each other…

Also PROFOUNDLY interested to note on a reread that the tiny town on his wall says “a SAFE place to be” and the one in Riverdale said “a CIVILIZED place to be” 😬 a damn prison indeed… I also really wonder just HOW the tinies are paying their rent(?) to stay there, if they’re all as disdainful of “borrowing” as a career as O’Grady seems to be…

MAY I JUST NOTE that Joe stimming around is sooo charming to me. He’s kickin’ his legs. He’s pacing back and forth. He’s doing something like that in the walls when Harry was first listening to him. I LOVE HIM.. aND I love how this chapter we see him going from “that tall bastard (derogatory)” to “that tall bastard (amused)”

AND POOR JOE ON THE MOST CURSED FIELD TRIP IMAGINABLE. There is much to love here but I absolutely adore this imagery: “Joe buried himself in the curtain as the doctor, dressed to the nines in his work clothes and vaguely resembling a horse in a brown suit, sidled over to him and towered there and seethed.” HE’S TERRIFIED 😭 and Joe learns that other people value his wellbeing more than he does… wow Joe no need to ponder that any further until Ch15!!!

There’s SO much incredible prose in this chapter… the haaaaands oh my god the hands. The tinies are on the order of 2-3 inches tall, right? You really get a vivid sense of how big and dangerous everything is to them… absolutely A+ stuff.

This part also slays me everytime I think about it: “Joe was hidden inside [the pocket], and the thought of how unhinged his dear neighbour must look to his fellow giants as he walked and talked gave him no small amount of delight.” HE WOUUUULD.

The mystery of just what Joe created as a boy… what he can’t find it in himself to articulate… why he can hardly fathom talking about himself and his inner world to anyone …

PART 10… the difference in the way Joe confronts Harry here vs with the assistant in part 16 is somehow heartbreaking to me. I think the anger must just be displacement for how he’s really feeling (worried, uncomfortable…) and he’s more able to show his feelings to Harry with the assistants than he is now… but Joeeeee. I don’t ever want him to feel hopeless with Harry, like he just has to accept whatever he wants 😭 I love him in this chapter… Arms crossed, eyes narrowed… red faced… clawing at the air as he ranted Jdhdhdj GOD HE’S SO ICONIC: ““Nope. Not gonna happen! Veto!” Joe leapt up from the box, strode all the way to the edge of the table, and jabbed a finger at him. “I don’t know what kind of sick, twisted doctor things you intend to do to people but whatever it is, it’s not happening in my house!”” I guess I want him to still be comfortable with yelling veto at Harry lmao!!

And then Joe being like WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT YOU SAVING ME THE OTHER DAY. THAT MEANS NOTHING TO ME, A WILD AND INDEPENDENT TINY WHO HAD IT ALL UNDER CONTROL, AT ALL.

ALSO: the way he words this, I have a strong suspicion he does not know the word “patients”?! “”Let’s make a deal in exchange for patients. Give me something in exchange for patients.” Joe stammered. “You do that and I won’t make any trouble.””

Harry thinking of Joe as “the little bastard” in counterpoint to Joe’s “the tall bastard” really makes me smile too, hahahah.

AND THE FURTHER G/T TROPE INVERSION… just because he was willing to get in the giant’s hands one time doesn’t mean he’s suddenly fine with it!! I love how pissed they are at each other over this misunderstanding lmfao. He’s 👏 a 👏 wild 👏 tiny 👏 ‼️

And it’s so meaningful to me that the two of them bond more over sharing art with one another… Harry wants to introduce Joe to an amazing piano player… and Joe is so happy!!! The idea for a Charlie Chaplin bit with a rich miniature woman is SO inspired btw, I was as delighted as Joe was 😭 Harry being like “oh shit wait is this offensive” and then Joe just being like “THIS FUCKS SO HARD LMAO IT REALLY DO BE LIKE THAT”

And then the tragic aftermath… Harry NOTICING that he didn’t even know that he was doing anything wrong by bringing Joe there, it just FELT so dreadfully taboo (enough that Hill, who is MARRIED TO A TINY, also seems like he’s been caught doing something wrong when Harry first meets him)…. and then of course society reinforces that fear in a terrible way. Only a shared humanity regarding love of art saves poor Joe.. how lucky he’s gotten enough exposure to be able to speak in the presence of giants. You have to ponder how many tinies just as wonderfully complex as him have died for not having that skill. It’s so very sad!!! THE IMAGERY OF HIM ON THE LAMP LIKE IT’S A STREETCORNER JUST TWISTED THE KNIFE. Your writing really is so excellent, the way you can carry us through so many different emotions… Joe my belovedddd. I’m simply obsessed with the implications of him NAMING HARRY. WHAT IS /THAT/?? And the way that the narration in the story from this point on swaps to using Harry as his name… it speaks VOLUMES without you needing to elaborate on it at all. Joe has changed him! He’s becoming someone he likes better than Herman! A day we had good luck… Harry is good luck… Luck as a concept very different from what giants think of… I am absolutely enamored with how clearly he has a whole other world, another culture, that Harry can only guess at and be grateful to be included in.

JOE GETTING A NICE BATH AND A COMFORTABLE BED IN THIS CHAPTER IS JUST SO WHOLESOME (even if it will torment his Calvinist sensibilities later…) I am also so charmed to imagine how Joe must have woken up and been like “what the FUCK did I do last night. Where the HELL am I 🤨”

And then in Ch11 he’s like I WILL PROCEED NOT TO THINK OF THAT AT ALL. <- clueless

Ch11 is one of my favorites I think… we really get a good glimpse into how much heavy-duty rationalizing Joe is doing LMAO. “Taking food is fine, because I’m just using this tall bastard.” “It’s fine if I have leisure time.” “It’s fine if I like Harry and his company and I miss him when he’s gone and I want to give him a name.” “AS LONG AS I DON’T GET COMFORTABLE ALL OF THIS IS FINE.” This line is such a banger lol: “Joe Piccoli was many things as he went to sleep that night, but he was not a pet, and he was not comfortable.” And then the mouse!!! That Joe decides to draw rather than kill!!! Look at his needs being met!!!!!

IT ALSO ABSOLUTELY FUCKIN KILLED ME WHEN I REALIZED IN THIS CHAPTER THAT THE BOYS HAVE JUST. FULLY LEFT THAT FLOORBOARD OFF LMFAO??? THAT’S HIS SKYLIGHT NOW…

And then. Good god. The arm scene… it’s just. Soooo. 👌👌👌👌 I’m so … 😵‍💫💖❤️‍🔥…

“I’m a wild tiny!” “You’re going to be a dead tiny if that gets infected.” Their dynamic is so fucking funny. AND THE TENDERNESS OF HARRY TOUCHING JOE… Joe being so overwhelmed not exactly with fear but HMMM I WONDER WHAT EMOTION AND WHY HE MIGHT FEEL SO OVERWHELMED HE STILL NEEDS TO CLOSE HIS EYES AND PRETEND HE’S HIDDEN UNDER THE FLOOR AGAIN… 🤔🤔🤔 whyever would the touch of this kind giant make his hair stand on end and make him contemplate the reverence he’s being touched with and leave his cheeks burning… it is a mystery

And then Joe being so afraid the mouse would be hurt because in contrast to the kindness he’s been shown, he still has this long history of awful experiences with giants.. this part in particular made my heart hurt:

“Don’t kill the mouse, Harry, please don’t kill it. It’s just like me. It hasn’t done anything to you.” Joe begged.

Followed by him remembering that this is /Harry, his friend, who he knows/:

“The words hit Joe like the breaking of a spell, and he stood in the kitchen windowsill feeling downright foolish. Of course Harry wouldn’t kill the mouse, Joe realized - of course he wouldn’t do that.”

OUGH. This story is SO delicious I’m beyond obsessed…

The two of them having a much less Charged encounter after Joe has resolved some of his internal conflicts, at least for the moment… chatting away like they’re two normal friends while Harry touches him… 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 I LOVE THESE TWO SO MUCH‼️

Their motorcycle shenanigans… Harry showing Joe his precious Contraption and Joe absolutely hating it omg it was so peak 😭 PLAYING “WHO’S-MORE-BORING CHICKEN”… the way Joe is like “I would rather Die than have to listen to this guy talk about how he’s more exciting than me. Absolutely not.”

I also very much appreciate the foreshadowing of the street car on this re-read…

AND may I say I really love that they went on a little nature trip together!!! I have thought often of the potential of a g/t story set outdoors, where the normal sized person and the tiny are both made small by how all-encompassing the wilderness is. Something to do with camping or backpacking! Maybe something I want to write one day! This gave me a delightful taste of that.

AND ANYWAY THE ACCEPTING OF COMFORT EVEN AS IT FLIES IN THE FACE OF EVERYTHING HE’S BEEN TAUGHT TO ROMANTICIZE AND VALUE… ouuuughhh GET LOVED IDIOT!! GET SEEN AND KNOWN AND TAKEN CARE OF!!!

And then ch12… Harry’s realization that Joe won’t ever bring up anything if it’s just for his own benefit. Which by the way, on a re-read I can appreciate how cleverly you’ve set this up, if I didn’t write that clearly enough before! There’s something cultural there but also, I think, something uniquely Joe that Harry maybe can’t fully see yet. Harry’s watch from his parents breaking down at the same moment he’s trying to change his relationship with Joe, the new most important person in his life (at least I presume! He doesn’t seem to have other close friends/family) … very very good. This sentence is so evocative. Simultaneously funny and sad: “With the way Joe’s eyes shifted from side to side one would think the doctor had suggested they go rob a bank.” It’s very good angst realizing how much Harry is asking of Joe without him even knowing it…

BTW this part is so delightful. They’re so interested in each other!!! “When his footsteps announced his arrival, he could see the tiny’s movements through the missing floorboards as his neighbour crossed the floor and climbed back up to the windowsill above the counter.” <- guy who absolutely has NOT been gotten

“Joe smiling. A rare sight indeed.” JUST…. My heaaaart ‼️‼️

Also hilarious how Joe and now Harry have both had “mmm I do NOT like the way this guy is smiling right now” moments 🤣

GOD tho, Joe’s opening up about getting snatched… much like Harry, it made me feel absolutely beside myself.

^^^ AS YOU CAN SEE. I'VE FULLY FALLEN APART.

[erose-this-name]

Primer On Stylistic Elements Of Internet Speak (Zoomerese) (from what I've learned by being terminally online)

This is just text, like, normal fucking text. nothing special about this.

Because base English 🥱 only has support for shouting :O (!) questions🤨(?) and statements ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) (.), and we wanted to add new registers of voice :P, (and keyboards limit the ability to add new symbols) :-( a lot of new features to the language have to be made out of other symbols or be made of stylistic elements instead of a dedicated symbol. And since there's no dedicated authority to teach people new abstract symbols, they had to be faces so they could be intuitive. ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ♡

This isn't sARcaSTIc at all, I mean come on, why would anyone EVER want to indicate SARCASM by OVEREXAGGERATING to compensate for """"English not having a sarcasm punctuation mark""""? Like, c'mon, it's not like "/s" or ".~" can also be used AS a sarcmark.~

Oh, yeah? "RanDOM CaPS mAKeS IT sOunD LIkE mOCkiNG" that's what you sound like.

This is TOTALLY post-irony OR meta-irony, where you just, like, SAY what you actually mean but IN A SARCASTIC WAY??? Uh, what is this, some kinda "gen z exclusive" comedy/slang feature?? Like, wow, I guess you would need to do that to "create some distance" between you and your beliefs by giving you the ability to say you were "JuST KiDDinG", or as a "joke" because ""zoomers"" are so oversaturated with content that normal single level sarcasm doesn't work anymore and they need to layer that shit up two or three times, or some bullshit like that.

I'm finna splain txt messg shorthand, aka sms language. its like faster 2 type & kinda gives u a valley grl vibe. itz actually a bit harder 2 learn than the rest of these and I'm not gud at it. kthnx

This. Is. Putting. A. Period. On. Every. Fucking. Word. This. Shit. Makes. It. Sound. Like. You. Motherfucker. Are. Very. FUCKING. Angry. And. Authoritative. (this prosody is also a new [and relatively rare] feature in spoken English as well.)

UwU, what's this? Nya, thiws iws uwu/owo voice! (UwU)! Iwt iws meant towo sowund wike a baby voice, vewy cute (hazawdouswy cute) (UwU!), awnd iws used excwusivewy by fuwwies awnd femboys awnd fuwwy femboys uwu awnd anyaone who uses iwt "iwonyacawwy" iws secwetewy owne nya of those pwobabwy uwu. use at youw own peril (you will wose bwaincewws awnd become gay) nya! RAWR XD

Dis ar teh LOLCAT, it be VRY OUTDATD MEME, but sum bits ov dis style ov brokd grammar an spellin' still appears on teh interwebs in TINY DOSES 2 mak it seem cutr an dumbr or leik a cat 4 ironic purposez, LIEK ONCE OR TWICE PER POST!!!1!1 DO NOT OVAR USE IT LIEK IM U WILL DYE!!!1!1!

uh all lowercase and without punctuation makes it seem childish/lazy which can be used for irony if what youre saying is actually very important or authoritative but you dont wanna sound that way because you are depressed or just wanna feel cute or maybe some other reason idk im just a boy

Exclamation marks (!) indicate excitement and energy! My Dad (ex-typographer) whose really really cool says that exclamation marks (!) mean you're SHOUTING and not to use them!!! And he's really cool, but that's not right anymore because SHOUTING IS INDICATED BY ALL UPPERCASE!!!!!

AAAA WHY ARE WE SHOUTING!?

fUCK CAPS LOCK IS ON THIS LOOKS LIKE AN OBVIOUS MISTAKE/UNINTENTIONAL SHOUTING FUNNY JOKE.

This is Capitalizing The First Letter In Every Word, which is done on Tumblr Dot Com but not much elsewhere. It brings to mind how Titles and Headlines also sometimes Capitalizing The First Letter In Every Word, and gives your post an aura of Authority and to Nounify Something.

Most other parts of the internet™®© do this where they spam copyright and trademark symbols®©™®©© to achieve the same effect as capitalizing the first letter in every word©©™.

>be me >go on 4Chan.org >dies immediately.exe >looks into posts >discovers entirely unique and interesting writing style called greentext >ask why its called that >Get called a "newf*g, desu" >it's mostly used by incels to gaslight fa/tg/uys and /b/***** (they wouldn't censor that) into reading stories they made up about themselves where they become a sex haver >literally no one believes that any greentext has ever actually happened >find incest greentext >ew.wav >read it anyways because ******** (utter self-loathing is important for authentic greentext) >it's just the plot of Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back >mfw

I learned 4Channerish so you don't have to. Seriously, don't.

(If I've missed anything please reblog to expand our VALUABLE COLLECTIVE EDUTRAINING ABILITIES)

[dante-heller]

Fallout 1 & 2: "The Chinese dropped the nukes."

Fallout 3: "No, see, it was dem dere aliens that dun didit. Dey put dem thoughts in the gud folks minds."

Fallout NV & 4: "No, it was the Chinese. We even have a chinese ghoul that says so."

Fallout TV, slamming his fist down: "VAULT TEC DID IT! CAPITALISM! KILLS! PEOPLE!"

[localplaguenurse]

Don’t flame me for this but I unironicly really like cheng gho

Like as an antagonist to our protagonist, as a villain, a foil to our dear wifey. I love her???? She’s so evil and the worst(best?) part is that she’s realistic because there are people out there who are exactly like her, and she kind of represents all the challenges Wifey been facing which makes Wifey confronting her anxiety inducing because at one point or another we’ve been in her shoes before having to confront someone who has never treated you good

Anyways that’s a long way to say fic gud, live rent free

She was honestly such a fun challenge to write. The only thing I would change are some of the interactions in the first few chapters, but that’s only because I think it kinda shows that she wasn’t supposed to be as integral to the story as she was. (Like we were never supposed to go back to the monastery in the og plot.)

A lot of the “fun” was writing the nuances of her relationship with the other worshippers and Wifey, like how Cheng Gho’s actions while Wifey was at the monastery were perceived as her being a strict, dutiful abbess. Then, when Wifey’s living with Morax and thinking about their situation, that’s when they start to question if she was actually strict, or she just had it out for them the whole time.

Another little detail: throughout the fic, she is “the Abbess,” with “A” capitalized like the “G” in “God,” to signify her importance and more importantly, the power she held over Wifey. As Wifey gets more confident, she is just “the abbess,” it’s still her title but she doesn’t have as much power over Wifey. By the end of it, she’s simply Cheng Gho, because she doesn’t even deserve the honour of her title of “abbess” after all the shit she pulled.

[northwest-cryptid]

Local amnesiac clockman in dystopian city gets hired/abducted by the 12 complete messes based on literature, the lamest badass in the setting and his funny amnesiac daughter. Gets told to give therapy to said messes by looking for branches in ruined scp facilities while occasionally incurring on the wrath of capitalism and the little prince for some reason.

Said total messes are:

Straight up the korean poet Yi Sang because his most known poem had a character named "I"

Autism filled woman who is technically the actual boss of everyone

Woman don quixote

Fucked up japanese artist except her art is violence

Autistic french man with gap moe

Sheltered chinese man with the most fucked up family ever

A brit with a bat named revenge

Fish bisexual obsessed with murdering a metaphorical whale

Mommy Russian with only food and no hindsight in her head

Closeted young man with a fuckload of trauma involving ableist cultists

Straight up fucking Odysseus but in woman

And our ptsd riddled cockroach: Greg

See on one hand I genuinely appreciate the attempt here.

On the other hand this is extremely fandomized and I can't really learn anything from it as a result, especially considering that this covered stuff I already sorta know from just having played through the first major part of the game before having issues with it but more specifically from the fact that it's on the website for the game.

I need to reiterate my first bit here, I genuinely appreciate the attempt and I do not seek to belittle or insult the sender or anyone in question for attempting to enlighten me on the game but hear me out if you will...

All the information provided can be obtained from the website for the game or the first 10 minutes of the game; however it is only partially factual.

I am interested in Limbus Company, the game; not "Limbus Company The Abridged Version As Seen by the Fandom." When people go on and on about character analysis and plot depth and why it's so cool and interesting and deep and fun I want to jump in and engage with them on the narrative and such, but I can't because I'm not: A. Financially well off to Gacha for shit. B. Good enough at the game to get very far. And as a website that talks a lot about accessibility in games I feel like if anyone is going to shoot me down with a "git gud" it'd be kinda dumb, like sir/ma'am/individual of non-specific gender identity; you are on the "games should let you experience the story even if you're bad" website, please sit down.

I was honestly kind of hopeful that I would get some serious answers; and while some people have given me more serious answers than others; a lot of what I get is either specifically the start of the game which ignores/overlooks/doesn't mention the folks Dante is having an encounter with at the start, the fact they can use their clock head powers to turn back time and revive the sinners; or even the fact that they have no idea why any of it can happen. Like no one has even mentioned the whole star thing? I think it was a star? Something like that, anyways that thing was pretty cool and no one talks about it.

What I do often hear is how cooky and ku-ray-zee the main cast of silly little guys is; which I feel massively takes away from who they actually are.

"And our ptsd riddled cockroach: Greg" Alright since I've actually played through the first bit of the game so I know just enough about Gregor's story, why do we summarize a man who literally was a child experiment; who was betrayed by the only parental figure he knew; who was made to kill and murder without understanding of it literally like drugged or some shit to think he was just cutting apples; and who's body literally mutates into a cockroach down to just "lol he's a silly little guy with ptsd" ptsd from what exactly? Oh you mean the fucking Smoke Wars? One of the if not the biggest event in the PM Universe?

Like okay I understand I said "hey maybe don't send me entire documentary style paragraphs of text because my ADHD brain will not let me read them" and that's true, but I also really don't vibe with this whole concept of "this person doesn't know the characters at all so I'm going to call one bisexual, I'm going to call one a mommy, I'm going to call one a ptsd riddled cockroach named greg lol" Like I don't know how much of this is fandom and how much of this is real anymore. I know that some characters in PM's universe ARE LGBT so the idea of one of the Sinners maybe being Bisexual isn't too far fetched, but is that completely fandom interpretation or is it real? I sure as hell don't know when characters like Gregor who have deeper meaningful stories that tie into the world as a whole are boiled down to a one line joke about, I guess his name being Greg?

Like again I have nothing against the person who sent this or anything, I'm sure you meant well and I'm glad you're excited enough about the game that you reached out to me; that's all great and such, but I can't help but need to point out that you're talking to someone who knows almost nothing, but not nothing; about this game

and you're choosing to represent it in such a way that might be factual or might be fandomized and I can't tell the difference when the things I know are fandomized are present or when it mostly consists of jokes.

"Local amnesiac clockman in dystopian city gets hired/abducted by the 12 complete messes based on literature, the lamest badass in the setting and his funny amnesiac daughter."

Kind of not really. Like I'm not even going to get into the fact that technically speaking Dante is a Clock Person not necessarily confirmed Clock Man. I AM however going to get into the fact that they come to Dante's rescue(?) during what is essentially an execution; Dante is going to die and these 12 sinners jump in to fight for them for seemingly some reason we don't get to know yet. Hired is a much better word than abducted in this sense. Don't even get me started on "the lamest badass" because like, that entirely ignores the fact you're talking about who I can only assume is Vergilius AKA The Red Gaze, which is sorta huge considering what we've seen of Color Fixers, and you know; the entirety of the Comic/Light Novel Leviathan released prior to the game. What would a color fixer be doing with the sinners? What is his connection with Dante? Even having read Leviathan these sorts of questions are interesting and they create interest as someone who wants to question and explore the setting and it's themes.

AND I'M SORRY BUT "HIS DAUGHTER"??? Has that been confirmed because I highly doubt that unless there's some dialogue somewhere in the game that shows he adopted her or something, I mean yea he clearly cares about the orphans, but like I don't recall him ever adopting her and if he did I can't tell if you're telling me a fact or a fandom here because of everything else you've stated.

Are you beginning to see the problem here?

I literally have to wave off everything you just told me as no more than "lol silly jokes man lol" and I don't mean to be some asshole about it either but this isn't really going to help anyone get into a game or a story or anything because I don't really KNOW anything about it.

Again I'm not mad, I'm not trying to be rude; I've got nothing against Alex or anything! I appreciate someone taking the time out of their day to send me this but it ultimately doesn't tell me anything I'm just as much in the dark as I was.

This is specifically why it's so hard for me to interact with a lot of larger communities, a lot of the information I want is factual, from the source material; but I'm perhaps not skilled enough at the games to obtain it myself, so I turn to the community for information since people tend to enjoy talking about the things they like, and instead of getting actual information I get in-jokes I don't yet have context for, and fandomization that isn't actually true to the source material.

I understand I may come off a little harsh here, so for that I do apologize if I've come across rude. That being said, please do try to refrain from sending people who know next to nothing about your interests, a ton of fandomized in-jokes they won't understand, it feeds into the misinformation loop. Can you imagine if I went around telling everyone that Charon was Vergil's daughter when in reality he treats her as "something of a daughter" according to the publicly editable and horrible "fandom wiki" which is the only place that I could find information about it.

This isn't the same thing as say a biological daughter, or even an adoptive one. Which could be an interesting plot dynamic. I mean do you guys remember what happened last time a Color Fixer had a kid? Or rather I should say, last time a Color Fixer WAS GOING to have a kid? That was kind of a big deal. It's not really a shocker to learn that the guy who really likes orphans would be nice to the child.

anyways sorry for the lengthy explanation of "this isn't really what I'm looking for" but I've literally spoke on this whole "fandomization of characters bothers me a lot" topic before several times for literally this exact reason.

[mycomicbox]

Random Thoughts on Persona 5 Royal - Part 3

[Progress: October 13th, 5th Palace conquered]

<<< Part 2

I've been thinking a lot about what it'd be like if I were a Phantom Thief. Perhaps I'll draw that sometime.

God damn, this game is long. I consider myself someone with pretty good JRPG stamina, but I'm about 103 hours into this game and I'm nowhere near the finish line. For reference, my Persona 4 Golden playthrough maxed out at 100 hours.

It took me far too long to notice that the letters on Caroline and Justine's hats spell out "oxymoron".

The Doraemon reference in the movie theater got a chuckle out of me.

I like the little quips from your party members while exploring Mementos. One of my favorites is Morgana complaining about the tiny school desks in the suggestion box.

Ryuji and Yusuke's Showtime attack is the funniest shit I've ever seen.

The fact that Futaba's All-Out Attack splash screen says "Git Gud" is pretty indicative of when this game initially released. If the game came out now, it'd probably say "Skill Issue" or something.

Haru's Phantom Thief costume is probably my favorite. Hats with feathers in them are guaranteed to look cool.

Add Futaba to the list of characters who desperately need a hug. I like the idea of someone willingly asking for their heart to be stolen. After all, the Phantom Thieves don't just beat the shit out of scumbags: they help those who can't help themselves.

I also like how Futaba's awakening is somewhat of a callback to Persona 4, as she awakens to her Persona by facing her Shadow directly (no face-bleeding required).

How is she so goddamn short (then again, I guess being a shut-in could've stunted her physical growth)

You can tell that I have some stuff to say about Futaba. Yusuke has some competition for favorite Phantom Thief.

Another Persona game, another awkward beach scene... (except for Yusuke's lobster gag, that amused me).

TANAKA IS BACK, LET'S GOOOOOO

Why did Ryuji think that Los Angeles was the United States capital? Is he stupid?

HOLY SHIT, MAGICAL GIRL

Shadow Okumura needs to speak up, man. It's like they lowered his volume compared to the other characters (which kind of makes sense with the space helmet he's got on, but still).

Unfortunately, I have been spoiled as to the Black Mask's true identity. I don't care how old this game is, tag your damn spoilers!

When I was in middle school, I went to a water park on a school field trip, and the county schools rented it out for the students. I thought that alone was magical. Imagine getting a whole Disney park rented out just for you and your homies.

With the death of President Okumura, and the tanking of public approval, the Phantom Thieves' resolve is starting to waver...

The sixth calling card is addressed to Sae Niijima. I can't wait to see how this story will unfold.

⚡️Confidant Lightning Round

Beep boop.

My man Sojiro going through it...

With the way that Futaba peppers her speech with video game references, I see a bit of my 15-year-old self in her. I've noticed references to Pokémon, D&D, and RPG terms in general (EXP, trash mobs, etc.).

Imagine meeting a cute nerdy girl and the first thing she does is ask if you're a NPC 💀 poor Mishima, I would've never recovered from that

I like Iwai's little quips about gun terminology.

Takemi please step on me

You're telling me that the Get Smoked hat was from this game!?

I would do anything for a politician like Yoshida.

As I have discovered, there are some unused voice lines implying that Sae was planned to be a romance option at some point. That would've been one hell of an enemies-to-lovers (even if it wouldn't make sense narratively).

Well, I've gotten the Faith and Councillor Confidants to their proper ranks before their deadlines. I guess I'll wait and see what happens next.

[frostyreturns]

I don't know who needs to hear this but the bro code is bullshit you don't owe anyone anything as long as you're consenting adults date who you want to date. 99% of the time it's just a way for jilted exes trying to use social capital to control people who have moved on.

This I saw her first shit is stupid, it didn't work out stop trying to sabotage it for someone else. And other than some stupid comedy book people bought because they liked how i met your mother there is no actual bro code. The bro code just is whatever someone wants it to be to try to use some nebulous legalism to prevent a relationship that they don't like because they haven't worked things out for themselves yet.

You know what it is it's a competition strategy devised by men who can't compete. It's the crab bucket mentality. Some men try to get better jobs and be more financially stable, some work out and work on their appearance others try to be funny or affable or intelligent to get women...and some men try to get women by using their relationships to encourage their competition to not even try. Invoking the bro code is a temper tantrum for people who should be grown ass adults. If I can't have it nobody will!

Fuck the bro code git gud.

[shiranui7]

GIT GUD TONIGHT -Elden ring song

(parody of Good Tonight, spoiler alert!)

Look at me

I've just began Elden Ring

Am I good or bad?

Don't you judge so fast

Hey, hey, hey

I know you think you know me

You made your own conclusion

You think that I play badly

My videos bring delusion

Listen when I tell you

I'm just a level five

So have a bit of patience, I'll git gud with time!

I'm not that bad, guys

I'm getting good, guys

No, I am not gonna cheat

Trust me, here we go!

I just want you to give me a chance

Just know my Tarnished is now a level ten

So I'll just leave Torrent at the door

And get up by the site of grace and go against a boss!

I'm gonna git gud tonight

I've just beat Godrick, guys

I'm gonna git gud tonight

Fighting birds and knights!

I'm gonna git gud tonight

I'm gonna buff my strenght and mind

I'm gonna git gud tonight

Fighting day and night

Come on!

Woo, ooh!

I'm just here to have a good, good time

I don't play all day to be a "No hit guy"

Next time you see my walkthroughs on YouTube

Don't you deride me if you use Comet of Azur!

Spirit ashes are my only friends

But I find comments saying "you cheese your game"

So leave your judgement at the door

Not everyone can play online with friends you dumb dork!

I'm gonna git gud tonight

Annihilating Mogh first try

I'm gonna git gud tonight

So come at me now, guys!

I'm gonna git gud tonight

Wanna see you bleeding fine

Just burned the Erd Tree tonight

But I'm the good, good guy

Woo!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

(Music)

So good!

One, two, three

I'm so good right now!

I've destroyed the capital

My sins are cardinal

I'm becoming a Lord tonight

Wait, what's this big red door?

Gold mask and Fia will fight

The Dungeater's not feeling right

But I'm not gonna care 'cause I

Follow Ranni's plan

Oh, yeeeeeeeah!

[chaos0pikachu]

@gatheringbones replied to your post “I read a podcast transcript about commodified...”:

@chaos0pikachu ….. I knew I didn’t want to read that

​lol yeah I haven’t read the book itself so I can’t judge it and shit but listening to the description especially what the author said his inspirations were and how everything is resolved with “kindness” like miss me with that basic ass pete buttigieg shit lmao 

I don’t think squeecore is a “bad” thing which is what the original discourse was trying to proposite (if anyone is curious Rite Gud did a follow up episode about the backlash they received) but it IS circle-jerky in lit spaces and I think that bit was lost in The Discourse like marketing depts (who in some pub houses have A LOT of say in acquisitions) will really push for squeecore content which is also predominantly white like publishing is still an industry that favors white voices (I’m still hella mad over American Dirt lmao) 

I think the other thing is squeecore books, writers, fans, and even critics overhype the importance of these books. House in the Cerulean Sea got a FUCK TON of praise from booktok and critics (which the podcast talks about), similarly American Dirt also got a fck ton of praise from booktube and critics but both stories were written by white authors appropriating the historical struggles of people of color and commodifying them for their own capital without examining any of the systems they were acknowledging 

I don’t mind squeecore as a sub-genre in the same way that while I don’t care much for cyberpunk I can still dig some stories or have a general ‘yeah, tight’ attitude towards the sub-genre but like, the overhype the way squeecore titles or authors by critics or fans that position them as like Activism is fucking annoying its not activism, The Goblin Emperor is not activism, go volunteer at your local community kitchen or food bank or LGBTQ support group my god 

anyways

[solar-systr]

Admittedly, I agree with the fundamental point of at least OP, but personally the idea that the people having these sorts of complaints fail to Git Gud at Having Fun is one that strikes me in a fundamentally uncomfortable way, since the whole actual point of game design is that yes, actually, the people who you are (theoretically; curse capitalism) paying (in non-Minecraft cases) money (and time, in any case) to in order to get a thing you have fun with are more responsible for the fun you have with it than you are; no one worth listening to seriously debates this about other things you spend money (and time) on, but it sometimes seems really popular to disagree with this about media like videogames

It's one of the many reason why 'just don't do X lol' as a response is, outside of specific cases/circumstances, a weasly cop-out to admit failure on the experience's behalf. If 'just don't do X' was a practicably actionable way to respond to interactive media for a lot of people, then no exploitative gacha/lootbox shit would ever be profitable. That's an extreme example, and the case for other reasons, but those types of experiences hinge on manipulatively weaponizing the fact that there is in fact a Substantial difference between deliberately ignoring something and it not being there. Curating your experience is in fact, a conscious choice/effort people usually don't like having to do (or rather, want to have already done before they started); there's a reason 'Curator' is a job in Art. It's like that saying about editing or audio design; if you notice or are self-conscious about it, that's because it (or the stuff you're used to) has fucked up, because the whole point was to be, y'know, immersed in the experience.

A lot of people who don't really (have reason to) think critically about video games, esp the moment they aren't hard-linear experiences, seem to tend to think the entire act of Game Design is Making The Good Mechanics/Pieces and putting them in a box them in a box that gets shoved out into the world and everything after that is entirely of the player's self-engineering. The reason a lot of game design courses have operant conditioning/Skinner Box shit as their *first* lesson is that it's literally how almost any video game with meaningful mechanics *has* to work on an axiomatic level; the different between Operant and Classical conditioning is, simply, the latter is about subverting existing/natural responses, the former is *creating* new tendencies/responses because the task/trigger is something not already natural. And as becomes obvious the moment you put a game/controller in the hands of older people, video games (or even just computers in general) are not natural or obvious activities in the fucking slightest, any reason it feels differently is you having became Operant enough. Games taught you how they work because it guided you to the action and associated the response/stimuli enough; when you press the A button, the guy jumps. When you press X, you pay respects, etc. Whether you consciously realize it or not, almost everything about how most everyone engages with videogames on a tactile level was because of implicitly trusting decisions the developers made; i don't think its entirely self-proven we should just immediately be able to overrule that impulse the moment something unideal comes up. Obviously, making your specific subjective moment of that a point of entitlement is potentially embarrassing, but I don't think the fundamental impulse of why people like that aren't satisfied is invalid. If a game requires you to 'make' it fun, and a different game just Is fun to me by default and any way I can interact with it habitually is only an upside...the choice is obvious, right?

Now, I can sense the glaringly obvious counterpoint, that these aren't entirely fair arguments bc Minecraft is fundamentally an open-ended sandbox experience, and one that is specifically Expressive in nature, at least wrt stacking funny coloured boxes together. My response is not only that good open-world experiences absolutely do steer/direct your experience with it regardless (and on a certain level, a game *always* does that intentionally or not for the reasons I discussed above; its sorta the whole All Art Is Political thing, yannow?), but also you should tell that to Mojang.

Bc they're the ones who decided the funny open-world sandblocks needed to add a literal endboss purely bc it was a video game, thus implicitly framing everything about how you engaged with the game's resources. They're the ones who added beds to functionally bypass Night time as a mechanic with teeth entirely, encouraging the idea that the only reason to engage with the world was to unobstructedly achieve the thing u wanted to do. Who added all the stuff re: villages/villagers to add easy sources of accelerating your ability to gain resources, including, notably, stuff you need to get to The End(er) (Dragon). Who started increasingly adding content in 'dungeon'-esque forms, which actively further encourages the idea of combat as a main foundational lever of the game (and thus implicitly framing the pursuit of the End and/or the power systems relating to such as a natural extention of how you play the game). Who made multiple other similar decisions that absolutely made base Minecraft an experience that tries to make u care about progression and numbers about as much as any other game on the market.

It's entirely reasonable and basically just completely correct to point out that people's experiences with Minecraft changes bc they as people have also changed, that's how everything works. But I feel like a lot of people pointing this out also then work from the assumption that Minecraft itself is some sacred utopian, prelapsarian site of intrinsic joy that has only now been tainted for oneself with being a gamer. And if that Minecraft ever existed, it wasn't actually for very long at all, if *ever* for some people. To reverse the common point; what if Minecraft was mostly always sorta going to be disappointing to people, y'all were just kids.

i keep getting recommended videos about how minecraft isn't fun anymore and it's mojangs fault. i think its such a fascinating phenomenon because i think at least 70% of that comes down to anything getting a little stale when it's all you do for years and years. of course you're going to not feel like something is as fun as it used to be, you started playing minecraft when you were 11 and you are 23 now with a job. things change and you are experiencing it.